Cherry Street is a cool part of Tulsa with independent businesses and old storefronts and generally just a fun place to hang out in this day of mass merchandisers.
I’m linking with Weekend Reflections
Tag Archives: Oklahoma
Skywatch Friday – Neighborhood Park
I snapped this a few weeks ago while walking our dogs in our neighborhood green space. I liked the big fluffy clouds.
I’m linking with Skywatch Friday.
2016 Tulsa Tough and Cry Baby Hill
Sunday morning I ventured down to the Tulsa River Parks to watch the River Parks Criterium segment of Tulsa Tough. Tulsa Tough is a three day series of races of all kinds here in Tulsa. The River Parks Criterium is a short cycle race that loops from river level up a steep hill overlooking the river and then back down to the river via a 120 degree hard right turn at high speed at the base of the hill. And then they do it again, and again. It is brutal.
Copied from TulsaTough.com I hope they don’t sue my butt)
There are about fourteen races in all on this course lasting about a half hour each.
The course is not for the faint of heart. The leaders are working the whole way. Y
This is where they head up the hill, and they are just flying.
Not only are they going fast, they are going fast while being close together. If one guy or gal goes down then the risk is high that others are going down also. It looks nerve wracking to me.
They alternated the pace cars. This one was a Jaguar. They run a couple hundred yards ahead along with a motorcycle to alert everybody to get out of the way.
The races are very exciting.
The riders are concentrating hard.
At the of the hill is Cry Baby Hill. It is kind of wild. It is in a residential area with not many sidewalks so you have to stand in the street. The residents have parties in their front yard. It is quite the party. I left about noon so I think I missed the peak of the madness.
Everybody is there to cheer on the riders and spray water and beer on them.
There are marshalls in zebra shirts with whistles and flags to keep the crowd behind the line. I guess this guy lost his shirt or something.
Lots of cowbells and a band cheer the riders on.
And toy baby dolls if you didn’t bring one.
It is quite the spectacle.
As I left people were still piling in.
And the races were still going on.
I’m linking with Our World Tuesday
Addendum #1 Not my video – a collection of crashes from Tulsa Tough.
2016 Tulsa Leake Car Auction
Friday is my day off, Heather had to teach an exercise class, and Logan is out of school so I dragged him to the Fairgrounds to the Leake Car Auction.
Lots and lots of cars there. I’m partial to red cars, lIke this Mustang above.
Or the Porsche being cleaned up. It is hard to be a Porsche for styling.
I also love the big American cars of the 1950’s like this 1954 Crestline Victoria. I love all the chrome, that beautiful blue color, and the swoopy curves.
I don’t mean I ever want to own one I just like looking at them.
I like the more homely but distinctive cars also such Trifun quarter ton truck. The three wheels are a gas.
And the tilting bed. They said only 300 miles since new but the seats and everything else in the cab was very worn. It was a very hard 300 miles.
And who doesn’t love a land cruiser. These are classic vehicles.
How about an air boat for hunting alligators?
I love the camo but don’t you know that thing is loud.
By far my favorite of the show was this heavily modified1967 Land Rover
It had the best and most puzzling hood ornament.
It looks like it could be chasing down lions and elephants in Africa.
I like the “scouting seats” up above. Scouting seats my butt, I bet rich Texans sat up there and shot at critters. If somebody wants to buy it for me I would sit up there and shoot critters also, with my camera.
Wednesday Waters – Lafortune Park
We are deep into Spring here in northeast Oklahoma and we have lots of rain so one can see why this area is called “Green Country” by some. Pretty soon will come the high temps and humidity but after all these years that doesn’t bother me that much. You learn how to adapt.
I’m linking with Wednesday Waters
Solar Impulse 2 in Tulsa – The Future is Now
The big news in Tulsa this week is that the Solar Electric Airplane, Solar Impulse 2, flying from Abu Dahbi around the world landed at our local airport a few days ago. American Airlines had a huge hanger available and they let the plane park there until the weather clears up. The owners of the plane made it available for public viewing for two days. So of course I had to go since there was no admission charge.
