A few weeks ago after dropping Logan off at college I revisited the small Oklahoma ghost town of Cogar. It’s claim to fame is that a scene from the 1988 Movie Rainman was filmed here at a local gas station. The film stars Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman. I can’t believe that it has been 33 years!!
The gas station is still standing, kind of, and it looks like a brand new sign is up. Cogar has become somewhat of a mecca for bloggers, instagrammers, and camera bugs. Abandoned stuff is big these days.
Logan is out of college now so I may never visit this place again.
In other news this week, Heather had a birthday, so the three of us celebrated with a hike among the venomous snakes of Turkey Mountain. We didn’t see any. I always get the feeling though they could see us.
And closing with a drone shot up over my back yard.
My wife and I went to Tulsa’s swanky Utica Square shopping center the other day. She really likes the Athleta store there. As an exercise instructor she lives in workout gear and Athleta’s stuff is great. So while she was shopping for her Christmas gifts from me to her I took my phone out and did some exploring.
I found this cool clock. Who uses a clock to tell time any more? We all have phones and stare at them all day long.
Found this sculpture of a little girl reading. I love to see young people reading. I volunteer with Reading Partners and tutor a girl in reading for an hour a week. She’s really a hard worker and stays engaged the whole hour. Unlike some of my generation, I see lots of hope in the future generations. If you are interested check the link see if they have a program in your area.
Right across the street from Utica Square is the Temple Israel Synagogue. I have long loved their bas relief of the Ten Commandments. I shot the photo from the shopping center’s parking garage to get a little elevation.
I also love their 3D Menorah. For the longest time I thought it was just a cool modern sculpture. Well duh, it’s a Menorah I found out on their web site.
Also across the street from the center is this cool office building. I love it’s design including the arches on the ground floor and all the balconies. It looks like it belongs on a coast somewhere.
Found this dolled up wooden sculpture next to a day spa.
So that’s it for the shopping center. You get the picture. I went drone flying earlier.
So here’s a sunset from 40 meters over my back yard. Somebody in one of my drone groups on facebook said that they were tired of sunset photos. Suck it up buddy, here’s another one is my response.
A new trail is being built on Turkey Mountain. Designed and constructected by the firm Progressive Trail Design out of Bentonville, Arkansas, it is the first professionally designed trail on Turkey Mountain. The rest were built by the users and followed old game trails, jeep tracks, oilfield roads, and the builders’ whims. This new trail is designed to last and be low maintenance and sustainable. They finally got started a couple weeks ago and have been making good progress. I went out there recently to check it out.
It looks very nice and “flowy.” People, especially mountain bikers like the smooth back and forth and up and downs. It’s apparent that it will primarily be a mountainbike trail and I’m just going to have faith that it will work out for non bikers as well.
It’s not open yet they have blazed a trail but the surface is still unfinished. They don’t want anybody on it until they are done and the surface is suitable for sustained use. (I stayed off the trail except at designated crossing points where it crosses existing trail.)
A banked turn. Lots of work before this is finished.
I paralleled the new trail on existing trails until I heard the sound of the trackhoe they were using to move the rocks and other heavy work involved. I went a little further until I saw the crew through the trees and that is as close as I got.
So I am very excited about all this.
About as excited as this tree I found while scouting out the trail.
Any you know it’s getting to be Christmas song. I love this new song my Carrie Underwood, “The Stretchy Pants Song.” My wife, who is also an exercise instructor, has been using it in some of her classes and her students love it.
We’ve had big Thanksgivings and smaller ones, especially with this pandemic we have been having. This year is a smaller one. A big treat is that we are having Thanksgiving on Wednesday with my brother at his Assisted Living Center. I’m looking forward to that.
It will just be a few of us on Thanksgiving Day. As our waistlines have expanded, we have downsized the meal. We don’t have the appetites we used to have anyway. We use disposable plates for the meal so nobody gets stuck with the dishes.
We’ll be counting our blessings as well. We have lots to be thankful for.
Tuesday was a very warm day here in Tulsa. After my yoga class I headed up close to downtown to Woodward Park. Lots and lots of trees here and tons of fall color. So I just wandered around.
