Category Archives: Our World Tuesday

Checking out the Tulsa Air & Space Museum & Planetarium

Son, Logan and brother Bob in front a Spartan 7-W -Executive

It was Thanksgiving weekend and brother Bob came to visit from Corpus Christi. We usually go hiking or running together outside but it rained and rained and then rained some more this weekend. Plus I have dragged him to the Gilcrease and Philbrook museums several times so, time to hit the Tulsa Air & Space Museum & Planetarium.

Logan in front of the Spartan 7-W Executive

The place is packed full of airplanes of various types and there are all sorts of helpful but not intrusive volunteers to answer questions or just chat.

Spartan NP-1

Tulsa has quite an aviation history. American Airlines has a major maintenance base here. According to the Oklahoma Historical Society, Air Force Plant 3, also known as the Tulsa Bomber Plant manufactured during World War II: A-24 Dauntless Dive Bombers, B-24 Liberator Strategic Bombers, and A-26 Invader Medium Bombers. Peak employment during the war was over twenty three thousand people. During the Cold War up until 1957, the plant built B-47 Stratojet Strategic Bombers and B-66 Medium Bombers.

Spartan C-2-60

Tulsa is also home to Spartan Aviation. An 87 year old company started by oilman W.G. Skelly in 1928 and then later by another Tulsa oilman, J. Paul Getty. Spartan was a manufacturing company in its early years and later a pilot, technician, and mechanic training organization. According to Spartan’s web site, Getty sought an officer’s commission when the war started but was told what he needed to do was hand over his oil company concerns to others and to concentrate his talent on Spartan because the military was depending on Spartan to train military pilots. They are still in business today and have trained over 87,000 pilots. They advertise that they can get you “airline ready” in 33 months. If interested check their website. Financing available, tell them Yogi sent you.

Aeromet AURA (“Autonomous Unmanned Reconnaissance Aircraft”) One of the first Military drones built in 1986 for the US Air Force by Tulsa Company Aeromet. This aircraft is considered to be forerunner of the drones now in use.

I don’t think any airplanes are being manufactured in Tulsa any longer but American Airlines and its associated contractors are still a major contributor to Tulsa’s economy. Any big bond issues generally have some millions of dollars of goodies in there for American to keep from moving their jobs somewhere else.

Oh yeah the museum has fun stuff like a model airplane flight simulator also as Logan found out.

Brother Bob tried it out also.

We bought tickets for the Planetairium. They have a bunch of different programs offered frequently during the day. The one we watched was “Earth, Moon, and Sun” and they also had a short program on the status of the former planet Pluto and another program on Light Pollution.

Anyway we had a good time. Go check it out if you are in the area! Their web site is loaded with good information.

I’m linking with Our World Tuesday

Our World – My Favorite Street

Most mornings after I go to the gym I head up to the Panera on Cherry Street for a bagel, coffee, and the morning newspaper. Afterwards I drive past this street on my way to work. Friday I looped back around to take a pic. It was pretty bright with the morning sun on the autumn leaves. Me, being me, couldn’t leave well enough alone so I ran the photo through Topaz Impressions backed off about 60%. The photo quite a bit off level and after correcting it, I I undid the correction. I love all those tall trees right on the street.

So that was Friday, Saturday was cold and windy and I bet many of those leaves are down on the street now.

Linking with Our World

Tulsa Wizard World 2015

Saturday Logan and I ventured downtown to experience Wizard World Comic Con Tulsa 2015. A celebration of popular culture they call it. I’d say it is more of a slice of popular culture focused more on Superhero movies and fringe television show as opposed to say in Oklahoma, football, deer hunting, tea party politics, and country music. That is okay though because Wizard World is lots of fun and a segment of Oklahoma that hardly ever shows itself is on display.

A big part of the fun is Cosplay where fans dress up as their favorite character. It could be from movies, television, shows, comic books, video games, anime or manga. Some of the costumes are quite elaborate. Check out this link to a Tulsa World photo gallery of the costumes worn at this event.

I know that your are wondering and no, Logan and I didn’t cosplay this year. Maybe next year.

I could have taken a lot more pictures but the venue reminds us that “Cosplay is not Permission.” In other words please ask permission before you take pictures. One could make a legal argument that they are in a public place and blah, blah, blah. We have too many people whining about their legal rights to do whatever, so I asked permission. Most of the time.

