Category Archives: biking

Trail Pics

A trio I encountered at a park in Sand Springs taking a walk.

I have a Go Pro Clone action camera that I can mount on the handlebars of my bicycle. It has various modes. It has a video loop mode where it takes three minutes of video, stores it does three more minutes until it runs out of battery. Or I can still pics at any interval you set. I have been experimenting with both modes. Video is a pain in the butt because of the huge files you end up with long upload and download times and a definite problem of separating the wheat from the chaff. Stills are a lot easier. You end up with a huge amount of them but you can just delete the ones you don’t like which for me is literally about 95% of them on the first pass and then about 80% of the remainder get deleted on a second pass review. I now use about a 20 second delay between pics now. In an hour ride that is about 180 photos. Typically I keep about five to ten. The rest get deleted. Thank goodness for digital photos!!

I love the sense of distance in this. I love feeling a long ways from where I need to be. Except when things go wrong. Two years ago on this trail one of my tires blew out and I had to go pick up the kid in an hour. I hid the bike. Called a cab (cuz there was no Uber out in the boonies), took the cab to where my car was, drove the car back to the trail and retrieved the bike and then went to pick up the kid. Thank goodness for cell phones is what I say!!

I like the photos of people out on the trail, like this couple. You can tell by their body language that they like each other.

This poor lady was all over the trail and I don’t think she heard my “on your left” so I went very slowly around her way to the right. My heart really went out to her. She looks like she might be housing insecure. I think she has a long ways to go but I don’t think she is enjoying it. I am no so called “bleeding heart liberal” but our decreasing compassion for people who are down on their luck is a real problem. I hope she found a safe place to stay that night.

Our World – D Day Outing at Oxley Nature Center

Sunday afternoon in Tulsa was glorious, warm, sunny, dry. A great day for getting some vitamin D. Getting outside if you know what I mean. SuperPizzaBoy and I loaded up his three wheel Triton and off we went to Mary K. Oxley Nature Center on the north side of Tulsa.

The center has some old highways long blocked off from traffic that are perfect for SPB’s three wheel Triton. He doesn’t like walking like his Dad does so it is a good compromise.

He can ride for miles.

We saw brilliant Fall foliage.

And some shimmering lakes.

Oxley has lots and lots of side trails. In wetter years the walkways come in pretty handy.

We found a couple of geocaches. I’ve found almost all of them at Oxley.

We both got a few hours of exercise and probably overloaded on Vitamin D.

There was a lot to be had. And the Cowboys didn’t play until Sunday night anyway.

Our World Tuesday

River Parks Reflections

Tulsa’s River Parks System on the Arkansas River has lots and lots of free bikes for you to use courtesy of Tulsa Townies. They are all pink and they are well used.

Weekend Reflections

Day Off and Blessings

I’m a blessed guy. I don’t know know why. I certainly haven’t done anything to deserve it. But its true. Not only am I married to the best Wife a man could have and am honored to be the Father to a Son that is the best Son in the world, but I get great parking spots. Ask Sweetie, I have parking place mojo. When I pull up to the front, somebody just pulled out, We almost always park near the front door. Legally; Not always, but often enough.

I’m blessed in other ways also. My employer in the last year decided to give everybody vacation commensurate with their years of experience in the energy industry, not just years with the company. Wow, I have 32 years in the energy industry so they handed me 5 weeks of vacation. It has just floored me. I don’t take it for granted. It is going to go mainly toward spending more time with the family, but who knows what else. Our church, like a great many others, has mission trips availble year round. You can do them here in Oklahoma, or the States, or elsewhere from Mexico, to Lithuania, to Tanzania. Who knows? I have been handed a gift I didn’t deserve,I have to figure out how to give something back.

The other thing my employer did was give us the option of a 9/80 work schedule. In other words we can work our 80 hour two week schedule in 9 days and get every other Friday off. That was just handed to us. It makes for long days for nine days, but it is worth it. Yesterday I had one of those days off. We dropped SuperPizzaBoy off at school, ate breakfast together, ran a couple errands and then loaded up the bikes to Tulsa’s Mohawk Park.

Mohawk Park is on the north side of town next to the airport. We parked at the Mary K. Oxley Nature Center in Mowhawk Park.