The airplane is amazing. It uses only solar electric power, with batteries, and can take off on its own power. It can fly for days at a time. It is about 74 feet long and has a wingspan of 236 feet yet its fully loaded weight is 5100 pounds. It has four engines, each of which can generate 17.4 horsepower. Its maximum service altitude is 27,000 feet but with supplemental oxygen for the pilot the aircraft can go up to 39,000 feet. I got all these stats from wikipedia because teasing it out of the plane’s website was kind of hard.
I figured out what the term “Cavernous Hangar” means. This thing is huge!!
The plane is amazing piece of engineering. It is so light and can generate enough power from solar panels and with the batteries on board it can fly pretty much indefinitely. It has a crew of only one person in an unheated and unpressurized cockpit. It uses an autopilot to fly when the pilot is sleeping. The project has a support staff of about 60 people a bunch of whom were in Tulsa. The control center is in Monaco. The spend a considerable amount of time plotting routes that avoid weather. The plane cannot take very much weather.
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The plane’s owners intend the project to be a demonstration of the feasibility of solar power and its practicality and I must say the demonstration is impressive.
I was most interested in how the thing took off. Surely I thought it was pulled by a truck or something but no, as the above video shows it takes off under its own power.
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As interesting as the takeoff is I thought the landing was a very skillful and precise affair. It has to be perfect.
And a video about the landing in Tulsa. They are trying to get through tornado alley as fast as they can.
Leaving the hangar we got a glimpse of the Solar Impulse’s support aircraft, a funky looking Russian made Ilyushin II-76 heavy cargo carrier. According to my good friends at Wikipedia it can carry 40 tons of cargo a distance of 2700 miles and land on a dirt runway. I found it almost as amazing as they Solar Impulse.
Skywatch Friday – the Thirteenth
I went running in the Tulsa suburb of Jenks a couple weeks ago and when I finished up in the late afternoon this tree was yelling for my attention. I had to maneuver around to get a photo free of billboards and power lines but here it is. You can see one of the Cityplex towers of south Tulsa to the left. And I confess, I had to improve on nature a little bit, or at least the image my camera presented me, so I jacked it up with some Topaz Impressions software.
Anyways, this Friday is the 13th, the only one we have in 2016, so watch yourself!!
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Running What I Can Instead of What I Want to Run
The Jenks Bridge, now limited to pedestrians and bicyclists.
I haven’t been to Turkey Mountain in a month! What with traveling and conferences and this and that and whatever I have missed my coveted Wednesday after work run. When I went to change into my running clothes I found that I forgot my shoes. No problema I thought. I’ll just drive home and get my shoes and change and head over to the mountain and it will be fine.
The former Oral Roberts University Hospital and Medical School, now an office building. If you think it is tilted just tilt your head.
Except, their was a huge traffic jam on the Broken Arrow Expressway and it took me an hour to get home. So I decided to “plug back and abandon” (that is fricking fracker talk for giving up the original plan) and go for a shorter run. I was under time pressure because I needed to pick up Logan at a certain time. So I was a little put out at myself at first but as I got into the run my cares just disappeared especially since I had some time to take some pics on the run.
So yep, one can have a decent run along a turnpike. I’ll be on Turkey Mountain Friday morning!! I am double checking the shoe situation.
I’m linking with Weekend Reflections
Skywatch Friday – Storm Season
Unedited photo taken in late March 2016 to the east.
It is that time of year again in Oklahoma. The storms are spinning up in west Texas in the early afternoon and then head northwest gathering energy as they go and generally hitting Tulsa well after dark. Wednesday was one of those days. My sister’s employer decided to send her to Tulsa that day right in the path. Great timing guys!!
Linking with Skywatch Friday
Skywatch Friday – Post Oak Lodge
My employer had a retreat Wednesday for some of us at Post Oak Lodge in north Tulsa. It was a an intense day in a beautiful setting. I went out side for all the breaks to get some sun and take in the views. We had some rain over the past several days and so now things are very green. This is why northeast Oklahoma is called “Green Country.”
And true confessions, I cheated a little bit with Topaz Impressions’ Degas Dancers II filter backed off about about 40 percent.
I’m linking with Skywatch Friday this week.