The Tulsa Ghostbusters were there in full force. I don’t know how many thousands of pics they posed for on Saturday.

And then these guys. Just so you know I didn’t hardly know who any of the characters were supposed to be besides the obvious like Batman, the minions, Spock and so on.

They had some vehicles there. Photos were free but if you wanted a photo of yourself in the jeep or whatever that is $20 or so. Hmmm, no.

Herbie the love bug was there.

We had a fun time. We met up with some of Logan’s friends and check out everything out two or three times and then went on our way.

So, I have to know, do you Cosplay?

Check out my post Wizard World Tulsa 2014

Linking with Our World Tuesday

Our World – Tulsa Botanic Gardens

Saturday afternoon Heather, Logan, and I headed out north of Tulsa to the Tulsa Botanic Gardens. They were celebrating the opening of their brand spanking new Tandy Floral Terraces built on a hillside overlooking a small lake. They are beautiful especially with the large water features.

The plantings are new and need to fill out and they will fairly quickly but the terraces are a great place to visit. They have a wide asphalt pathway that covers the entire facility that appears to be accessible to powered wheelchairs.

We are very fortunate to have something like this in Tulsa.

And there is more to come. Work continues on the Children’s Gardens and they are scheduled to open in 2016.

As a bonus, the Tulsa Glass Blowing School was displaying and selling glass pumpkins and other decorative objects. They started out with over seven hundred pieces and by the time we showed up they were half gone. The pieces were gorgeous putting them out in the sun was about all the merchandising that needed to be done.

We found a couple we liked for ourselves and a gift.

They also had a multitude of scarecrows made by everyone from Girl Scout troops to Restaurants. These were some of the favorites.

Walter was my favorite. His bones were made out of musical instruments.

All in all a great day. It was nice checking up on the Botanic Gardens. It has been too long.

Linking with Our World Tuesday

Our World – Off to Idaho

I have been off to Idaho to visit my Dad for a long weekend.

Here is me and my Dad in his very first every selfie!

This is in the Tulsa Airport using the Harris Effect App on my Ipod Touch. I love people watching. I flew to Denver and changed planes. United and their partners in crime Skywest fly the most uncomfortable cramped planes I have ever been in. Other than that, everything was great. Anyways I got in kind of late and needed a bite to eat. So we went an Idaho outlet of a good old Oklahoma company, Sonic.When I got home I saw that Dad had properly stocked his refrigerator. We can’t get Fat Tire beer in Oklahoma because our messed up liquor laws. Looking for a car? Dad’s neighbor has a low rider for sale. Let me know if you are interested. I went on a couple walks. Idaho, like Oklahoma is kind of rural. On a geocaching search I came across this old park. It is not maintained any longer for some reason but somebody put up a brand new net on the basketball goal. I took a walk along the Snake River and looked at the Falls that has given Idaho Falls its name.

And downstream a replica of one of the original bridges way back when.

Anyways, I head back home Monday, I’ve had a great weekend visiting with my father.

Linking with Our World Tuesday

Our World – 2015 Tulsa State Fair

Sunday morning I headed out to the Tulsa State Fair. I got there late in the morning and not too many people were there. Which is fine with me.

All the rides were getting ready for the day. I am not much of a ride guy.

They have an incredible variety of food there. I generally eat only one thing. A couple years ago it was grasshopper pizza. Today I had a pretty good Indian Taco.

I was mainly there for the Oklahoma Sugar Art Show. It is supposed to be the top show in the US for such things. I will post more examples later in the week but this is an example. It is kind of an inverted layer cake with lots of lace decorations.

The detail is amazing. All the external components must be food grade. No real flowers, or non food decorations allowed.

They had a category shoes as well. I had never seen edible shoes before.

Next I moseyed over to the FFA displays. I always enjoy seeing what they put together.

They had a great display of pumpkins.

And of course, being a State Fair you gotta have critters. Like cows.

and horses.

I did take one ride. The skyride that bisects the fair east and west. There is a coliseum on the fair grounds and Disney on Ice was putting on there show. There were little girls in the Frozen costumes all over the fair going to the show with their mothers. Pretty sweet if you ask me. I’m a guy, I can’t say it is precious, even if is precious.

