Category Archives: My World

My World – Road Trip to Silver Dollar City in Branson, Missouri

The family went on a spring break trip to Branson in southwest Missouri to go to the Silver Dollar City theme park. It’s only a few hours from Tulsa but we have never been. I’ve always kind of rolled my eyes at Branson because of the general chessiness of the whole “show” thing and I’m not a fan of amusement parks.

But hey, Sweetie rented us a cabin, we packed up and went and we had a great time, especially SuperPizzaBoy.

Sweetie booked us a great cabin complete with rocking chairs in the front and plumbing and a fireplace inside.

It was furnished very nicely.

The local food was good, especially the stuffed hamburgers at Chester’s.

It was an electronics free weekend so we played Mexican dominoes.

Ate some smores

and relaxed

At Silver Dollar City we did some rides.

(Not actually that one, but I liked the picture.)

We saw some corny skits

We saw Doc Gizmo do his science show

We checked out some shops

We clowned around a little bit

In Branson we saw a light show,

Drove down the strip and saw King Kong attacking the city

Oh, and of course, you will never guess, the whole point of the trip,

We went geocaching!! There were two in the park but they involved taking rides that had long lines. The Yogi’s avoid lines so I found two out on Tablerock Lake.

We saw some deer coming back from the caches.

So the last night we toasted to a good trip

And drove back home to Tulsa

For other photographs and stories from all over the world check out That’s My World.

My World – Geocaching on Turkey Mountain

Turkey Mountain Park is an urban wilderness area right on the Arkansas River in Tulsa. It consists of 300 acres of rocks, trees, creeks, ponds, and hills and has a network of trails. It’s a good place to go geocaching, running, hiking, and biking.

The cache we are looking for is named Turkey Mountain Rocks placed by the “The Wolfgang.” The coordinates are N 36° 04.901 W 095° 59.528. I went hunting for it last Friday. I’m going to violate all sorts of geocaching ethics and show you just how to get the cache. I hope The Wolfgang doesn’t get mad. They sound kind of fierce.

Just plug those coordinates into your handy dandy GPS and come on with me. We start down this trail from the parking lot.

Then the trail gets a little rougher

When you get here, just follow the arrow, it’ll lead you right to it.

Any questions? Good, you are doing great!!

After a while, the trail gets a little hard to see. Just keep forging ahead is my motto.

Oh, wow, look, our first solid clue. A map of Oklahoma, in the shape of a rock. Study it closely.

Here’s the deal. The location of the cache is on the map. Yeah, the rest is up to you! Don’t you like a challenge?

Feeling a little discouraged? Well, good guy that I am, I am going to show you a digital route to the cache. I’ll be banned for life from the Tulsa Area Geocachers club. But, I think information needs to be free. Don’t you, really? Caches are hidden to be found. That’s right. So take a peek.

Yep, there it is. The world is your oyster, name and claim it, grab that cache. Keep on going, you are getting close.

Isn’t that a great view of the river? You are on the right track.

Oh, you are practically there. You should be able to see it by now.

What? you can’t?. OK, I’ll give you a visual clue. I’m laying this cache bare for the world to see. All you have to do is walk around until the sky looks like this.

Study, the twig and leaf pattern carefully. When you see something identical over your head reach down to your feet and grab that cache! Its yours now. Sign the log, hide carefully and head home for a cold one.

Good job.

For other views of our world, check That’s My World

My World – Brady Theater – Tulsa

My wife and I attended a Norah Jones concert recently at the Brady Theater just north of downtown Tulsa. It was built in 1913 and was “the” theater in Tulsa until the 1970’s when the Performing Arts Center was built. Since then it has been in private hands and has a good reputation as a good place to watch performers like Norah Jones.

It has quite a history. Supposedly it was the site of Enrico Caruso’s last ever performance in 1920. The story goes that he got sick while in Tulsa and died in Italy in 1921. I couldn’t find any reputable source to corroborate that but hey it makes a good story. Here is one version.

Many performers have appeared at the Brady. According to Wikipedia they include Al Jolson, Isadora Duncan, Ethel Barrymore, Helen Hayes, Benny Goodman, The Marx Brothers, Katharine Hepburn, Peter Frampton, Buddy Holly, Debbie Reynolds, Dave Brubeck, Van Cliburn, Stevie Ray Vaughan, U2, The Pretenders, Frank Zappa, Genesis, The Kinks, Mötley Crüe, and Robin Williams. My wife and I have seen Kenny G and Gordon Lightfoot.

