Creek Bottom, Washita County, Oklahoma
Category Archives: Oklahoma
Scavenger Hunt Sunday – Wiggling Cookies!
It’s that time of week for Scavenger Hunt Sunday by Ashley Sisk. I have skipped the past few weeks and I’m back and boy did I pick a tough day to return. I had to cheat even more than I normally do. So let’s see what I got!!
1. #5
#5! What in tarnation does that mean? After much deliberation and thought I think it means the Five Civilized Tribes Museum in nearby Muskogee, Oklahoma. It’s a great little museum. I’ll tell you what though, I don’t want to make anybody mad but reading the story of the brutal forced relocation of the Tribes from the southeast USA to Oklahoma way back when is sobering. Especially after viewing an exhibit at the museum on the many Congressional Medal of Honor honorees from the Five Tribes.
It is a must stop if you are in the area.
2.Word of the Day
That is another one, Word of the Day? Well it is Scavenger Hunt Sunday so the word of the day is Sun. Sorry its a little fuzzy.
3.Sharing
Speaking of fuzzy, this is a fuzzy pic of SuperPizzaBoy sharing his performance of “Pick a Pocket or Two” during a school assembly a few years ago.
4.Wiggle
Wiggling is kind of like dancing right. Here is the world’s greatest nephew, Mr. Beans dancing with the world’s cutest flower girl at my niece Jillian’s wedding a couple years ago.
5.Cookies!
Cookies is easy. These were baked by the world’s greatest MIL Nana. They were incredible. They sure didn’t last long.
Check out Scavenger Hunt Sunday and join the fun.
Post Oak Lodge 10K featuring the Hill from Hell!
Saturday bright and early I got up and headed to the Osage Hills northwest of Tulsa to participate in the Post Oak Lodge Challenge 10K. When I got there I fell in love.
With this fireplace and a very comfortable leather chair. It’s a real fire. We have a gas fire at home and it is all nice and everything but nothing puts out a nice glowing warm heat like a real wood fire.
So I sat there napping off and on as they prepped the 25Kers on following the green ribbon.
And then I sat there during the prep for the 10Kers. We were supposed to follow the pink ribbons. You see.
And then the moment of decision. To I get up out of MY chair and go run the race or just kind nap some more. You like my hat, you think its funny. Hey it was 30 deg at race time and I was warm. So laugh all you want you cold eared people.
So off we go!! Following the pink ribbons. The Shadow knows.
The aid stations were fantabulous, water, gatorade, pb&j sandwiches, chips, homemade cookies, salted potatoes. Wonderful. The Shadow also knows this.
We’ve had a little bit of rain so it was nice to see the creeks flowing again. We had a little bit of mud but not to bad.
We took a turn through the Oklahoma Centennial Botanical Gardens.
And we went by the Post Lodge’s Zip lines. At least that is the cover story. The real deal is that Oklahoma has erected these watch towers to keep Democrats out of the state. They are also a last line of defense to keep those pesky Canadians who are enslaved by the national healthcare system out of our state. Rumor has it that they are massed at the border trying to get in.We are ready for them.
The thing about trail runs is that the good ones are have lots of ups and downs. This was a good one.
I finally got to the top of the Hill from Hell. Holmes Peak is the tallest point in Tulsa County. You can see a long ways.
Way over yonder (as we say in Oklahoma) where the cars are is the start and end of the race.
Heading down the Hill from Hell. . That is downtown Tulsa off in the distance.
This race had a beer stop. They said, “Want a beer?” and I said “Do you have any other stupid questions?”
The finish line!! Yeah we are done!!
Lots of food and adult malted beverages available. This is some white chicken chili.
And then back to my spot. If you happen to be up at the lodge anytime soon. Make sure nobody is sitting there, cuz its mine. You can sit there if you want, just don’t get too comfortable.
It was a great race, well organized and everybody had lots of fun.
I had my GPS watch on. If you want to see the route click on the green balloon above and it will take you to another screen. Click on the thing that looks like your DVD “Play” button to the left and it will show you just how slow I am.
Skywatch Friday – West Tulsa Sunset
The other day I left downtown Tulsa after work and drove across the Arkansas River to do some geocaching and I caught this sunset with my Ipod. West Tulsa is on the wrong side of the river and the railroad tracks. I was at a park tucked just north of a cement plant, next to some Section 8 apartments and in between two refineries.
