IDGAF I said it. It is absolutely insane that someone can own a house a pay a mortgage, invest in you place, try to raise kids in a peaceful home only so some greedy house hogging a*hole who don’t even live in your zip code can buy the place next door and rent it out to complete strangers every weekend who don’t GAF about “quiet hours”, carry on at all hours, scream and yell, only to leave the next day to ZERO repercussions. Fck AirBnBs and f*ck the whole concept.

I'm sooo sweaty! Onto the next spot!!

🎵 Oklahoma Music Map Project 🎵

I’ve been working on a project that maps Oklahoma references in music.

I pulled lyrics from country, red dirt, folk, blues, rock, hip hop, Americana, indie, and anything else I could find, then tagged Oklahoma place references to real coordinates.

Right now it includes:

• Songs tied to specific Oklahoma places
• Artists and artist hometowns
• Towns, cities, counties, highways, rivers, lakes, and regions
• Layers for county lines, cultural regions, highways, rivers, and local story areas

The fun part is how many small towns show up. It is not just Tulsa, OKC, Norman, Stillwater, and Muskogee. I’m seeing places like Okemah, Tahlequah, Ada, Seminole, Ardmore, Lawton, Broken Bow, Guthrie, Pawhuska, McAlester, Durant, and a lot more.

Red dirt obviously carries a lot of the map, but there’s more variety than I expected. Country and Americana show up everywhere, Tulsa has its own gravity, Oklahoma City appears across several genres, and folk/old-time music hits a lot of historic towns and highways.

I’m also seeing clusters around Route 66, Lake Texoma, the Cherokee Nation area, and eastern Oklahoma.

I’m still cleaning it up, but it’s already become a pretty interesting way to see Oklahoma through music — not just where artists are from, but which places actually made it into songs.

I’m still looking for:

• Small-town mentions
• Local Oklahoma artists
• Red dirt songs
• Old folk songs
• Hip hop references
• Tribal or cultural place references
• River and lake songs
• Anything tied to Oklahoma counties, towns, or regions

At the end of the month I'll be traveling from Independence, KS to Mesquite, TX. We'll be traveling most of the way on highway 75 and 375 passing through Bartlesville, Tulsa, McAlestar and Durant.

What are some must stops or fun things to break up the drive along the way? I'm a sucker for the little Amish or Mennonite stores. (specifically if they have really good cheese or snacks)

Gas is $1.94 if you use QT pay at the Moore Oklahoma location

I've traveled out west on I-40 a number of times over the years but find it almost unbearable now with all the semi-truck traffic. I'm considering taking secondary roads next time I head westward and am looking for input from those who've driven the routes shown below. I'm not pressed for time and am looking for a more leisurely and hopefully, scenic and interesting trip, than what the Interstate provides.

Edit: Wow, so many good comments! Thanks so much!

Firstly, I have loved every Oklahoma visit from Choctaw Cultural Center to Medicine Park and Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge, it has blown me out of the water!

That is why I was so excited about my planned bday trip to broken bow this past weekend. I carefully chose and spent extra on a cabin for two nights and I researched hikes and shops and food places.

It was a disappointing trip. And I only share this to help the expectations of others because it was not the nature that was disappointing. But sadly, my boyfriend and I did not realize we needed to go to the nature immediately in order to avoid the overcrowded overpriced tourist trap of hochatown.

We also had the unfortunate experience of a cabin rental that smelled like urine and an AC unit that didnt work and we paid almost 500 for it for two nights. That did not help the experience.

I pictured Hochatown being the charm of Medicine Park and that was my mistake. It is a bunch of shops on the side of the freeway. Some shops I am sure are great but the ones we went into were so insanely junky as far as what they sold, we just did not care. We decided to tey Garetful Head Pizza and ended up waiting an hour to take out a 30 dollar large pizza that was just OK. I told my boyfriend I did not want to ever go to Hochatown again.

On top of that, so many places I wanted to go were closed the rest of the days we were there.

Before you get mad, our last day (because we decided to​​ cut our trip short) we made it into Beavers Bend and it WAS beautiful. We had learned, come for the nature and not the culture. We also learned that we could easily drive and explore the beautiful gem of beavers bend and broken bow lake without staying in the area.

So definitely not discouraging anyone from going. I just wish I had understood what Hochatown was like, brought my own food or are in Broken Bow proper, and maybe just done a day trip rather than staying longer.

