Our World Tuesday – Ed Galloway’s Totem Pole Park

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Recently, I ventured up Route 66 from Tulsa to Foyil and then on Ed Galloway’s Totem Pole Park. The park was built by a retired shop teacher, Ed Galloway during the period 1937 to 1961. The signature piece is the 90 feet totem above. It is built of sandstone, with a concrete skin, reinforced with steel and wood. And as you can see it is decorated elaborately. After Galloway’s death in 1961 the park went into slow decline until the Rogers County Historical Society and the Kansas Grassroots Arts Association  restored it in the 1990’s.

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Here is the other side. You can see that Galloway has the totem sitting on the back of a turtle. The turtle is a natural sandstone outcrop on the site that the artist incorporated into the structure. This also shows a little better the  decorations.

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I am not sure what the symbology of the snake in the mouth is about.

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Some examples of the Native American decorations.

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The inside of the first floor is open and is also decorated. There seems to be lots of discussion about the difference between biggest totem pole, largest, tallest, etc. I am not worried about it.

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Here are a couple more totems. That are yet others. There is also a visitor center/gift store and a short nature trail.

Ed Galloway’s Totem Pole Park is a great Route 66 attraction and is in very good shape. Check out the this National Park Service site for more information.

I am linking to Our World Tuesday 

Here is a blog post I made of the park six years ago when son Logan visited with me. 

Skywatch Friday – Visiting an Old Indian Trader’s Grave

The other day I had a meeting in a field office of my employer’s in Western Oklahoma. I had  a little time afterward so I went on a little drive.

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I drove past a herd of cattle.

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Then a newly drilled well being prepared for fracking. Notice the green pipe in the foreground being built to take gas from the well for processing and delivery to market.

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And then I turned down a muddy farm road to get to this marker.

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And walked a short ways down a grassy path to this humble grave.

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This is where Jesse Chisholm is buried. He  blazed the Chisholm Trail from South Texas to Abilene, Kansas where tens of thousands head of cattle herded north to supply beef for the northeast. He didn’t drive cattle, he was a trader with several stores and developed the trails to restock his stores. He also had good relations with many of the Native American tribes and negotiated to recovery of several women and children who had been kidnapped by the tribes.  He also helped facilitate several peace treaties. He died of food poisoning near where he is buried.

I think it is amazing that somebody who had such a huge part of the history and legends of the West has such a humble grave.

I’m linking with Skywatch Friday

A New Photo App, Oilist

I love photo editing apps on my iphone. My favorite is the free Snapseed, followed by Prisma, and IColorama. Recently I found another one, OIlist.  Oilist is a little unique because instead of just picking some a type of filter and then seeing a results, you pick more of a process and then watch as the process “paints” the photo and you can interact with the process as you wish. It is really very cool. I’ve had a time learning it. I’m not much for tutorials or manuals, I like to jump in and try it out so I’ve been experimenting with it.

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This is a bay scene at Orange Beach Alabama. I didn’t like all the black in it so i set it out on a new course.

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Subtle difference I know, but I like this much better although still not happy with it. The instructions on the app said that it works best on more colorful photos.

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I tried it on a photo of flamingos that I had and I like this.

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is there anything more colorful than 1950’s era Ford Thunderbirds. I loved this. Apps like this are not for everybody. I’ve some “photographer” friends who hate these apps. To them fidelity to the original image is what counts. And hey I get that. What I am looking for is what I see in my mind.  I love the interactivity of Oilist and how one can try different things and save interim works and go back and try again. It’s a lot of fun but it does take time.

How about you? Do you have any photo apps that you like.

Shopping with Heather

I guess that I am a little different that some husbands. When Heather goes shopping, I almost always go with her if I can. She is my best friend and I am rarely bored especially with my phone and my various camera and filter apps. So this is a recent trip.

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We went to Sprouts. Sprouts used to have these stern signs at the entrance to the store that photography was strictly forbidden. Yeah, you gotta be kidding me man. So I took pics of everything in sight. They don’t have the signs any more but I still take pics of lots of stuff. I love these pears.

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And their flowers! I love them also. I was using the Hipstamatic App to take photos. I love Hipstamatic.

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And then we went to Steinmart. I found these bears.

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And these purse chains.

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And these bears!

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And these little knick knacks.

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I found these shorts. I love them, but I have way too many clothes. Should I go back and get a pair?

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I loved this shirt also. Should I get I go back and get this one. The slightest encouragement would cause me to do so. I think Logan has this same shirt. Maybe he will let me borrow his.

Anyway, so much for shopping trip today.

Skywatch Friday – From All Over Town

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The sky was clear and the moon was bright so I took a photo of it. Don’t forget this Friday we have a full blood moon coming up. This was about 86% gibbous phase. I don’t always get them but I love it when I can see the craters on the “bottom” of the moon.

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And here we are in the ‘hood. I loved the clouds one day when I was on the front porch. I guess sometimes I am a lazy skywatcher. While we are in a sharing mood, I took the photo of the moon from my front yard as well. Do you have any true confessions you want to share?

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And this is my favorite building in Tulsa. The Boston Avenue United Methodist Church. An art deco masterpiece built in the late 1920’s and designed by Bruce Goff and Adah Robinson. The interior is beautiful also. It was our family church when we first moved to Tulsa.

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And this is from Oxley Nature Center. I love how the island appears to be suspended in air. (Okay maybe I’m stretching it a little bit.)

Okay, that’s it for this week. Don’t forget the full moon on Friday. Take some photos for me. I’m going to be at a baseball game so I am depending on you.

