I launched the drone the other day. It wasn’t sunset time but there were clouds and light so off I went. This is 40 meters over my backyard in Tulsa, Oklahoma, looking west.
And then I turned the drone 180 degrees to the east and pointed the camera closer to the ground.
And, as you can tell, I played with the photos a little bit. I used a program called Dynamic Auto Painter and used one of their watercolor presets.
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Tulsa Tough is a big huge bicycle party in Tulsa. It includes three days of closed loop short distance races (called criteriums) in three different locations in Tulsa and two days of bike rides in the countryside in and around Tulsa.
I typically go to the criterium on the last day of the race. The course includes part of Riverside Drive and loops up steeply on a brutal hill called Crybaby Hill. I used to go up to Crybaby Hill but I’ve declined the last few years. It is very crowded and kind of outrageous in some respects but all in fun. So maybe next year when my knee will be fully healed.
The criteriums start early in the morning and go into the evening. There are sorts of races segmented by age and gender, especially for the amateurs. The professional races are later in the day and those guys and gals are amazing.
So I only saw a few of the amateur races but they were fiercely competitive.
It was hot. I don’t think I could ever do one loop going up that hill.
It’s a big party for the cycling community which tends to be kind of close knit anyway. Me, I’m just a recreational rider. Twelve miles is my sweet spot on level ground.
I actually did one of the rides years ago. The shortest one that they had at 32 miles. Great right? Nope, I had never ridden that distance before. It was kind of fun until it wasn’t and I got off the official course and so I just went to my car, loaded up the bike and went home. Ironically, I ended up riding a little more than the official course distance. Read about it here.
I am linking with My Corner of the World.
The other day we had a fast moving rainstorm move through Tulsa. It was very intense and didn’t last long.
It left a calling card, a beautiful rainbow to the east. It was rainbow mania on Tulsa social media. Everybody got rainbow shots that were a lot better than mine. But hey, I’ll take mine. I don’t get too many rainbows.
Looking west you can see the tail end of the clouds coming through.
I’m a pretty down to earth guy but I regard rainbows as a sign of good luck.
So last Saturday afternoon my bride, Heather, and I loaded up and went downtown to check out Tulsa’s spring arts festival, Mayfest. Mayfest has been going on forever and we used to go to it years ago when it was in the core part of downtown. Heather would come down for lunch and we would walk around looking at the arts and crafts for sale, get something to eat, and listen to music. In the 90’s Hanson would play on one of the side stages. A talented group of youngsters who became famous and are now all growns up with their own children and they still live in the Tulsa area. We’ve seen them from time to time.
The University of Tulsa took over Mayfest some time ago and somewhere along the way they moved out of the core downtown area to the Arts District which is where all the cool kids go for restaurants and bars.
So we walked along checking out the arts and stuff for sale. I didn’t take photos of any of that as I have learned that artists and craftspeople don’t necessarily appreciate their work being photographed and I respect that.
This was the first time since before Covid that we attended the event and we were amazed at the quality of everything we saw.
After a while we got hungry and thirsty so we stepped into Cabin Boys Brewery for some refreshment.
Craft Beer and Nachos were just the thing.
Afterwards we drifted over to Guthrie Green to listen to the music which was also great. I amused myself by taking photos of people taking photos. Hey we are all in this public space and I didn’t take any photos that anybody could find embarrassing.
I’m ending with a flashback to 2016 when I was invited to submit a couple of my instagram photos to an art gallery at Mayfest. Mine were the top two on the top right hand corner. That was my peak artistic experience. I’ve gone downhill every since. (Not really.) I’ll tell you what though the world sure has gone through some topsy turvy things since then.
I’m linking with My Corner of the World
Monday, January 20th was a huge day for America. An historic day that all Americans honored.
Martin Luther King Day!! Of course and many of celebrated by participating in or watching the Parade for the day in the Greenwood District of Tulsa, just north of downtown.
It was bitterly cold but that didn’t stop neither the participants nor the watchers.
Lots of civic organizations, city government, the University of Tulsa
And Oklahoma State University were represented.
My former employer, ONEOK, Inc has been a sponsor and participant for years. They had a nice float,
and a ton of marchers braving the cold. One thing that was missing that I was looking forward to was their drill team. I participated as a marcher in 2019, not in the drill team. I made a video back then of them practicing before the parade.
I think they are pretty good. They should come back!!
And here is ONEGAS, our sister company, they broke apart years ago.
And Williams Corporation, another huge employer and growing, headquartered in Houston. I expect one of these days a merger between ONEOK and Williams. When that happens they’ll probably move their headquarters to Houston. Houston is the center of the energy universe and has been that way for over a half century.
And here is our District Attorney walking with Tulsa Police officers.
And QuikTrip, a big convenience store chain headquartered in Tulsa. I got a couple of gift certificates for coffee.
