Category Archives: Skywatch Friday

Bicycle Riding the Osage Prairie Trail

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Wednesday morning I loaded up the bike and drove to Skiatook about a half hour so north from Tulsa. There is a north south rails to trail called the Osage Prairie Trail that runs from just north of downtown Tulsa to a couple miles north of Skiatook. I always ride from the north end.

It was in the high 50’s when I started out with a pretty good breeze. I am glad that I brought a jacket. I started out going out and back the two mile segment north of Skiatook. It is a lot easier than what it used to be because their is now a pedestrian crossing with a light. Getting run over would ruin my whole day.

Very soon I was in some nice counryside, woods and meadows.

And some swamps. You can tell it has been raining here lately. There are several geocaches along the route and a few I have not found yet. I am not really wanting to wade in shin deep water to find them though.

Lots of cattle grazing on the route.

I loved the high thin clouds. After a short while it warmed up enough and I took my jacket off.

When I think northeastern Oklahoma, this is the kind of scene I think about.

The right of way for the trail is that of the old Midland Valley Railroad which was constructed early in the early 1900’s. It reached down into the oilfields around Tulsa and prospered for a while. They languished during the Depression. The railroad no longer exists. This is one of the original bridges.

I passed through the little town of Sperry and stopped at and old gas station what was used for filming a scene from the move “The Outsiders” by S.E. Hinton. They shot at locations all over the Tulsa area and I have tracked down many of them along with the new Outsiders Museum here in Tulsa. Check it out here.

I finished up at about 18.6 miles. There were no hills but I am kind of out of shape. I had fun though. It was like a two hour moving meditation and I was totally in the moment enjoying the wind and sun on my face and the bucolic scenery passing by. I came to and woke up at the country road crossings though. Don’t want to get run over at this point in my life. It was a fun two hours.

I have made several other posts of the Osage Prairie Trail over the years here, here and here if you are interested.

And then last night I noticed there was a little color in the sky at sunset so I launched my drone and snapped a few pics.

I am linking with Skywatch Friday, come join the fun!

Skywatch Friday – Spring is Having a Little Trouble Springing

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We are having a very wet and cool Spring here in Tulsa. We get soaked with rain for a day or two and then the sun comes out and all the mosquitoes celebrate!

I like the cloudy skies because they make for more interesting photographs. I like the sunny days because they are fun for walking or riding my bike.

I go outside with the dogs every morning to keep them from barking and bothering the neighbors. Sometimes though when I let them out and their are rabbits and squirrels in the yard the dogs are going to bark, and bark a lot!! And then if there are other dogs in the neighborhood barking, then our dogs are going to do what I call “Update their Barkbook Status”

Sometimes one can get pretty decent skywatch photos from your own home. I got this last week when I was out retrieving the paper. I think papers are a thing of the past. Used to be almost everybody had a paper on our street, now I think we are the only one.

Lafortune Stadium Baseball

Son and I went walking around Tulsa’s Lafortune Park and I noticed that some kids were playing baseball at Lafortune Stadium. I think it was what used to be called Pony League. I think they have a different name for them now. I love baseball, at any level, from peewee t-ball up to the major leagues. Tulsa has a AA Los Angeles affiliated team, the Tulsa Drillers. They didn’t play last year, I’m hoping to catch a few games this year if it seems safe to do so.

This is another Route 66 site. The Rhett Mansion in Sapulpa, Oklahoma. The former home of an oilfield gazillionaire back in 1911. It is now a wedding venue and from what I can tell on their web page and it has been very nicely restored and furnished. I love when historical buildings are repurposed into profitable enterprises. Not every building is suitable to be a museum.

The thing about Route 66 is that is more like a threaded stream of roads. The original road was called the Osage Trail. They didn’t build the Trail from scratch, they pieced together a bunch of existing roads and called them that. And since the start the various states would replace sections of Route 66 with new, wider, more modern roads and the old “alignments” as they are called reverted to being just local county roads. On one of these forgotten alignments sits the Teepee Drive in Theater on the outskirts of Sapulpa. It closed in 1990 and has sat there ever since. Apparently somebody wants to reopen it. So we’ll see what happens.

I know that I am on a little bit of Route 66 thing right now. Two things, first there are a lot of geocaches on it now in the Tulsa area especially the new Adventure Lab geocaches and I turned 66 last month so I am on a “66 on 66” type thing right now.

I wish everybody a great week! I am linking with Skywatch Friday, come check it out.

Skywatch Friday – Wichita Mountains Getaway

We took a few days off last week and headed to southwest Oklahoma to the Wichita Mountain Wildlife Refuge just north of Lawton, Oklahoma.

We stayed in a beautiful spacious cabin on top of a hill just a little ways out of town.

Talk about dark skies. We were able to track satellites as they passed overhead including the International Space Station. It really flew. Our Cabin was about a half mile from Fort Sill, on of the Army’s major training sites. They shot artillery all day long (big echoing booms) and at night hell really broke out. Some sort of big automatic gunfire and helicopters. We couldn’t see anything because of the mountains but we could sure here it. They keep those 20,000 stationed there busy, it sounded like.

