I had a few hours to myself last week so I went to Oxley Nature Center north of Tulsa’s airport. I only found one cache but the enjoyment is mainly in the looking. I walked up to one of the lakes and too this shot. If it looks familiar it is because it is taken from near where my blog header shot is taken. I’ve probably got two dozen pics of the same scene over the years, summer, winter, fall, spring, cloudy, clear, cold, hot, with Heather and Logan, mostly without. If there is a law against repeat photographs then I’m in for a long sentence.
I’ll have plenty of company though if I’m sent off to blogger jail. The bloggers I regularly read do similar things. A pretty or attractive scene tends to stay that way. What about you, do you repeat yourself a lot? Going back to the same scene I mean.
Oxley Nature Center – Tulsa, Oklahoma Topaz Impressions
It is getting to be late September. Pretty soon the weather will break and Tulsa’s long wonderful Fall season will be upon us. You can already tell that things are changing. Although still hot, the sun is a little lower. The mornings are a little cooler. The sky gets a little bluer. There is something subtle about a cottonwood tree that heralds the coming of Fall. I don’t know if is a subtle change in the color of its leaves or just what, maybe my imagination, but I can tell that things are changing.
The sun was just coming up when I got there but the place with abuzz with activity. On a race like this the organizers and volunteers have already been out since dark thirty marking the course, putting up the various tents and starting gate, cooling the beer down and getting the food ready.
The local Fleet Feet Sports franchise sponsored the race. Tulsa is lucky because we have three really good running stores who not only sell shoes and running clothing but also give back to the community in various ways. They all have training runs and various programs to help runners of all experience levels. Fleet Feet though has the best decorated vehicle though.
At 7:15 the hamburgers were already cooking.
The beer was iced down. It was provided by Marshall Brewing. I love craft beers have I ever told you.
And off we went. The race was jammed up right at first because we were running on trails but after a while we spaced out. I guess that I spaced out too much and at about the 1.6 mile point tripped on a rock and fell on another rock with my knee. It was like ouch. I got up and my knee felt pretty bad so I started hobbling back to the parking lot, dreading the 1.6 miles back but then the knee started feeling better so I turned around after a short while thinking that I could walk it out but I had to climb up a few rocks and the knee started barking at me again so I turned back to the parking lot and got about a tenth or two down the trail and the knee started feeling better so I said what the heck, I have a long walk either way. So I turned around and walked the rest of the race except for a one mail segment where I ran. Fortunately there is not that much difference between my walking speed and running speed (sad to say). So I was able to finish and get some bling and a couple beers or three and a hamburger.
I think I finished near the last. I generally do. Last year I finished 94th out of 96 men. Believe it or not I finished ahead of some people this year. This year I finished 185th out of 204. Which means that nineteen people entered Yogi’s Hall of Shame except two of them were older than me so a net 17 people finished behind me that were younger than me.
I went on a walk at noon Monday east of downtown Tulsa to the East Village area to see what was new and I found this sidewalk garden. I love it. It is so luxuriant and seems like it is about to take over the sidewalk. Plus I love all the windows and reflections in this section of the street. There is a lot happening downtown especially in the close by neighborhoods. There are all sorts of small businesses taking over and renovating formerly run down properties. Condo conversion and new construction is happening. It is quite the frothy mix. Downtown Tulsa is becoming a cool place to be.
I processed my original photograph with Topaz Impressions’ “Cezanne 1” filter blended 60% with the original photo.
Monday, after work I took Logan to his voice lessons. The studio is in an old strip shopping center and I like to walk around rather than sit in the waiting space. Last week I featured a recently abandoned Shell Station at the center. Well guess what, there is another abandoned Gas Station a couple hundred yards south of the Shell Station. I think it has been boarded up ten years or so. I forget what chain had the site.
They left their old sign up and I always get a chuckle out of it.
Since the station went out of business the prices listed have sometimes seemed like a huge bargain or a big ripoff. Right now they are just a moderately good deal.