They floats and marchers just kept on coming. After an hour I left. I was freezing.
Watching the Tulsa community turn out in force to honor the legacy of Martin Luther King was definitely the high point for me on Monday.
I am linking with My Corner of the World
Here’s a sunrise one morning from our driveway
And a sunset from the same driveway on a different day
And some trees changing color at Pepsi Lake on Turkey Mountain.
I’m linking with Skywatch Friday
This past midmorning Monday my friend, Tom, and I ventured up to nearby Claremore, Oklahoma to see Union Pacific’s “Big Boy” steam powered locomotive roll into town on the homebound leg of the “Heartland of America” tour where it went through 23 states. Tom and I saw it in Vinita, Oklahoma three years ago and we wanted to watch it again.
This is the train entering town. I was taking video with my cell phone and had my “good camera” in the other hand. I wished I had stuck with the video a little longer but oh well.
They are massive machines. The drive wheels are 58 inches in diameter. The engine and it’s tender weigh 1.2 million pounds and stretches 132 feet long. It’s so long the engine is articulated because it can’t negotiate some of the track curves otherwise.
Union Pacific ordered twenty five of these monsters in 1941 for service between Logan, Utah and Cheyenne, Wyoming. Big Boy, engine number 2014 was delivered in 1941 and was retired in 1961. UP reacquired it from a museum in 2013 and refurbished it and it re-entered service in 2019 in time to celebrate UP’s 150’th anniversary. It is the only engine of its type still in service. Seven others are on view at museums around the country. Get the deets here. Presently the Big Boy is the biggest Steam Locomotive in the world.
The engine is on its way back to Cheyenne, Wyoming on October 23, and will be available for viewing at several spots, including Denver. Check out the schedule here.
Fore some reason I didn’t think there would be that many people interested. Boy was I wrong. We had to park and walk a long ways. The designated viewing was kind of cramped so we were kind of crammed into a small space and it was hard to get a view without a lot of people.
This makes it look like the train is tearing through a bunch of Okies, but it wasn’t. UP had a ton of their Railroad Police going up and down the track telling people “Get off the tracks, there is a train coming.” Lots of people put coins down on the track and when the train stopped, they asked the RR Cops if they could reach under the train to retrieve their coins and were asked if their lives were worth a penny.
But hey, almost everyone had big smiles on their faces. Something about a monster locomotive makes people happy.
Tom and I decided to leave cuz it didn’t seem that the train crew was in any hurry.
Here is my post from seeing Big Boy in 2021.
I’m linking with My Corner of the World.
It’s only 35 seconds long.
I start out looking straight west and then go to the right. Not often you get color everywhere one looks at sunset.
I am linking with Skywatch Friday.
The Tulsa suburb of Broken Arrow had their 2024 edition of the “Chalk It Up Art Festival” on their Main Street last weekend. Artists who entered got a designated space on the blocked-in street to create a work of art with chalk. We try and go every year. Lots of people enter and they are quite talented. The theme this year was “In My Own Back Yard” The following were my favorites.
Lots of entries featured pets.
Some had kind of a fantasy thing going.
This reminded us of our dear departed Rascal. He was such a good dog.
As a kid who couldn’t stay inside the lines on my grade school art projects, I appreciate people who bend the rules a little bit.
And I loved this. Who doesn’t love blowing dandelion seeds in the wind.
I think this won the “People’s Choice” award.
I think this had best in show. I love the deep rich colors of the work.
Another dog, Mango has his own swimming pool.
I think there were over fifty entries including those from children to adult artists. A talented group of artists for sure. They have Chalk It Up on the weekend of the September every year.
Sad thing is that the artists can’t dig up their huge pieces of pavement and take them home. Late Saturday afternoon, the police take up the barricades blocking traffic and people waste no time driving on this art. Oh well, that the nature of it.
I am linking with My Corner of the World
Last night I ventured out to the Arkansas River to check out the new Williams Crossing Bridge’s lights.
I was impressed. They are LED’s and have lots of colors possible.
The bridge has only been open a month. It is 1440 feet long. It is high enough over the water to keep it clear of a 500 year flood event.
It connects Tulsa’s Gathering Place on the east side of the Arkansas River to the RiverParks Trails on the West side of the river. It is 18 feet wide and has separate lanes for pedestrians and cyclists. It is the first “Steel Plate Arch Bridge” built in the United States. (See below what a steel plate arch bridge is)
I think it is gorgeous. I am planning to be there at sunset in the near future to get some Skywatch Photos.
I am linking with My Corner of the World
References
I asked CoPilot AI what a Steel Plate Arch Bridge is and the following was the answer.
A steel plate arch bridge is a type of bridge that uses steel plates to form an arch structure. Here are some key features: