A Starbomb Weekend in Tulsa, Part One: The Trip

Helen and I recently made the drive to Tulsa to see Starbomb at Cain’s Ballroom. I took the whole drive. This post covers the trip itself: the city, the food, and the odds and ends. For the show, check out Part Two.

A peculiar little country city

Tulsa feels like a fairly small, peculiar country city, and there’s clearly a lot of history packed into it, especially when it comes to folk music and outlaw country. Having been in mega metros and other cities, this felt a bit closer to what I’m used to back home in St. Louis.

We stayed at the Fairfield Inn & Suites Tulsa Downtown Arts District, which put us close to Cain’s Ballroom, known as the home of Bob Wills and Western swing. We were also just a few blocks from the Bob Dylan Center and the Woody Guthrie Center.

Overall, it was a nice place, but after about 11pm, chaos rolled out into the streets. Revving cars, loud partying, and various other moments of debauchery (including a random donkey?) kept the volume above a sleepable level. Earplugs are mandatory for staying in this area, apparently. Tulsa, you are a strange place.

The worst Wilbury

Helen wanted to visit the Bob Dylan Center. We both love The Traveling Wilburys, so it made sense on paper. The conversation went something like this:

Helen: Can we go to the Bob Dylan Center?

Me: No.

Helen: Oh come on, he was a Traveling Wilbury.

Me: No, I don’t want to. He was the worst Wilbury.

In fairness to me, I’m just not a fan of his music, and the one time I saw him in concert was absolutely awful. An easy bottom 5 concert experience for me.

In fairness to Helen, it would have been neat. We’ve done things like the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio. Music history is actually an easy sell for us as tourists.

Realistically, though, it was a short, crunched trip, and squeezing in a museum would have been too exhausting. Perhaps something to consider if we make our way back out here in the future though.

Our usual pitstops

Whenever we visit a new city, there are two travel staples we always look for: Hard Rock and Kura Sushi. They’re the kind of places that remind me I’m on an adventure. Tulsa had both.

On the way in, we had dinner at one of the restaurants inside the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Tulsa. The food was good, but we were disappointed there wasn’t an actual Hard Rock Cafe inside. A Hard Rock without a Hard Rock Cafe feels like false advertising. That said, the Hwy 66 Diner accomplished similar enough vibes for it to pass. Still not the same though.

The day of the show, we ate at Kura Revolving Sushi Bar, bringing my personal Kura count up to nine locations nationwide. The collection grows, but still nothing in St. Louis. Kura Sushi Corporate, if you somehow read this PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD BRING ONE TO ST. LOUIS, I WILL PAY YOU MANY DOLLARS OF AMERICAN MONEY TO CONSUME YOUR TRAVELING PLATES OF FISH.

Another neat tidbit is that while the Bikkura-Pon toys were themed around The Apothecary Diaries, the monitor on our table still showed Persona-related videos. We had to feed sushi to Korumaru from Persona 3 to make him happy. I would have rather had the actual gubbins from the Persona giveaways, but this worked.

After the concert, the munchies hit, and Whataburger answered the call. Always a treat for us since they’re still not out in our neck of the woods. Helen was disappointed to learn that they do not serve the Mushroom Swiss burger anymore, we did not realize that it was considered a limited time offering.

On the road again

On the way out, we hit the local staple: Braum’s for a quick lunch. We also raided the market side of the store on the way out the door, coming home with various cheeses (including some delicious Pimento for yours truly), New York Cheesecake, and Walnut Brownies.

Several hours later, we finally made it back to eastern Missouri to retrieve Hammond from the kennel and collapse into bed and watch some episodes of the Game Grumps. A weekend well spent.

Next up…

That covers the trip. For the main meat and potatoes of our trip, Starbomb live at Cain’s Ballroom, head over to Part Two.