Last week I worked this table (the guy there in the photo is not me) at the Monarchs on the Mountain event at Tulsa’s Chandler Park. There were no monarch butterflies around but we celebrated them anyway.
This critter showed up at the booth and stayed for a while crawling around and checking out our giveaways and information. I didn’t know what it was but iNaturalist tells me that it is a wheelbug. There were lots of enviromental type people at the event and they all said, don’t hurt it, it’s good. So I let it crawl and around and told people they could figure out what it was from iNaturalist or Google Lens. Kids got a big kick out of it. And so did I. What a learning opportunity.
A few days ago my wife and I attended an event on Turkey Mountain as guests of the Turkey Mountain Urban Wilderness Area. We had a good time. The highlight was seeing this Red tailed hawk. She was very calm even though she was the hit of the party.
Friday I went on a hike on Turkey Mountain. I took my “good camera” even though it was hot and the middle of the day. For taking photos of critters, cell phones definitey have their limitations. I didn’t see too many critters but I go this dragon fly’s photo.
I also got this turtle on a log at Pepsi Lake. I have no idea how he crawled up the log to the top.
And I was able to pick out this photo out of some thick trees. I was so proud of myself for capturing the image of a rare bird. I ran the image though google lens and it turns out that it is a robin. You just can’t see the red breast but the eyes are a giveaway. It’s still a good photo though, right? Hey I like it. Real birders amaze me. They can find the birds and take photos of them. I can hear them and get glimpses of them but they are gone by the time I get my camera ready.
I’m linking with Eileen’s Saturday’s Critters. Check it out. Eileen is a real birder who can find the birds, ID them, and get the photos.
After my family reunion in South Dakota, I loaded up the car again and headed back out west to Albuquerque, New Mexico for my second 50th high school reunion this summer. The first was in Eagar, Arizona with the class I would have graduated from if my family had stayed there but we moved to Albuquerque in the middle of my sophomore year. But I had maintained connections with several of the Arizona bunch and they invited me to their celebration and off I went. Hey how could I miss riding on a trailer with my classmates in the city 4th of July parade.
The big sky of New Mexico in Tucumcari.
The High School in Arizona was small but close knit, maybe like 30 something people of whom maybe 25 showed up. Enough to see everyone. In Albuquerque I was one of 760 some graduates most of whom I didn’t know. I remember that for graduation they seated us in alphabetical order and I could swear that I had never seen the people on either side of me . I think about 150 of my fellow graduates showed up. They had several events over the weekend. No sitting on hay bales in a parade though. I went anyway.
Albuquerque Sky from the parking lot of my hotel parking lot.
I know that going to two reunions in the same year is a little extravagant but you know it’s not like there was going to be a makeup session next summer for those losers who couldn’t go this summer. My wife, Heather was very understanding about the situation and I appreciated her generosity. I am not a pick an A or B kind of guy. Sometimes I want A and B, and then sometimes C, D, through Z and all covered up with chocolate syrup and yes, supersize the fries
The Sandia Mountains from the windows of my old high school in Albuquerque. How is anybody supposed to study with that view? The Sandias are a constant in Albuquerque life. They loom over the city everywhere.
So I went to the Albuquerque events and I enjoyed them although most of my peeps either didn’t show up or were honored on the “In Memoriam” board with a candle burning alongside, but I had a good time visiting with the people I did know and more than a few that I had no remembrances of way back when.
Looking west toward the West Mesa in Albuquerque. Great skies are everywhere.
Interesting thing was that we got to visit the old high school but the whole school except for the gym had been razed and a new school built with half the capacity. The other thing is that the neighborhoods that fed the school had transitioned from middle class to working class in the fifty years and the school had changed the way they did things. They spent a lot of time, money, and effort addressing the issues of why kids from poor families don’t go to school. It was very interesting and the professional educators in our class loved what they were doing. One interesting thing was they were discouraging homework and really encouraging the kids to get their assignments done during the school day. (I did very well in school but hated homework, to me it was just busy work.)
My class reunion photograph. Can you find me? I stole the photo of a classmates facebook post.
From the photo above, one could step thirty feet and view this view of the Sandias. I had no idea how much I missed them until I came back.
