Tag Archives: Oklahoma

Lunch Breaking in Downtown Tulsa – Sights, Mysteries, and Discoveries

DSCN4913

I assure you that our buildings in Tulsa do not lean to the left.

I’m one of those guys who has to get outside for at least a little bit every day regardless of the weather. So many of my coworkers over the years just stay inside, and surf the net or work or whatever. I couldn’t stand that. I have to get out. Over the course of a month or so I tramp all over downtown. I always take my camera. 

DSCN4907

The old Sun Pipeline Building.

I’m not satisfied with just one photo of something and then I’m done. Nope, there always different sides to things. The weather is different. The surroundings are different. I’m always amazed how much things change.

DSCN4893

I like to visit old sights. These windows for instance. If I wont the lottery, which I won’t because I won’t spend the money on a ticket, but if I did. I would have bought this former AT&T building and put in a room with big comfy couches right under these windows. I don’t have to worry about it now. A church bought the building. I hope that these windows are put to good use. I’ll keep you posted;.

DSCN4895

Here is a recurring mystery. This little lookout has been here for years. What is it for? Guarding and empty parking lot? Perhaps. I’d like to have a little look out, especially with air conditiooning. Wouldn’t you?

DSCN4911

And old vintage gas station now an Avis dealer. I love old buildings put to good use.

DSCN4899

I find remnants of Tulsa being the “Oil Capital of the World” such as this divider of some sort made out of oil well casing pipe.

DSCN4902

And I found where somebody has started up a lending library of sorts in the East Village area.

What about you? Do you like to explore, tell me about it.

Saturday’s Critters – Horses

DSCN4860

We visited some friends last week and I took some pics of their horses. This one was at the fence and then backed off when I approached. He is not used to me.

DSCN4862

I stayed and talked to him and didn’t anything wild and he eventually came back.  Horses are such curious creatures. I love them and I’ll freely admit that I know next to nothing about them.

How about you? Do you like horses?

Linking with Saturday’s Critters

Digital Art Meme – 1931 Spartan Monoplane

Spartan C 2 60 - Topaz Glow - Squiggly Lines I 47 pct

A Spartan Aviation C-2-60 Monoplane. A two seater with a three cylinder 60 horsepower engine built by Tulsa’s Spartan Aviation in 1930. Spartan was trying to deal with the reduction in market by building a cheaper lighter plane but only sixteen were ever built. I think it is sleek and beautiful. This one is on display at the Tulsa Air and Space Museum. Spartan is still in business as an aviation school.

I used Topaz Lab’s Glow software with the “Squiggly Lines” backed off about 50 percent. I like how the background colors faded to monochrome bringing the aircraft out of a very busy background.

Linking with Digital Art Meme

Commitment Day 5K Road Race

IMAG0727

My new cell phone has a “cut in” feature where it puts a selfie in the pic. I love it and almost nobody else does. I love the goofy look on my face.

My first race of 2016 was the Commitment Day 5K in the Tulsa suburb of Bixby at Lifetime Fitness. It was a fun race for several reasons. First it started at 10 am instead of the crack of dawn which made it more doable for us old farts party animals who like to sleep in stay up late with our wild and crazy friends. Second we had a Zumba warmup. That was unexpected! My beautiful wife became a Zumba instructor and I have been wanting to crash one of her classes and video a couple of her routines. Something about the way she looks at me when I talk about it makes me think that she is not near as excited about it as I am. 

DSCN4853

Well we had Leslie who led us in the warmup. She really did have more than a half dozen people she was leading.

See!! I’d of participated but I was doing my blogging journalistic duty of documenting the event. Really. Actually I did try a few moves. I think i have lots of potential. In the engineering sense in that a rock at the base of a mountain has a lot of potential energy to gain by somehow getting to the top, not that it has any chance of getting there.

DSCN4858

Enough of the dancing, this is racing. We moved over to the start line. I did my usual start at the very back. Sure I have to weave through walkers and baby strollers but I like passing people from start to finish and it is not like there is anything on the line anyway.

DSCN4859

This is the finish. I love seeing young people kicking hard at the end. And see the group of three ladies behind him? Lots of people just jog along a chat with their friends. Usually that breeze pass me like I’m standing still.

IMAG0729

We had the gym to relax in after the race. Lots better than huddling behind cars and trailers like most winter races. The facilities were first rate.

The race was an out and back type arrangement with hills and dips near the turnaround.

I finished fourth in my age group. I don’t know how many were in my age group but I suspect the answer is approximately four.