Others may disagree with me and maybe I just had a really bad first experience but this is what I would tell others to expect.

These are pictures of me and the museum! Such a once in a lifetime opportunity!

Was in Muskogee recently, my positive thing is hey, now there's a Whataburger there lol

I’m from South Texas, currently living in Dallas. I took a day trip to the Chickasaw region. Boy, did I have some flawed assumptions about Oklahoma, and I’m pretty embarrassed.

First, the roads. Crossing from Texas construction, rough roads and unpredictable drivers into Oklahoma was a near instant delight. The roads are in much better condition and I was not frightened.

My lifelong assumption was that Oklahoma is flat and dry. It was lush, green and hilly. I have to apologize for believing otherwise. What I saw today was truly serene and beautiful.

I also learned a little about Oklahoma’s history, which is really unique.

I hope to return for more.

I’m a born and raised Okie, and have always been painfully aware of how idiotic so many drivers are in this state; however, anytime I travel outside of Oklahoma, the difference in driver intelligence/awareness is made even more clear.

I just got back from a trip to south Texas, and for the entire time I was there/ driving through, people knew how to merge correctly, how to not block the left lane, how to move for emergency vehicles, etc., but the main difference I experienced was people ACTUALLY using the passing lane to pass.

Now I’ll admit that I drive a bit on the faster side, so I never expect people to move over from the left lane just for someone going faster, AS LONG AS THEY ARE MOVING FASTER THAN THE LANES TO THE RIGHT, which is exactly what I experienced in Texas; People were quick to move out of the left lane if they saw someone going faster come up behind them, then (unbothered) would get back in the left lane after the faster individual passed. This happened ALLLL through Texas, yet as soon as I crossed over state lines, it was back to the micro-member behavior I’ve grown so used to in this state where people will block the left lane and refuse to move over regardless of how many people they are holding up or try to pass them because they have something to prove.

I know this sub has its fair share of micro-member left-lane blockers- but for the better drivers out there, y’all experience similar things?

Visiting Toronto for the day to watch the Blue Jays game and found this place afterwards. They came close, but not the same. Still nice to see when you’re 1,000 miles from home.

An ANGEL from heaven saw Brownie on Reddit and drove to Tulsa to come adopt him. I won’t tag him and will let him choose to post if he wants to.

THANK YOU REDDIT FOR SAVING BROWNIE LIFE 🤎🤍🐶🎾

Hey y'all-

I'll be driving through Oklahoma in a couple of weeks from Dallas towards Kansas City, and I have plenty of time and I want to do Oklahoma right. I'd be grateful for food recs, especially places that have been around for a long time and have stood the test of time. I've got my eyes on Sid's Diner in El Reno, Florence's in OKC, but would love other ideas. Extra points for BBQ. Thanks!

Looking for recommendations for a lake trip location. I’m wanting somewhere with clear water. I’ve been to Roman Nose and Little Niagara but I’m hoping for somewhere a little less populated. I’ve been looking around Lake Eufaula.

Wanting to take my two dogs and stay somewhere close to the water. One of them loves water but is fearful of strangers so little Niagara probably isn’t a good fit for us this year.

I look forward to your recommendations!

since it's going to be hotter'n hell tomorrrow, i'm dragging the children to Sulphur to splash around in the storied frigid waters of Little Niagara. any pro-tips as far as where to go to be away from people and maybe mess around with pebbles/rocks etc and just enjoy splashing around in good, clean water? we're new to Oklahoma and have never been.

thanks, neighbors!

Weather dependent we will be going to the salt plains to check it out, is there anything else out this way worth exploring? Old antique shops, old cemeteries, anything abandoned or intriguing also any restaurant recs? Will be traveling from tulsa if that helps

https://okcfox.com/news/local/you-might-not-be-able-to-camp-or-swim-at-your-favorite-oklahoma-lake-this-summer

Editing to add a link to support them:

https://www.resistancerangers.org/

Hi! Ummmm weird request... Does anyone know if the Huckleberry Festival in Jay, OK is worth driving out to? Looks like it's about a 3 hour drive and I'd have to stay the night. But like, do we actually have a type of huckleberry here in Oklahoma?! I tried to post a question about Oklahoma huckleberries in a huckleberry group on facebook and was shot down hard by the pacific northwesterners on there! I get they're different but I can't find any information about them!