So the Albuquerque event was much different than the Arizona event but both were great. But it was time to head back home.
I was on a constrained time schedule so I didn’t have much time for other adventures but I did stop and check out some of the old obsolete grain elevators alongside interstate 40 in the Texas panhandle. I think these old structures are beautiful and we’ll be losing them over time.
I love old obsolete infrastructure. Why? I don’t know, I just do.
I saw lots of new infrastructure as well. Wind turbines for instance. I used to think they were very ugly. I still do but they are here to stay. For some reason it has turned into a political issue and I don’t know why. I’m an “all of the above guy” on energy and think that wind energy can play an important part in our domestic energy mix.
Moving up to present day, or at least a week ago, we had some storms move through Tulsa. I launched my drone but the winds picked up so I played chicken and kept the drone altitude low. We had wind, lightning, and not a whole lot of rain.
You can see how low I was, I was below the power lines. I’m a real chicken little with my drone. I had it get away from me once and I hit the emergency return buttons and they worked but that was stressful. I don’t like stress.
And for tonight (September 28) here is the Full Harvest Moon. I love the moon! Who doesn’t?
Sorry for my rambling this evening. I am linking with Skywatch Friday
Shadowy walk to the beach from our condo on vacation on the Gulf Coast.
Shadows on a bench on an overlook at Gulf State Park in Alabama.
Shadowy Benches installed at the hub of several trails on my beloved Turkey Mountain. A team of volunteers carried by hand about a half mile,the benches, several bags of concrete, several five gallon buckets of water and the tools for job and then installed them after clearing the area. (Note, I did not do any of the heavy lifting, but you know somebody has to take the pictures.)
We went on our family vacation to Orange Beach, Alabama early in September. It was great because the crowds were gone and the weather was pleasant, but the water was still warm. It was perfect.
I spotted a squadron of pelicans skimming the waves in the Gulf of Mexico. I presume they were looking for something to eat.
We saw this lone wolf pelican at a nearby pass begging for food from the fishermen. We see these loners and I sense that most of them are juveniles and don’t quite know how to fend for themselves.
And near the pelican were some great blue herons. (At least I think that is what they are.)
I was on the balcony of our condo when I spotted this heron. I am thinking that he was looking for lizards.
We walked on the beach a lot. We saw lots of shorebirds standing and flying around.
Had a bunch of these birds
On a bicycle ride in nearby Gulf State Park we saw this alligator. We have been here before and there is almost always an alligator or two here.
And at the swimming pool one evening we spotted this lizard. He would puff his throat up to a bright red color. He’s lucky a heron didn’t see him is what I think.
While in South Dakota in early August for a family reunion another place I sneaked off to was Falls Park near downtown Sioux Falls. I love it there. A huge park with lots to see and great photo opportunities. The Big Sioux River runs through the park and makes a bunch of beautiful cascaded water falls.
They are very beautiful.
For a time in the early part of the 20th century the energy of the falls was harnessed to generate electricity. Those days are gone but the old power house has been repurposed to a cafe. I will say it again, I love it when buildings are repurposed espcially when they are as beautiful as this one.
The falls are loud and are mesmerizing.
I climbed the nearby observation tower and took a photo of the one area of the park. Silly me didn’t take a photo of the observation tower.
And I found several geocaches while I was there. (Geocaching is an online treasure seeking game. Check this link to learn more.) I love geocaching.
There was a sculpture called The Farmer there. Farmers do lots of sitting and thinking of course if they want to be successful and of course they got to get up and do things as well.
Me, I’m not much of a farmer. I’m a retired natural gas guy. I just take lots of photos. I have 89,006 on flickr so far. Five or six of them are pretty decent. Not sure about the rest.
A Ship’s Bell from the USS New Mexico has its own shadow and is about to be engulfed by other shadows on the campus of the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque.
While in South Dakota in August for a family reunion, I had a little free time so I went to the nearby Big Sioux Recreation Area near Sioux Falls.
It’s a sizeable state park featuring a lot of different terrain. River bottoms, prairie, forest, valleys and hills.
From a low point in the park to the highest point, where I also hiked.
It has a moderate entrance fee and like it seems everything else in the Midwest, is impeccably maintained.
