Latest / The Dry Line Podcast / The Most Comprehensive Oklahoma State Fair Review Ever Done

Transcript

The Most Comprehensive Oklahoma State Fair Review Ever Done · The Dry Line Podcast

• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome back to The Dry Line Podcast,
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: Oklahoma's purveyors of culture,
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: sacred sports, mercurial weather, nefarious politics, and damn fine people weekly.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: I'm your host, Ryan Fightmaster, editor-in-chief of The Dry Line.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: It is September 23rd.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: Aside...
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: From that representing the earliest time of death for
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: an OU football season I can ever remember,
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: I'll get to that disaster later in the Oklahoma News Roundup.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: It also means we are now seven full days into the State Fair of Oklahoma,
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: and we have four days left.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: If you're wondering if I've been to the fair yet, I have been more than once.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: Last Friday night when it was 97 degrees out,
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: and again on a nice and reasonably warm early fall morning and midday today.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: Earlier this morning,
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: I published a piece on drylineokc.com titled,
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: Why Doesn't the Fair Feel Like the Fair Anymore?
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: Reason being, it didn't feel like the fair when I went last Friday night with my family.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_00: It was the first time I'd been in 10 years,
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: and without most of the historical landmarks of my childhood,
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: Space Tower,
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: Monorail,
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: State Fair Speedway,
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: B-52 Plaza,
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: And with all the new ag buildings,
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: now OG&E Coliseum and the Bennett Events Center,
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: I could barely get around the fairgrounds without my landmarks.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: I was disappointed and frustrated,
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: to be honest with you,
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: because I thought the fairgrounds had missed a precious opportunity
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: to connect generations of fairgoers and instead invested in economic development
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: for OKC.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: Those new horse arenas and agricultural buildings that you can see
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: when you drive past the fairgrounds on I-44,
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: those investments cost the city $150 million and they now bring in $170 million
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: in yearly tourism dollars to OKC.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: It was a wise investment.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: One that I understand, but I still really wish they kept or even replaced some of the history.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: Couldn't we have done something else to keep or preserve this space tower?
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it was 330 feet tall, y'all.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: Without it, the whole northern half of the fair felt desolate.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: Or so I thought, and wrote about earlier today.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: But that was before my dad and I returned this morning.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: I shared my thoughts with him after we left the fair on Friday night,
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: and he wondered if we'd missed something on Friday.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe the heat zapped the vibes.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe we hadn't hit all the buildings.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe we hadn't seen all the food or the rides.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: I was pretty set on how I felt, but I said sure, and met him there today at 10 a.m.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: And yes, he was right.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: The heart of the fair lives on.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_00: It just doesn't look the same anymore, and it's just not where it used to be.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: And man, I wish that speedway was still there right along the midway.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: But I left today thinking that the fair has tried really hard to create
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: a great experience for Oklahomans, and they've mostly succeeded.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: It's still a pretty damn good way to drop $17.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: Can't think of anything better, honestly.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: If you haven't been yet, go.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: Just for the 1907 Food Booth's Pork Belly Lollipop.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: Insane.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_00: Go.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: Do it this weekend.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: So after my dad and I finished up,
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: we sat down earlier today for a 2026 State Fair exit survey and review.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: We cover everything.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: The best food.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: We tried most of it.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_00: The best buildings.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: We went in all of them.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: The best history.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I feel like we covered it all.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: And I was grateful, again, that he joined me, as always, because he came prepared.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: Loved it.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: After we get done with our review of the fair,
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: I do a quick hitting review of the Oklahoma News Roundup.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: And I have some intel on why our 10-day forecasts have gotten so inaccurate.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: Alright, into our full review of The Great State Fair of Oklahoma.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome back, Dan.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_00: Glad to be here.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: Second one.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_00: Well, third podcast because we just split our first one in the two episodes.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_01: That's very true, yeah.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: So me and you went to the fair.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: Twice.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: For the second time today.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_01: Senior day, by the way.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_01: And yes, I qualify now.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_01: 55.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_01: 55.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_01: The fair and IHOP.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_01: Two favorite places.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: That's, yeah.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: I would have thought the age cutoff would have been higher than 55.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: But like we were joking, they probably assumed that most people 55 to 65 are still working.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: So while we were there, but there were, it was packed today.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_00: It was way more crowded than Today at the fair than it was Friday night at the fair.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_00: Last Friday night.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, yeah.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_01: So if you don't know what senior day is, the fair is free for anybody above 55.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_01: And it was packed with people my age and older.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, compared to last Friday night,
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_00: I would say there were probably three times as many people present today.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: And we got there at 10 a.m. today.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_00: We did.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_01: And there was a line to get in.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_01: The Midway was full.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: The Midway wasn't even open.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: You couldn't ride rides, I don't think, until after noon or one o'clock.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_00: But there were so many more people there.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that was one of the things on Friday night,
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: the first night that we went, I was concerned at how empty the fair felt.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, the vibes were non-existent.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, what is going on?
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: And I think today,
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_00: being around the fairgrounds,
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: it was like, oh,
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: it was just all...
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: That entire feeling that I was having about the vibes,
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: that was related to temperature.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it was just, nobody was there.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: People were exhausted.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, it was, what was it, 99, 100 degrees last Friday?
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: It might have been a 100 degree day.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I think I looked at my phone.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: It was like 97 as we were walking through the gates.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: And that was at like 530.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_00: So it was so hot.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, and it was, you're on that concrete.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_01: There's not a lot of trees, not a lot of shade.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_01: It was hot.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_01: It was, you definitely wanted to go inside the buildings Friday night.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_01: Today, there was actually a nice little breeze as we were walking through.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_01: And it wasn't, I mean, it got a little hot by the end.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_01: But when we were just walking building to building and such, man, that breeze felt great.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: I think today was like a normal seasonal September day of the fair.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_01: Now, I will say that when we were about to leave, I was starting to work up a little sweat.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_01: So it got a little toasty about 1 o'clock.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_01: We were there for like three hours, right?
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and I was watching people walking in, and I was like, oh my gosh, I don't know how.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: Just watching the older people walk in, I was like, medical people, be aware.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_00: Beware.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: Be on the ready.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so we went back today,
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: and what do you think we learned compared to Friday night's experience?
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_00: Because it was your idea to go back,
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_00: and I'm kind of curious just what motivated you to want to go back one more time.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_01: Well, we felt like when we went Friday night that we didn't get to see all the fare.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_01: We had an agenda to find food on Friday, spend a little bit of time in food.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_00: Yep, we wanted to eat good food.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_01: Got to go look at cars, so we went and did the auto show thing.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_01: We had a bigger group, too, and it didn't really fit for us to go to Midway on a Friday night.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_00: And we entered from the north side.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: So it was just hard to get through all this stuff.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: And all of it, we hadn't been in 10 years.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_00: All of us hadn't been in 10 years.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: Been a lot of time.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: A lot to see.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_01: And so I think that that's why I didn't feel like that it was fair to give a review
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_01: of my experience at the fair if I hadn't seen the whole thing.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_01: And so now I have and I can be fair.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_00: So now that you have seen the whole fair,
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_00: and I'm so glad you decided to do this because I think I would have given
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_00: a completely different review of the fair based
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_00: on Friday night's experience compared to today.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like I have a much wholer representation of what it is.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_00: But now that if you could give a tweet length review of what the fair
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_00: in 2026 was like, what do you think you would say?
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_01: Safe, clean, new.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_01: And those are just really quick, easy things.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_01: But we have a lot of new buildings going on in the fair.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_01: The new Bennett Center was awesome.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_01: They're connecting that building directly.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_01: So we've got some amazing new improvements at the fair,
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_01: but that's on the south side of the fair,
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_01: which is what we totally missed on Friday night, so we didn't get to see that.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_01: Still, both the Friday night and today, there wasn't the buzz at the fair that I remember.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_01: It was nice.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_01: It was a nice pace, just walk, enjoy seeing things and being outside.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_01: But it wasn't like this excitement or a buzz to it.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_01: And I used to always remember that as a kid and even as a young adult,
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_01: that there was an excitement of going to the fair.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_01: And you and I kind of talked about it today when we were eating some lunch of,
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_01: There's no noise.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_01: There's no music.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_01: There's no announcements.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: You mentioned the lack of PA system.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: Across the fair.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_00: We didn't hear any announcements.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_00: Not
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_01: a one.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_01: And we, you know,
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_01: maybe they had an announcement that came on every 15 minutes that told you
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_01: about different events at the fair.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_01: Or they had some background music playing, you know, Oklahoma or whatever it might be.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_01: But there was, it's just quiet.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_01: It was really, really quiet.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_01: And that was a surprise to me.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_01: I felt like there would be more.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_01: Now we went over the midway and there was somebody singing karaoke.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_01: So that Filled some noise.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_01: At the beach bar.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, which was a really cool place.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_01: But yeah,
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_01: I feel like that there could be something that gets to fill that void
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_01: of nothingness, right?
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_01: With just some sort of announcements or PA system or something going on.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_00: I wrote my piece that I published today that I was like,
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_00: why doesn't the fair feel like the fair anymore?
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_00: And that was the question I had.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_00: And I was, last Friday, I was really concerned about the loss of history.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_00: And the fact that when you walk in,
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_00: a lot of the monuments and the visuals,
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_00: landmarks that you associate with the fair are gone.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: So without them, I think you have to almost like reset what you even think the fair is.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_00: Because I thought the monorail was really important because nobody wrote it.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think I've wrote it in my life.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_01: I think I wrote it when I was a kid, maybe.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_00: And I think it closed in the 90s or early 2000s.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_00: So it's been a...
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_00: It's been gone for a long time.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_01: So I would have rode it in the late 70s probably, right?
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_01: Or maybe early 80s.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_00: It came in at the same time as the Space Tower in the 60s.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_00: But without the monorail, it felt like the monorail kind of cinched the whole park together.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_00: And it kind of served as like a belt.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_00: It kind of like looped everything in.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_00: And the Space Tower did too.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_00: Up at the circle at the top.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_01: And the Speedway.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_00: And the Speedway was like the backstop for everything.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_01: The bottom.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_01: There's nothing there now.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_00: And none of the big stuff is there like...
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_00: That gave height and kind of pulled it in.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's a really good point.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_00: And the color.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_00: The color is kind of gone.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_00: Because the new buildings, they're not objectively horrid to look at.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_00: No, no.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_00: I think like originally I made a comment like they look like Amazon buildings
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_00: or something like that.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_00: And I think today...
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_01: A little bit, maybe.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_00: There's a little bit of that because, I mean, I think building materials are so expensive.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_00: You can't just like build stuff out of wood and brick like you could have in the 60s.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: But when you compare the way those buildings look to like
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_00: the Oklahoma Centennial building at the top with like,
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_00: it's like glass facade and it's got like the cool like Oklahoma watermark seal on
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_00: the front.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_00: Like those buildings,
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_00: they look modern,
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_00: they look fine,
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_00: but they don't give that other, the feeling that those other buildings did.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_00: And I wonder if like the buzz is different because So much stuff is inside
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_00: the Bennett Events Center now.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_00: Like the hot tubs used to be outside.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_01: There was no hot tubs outside.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_00: The storm shelters used to be outside.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_00: All that salesmanship is indoors now.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_01: It was always kind of nice to walk through and you see all the hot tubs outside.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_01: They were in the Bennett Center.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_01: So do you want to talk about the Bennett Center?
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_00: I do.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_00: So...
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_00: Let's jump in because I thought we would break this down by food,
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_00: buildings,
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_00: to be comprehensive, agriculture, rides, and then like vibes slash nostalgia.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_00: So let's start with buildings.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_01: We'll do food last maybe so that people will listen.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, let's do food last.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_01: Because everybody wants to know about the food at the fair.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_00: And we got a lot to say about the food because the food was...
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_00: It's amazing, actually.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_00: It's the best the food's ever been, for sure.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_00: It's so much better than it used to be.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_00: So buildings.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, so we came in on the south side today.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_01: We immediately went into the Bennett Building.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_01: As you had mentioned in your article, they have had a theme this year about Route 66.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_01: And inside the building,
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_01: they had a really cool little movie thing set up,
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_01: and it felt like you were at a drive-in.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_01: They had like tailgates on the back of a car that you could sit on kind of thing.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_01: They had putt-putt inside it,
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_01: but it kind of had that, it had a neat feel where you could get some history.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_01: And they had some clips from different movies about Route 66.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_00: I think they had like a, I saw that on the side of the head.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_00: Like highlights of Route 66,
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_00: like broken down by like the important cities of Route 66 in Oklahoma or something.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_00: And like a little exhibit set up.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_00: So there was a lot of time put into putting that together in that section.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_01: They had a cool made in Oklahoma section.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_01: Had all kinds of products that were made in Oklahoma.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_00: That was well done too.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_00: I would have expected that made in Oklahoma building to be like a permanent structure.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_00: But all that stuff inside was temporary.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_00: And it was made from wood.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_00: The lighting was nice on the inside.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you felt like you were in a
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_01: little general store.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_01: It was cool.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_00: That was really cool, and there was good stuff in there.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_00: I bought a really cool map of Oklahoma that I'd never seen before.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_01: The coolest thing to me in the Bennett Event Center today,
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_01: they had a whole section of wine tasting.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_00: I would have never expected to see that.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_00: That was definitely not something that's been around before.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_01: Didn't that look cool, though?
