Category Archives: My World

John Hope Franklin Reconciliation Park #3

Reconciliation Tower by Ed Dwight at the recently dedicated John Hope Franklin Reconciliation Park commemorating the 1921 Tulsa Race Riot.

The tower depicts the story of Blacks in Oklahoma starting in Africa then to slavery in America and then their migration as slaves with their Native American owners on the Trail of Tears to Oklahoma and on through Emancipation, the Land Run of 1889, the Race Riot to the present day.

I’m told the Tower was originally designed to be located inside a building with a spiral staircase winding around it.

Please check out That’s My World for other views from all over our world.

Bronze Memorial Plaques Tell Story of Tulsa Race Riots (prweb.com)
Dedication of John Hope Franklin Reconciliation Park Marks Major Milestone in American Civil Rights History: Reconciliation and Civility Were Among the Important Themes (prnewswire.com)
Remembering the Worst Race Riot in U.S. History (race.change.org)

My World – Washington Irving Park – Bixby, Oklahoma #2

The long suffering Washington Irving agreed to watch our mutts while we took a walk around the park.

Washington Irving camped near here back in 1832 during his tour of the west.

The City of Bixby has made this not just a park in honor of Washington Irving. It also has several memorials.

There is a memorial to the victims of the 9-11 attack. A structural member from one of the collapsed buildings.

There is a memorial for the children died in the Murrah Building bombing in Oklahoma City.

There is a butterfly garden memorial for a young Bixby housewife and mother who was brutally murdered.

I don’t mean to make it all doom and gloom. Its not. The park is a great place for a boy and his dog to take a walk.

Interesting trees

(Notice Sweetie in red.)

Please check out That’s My World for views from all over our world.

My World – Oklahoma’s Indian Ballerinas

The Yogi’s spent some time Saturday afternoon at the Tulsa History Center. Among other things we found was a series of sculptures entitled “The Five Moons.” It consists of five sculptures by Gary Henson and Monte England depicting the Five Oklahoma Indian ballerinas who achieved international acclaim in the 1940’s to the 1960’s for their dancing. After their dancing careers, they continued in various teaching and director roles in the dance fields for decades.

First row, from left to right: Yvonne Chouteau (Shawnee Tribe), Rosella Hightower (Choctaw Tribe), Moscelyne Larkin (Peoria-Shawnee tribe)

Second row, left, Marjorie Tallchief, (Osage Nation), and then her sister Maria Tallchief.

The achievements and contributions to the world that these women made are many. For example, Maria Tallchief originated the role of the Sugar Plum fairy in the Balanchine version of The Nutcracker. Click on the links to find out more about them.

In 1997 these women were honored by the State of Oklahoma as State Treasures. We Okies are very proud of them.

Check out That’s My World for more images of our shared world.

Here is a link to a YouTube video featuring Rudolf Nureyev dancing with Maria Tallchief.

My World – Oklahoma’s Lake Eufaula State Park

The Yogi’s attended a geocaching event at eastern Oklahoma’s Lake Eufaula State Park this past weekend.

From their website: “Lake Eufaula State Park is surrounded on three sides by the largest manmade lake in Oklahoma, Lake Eufaula. Visitors can enjoy RV and tent camping, an 18-hole golf course with putting green and pro shop, indoor and outdoor fishing dock, picnic areas, group facilities, swimming beaches, playgrounds, kid’s fishing pond, hiking trails, nature trails, nature center, watersports, naturalist activities, and naturalist programs. They also offer special events at Halloween, Christmas, and Labor Day.”

They have a full range of campgrounds from full RV tie-ins to nice spots to pitch a tent. The campsites are spread out so the campers are not on top of each other. We even had a nice view of the lake.

We took full advantage of the park’s many trails.

They have at least one fully accessible paved trail, the Crazy Snake Trail, with handicapped parking nearby.

I guess, just to make it fun, there are feral hogs out and about according to this sign.

And of course, if its Oklahoma and the weather is warm, count on ticks.

The Park had a “Haunted Stables” and “Trail of Terror” set up where for a small fee you could get yourself spooked. That was a lot of fun.