I’m linking with Skywatch Friday

Our World – The Deer at Oxley Nature Center

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It has been hot lately but Sunday it cooled down quite a bit and we had overcast skies. Heather went to have some girl time with her friends and Logan went to his job, so I loaded up my camera and an extra lens and went north the Oxley Nature Center on the north side of Tulsa next to the airport. I don’t know what it was but the deer were out big time. I saw scads of them. I am going to spare you photos of all of them but I will show you this guy. He was a little slow on the uptake but once he noticed me he sure gave me the hawkeye.

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And he gave a high pitched snort and took off.

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He might have lost a little face. The ladies never moved. We had a face off for a while and then I ducked back into the woods so they could resume their salad munching and visiting.

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And I came upon this deer. I was walking along the trail one way, a woman with a camera was coming my way, and this jumped out about 15 feet away but didn’t run very far. We had another  stare off, until I let him win and walked away.

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I eventually made my way to the boardwalk and went across. I bet have a hundred photos of this. I just love boardwalks.

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I came across these two. I don’t know a thing about birds but I am going to  guess the dark one is a great blue heron, and the white one is a white heron. Please correct the ID if I am wrong. I just want to get it right.

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And I resumed my trek on the trails. I walked about four miles according to my step counter. Slow miles but I was on my feet so it counts right?

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Just toward the end I came across this fawn. I hung with me for quite a while but then he bolted.

So it was time to get back to the car to make an instagram post (If you don’t instagram an activity then it didn’t happen, right?), and then fetch the kid from work. I was worn out and happy.

I’m linking with Our World Tuesday

Outsider: Tales from the Road, the Trail and the Run by Bob Doucette


I just finished Bob Doucette’s new book: Outsider: Tales from the Road, the Trail and the Run. It is an account of his life with an emphasis on his love for climbing mountains, trail running, hiking, and fitness. He covers a lot of territory in this slim volume. How he and his brothers grew up loving the the outdoors and  being fit. How he pursued his journalism career hard and neglected his health and then how he realized that he needed to make some changes and became intentional in his pursuit of his goals and chose the hard way to do things. He talks about the concept of wilderness and its importance to him and others. He also discusses spirituality and the loss of his brother and the tests to his faith that brought.

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One of the many trails on Tulsa’s Turkey Mountain Urban Wilderness.

Bob weaves through this several tales of his adventures. Getting caught on the mountains in a rainstorm, road trips with friends, problems encountered and dealt with. He has climbed many of Colorado’s famed peaks over 14,000 feet tall and makes some of them sound like a good walk and others sound very scary. He is a talented and competent writer and he tells his story well. He is a little self deprecating I suspect as I think some of the exploits might be a little more exciting than what he lets on. This book is a great read about a man who loves the outdoors. I give five stars out of five. You can get in on Amazon here.

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The Tetons in Wyoming

Doucette is a resident of Tulsa, works in journalism, and spends much time at Tulsa’s Turkey Mountain Urban Wilderness and  a couple of years ago worked behind the scenes in support of the fight against city hall to allow an Outlet Mall on the mountain. He has a blog, Proactiveoutside, where he writes mainly about outdoors issues.  If he isn’t working you might be able to find him at his gym lifting the big weights or running the trails on Turkey Mountain.

A Barn and Beyond

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This is a barn in Osage County that I have passed a bunch of times on my way to Woolaroc, Pawhuska, or Osage Hills State Park. I think it is beautiful and appears to be reasonably well taken care of by whoever owns it. I’m sure that it is full of mice, snakes, bats. What barn isn’t?

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Earlier this month, my wife took me to her new place where she is going to teach Zumba classes. Titan Sports Performance Center in Jenks, OK. It is ginormous. Lots of indoor volleyball and basketball courts, two indoor soccer fields, a Martial Arts Academy, a Sports Performance Center, and of course a huge space for Zumba and other exercise classes. Plus it has a bunch of outdoor soccer fields. It also has a huge area upstairs where parents can sit and watch their kids play or practice whatever sport they are in.

I met her boss when I was there. Really, really nice guy. I told him it was a great facility and he did the karate of thing of putting his hands together and bowing to me. My yoga teacher does a similar thing at the end of her class. Puts her hands in “heart position” and says “Namaste.” I put my hands together but hadn’t yet said “Namaste.” I don’t know why. I’m a guy, and an engineer, and a Republican. I’m not sure I’m allowed to say such a thing.

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Look at all those air conditioning ducts. Don’t you know the electric meter about spins off the wall during a hot summer day.

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Here is one of the indoor soccer fields. It is all enclosed. Is that like some sort of Mad Max Thunderdome death cage kind of soccer they play in there or what?

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And acres of outdoor fields. Out in the sun.

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The Health Club that we belong to has smoothies. One day they had a blueberry smoothie on special so I signed up. It was just as good as it looks.

Anyway, a wide ranging post today. I hope your day is going great.

Skywatch Friday – July Time

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A scene from a bike ride. I don’t really remember where. I go all sorts of places these days and I have my cheap trusy gopro clone clicking photos every 20 seconds. I only keep literally about 5 to 10% of them. A two ride is 360 photos. Typically 5 to 10 are keepers. The lens is terrible but I love the sky.

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Another photo from my gopro clone. This one is along the creek turnpike trail. Nice views, and hills, followed by hills, and then more hills.

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This photo is from the archives. I took it last year and I don’t know where. Nice sky though.And a dominating planter. It looks like a parking lot and I don’t know where.

Sorry, I am kind of boring. I have the back from vacation, back to work, its hot and humid blues. I ride my bike a lot though.

How about you? How is your summer going? How is your winter going to the many great bloggers who live in New Zealand and Australia?

I’m linking with Skywatch Friday