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, so we think there was 10 wineries, maybe?
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_00: 10 Oklahoma wineries.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and they were in their own kind of section.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_01: It was kind of sort of wooded off, if you would, like it's kind of built around it.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_01: And they each had a tasting bar like you'd see at any winery.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_01: And we didn't taste.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we were in the building at 1045.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it was a little early for us.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_01: There were people in there, you know.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_01: People my age get up early.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_01: More people partaking, yeah.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_01: So anyway, we did not do it.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_01: Historically, I'm not an Oklahoma wine drinker, but I do like wine.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_01: It's just typically a different style than what we have here.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_01: But that was really cool looking, I thought.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_01: I thought that was pretty awesome and would be a cool place to hang out in a...
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_01: And a hot day where you just go inside and escape a little bit.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_00: Generally, I felt like there weren't enough spaces that felt
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_00: quaint on the fairgrounds.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_00: That's a fun place to spend time.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_00: Outside, make it sit and just feel like, oh, I'm at the fair.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_00: Let's look at some people.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_00: Let's enjoy some corn on the cob.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_00: But the spaces that I felt like were kind of cool were actually in the buildings now.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_00: Which I think is part of the reason why it felt so different.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_00: But the wine setup was cool.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_00: They had the cooking exhibitions going on
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_01: in there.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_01: And they always had that kind of stuff at the fair.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_01: It's usually on Saturday.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_01: You've got a guy with a mic telling you how to...
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_01: But it's more like it was selling these pans.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_01: So there was a cooking exhibition about how this fan or selling...
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_01: So there was another building that we historically went into.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_01: What building is this?
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_01: It's not that made in Oklahoma, is it?
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_01: Oklahoma Arts?
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_01: Oklahoma Arts, where they have the crafts.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_00: I was going to ask you what your favorite building was that you went into.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I always like going in there because I love to see what people have made.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_01: So if you haven't been into this building, you have one section.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_01: You have to go in this building.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's like people put so much time into this.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_01: So there's probably a hundred and...
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_01: Something different categories of competition that these people have entered into,
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_01: whether it's art or tapestries they've made or model cars or model this or whatever.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_01: It's just all kinds of artsy stuff that they've done.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_01: And then there's the baking where you have cookie tasting,
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_01: you have cake decorating,
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_01: you've got all kinds of things that are in there and you get
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_01: to see just what these people put their heart and soul into.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_01: So that's a really cool little building and they do some cooking displays in there.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_00: That's right.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_00: They do the cookie displays.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_00: I wonder if you win a competition or something, you get to go up on stage.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_00: That's probably where they do the award ceremonies for that.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_00: But that building with the red and white awnings over at the top of
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_00: the glass showcases, that building hasn't changed since I was a kid.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_00: It hasn't changed since I was a kid.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_00: And when you walk in, it is like a time warp.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_00: It is.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it is.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_00: It's so cool to go back in that building.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_01: It doesn't look any different than it did 30 years ago.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_00: And I hated that building as a child.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_01: How are you going in there?
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, I hated it.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_00: Boring?
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_00: I was like,
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_00: this is a waste of time that could be spent riding rides and playing games,
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_00: you know, and eating food.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_00: That's probably true.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so what they've done in that building.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_00: But now as an adult, that's probably my favorite building.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's special.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_01: I think if you just appreciate people's passions more as you get older,
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_01: that building's pretty cool.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_01: So part of that building,
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_01: it used to have a whole bunch of people in there trying to sell you pots and pans
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_01: and different things like that, right?
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_01: But they've taken a little section in there and they've kind of made it a discovery area.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_01: They have some games for kids, some interactive games to play.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, yeah.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_00: Is that where the glassblowing?
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_00: The glassblowing.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_01: You could do glassblowing class for like seven bucks.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_00: I think they relabeled that the Modern Living Building.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_01: I think that's what it's always been called.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, okay.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, Modern Living.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_01: That's right.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_01: But that was really cool,
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_01: I thought,
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_01: because it was kind of this discovery area and it had some stuff for kids,
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_01: had some stuff for adults, but again, a good place to escape the heat.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_01: It was a good connector to between.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_00: Like the midway and getting up to Oklahoma Arts.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_01: Another building we stumbled into today was one that had a bunch of livestock in it,
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_01: but it was kind of interactive learning about different types of livestock.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_01: It was sheep and it was goats and there were actually live animals in this.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_01: This was so cool.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_01: This kind of blew my mind.
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_00: I'd never been in that building.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_00: I've probably been in the fair...
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, kind of where the old tower was, the old Needle.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's right before you get to where the old Space Needle was.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, Space Needle, yeah.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_00: But, I mean, what all was going on in there?
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, they had rabbits, sheep, goats.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_00: They had a cow that you could actually – I don't know if you could actually milk the cow.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_00: I think you got to watch them milk the cow.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_00: They had three pigs that had, I don't know what – I'm going to call it like a litter of piglets.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_00: In there that were like nursing on the mom pigs.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_00: They had chickens.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_00: Baby goats.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_00: Chickens were like being...
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_00: They were being hatched.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_00: They were hatching out of the eggs.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_00: The goat thing.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_00: They built the little rock hill.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_00: That was cool.
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_00: In the middle of the room so the goats could climb to the top.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_01: And there was one laying on top of some metal structure they had like he was king of the hill.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_01: King goat.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_01: He was up there by himself going, hey, come on.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_00: That, I would think...
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_00: As a kid, that would be one of the coolest spots that you'd want to check out every year.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_00: It was surprisingly awesome, and I can't believe that we haven't been in there before.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_01: And then a couple of other buildings we went through, it was kind of a time warp thing.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_01: They look the same.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_01: They get the same vendors.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_01: You know, it's mattresses, it's saunas.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_00: The Centennial Building was like that.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, the Centennial Building.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_01: Which is cool.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, you go in these places and you know every year there might be something
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_01: that you saw last year and it's there again and maybe you buy this year.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_01: But there's t-shirts and all kinds of different things.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's encouraging that the vendors are coming back year after year
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_00: because it means people are still buying stuff from Oklahoma vendors
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_00: and they're not just buying all that stuff online.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_01: So I think that's good.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_01: The only disappointment we had...
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_01: Was when we were going in the livestock area that we still can't find the horses.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_00: We walked through.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_00: And guys, the livestock buildings are vast.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_01: There's a lot of buildings.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_00: And we went through every single livestock building because my dad loves horses.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_01: I love horses.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_00: We couldn't find them.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_00: We couldn't find horses anywhere.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_01: So we're making the assumption that the horse competition is maybe later
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_01: because I know there's horses at the fair because I've gone
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_01: to them almost every year.
• 21:33
  SPEAKER_01: So possibly maybe they come in on Thursday or Friday or something with the fair sketch.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_01: But we didn't see any horses.
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_00: Which is, okay, well,
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_00: maybe not surprising because of,
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_00: maybe we can pause for a second and talk about what the State Fair has done
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_00: with their reinvestments.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_00: So, MAPS has invested $150 million from,
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_00: I think,
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_00: MAPS III is when that allocation came through for all the new horse barns and all
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_00: the new agriculture buildings that are right next to I-44.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_00: And the point of that was to make Oklahoma City The premier equine hosting facility
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_00: in the country.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_01: And they host events year-round.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, every time I drive by, the billboards.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_01: Morgan Horse.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, it is a big deal.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_01: Arabian Horses.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_01: It's a big Appaloosa show.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_01: It's a big deal.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_00: And the city put out a study that it drives $170 million worth of tourism every year.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_01: That's such a big number.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_01: It's massive.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_01: That's pretty amazing.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_00: So, I mean, for $150 million investment, that's a pretty good return.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_00: You know?
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_00: So, that's why that whole area is so extensive.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_00: They've built it to where it links up,
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_00: and like you were talking about earlier,
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_00: it links all the way up into the OG&E Coliseum now.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_00: Or it will, once they finish this last showcase thing.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_00: But that was cool seeing that, though.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_00: We walked through on Friday night.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_00: And we saw all of the FFA,
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_00: like youth,
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_00: like teenagers in there working like sheep,
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_00: goats, shaving them, getting them ready for competition.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_00: And that was pretty cool to see.
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_00: And then we got to see all the cows.
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe not all the cows, but hunting.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_01: They had some Brahma bulls.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_01: They had some Jersey cows, some Black Angus.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_01: They had different show cows.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_01: And these aren't the kind of cow you're going to end up seeing in the grocery store.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, these are...
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_01: These are top of the line physical specimens.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_01: The thing that I was surprised about that the most is how muscular those goats were.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_01: So these goats have been shaved.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_01: They have been like, you know, down to their really, really thin hair.
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_01: And these dudes look like pit bulls.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_01: They were yoked.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_01: So I don't know what kind of goat they were showing,
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_01: but these goats are on steroids or something because they were muscled up.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_00: So agriculture wise,
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_00: Would you say that the experience of,
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_00: because when you go to the fair,
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_00: you want to experience some agriculture, aside from just the petting zoo.
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_00: Would you say that the agriculture experience of the fair was up to snuff?
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_01: I think it probably would be if you were there on the right day.
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_01: I just don't know when these competitions are, if they're in the evenings, what day they are.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_01: We should have looked probably at a schedule of events or something to see.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_00: Next year we should actually be specific about it.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_00: And try to go.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_00: Target events and do it differently.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_01: Because if you just randomly walk in, you think there's something going on.
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_01: There was something going on today, but it wasn't real lively.
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_01: It's all spaced out like they do.
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_01: We can talk briefly about the events.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, they have the bandshell stage now, which is the classic stage that's that mid-century...
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_00: Half circle that has like the peach colors and the white.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_00: And that's where President Trump,
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_00: Donald Trump did his campaign speech back in 2015, was on that stage.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_00: I think I remember like watching like one of my younger cousins do like a ballet
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_00: or dance recital there once.
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I think anybody who's in Oklahoma or lives
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_00: in Oklahoma City has seen something happen on that stage.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_01: I think maybe cheerleading used to do competitions there.
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's right.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_00: Stuff like that, yeah.
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_00: So it's, I mean,
• 25:15
  SPEAKER_00: I think that has events going from like open to close every day on
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_00: the stage every 30 minutes.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_00: And then they have the new Chickasaw Center or Chickasaw stage that's near
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_00: the Freedom 250 wheel, which is in the parking lot where the old slide used to be.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_00: So I guess we might as well talk about rides, but the old slide is no longer there.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_01: Gone.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_00: And the old chairlift that was on the midway is also gone.
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_00: And that happened,
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_00: I think,
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_00: like five to seven years ago because the vendor owned those two rides separately
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_00: from the fair.
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_00: So the fair didn't own those rides.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_00: What do you
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_01: mean chairlift?
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_01: What are you talking about?
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_00: Remember, there was a chairlift that used to go down the center of the midway back in the day.
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_00: So you could jump on the chairlift.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_00: And then it would fly above the rides.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I forgot about that.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_00: And so the same owner that owned the big slide owned that.
• 26:07
  SPEAKER_00: And so they pulled both of those.
• 26:10
  SPEAKER_01: Where did they move them to?
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_00: Probably some other fair at this point now.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_00: But now in the midway, they've replaced the slide with a classic fair, temporary type of slide.
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_00: And there's no chairlift anymore.
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_00: But I missed the old slide.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_00: I thought the old slide was amazing.
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_00: But I think they had to get rid of it because of construction in one of
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_00: the new buildings they built.
• 26:33
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, makes sense.
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_01: Plus, I mean,
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_01: year-round you're having to keep the thing roped off so nobody gets hurt on it too.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, there's probably some liability.
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, yeah.
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_01: Of it just being there all year round.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, if somebody snuck in?
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_01: Mm-hmm.
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't think about that.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_01: Because, you know, you can drive through the fair.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_01: Somebody would have... Oh, how many people... Those roads.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_01: How many people have just taken and
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_00: gone on that slide?
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, yeah.
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_01: Probably so.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_00: And there's the Freedom of 250 wheel.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_01: That is a big wheel, by the way.
• 26:57
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's the biggest freestanding ferris wheel in the country.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_00: No, that's temporary, right?
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe the world.
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's like the biggest temporary Ferris wheel in the world.
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_01: How do you get those things from fair to fair?
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_01: And just on semis and wide load trailers?
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_01: And then you got to put them all together?
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_01: Well, we're putting a lot of faith in some people putting together a whole bunch
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_01: of carnival rides.
• 27:20
  SPEAKER_01: And when did they start putting
• 27:21
  SPEAKER_00: that together?
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I noticed it weeks ago.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 27:25
  SPEAKER_01: Was it that long?
• 27:25
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I drive that way every day.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_00: Can you see it from a certain road as you're driving from South Oklahoma City?
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_01: You can probably see it from 29th Street at least.