That prepped us for the best part of camping is the campfire at night, right?

Hot dogs and Smores, right? And a high tech twist to an ancient tradition. Sweetie reading scary stories that she found on the internet on her Blackberry.

We had a great time at the park for our event. I’ll be posting about the event later this week.

Please check out “That’s My World Tuesday” for views and commentary from all over.

My World – Legoland

The family took a trip to Legoland and found ourselves in New York?

Please check out My World Tuesday

My World – Fort Worth Botanical Gardens

A few weeks ago Sweetie and I visited the Fort Worth Botanical Gardens. Its sprawling grounds are a treat.

They have huge koi ponds, with huge koi.

They have a Japanese Garden with some charming sites.

All sorts of birds make the grounds home.

A favorite of mine was the sand garden.

I
And guess what, they even had a few flowers. I have no idea what they are. Ask Sweetie, she is the certified Master Gardener.

They had the remnants of a Children’s Garden that hadn’t been kept up. Too bad. This is the biggest sunflower I’ve ever seen. We appreciated the little shade it gave us. It was 105 F when we visited.

I just loved the little angel inside this flower.

Another panting customer that day. Hey, stay on the walk dude!!

Lots of water features, at least they make it look cooler.

Check out My World Tuesday for great glimpses of our world.

My World – Road Trip

Friday was my day off, I was really off, Sweetie had some stuff that she needed to do, SuperPizzaBoy was in school so I had a day to myself. So off I took SPB to school, said bye-bye, pushed him out the door, and headed off to Osage County northwest of Tulsa to do some geocaching and sightseeing.

I found 20 geocaches during some very lonely geocaching. Which is the best kind. I did make some new friends though. First up was this guy:

He was lollygagging across the road so I helped him on across.

Then this guy:

He wasn’t too talkative. He wouldn’t say a word or even show his face and he wouldn’t get off the road either. This country folks are plum ornery sometimes. So I had to move him off myself. (I guess that it is a him.)

On my 19th cache attempt I met this fellow cacher:

I never know what the proper geocaching etiquette is. Most geocachers I know want to find the cache on their own and don’t want somebody showing up and saying “here it is.” But how long do you wait for them? I mean, come on dude, crap or get off the pot! I have no idea what kind of snake this is but it is beautifully colored and blended in well with his surroundings. I bet somebody out there in My World land knows exactly what it is. I finally plugged and abandoned the cache, as us oilfield trash say, and moved on to the next one.

Well I found 19 caches out of a 38 cache “power trail.” (Plus I found one other cache later) I had time to do them all but I had other stuff I wanted to do. I drove up to the Nature Conservancy’s Tallgrass Praire Preserve near Pawhuska.

They bought a huge ranch several years ago and started managing the land using controlled praire fires. They also reintroduced Bison. The project has been a success. I found 5 groups of bison in my brief time there.

They are beautiful animals.

There were also birds and wildflowers

And of course, my favorite on a beautiful Spring Oklahoma day, huge skies.

They have a visitor center and lots to see but I want Sweetie and SPB along when I do that so we can discover it together. I just went for a taste you see.

So, next stop is Woolaroc. Woolaroc was Frank Phillip’s ranch, the founder of Phillip’s Petroleum. Woolaroc has a museum and a wildlife preserve. I went there because I wanted to see more critters.

I saw some white tail deer, some with their fawns:

Time, to head home. Tired but satisfied.

For other views of world from all around the globe, check out “That’s My World.”

My World – Western Oklahoma

The Yogi’s loaded up with MIL Nana and headed off to Western Oklahoma to visit Nana’s sister’s family and to check out what’s happening at the ranch that Nana and her Sister, Sue Carol own.

Our modern day technology has even affected ranching. Remember windmills? Well, this a 21st century windmill.

And here is SuperPizzaBoy and his camera shy Uncle Glen riding a 21st century horse.

Of course the cows are the same.

Uncle Glen and SPB are trying out something bigger.

So Sweetie and her cousin Sherri grabbed the “horse” and made like Thelma and Louise. Behind them is Sherri’s husband Joe.