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We drove to the top of Mount Scott and made a shadow selfie.

We saw lots of longhorn cattle.

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And grumpy looking bison. This was with a telephoto. We are not tourons when it comes to critters.

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This critter wasn’t too happy about it. I have a strict no handouts policy.

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We even saw some wild turkeys.

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The Ferguson house, rebuilt by the Friends of the Wichitas.

We looked at a recently preserved homesteaders house that burned down to the walls about ten years ago.

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We checked out the Holy City of the Wichitas, home of a long running passion play.

Bird Houses of Medicine Park II

In nearby Medicine Park, OK we saw some birdhouse cottages going up right by a lake. Aren’t they the cutest things? Or maybe they are the most darling things? You tell me.

We did lots of hiking. Some of was kind of rocky. This is not a spoof. See the trail marker by my wife’s left hand? This was the route.

But we were rewarded with some great views.

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And magnificent vistas. Have to tell you though, on our last full day Heather tripped twice on our last trail and is feeling it. She’s an exercise instructor so she has cancelled her more demanding classes.

And now a blast from the past. I took my father down here in 2007. He’d always wanted to see the refuge and we did. He’s an old Forest Service guy and the refuge was started by the Forest Service and he made sure to set the record straight with the volunteer at the visitor center.

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Anyways we visited the Holy City as part of our trip and I found a geocache in a boat they had as part of their set. Dad was pretty amazing. His mentor when Dad was a young Forest Ranger used to be Supervisor of the National Forest that included what is now the refuge. Dad knew the whole history. He could also look at woods miles off and spot old forest fires and guess at how long ago they ocurred.

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And here I am fourteen years later, older, older, a bit plumper, and still geocaching!! The one they had in the boat is gone though. I think the boat used to represent the Ark and now is the boat that the disciples were in during the storm and Jesus walked across the water to them.

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Here is another photo from our trip. We got into Fort Sill and got lost looking for Geronimo’s grave. Went down lots of back roads with ominous military warning signs saying we were off limits. but hey we got there. Geronimo’s grave is out in the middle of nowhere. It was a virtual geocache so at least I could use my GPS, I just couldn’t figure out the roads. Dad’s been gone a few years now and I sure do miss him. We had a good time on our little road trip.

So anyway we had a great time, my wife and I. One thing I’ll leave you with is: Oklahoma is no Colorado or Montana, but…

Mount Scott Sunset

Don’t let anybody tell you that Oklahoma doesn’t have mountains.

I’m linking with Skywatch Friday

Skywatch Friday – The Crystal Bridge at the Myriad Gardens

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This past Wednesday I needed to go fetch the kid from college and bring him home for Easter. I had some time so I stopped at the Myriad Gardens in downtown Oklahoma City and checked out the Crystal Bridge. I think that I have only been in it one time before and that was in 1988 after they reopened up after the Oklahoma oil bust. They are going to shut the bridge down soon, revamp it, and reopen next Spring.

So it’s been thirty three years and yes it is kind of showing its age but it is still an amazing structure to be in.

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Lots and lots of tropical plants under big, huge, glass windows.

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There is two levels, ground level and then this skybridge which goes over everything.

Not too many people the day I went. Masking and social distancing were being enforced. But there were not too many people so I made several rounds of the facility.

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I loved looking straight up the trees.

There are all sorts of little nooks where you can sit and take it all in.

Water is a feature, nothing like the sound of water falling to make one relax.

It’s closing soon. It’ll open in a year. I plan to check it out after the crowds have moved off somewhere else.

I’m thankful for places like the Crystal Bridge where people can go and recharge and get away from the hustle and bustle of everyday life.

I am linking with Skywatch Friday and Thankful Thursday.

Skywatch Friday – Up or Out

With the weather warming up I have been flying the drone a bit. I don’t go very high and I don’t let it go very far. I look at youtube videos that show the pilots getting way up in the air, higher than the office towers in downtown Tulsa, or flying across lakes or going across farmer’s fields and such. I’m not into that. If I can’t see it then I am not happy and I darn sure don’t fly it where if it falls I couldn’t legally and safely walk over and get it. Makes me nerd but hey, these little things are expensive but they are marvelous. With the GPS built in they can hold their position in even a pretty good breeze.

So I am still mainly in the elevator mode. I send it straight up and then look around. I have practiced a little bit doing turns. It’s hard to do smoothly.

And here is a shot of the moon from a few days ago. The night was not too cool and the skies were clear, so I took the shot. So its not a full moon but I still like it.

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And you know, even overcast skies are skies. Here’s a nice tree at Lafortune Park.

I took the kid back to college the other day. On the way back I took a small detour down Route 66 for some geocaches. I love Route 66. It’s part of my heritage from I was a kid and teenager in Arizona and New Mexico. I looked for five caches and found five!! So time to call it good.

I found a cache at this funky cemetery in Bristow, Oklahoma. It had this odd tower. Steps leading up to an office. Not a chapel. In fact more of store room. Below is a garage. I love funky stuff like this.