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, it's tall.
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_00: It's really tall.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I mean, it's much taller than the Wheeler Park one.
• 27:41
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, like twice as tall probably,
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_00: maybe three times as tall as that one.
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_00: You know what it's 100 feet shorter than?
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_01: The new Arc of Triomphe?
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_00: Not that.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_00: The old space tower.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_00: Really?
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_00: That thing was that tall?
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_00: 330 feet tall.
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_01: Wow, that's awesome.
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't realize it was that tall.
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't either.
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, 33 stories.
• 28:05
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, we were talking about that.
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_00: We would have loved to ride that today.
• 28:09
  SPEAKER_00: On a slow day to pay five, ten bucks or whatever to go up to the top.
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_00: That would have been really cool.
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_01: It's probably been 20 years since I rode it, I'm guessing.
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_00: I think I probably did it whenever I was a little kid.
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I did it probably when you were in high school maybe or maybe college.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_01: We went out at the fair one night and the guy that worked security
• 28:26
  SPEAKER_01: where your mom's bank was, he'd given us some tickets.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_00: And so that's the only reason we ever wrote it.
• 28:31
  SPEAKER_00: What was it like up there?
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I don't really remember that.
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I can't remember.
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_01: Honestly,
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_01: I think you went up there,
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_01: you did a look around,
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_01: and then you waited for the next ride to come up, and then you went back down.
• 28:41
  SPEAKER_01: There wasn't a lot to do up there except for just kind of look around, which was cool.
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, you got a good bird's eye view of all of Oklahoma City from there,
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_01: so that's the whole purpose of it.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_00: It definitely stood out.
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_00: When you looked at it, when you drove past, you could see it from anywhere in the city.
• 28:57
  SPEAKER_01: Even if it wasn't working,
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_01: I think it was kind of an iconic thing that was there that you kind
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_01: of wish was still there.
• 29:01
  SPEAKER_01: I agree.
• 29:03
  SPEAKER_00: You were asking today why they took it out.
• 29:06
  SPEAKER_00: And it was Steve Lackmeyer,
• 29:10
  SPEAKER_00: the Oklahomans reporter who's been writing about culture in Oklahoma City for
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_00: a really long time.
• 29:15
  SPEAKER_00: He had a bunch of interviews with State Fair officials around the time
• 29:18
  SPEAKER_00: that they were removing the monorail and the space tower and
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_00: the B-52 bomber exhibit.
• 29:25
  SPEAKER_00: And he was talking about how the really damning...
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_00: Event that finally got them to remove the space tower
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_00: because it had been dilapidated for a long time and it was sitting
• 29:35
  SPEAKER_00: and it just was like wasn't functional I think from like 2010 on but it was a flood.
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_00: I guess there was a historic flood in 2010 that wiped out the space tower and the stage center.
• 29:46
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, wow.
• 29:46
  SPEAKER_00: Downtown.
• 29:47
  SPEAKER_00: So that's why the stage center isn't there anymore, too.
• 29:49
  SPEAKER_00: It's because of that same flood.
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_00: And they were built the same way with this, like, basement.
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_00: So I guess all the machinery for that thing was underneath the ground.
• 29:58
  SPEAKER_00: And then it just got ruined.
• 29:59
  SPEAKER_00: It got ruined.
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_00: They were going to have to pay, like,
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_00: a million dollars to keep the space tower,
• 30:03
  SPEAKER_00: or to stabilize the space tower, just to stabilize it because of the winds.
• 30:08
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so it's probably time for it to go down.
• 30:11
  SPEAKER_00: But, like, why haven't they put something new there yet?
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_01: There's not anything there.
• 30:15
  SPEAKER_01: There could be something.
• 30:17
  SPEAKER_01: You know the new piece of art that they put up, they could have put it there.
• 30:21
  SPEAKER_00: It was up for debate.
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_01: That would have been a good spot to put it because it's kind of a no man's land
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_01: where they put it.
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't feel like it really belongs where it's at right now.
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't feel like a significant—it can be pretty,
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_00: I think,
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_00: if it was in the right spot,
• 30:33
  SPEAKER_00: but it's situated in a place where nobody looks—it's the Bolt Tower,
• 30:37
  SPEAKER_00: and it got installed earlier this year,
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_00: commissioned through the 1% for Arts Maps 4 initiative.
• 30:44
  SPEAKER_00: It was a million dollars from a New York City artist, or a New York artist.
• 30:48
  SPEAKER_00: But yeah, any thoughts about the Bolt Tower?
• 30:50
  SPEAKER_01: Well, one, do you think that they put it there because of all the horse events?
• 30:54
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_01: Probably.
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, they wanted to.
• 30:57
  SPEAKER_01: Probably pretty it up.
• 30:57
  SPEAKER_01: People will see that as they come in because that's going to be your main interest, right?
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_00: It's right through the horse walk area.
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 31:03
  SPEAKER_01: So people walk into dinner because they do have a restaurant there.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_01: So what do I think of the Bolt Tower thing?
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I don't know what it is.
• 31:13
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know what it represents.
• 31:15
  SPEAKER_01: You kind of gave me a little bit of a lowdown on it.
• 31:17
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't see any of that.
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_01: I don't see Oklahoma.
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_01: To me, it looks sort of like a hot air balloon, a modern-day-looking hot air balloon.
• 31:23
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, it's pretty.
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_01: It's cool-looking.
• 31:25
  SPEAKER_01: But it's not something that I would have thought screamed Oklahoma.
• 31:33
  SPEAKER_01: But some people must have liked it when they decided that's what we wanted to put in.
• 31:39
  SPEAKER_01: We've got something new and maybe we can build upon that.
• 31:42
  SPEAKER_00: It's a start.
• 31:44
  SPEAKER_00: Steve Lackmeyer reported that the city council and the leadership at
• 31:47
  SPEAKER_00: the fair had felt the public pressure about the loss of all the history inside
• 31:52
  SPEAKER_00: the fair.
• 31:53
  SPEAKER_00: And so this was the beginning of starting to replace and try to replenish
• 31:59
  SPEAKER_00: the history inside the fair.
• 32:02
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I think it's something that could be maintained fairly easily well
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_01: because it's got some...
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_01: Like material that like the panels that could come off
• 32:11
  SPEAKER_01: and be replaced every few years that probably wouldn't be too expensive.
• 32:14
  SPEAKER_00: It could continually look good.
• 32:15
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's not going to be an eyesore.
• 32:17
  SPEAKER_00: And apparently it's supposed to move and change depending on the weather elements
• 32:21
  SPEAKER_00: and temperature.
• 32:21
  SPEAKER_00: And so it's supposed to change colors and shape somehow.
• 32:24
  SPEAKER_00: But it sounded really cool whenever I read about it.
• 32:28
  SPEAKER_00: And the last reporting that I saw in the Oklahoman was that it was supposed to be
• 32:32
  SPEAKER_00: where the old space tower was.
• 32:33
  SPEAKER_00: So I don't know how.
• 32:34
  SPEAKER_00: It got removed again because that didn't get reported in anything that I saw.
• 32:38
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know how it got back down there,
• 32:40
  SPEAKER_00: but it's supposed to represent the mid-century design that was a big part of
• 32:47
  SPEAKER_00: the Space Tower and the Monorail and all the other buildings,
• 32:51
  SPEAKER_00: like the Modern Living Building, the Oklahoma Arts Building, I guess.
• 32:56
  SPEAKER_00: They were trying to pull in the aesthetic that those buildings used to have
• 32:59
  SPEAKER_00: because I guess those buildings used to be painted really colorfully.
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, they were, definitely.
• 33:03
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 33:04
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't remember that.
• 33:05
  SPEAKER_00: I guess recently they've repainted them gray.
• 33:07
  SPEAKER_00: I guess people didn't like that too.
• 33:08
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, they used to be all kinds of different colors.
• 33:09
  SPEAKER_01: It was primary colors like blue and red and green and yellow, but it was a hodgepodge.
• 33:16
  SPEAKER_01: But it got your attention.
• 33:18
  SPEAKER_00: It's funny.
• 33:18
  SPEAKER_00: So that fits better with that
• 33:21
  SPEAKER_01: design because those panels are all different colors.
• 33:24
  SPEAKER_01: So that makes some sense.
• 33:25
  SPEAKER_01: So there's a tie in there.
• 33:26
  SPEAKER_00: It probably looked...
• 33:29
  SPEAKER_00: There's a time capsule there.
• 33:58
  SPEAKER_00: Of their fair memories.
• 34:00
  SPEAKER_00: There's photos.
• 34:00
  SPEAKER_00: And there's a time castle buried in the ground there.
• 34:03
  SPEAKER_01: Well, there should be a sign that maybe they're going to add to it.
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe they just didn't get it up.
• 34:09
  SPEAKER_01: But yeah, there's nothing that really explains what it is.
• 34:10
  SPEAKER_01: There's some park benches around it.
• 34:12
  SPEAKER_01: So people were sitting there.
• 34:13
  SPEAKER_01: But there was nothing that I saw that would tell you what you're looking at.
• 34:18
  SPEAKER_01: So if you're a first-time fair visitor or you haven't been in a while, you're going to go, what?
• 34:21
  SPEAKER_01: What is this thing?
• 34:23
  SPEAKER_00: That's my thought, too.
• 34:24
  SPEAKER_00: Or if you're at a horse show.
• 34:25
  SPEAKER_00: Like, what is going on here?
• 34:27
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, so...
• 34:28
  SPEAKER_01: What are we doing next?
• 34:29
  SPEAKER_00: We are now moving on to rides.
• 34:32
  SPEAKER_00: So we didn't ride any rides, full disclosure.
• 34:35
  SPEAKER_00: But I thought looking at the rides,
• 34:38
  SPEAKER_00: it was significantly improved from 10 years ago or whenever I was riding rides as
• 34:44
  SPEAKER_00: a little kid.
• 34:44
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I couldn't see where there would be any ride that was not available.
• 34:50
  SPEAKER_01: There's a lot of rides.
• 34:52
  SPEAKER_00: Roller coaster, everything.
• 34:55
  SPEAKER_01: And it feels like it's just not crammed in like it used to be.
• 34:59
  SPEAKER_01: Things were right next to each other before.
• 35:00
  SPEAKER_01: Now there's more space,
• 35:02
  SPEAKER_01: which I think allows a lot more movement of people coming in and out
• 35:05
  SPEAKER_01: and doesn't make it feel so cramped.
• 35:06
  SPEAKER_01: That whole area in the Midway to me is really vastly improved.
• 35:11
  SPEAKER_01: You still have your carnival games, but they're kind of sectioned off on the northeast side.
• 35:17
  SPEAKER_00: Yep, they are.
• 35:18
  SPEAKER_01: And that's okay because, you know, some people don't want to do that.
• 35:22
  SPEAKER_00: That's a good spot to put it because people are going to come down from the food area.
• 35:24
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 35:25
  SPEAKER_00: So you might as well cross them through the game area.
• 35:27
  SPEAKER_00: And that's where most of them are.
• 35:28
  SPEAKER_01: And then there was a few games in the actual midway near the rides, but not too many.
• 35:32
  SPEAKER_01: And there was also a lot of food mixed in there.
• 35:35
  SPEAKER_01: And so you've got it all in that midway.
• 35:37
  SPEAKER_01: If that's what your thing is and you're there to ride rides and eat, you can do it all at once.
• 35:41
  SPEAKER_01: Hopefully you eat after you ride a ride.
• 35:44
  SPEAKER_00: That's a fair tradition,
• 35:45
  SPEAKER_00: though, is eating some food you shouldn't and then jumping on the tilt-a-whirl.
• 35:48
  SPEAKER_01: But they had all the classic stuff.
• 35:50
  SPEAKER_01: And I didn't see a funhouse.
• 35:52
  SPEAKER_01: Did you see a funhouse?
• 35:53
  SPEAKER_01: I did not see a funhouse.
• 35:56
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 35:57
  SPEAKER_00: On the midway,
• 35:57
  SPEAKER_00: there used to be that whole section of funhouses where there were like three in
• 36:00
  SPEAKER_00: that corner.
• 36:01
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe we missed them, but I didn't see them.
• 36:02
  SPEAKER_01: They didn't jump at us.
• 36:03
  SPEAKER_01: We walked through the whole thing.
• 36:06
  SPEAKER_00: You saying that reminds me,
• 36:07
  SPEAKER_00: there used to be,
• 36:08
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know how to describe it,
• 36:10
  SPEAKER_00: but yeah,
• 36:10
  SPEAKER_00: there was like a fun house of mirrors and then there was like kind of some like old,
• 36:14
  SPEAKER_00: kind of like gypsy-like games.
• 36:17
  SPEAKER_01: Like where you could see the two-headed dog and the two-headed rattlesnake and sort
• 36:23
  SPEAKER_01: of a Ripley's Believe It or Not kind of thing.
• 36:25
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't see that either.
• 36:26
  SPEAKER_00: None of that was there.
• 36:27
  SPEAKER_00: They had a circus on the far north side by the Oklahoma Frontier Experience,
• 36:31
  SPEAKER_00: which we have not talked about.
