Chickasha, Oklahoma

We arrived in Chickasha,  Oklahoma on Wednesday evening, just in time for dinner.  Everyone was waiting for us to arrive and we all enjoyed Mexican enchiladas. 

The Gallaway House

 

Meet the Family

Ava and John

Krista and Mica

Melissa and Nick

Terri

Bill and Margie

John and Mike

Jared and Krista

Mike and two of his girls

   
     

On Thursday morning, October 20th  Mike and Terri took us on a tour of Chickasha.  One of the stops included the home of Patti and John Rogstad.  Patti works at the bank and also has a side business where she designs and manufactures metal objects including benches, wine racks and shaped Christmas light designs.     John has several business ventures including landscaping, property management and who knows what else.  Mike is a jack of all trades and works for John. Mike can do anything and everything.   One of the projects they undertake is the annual Festival of Lights display in the Chickasha town park.  This display is renowned in the area and draws visitors and media attention from all 

over the country. We saw the work shop and several of the

light designs ready for the holiday display.

                                                                              

                                                               

Another stop was at the shop of Mike’s friend, Paul who 

builds engines for race car frames. 

 

 Somewhere along the way we drove past the replica of Thomas Jefferson's Monticello house.  (look on the back of a nickle)

 

 Next we drove through the Chickasha High School campus.  We were very impressed and wondered how much people pay in school taxes because the facilities were amazing for a high school.   There was a separate building or field with light,s for every sport. 

From there we drove on to Norman, home of Oklahoma University.  Our first stop was the Sam Nobel Museum of Natural History, one of the finest university based natural history museums in the world.  The interactive displays were amazing and included some one of a kind exhibits.

 

Then it was on to meet Terri’s cousin, Jan Ross, assistant coach of the Oklahoma University Women’s Basketball Team.   

                                                                              

We were able to watch the team practice and meet head coach, Sheri Coale.  

practice court

checking the view from Terri's season seats

Then Jan gave us a VIP tour of the entire facility

 from the game court, practice court, locker room
training room and trophy room to the player's lounge, coach's lounge and offices.

We met a few of the players and another of the assistant coaches,  before being chauffeured across campus to the football stadium where Jan subtly used her influence to get us in to quickly view the ‘closed practice’ and the 90, 000 seat stadium that was very impressive. 

Then we sat in the VIP suites and viewed the

stadium from a different perspective.  We continued
through the weight room and the trophy room as well as the Heisman trophy room.  When Jan drove us back to our car she pointed out the various buildings on campus, filling us in with a little background information.  It was a very impressive look around campus and we think we’ll be encouraging our grand children to take a serious look at OU when making college decisions.  (Maybe they could go live with Mike and Terri for a year to establish residency ~ what do you think, Mike?)

                                                                                 
We felt very privileged to get such personalized tour of the whole campus and we really enjoyed meeting Jan.  It was fun to see the interaction with cousins and it was obvious what a committed person she is.       

We headed back to Terri’s where the rest of the family were waiting for our return and Terri’s famous chicken fried steak.  We have been hearing about this chicken fried steak for three years now and John and I have never had chicken fried anything so we were anxious to indulge.  Indulge we did.   It was delicious and we would have to agree, Terri makes it best!