Bartlesville or Frank Phillips Town

Tomorrow we head back to Lafayette. This job that was scheduled for 10 days was completed in three. The client is impressed. We are impressed with this little town of 35,000 Okies. Rolling hills make up the landscape here. This part of Oklahoma escaped the flat lands of the southwestern part of the state. We are 40 miles north of Tulsa and not that far from the Kansas border. That means snow happens here and a lot of it.

There will be more jobs here but the husband may decide to not return especially if it's in the winter and there is snow on the ground which means the air will be cold. He shys away from cold temperatures. I have the same aversion to hot air.

We had dinner again at Murphy's Steak House which is really not a steak house at all. This little diner is situated on a back road far from the main drag and had it not been for the client alerting us to it's location, we would never have had the pleasure of dining there.

The street to this diner meandered through a neighborhood, past fields with abandoned pump jacks and on into a commercial area that had seen better days.

The building has a walk up window where a short line waited to pick up "to go" orders. A sign in front announced proudly it was the home of the famous "Hot Hamburger."  Apparently this has made it's way into culinary magazines hence it's popularity. The first night there, we had to have the "Hot Hamburger". A hamburger steak on a slice of bread hid beneath a mound of hand cut french fries smothered in homemade brown gravy. It was awesome. The next night's dinner was at a Mexican food restaurant, again recommended by the client.  Tonight, our last night in this town, we returned to Murphy's Steak House where the husband had the "Hot Hamburger" again and I had the chicken fried steak smothered in homemade white gravy, mashed potatoes and corn. This place has quickly become our favorite place to eat and apparently most of this town covets this place too.

The booths line up around the edges of the walls are red vinyl with two more rows of booths back to back down the middle of the room. Grey and black gingham curtains adorned the windows, while vinyl tiles covered the floors. Everything was clean and orderly. A coffee bar broke up the line of booths along the wall. Silverware and napkins shared the space beside the coffee pots. All the wait staff wore t-shirts that said "covered in gravy". Gravy seems to be the catch word in this place.

 The atmosphere is casual, the wait staff very friendly and accommodating. I wasn't sure about ordering the chicken fried steak and the waitress noticed my hesitancy. Soon she reappeared at our table with a small dish containing a portion of chicken fried steak with cream gravy for me to sample. Have I mentioned how friendly the people are here? I ordered the chicken fried steak and it was delicious. No instant potatoes here. All country cooking prevails and the patronage reflects it. It has been said that this diner is always busy.

After dinner we did a little tour around town. I'll post the picture of Frank Phillips' home on this blog when I get back to my own laptop. I'm using the hubby's laptop and I'm not impressed with it's ability to let me download pics to it's picture folder.

Fields were passed with deer grazing alongside the cattle. Huge mansions settled among the rolling lawns, portico's with giant white columns decorated the homes with their well kept lawns. This is an oilfield town that has seen many booms and busts. The Frank Phillips I've mentioned earlier is the Phillips in the "Phillips Petroleum" company. This is his home town. Streets and hospitals carry his name and the locals are proud of this famous son and all he has done for this town.

I'm going home tomorrow. I'm hoping we get to return here again soon. I've lived in Oklahoma a few times but the towns I lived in were in the southwest corner and that's tornado territory. This has been my first opportunity to spend a little time in the northern part of the state.

I'm off to slip into a pair of pajamas and watch the Cowboys and the New York Jets determine who is the better of the two on the football field.

I'm ready to go home and sleep in my own bed for a few days plus it's time to do some laundry and see Carrie Lane.

I'm done!