Category Archives: My World

Pearl District Run

We had a real nice day the other day so I went on an noontime run from my gym in downtown Tulsa. First thing I ran into as a big temptation:

Don’t worry, I resisted temptation, I don’t think they were open anyway. I decided to just generally head east and see where the force moved me. I have to tell you, I’m glad they were closed. It made my decision easier. I kept on running and meandered into a not very nice part of town and came upon an abandoned storage yard with this gatepost.

Tulsa used to be the Oil Capital of the World and there are little reminders like this everywhere you turn. I’m kind of wondering if things aren’t returning a little bit. Oklahoma companies like Chesapeake, Devon, and Continental are really leading the pack in the horizontal drilling and fracturing of shale gas nationwide. Right now, I’m thinking about a drilling rig themed geocache near here. There are lots of guys (and gals) who grew up in Broken Bow, Elk City, Vici, Cheyenne, Barnsdall, Clinton, Apache, and other Oklahoma oil towns drilling wells or building pipelines all over the world. But that is another post. Lets get back on track.

I kind of veered to the left and right as the force led me and I found myself in front of this building.

I’ve never heard of Hooper Brothers Coffee Company. What drew me close was the raised brick signage. Turns out that it is a landmark and on the National Register of Historic Places. This building is all over the internet. Who would know? They actually made coffee there until 1961. I don’t know what is going on now but I do know that this section of town is crying for a geocache. What do you think?

Have you ever got to a crossroads and had to make a decision? I decided to head further east into the Pearl District. A cool but depressed area just east of downtown Tulsa.

It has got some great looking store fronts. I can imagine shops, restaurants, bars,and studios.

There are some entrepreneurs who are defying the national economic downturn and trying to make things happen. ( I have to tell you that I find that brickwork above to be beautiful, and the windows and doors.)

Can’t you see a parade out front with people on the little balconies watching? I know, I’m going crazy. But I’m seeing a lot of potential.

They have a long ways to go, it will be interesting to see how far they can go. The rest of my route I veered here and there to avoid the winos, panhandlers, bums, and broken glass and eventually ended back at the gym. I decided that I need to get off my regular routes more often.

Do you ever get off your regular routes? Tell us about it.

My World

Tulsa’s Hanging Tree

I want to show you a tree. An historic tree that I can see right from my office. What I have to say about it is a little graphic. So if you are little delicate you may not want to read any further.

Do you see it? Tucked in there on the other side of the BOK Center, where the NCAA tournament was playing this weekend, next to the Inner Dispersal Loop. It is not in a good neighborhood. Lots of abandoned buildings, the county jail and the Day Center for the Homeless are right down the road. Lets go get a closer look.

The tree has always looked alive to me in a scary kind of way. This tree is known locally as the Creek Hanging Tree. According to the book, “Tulsa’s Haunted Memories” by Teri French, between 15 and 20 people were executed by hanging from the tree between 1870 and 1889. One time three cattle rustlers were hung at the same time. I read somewhere else, but cannot find the reference, that the tree is right next to the original railroad and a passenger train pulled through right after the execution and the sight of three men hanging there made quite an impression on the train passengers. I don’t know if that is true but it makes a good story.

Tulsa portrays itself as a very sophisticated city. It is, we have the Philbrook and Gilcrease museums, Opera and Ballet companies. It is also home to the Tulsa Race Riot which some call the worst ever in the United States. Machine Gun Kelly and Pretty Boy Floyd spent some time in the area. Tulsa has rough side in its history that I find fascinating. The hanging tree is one of the remnants.

That’s My World

Post Oak Lodge Trail Challenge 10K

Saturday morning I got up early and traveled up to the Post Oak Lodge in the Osage hills northwest of Tulsa to run the 10k segment of the Post Oak Lodge Trail Challenge. Usually there are some pretty good vistas to be had but Saturday it was overcast and misty.

They had something for everybody. The ASPCA was out there for a 1.3 mile “dog jog.”

The 10kers assembled in a field and off we went.

We ran through fields and woods and hopped across small streams.

This being Oklahoma we ran by oil wells and tank batteries.

