Oklahoma University – OKC Visit Part 2 of 5

Fortuitously, Friday May 18th happened to be a light day of work for Jeremy (a rarity he repeatedly assured Frank and me) so he could spare some time to take us on a golf cart tour of the University of Oklahoma campus where he is a fire inspector. It is a huge campus – 3000 acres or approximately 4.7 square miles.

We arrived at the southern end of campus at the Lloyd Noble Center, an 11,562 seating capacity arena, home to Oklahoma University's men's and women's basketball teams. The Lloyd Noble Center is below the lower edge of the map. Jeremy picked us up from that parking lot in this vehicle .

I was bemused that the pedals were imprinted with STOP and GO instructions which, by the way,  are not visible once your feet are on the pedals. 

We started off northward meandering in the electric cart down lush green pathways lined with OU banners on quaint lamp posts.

The brick gothic architecture of many of the older buildings was impressive and awe-inspiring.

Our first stop was Jeremy's office in the Risk Management Department. He works in the Fire Marshall's Office.

Jeremy is a Fire Inspector but his duties extend beyond inspection and certification of the halls, dorms, labs, and other buildings on campus. He conducts fire drills for all of the residences and is present at a sporting events to verify permitting of vendors, assure adequate crowd control, provide emergency response. 

I liked the decor of the risk management offices. Jeremy and his coworkers acquired an antique fire equipment and had it refurbished to displayed in the hallway of their offices.

The table top displays in the waiting area paid tribute to the fire profession. There was a replica fire engine and fire hydrant on the table next to the magazines.

Even the restrooms were themed. This sign is appropriate for college age clientele. It admonishes "In case of fire, exit building before putting it on social media".

There is also a bit of bathroom humor, "Fire Inspector parking only."

As we were leaving his offices I notice a wee fire hydrant painted in OU colors a few yards from the door to outside. I remarked on what a cute decoration it was but Jeremy assured me it was for real and functional.

Frank and I accompanied Jeremy and his office mates to lunch at a 50's themed restaurant called the Boom-a-rang Diner.  The walls were laden with photographs and other historic memorabilia. My favorite was a large central sign illustrating the importance of punctuation and capitalization in conveying a message. It was fun to sit and figure out its message. I will have the solution at the end of this post in case you give up.

We then set out in earnest on our campus tour. There is statuary throughout but this one in particular caught my eye. Since Frank is a stamp collector, I recognized this as a U.S. Postal stamp design.

Frank could tell you it was a 1973 issue and the original pop art was by Robert Indiana.

I realize a university is for learning but I have never seen a sign giving instructions on how to cross a street. I suppose, in thinking about it, perhaps foreign students are unfamiliar with the symbolism? The signage was located at a university perimeter street bordering the town of Norman.

We visited the huge football stadium.

The arena is titled the Gaylord Family - Oklahoma Memorial Stadium and has a seating capacity of over 86,000. No wonder Jeremy and other authorities from the Fire Marshall's office are required to be there for crowd control and in case of emergency on game days! 

We caught a glimpse from a distance of a big rig trailer used to haul equipment for the football team's away games. I wondered why such a big truck but apparently it is not just uniforms and safety gear it hauls – there are also coolers, medical x-ray equipment, helmets, cleats, capes, kicker's net, etc. I found an article describing all that went into a big rig at least for the Seattle Huskies team as an example and found it and some accompanying photos interesting and worth a peek. I also learned there is a twitter site devoted to NCAA football trucks.

We toured some more of the campus.  The clock tower stood tall in its iconic role.

There were racks where a student without a personal bike could check out (i.e., rent) a university bike and check it back in at another location. For more frequented locations that might accumulate a surplus of bikes there is also an exchange reward system where students can redistribute bikes and collect a credit.

Frank and I were getting worn out but our final stop of the day was the not to be missed. It was The National Weather Center, core of all weather satellite data collection reporting for the entire nation. It was located on the southern most reaches of the OU campus about 2 miles from Jeremy's office - and yes, still on university owned and managed land.

A cool welcoming array of bubbling fountains met our eye upon our approach.

The bronze plaque on front reveals the technology within, such as Doppler Radar and radar for imaging storm systems.  The cooperation and collaboration of the University of Oklahoma with the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration is proudly touted.

Inside we saw the tornado tracking devices made famous in the 1996 movie Twister. There was Dorothy (so dubbed because of the Wizard of Oz movie with Judy garland)...

...  and TOTO which stands TOtable Tornado Observatory (not Dorothy's little dog Toto).

The movie poster was on display next to the devices. If you look closely it appears I am about to get sucked up by the funnel while Jeremy keeps calm and watches.

After such a close call we had to take a break at the aptly named Flying Cow Café. See the YouTube clip from the movie that inspired the name.

Strawberry Shortcake ice cream novelties anyone? Frank and Jeremy have similar tastes.

We traveled up to the top floor for a panoramic view.

That is the jumbo scoreboard for the football stadium visible in the distance off to the left. The campus still extends northward beyond that landmark.

Back down in the lobby on the way out we located our home in California on a multi-screened satellite image. Frank is pointing to our roof. We discerned this was not a real time image because we noticed my red car in the driveway and we had left it parked at the Oakland airport. It was still fun noting the clarity of the image, compromised only somewhat by my photographing it with my cell phone.

There was a fascinating sculpture in the lobby about Oklahoma weather and how it varies across the state. By exposing steel plates to the elements for the exact same four months of time, the corrosion level yields a comparative visual image of the weather among the counties.

The most exposed county is the solidly rusty square a bit up and left of center. That is Kingfisher County. I am grateful Robin does not live there.

Robin's hometown of Oklahoma City is in Oklahoma County which is directly diagonally southeast of Kingfisher County and touches corners with it at Oklahoma County's upper northwest corner. Her county is quite speckled but not unreasonably subjected to weather extremes. It looks like the majority of northern Oklahoma and Oklahoma's panhandle see pretty mild weather.

The National Weather Center Building tour rounded out our day and we headed out to return home. The pretty gurgling fountains at the entry and the clear blue skies above added to the pleasure of the day.

If you are still wondering about that lunchtime diner message, the solution is below:

Here stop and spend a social hour in harmless mirth and fun.

Let friendship reign. Be just and kind and evil speak of none.

Our outing today seemed to fit that description.