• 36:32
  SPEAKER_00: The Oklahoma Frontier Experience is where we bought that whittled bowl.
• 36:36
  SPEAKER_00: The bowl.
• 36:37
  SPEAKER_00: And then they had like a stage where they were doing the cowboys gunfights.
• 36:41
  SPEAKER_01: And they also had some Native American dancing and some history that they were doing
• 36:45
  SPEAKER_01: before the gunfights.
• 36:47
  SPEAKER_00: So that was a cool little area.
• 36:48
  SPEAKER_00: That was fun.
• 36:49
  SPEAKER_00: They had some horses on display.
• 36:51
  SPEAKER_00: Only horses we saw.
• 36:53
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 36:53
  SPEAKER_01: Only horses we saw.
• 36:54
  SPEAKER_00: But the circus looked fun.
• 36:58
  SPEAKER_00: That looked like a cool event over there.
• 37:02
  SPEAKER_00: But that was on the north side.
• 37:03
  SPEAKER_00: But yeah, the quaint part of the midway wasn't there anymore.
• 37:06
  SPEAKER_00: It was all the same color.
• 37:09
  SPEAKER_00: It didn't feel like a hodgepodge of different rides.
• 37:11
  SPEAKER_00: It felt like the same manufacturer made every ride.
• 37:13
  SPEAKER_01: They all look brand new.
• 37:14
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, it was like modern.
• 37:15
  SPEAKER_00: They match the colors.
• 37:17
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, it is very colorful,
• 37:19
  SPEAKER_01: and it is nice, maintained, new equipment, new booze for all the food.
• 37:26
  SPEAKER_01: It feels like a brand new fare.
• 37:29
  SPEAKER_00: It feels like a totally brand new fair.
• 37:31
  SPEAKER_00: All the juice of the fair resides south of whatever that crosscut is that's right
• 37:40
  SPEAKER_00: above the Bennett Event Center.
• 37:42
  SPEAKER_00: It's like all the juice is south of that.
• 37:46
  SPEAKER_00: It does.
• 37:46
  SPEAKER_00: It feels like an amusement park down there.
• 37:48
  SPEAKER_00: It's like eat, ride, repeat, which I think was their motto in 2025, the State Fair's
• 37:53
  SPEAKER_01: motto.
• 37:54
  SPEAKER_01: You know where the Space Needle was.
• 37:55
  SPEAKER_01: There's food all the way around that circle.
• 37:57
  SPEAKER_01: That felt like more like locally owned food truck-ish.
• 38:03
  SPEAKER_01: It did.
• 38:03
  SPEAKER_01: There were none of those big corporate ones.
• 38:05
  SPEAKER_01: And then the ones in the midway were the corporate ones.
• 38:07
  SPEAKER_01: That's why they matched so well.
• 38:10
  SPEAKER_00: That's a good point.
• 38:10
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 38:12
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 38:12
  SPEAKER_00: Which, I mean,
• 38:13
  SPEAKER_00: eventually,
• 38:13
  SPEAKER_00: if that's what it,
• 38:14
  SPEAKER_00: if that's how it takes, because the cinnamon roll place is still in business.
• 38:18
  SPEAKER_00: Still there.
• 38:18
  SPEAKER_00: Silver Dollar cinnamon rolls.
• 38:19
  SPEAKER_01: There's two locations.
• 38:20
  SPEAKER_01: One on the west side, one on the north side.
• 38:23
  SPEAKER_00: The horse.
• 38:23
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 38:24
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 38:25
  SPEAKER_01: Which they used to be further north.
• 38:26
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 38:28
  SPEAKER_01: Because there was a similar place there because we used to go there
• 38:30
  SPEAKER_01: because no one knows there and the line would be a lot shorter.
• 38:32
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, that's right.
• 38:33
  SPEAKER_01: It was up.
• 38:34
  SPEAKER_01: It was up further north.
• 38:35
  SPEAKER_00: Kind of by Champions Barbecue.
• 38:36
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, right there.
• 38:37
  SPEAKER_01: Now it's moved kind of more toward the midway.
• 38:40
  SPEAKER_00: I guess that brings us into food.
• 38:41
  SPEAKER_01: Food.
• 38:42
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 38:43
  SPEAKER_00: First question for you.
• 38:45
  SPEAKER_00: What was your favorite single thing you got at the fair?
• 38:52
  SPEAKER_01: Well, it probably had to be what I got at Champions Barbecue because that was pretty crazy.
• 38:55
  SPEAKER_01: It was a...
• 38:57
  SPEAKER_01: Brisket biscuit is what they called it,
• 38:59
  SPEAKER_01: but it was a homemade biscuit, huge,
• 39:03
  SPEAKER_01: with brisket,
• 39:04
  SPEAKER_01: macaroni and cheese, coleslaw, and the flavors, and then like a barbecue jam.
• 39:12
  SPEAKER_01: There could have been some bacon on there too, but it was wonderful.
• 39:16
  SPEAKER_01: The flavors melted perfectly.
• 39:17
  SPEAKER_01: It was all that you'd want in fair food.
• 39:19
  SPEAKER_01: Agreed.
• 39:20
  SPEAKER_01: I would get that at a barbecue joint.
• 39:21
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, it is that good.
• 39:23
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 39:42
  SPEAKER_01: So it is in a building, it's in the equestrian or the ag area, and it is a permanent place.
• 39:49
  SPEAKER_01: I'm going to guess it's open when there's horror shows and things like that.
• 39:54
  SPEAKER_01: But it's well done, reasonably priced barbecue.
• 39:58
  SPEAKER_01: I think my sandwich was $15.
• 40:00
  SPEAKER_00: At the fair, that's a bargain.
• 40:01
  SPEAKER_01: Which was amazing.
• 40:03
  SPEAKER_01: And then Pearl Mesta.
• 40:06
  SPEAKER_01: Chef Black's Restaurant has a booth out there and it looks fairly permanent too.
• 40:11
  SPEAKER_00: I think so too.
• 40:12
  SPEAKER_00: I mean that sign looked permanent that was hanging.
• 40:14
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 40:16
  SPEAKER_01: And so I don't know if those two things are open for special events.
• 40:19
  SPEAKER_01: And it's just kind of one of those things where you kind of have your crew
• 40:21
  SPEAKER_01: that comes in and works for those things.
• 40:23
  SPEAKER_01: But they had ribs there for $12.
• 40:28
  SPEAKER_01: They were baby back ribs.
• 40:30
  SPEAKER_01: They were the biggest baby back ribs I've ever seen.
• 40:32
  SPEAKER_00: Mango bourbon ribs.
• 40:34
  SPEAKER_01: They were fantastic.
• 40:35
  SPEAKER_01: Those were great.
• 40:36
  SPEAKER_00: Best ribs I think I've ever had.
• 40:38
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, yeah.
• 40:39
  SPEAKER_01: It was great.
• 40:40
  SPEAKER_01: And it was reasonably priced.
• 40:41
  SPEAKER_01: And you could sit inside.
• 40:42
  SPEAKER_01: They had all kinds of booths, tables.
• 40:45
  SPEAKER_01: They had beer if you wanted beer.
• 40:46
  SPEAKER_01: They had a nice soda fountain machine.
• 40:48
  SPEAKER_01: You can get free refills.
• 40:49
  SPEAKER_00: If you wanted to try to watch an NFL game or a college football game on a Saturday
• 40:52
  SPEAKER_00: or Sunday,
• 40:53
  SPEAKER_00: that would probably be the only place you would be able to watch it at the fair
• 40:55
  SPEAKER_00: because they've got TVs.
• 40:57
  SPEAKER_01: But that's a great spot.
• 40:58
  SPEAKER_01: If you're going to go to the fair,
• 40:59
  SPEAKER_01: I would definitely go there for food because you can sit down.
• 41:01
  SPEAKER_01: You're out of the heat.
• 41:02
  SPEAKER_01: It was perfect for us on that Friday night.
• 41:06
  SPEAKER_01: But it was economical and fantastic.
• 41:10
  SPEAKER_01: Like rival what you would get at a – At a barbecue restaurant.
• 41:14
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, it was good.
• 41:14
  SPEAKER_01: Like a top flight barbecue restaurant.
• 41:16
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 41:17
  SPEAKER_01: So good stuff.
• 41:17
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I was surprised.
• 41:18
  SPEAKER_00: It felt kind of weird eating a meal at an indoor restaurant at the fair.
• 41:22
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 41:23
  SPEAKER_00: You know, that was a strange experience, but a welcome one because it was 97 degrees.
• 41:27
  SPEAKER_00: It worked.
• 41:27
  SPEAKER_00: So it worked and the food was delicious.
• 41:30
  SPEAKER_00: And I got.
• 41:31
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 41:31
  SPEAKER_01: What'd you get?
• 41:32
  SPEAKER_00: I got that sausage that was a hatch green chili and Gouda sausage.
• 41:37
  SPEAKER_00: Swab dog.
• 41:38
  SPEAKER_00: Oh my gosh.
• 41:38
  SPEAKER_00: It was a swab.
• 41:39
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, it was a swab.
• 41:41
  SPEAKER_00: And then it was covered with the mac and cheese and the brisket.
• 41:45
  SPEAKER_00: It was fantastic.
• 41:46
  SPEAKER_01: It was huge.
• 41:47
  SPEAKER_00: It was so big.
• 41:48
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it was incredible.
• 41:49
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, again, it was like $13, $14.
• 41:52
  SPEAKER_00: It was a full meal.
• 41:54
  SPEAKER_00: They also served on the side for free that came with, I think, the biscuit.
• 42:00
  SPEAKER_00: What was in those like fried ball?
• 42:01
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, it was like fried cheese.
• 42:03
  SPEAKER_01: It was like a cream cheese.
• 42:06
  SPEAKER_01: That was great.
• 42:07
  SPEAKER_01: That was a little side.
• 42:08
  SPEAKER_01: Again, $15 and that was all in there.
• 42:11
  SPEAKER_01: It was really good.
• 42:12
  SPEAKER_00: Outside that building, other favorite food experiences?
• 42:16
  SPEAKER_00: Because we ate around.
• 42:18
  SPEAKER_00: We did eat everywhere.
• 42:20
  SPEAKER_01: So there was one thing that I thought was original that I got that I really liked.
• 42:26
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not a big corn on the cob guy.
• 42:28
  SPEAKER_01: But your mom told me I should get it, so I got it.
• 42:31
  SPEAKER_01: I thought she would eat it,
• 42:32
  SPEAKER_01: and then I realized that it wasn't gluten-free, so
• 42:36
  SPEAKER_00: she really couldn't eat it.
• 42:37
  SPEAKER_01: It worked out.
• 42:38
  SPEAKER_01: It was a Hispanic place over there by Dan's Tacos,
• 42:44
  SPEAKER_01: and they had all kinds of grilled chicken with a little Spanish flair to it.
• 42:49
  SPEAKER_01: But they had this corn on the cob that they dipped in like a buttery cheese,
• 42:56
  SPEAKER_01: and then they coated it With crushed hot Cheetos.
• 43:00
  SPEAKER_00: It was fantastic.
• 43:01
  SPEAKER_00: You gave me a bite.
• 43:02
  SPEAKER_01: It was so good.
• 43:03
  SPEAKER_00: The corn was cooked perfectly.
• 43:05
  SPEAKER_01: Oh my gosh.
• 43:06
  SPEAKER_01: It was just sweet, juicy.
• 43:09
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you bite into it and stuff would just shoot out.
• 43:11
  SPEAKER_01: But Lori did get to have some, so it all worked out for her.
• 43:15
  SPEAKER_01: But that was unique.
• 43:16
  SPEAKER_01: That was awesome.
• 43:17
  SPEAKER_01: I can try to duplicate that at home.
• 43:20
  SPEAKER_01: I don't normally buy hot Cheetos, but they nailed it on that.
• 43:25
  SPEAKER_00: That was really cool.
• 43:26
  SPEAKER_01: That was awesome.
• 43:27
  SPEAKER_00: It's a perfect fair food.
• 43:28
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 43:30
  SPEAKER_01: There's just anything you can think of now.
• 43:32
  SPEAKER_01: This is not your dad's fair,
• 43:34
  SPEAKER_01: your grandparents' fair,
• 43:35
  SPEAKER_01: where it's just corn dogs and the sausage on a stick and that sort of things.
• 43:41
  SPEAKER_01: There was a burger place that's over there.
• 43:43
  SPEAKER_00: It's not just fried Oreos anymore either.
• 43:44
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 43:45
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, you can get the fried Oreos and the chocolate-dipped bacon, all that stuff.
• 43:49
  SPEAKER_00: You can get that.
• 43:50
  SPEAKER_00: This is gourmet food.
• 43:52
  SPEAKER_01: Um, there's a burger spot that we walked by today
• 43:54
  SPEAKER_01: that probably had eight different burgers that they're serving.
• 43:56
  SPEAKER_01: That looks fantastic.
• 43:58
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 43:59
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, great curly fries.