I met running, geocaching, and blogging friend Trail Zombie at one of the aid stations.

In addition to being one of the nicest guys a person could know he is an ultra runner. He runs, and finishes races that upwards of 100 miles or more. Oh, and word of warning. If you are thinking about dumping trash on or vandalizing any areas where he runs, his smile quickly turns into a frown. Saturday, he provided me with a an adult malted sports beverage to revive myself.

You see I had just run to the top of Holmes Peak and needed a little reviving (all of you mountain state people please hold your snorts of derision. That hill kicked my butt.)

After finishing my sports beverage I headed on. Maybe the sports beverage wasn’t that great an idea. About a half mile later I tripped on a rock and took my first trail run spill. It came as a great surprise and knocked the air out of me. Unfortunately I didn’t even get any scrapes or bruises (except to my ego) to elicit any sympathy out of anybody.

So I finished and got my participant medal.

You can tell from all the mud on me that I had a great time.

The thing about running trail racing is that they give me energy. Here I am, the life of the party, at a gathering of family and friends that evening.

Please check out That’s My World.

Jungle Love Geocaching and other Guilty Pleasures

About a week ago on Sunday afternoon I dropped SuperPizzaBoy off at his confirmation class at his church. Usually I stick around in the lobby as a kind of security blanket but he does great without me so I sneaked off to go find a nearby geocache named Jungle Love. In the summer it would be hard to find with all the high grass and brush but it kind of stuck out in the dead of winter.

The kid never knew I was gone!! Its all for the best.

Nope, this isn’t Moab.

Later in the week Turkey Mountain Wilderness Park showed a new cache on their Facebook post. It was called “Cache May Bite.” It was about lunchtime so I drove to the park.

Thread the needle, go down the trail a ways and this is what you find.

Again, I was back before anybody missed me. Doesn’t anybody miss me?

Third guilty pleasure: SPB participates in a Improv Comedy workshop at one of our local parks. He loves it. He doesn’t need a drama workshop, shoot, he could teach drama, he is good at comedy but he has drama down pat. Sorry, I digress. I usually take my Kindle with me and read while he is doing his Improv thing. I mean I like watching him and the other kids but how much “Zip, Zap, Zup” can a guy take? Even if it is his son. Well you guessed it, somebody planted a geocache in the park. So I left the kid with his comedy and Sweetie with her knitting.

And off I went. I could show you where I found the cache but it would be a dead giveaway. It is close to this though.

A cover over a swimming pool. Kind of a Mid Century Modern thing maybe? There are people in town who just swoon and need smelling salts when they hear about Mid Century Modern. Its the new old, run down, and ugly is beautiful concept. All those smelling salts does something to their sense of humor also, either that or they didn’t have a sense of humor to begin with. Oops, you can tell I’m off my meds this morning. Sorry.

This cache required some water. Why? I am not going to tell you except that if you have done this type of cache before you know exactly why and what kind of cache this is. Trust me, if you go looking for this bring some water.

Here is the cache.

As you can see, I brought some water.

Again, I was back in my seat with my Kindle before anybody missed me. That’s the kind of life a geocacher leads when he is the only one in the family that likes geocaching.

Check out That’s My World for other views of our planet from all over.

Check out Geocaching 101 if you are wondering what Geocaching is.

A Walk Downtown

We had a cold spell last week in Tulsa. At lunch one bright, sunny, bitterly cold day I bundled up and took my new Diana, low tech, low res, 35mm film camera on a walk.

First thing was some crane action going by our building. My employer bought the building last year and has been making a bunch of updates since then.

A little bit further on is Tulsa’s BOK Center designed by Cesar Pelli (Thanks Sydney for pointing out my error). Some call it the hubcap, others say it looks like a roll of duct tape. No matter, since it opened a few years ago we have had some wonderful concerts come to town that we were missing before. I love it.

The sky was very blue and very clear. I love it when fronts come through in the wintertime. Afterward its like the air was swept clean.

I’m not sure what is going on here. Somebody is putting a lot of work into this mural. I love murals. I’ll be checking on this one to see what is going on.

A sculpture honoring firefighters. Firefighter’s are awesome.

