I went on a short hike on Turkey Mountain on Friday. I love this bridge across the top of a dam.
This is another trail elsewhere on Turkey Mountain going across the top of dam.
Earlier in the week I went on a short walk at Hunter Park. I love post and beam fences. Among other things, they make great shadows.
I had a lot of excitement yesterday at the No Kings Rally here in Tulsa. Time to settle the nervous system down and relax.
I’m linking with Shadow Shot Sunday. Great gang to chill with.
Tulsa had a couple of No Kings Day rallies. One was near our house, that’s no fun!, the other was just south of downtown and was probably the bigger one. Heather decided we would go check it out. Heather had a friend who was game also. We each made posters. Mine was pretty lame. I always got a C in art as a kid for my lame attempts at expressing myself through coloring and other mediums.
The video below is about 2 minutes, 20 seconds long. No narration just photos and video of what I saw at the rally, one of thousands all over the country yesterday. Oklahoma is deep ruby red country, and it was nice to see like minded people who have troubles with the current administration come together peacefully and protest what is going on right now. And like most Tulsa protests, there was no police presence nor were they needed. People are pretty civil here.
A robin I captured on Turkey Mountain Friday afternoon.
Another robin in the same area on a different pass yesterday.
Ducks on the fishing pond at Lafortune Park earlier in the week.
Two separate sculptures working together at the Scheel’s Store at the mall.
Lizzie the cat, grooming Sadie to dog in a tender moment.
Kodie and Sadie wanting in!!
Sadie on my lap while I was watching television the other night.
Finally a 21 second video of other critter moments during the week. Featuring the bird cam, a sparrow, a dove, an angry squirrel, and me and Sadie playing fetch. Yep, all that fits in 21 seconds so pay attention!!
I’m linking with Saturday’s Critters.
Lake Bixhoma is a water supply lake for the Tulsa suburb of Bixby. It’s a not a big lake but is very pretty especially in the fall. This is from an outing a few years ago. I’m kind of out of commission temporarily I went and fell during a hike last Friday and not getting around too much lately. But hey, I’m healing fast!
Lots of people go fishing on the lake and there is a decent network of trails there as well. Plus geocaches. In fact I took these photos during a geocaching event at the lake.
It is just a great place to go wander around in. Kind of snaky though so watch your step!!
Part of the trail system goes by this beautiful cliff. I’m told by my geology minded people that those rocks are about 330 million years old and are full of small fossils. I’m a lousy paleontologist. I can see the fossils when they are pointed out to me otherwise all I see is rock.
Those rocks from deep under the earth played a role in a nuclear test treaty between the United States and Russia under the terms of the Threshold Test Ban Treaty in 1990 at the nearby Leonard Geophysical Observatory. Check the link for the story here. They monitored American and British underground explosions in Nevada from the site. The arrangement only lasted a few years and then the Russians gave the site back to the Americans and left. I’ve read other articles that I couldn’t find online. One thing that amused me was that the Russians refused to honor no smoking rules in the buildings. They’d say, this is now part of Russia and we don’t have no smoking in Russia.
I’d love to see the old test monitoring site but it is all fenced off now.
I am linking with Skywatch Friday
The touring broadway production of the musical “The Outsiders” debuted last week in Tulsa. It is based on the coming of age novel by S.E. Hinton set in 1967 in Tulsa. Hinton started writing the book at age 15 as a high school student in Tulsa and it was published when she was 17 years old in 1967. The book was subsequently made into a movie in 1983 by Francis Ford Coppola and a cast that included future stars: Tom Cruise, Emilio Estevez, Ralph Macchio, Matt Dillon, and Rob Lowe.
Heather and I had been waiting months to see musical. The day before the production I took a bad spill on a hike on Turkey Mountain hurting my new fake knee and I didn’t know if I was going to be able to make it or not, but hey, I did. Heather had to drop my off at the theater and then go park the car herself. I wasn’t going to miss it. (Turns out the fake knee is fine, things are just going to be sore for a while.)
The production was great. The producers did a great job of translating the book to the stage. The music was wonderful, the story moved along. One thing that was unexpected was the special effects. They were very clever in how that they staged various fight scenes. Above is a clip from the “Rumble Scene.”
The movie was shot on scene in Tulsa and there are scores of movie scenes. Above is Will Rogers High School where the book was set and where S.E. Hinton was a student.
Many of the scenes have geocaches nearby. This an old gas station in Sperry, OK on one of my favorite biking routes. A fellow geocacher volunteers there and installed a geocache at the back of the gas station.
A Rexall drug store across the street from the gas station was also a filming site.
The Admiral Twin Drive In featured in the movie is still in business.
The house featured in The Outsiders is in a not good neighborhood in Tulsa. The house was in danger of being lost when Danny Boy O’Connor bought it, restored it, and made it into the Outsiders House Museum. It is very cool and is open Fridays through Sundays.
The Circle Theater shown in the movie is still open with a slightly different name, Circle Cinema. It also has a geocache nearby.
As you can tell, I kind of like all things Outsiders. Check out the touring production website to figure out when it is coming to your town and get some tickets. It’s coming back to Tulsa in December 2027 and Heather and I will be there.
A combination early morning fence and shadow selfie using the hipstamatic app on my iphone.
A Moon Gate on a hiking trail.
Our Pomeranian Kodi looking for a sunny spot on the floor to take a nap.
Linking with Shadow Shot Sunday
I was out hiking on Tulsa’s Turkey Mountain Urban Wilderness Area, with my “good camera”, and I heard a bird call. The Merlin App said it was a Carolina Wren. So I just stopped and stood still and was looking around and I saw two little birds that I thought could be them. They are kind of flighty so I just waited until I had a clear shot and took several and this one was the best one of the lot. I’ve learned to use manual focus when I am shooting bird photos in trees and brush otherwise the camera will focus on miscellaneous twigs, branches and leaves. I know it is grainy, it is highly cropped. But I will take. Carolina Wrens are beautiful birds.
I think that I am slowly getting better spotting and photographing birds.
I am linking with Saturday’s Critters
Here: Taken on a recent morning hike with a friend through The Sanctuary at Tulsa’s Turkey Mountain Urban Wilderness Area. It’s kind of an isolated part of Turkey Mountain so we don’t generally see anybody early in the morning.
To the Moon!: The Full Harvest Moon for a couple nights ago. Clear skies in Tulsa made this one easy. Social media blew up as thousands of people posted their Full Moon shots that night. I loved it.
And back: From an October 2019 trip to Jackson, Wyoming. My wife and I hiked all over Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Park. What a beautiful place that is.
I’m linking with Skywatch Friday
Saturday we went to a local shopping center that was having an “Artist on the Square” event with a ton of artists distributing their wares including a family friend. It was hot but there was space was shady so it was tolerable.
I’m linking with Shadow Shot Sunday
Sadie, the rescue dog. We got her around Saint Patrick’s Day this year and she is gradually settling in with us in her forever home. She is very sweet and loving but she doesn’t take any foolishness from our male pom Kodi. If he gets aggressive she just flips him over on his back and holds him down with one paw. It’s kind of hilarious.