Nana and Sister

SPB found some treasures to bring back home.

Here’s Sweetie, carrying more of SPB’s treasures. I just love this photograph for various reasons.

I just love old farm equipment.

Near the family picnic grounds

They haven’t had a picnic in years but there are plans for one this summer.

For other views of this world from all over, check out That’s My World.

My World – Birthday Geocaching and a Contest for GPS Adventure Tickets in Maryland

Last week was my birthday. Here is a clue to how old I am:

(If you can decipher the clue you might win something. Go to the end of this post to see if you are interested.)

So how did I celebrate? I went geocaching. My young bride Sweetie agreed to come along. Here we are at the start, you can tell she is eager to get started.

We had a few hiccups involving uploading and downloading the coordinates where we had to go home to get everything fixed. I mean you can’t really enjoy the woods without the right technology, right?

So we finally got started and found our first cache.

We went on a three mile hike in the woods.

The red buds were blooming everywhere.

Sometimes you have to get down and dirty and reach up inside hollow trees and hope for the best.

and sometimes you have to make your way through the poison ivy and thorns

and sometimes you have to deal with obstructions in your path

Some caches are very clever. Do you see it?

Now do you see it?

We, or at least I, had a great time. Sweetie is such a great wife.

For other sights and sounds of our planet from all over check out That’s My World.

Now the Contest!!

If you are interested in geocaching, GPS technology, and wonderful science museums and can make your way to Baltimore, Maryland I have four tickets to the Maryland Science Center. They are having an special exhibit titled: GPS Adventures. You have to hurry though. The tickets are good through August 12 but GPS Adventures last day is April 18.

I really, really, really want somebody to have these tickets. So if you would like to go to the Maryland Science Center and can decipher the clue as to how old I am then email me with your answer at yogiabb(at)yahoo(dot)com.

It’s going to be very simple. When I get home from work Tuesday evening. We’ll take the entries, write them on a piece of paper, put them in a hat and SuperPizzaBoy will pull the winner out of the hat and I’ll be contacting you for your mailing address. You are going to have to trust me.

The only thing I ask is that if you get the tickets, please go and then make a blog post about it, and send me the link! I think that it would be a great My World post. I would love to go to that museum and exhibit, but its not happening for the Yogis.

My World – Texas State Cemetery

I was in Austin, Texas last week for a convention. During breaks I ventured on foot with my GPS receiver and camera into various parts of town to track down geocaches. I eventually wandered into the Texas State Cemetery. I had never heard of it so I had to check it out.

I walked up on Tom Landry’s grave. Serendipity, I am big Dallas Cowboys fan. I started when he was the head coach.

He was a great coach. I know nothing about his personal life but to all accounts he was a very good guy.

I saw the grave of J. Frank Dobie. Boy, did I love his books as a kid. I love serendipity!!

and behind Mr. Dobie is Stephen F. Austin, great hero of the war of Texas Independence.

Barbara Jordan, the great Texas congresswoman, is buried there. I didn’t agree with her politics very often but I admired her passion nonetheless.

Many politicians are buried there and have listed all the various positions they held. I liked her list the best even though it was the shortest:

Texas Rangers are buried there

There is a memorial to those killed in the 9/11 attack.

Those are actual girders from the buildings that collapsed in New York City.

Veterans of the Battle of San Jacinto. “Remember the Alamo!”

Civil War Veterans of the Confederacy

They have a section reserved for Medal of Honor winners. This is just a few:

I randomly googled Mr. James Marion Logan to see what I could find out. He was born in Lulling, Texas and died in Longview, Texas. You can read his story here and here. If anybody deserved a Medal of Honor, he did.

The grave to the left is that of Robert Edward Galer. He was a Marine fighter pilot during the Battle of Guadacanal. You can read his story here.

To the right is buried Joseph Charles Rodriguez. He earned his Medal of Honor in Korea. Here is his story.

There was no better way to spend a couple hours than being among all these people.

Click on over to That’s My World to check scenes from everywhere on this planet.

YogisDen.us

Welcome to my world