A sculpture put up by our local newspaper, the Tulsa World, honoring paperboys. I don’t think they have had paperboys in the sense of kids who sell newspapers or run a route for decades but I guess that it is good to honor them. With my digital cameras I could put a little zoom action on the photo. With my Diana I just have to take what I can get. I didn’t want to walk in the planting area or duck under their security gate to get closer.

Check out That’s My World for other views of the world.

My World – at the Airport

SuperPizzaBoy and I traveled to Tulsa International Airport to pickup my brother Bob. We had a little time on our hands waiting for his flight and I had a camera so like a good blogger I started taking photographs. The above is a bust of Oklahoma’s beloved Will Rogers with a Santa cap.

We also found this statue. It is named “Morning Mission” and is dedicated to the 16,000 American and Allied young men who received flight training in Tulsa during World War II.

And we found this facsmile of a wellhead at the airport. It looks pretty authentic to me except look at all the missing bolts on the bottom flange. That doesn’t give me a whole lot of confidence.

Above is about one fifth of a mural dedicated to the energy business of Tulsa. I just love it. Those guys are using internal lineup clamps prior to welding a section of pipe plus there is a refinery in the background. I found some free software that stitched the whole mural together. The result was excellent but you would need a 30″ wide screen to make sense of it.

We found the chapel right next to the United Airlines baggage carousel. I don’t think it is used very much. We went in quietly and checked to make sure that nobody was in there before we started taking photographs.

It is really nice with several different areas for prayer and contemplation. They had many different copies of the Bible, the Koran, some Jewish books, and texts from other faiths.

It was decorated very nicely and maintained well. The last signer of the visitor register was two days before son and I were there.

What do you have at your airport? I mean besides airplanes and such as that.

Sooner Schooner

A replica of the wagon that the University of Oklahoma uses whenever Oklahoma’s beloved Sooners play football.

Check out the video below.

To be honest, the Sooners are beloved by only half the state. The other half cheers for the Oklahoma State University Cowboys.

I am not a native of Oklahoma and didn’t go to either school so I cheer for both teams. When they play each other all I want is a good game.

Who is your team? What traditions do they have.

Please check out That’s My World for more views of the planet we share.

Also please click over to Ruby Tuesday to see all shades of red from everywhere.

Hot and Cold

The city of Pratt, Kansas has a little fun with their water tanks.

It would be nice if they had tanks for Milk, Ice Tea, Hot Coffee, Cold Beer, Red Wine, White Wine.

What kind of tank would you want to see?

My World Tuesday – Gingerbread Houses

You know something? The Philbrook Museum Festival of Trees has Gingerbread Houses in addition to trees.

This is my favorite. it is a south Louisiana type theme that I just love. Sorry about the fuzziness.

This is my sentimental favorite. It as made by some students from my son’s school.

This is the most fun. It’s not a gingerbread house but I love it anyhow.

The Festival of the Trees ends December 12 so if you live in the Tulsa area and want to attend you better get to the Philbrook Museum.

Check out My World Tuesday.

My World – Nature Conservancy Tallgrass Prairie Preserve

Last week I took my father and brother out to the Nature Conservancy’s Tallgrass Prairie Preserve near Pawhuska, Oklahoma. We saw lots of bison and big sky.

This has got to be the closest place to bison heaven on earth. Lots of grass, water, and room to roam.

There were bison close and far, lots of them. I think the herd is about 2000 head or so.

The place is for the bison. There is a ranch headquarters but it is mainly a bunkhouse, offices, and a visitor center with irregular hours. Notice my dad checking to see if anybody was home.

Lots of grass to eat. The preserve staff uses controlled burns extensively to keep the grass healthy.

The bison coexist with oil and gas production operations with apparently no ill effects on the animals.

There are no gates or toll boxes on the Preserve. The allowed roads are all county roads and its all open range, no hours, no fees, no nothing. Just use your common sense is all they ask. Bison can be dangerous so keep your distance, stay on the roads, and don’t pester the critters. Oh, bring your camera.

Check out My World for other views of the world we share.

YogisDen.us

Welcome to my world