• 44:02
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, today we got, uh, we got some seafood and it was pretty good.
• 44:06
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I thought it was north side of the circle, north side of the circle.
• 44:10
  SPEAKER_01: And I, we got some crab cakes came with French fries and they were hand cut fries
• 44:14
  SPEAKER_01: and it was fantastic.
• 44:16
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, also got some fried catfish.
• 44:17
  SPEAKER_00: That was really good.
• 44:19
  SPEAKER_00: And then we finished that, and on our way out, we stopped at 1907.
• 44:24
  SPEAKER_01: This place was cool.
• 44:25
  SPEAKER_00: And that place was awesome.
• 44:26
  SPEAKER_00: That's right off the Midway on the eastern side of the Midway.
• 44:30
  SPEAKER_00: And, man,
• 44:32
  SPEAKER_00: they had a pork belly lollipop,
• 44:34
  SPEAKER_00: which sounds so crazy,
• 44:36
  SPEAKER_00: but they basically skewered a rolled up,
• 44:39
  SPEAKER_00: you know, one inch wide section of pork belly.
• 44:41
  SPEAKER_01: It looked like a lollipop.
• 44:42
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, it was a circle pinwheel.
• 44:44
  SPEAKER_00: Pin oil covered in, you said, a not-too-sweet barbecue sauce glaze.
• 44:47
  SPEAKER_01: It's like a honey barbecue glaze.
• 44:49
  SPEAKER_00: But it had a lot of spice in it, too.
• 44:51
  SPEAKER_00: And, man, it was just excellent.
• 44:53
  SPEAKER_01: It was great.
• 44:54
  SPEAKER_01: It was great.
• 44:54
  SPEAKER_01: So this isn't the same fair food that you've gotten for years.
• 44:58
  SPEAKER_01: This is really out-of-the-box stuff.
• 45:01
  SPEAKER_01: Now, we didn't go to that corndog place.
• 45:04
  SPEAKER_01: It's a Korean corndog place that you told me about.
• 45:05
  SPEAKER_00: The only place that we didn't get to that I really wanted to get to.
• 45:08
  SPEAKER_01: And they're doing some creative stuff with corn dogs.
• 45:12
  SPEAKER_01: It's got all kinds of neat things.
• 45:14
  SPEAKER_01: There's like seven or eight different kind of corn dogs you can get.
• 45:16
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you can get like a Korean tonkatsu or yeah,
• 45:20
  SPEAKER_00: like a Japanese tonkatsu Korean spiced ramen noodle.
• 45:26
  SPEAKER_00: Wrapped corndog.
• 45:27
  SPEAKER_00: And so I wish we would have got there.
• 45:29
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's called Chan's Eatery.
• 45:31
  SPEAKER_00: And it's right out the front steps on the east side of Bennett and Vincent.
• 45:35
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 45:36
  SPEAKER_01: Now, when we were there in the morning, it wasn't open yet.
• 45:37
  SPEAKER_01: It wasn't even close.
• 45:38
  SPEAKER_01: And so by the time we were leaving, we'd already had our food and there was no room left.
• 45:43
  SPEAKER_01: But I have one issue with the fair food.
• 45:48
  SPEAKER_01: You know what it is.
• 45:49
  SPEAKER_01: We've talked about it.
• 45:50
  SPEAKER_01: Why is a turkey leg $20?
• 45:51
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, it's ridiculous.
• 45:53
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, so turkey legs used to be like $5, $8.
• 45:56
  SPEAKER_00: $20 everywhere.
• 45:57
  SPEAKER_01: $20 everywhere.
• 45:58
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and they look great.
• 46:00
  SPEAKER_01: When you walk by and you see them, they look amazing.
• 46:01
  SPEAKER_01: But $20 for a turkey leg, that's insane.
• 46:04
  SPEAKER_00: It's ridiculous.
• 46:05
  SPEAKER_01: But it's also $8 for a homemade lemonade, which is ridiculous too.
• 46:09
  SPEAKER_01: But that was the only thing.
• 46:10
  SPEAKER_01: It used to be, for turkey leg eaters out there like myself, that used to be the value.
• 46:16
  SPEAKER_01: You could get a turkey leg when everything else is too expensive at
• 46:18
  SPEAKER_01: the amusement park or the fair.
• 46:19
  SPEAKER_00: And that would be your full meal.
• 46:21
  SPEAKER_00: That's it.
• 46:21
  SPEAKER_00: That's it.
• 46:21
  SPEAKER_00: That's all you need.
• 46:23
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 46:23
  SPEAKER_01: But no, I'm not paying $20 for turkey leg.
• 46:25
  SPEAKER_01: Can't do it.
• 46:26
  SPEAKER_01: Can't do it.
• 46:28
  SPEAKER_00: That is a significant beef.
• 46:30
  SPEAKER_01: What do you think fair price for turkey leg is?
• 46:33
  SPEAKER_00: Like $14.
• 46:35
  SPEAKER_00: I would pay $14 for a turkey leg.
• 46:37
  SPEAKER_00: $16?
• 46:39
  SPEAKER_00: $14, $15?
• 46:40
  SPEAKER_01: $12.
• 46:41
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, that's—Turkey legs aren't that expensive.
• 46:43
  SPEAKER_01: You can go to Walmart for like $2 a piece, maybe $4 a piece.
• 46:46
  SPEAKER_01: There's a lot of smoking into it,
• 46:47
  SPEAKER_01: but I wonder how—you know,
• 46:49
  SPEAKER_01: when we went to the California State Fair years ago, I got one there.
• 46:53
  SPEAKER_01: I know I didn't pay $20.
• 46:53
  SPEAKER_01: That's California.
• 46:55
  SPEAKER_00: It was not $20.
• 46:56
  SPEAKER_00: There was no way.
• 46:57
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it was probably $12.
• 46:58
  SPEAKER_01: And they were everywhere there.
• 47:01
  SPEAKER_01: Massive racks of them.
• 47:02
  SPEAKER_00: The turkey legs that I saw were not made by the maid in Oklahoma places either.
• 47:06
  SPEAKER_00: The turkey legs were all from the corporate
• 47:12
  SPEAKER_00: calendar fair people who go to the fair
• 47:15
  SPEAKER_00: and do the fair all the time, too.
• 47:16
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't see any local turkey legs being done.
• 47:18
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 47:19
  SPEAKER_01: And by the way, there is one place I saw, and I think they did it with a piece of tape.
• 47:24
  SPEAKER_01: They were selling their turkey legs for $19.
• 47:25
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 47:27
  SPEAKER_01: So there was one for $19 on that northeast side there, kind of by Dan's.
• 47:32
  SPEAKER_00: Trying to carve out their market.
• 47:34
  SPEAKER_01: Hey, we can save you a buck.
• 47:35
  SPEAKER_01: Come here.
• 47:36
  SPEAKER_00: Something we talked about that I wanted to revisit with you was the bar scene inside the fair.
• 47:42
  SPEAKER_00: So they have like...
• 47:44
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 47:44
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 47:44
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 48:11
  SPEAKER_00: It felt like there needs to be a permanently constructed beer garden somewhere.
• 48:15
  SPEAKER_00: Because there wasn't a great place to hang out, get a beer, and watch a game.
• 48:23
  SPEAKER_00: Four of your ten days of operation
• 48:25
  SPEAKER_01: are NFL and college football days.
• 48:28
  SPEAKER_00: And you know people are making choices.
• 48:30
  SPEAKER_00: And they're like, should I go to the fair?
• 48:32
  SPEAKER_00: But I'm not going to be able to watch the OU or the OSU game.
• 48:34
  SPEAKER_00: How come there aren't more TVs available to watch the games?
• 48:37
  SPEAKER_00: How come there's not a cool place for the guys to go
• 48:39
  SPEAKER_00: to whenever their wife is walking into the Centennial building?
• 48:43
  SPEAKER_00: I just feel like a permanently situated bar somewhere that has some vibes,
• 48:49
  SPEAKER_00: for lack of a better word, is much needed on the grounds right now.
• 48:54
  SPEAKER_01: That one inside the Bennett building was okay.
• 48:56
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that was okay.
• 48:57
  SPEAKER_01: That one was okay.
• 48:58
  SPEAKER_01: But the ones outside were like a tent.
• 49:00
  SPEAKER_01: It's just a tent.
• 49:01
  SPEAKER_01: A small tent.
• 49:02
  SPEAKER_01: There was one that was a big tent, and that was the dive bar.
• 49:05
  SPEAKER_01: That one was cool looking.
• 49:07
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, the beach bar and the dive bar are the ones that are close.
• 49:10
  SPEAKER_00: But still, they're in a parking lot.
• 49:12
  SPEAKER_01: There used to be a place that I felt like it served Caribbean beers.
• 49:17
  SPEAKER_01: It was on the Midway.
• 49:19
  SPEAKER_01: And it kind of had a cooler feel where it was like wooden.
• 49:21
  SPEAKER_01: You'd walked into these wooden doors and it was covered and they had music playing
• 49:27
  SPEAKER_01: and you could get a good beer there and just hang out.
• 49:31
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't see anything like that.
• 49:34
  SPEAKER_01: Everything just kind of felt temporary.
• 49:37
  SPEAKER_01: And it was Kerslite, Bud Light, maybe some Modelo.
• 49:41
  SPEAKER_01: There wasn't a lot of interesting beers that I saw.
• 49:43
  SPEAKER_00: Did you spot a local craft beer?
• 49:45
  SPEAKER_01: No, there should have been.
• 49:46
  SPEAKER_01: That's what you could do.
• 49:47
  SPEAKER_00: It might be somewhere.
• 49:48
  SPEAKER_00: We didn't look for that today.
• 49:49
  SPEAKER_01: Why don't we do that next year?
• 49:50
  SPEAKER_01: Let's get us a booth.
• 49:52
  SPEAKER_01: We're going to make a cool-ass bar,
• 49:54
  SPEAKER_01: and we're going to serve only Oklahoma craft beer,
• 49:56
  SPEAKER_01: and we'd rock it, and we'd have cool music playing.
• 50:01
  SPEAKER_01: I get to use my tunes, though.
• 50:03
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going to put you... Hey, I will do whatever it takes.
• 50:07
  SPEAKER_00: I will refinish the wood, but you're going to have to build this bar.
• 50:12
  SPEAKER_00: It would be cool.
• 50:13
  SPEAKER_01: It would be cool.
• 50:14
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, okay.
• 50:15
  SPEAKER_00: Before we jump in, well, I guess this does fit into the next section or our last section here.
• 50:20
  SPEAKER_00: This is like vibes and nostalgia on the grounds.
• 50:26
  SPEAKER_00: We already covered that.
• 50:27
  SPEAKER_00: It felt like there was a noticeable buzz missing.
• 50:30
  SPEAKER_00: I did talk to some people at the fair today,
• 50:32
  SPEAKER_00: the owners or one of the operators of the 1907 food booth.
• 50:35
  SPEAKER_00: She said it has been absolutely insane at night.
• 50:38
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm sure the vibes have been good enough.
• 50:40
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 50:42
  SPEAKER_00: But, like, nostalgia-wise, there's a couple of things that I miss.
• 50:47
  SPEAKER_00: The thing we talked about that we did not see today and has been gone for a
• 50:49
  SPEAKER_00: while is Bozo the Clown.
• 50:53
  SPEAKER_01: Bozo.
• 50:54
  SPEAKER_00: Where was that at?
• 50:56
  SPEAKER_00: There was a couple places.
• 50:57
  SPEAKER_00: I can't remember.
• 50:58
  SPEAKER_01: It was over there in front of the Speedway.
• 51:01
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, okay.
• 51:02
  SPEAKER_01: There was one there, and then there was Bobo.
• 51:06
  SPEAKER_01: It was popular enough that they had two of them,
• 51:09
  SPEAKER_01: and that one was over there by where that burger place was,
• 51:13
  SPEAKER_01: over there on the west side.
• 51:15
  SPEAKER_00: That's what I remember.
• 51:16
  SPEAKER_01: And it wasn't as busy.
• 51:18
  SPEAKER_01: The one on the Midway, there was a lot more people, and everyone was standing around.
• 51:22
  SPEAKER_01: It kind of made it hard to get through.
• 51:25
  SPEAKER_01: Because so many people would stand there and watch this guy insult people
• 51:28
  SPEAKER_01: while they were trying to dunk him.
• 51:29
  SPEAKER_01: And if you don't know who Bozo or Bobo is, that's what he did.
• 51:32
  SPEAKER_01: He was a clown in a dunk tank.
• 51:35
  SPEAKER_01: And he talked smack to everybody that walked by.
• 51:38
  SPEAKER_01: And police had to escort him when he got out of the tank.
• 51:41
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, people were there to hurt him.
• 51:43
  SPEAKER_00: It was a different Oklahoma State Fair back then too.
• 51:46
  SPEAKER_00: But you know, it had some character.
• 51:49
  SPEAKER_00: It added to the mystique of the whole fair experience for sure.
• 51:53
  SPEAKER_01: We would certainly stop by there for a good 10 minutes just to hear him insult somebody.