It also played a part in the 1921 Tulsa Race Riot which is supposedly one of the deadliest in our nation’s history with about 300 killed (some estimates go as high as 3000). Check out the Wikipedia entry. The Brady was used as a detention center. It seats about 2800 for a concert but supposedly 6000 people were herded in temporarily and then moved to the State Fairgrounds.

Some say that the Brady was actually used as a haven from the violence.Others say people were detained there. I don’t know much about it the photo doesn’t look like people are being led to a haven.

Supposedly the ghosts of Caruso and many of those who died during the riot inhabit the building. I don’t really believe in ghosts but I can feel the history of the place when I attend a concert there.

It has an active schedule. Check out their web site here. Jeff Beck and the Barenaked Ladies are coming in March. Jackson Browne in August.

Check out That’s My World for other images from around the world.

Note on Photos. The top photo is mine. The others are courtesy of the Beryl Ford Collection/Rotary Club of Tulsa, Tulsa City-County Library and Tulsa Historical Society.

My World – Tulsa History Museum

A couple weeks ago SuperPizzaBoy and I went to the Tulsa History Museum operated by the Tulsa Historical Society at the Travis Mansion at Woodward Park.

Know something, it was free. SPB and I are all over free.

It’s not a real big museum but it is packed with stuff.

We loved this old truck polished to a high gloss.

They had relics from some of the grand old movie theaters downtown. Some cities have preserved some of these spaces and repurposed them for concerts and such. Not Tulsa, we’re progressive. We tore’em down. Can’t ever have too many parking lots!

I’ve previously posted this picture. It’s SPB discovering a juke box. His first selection was Frank Sinatra, which was fine. His second was the Partridge Family (or something similar). So no more juke boxes for SPB.

Pardon the reflection. (If my photographer knew he was doing this blog would be a lot better.) They had an exhibit on old department stores and including some of the fashions. I love that yellow dress. Do you think they have my size?

I loved the crown shaped perfume bottle. I bet it has the butterfly and taffy scent. It has to.

We enjoyed ourselves. We went next door to the Tulsa Garden Center. They had something going on also. I’ve always loved this little room off the end.

Hey, look who we found, Sweetie, working a booth and helping kids, hey that’s SPB!, plant something.

Yep, Sweetie, who is here there and everywhere is working with the LiL Green Thumbs with their children’s programs. I’ll brag on her a little. In addition to all her other talents, she is a Oklahoma State University certifed Master Gardener.

Know something else. She made the display board and decorated the table.

She’s awesome.

For other views of our world check out That’s My World.

Satellites and Sculpture in the Gardens of the Philbrook Museum of Art

The Philbrook Museum of Art is one Tulsa’s great treasures. It not only has fine art inside the building but very nice gardens with a wide variety of sculpture outside.

They have recently added something that now makes the museum perfect. They have their own geocache. Geocaching is fully described here. Basically, you try and find a hidden container given its coordinates. The Philbrook geocache is named “muse” and its geocache page is here. It is a mystery cache which means that the coordinates given are not the actual coordinates. To get the actual coordinates you have to solve a series of puzzles which involve collecting clues from the various sculptures in the gardens at the museum. It is fun.

So I used my lunch hour to go find it one pretty day last week. What a treat.

“Prayer” by Alan Houser, a native American artist. You know, four months I had never heard of him, now I see his work all over the place, including our Oklahoma license plates.

The Tempietto on the grounds. I like that word. I hope to use it playing Scrabble one day. That would be worth a lot of points.

They had two satyrs, this one and a male. I like the female satyrs best for some reason.

This was my most startling find. I came up on it and I thought, “The leaves are huge, and they haven’t fallen.” It’s actually a sculpture. There are four “trees” in all in the piece, you can see two more up the hill to the right. You can barely see the fourth at the top of the hill.” The leaves are glass attached to the steel “tree.” I loved this. It is titled “Oklahoma Autumn” by Eric Baker.

This piece is called “Negative Tree” by Menashe Kadishman.

Other various images from that noon hour.

Did I find the cache?

Of course I did, but the fun was in the looking, the finding was just a bonus.

My wonderful MIL, Nana, got me a one year membership to the museum for Christmas. I’ll be spending a lot of time there. Outside with my camera when the weather is nice.