So anyway, it was a pretty cheap outing. I took the shuttle bus from a satellite location so parking was free, $10 for admission, a nice Optimator draft beer at the beer garden and an Indian Taco cost another $16, the Skyride cost me $4. So, all in all, it was a cheap outing.

LInking with Our World Tuesday

Our World Tuesday – Pond

Late afternoon last Wednesday on Tulsa’s Turkey Mountain at a small pond. I just love running the trails there. Once I get more than a quarter mile from the parking lot I have the whole park to myself. One thing about the area is that there is not a whole lot of money budgeted for maintenance. We depend on volunteers to show up and do everything from clear downed limbs from trails and pick up trash. But if a tree falls over into a pond. So be it! It is part of the wildness that we love about it.

Linking with Our World Tuesday

Weekend Update

We had a lot going on this weekend.

Logan had his first riding lesson in a long time. He sprained his ankle back really badly back in May and had been in a boot and then on restriction since then. He was glad to get back in the saddle on a hot Saturday.

After the riding lesson we loaded up in the car and headed off to Livesay Orchards out in the boonies about 45 minutes southeast of Tulsa. We hadn’t been there since Logan was a baby and man is it popular. We ended up in a group of nine cars headed out there and when we got there we found out there was a line to get in. The line moved fast though. I mean they are selling mainly peaches so it doesn’t take long for people to pick out what they want and move on.

And man where their peaches, bushels, pecks, half pecks anything you wanted as long as it was peach related.

After that we headed cross country to the ‘burb of Bixby to Dotson’s Produce and picked out some Amish Tomatoes. I never did figure out if that was a type of tomato or the religion of the farmer that grew them.

Dotson’s had all sorts of other produce. We tend to go crazy in a place like that.

We decided to counterbalance all healthful vibe of the produce with some Hawaiian Ice which is Okie for ice cream cone at a place nearby. Part of the fun is waiting in the heat. Is it against the law for those places to provide shade for their customers?

Sunday was church, seeing the movie “Ant-Man” with one of Logan’s friends and then an historic occasion. Logan left with his friend, with his friend driving. First time that happened!

Then Heather and I had dinner and drinks with some friends and then out to pick up Logan out in the country.

So we ended the weekend with a nice crescent moon.

So our weekend was great, how was yours?

Linking with Our World Tuesday

Our World – Kauai Helicopter Adventure

A definite highlight of our Hawaiian cruise earlier this summer was out Helicopter tour of Kauai. It was a birthday gift to son Logan from his grandmother, Nana. Heather and I globbed onto it also. We were all thrilled. We took off on a Safari Helicopters aircraft with Brian at the controls. I was glad that he didn’t let Logan fly the thing.

We headed over the ship and and then back into the island giving us a running commentary on all that we saw. Sorry I wasn’t taking notes but he was very informative.

We saw some very deep canyons. This may be Waimea Canyon, the so called Grand Canyon of the Pacific and now a state park.

We saw lots of beautiful land. Our pilot, Brian listed off some of the celebrity landowners who are buying up the old ranches of Kauai. Michael Case of AOL online for instance owns 39,000 acres via various entities. Facebook gazillionaire Mark Zuckerberg paid over $100 million for just 700 acres. I think he got taken personally. $100 million for just over a square mile? I’m glad for the landowner that he bought it from.

Oh well, back to the friendly skies. I’ve posted this rainbow before. Again a very beautiful flight.

I was amazed at the up and down topograpy and all the water and how green everything is. Kauai is called the Garden Island for a reason I found out.

And then out over the north shore where we spotted this boat motoring along in some beautiful water.

And then along the beautiful Na Pali coast which is simply breathtaking. Brian talked about his plans to hike along the coast with some friends about about seven miles and camping. It sounded like a plan to me but he didn’t extend any invites.

I have no idea what this is. Sorry for the fuzzy photograph. It sure looks official.

Another fuzzy pic of a view through a canyon to the Pacific Ocean.

And then again into the interior. There have been lots of movies filmed on Kauai. Here is a list of close to fifty movies that were at least partially filmed on Kauai.a

It was all so beautiful but it came to an end.

We bailed out and Sherrel the Safari Helicopter Rep took our pics. It was a great trip.

Linking with Our World Tuesday

Our World Tuesday – Crashing a Pool Party

This past weekend we ventured out to the big skies of western Oklahoma. We had lots of fun but let me tell you about one thing that happened. And I swear that it all happened just like I say below, more or less.