Tag Archives: Tulsa

Tulsa Auto Show 2016 Edition

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Saturday I ventured out to the Tulsa State Fairgrounds to the annual Tulsa Auto Show to see what is going on. I found a Porsche Carrera is one thing.

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And an Audi A8. Earlier in the week my cab driver, Mohammed,  said look at that Audi! I said, is that Audi special? And he said, yes, it is their flagship car and is very expensive. I told my friend Mohammed that I thought the car looked like a Toyota and he just laughed.  So I had to check it out. I didn’t write down what this cost but i think it was over $100,000. It has a twin turbocharged twelve cylinder engine and generates over 700 horsepower.  That is all great and everything but it stil looks like a white Toyota to me._DSC0554

This is the car where all the guys were hanging out. Most cars you can wait until people clear out but they don’t clear out on this one. Women tried to get close to it but they kept slipping on all the testosterone on the floor. It is the Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat. It has a supercharged 6.2L V8 and is regarded as the most powerful family sedan on earth.

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This is what was causing all the gasping and such.

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The nice sales lady in the miniskirt told me that the $70,000 price includes the custom Hellcat badge. I asked her how much for just the badge. I thought it would look good on my Kia Soul. She moved on to somebody else.

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The Mustang GT is nice also. I don’t have the stats. Lots of car guys I know hate the Mustangs. I don’t quite understand why. I have to say though that at first glance the Mustang and the Charger look like Toyotas to me. Not that I have anything against Toyotas.

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I like the older model Ford Thunderbirds. Nobody is going to mistake this for a Toyota.

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And here is something I had never seen before. A Chevrolet Corvair pickup truck. Imagine a rear engine pickup. Imagine a gate on the side of the bed. That is a unique vehicle. For Comparison /Explanation of OEM /OES /Aftermarket /Used truck parts and other parts, people can click here to buy wholesale.

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I always liked how the Corvairs looked but they sure got a bad rep when Ralph Nader’s book Unsafe at any Speed came out. The rear engine cars tended to spin out and cause accidents and the steering column, all one piece would impale the drivers. The car seems to have a loyal following. I don’t want one!!

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The flat six cylinder engine with turbocharger sure is compact. The spare tire went into the engine compartment. Too bad they did not get a chance to address the problems with the car.

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I am seeing fewer and fewer British Sports Cars as time goes by. I think this is an Austin Healy but I am not sure. These and the MG’s and a few others are the true sports cars in my book. The Jaguars and such are glorified Fords in my opinion. Except for the Porsche Carrera. It is still cool.

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Speaking of, here is an older model from the late 50’s When I was a kid the only people who had Porsches were like airline captains, lawyers, and doctors. I had an Uncle who had one. He was an officer in the Navy and single and I think he had a Porsche. Then he got married and had kids. Adios Porsche. I was involved in a federal trial back in the late 80’s in Oklahoma City.  His offices were out of downtown. On trial days I met him at his office and we road his Porsche to the courthouse downtown. He hardly ever got out of second gear. Plus he just parked where he wanted to downtown and nobody ever said a thing.

I’ll have to write a post about the trial. I wasn’t on trial, my employer was. I think I am waiting for the judge to die though before I say anything online. Buy me a beer or two though and I’ll tell you the whole story.

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Here is the star of the show, in my eyes. It is a 1966 Auburn Cord Duesenberg Auburn 866 Speedster. Only a few hundred were made in the factory at the Tulsa suburb of Broken Arrow. I love it. I don’t think that I have ever seen one before. It is one of the most beautiful cars I have ever seen.

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This is the vehicle I coveted the most though. A Nissan Frontier pickup. I miss my Toyota Tacoma that I traded in for my Kia Soul. The Tacoma has bloated to almost full size. The Frontier is still kind of small. No new cars for the Bates family though until the price of oil comes some more, A LOT more. Plus I’ll get mine used, thank you very much.

So, do you like to go to car shows?

Skywatch Friday – Fighting Sisters

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This shot is from a few weeks ago during a family hike on Tulsa’s Turkey Mountain. I thought this pair of ragged but tough trees looked a like fighting sisters really going after it. Or maybe they are dancing? But they look too angry to be dancing. What do you think? And yep, there is a sky behind them.

I’m linking with Skywatch Friday today.

Turkey Mountain Rainbow

Turkey Mountain Rainbow - Topaz Glow - Mysterious at 58pct

Last week I was running the trails in an on again/off again rain on Turkey Mountain with a few people including one who like me just has to stop to take a photo every now and then. She noticed this rainbow off to the east and I used my cell phone to take a pic but the colors were not as bright in the image as what I could see right in front of me. So I’ve used Topaz Glow to pull out the color some to make it more like what that evening.

I’m linking with Skywatch Friday

 

 

Springtime Tulips at Tulsa Botanic Garden

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I have been incognito lately on the good ole interwebs and I am sorry about that. I hadn’t return visited any commenters or checked on my friends or any of that good stuff.

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Our internet service went on the blink for a few days. I finally got it going again Sunday. It took lots of magical incantations from our tech lady and muttering and such for about an hour but by gum she got it fixed.

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Plus Logan is fixing to graduate and has a lot going on plus we are doing a little house updating. I wish magical incantations would update the house. So far it is taking cash, the cold hard kind.

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So anyway, I don’t know if anybody missed me or not but I’m back for now.

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Plus Logan has a small role in a musical that his school is doing. They are doing Footloose and I’m looking forward to seeing it. Of course I’m also signed up to hush the kids back stage one night and I get to usher the adults one night, and tell them to hush also.