Maria Tallchief
I stopped by the Five Moons, Oklahoma’s Native American ballerinas. In the last century these five women, Maria Tallchief, Marjorie Tallchief, Yvonne Chouteau, Rosella Hightower, and Moscylene Larkin were at the top of the ballet world. Hit the link above to find out more. The sculptures are actually on the grounds of the Tulsa History Museum which is adjacent to Woodward Park.
I also stopped by “Appeal to the Great Spirit” to check him out. I love this sculpture. It used to be in a local high school until they tore the school down and the statue was moved to Woodward Park.
Lots of brilliant fall color on disply.
I love this blast of yellow as seen from the shadows.
A similar effect here.
And here is shrub bursting with sunlight.
Stopped by my favorite sculpture of all time. “Poems and Promises” by Rosalind Cook. I used the Hipstamatic and Snapseed App on this.
By now I was getting hungry and I was close to downtown so I headed off to the Arts District.
I got some coneys from James Coney Island. It’s been in Tulsa for over a hundred years. I get them with cheese, chili, and onions and add a healthy splash of hot sauce and pepper them chili powder. Don’t knock it until you try it.
They sky was clear Tuesday night so I took this shot. It’s the Beaver Moon at 93% waxing gibbous so not quite full.
I hope everybody is having a great week!! I”ll be linking with Skywatch Friday, come check it out!!
The Full Wolf Moon came up over a week ago. I love the full moons and all the different names for them.
We have had several storm fronts move through. Not too bad though and if the wind isn’t too bad I launch the drone and here is a sunset from about a week ago or so.
Here is another more recent drone shot looking southeast from our house. A massive system came through complete with tornadoes and all that but missed us and didn’t do too much damage anywhere else. I could only take the drone up high enough to clear the roof lines because the wind was so gusty.
I’m a sucker for a meandering trail. Here is one at Washington Irving Park in Bixby just south of Tulsa.
And I like to find the quiet shots during busy events. At Oktoberfest last week I moved away from the crowd and got this skyshot. You wouldn’t know anybody is around.
And I said this is a Halloween post. Here is my bride Heather and son, Logan, at a pumpkin patch some years ago. He’s a college man and will be graduating this fall (we hope) and is even taller now. With him gone we don’t do much for Halloween any longer. We’ll turn out lots off and not pass out candy. Talk about a couple of old grouches, uh. Sorry, that is the way it is.
I also promised a Tree Troll, didn’t I. I found a dead one on a recent hike on Turkey Mountain.
It’s very gruesome, with his eyes bulging out and mouth gaped open laying sideways on the ground. Poor mountain tree troll 🙁
That’s is about it for today. I’m linking with Skywatch Friday, come join in the fun.
I’ve been enjoying my October so far. The weather has been good and I have been doing a lot of hiking and wandering. Above is the sky over Lake Bixhoma south of Tulsa about ten miles. I love it there during the week because nobody else is there.
This is a photo taken by “cousin-in-law” in western Oklahoma of Angus cattle on their ranch.
And this is at Martin Nature Center in Oklahoma City. I stopped there for a short hike on my way to pick up son at his college.
I’ve shown these chairs before. The City of Bixby repurposed the old auto bridge across the Arkansas River to a pedestrian bridge and added all sorts of extras such as these recliners.
And of course I had to try them out.
Here is the view I had.
The bridge ties into Washington Irving Park in Bixby where the man camped during his tour of what is now Oklahoma back in 1832.
And here is sculpture of the man. This is part of an outdoor amphitheater. The park is another good place to go during the work week cuz of hardly anybody else being there.
And this always makes me think and ponder. This is one of the girders from the World Trade Center that were destroyed on the attack on America.
So I’m really enjoying the moderate weather. How about you?
Come join me and and bunch of other photobloggers at Skywatch Friday
Late night bonus content – I flew my drone for a little while this evening.
Roughly a little south of northwest. All these were taken at about 150 feet elevation.
Looking almost straight west
Roughly a little north of southwest.
A really big cloud was passing over Tulsa. This is looking almost straight south.
A little bit north of northwest.
Almost straight north.
I flew the drone in “periscope mode” in other words I launched it straight up from my back yard and just rotated it and snapped a few pics.
Son Logan visited us over the weekend and on Monday I took him back to college. Our little 6′ 3″, 250 pound son is in his final semester (he better be in his final semester) and graduates this Fall. We are really proud of him! Anyway, dropped him and his stuff off, made a visit with the bursar and paid his tuition and fees and headed back to Tulsa.
I took the scenic route on part of it on Route 66. I was hunting down geocaches and doing a ten state Adventure Lab geocache at the same time. Hit the links to find out more about what I’m talking about. First stop was Pops on Route 66. They have a gas station and a huge selection of pop. I got me a selfie cuz I am 66 years old this year on Route 66.
Pops is a stop on the Adventure Lab and it also has a real geocache that I had found previously. Nearby there was another one.
A little bit down the road is the Round Barn of Arcadia, another stop on the Adventure Lab. With an Adventure Lab you don’t find a physical container, you have to answer questions about the stop.
And nearby is minor attraction in Arcadia. Tutons Drug Store. I think it has been closed very years but I love the rock work.
And another stop is an “Auto Trim Museum.” It was closed but I got the information I needed from the gate.
And then this find. Paul McCartney, on his 66th birthday, drove Route 66 with his girlfriend back in 2011. Not being a geocacher the former Beatle got lost and had to stop at a house and ask if if he was still on the Old Road (as Route 66 is called by some.) This was on an “alternate alignment” of Route 66 and I never would have found it if were not for geocaching. I guess great minds think alike.
Another stop was at this marker commemorating a stop Washing Irving made on his travels in Oklahoma way back when. Another bit of info I would have never known if hadn’t been for my sport.
It was close to here while looking for another cache that a couple of sheriff deputies stopped and asked me if I knew that my car tag was almost two years expired. I said no I didn’t. We chatted about that for a while and then they asked what I was doing and I told him all about it. So they said to get the tag renewed cuz they don’t care about it but you get a highway patrolman in a bad mood they have been known to impound your car and leave you standing by the road. (I took care of the tag the next day.)
And then a little later, I stopped at this old gas station from the early in 20 the century. Anyway I had earned the Adventure Labs cache and was a little unnerved by the thought of encountering a highway patrolman in a bad mood so I went on home.
So thanks for sticking with me. Here’s a photo from our vacation looking out the back side of the condo we were staying in. I took my drone but didn’t fly it. We were on the 15th floor so it was kind of like a stationary drone.
I hope everybody is well. I got my third jab yesterday and a flu shot. I’m still being careful and avoiding crowds as much as I can.
We drove home last Saturday from our vacation on the Gulf Coast. My wife and I shared the driving duties and so she drove the middle third of the distance, much of it in the delta country of Mississippi and Arkansas. There was lots of weather during much of the drive especially early on in Alabama. The rest of the time we dodged the rain and got see some great clouds.
So Heather drove and I snapped pics of the sky and country. The above two are in Mississippi.
I snapped this as we crossed the Mississippi River.
And this was in Arkansas.
And so was this. I am not sure just where but I really liked it. And no, we didn’t drive into that storm. I’m not sure where it went.
And this is Oklahoma. I was driving and I confess I took the photo while driving. Lock me up officer, throw away the key!!!
Anyway we got back safe and sound from a great vacation.
I hope that everybody is being safe, while also enjoying life. Please find that balance.
Wednesday morning, Heather and I, left the house at around 5 am, already prepacked the night before and headed for the Gulf of Mexico.
We were ready, it has been two years since we had a vacation and its our thirty second anniversary. So off we went childless. Son Logan is at college.
So we are staying about a week or so. If you are thinking about robbing our house know that we have a full time house sitter and they are kind of mean and ornery but they take good care of the dogs.
So we got there in about 13 hours stopping only for restroom breaks and gasoline. We unloaded our stuff, got dinner, and sat out on the balcony for a while.
First thing on the agenda was a three mile out and back walk to lifeguard station number one. Then reading on the beach, lunch and cocktails.
A good time is being had by all. I’m linking with Skywatch Friday but I may not return all comments right away.
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