• 51:58
  SPEAKER_00: Every single year we did that.
• 51:59
  SPEAKER_01: Yep.
• 52:00
  SPEAKER_01: It was always fun to watch some little kid get up there and try to dunk him
• 52:03
  SPEAKER_01: and he'd tease him and you know.
• 52:05
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, it was great.
• 52:06
  SPEAKER_01: Or some drunkard trying to do it and getting really angry.
• 52:10
  SPEAKER_01: But yeah, it was cool.
• 52:11
  SPEAKER_00: I saw some signs walking back to our car that said,
• 52:14
  SPEAKER_00: Oklahoma State Fair, the best family experience in Oklahoma.
• 52:18
  SPEAKER_00: And I thought, under that motto, I just don't think Bozo the Clown had a home anymore.
• 52:24
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, so for years,
• 52:27
  SPEAKER_01: you always kind of thought that the fair was not a place you wanted to be at night.
• 52:30
  SPEAKER_01: I did.
• 52:31
  SPEAKER_01: You didn't want to be in the midway at night.
• 52:32
  SPEAKER_01: There were some rumors or issues.
• 52:35
  SPEAKER_00: For years, there were shootings.
• 52:36
  SPEAKER_00: Crime.
• 52:36
  SPEAKER_00: And there was crime.
• 52:38
  SPEAKER_01: Even just a few years back,
• 52:40
  SPEAKER_01: I remember a girl that I worked with,
• 52:42
  SPEAKER_01: there was a shooting or something at the fair,
• 52:44
  SPEAKER_01: and they all got separated from their friends and couldn't figure out where...
• 52:49
  SPEAKER_01: They ran because it was scary.
• 52:52
  SPEAKER_01: That was probably four years ago.
• 52:53
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 52:55
  SPEAKER_01: I felt really safe there.
• 52:58
  SPEAKER_01: A lot of police presence.
• 53:01
  SPEAKER_01: A lot of them were around there.
• 53:03
  SPEAKER_01: Really nice golf carts.
• 53:05
  SPEAKER_01: And there would be four in a cart.
• 53:07
  SPEAKER_00: We saw police everywhere.
• 53:08
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, they were on horses.
• 53:09
  SPEAKER_01: They had horses.
• 53:10
  SPEAKER_01: They had their big utility vehicle that looked really cool.
• 53:15
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it looked like the vehicle.
• 53:20
  SPEAKER_01: It was a beast.
• 53:21
  SPEAKER_01: So I think that they've done some good jobs of maybe trying to make it
• 53:25
  SPEAKER_01: a little more family friendly, definitely.
• 53:29
  SPEAKER_01: But it's a nice place.
• 53:31
  SPEAKER_01: It was clean.
• 53:32
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know what else you could offer.
• 53:34
  SPEAKER_01: It's just there's not a lot of nostalgia anymore because of some of the things that are gone.
• 53:41
  SPEAKER_01: And I don't know if they can replace those or if they will replace those or
• 53:44
  SPEAKER_01: if it's just this is what we get.
• 53:48
  SPEAKER_00: I think we're going to have to readjust what we think the fair is.
• 53:53
  SPEAKER_00: Whenever I used to think of the fair,
• 53:54
  SPEAKER_00: I thought about the fair revolving around the circle in the space tower at the top
• 53:59
  SPEAKER_00: of Seminole Place.
• 54:03
  SPEAKER_00: The stage,
• 54:04
  SPEAKER_00: I forgot what it's called,
• 54:05
  SPEAKER_00: just to the north,
• 54:05
  SPEAKER_00: the circle that has the stairs that wind to the top that always is in the photos of
• 54:09
  SPEAKER_00: the fair.
• 54:09
  SPEAKER_00: But...
• 54:11
  SPEAKER_00: I think we're just going to have to readjust that the fair's energy has moved away
• 54:17
  SPEAKER_00: from that area.
• 54:17
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, they filled in the Centennial Fountain that used to be in front
• 54:22
  SPEAKER_00: the Centennial Building,
• 54:22
  SPEAKER_00: which I had mentioned in my article today that I was disappointed in the grounds,
• 54:27
  SPEAKER_00: that I thought that there weren't enough flowerbeds,
• 54:28
  SPEAKER_00: there weren't enough gardens, that there weren't enough fountains.
• 54:32
  SPEAKER_00: But I totally missed whenever we were there on Friday and we saw it today,
• 54:36
  SPEAKER_00: that huge rock fountain thing that's in front of the Centennial Building.
• 54:40
  SPEAKER_00: That's a great place to sit down.
• 54:41
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 54:41
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I thought that was really cool.
• 54:42
  SPEAKER_01: And it's been there a while because I remember sitting there before.
• 54:45
  SPEAKER_00: That may have come in after.
• 54:47
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe that was there the whole time and this is the first time I've noticed it.
• 54:50
  SPEAKER_01: Well, you know, we didn't go in those buildings that much.
• 54:52
  SPEAKER_01: We'd be kind of just in that area waiting for somebody to get their seminar, it seemed like.
• 54:56
  SPEAKER_01: We used to go in the building that's now the car building.
• 54:59
  SPEAKER_01: We would go in there.
• 55:00
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 55:01
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, so going back to buildings real quick.
• 55:03
  SPEAKER_01: Our car display was good this year.
• 55:05
  SPEAKER_01: It was great.
• 55:06
  SPEAKER_01: They had Toyota.
• 55:07
  SPEAKER_01: They had Mitsubishi.
• 55:08
  SPEAKER_01: They had Ford.
• 55:10
  SPEAKER_01: They had Hyundai, I think, and they had Lincoln.
• 55:14
  SPEAKER_01: And they had all the models for Toyota.
• 55:17
  SPEAKER_01: I think they had every Toyota model.
• 55:18
  SPEAKER_01: They had a lot of Toyotas.
• 55:19
  SPEAKER_01: Pretty close to it.
• 55:19
  SPEAKER_01: A lot of Toyotas.
• 55:20
  SPEAKER_00: And a bunch of specialty models in Ford.
• 55:23
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah.
• 55:24
  SPEAKER_00: They had like a Cobra F-250E.
• 55:26
  SPEAKER_01: That's Shelby.
• 55:27
  SPEAKER_01: That was cool.
• 55:27
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, that Shelby Cobra.
• 55:29
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that was awesome.
• 55:30
  SPEAKER_01: We could not find a price tag on that, but I'm thinking north of 125.
• 55:33
  SPEAKER_01: It was massive.
• 55:34
  SPEAKER_01: Beautiful.
• 55:36
  SPEAKER_00: It was in OU colors, too.
• 55:38
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 55:40
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so I think as a whole,
• 55:42
  SPEAKER_01: the last time I went to the fair,
• 55:44
  SPEAKER_01: I think it was five years ago,
• 55:48
  SPEAKER_01: maybe, something like that, and I said I didn't want to go back.
• 55:52
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't say that this year.
• 55:53
  SPEAKER_00: I enjoyed myself.
• 55:54
  SPEAKER_00: That was the question I was going to ask you is would you go back next year?
• 55:57
  SPEAKER_00: Definitely.
• 55:59
  SPEAKER_00: I would too.
• 56:00
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, whenever we got home Friday night, I was like, I don't know if I want to do that again.
• 56:05
  SPEAKER_00: Like the vibes were not what I expected.
• 56:08
  SPEAKER_00: But then whenever me and you went back today,
• 56:10
  SPEAKER_00: it was like I just think that we got to see what the fair is now.
• 56:13
  SPEAKER_00: I think I was comparing it to what it was back in 2010.
• 56:17
  SPEAKER_00: This is what it looks like now.
• 56:18
  SPEAKER_00: And it's a lot of fun to be there.
• 56:19
  SPEAKER_00: And there's still a ton of heart.
• 56:22
  SPEAKER_00: It hasn't been hollowed out.
• 56:28
  SPEAKER_00: I just feel like there's a lot going on.
• 56:30
  SPEAKER_00: There's a ton of Oklahoma presence in the place.
• 56:35
  SPEAKER_00: There's a lot worse ways to spend $17.
• 56:37
  SPEAKER_00: I would spend $17 to go back to the Oklahoma Arts Building every year.
• 56:42
  SPEAKER_01: That's right.
• 56:43
  SPEAKER_00: Because it's amazing.
• 56:44
  SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of really amazing places there still.
• 56:47
  SPEAKER_01: I just think that if you go there with the expectation that you're going
• 56:50
  SPEAKER_01: to be blown away by something,
• 56:53
  SPEAKER_00: The food, maybe.
• 56:54
  SPEAKER_00: If you go there for the food, you're going to get blown away now.
• 56:56
  SPEAKER_01: The food's fantastic.
• 56:59
  SPEAKER_01: I just think it's...
• 57:00
  SPEAKER_01: If you're going there and you want to just take a nice casual day,
• 57:04
  SPEAKER_01: half day,
• 57:05
  SPEAKER_01: whatever,
• 57:05
  SPEAKER_01: and you stroll the buildings and honor people's passions,
• 57:10
  SPEAKER_01: because there's so many people that this is where they get to showcase what they do,
• 57:16
  SPEAKER_01: whether it's kids in ag or somebody that does art or crafts.
• 57:23
  SPEAKER_01: Or even businesses.
• 57:24
  SPEAKER_01: There's so many businesses that this is how they make their living.
• 57:28
  SPEAKER_01: The fair is a huge part of their budget and they do so many sales
• 57:32
  SPEAKER_01: from this one event because there's so many people coming through there.
• 57:36
  SPEAKER_00: There are so many people heavily invested at the fair.
• 57:39
  SPEAKER_01: It does deserve your support.
• 57:43
  SPEAKER_01: We've been to several fairs.
• 57:44
  SPEAKER_01: We've been to the Texas State Fair and Texas is a different level.
• 57:47
  SPEAKER_01: I've been there only on OU Texas.
• 57:50
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 57:52
  SPEAKER_01: That's not a fair comparison.
• 57:53
  SPEAKER_01: Fair comparison.
• 57:55
  SPEAKER_01: There's a whole lot more people in Dallas than there on Oklahoma City,
• 57:58
  SPEAKER_01: so you're going to have a lot more cars.
• 58:01
  SPEAKER_01: But I think our food compares to Texas easily.
• 58:03
  SPEAKER_00: It's so good.
• 58:05
  SPEAKER_01: Texas has a really cool...
• 58:07
  SPEAKER_01: A stage that seems to be more in the mix of it where I've seen some concerts
• 58:14
  SPEAKER_01: where we talked today that you can walk by that concert venue
• 58:17
  SPEAKER_01: and not know it's there.
• 58:18
  SPEAKER_01: I feel like it's too covered up.
• 58:20
  SPEAKER_01: Both of those.
• 58:21
  SPEAKER_01: The bandstand and the
• 58:23
  SPEAKER_00: Chickasaw stage.
• 58:24
  SPEAKER_01: But overall, I like the fair.
• 58:25
  SPEAKER_01: I think it's great.
• 58:26
  SPEAKER_01: I plan on going back.
• 58:29
  SPEAKER_00: I think I would like to go back next time on a Saturday morning or a Sunday morning
• 58:34
  SPEAKER_00: so you could catch some stuff, try to plan it around an agriculture event.
• 58:38
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 58:39
  SPEAKER_00: And then you could eat all the food.
• 58:40
  SPEAKER_00: You could ride as many rides as you wanted to.
• 58:42
  SPEAKER_00: And when you go during the daytime,
• 58:43
  SPEAKER_00: you can see and orient so much better than when you're there at night.
• 58:46
  SPEAKER_00: Definitely.
• 58:47
  SPEAKER_00: We missed so much when we were there after dark.
• 58:50
  SPEAKER_00: It's like you just can't see where stuff is.
• 58:51
  SPEAKER_00: It's a lot easier to get the layout of things.
• 58:53
  SPEAKER_01: And I think I'd choose a different entrance than we came in Friday night.
• 58:56
  SPEAKER_00: Which entrance would you choose as your preferred entrance now?
• 58:59
  SPEAKER_00: Because we always came in through the north.
• 59:01
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 59:01
  SPEAKER_00: Whenever I was younger.
• 59:03
  SPEAKER_01: Well, the one that we came through,
• 59:04
  SPEAKER_01: we came northeast because we figured it would be easier to find parking.
• 59:07
  SPEAKER_01: And we had a baby and a...
• 59:11
  SPEAKER_01: A whole group of people come in.
• 59:13
  SPEAKER_01: So it was like, okay, we got to meet here.
• 59:15
  SPEAKER_01: So we chose that one on purpose.
• 59:17
  SPEAKER_01: I like where we came in in the south.
• 59:19
  SPEAKER_01: But that's a long way.
• 59:20
  SPEAKER_01: Where we came in is a long ways from everything.
• 59:23
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, you got to walk quite a bit too.
• 59:26
  SPEAKER_00: It was a long walk just to get to the gate.
• 59:29
  SPEAKER_01: But I think that that makes more sense to me.
