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.
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.
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!!
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.
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!!
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.
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.
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.
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.
This is what was causing all the gasping and such.
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.
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.
I like the older model Ford Thunderbirds. Nobody is going to mistake this for a Toyota.
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.
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!!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
So anyway, I don’t know if anybody missed me or not but I’m back for now.
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.
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?
They are beautiful and just kind of speak for themselves I think.
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.
It is a must see for those who live in or visit Tulsa. Check their website for directions and hours.