For other views of our world please check out “That’s My World“

My World – Route 66 Road Trip

Last week I ventured down to Oklahoma City for an industry meeting at the Oklahoma History Center. If you find yourself with some time in Oklahoma City, check it out. Its right near the State Capitol Building. I love this sculpture by Allan Houser at the entrance.

I decided to take a section of Route 66 back to Tulsa and see if I could find some geocaches on the way.

I passed Pop’s Restaurant on the way. It is gas station, diner, and soda pop stand on the the highway. It hasn’t been around that long but is an attraction in its own right.

The giant soda bottle has a microcache on it somewhere. This is the second time I have looked for it but darned if I can find it. Pop’s claim to fame is that huge variety of soda pop they carry. Last time I was there I say flavors I hadn’t seen when I was a kid. I was not in a mood for cold sugary refreshment this time so just gassed up my car and got on my way.

One of the interesting things about Route 66 is that it is not just one route. The road was constantly rerouted, improved on, and bypassed. Many of these old sections are now county roads and private driveways such as the above section. It is now a private drive to a farm. They owners put a geocache near the section and invite people to drive down the road to find it. Notice how narrow the road is. I felt the ghosts of a lot of cars driving by. Hardly anybody goes by now, just nerds with the GPS receivers looking for tupperware. Notice my cachemobile. I love my license plates on it. Some think I’m condemned to the furthest reaches of hell for them.

Here is another old section of route 66. I just couldn’t not go down that road. I’m not very linear on my planning. I mean I have a general plan but that is just something that gets you going in a particular direction.

You see why they call this “Red Dirty Country?” There was a cache down at the end of the road. So I had to go, yep, had to. Really.

On the trail at Chandler Lake looking for caches. Got my dress shoes and slacks muddy. It was worth it. I found a couple of caches that hadn’t been found since late last summer. I love that kind of thing

Nice place for an ammo box geocache, or a snake, or both. Happens, but not too much in February. No ticks either. Winter geocaching has a lot going for it.

Lake Chandler was beautiful and I appeared to be the only one there.

So the tally for the day was 11 geocaches found, lots of trees, rocks, roads and trails explored, got the car, my shoes, and slacks coated with red clay and I had lots of fun. Got home in time for dinner.

For photographs from all over the world check out That’s My World.

That’s my World – Trip to Houston

I went on an overnight business trip to Houston to last week.

Sunrise at the Tulsa Airport.

Ugly duck on campus of a customer.

I went on a walk from our hotel to do some geocaching before dinner. I came upon this bus stop. It may be the most expensive bus stop in existence. Lots of structure but seats for only two or three people and not much shelter from the rain. What’s up with that? Also look at the sidewalk. My walk from my driveway to the front porch at home is wider than that. Not many people use the sidewalks anyway, service workers from the local hotels and restaurants and geocachers.

While I’m picking on Houston it is almost impossible to cross the streets. See the stripes in the road? In most cities that would designate a pedestrian crossing in Houston I think its a bonus points area. Look at the pipes oaring over the boulevards. I don’t know, are they unfinished pedestrian bridges or are they bridges for acrobats? Or is it a benefit project for unemployed welders and pipefitters? Or maybe they are actual pipelines and its cheaper to span the road than go underneath? I need to know.

Below is the intersection a pedestrian is supposed to use. Me, I think its for the birds. A pedestrian trying to use this to cross the street would be the frog in Frogger.

Below is Williams Tower in the Galleria area. It’s over 900 feet tall and is supposed to be the tallest building in the country outside an urban core.

One customer we called had a model of a production platform in their lobby. The model was very impressive. I would love to see the actual facility. My educated guess that the total package including the platform, topside facilites, and the drilling and completion of the wells cost around one gazillion dollars. About the same as the bus stop.

If you didn’t like that, they had their own inhouse jungle nearby. No geocaches though. They need one. Be nice to look for a jungly cache with no snakes.

Time to head back to Tulsa.

For views of planet from all over the world please check out That’s My World.

My World – Washington Irving Park – Bixby, Oklahoma

Washington Irving, author of “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” took and extended trip to the West including parts of what is now Oklahoma way back when. He and his party camped on the Arkansas River near what is now called Washington Irving Park in Bixby, Oklahoma. It is not used very much and its a great place to walk the dogs and let SuperPizzaBoy ride his Triton, a three wheeled self propelled vehicle.

The dogs and the kid.