• 59:31
  SPEAKER_01: You know,
• 59:31
  SPEAKER_01: the old gate that we used to come in,
• 59:33
  SPEAKER_01: that northwest gate, that seems like it's pretty remote too now.
• 59:37
  SPEAKER_00: There's not much going on in that Northwest Gate.
• 59:39
  SPEAKER_00: That North Central Gate, though?
• 59:41
  SPEAKER_00: That could be a good one.
• 59:42
  SPEAKER_00: It comes in past the Dodge Ram truck exhibition, which was not going on.
• 59:45
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that Frontierland thing, whatever it was.
• 59:48
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah,
• 59:48
  SPEAKER_00: I mean,
• 59:49
  SPEAKER_00: there's a whole Dodge Truck series where they're driving Dodge Truck and jumping it
• 59:53
  SPEAKER_00: over dirt and showing it.
• 59:55
  SPEAKER_00: It's supposed to be a big production.
• 59:57
  SPEAKER_00: I have no idea when that happens.
• 59:58
  SPEAKER_00: Pit races.
• 59:59
  SPEAKER_00: Pit races.
• 1:00:00
  SPEAKER_00: And there's pig races right there too.
• 1:00:01
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 1:00:02
  SPEAKER_00: And there's like a lemonade stand right inside the gate.
• 1:00:04
  SPEAKER_01: That's like the main gate.
• 1:00:05
  SPEAKER_01: Is that where you would come in probably?
• 1:00:07
  SPEAKER_00: That's where I would come in as a kid.
• 1:00:09
  SPEAKER_00: And that felt more like the fair to me than where we came in on Friday night.
• 1:00:12
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 1:00:14
  SPEAKER_00: But I think I would still come in down south.
• 1:00:16
  SPEAKER_01: I think walking straight into the midway.
• 1:00:18
  SPEAKER_00: There's an epic photo that was taken by a drone that I saw on social media.
• 1:00:22
  SPEAKER_00: I'll reshare it to The Dry Line's Instagram.
• 1:00:24
  SPEAKER_00: But this photo was so cool.
• 1:00:28
  SPEAKER_00: It was a night, and it showed the midway, and it showed the games leading up into the fair.
• 1:00:33
  SPEAKER_00: And you could see how the whole fair is laid out now.
• 1:00:35
  SPEAKER_00: And you can appreciate the investment they've made in trying to expand the rides and the food.
• 1:00:41
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it is a totally different looking fair than it was when I was a kid.
• 1:00:44
  SPEAKER_00: For better and worse.
• 1:00:45
  SPEAKER_00: But it's a different fair, but it doesn't mean it's worse.
• 1:00:49
  SPEAKER_00: But I still really miss a lot of that history,
• 1:00:51
  SPEAKER_00: and I really wish they could find a way to bring some of that back.
• 1:00:54
  SPEAKER_00: You can't.
• 1:00:56
  SPEAKER_00: I know it is what it is, but it's not a worse fare now.
• 1:01:02
  SPEAKER_00: You agree?
• 1:01:03
  SPEAKER_01: Definitely.
• 1:01:04
  SPEAKER_01: I think it's improved from where it was a few years ago, definitely.
• 1:01:07
  SPEAKER_01: Much nicer than it was five years ago.
• 1:01:09
  SPEAKER_00: Much safer than it was back in the 2000s.
• 1:01:12
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, last thing that I can think of is we were talking today that when I was
• 1:01:18
  SPEAKER_01: a kid— We had school days.
• 1:01:21
  SPEAKER_01: And every kid in Oklahoma pretty much got a free pass to go to the fair.
• 1:01:27
  SPEAKER_01: And so your parents would take off work and take you to the fair and that whole,
• 1:01:31
  SPEAKER_01: the fair would just be buzzing with little kids everywhere.
• 1:01:34
  SPEAKER_01: Now that kind of,
• 1:01:36
  SPEAKER_01: it was like,
• 1:01:36
  SPEAKER_01: you know,
• 1:01:37
  SPEAKER_01: and I'm sure teachers probably had like some sort of teacher planning meeting
• 1:01:42
  SPEAKER_01: or something like that, but we called it the fair day and we got free tickets.
• 1:01:45
  SPEAKER_01: And I remember that being a pretty cool experience as a kid because there was just
• 1:01:48
  SPEAKER_01: so many kids at the fair and your parents got to take you and they would have
• 1:01:52
  SPEAKER_01: to take off work, but it was cool.
• 1:01:55
  SPEAKER_00: We didn't have that by the time that I was in school.
• 1:01:58
  SPEAKER_00: I haven't seen anything about that now.
• 1:02:02
  SPEAKER_00: You checked me out of school,
• 1:02:03
  SPEAKER_00: though, whenever I was a kid and took me to the spring fair at the fairgrounds.
• 1:02:06
  SPEAKER_00: I did.
• 1:02:08
  SPEAKER_00: That was not a designated school day.
• 1:02:10
  SPEAKER_00: That was awesome.
• 1:02:11
  SPEAKER_00: We rode a bunch of rides.
• 1:02:12
  SPEAKER_00: That was a sick day.
• 1:02:15
  SPEAKER_01: I think they still do spring fair?
• 1:02:17
  SPEAKER_00: I haven't heard about it.
• 1:02:18
  SPEAKER_01: That was something that was new back when you were a kid, but that was pretty fun.
• 1:02:22
  SPEAKER_00: There's a whole slew of events coming up, too,
• 1:02:26
  SPEAKER_00: at the OKC Fairgrounds after the fair, Oktoberfest, I think it's two weeks from now.
• 1:02:31
  SPEAKER_00: And then they have just tons of stuff.
• 1:02:33
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I was just looking at their calendar of events for the whole year,
• 1:02:37
  SPEAKER_00: and it's like every single weekend there's either a conference or there's an event
• 1:02:41
  SPEAKER_00: or some kind of show.
• 1:02:42
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, so...
• 1:02:44
  SPEAKER_00: I want to go to the Coliseum to see something at some point.
• 1:02:47
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe there's an opportunity to see a high school sports championship there,
• 1:02:52
  SPEAKER_00: or maybe there's a concert or something.
• 1:02:53
  SPEAKER_00: But I'm excited to go see the Coliseum, and I'm excited to go back.
• 1:02:57
  SPEAKER_01: You going to go to Oktoberfest?
• 1:03:00
  SPEAKER_00: You want to go to Oktoberfest?
• 1:03:01
  SPEAKER_00: I'd like to.
• 1:03:01
  SPEAKER_00: We can go to Oktoberfest.
• 1:03:02
  SPEAKER_01: We should go to Oktoberfest.
• 1:03:03
  SPEAKER_01: Let's go.
• 1:03:03
  SPEAKER_00: All right.
• 1:03:04
  SPEAKER_00: Let's do it.
• 1:03:05
  SPEAKER_01: That sounds like a plan.
• 1:03:06
  SPEAKER_00: Well, that was the 2026 State Fair.
• 1:03:09
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks, Dad.
• 1:03:10
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 1:03:10
  SPEAKER_01: It was fun.
• 1:03:12
  SPEAKER_01: See you next year at the fair.
• 1:03:15
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's going to be a while before I think or talk about the State Fair again.
• 1:03:21
  SPEAKER_00: This has been a busy week of State Fair content.
• 1:03:24
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, to the Oklahoma News.
• 1:03:28
  SPEAKER_00: Roundup.
• 1:03:29
  SPEAKER_00: But first,
• 1:03:29
  SPEAKER_00: we have to begin with the most famous comment that we have received so far
• 1:03:35
  SPEAKER_00: on any Dry Line social media account.
• 1:03:36
  SPEAKER_00: And that was from one Emily Sutton earlier this week, KFOR, Morning Meteorologist.
• 1:03:42
  SPEAKER_00: So I posted a clip of a podcast from like a month ago,
• 1:03:47
  SPEAKER_00: and it's still being circulated on TikTok.
• 1:03:49
  SPEAKER_00: But it was basically saying like, hey, The 10-day forecast is crazy and accurate.
• 1:03:54
  SPEAKER_00: It keeps saying it's going to cool down.
• 1:03:56
  SPEAKER_00: It does not cool down.
• 1:03:57
  SPEAKER_00: It keeps saying it's going to rain.
• 1:03:58
  SPEAKER_00: It does not rain.
• 1:04:00
  SPEAKER_00: Why does it say it's going to be 85 degrees on,
• 1:04:03
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 1:04:04
  SPEAKER_00: eight days out on the forecast and then that day just disappears into dust?
• 1:04:07
  SPEAKER_00: So I posted that video on there and a lot of people said that they felt the same way.
• 1:04:11
  SPEAKER_00: And Emily posted on there yesterday in a comment and said,
• 1:04:14
  SPEAKER_00: the reason why that's happening is because climatology data is relied on heavily now
• 1:04:21
  SPEAKER_00: in 10-day forecasts.
• 1:04:22
  SPEAKER_00: So there's less gray beard analysis and utilization of people's practical experience
• 1:04:30
  SPEAKER_00: in meteorology.
• 1:04:32
  SPEAKER_00: And they use a lot of the historical climatology data.
• 1:04:34
  SPEAKER_00: So if climatology data is saying that it's supposed to be a certain temperature
• 1:04:38
  SPEAKER_00: on this day,
• 1:04:39
  SPEAKER_00: which it has historically been, that is the data that gets poured into meteorology.
• 1:04:46
  SPEAKER_00: The 10 day forecast that you're seeing on Apple.
• 1:04:48
  SPEAKER_00: So it gets more and more accurate the closer that it gets.
• 1:04:51
  SPEAKER_00: And so that's the reason why that's there,
• 1:04:53
  SPEAKER_00: which makes sense because it was like that basically all summer reporting
• 1:04:56
  SPEAKER_00: the historical temperature and not the heat dome temperature.
• 1:04:59
  SPEAKER_00: And she said it gets really bad whenever you have one
• 1:05:02
  SPEAKER_00: of these major meteorological events like the heat dome
• 1:05:07
  SPEAKER_00: that we've been experiencing all summer.
• 1:05:09
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 1:05:09
  SPEAKER_01: Hang tight.
• 1:05:10
  SPEAKER_01: Just a second.
• 1:05:10
  SPEAKER_00: I need to let my cat out of the room.
• 1:05:17
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, we're back.
• 1:05:19
  SPEAKER_00: Into the Oklahoma News Roundup.
• 1:05:21
  SPEAKER_00: So, oil man and Continental Resources founder, Harold Hamm.
• 1:05:28
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you guys have heard of him or not.
• 1:05:31
  SPEAKER_00: Our local tycoon.
• 1:05:33
  SPEAKER_00: Harold committed a record $150 million to tackle Oklahoma's health crisis.
• 1:05:41
  SPEAKER_00: This was, I believe, on Tuesday.
• 1:05:43
  SPEAKER_00: Of this week.
• 1:05:45
  SPEAKER_00: Just how historical is that number?
• 1:05:47
  SPEAKER_00: $150 million is the biggest gift that the University of Oklahoma has ever received.
• 1:05:53
  SPEAKER_00: So massive amount of money.
• 1:05:55
  SPEAKER_00: So Harold in 2007 donated $50 million to the OU Health Sciences Center to start
• 1:06:00
  SPEAKER_00: the Harold Hamm Diabetes Center,
• 1:06:02
  SPEAKER_00: which has become a center for diabetes research internationally.
• 1:06:06
  SPEAKER_00: The Harold Hamm Diabetes Center Prize is now the Nobel Peace Prize of diabetes research.
• 1:06:14
  SPEAKER_00: So there's been some gains there.
• 1:06:16
  SPEAKER_00: Harold wants to try to improve health outcomes inside of the state.
• 1:06:21
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, he has donated $150 million.
• 1:06:24
  SPEAKER_00: Some might say out of his over $10 billion fortune, that's really not that much money.
• 1:06:29
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 1:06:30
  SPEAKER_00: That's $150 million.
• 1:06:32
  SPEAKER_00: He gave it to the University of Oklahoma trying to improve health outcomes.
• 1:06:36
  SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of cynicism in the world.
• 1:06:38
  SPEAKER_00: I will look at this as a massive positive.
• 1:06:40
  SPEAKER_00: It's also going to bring in top flight medical talent into the city.
• 1:06:46
  SPEAKER_00: That's how you get people to come and work at your hospitals.
• 1:06:49
  SPEAKER_00: And it's just like trying to get a great quarterback to come play at the University of Oklahoma.
• 1:06:53
  SPEAKER_00: You got to spend.
• 1:06:54
  SPEAKER_00: So this is a lot of money to start to move the needle in Oklahoma doing research.
• 1:07:01
  SPEAKER_00: Harold reportedly did not want the OU Health Sciences Center renamed after him,
• 1:07:08
  SPEAKER_00: but it has been renamed after him.
• 1:07:11
  SPEAKER_00: So the next time you're driving over to the Health Sciences Center,
• 1:07:13
  SPEAKER_00: no, it is now called The Harold Hamm Health Sciences Center.
• 1:07:18
  SPEAKER_00: So rest in peace, OU Health Sciences Center.
• 1:07:21
  SPEAKER_00: We got a new sheriff in the medical center naming world.