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And so anyway I did a get a few hours free Saturday to go to the Tulsa Botanic Garden and take some pictures of their tulips. They were all over the place. I know all the technical names for the tulips. For example the those above are yellow tulips and down below we have purple and red tulips. Pretty impressive huh?

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They are beautiful and just kind of speak for themselves I think.

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There were not that many people there. The garden is located out in the middle of nowhere way out of town and they are new but they are growing and filling in and it will get more and more popular.

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It is a must see for those who live in or visit Tulsa. Check their website for directions and hours.

Downtown Update

Downtown Construction

Sometimes it seems that different sectors of the economy out of synch with each other. The energy industry has gone down the tubes (although indications are that a recovery is in progress) and the building industry in Tulsa is booming. For full details, Looking out a window at work there are three different projects going on. The closest one is a new hotel going up. There are several hotels going up downtown now.

And then if you follow the street alongside the hotel you can see that they are extending the street to the high rise on the right. That is our former city hall that has been converted to a hotel. Part of the deal with the hotel to meet code is that they needed a street going to it because the city likes hotels to have two streets for firetrucks and such to use. It is a pretty expensive road project because it is on top of a parking garage.

And then just this side and to the right of the hotel is on lazy  $50 million renovation of our Central Library. If you want to construct or do renovation for the full run down building, you need to contact a reputed construction company like Preserve services. From what I can tell they are going to store most of the books off site and put in lots more computers. I’m sorry but I think what they are doing is turning our library into an internet cafe for the homeless, methheads, and K2 addicts. Also, the library’s director hornswaggled the board of the library into giving him a paid four month leave of absence to get his PhD. The guy makes over $170,000 per year plus a $450 a month car allowance, plus, plus, plus. He makes more than the Governor of Oklahoma! Do you really need a library director who is gone for four months? Poor use of taxpayer funds I think.

Oops, I digress, what is happening where you live?

Skywatch Friday – Villa Philbrook Spring Sky

Philbrook Sky - Topaz Adjust - Autumn

One of my favorite spots in Tulsa is the Philbrook Museum of Art. It is not only a great museum it has wonderful gardens. So last week I was out there taking pictures of daffodils and I took this tilted photo of Villa Philbrook and a twisted gnarly tree and a big dramatic sky.

I’m linking with Skywatch Friday 

Digital Art – Tulsa’s Linnaeus Gardens

Linnaeus Gardens - Topaz Glow - Fin and Feather II 100 pct

Spring is here, last week, (when Spring wasn’t quite here, I guess) I took the big camera to Tulsa’s Linnaeus Gardens and took a few pics. I loved these flowers in the planter. The flowers seem a little overpowered by  the mass of the rocks in the planter and the ultra heavy duty lattice above it but with the flowers, with the bright colors, overcame that mass. At least that is what I think. I used Topaz’s Glow to bring out the grain of the wood and the texture of the rock.

I’m linking with Digital Art Meme

2016 TATUR Snake Run

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The closest I’ll get to a trophy!

The TATUR Snake Run was run today. The race is a little different in that who ever runs the longest in a given time wins. There is a three hour race and a six hour race on the same course. The course has two routes, a big loop of 3.75 miles and a small loop of 0.5 miles. You run as many big loops as you can within the allotted time and if you don’t think you can run another big loop before the time ends, you run the little loop as many times as you can. Partial loops don’t count.

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The Godfather of Tulsa Trail and Ultra Running, and Race Director, Ken (Trail Zombie) giving pre-race instructions on a chilly Saturday morning. I had three layers on and running pants and gloves. Others just had shorts and a tee shirt. That is because they are tougher than I am. In addition to being a lot faster.

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There is no crowding at the start line on a run like this. They have six hours to get dispersed. I always start at the very back.

This is the six hour guys and gals taking off. Ironically enough, they run faster than the three hour crowd, in general. Mainly because they are in great shape. Imagine ripping along at seven to eight minute miles for six hours? I can imagine it for one mile.

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We ran this section but I actually took the photo on the Thursday before the race. True Confessions.

The race starts and stays on the upper level of Turkey Mountain and is relatively flat. There were a few boggy spots but overall the course wasn’t bad. The thing about trail races is how polite everybody is. People kind of move out of each others way, the slow runners yield to the faster runners overtaking them. I’ve never heard a cross word exchanged between runners.

I got into a pretty comfortable pace of running a half mile and walking a minute throughout the race. I stopped at every aid station and had a cup of water and a cup of gatorade. I had two nutter butter cookies on every lap. I don’t know why, it was working for me and I just went with it. I also had a few pickles for the sodium and a couple of banana segments for the potassium.  I never did feel depleted out on the course.

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I didn’t drink beer on the course this time. I wanted to get three big loops in and didn’t want any distractions.

I ran the three hour event and did three of the big loops and one of the little loops. I milled around a bit, had a beer and a half, a hot dog and a chocolate chip cookie.  It was very breezy and cold at the end of the race so I didn’t linger for long.

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I watched some of the six hour races come in and head back out. I was done at three hours. I couldn’t have done one more lap.

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So I put on my finisher’s medal and went home. Thank you to the race organizers, the many volunteers and my fellow contestants for making this race so much fun. By my Garmin, I did about 11.5 miles. This has given me confidence to start looking around for a half marathon, which is 13.1 miles to do. My goal is to run the Route 66 Half Marathon in Tulsa next November. I would like to do maybe two others between now and then.  Got any ideas?

I’ll be back next year!!