We rode down to Lake Yahola where I took a picture of Sweetie. Note the golf course in the background.

Some of the waterfowl on Lake Yahola. We didn’t ride there too long. Too darn windy!! Plus the geocaches I thought we could get were not reachable from the dam.

We got off the dam and went meandering around the park. We came upon an area where beavers had been active.

Oh, oh, the dweeb himself.

Stylistically a disaster right? You know what drives Sweetie crazy? The little bell near his right hand. That’s what. He comes upon people, he goes ding, ding with the bell. If he yells, “On your left!” then they move to the left. The ding dong likes the bell, what do you think is best? I listen to my readers. Especially those who leave comments!

Here you go, here is Sweetie again. It has finally dawned her the last few years that Yogi got a far better deal in this marriage than she did. You agree? – Hey, its a rhetorical question. You don’t need to answer!

We got off into some wild and wooly parts of Mowhawk. I hadn’t been here since the middle 1990’s during a Corporate Challenge Marathon Relay. Narrow roads. Abandoned roads.

The course went down this way and back. I was a little cranky because they didn’t have any water stops. I had a little “attitude.” Hey if you are going to put on a race then do it right!!!!! There was a race crew out there putting up barricades early in the morning and they got behind me in their truck. I was running down the center of the road and they were following me and I knew they wanted around me so I stayed in the center. They followed me at my extremely slow pace and after a while couldn’t stand it any more so they gave me a little honk of the horn. I guess to tell me that I was doing a good job. So I gave them a middle fingered salute without looking back to let them know I appreciated their hard work.

They gave me a long loud blast of the horn to encourage me even more, so I gave them a a two handed salute in appreciation. This went on for some time. Turkeys!

Hey, can you tell I have issues? Got any advice? Sweetie does, its along the lines of “Get over yourself. You have been talking about that for years.”

Hey, we got to the end of our ride. I saw a tree with leaves on it where I thought the sunlight reflecting on the leavds would really pop out.

The leaves reflect fine and I could enhance it in Corel but I think the best pictures are the ones right out of the camera. What I liked about the ppic looking at it now is the tree’s shadows on the road. I didn;t even notice it before.

Anyway, that was our ride Friday and some of my blessings. Tell me a blessing you had.

Bike Rides, a Dog Park and Other Amenities

Last night Sweetie and I went bike riding afer stashing SuperPizzaBoy and his buddy Nicholas playing with the Wii at Nana’s house. We got off to a late start and only did about 13 miles. I had my camera but I didn’t take too many pictures. Sweetie will leave me if dally, so best just to keep moving.

The end of our ride was a loop around Hunter Park in South Tulsa. The newly opened dog park was there and it was busy!

They have two enclosures. Pictured is the large dogs, off to the left, out of the picture, is one for small dogs. Sweetie and I agreed that we are going to grab our two mutts, Ginger and Abigail, and Nana’s dog, Fiona and take them. This looks like great fun.

Is there anybody out there familiar with dog parks? If so, please tell us a little something about them. They look like a blast.

Speaking of dogs, I found the following while running on the river earlier this week. Tulsa is rebuilding many of the river trails and I’m glad they are thinking of our four legged friends. I think this is a wonderful idea. I had never seen anything like that.

Have you seen something cool for dogs or other pets? I would like to hear about it.

First Bike Ride of the Season

Last Sunday Sweetie asked, what do you want to do? I said geocaching, she said how about a bike ride. Darn right, lets go. SuperPizzaBoy went swimming at his Grandmother’s house.

Here is Sweetie all styling and everything.

“SMYS” pipeline term for “Specified Minimum Yield Strength” it has to do with the strength of the steel in used in pipelines. 100% SMYS is right at the limit. Legally you have to be at no more than 72% in remote areas. Less as areas are more populated. I’m at about 125% for my biking shirt. I’m going to wear it till it busts for two reasons:

1. My Sister Ellen gave it to me and not only is she my Sister she is also one of my most faithful readers.

2. It is a Fat Tire shirt. My favorite beer. I can’t buy the beer in Oklahoma but I can sure wear the shirt.

We met this guy on our ride. He was being a little protective of the herd.