It was a fun, family, oriented race and I’ll probably be back next year.

Friday Fences – Binding Contract

Binding Contract Sculpture - Textures - Dingy Cream

There is a striking sculpture in the Tulsa suburb of Broken Arrow. A bronze sculpture named “Binding Contract” by Bradford J. Williams is in the middle of downtown and it kind of tugs at the heart a little bit. Two cowboys are shaking hands across a fence and you can tell that they are neighbors but more importantly you can tell that for both of them, their word is their bond. For those of us in the business end of things, our word is very important and so is the word of your counterparty. Contracts are very important and not to be neglected but all they are is a statement in writing of both party’s intentions. From the day a contract is signed the business relationship is tested all the time with situations that were not foreseen and one depends on the other person’s word that the relationship will continue.

I love the sculpture and the principal it represents.

I’m linking with Good Fences today.

And a Happy New Year to You!

Skywatch Friday – Front Porch Sunrise

December Sunrise - Topaz Glow - Whisker Wires II 54 pct

True Confessions – I used Topaz Glow

A shot to the southeast off my front porch a week or so ago. Sometimes you don’t need to drive a long ways to get a photograph.

I hope that everybody had a good Christmas. I know I did. I’ve been very lazy, read some books, watched a few movies, stayed up late, slept in late, getting really fat.

So now we have New Years. Everybody have a good time and stay safe. I wish everybody a great and prosperous New Year!

I’m linking with Skywatch Friday

Skywatch Friday – Morning River Parks Sky

RiverTrails parks with a flag - Topaz Textures Color Burst

I dropped the kid off at school the other morning and being a day off I spent a few minutes walking on the River. It was the start of a glorious day. The sun was bright, the sky was blue, the air was clear and cold with a stiff breeze. It doesn’t get better than that.

LInking with Skywatch Friday and with Pippa’s Friends Meet Friends

 

Update on Turkey Mountain and Helmerich Park

There is a lot of news these days of interest to those in the Tulsa area interested in preserving green spaces and wilderness as wells as the financial health of our city.

Turkey Mountain Topaz Glow Dizzy Late Afternoon Sunlight

Maybe the most exciting news is that two local powerhouses, QuikTrip and the George Kaiser Family Foundation have given the Tulsa River Parks Authority a loan for $5.6 million to purchase 150 acres of land on Turkey Mountain, presumably including the 50 acre tract that Simon Properties wanted to purchase to put in an Outlet Mall. That deal fell through in September when Simon announced that that the were going to put the mall in  the suburb of Jenks. Money to purchase the 150 acres is expected to be in a bond issue to be submitted to the owners within the next year. Reported separately Friday, the Jenks Planning Commission appproved Simon Properties’ plans for the outlet mall. 

A family of hikers on Tulsa's Turkey Mountain

The bridge loan is great news. Until the land was in the public’s hands, it was at risk of development. This puts it out of private hands and into the River Park Authorities control.

DSCN1321

It is pretty rare in Oklahoma for people to fight city hall and win. City hall is not happy. Our mayor Dewey Bartlett got people riled up in November by pitching a proposal for a restaurant on the mountain. It didn’t go down very well.

DSCN4328

Mayor Bartlett was probably a little sore at losing the sales tax revenue from Simon’s mall to Jenks. Cities in Oklahoma are financed primarily by sales taxes and with the downturn in the energy industry and the rise of internet sales, sales tax collections are struggling. Friday, the mayor announced a job freeze  because of decreased sales tax collections. The city has been working hard at attracting national retail stores to Tulsa to increase sales tax collections. Some of us wonder if all we are doing is cannibalizing existing businesses but we are generally okay with smart development.

_DSC0434

Helmerich Park, or not a park, just been used as a park.

So now we have a new controversy over green space, this time concerning land in a city park, Helmerich Park, on the Arkansas River that the city is wanting to sell to a developer for a shopping center. Not a mall, just a moderately bigger than average strip mall type facility as far as I can tell. The problem is that you can’t sell land in a city park without going through a process involving the city council. The outdoor equipment retailer REI is expected to be the anchor tenant. To its credit REI has announced that it is not coming to Tulsa until all legal questions over the legal status of the proposed site have been answered.

_DSC0428

The volley ball courts at Helmerich Park. Note Turkey Mountain in the background.

So the city’s attorney has come up with this claim that the park is not really a park. It is just land that has been used as a park. So we are probably headed to court to settle this. It is very complicated because of claims that money was donated to the city to purchase the land to be used as a park in perpetuity.