This is Pepsi Lake on Turkey Mountain from back in May. Great year on the mountain with all the rain that we got plus it got saved from an outlet mall that was proposed and then cancelled. There was a huge surge in popularity that resulted with all sorts of new people tromping all over the place. Things have died down quite a bit with the heat of the summer and school starting so I’m back to seeing very few people during my weekly run.
Last week’s post on Turkey Mountain was taken from across the lake from this photo and a little to the right.
Late afternoon last Wednesday on Tulsa’s Turkey Mountain at a small pond. I just love running the trails there. Once I get more than a quarter mile from the parking lot I have the whole park to myself. One thing about the area is that there is not a whole lot of money budgeted for maintenance. We depend on volunteers to show up and do everything from clear downed limbs from trails and pick up trash. But if a tree falls over into a pond. So be it! It is part of the wildness that we love about it.
Wednesday nights are my night to go running after work. I have a little routine. I leave work and go to a liquor store and pick up some craft beer and then I head out either to the Arkansas River trails or Turkey Mountain. Last Wednesday it started a downpour just as I was leaving downtown but my good ole Accuweather app on the phone said it was not going to rain for at least two hours so I’m good right?
So started out on the Yellow Trail taking pics with my Ipod Touch using the Hipstamatic App. I just love blurry photos. My intention was to try and do six miles or so.
This is my favorite spot on the Yellow Trail. I just tell people to follow the arrow. Nobody listens to me but I say it anyway. I repeat myself a lot that way.
This is my favorite new landmark on the Yellow Trail. It reminds me of something new I’m reading a little about lately Trail Marker Trees. Trees that Native Americans shaped as trail markers or other uses. Check the link. I’d love to see a few live. I’m a little skeptical about them personally.
I stopped a smelled a few roses. Metaphorically.
And check out some color.
Just as I got to the north end of the Yellow Trail it started raining, hard. I put away my Ipod and got out my waterproof Nikon. People tell me about how much they love raining in the rain. I don’t like it too much but if you are out in it and wearing tech clothes then it is not so bad. I decided to cut my run short and run the upper Yellow trail back.
The mud sticks to your shoes and things get a lot slipperier but I eventually got back to my car.
The only thing worse than running in the rain would be riding a bike. The thunder and lightening was getting pretty bad also. That can ruin your whole day.
If I had it to do over again, I’d do it over again. And no, I didn’t go home and drink the beer I bought earlier. You see we are much more godly people in Oklahoma than where you live because our laws don’t allow us to purchase cold full strength beer. So I drank some of the beer I bought last week!! That is called pre-planning.
Logan had his first riding lesson in a long time. He sprained his ankle back really badly back in May and had been in a boot and then on restriction since then. He was glad to get back in the saddle on a hot Saturday.
After the riding lesson we loaded up in the car and headed off to Livesay Orchards out in the boonies about 45 minutes southeast of Tulsa. We hadn’t been there since Logan was a baby and man is it popular. We ended up in a group of nine cars headed out there and when we got there we found out there was a line to get in. The line moved fast though. I mean they are selling mainly peaches so it doesn’t take long for people to pick out what they want and move on.
And man where their peaches, bushels, pecks, half pecks anything you wanted as long as it was peach related.
After that we headed cross country to the ‘burb of Bixby to Dotson’s Produce and picked out some Amish Tomatoes. I never did figure out if that was a type of tomato or the religion of the farmer that grew them.
Dotson’s had all sorts of other produce. We tend to go crazy in a place like that.
We decided to counterbalance all healthful vibe of the produce with some Hawaiian Ice which is Okie for ice cream cone at a place nearby. Part of the fun is waiting in the heat. Is it against the law for those places to provide shade for their customers?
Sunday was church, seeing the movie “Ant-Man” with one of Logan’s friends and then an historic occasion. Logan left with his friend, with his friend driving. First time that happened!
Then Heather and I had dinner and drinks with some friends and then out to pick up Logan out in the country.
So we ended the weekend with a nice crescent moon.