Yep, I felt pretty comfortable there. West Tulsa is what made Tulsa the Oil Capital of the World back in the day and it is still the “soul” of the city. Sure we have an opera and two world class museums and all sorts of other stuff. The money came from the oil wells, refineries, tank farms, power plants, railroad yards, trucking yards, and oilfield fabrication shops of west Tulsa: the wrong side of the river and the wrong side of the tracks and the most interesting part of town.
ABC Wednesday – F is for Fiddles!!
If you are looking for Fiddles the Totem Pole Park in Foyil, Oklahoma a few miles off Route 66 is the place to go. You will find not only the World’s Tallest (not) Totem Pole but a collection of fiddles carved by Ed Galloway, the guy who built the Totem Pole.
And no, you can’t pick up and start playing them. Thanks for asking!
ABC Wednesday – D is for Drilling Rig
Hey, its ABC Wednesday, let me see, I live in Oklahoma, I work in the energy industry so this week D is for Drilling Rig. Isn’t it a beauty?
Weekend Reflections – the old Tulsa Y
I love the reflection of the sun off the tile of the old Y. This is a three year old photo. The building is now all boarded up awaiting its fate.
Scavenger Hunt Sunday from Lace to Bling and more
Time again for Ashley Sisk’s Scavenger Hunt Sunday. This week’s hunt was especially challenging.
1.Lace
Lace, lace, I’m not much of a lace photographer. I didn’t quite know what to do. I briefly considered going to my favorite sporting goods store, Victoria’s Secret, with my camera but I wasn’t really in the mood to get escorted out of the store even in the performance of my journalistic duty as a blogger.
The above is a sugar mask from the Oklahoma Sugar Art Show. You may not know it but Oklahoma is big in the sugar art world.The masks are made from sugar and are so delicate that one observer’s bumping the table with their motorized wheelchair destroyed many of the masks.
2.Bling
Son and I went on a road trip to Oklahoma City and one of the things we did was tour the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Center where we found these belts in the gift store.
3.Wood
Let me tell you about the relationship between me and wood. For a time our family lived in the small town of Eagar, Arizona up in the White Mountains. We heated the house with the fireplace so my brother and I got a lot of experience in hauling wood to the house, sawing it into fireplace length with a bow saw (see the photo, no chain saws for us), splitting the logs, stacking them, and then hauling a days worth from the wood stack to the front porch every day after school during heating season. So to make a long story short I am very happy with our natural gas fireplace. I don’t find the sight of real wood fires to be romantic at all!- Yes, that’s me in the photo above, probably about 1968 or so.
4.Fuzzy
Bison are pretty fuzzy, we have lots of them in Oklahoma but I found this guy I found in Wyoming’s Grand Teton Nationa Park last summer.
5.Fabric
My Father-in-law was a great guy and a small town pharmacist who passed away way before his time. He had quite a Christmas necktie collection. Nana, the world’s greatest MIL, had his ties made into quilt with the Grinch as a centerpiece. Charles was no Grinch, he was one of the most generous men I ever knew, but he enjoyed poking stuffed shirts when they needed it. For example he displayed a prominent quote from Charles Darwin in his office^. Let me clue you in: people in rural Oklahoma do not like Charles Darwin. Charles didn’t mean any disrespect, he just thought that Darwin had some good thoughts about responding to change.
Here is Charles with son in the pharmacy when son, SuperPizzaBoy, was just a baby. I’ll tell you that no Grandfather loved their Grandson as much as Charles loved SuperPizzaBoy. Anyway, we have the quilt hanging in our front room and not a day goes by that I don’t think of him.
^Darwin’s quote that Charles had on display: ““It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.””
Weekend Reflections – Tulsa’s Cesar Pelli’s Duct Tape
Reflections off Tulsa’s BOK Center featuring a 600 foot long and 103 foot tall glass panel tilted at 5 degrees that wraps partway around the building. It’s always good for reflections.
The building was designed by Cesar Pelli and of course he used all sorts of local influences such Tulsa’s Native American and art deco heritage. He won’t admit but I think he was thinking about tornadoes that frequent tornado alley. Personally I love the building even though it reminds some of my fellow Tulsans of a roll of duct tape coming undone or maybe even a big old hubcap. Speaking of tornadoes, I hope that one never hits that glass panel. We’ll have glass all over Tulsa when that happens.
Signs, Signs, – Pipeline Crossroads
Cushing, Oklahoma is a major hub for many crude oil pipelines that criss-cross North America. It is also the benchmark price location for crude worldwide. When you hear about “West Texas Intermediate” crude oil prices it is the price posted in Cushing, Oklahoma for that grade of oil.