• 1:07:27
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, huge news for the city.
• 1:07:30
  SPEAKER_00: Should only support that medical center getting bigger and stronger.
• 1:07:33
  SPEAKER_00: All right, let's move into...
• 1:07:38
  SPEAKER_00: First, a little bit of sporting news.
• 1:07:41
  SPEAKER_00: So it was reported,
• 1:07:43
  SPEAKER_00: this goes back to the OU football season being officially dead at this point.
• 1:07:48
  SPEAKER_00: I think a lot of people were declaring that after we beat New Mexico,
• 1:07:53
  SPEAKER_00: barely, and possibly should have been beaten by New Mexico last weekend.
• 1:07:57
  SPEAKER_00: But there was some news that came out on Monday night
• 1:08:00
  SPEAKER_00: that our star defensive tackle,
• 1:08:02
  SPEAKER_00: David Stone,
• 1:08:03
  SPEAKER_00: had dislocated his knee and possibly torn some ligaments and And that this happened
• 1:08:10
  SPEAKER_00: while he was playing scout team offense.
• 1:08:15
  SPEAKER_00: Sooners SI, John Hoover, initially reported this.
• 1:08:18
  SPEAKER_00: This would have obviously been a disaster for the University of Oklahoma.
• 1:08:23
  SPEAKER_00: Byrne Venables is already filling the heat because this season has not started
• 1:08:27
  SPEAKER_00: the way that anybody expected it to.
• 1:08:29
  SPEAKER_00: Losing to Michigan was not a loss that you can have this year going into this SEC schedule.
• 1:08:36
  SPEAKER_00: It turns out there's been a lot of reporting about this.
• 1:08:39
  SPEAKER_00: Brent Venables verified it today in his podcast that David Stone is not seriously injured.
• 1:08:44
  SPEAKER_00: This is very positive news.
• 1:08:46
  SPEAKER_00: He's maybe the most important player on our team at this point in time.
• 1:08:52
  SPEAKER_00: He has not structurally injured his knee, so he should be back at some point this season.
• 1:08:59
  SPEAKER_00: He said it did not happen on scout team offense.
• 1:09:01
  SPEAKER_00: Whether or not you want to believe Brent Venables when he says that,
• 1:09:05
  SPEAKER_00: John Hoover's been in the mix doing this for a really long time.
• 1:09:08
  SPEAKER_00: So whenever John Hoover says something, I usually listen.
• 1:09:10
  SPEAKER_00: I also love his writing style.
• 1:09:12
  SPEAKER_00: He's a great reporter.
• 1:09:13
  SPEAKER_00: I've been doing this a long time.
• 1:09:14
  SPEAKER_00: So I don't know.
• 1:09:15
  SPEAKER_00: Rumors come from somewhere, but apparently it did not happen while he was playing offense.
• 1:09:21
  SPEAKER_00: Hopefully David Stone gets back soon.
• 1:09:23
  SPEAKER_00: Hopefully this weekend we keep it competitive at Georgia between the hedges.
• 1:09:28
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 1:09:29
  SPEAKER_00: Three pieces of political news.
• 1:09:32
  SPEAKER_00: So Jenna Nelson...
• 1:09:35
  SPEAKER_00: U.S. Democratic nominee for a U.S. House of Representatives district.
• 1:09:42
  SPEAKER_00: Let's see, what is the actual district?
• 1:09:44
  SPEAKER_00: The fifth district in Oklahoma,
• 1:09:45
  SPEAKER_00: which covers northern Oklahoma County and most of northern Oklahoma City.
• 1:09:52
  SPEAKER_00: And then I think it also covers some areas of the counties north of Oklahoma City, too.
• 1:09:56
  SPEAKER_00: So the National Democratic Party has entered into the mix to fund Her, Jenna,
• 1:10:04
  SPEAKER_00: against Stephanie Bice, the incumbent Republican, in the upcoming midterm election.
• 1:10:10
  SPEAKER_00: Now, you're like, okay, well, why does this really matter?
• 1:10:13
  SPEAKER_00: Of course,
• 1:10:14
  SPEAKER_00: the National Democratic Party is going to try to get somebody elected that's
• 1:10:17
  SPEAKER_00: a Democrat.
• 1:10:19
  SPEAKER_00: Well, it's important for a couple of reasons,
• 1:10:20
  SPEAKER_00: because Oklahoma's a red state,
• 1:10:22
  SPEAKER_00: we all know this,
• 1:10:23
  SPEAKER_00: and the parties,
• 1:10:24
  SPEAKER_00: Republican parties,
• 1:10:24
  SPEAKER_00: Democratic parties, they do not fund candidates that have no chance of winning.
• 1:10:30
  SPEAKER_00: So, Reading the tea leaves here.
• 1:10:33
  SPEAKER_00: The Democratic Party,
• 1:10:35
  SPEAKER_00: this late into the race,
• 1:10:36
  SPEAKER_00: has decided to push some chips in behind Jenna Nelson because she thinks that
• 1:10:41
  SPEAKER_00: a Democrat could actually win an incumbent race against Stephanie Bice.
• 1:10:46
  SPEAKER_00: And the reason why they're saying this is
• 1:10:48
  SPEAKER_00: because President Trump's approval rating has dropped five points in the last week.
• 1:10:53
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of this is related to the Iran war.
• 1:10:55
  SPEAKER_00: But basically they're seeing this opportunity to actually come into Oklahoma.
• 1:10:59
  SPEAKER_00: And potentially take a seat.
• 1:11:04
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, all the predictions are saying that when the midterms happen,
• 1:11:06
  SPEAKER_00: we're going to see a blue wave.
• 1:11:09
  SPEAKER_00: We've heard that a couple times.
• 1:11:10
  SPEAKER_00: Haven't seen that.
• 1:11:12
  SPEAKER_00: We just saw that Drummond couldn't beat Maisie,
• 1:11:14
  SPEAKER_00: even inside of this environment that is turning more and more against Trump.
• 1:11:19
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 1:11:19
  SPEAKER_00: I'll believe it when I see it,
• 1:11:20
  SPEAKER_00: but I just thought that that was really interesting news
• 1:11:23
  SPEAKER_00: because you do not see Democratic big party funding come in
• 1:11:28
  SPEAKER_00: and push Democratic candidates inside this state.
• 1:11:31
  SPEAKER_00: Cindy Munson's been on the record basically saying that She doesn't have a whole lot
• 1:11:34
  SPEAKER_00: of contact with the National Democratic Party because they know that this is just
• 1:11:40
  SPEAKER_00: a tough race to win.
• 1:11:42
  SPEAKER_00: So interesting news.
• 1:11:44
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, up to the city of Edmond.
• 1:11:47
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so Secretary of State Ben Lepak was charged with public intoxication back in August.
• 1:11:56
  SPEAKER_00: He got arrested outside of McDonald's.
• 1:11:58
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you guys saw this video.
• 1:11:59
  SPEAKER_00: Again, this is Oklahoma's Secretary of State.
• 1:12:03
  SPEAKER_00: This was his second, I believe, arrest related to some kind of alcohol related charge.
• 1:12:11
  SPEAKER_00: The city of Edmond dropped those charges earlier this year.
• 1:12:14
  SPEAKER_00: Well, they dismissed the alcohol charge and That looks bad on the surface
• 1:12:19
  SPEAKER_00: because it looks like a city just granted a pass to a state official who got booked
• 1:12:24
  SPEAKER_00: for a public intox.
• 1:12:26
  SPEAKER_00: Like, how come this guy's getting like special treatment, special, yeah, whatever.
• 1:12:31
  SPEAKER_00: But I think this is how it would go in most situations,
• 1:12:34
  SPEAKER_00: just kind of trying to read through the reporting.
• 1:12:37
  SPEAKER_00: I think the city of Edmond...
• 1:12:40
  SPEAKER_00: Had Ben Lipak come to court,
• 1:12:42
  SPEAKER_00: in court,
• 1:12:42
  SPEAKER_00: he said he was going through some kind of treatment
• 1:12:44
  SPEAKER_00: or something along those lines is what it seems like they're indicating.
• 1:12:47
  SPEAKER_00: And after that, they were like, hey, we're not going to pursue any more charges.
• 1:12:50
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, this is just a public intox.
• 1:12:53
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously,
• 1:12:53
  SPEAKER_00: this guy's getting treatment well above and beyond whatever the court
• 1:12:56
  SPEAKER_00: of law could potentially put him through,
• 1:12:58
  SPEAKER_00: which would be just like fines and whatever.
• 1:13:01
  SPEAKER_00: And so they're like, hey, this guy's going to pay...
• 1:13:03
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of money to go get treatment.
• 1:13:04
  SPEAKER_00: It's good by us.
• 1:13:05
  SPEAKER_00: So that's been top of the Oklahoman this week.
• 1:13:11
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, just kind of a big nothing burger,
• 1:13:13
  SPEAKER_00: but a lot of embarrassing press again for the stick cabinets.
• 1:13:19
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, last bit of news.
• 1:13:23
  SPEAKER_00: This is,
• 1:13:23
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 1:13:25
  SPEAKER_00: inside of President Trump's cabinets,
• 1:13:27
  SPEAKER_00: there have been so many Oklahomans going back, especially inside the EPA.
• 1:13:33
  SPEAKER_00: But, so, there was some news this week.
• 1:13:37
  SPEAKER_00: The Trump administration initially nominated former Oklahoma Highway Patrolman Lance
• 1:13:44
  SPEAKER_00: Schroyer to take over the ICE role.
• 1:13:49
  SPEAKER_00: And they thought because his public record was pretty clean,
• 1:13:54
  SPEAKER_00: he didn't have any negative stories that were basically going to be skeletons
• 1:13:59
  SPEAKER_00: that were going to be brought out of the closet
• 1:14:01
  SPEAKER_00: during his Senate confirmation meetings.
• 1:14:04
  SPEAKER_00: They thought Lance Schroer would be a pretty good fit.
• 1:14:07
  SPEAKER_00: He's buddies with Mark Wayne Mullen, which,
• 1:14:09
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 1:14:10
  SPEAKER_00: Department of Homeland Defense Secretary, former Oklahoma representative, Senator.
• 1:14:17
  SPEAKER_00: So they thought it was going to be like good to go.
• 1:14:20
  SPEAKER_00: But apparently Mark Wayne Mullen has this beef with Rand Paul.
• 1:14:25
  SPEAKER_00: And so Rand Paul, the Kentucky Senator, was like, you know what?
• 1:14:30
  SPEAKER_00: No, I'm not going to let this Lance Schroer confirmation go through.
• 1:14:34
  SPEAKER_00: And so basically he just put it through the back channels that there's no way.
• 1:14:37
  SPEAKER_00: This is reporting done by Politico.
• 1:14:39
  SPEAKER_00: He's like, there's no way we're going to let this Lance Schroer guy get confirmed.
• 1:14:43
  SPEAKER_00: And so news came out at the end of last week that Trump pulled the nomination for Lance Schroer.
• 1:14:51
  SPEAKER_00: Bad news for Oklahomans getting nominated for federal appointments.
• 1:15:00
  SPEAKER_00: I guess good news if you don't want ICE to have a director for a little while longer.
• 1:15:08
  SPEAKER_00: Oh man, I don't know.
• 1:15:09
  SPEAKER_00: Just anytime I see Oklahoma, anything in the national news, I just hold my breath.
• 1:15:15
  SPEAKER_00: Hold my breath.
• 1:15:18
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, that's it for this week's Oklahoma News Roundup.
• 1:15:22
  SPEAKER_00: If you enjoyed today's show,
• 1:15:24
  SPEAKER_00: if you're enjoying these podcasts,
• 1:15:26
  SPEAKER_00: first, I would recommend go to drylineokc.com, sign up for our weekly newsletter.
• 1:15:31
  SPEAKER_00: That's where you can get all of our writing and our podcast delivered straight
• 1:15:34
  SPEAKER_00: to you so you never miss anything we do.
• 1:15:37
  SPEAKER_00: We try to do the best cultural analysis that we can on subjects that we love here in the city.
• 1:15:44
  SPEAKER_00: Also, drop us a review if you have a second.
• 1:15:47
  SPEAKER_00: Those in Spotify and Apple are incredibly useful.
• 1:15:50
  SPEAKER_00: We're also on YouTube with videos.
• 1:15:52
  SPEAKER_00: We're on Spotify with videos too.
• 1:15:55
  SPEAKER_00: Like our stuff.
• 1:15:56
  SPEAKER_00: Send it to your friends.
• 1:15:58
  SPEAKER_00: Let us know how we're doing too.
• 1:15:59
  SPEAKER_00: Feel free to reach out and comment on anything we got.
• 1:16:02
  SPEAKER_00: Just appreciate you listening.
• 1:16:03
  SPEAKER_00: Until the next time, you'll know where to find us.
• 1:16:06
  SPEAKER_00: Powerhouse.
• 1:16:07
  SPEAKER_01: Oklahoma where the wind comes sweeping down the plains.
• 1:16:12
  SPEAKER_00: Oh God.