May 11-14 I took my 4th trip to Tulsa, Oklahoma – the home of Hanson. On Friday, I drove to Newark (and parked in the wrong parking lot – oops!) and met up with my friend Kim. Our flight was scheduled to leave at 7:35 and as soon as we hung up after she called to let me know she was on her way – I got an email from United that we had been delayed to 8:40. We were super early but went through security, got a bite to eat and hung out waiting for the flight. The best part of the delay was when we got delayed from 8:58 to 8:59. We finally got to Tulsa around midnight and our friends picked us up and brought us to the hotel!
Saturday morning we had to check in for the weekend and then we headed to the Dilly Deli for breakfast and then the rest of the girls were participating in the bowling tournament. I tagged along and was the official score keeper. (I think this made our game go much faster as we were the first team done – no shuffling between bowling and keeping score at the same time to slow things down)
After bowling we hopped in line for the I Heart Hanson store – the line was not moving AT. ALL and we realized that the crew went to lunch from 12-1. We waited *3* hours and I ended up spending $230. I got 3 shirts, a trivet, pot holder, clothes pins, buttons, pens, pencils, activity book, bandanas, pillow, trivia game and a poster (I think that’s everything, but probably not.) Isaac rode by on his bike and waved while we were in line.
We headed back up to the bowling alley assuming things would be running late, but 20 minutes after it was supposed to end there was no sign of anyone. (Apparently Zac had showed up) We decided to go to lunch/dinner/whatever at Mexicali and then my other group of friends picked me up. (It was crazy bouncing between groups so I had a chance to hang out with all my friends!)
With the other group I went to the Golden Driller – probably my favorite thing in Tulsa. Then we got a tweet that Hanson would be having a beer tasting at McNellie’s and to meet them there at 8. We were right around the corner when we got the tweet notification and ended up being one of the first groups there. We ordered a “Zac” beer and hoped the guys would show up. Isaac and Taylor ended up downstairs and so we went down there to see PURE CHAOS. It was insane. Somehow we ended up right by the door Taylor came out of and found ourselves in the middle of a mob. We got a photo w/ him and then they left. Apparently girls chased them – but I couldn’t see because 2 of my friends had barricaded me so I wouldn’t get trampled by everyone going nuts.
After that, there was a crazy fight (although I don’t believe it was Hanson related) and a bunch of girls waiting by the back door of Hanson’s office… and then I went back to the hotel for the night.
Sunday morning we went to the Tulsa Zoo – tickets were 50% off. It was super, super hot out and I didn’t pack any shorts so it kind of made things miserable (especially when we went in the rainforest) and a lot of the animals were just not interested in doing anything but laying in the shade (I cant blame them!) I was able to get all 8 pennies from the zoo and we got to ride the train from one end to the other which was fun. And I got a blue raspberry icee 🙂
Then I switched groups again and hung out in the hotel for a bit before grabbing a (gross) bite to eat at quiktrip. We went to the block party outside of cain’s, colored a buffalo and sat down under a bridge in the shade until it was time to line up for the show. Major line drama and chaos ensued.
After the show (which Ive already recapped so no need to talk about it again) we went to Dennys for dinner – never again.
Monday we had a flight at about noon from Tulsa to Houston and then a 2 hour layover before a 3:36 flight back to NJ. We got stopped at security – the Hanson trivia game was too dense to see through and it also came with a timer so it ended up looking like a black box with a timer. Fortunately after a quick inspection of our luggage we were good to go. Our first flight was no problem, I slept through most of it. Then we went to find out gate in Houston only to find that it had been changed in the time we checked getting off the flight and made it to the other terminal. We waited and around 3pm started boarding.
We started movies on the screens on our seats (I chose Happy Feet 2) and pulled away from the gate. Then a lot of time went by and we still hadn’t made it into the air. Apparently there was a problem with the AC that they were trying to fix but were having trouble. Then they needed maintenance so we had to go to a gate. Then we had to leave the plane. And then they kept updating us but it was never with good news. Engine restarts didn’t help, replacement parts weren’t working. They gave us $5 snack voucher to grab something to eat. When we got back from getting a snack we were told we were getting a new plane. Of course then the plane had to de-plane, get cleaned, etc. We ended up taking off about the time we SHOULD have been landing in Newark. Instead of arriving at 8:20, we got there at 12:20. I ended up making it home at 3am and was glad that I took Tuesday off of work! No way was I going to be fun to be around after going to bed that late! (And they did offer us some sort of compensation. We had 3 choices to make on a special site that the captain gave us the URL for while we were still in the air. Not sure I want to deal with United again though after delays both ways, we’ll wait and see.)
Ultimately, the weekend was a lot of fun and it was great to see a bunch of my friends that I don’t see nearly often enough and of course, my favorite band.