Some ladies have no sense of humor. I yelled “Nice Rack” to this one. She turned and stomped off before I could get her picture. These modern ladies just aren’t the same. I mean if she doesn’t want anybody looking at her, quit flaunting it.

Sweetie and I had a great time. She was very patient with me stopping all the time and taking pictures.

Saturday Morning Bike Ride

Last Saturday while Logan was still at Q’s house Sweetie and I went for anothe bike ride. We started out, went about 2 miles and got rained on so we parked under an overpass to see what the weather would do. While we were waiting I checked on a cache that SuperPizzaBoy and I found a couple years ago. Its named Fill the Gap or something like that. It is a candy container with a magnet hidden on a turnpike bridge abutment.

We had given up and a guy come bicycling up and asked if we found it. Turned out that it was his cache. His screen name is BA Joker. Anyway he gave me a hint and I found it. So I checked on it and it still there but it hadn’t been found since June. It is in a niche and hard to find.

The cache is nice but what is really nice about the cache is what is around it. It looks like some critter maybe a coyote or a fox has turned it into their dining room. Their all sorts of well gnawed bones scattered all over the place. They look like birds, squirrels, rabbits, raccoons, maybe even a few dogs and cats. So if anybody needs critter bones for witchcraft or some othe purpose, I know where to get them.

It kept sprinkling but at a lower intensity so we went on with our ride. We went another 3 miles and decided to plug and abandon this outing. On the way back we come upon a biker who had taken a spill. It was pretty bad, he broken his thumb and it was bleeding all over the place. He was in sad shape. Just as I was trying to figure what to do for him a truck stopped and the driver got out and loaded the guys bike and drove him off. Lucky biker We were a few miles from our truck and he needed help now.

So we went on. It stopped raining so we kept on going. 18 miles and change. Went home cleaned up. Off to Freshberry’s for our post ride treat and then off to get SPB.

SuperPizzaBoy goes for a Ride

Sweetie had a meeting to go to tonight so it was just me and SuperPizzaBoy. The weather has cooled off quite a bit so its time for the boy to go on a ride. We loaded up his Triton which is a super duper tricycle and we went to a nearby paved trail. I hate and fear traffic especially for the boy because he doesn’t always pay attention to what is going on. The paved trail is just the thing.

He has not learned how to ride a bicycle yet. We tried and tried but it just wasn’t a happening thing. We saw the Triton in the newspaper so we got him one. It is very cool. It is steered with the rear wheels by the use of levers. He really likes it.

Anyway, we had a good time. We left the dogs at home. They wanted to go but they are such a pain in the butt.

He made two or three laps of the place and then we went home.

Sweetie and I like to go bike riding. We would like SPB to be able to go with us. His next bike may be a three wheeled bicycle. That could happen next year. That would be lots of fun. My next bike may be a recumbent bike.

I think the Triton is fun also. I had this theory at one time that it would be impossible to turn it over on a corner. I was wrong. But at least I didn’t fall very far.

Bike Ride

Sweetie and I have a new deal going on this summer. We go bike riding. I got a new bike last year for my birthday and really enjoyed riding it. I would go on a long bike ride on Wednesdays after work. I went all over the place, usually about 17 to 24 miles. I rode from TCC on 81st to NEOSU in Broken Arrow, Up and down the Arkansas River, Out and back to Sandsprings from the River and the Osage Praire Trail.

This year we bought her a nice bike so we get a sitter for SuperPizzaBoy and go bike riding on Wednesday. This past Wednesday we rode the Arkansas River. We started near the pedestrian bridge and went north to Southwest Boulevard and then down the west side to nearly the end. 17 miles all told of fairly flat riding but very windy.

Following is a picture near the end of the trail. I told Sweetie that I was starting a blog. She doesn’t want to be blogged about and doesn’t want to have any picture of her. So for today, no pictures of Sweetie. Just the end of the trail.

The next picture is near downtown.

We used to go to movies on our date night and we still do those from time to time but I much prefer being outside. We only have a few weeks left and then school starts. So much for bike riding.

The next step is to get SPB a bike and then we can go as a family. Sweetie and I both agree that we feel like kids again on our bikes.

YogisDen.us

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