Last night, Leslie and I went to the Summer Breeze Concert Series held at Lions Park in Norman, Oklahoma. I shot a ton of footage of the event for a story for Uncovering Oklahoma and I wanted to share these photos. The couple dancing under the moonlight is one of my favorite shots.
The next, and final concert for the season, is scheduled for Sunday, August 20 at 7:30 pm. Since it is late in the season, I plan to do interviews next year and release my video about the concert series next year.
Heide Brandes and I returned to Davis, Oklahoma for an afternoon to visit some of the places we weren’t able to fit into our first visit. We start off with some high-flying adventures at Air Donkey Zipline, then get a sweet tour of Bedré Fine Chocolates, have lunch at 77 Grill, and end the road trip at Caveman Museum and Antiques. Davis is part the Chickasaw Country tourism organization, which includes 13 counties in south-central Oklahoma.
For convenience, the bigger segments from this packed episode have their own video below.
Soar over the beautiful Arbuckle Mountains on one of Oklahoma’s longest ziplines! Heide talks with one of the owners of Air Donkey Zipline, Steve Burrough, about the two-hour tour with six ziplines and a skybridge.
Derived from the Norwegian word for “better,” Bedré Fine Chocolates is a chocolatier located in Davis, Oklahoma. Visitors can watch chocolates being made on site for free in the retail shop. Heide interviews the general manager, Kay Colbert, and we get a tour of the chocolate factory.
Caveman Museum and Antiques features antique motorcycles, classic cars, and various other memorabilia. Heide visits with Tom Webb to learn about this unique classic transportation museum in Davis, Oklahoma.
Even after these two trips to Davis, there is still more to explore. Obviously, I can’t feature everything and I want people to find some things on their own too. Don’t want to ruin all of the surprises either. If you want a sneak peek at upcoming videos and bonus content, such as the uncut Bedré interview, become one of my supporters on Patreon.
For Uncovering Oklahoma, I did a Crossover Crawl with the WAFTI Show and Naked City OKC on a Pub Crawl in the Uptown 23rd District. We started the drinking at Chick-N-Beer, then made a visit to The Pump, followed up the district’s newest bar, Bunker Club, and ended at Rockford Cocktail Den.
This video is a travel montage, showcasing the feel and vibe of each of the places and of our pub crawl itself. For this collaboration project, the WAFTI Show did a podcast where they interview and talk about each of the bars (Episode 127 – Crossover Crawl) while Naked City OKC shared live video/photos of the crawl on social media. During the crawl, at Bunker Club, we ran into with the duo behind Grounded Sounds along with some reporters from The Oklahoman.
A shout to all of the places for hosting us and my supporters on Patreon. We hope you enjoyed our collaborative project on Uptown 23rd. If the video and podcast performs well, I’m open to doing another at a different area. I had fun doing this crawl and I have some ideas to do better for the next one.
Looking for a cool Summer Treat in Oklahoma? In this remastered episode of Uncovering Oklahoma, I traveled to Edmond, Oklahoma City, Norman, and Tulsa for delicious treats to help keep you cool during the triple digit temperatures. This remastered video includes Roxy’s, Eskimo Sno, Epic Pops, Katiebug’s, and Gelateria – STG.
This version is an update from July of last year when I released the summer treats video minus Epic Pops. I wanted to include Epic Pops in the original video, but they were in the process of a remodel. I included them in this remastered version, which I didn’t change much other than color correction and some minor changes. Nothing really new, but I have new people watching it and I wanted to give it an update for them.
The episode starts with an interview with Raena Mutz on Roxy’s Ice Cream Social in Oklahoma City’s Plaza District. They specialize in making small batches of fresh ice cream in unique flavors and fresh baked cookie sandwiches. They now have multiple locations throughout Oklahoma City.
Then it’s to Norman for a classic snow cone treat from Eskimo Sno. Husband and wife team, Adrian and Jennii Buendia have been making snow cones since 1999.
While in Norman, stop for an epic treat at Epic Pops in Campus Corner. Owner, Jordan Holt brings the joy of youthful memories of eating popsicles that you won’t find anywhere else.
In Downtown Edmond is the shave ice and hot chocolate trailer, Katiebug’s. The Mom part of the Mother/Daughter team, Melissa Morgan, shares their fun summer treats, like the Frozen Hot Chocolate.
Finally, in Tulsa Mike Bausch talks about Gelateria – STG. Mike fights the stigma of gelato not being the same as it is in Italy by sourcing the same machines and ingredients as them.
For more videos, check out the Uncovering Oklahoma YouTube Channel. If you want to help support the site, become a patron.
I realized I never did talk about my experience speaking at the tenth annual IgniteOKC back in May. I was holding off for the talk to be uploaded to YouTube, but it looks like they’ll do that next year to promote the next talk. There was a Facebook live stream, which you can see me at around the 18-minute mark.
If you don’t know, IgniteOKC is a community-driven networking event that connects people of diverse backgrounds and knowledge through a series of entertaining, rapid-fire presentations. The basic premise is presenters get 5 minutes and 20 slides that advance every 15 seconds. In my topic, Local Roadtripping 101, I shared my advice on planning, packing, and suggestions for road trips in Oklahoma.
This was my biggest speaking event to date and I had a great time. The hardest part for me was memorizing my speech word-for-word. I just kept drawing blanks when I rehearsed it without my script. I ended up using a talking point method which worked great for me. Although, I did repeat a few descriptive words, but I didn’t trip or fall of the stage or anything major. I was the third person to speak, so I wasn’t first, but I was able to knock mine out early.
I decided to go big on the energy, perhaps a bit over the top. One comment I got was that I may have sounded like I was angry at people for not having adventures. 😄 I can see that point. I was greeted with high-fives from everyone down below in the green room when I returned. It felt amazing!
I published a more detailed version of my presentation here on Uncovering Oklahoma.
Overall, I had a positive experience speaking at IgniteOKC. It was great to get my face and name out there because I’m such a behind-the-scenes guy. Plus, most of all, I hope I inspired people to have an adventure.
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