Very nice trails for exploring.

I loved the snaky shadows of the trees.

An Amphitheater built by the local Rotary Club. In the shadows is a seated statue of Washington Irving. He has a very long suffering look on his face.

SPB and the dogs having a little talk with Mr. Irving.

A great time was had by all. But there is an opportunity for reflection for the outside world.

The park has a memorial to those who perished in the World Trade Center attack. The memorial includes an ibeam from one of the buildings.

Check out My World Tuesday for other views of our world.

My World – Tulsa’s Gilcrease Museum

(“Sacred Rain Arrow”) by Allan Houser

Saturday my Father and I visited Tulsa’s Gilcrease Museum. A museum owned by the city of Tulsa and operated jointly with the University of Tulsa. The core of the art collection it houses was acquired by Oklahoma Oilman Thomas Gilcrease who was a fan of American art, especially that of the American west. It is loaded with paintings and sculptures by Frederic Remingon, Charles Russell, Thomas Moran, John Singer Sargent, and others. The museum has a no photography policy that I of course honored but their web site has a link to a sizeable sample of their collection. Below is one of my favorites.

(“Meat’s not meat ’til it’s in the pan” by Charles M. Russell.)

An unexpected bonus was a special exhibit of the art of Allan Houser. Houser was a member Chiricahua Apache tribe and was born in Apache, Oklahoma. He was a prolific artist and art teacher who painted and sculpted. It turns out that he was a very famous artist, and I have just totally overlooked him my whole life. Below is a sculpture of Houser, done by one of his sons, on display at the museum.

If you live in Oklahoma you see this something like this every day.

The archer on our license plate is based on Houser’s “Sacred Rain Arrow” sculpture on display at the entrance to the Gilcrease Museum.

Below is another work by Houser on the museum grounds. I apologize but I didn’t note the name of the piece.

If you find yourself with a few extra hours in Tulsa I recommend the Gilcrease Museum.

For other views of the world we share check out “That’s My World.”

Saint Louis – Where to Eat

During a Fall Break Trip to Saint Louis in October we had a lot of fun covered in previous My World posts and now I’m going to tell you a little bit about where we ate. The Yogi’s try to eat well on trips. Luckily Saint Louis has lots of great places to eat.

Of course, we start with desert. We love frozen custard. We were clued in by some friends to try Ted Drewe’s Frozen Custard.

It’s really good. I mean really really good. We went there a couple times. It is on old Route 66. I would give you the link to their web site but the site locks my PC up. So I’ll spare you.

Ted Drewes Frozen Custard
4224 S Grand Blvd
(314) 352-7376

Saint Louis has a section they call the “The Hill” with lots of Italian Restaurants. The two we tried were wonderful. The one we liked the best is Cunetto House of Pasta.

My favorite was Cunetto on the Hill. They are noted for their house salad. It was great! It was as pretty as it tasted good.

For the entree I asked the waiter what their customers liked the best. He recommended the Linguine Tutu Mare, pasta with clams, crab, and shrimp in a broth. It may be the best pasta dish I have ever had. Maybe, I’ll have to go back and check it out again.

Before,

After,

Cunetto House of Pasta
5453 Magnolia Avenue
(314)781-1135
http://www.cunetto.com/

The Yogi’s, at the least the two oldest of the three of us, love brewpubs. Tulsa, to my shame, has not had any for some time. Tulsa is a “Bud Light” kind of town. (Even the Garden of Eden had thorns) Anyway we tried the Saint Louis Brewery & Tap Room. The beer and the food were both great. Nothing like a brew pub for the visuals.

Saint Louis Brewery & Tap Room
2100 Locust Street
(314) 241-2337
http://www.schlafly.com/

You know something though. The best meal we had was at a place called Sweetie Pies. Do you watch Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives on the Food Network? Well if don’t check it out some time. That is where we learned about Sweetie Pies. It is home style cooking and it is wonderful. It was the last place we ate on our trip and was it ever memorable. Check out their mac and cheese.

Sweetie Pies at the Mangrove
4270 Manchester Avenue
(314) 371-0304

We give Saint Louis four stars out of four for food. Which is wonderful. The only places better, that we have been to, are San Franciso which we gave five stars out of four and New Orleans which, I don’t know, gets maybe forty stars out of four?

After Sweetie Pies we loaded up and headed down I44 back to Tulsa.

Here is SuperPizzaBoy in travel mode.