A small geocache hanging in a tree
I went their for the hiking and geocaching.
I had the place to myself during the weekday that I was there.
The Big Sioux River winds through the park. Tell the truth the Big Sioux River seems to everywhere in my family history. Our family church is near the Big Sioux River and many of my relatives were baptized in it. It runs through Dell Rapids where many of my family live and where the reunion is held. It is one of those long winding rivers that seems to be everywhere.
Something about the wind blowing a cottonwood tree
South Dakota is a surprising state. My vision is that it is flat but for a flat place it has lots of hills and valleys and even mountains and forests. Think Mount Rushmore and the Black Hills.
It has lots of big majestic trees.
And high hills with great views and skiesl
I didn’t spend much time there. Went on a little hike, found a few geocaches and took some photos.
Back in August I ventured up to southeast South Dakota for a family reunion. While there the family attended services at Sioux Valley Baptist Church on land donated by my great great grandfather back in the 1800’s. So this reunion Sunday a family member Lutheran pastor led the service. So that was kind of cool. My uncle Glenn, 90+ years old, tells me that the interior furnishings and decorations are the same as they were back when he was just a boy.
So this is me, my cousin Robert, and our uncle Glenn at the site of what my mother called the “Damn Dam” in Flandreau, South Dakota. Glenn, my dad, and another brother and a friend of theirs jointly bought a canoe and used both upstream and downstream of the dam for years. So every year they all had to go visit the dam and take their wives who teased them about it the Damn Dam. So now Glenn takes me and my cousin to it and we tease him a little about but we all know it’s a fond memory of his.
Another place we visit in Flandreau is the Japanese Gardens. An old time dance hall from a long time ago. My grandmother used to talk about seeing Glenn Miller, Tommy Dorsey, Lawrence Welk and others back in the day when they were touring the Midwest. I don’t know why they called the Japanese Gardens but I did find out that it temporarily named something else during World War II and then returned the original name a few years later.
I’ve seen it a lot but I’ve never seen it in use. So I was glad to see that a local developer had a cut a deal with the city to restore it and use it as an event space again. There was a large poster inside that laid out a lot of the performers over the years and I wish I had photographed it because it talked about rock and roll groups during the 50’s and 60’s that performed there. I couldn’t find any such information online. I just love it when old buildings are restored and repurposed.
Later on we went to the town of Dell Rapids. Glenn talked about swimming as a kid in the Big Sioux River as it ran by the city park.
Remnants of the old bath house still stand. Nobody goes swimming in the river any longer.
One thing that startled me is we stopped at a gas station and I saw these pumps where you could get either 70% ethanol or 55% for your specially equipped car. Egads!! I thought. I have never seen anything like this. The stuff is pretty potent liquorwise, 70% would be 140 proof alcohol and 55% would be 110 proof. I wouldn’t drink it though as the other component is gasoline.
In early August I headed up to southeast South Dakota from Tulsa for a family reunion on my dad’s side of the family.
I love the drive up there and the fastest route generally keeps me off the freeways most of the way. That kind of suits me. Lots less traffic and lots more to see. I love the big skies in the Midwest.
I also enjoy the small towns. Lots to see there. I like to see old infrastructure of almost any kind. The Midwest has lots of agriculture infrastructure to look at and photograph.
I also love their county courthouses. Nice big solid buildings for the most part.
Something I noticed on this trip that I don’t remember seeing much before is the plethora of barn quilts. In eastern Kansas it seemed like everybody had a barn quilt, the county courthouse had this one on the grounds. Doing the google thing I find out that barn quilts are kind of folk art that has been in the Midwest states especially for a long time. They are designs painted on wood that are then hung on barns originally. Kind of cool is what I think.
Burlington Kansas. There is a geocache hidden on this sign and notice that an early presidential candidate is announcing his run. This might be my favorite “welcome to” signs I’ve ever seen.
Getting close to my destination as the sun started declining I pulled off the freeway to get this shot.
Anyway it takes me a while to get anywhere and I enjoyed myself. When my wife goes with me she doesn’t put up with that kind of nonsense. I don’t blame her. But I enjoyed my drive up through America’s heartland of Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, and South Dakota.