_DSC0436

Acccording the city, this is not a park

The city wants to move fast to keep the project on tract, and a bunch of citizens are wanting to slow down and figure out this whole thing about what it means to say that land is not a park but is being used as a park. Plus we are trying to make sure that once land elsewhere in the city, like Turkey Mountain, is preserved as a park that it won’t be “unpreserved” by some fancy legal footwork.  And of course we are also concerned about the city getting enough money to pay for services and keep our police and fire departments staffed up and with the equipment they need to keep the city safe.

So now we are going to have another real life Quality of Life vs Development controversy in Tulsa.

Check out information from Smart Growth Tulsa Coalition. Among other things, they have a link to a video of our present Mayor Dewey Bartlett stating the land for the park will never be sold.

Facebook Group: Save Helmerich Park

Channel 6 Television story on the Bridge Loan

Channel 5 Television story on Tulsa deciding to sue for right to sell land in park

Tulsa World Newspaper story in 1991 announcing brand new Helmerich Park

Channel 2 Television story back in August where city announces they sold twelve acres out of the park

 

Skywatch Friday – Afternoon Walk Around the Pond

Recently Added-178

For Thanksgiving we spent with family western Oklahoma. It is truly the land of the big skies and the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, son Logan, brother Bob, and I went on a walk around a local pond. It was spectacular, not a cloud in the deep blue sky, the grass and brush were a golden color but the trees still had a lot of green on them. It was like a perfect moment that I will remember forever.

I’m linking with Skywatch Friday

Lunchtime Geocaching – Walking in the Woods looking for Tupperware

DSCN4824

A bare hint of a trail at West Highlands Park

Fall has definitely come to Tulsa and we are in a period of gorgeous days with sunshine and blue skies. And with the brush, bugs, and snakes gone I am back in the woods finding the larger geocaches. Once or twice a week I take off at lunch to go find one or two. Early in the week I went to west Tulsa’s West Highlands Park to find one hidden deep in the woods in an undeveloped area of the park. Previous finders had reported a lot of difficult bushwhacking. I’m lazy and I had my work clothes on and wasn’t interested in getting all tangled up in the brush, thorns, and mud so I spent a considerable amount of time looking for a trail headed to the cache. It wasn’t a regular park maintained trail. It is what land managers call a “social trail” and you are liable to find anything on such a thing. It is best to keep an eye on what is going on because it is possible to walk into something you don’t really want to walk into. Check out geocaching.com to learn more about geocaching or my link at the end of this post. DSCN4825

Sure enough about 100 feet into the woods I find a collection and porno mags and some whiskey bottles. Sometimes I wish I had a trash bag with me (and a really really good pair of gloves!). I’ve brought along trash bags and it works out well. You pick this crap up and and drop it into a trash bin at the park parking lot. I hate it when people leave trash in public areas.

IMAG0632

A few hundred feet further and I came upon an old squatter’s camp that was no longer active. They had left a bright green Dollar store shopping cart. That puzzled me because you would basically have to carry that thing through the woods to their camp. I mean if you have that much energy why don’t you get a job, earn some money, and get an apartment? Busy #beavers felling trees in west #Tulsa #SightsofGeocaching #inthewoodssomewhere #nature

Soon after, I left all signs of squatters and came upon signs of nature. Some busy little beaver got after this tree.

I found the cache, as a courtesy to the Cache Owner and the people looking for it I am not showing where I found it. If you want to go look for it, it is named “TAG CITO 2014 Commemorative Cache – West Highlands.”  It was a fun one to find.

Untitled

At lunch on Friday I drove out west to Keystone Dam to look for a couple of caches. Untitled

I wasn’t really familiar with the area and ended up on this old road on the south side of the Arkansas River downriver from the dam. A road like this demands to be driven to the very end and I did. So then I looped back and got to business at hand.

Untitled

Untitled

I saw an eagle take off from the top of these trees near the “Ground Zero” of the Bomb Squad Cache.

The first one I went after was close to the dam and was named Blue Blazes after the trail that goes by it. This is on Army Corps of Engineers managed land and there was no signs of squatters or porn parties. Just me, the trail, and the woods. 

Then I went to the other side of the dam and took a short hike along the north bank of the river and found the Bomb Squad Cache so named because the cache owner originally placed the cache too close to a post office and the police bomb squad came in and looked at it. They didn’t go stupid though. They left a note asking him to move it somewhere else and he did deep in the woods, and I’m glad he did.

Anyways I love walking in the woods this time of year on a bright sunshiny days. What about you, have you ever been geocaching?

Geocaching 101