Should Have Gotten to the Airport "Sooner"
Rudy Cope -I got an early start to Tulsa this past Sunday. I don’t know why I do it, but I always seem to be running behind to the airport, regardless of how early I get up. I found myself without a boarding pass at 7:10 a.m., with a flight leaving at 7:40. I had the good pleasure of running into Spencer Gore, one of our Lilly Finalists, who was headed home from the weekend’s Lilly program. If I had realized our schedules so closely aligned, I could have saved Forrest Craig ’10 and Patrick Griffith ’10 the early morning trip – but I know Spencer enjoyed Forrest and Patrick’s company.
Anyhow, I arrived in Tulsa Sunday around lunchtime (how perfect is that?) and hit the Quizno’s on 71st Street for one of their new Prime Rib and Peppercorn subs. My gosh, those things are remarkable! That sandwich has my top recommendation. Ask for extra sautéed onion, though. They don’t have enough on them if you don’t ask for extra.
Mike Dill ’71 picked me up at the hotel and off we went for the first order of business – 18 holes of golf at the Oaks Country Club (a really good track). Mike gave me a half a shot a hole and I needed all of them – he’s a feisty competitor! He had home field advantage, though, right? Mike, his wife Shelley, daughter Mary and a couple of Mary’s friends from Bishop Kelley hit the Red Robin. Those burgers are incredible! I had mine with quintuple cheese, double bacon and drenched in chili.
Over Monday and Tuesday, I visited several high schools meeting prospective students for the Class of 2012 (including Metro Christian, Bishop Kelley, Holland Hall, Cascia). I was well received and had some fantastic conversations with a good many young men. That same afternoon, I caught the Metro Christian / Mounds baseball game at MC. I was rooting for MC as one of our senior prospective students plays catcher for them. Alas, the Mounds team put on a hitting exhibition and waxed the Patriots 5-1.
Mike Dill and I met a prospective student and his father at Charleston’s for dinner Monday evening (I think I wrote about the ribs last time I was in Tulsa). I am a creature of habit and once I find something that works, I stick with it – so I had the ribs again this time and was not disappointed. A whole rack of tangy, Bar-B-Q sauce drenched pork baby-back ribs. Honestly, I could have eaten two more racks. And I am serious about that. Dessert was bread pudding bathed in an amaretto sauce. Tasty.
Tuesday brought more high school visits and an afternoon meeting with Mike Dill and some folks from the Straxis group (a fun conversation about a lot of stuff including college admissions, the Millennial generation and use of websites like Facebook and MySpace).
Mike and I squeezed in the first half of the Bishop Kelly/Claremore game at Driller Stadium. An exciting game – click here for the scoop: http://www.tulsaworld.com/sports/highschool/article.aspx?articleID=070418_2_B1_hRain06548&breadcrumb=Baseball
We left for the college fair at Holland Hall when the game got delayed because of rain and had a bunch of great conversations with prospective students from all around the Tulsa area. I couldn’t resist running over to the DePauw table and giving their admissions rep. some grief about how shiny the Monon Bell is.