I have hundreds of photographs of this building in Tulsa. Boston Avenue Methodist Church. An art deco design and is just beautiful. We were members when we first moved to town and it is even more beautiful on the inside. It was built in the late 1920’s just in time for the depression. The members had to fight like crazy to keep it, otherwise somebody was going to convert it to a movie theater.

And back at home. Early in the morning with the sun peaking over the fence. We have a couple of yappy dogs and so I go out with them in the mornings to keep them from barking otherwise I have a new neighbor that comes barging over pounding on our door, enraged about the dogs barking. So I go out to hush them early in the morning. They love updating their BarkBook status with the other dogs in the neighborhood.

Is everybody staying safe? We are trying to but it is kind of difficult right now as the Governor has opened up the state and simultaneously ordered the state health department to hide the data from the citizens. That happened about three weeks ago. What I can piece together from the data that is available is that new cases which had been declining have plateaued and may be increasing. Who knows!! Anyway, we are vaccinated and are isolating.

Take care everybody!! I am linking with Skywatch Friday. Come join the fun.

Skywatch Friday – Quadruple Threat Week

Coming Through the Rye
Coming Through the Rye by Frederic Remington
at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum

Coming Through the Rye shows four horseman in high spirits galloping into town to have a great time. It might be indicative of this week.

Back Yard Skies

First off, this year’s switch to Daylight Savings Time is throwing me off. How can that be? I am retired, I don’t generally have to be anywhere, why is it bothering me. Well it is.

Second, I got my bicycle back. Some guy ran head on to me with his bicycle back in September and it took a while for everything to get healed up and so I took my bike in to get it fixed. Picked it up after a week and went on a test run on the RiverParks and fell down during a botched dismount. No problems, just embarrassment.

And the weather! I went to fetch the kid Wednesday and the skies look a little threatening. Beautiful but threatening. Fortunately all that happened was the wind blew and the rain fell. Welcome to Spring in Oklahoma. It was the aftermath of the storm that dumped so much snow on Colorado.

And then Saint Patrick’s Day. We do our celebrating at home. Saint Paddy’s day used to be huge!! Now its just another day. At least you don’t see as much crappy green beer as one used to find.

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And then the kid!! He’s a great guy and he’s about to drive me crazy. Zoom meetings in his pj’s, massive software downloads to upgrade his various gaming devices. Ahhhh!! Glad to have him around though. Really. He’s going back Sunday.

How is your week going!!

Skywatch Friday – Thunder Rolls Edition

We got our March weather going on, cold and windy one day, hot and windy the next.

With every once in a while a windy glorious day.

Wind is just a fact of life in Oklahoma. Good for flying kites, bad for flying drones.

Grass Fire

Also bad for grass fires in the spring before the prairie turns green.

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As I mentioned on the Skywatch Friday page, the family of the Ree Drummond, of Pioneer Woman fame, is going through a tragedy. Ms. Drummond’s husband and his nephew had a head on collision while driving fire trucks battling a blaze on their property. The husband refused treatment but the nephew is suffering severe injuries. I’ve never met them but we watch their television show. I know people who know the family and they all say that what you see on the media is just what the family is, genuine. Anyway, my prayers go out to the family.

Oil Prices in March 2021

And a little editorial here. Lots of people are wondering if the recent rise in gasoline prices are related to our present President’s executive orders. I don’t think it. Above is a chart of oil prices over the last year. When the economy tanked in March of 2020 due to the Pandemic, the price of oil cratered as well. In fact on one glorious, hopefully never to be repeated day, oil prices were negative. Since then the price has rebounded, mainly due to the economy recovering. It doesn’t have anything to do with who is president, it has more to do with the economy and what kind of mood OPEC is in.

And now a musical interlude. This deal with the Pioneer Woman reminded me of what I love about Oklahoma. I’ve lived here for about thirty five years and yes, it has problems but the people are big hearted, generous and welcoming. It made me think of Garth Brooks. He reminds me so many Oklahomans I have met. Very down to earth. So here is one of his songs.

I am linking with Skywatch Friday. Come join in!!

Skywatch Friday – Courthouse Skies

It was beautiful weather this week and I got to spend much of the first part of it at the courthouse. Nope I wasn’t in jail, I got called to jury duty. So I got to wait a lot in the jury room in the basement and then I got to wait a lot outside the courtroom and then wait some more while they questioned us one by one. It was a first degree murder trial so it was all pretty serious.

Tulsa County District Court Jury Guide

I was impressed with the whole thing. Lots of waiting I know but the important thing is to get things right. Execution was off the table but life without parole was a possibility. I was impressed with the other 39 potential jurors. They all took it seriously, none tried to get off the jury, and they gave thoughtful answers to questions. I didn’t get picked and so I am “on call” the remainder of the week. So I’m free at last!! I went home, after being dismissed, and researched the case. I’ll say more after the trial is completed which should be Friday or Monday.

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Meanwhile, here is my beloved Turkey Mountain from across the Arkansas River as it flows through Tulsa.

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And another shot across the river with some funky looking clouds.

I’m thankful this week for our justice system. For all its faults I think the people in it try and do their best. I am thankful for my freedoms that I have in this country and the opportunity to be on a jury.

I’m linking with Skywatch Friday. Come join me!!