During our recent trip Gulf Shores, Alabama for vacation we noticed that just before sunset every evening there was a migration of fellow vacationers to the beach. They were all dressed in khaki’s and whites and what they were doing was getting their family photographs taken. I got to help out a time or two with taking the photos.
Have you ever worn your khaki’s and whites to the beach?
Well, I found another old recyclable camera in the house on Labor Day. I was looking for trade trinkets that we were going to plant in a new geocache. It has some exposures left on it so I decided to take it along to document the geocache planting process.
SuperPizzaBoy and Sweetie on the trail. It’s about a mile and half hike to the cache site from the nearest parking lot. People who want this cache are going to have to earn it. Many people think I’m crazy but I love the look of film, especially old film, especially old film that is exposed in a camera with a plastic lens. I’m just wild about it. I’m crazy about bad pictures. I really am.
It’s been hot here and many of the leaves have fallen off the trees. The temperature was in the 70’s though so we were lucky.
Here we are at Ground Zero. The place is called Rock City because, well I think because it has lots of rocks. Of course there are rocks scattered from one end of Turkey Mountain to the other but this area is called Rock City.
Sweetie is kind of acting like she is mayor of Rock City.
Here is your clue. If you don’t have a GPS receiver just walk around until you see that forked stick. The cache is real close. I hate giving it away like that.
Yep, that’s me, I saved my biggest widest grin for this pic. I hope you appreciate it. And I know I’m thinning a little on top. I’ve been warned by the FAA not to take my hat off if I’m within five miles of an airport. Pilots have been blinded by the glare off the ground.
Mission Accomplished! We’re all happy, especially SPB. He doesn’t understand pointless walks in the woods.
So we went somewhere he could understand.
Next steps? I have forms to fill out for the Tulsa RiverParks Authority that administers the park to get a permit. That in hand I submit the cache to Geocaching.com and hopefully they post it. Could take a week or so. I’ll let you know.
Also, when I got the camera developed I found some photographs I took during my Dad’s 80th birthday party a few years ago.
Last weekend the Yogi’s along with the world’s greatest MIL Nana and SuperPizzaBoy’s friend Q loaded up to head down the Turner Turnpike for a road trip. There is nothing like a road trip.
First stop, getting something to eat of course!
There is no other choice for Road Food than the Rock Cafe in Stroud, right on route 66. It was built in 1936.
The food is great. It is a popular spot on 66 but we came at an off time.
The owner Dawn Welch has owned it since the 1990’s. She was the inspiration for the character Sally Carrera in the movie “Cars”. Ms. Welch was also named Oklahoma’s 2008 Woman of the Year beating out Carrie Underwood. That’s a big honor especially considering how Oklahoma loves Carrie Underwood.
Don’t take just my word for the food, Guy Fieri of Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives likes it also. Check out his report on the Rock Cafe.
After filling up we traveled a few miles from Stroud to the Sparks Winery, in the central Oklahoma countryside.
We were on a mission, Sweetie was hosting book group and needed their Sangria.
We told the kids to go play and headed into the tasting room.
They have a wide variety of wines. No, I didn’t taste them all, I was the designated driver.
Nana and Sweetie did a thorough evaluation though.
Then we packed up our purchases and went home!
Have you been on a road trip lately?
I’ve got a new fascination, Strandbeests, kinetic sculptures made out of plastic tubes, that can travel up and down beaches. They actually look alive as they move. They are the brainchild of a Dutch man, Theo Jansen, who has been making them since 1990. He lets them loose on the beaches near Delft in the Netherlands and is making them more and more self sufficient and his dream is that one day to turn a herd loose.
I think he needs to come and let them loose in western Oklahoma or the praires in Osage county. I think it would be a wonderful sight.
I’ve already told Sweetie that I’ve always wanted to go to Delft. She’s not buying it, she suspects that geocaches are my motive. Little does she know…
I flew to Houston Friday on business. I have always loved the Tulsa Airport. It was built back in the early 1960’s and is very sleek with lots of glass, exposed steel steel, and gleaming highly polished floors. The whole structure has a very light and airy feeling to it.
Do you yell Yee Haw in Museums?
Or do you look the other way?
Do you HOWL when you see something you like?
Are you GAGA for the Arts?
And could you really, really use a new iPad 2?
If you answered “yes” to all the above, and you live in Oklahoma, go check out the Oklahoman’s for the Arts and enter a drawing.
I don’t normally post about sports much, especially college football. But I heard something on the beach last month in Gulf Shores, Alabama that presaged the news about Texas A&M University leaving the Big 12 Conference for the Southeast Conference.
You see I was hanging out on the beach, engaging in my favorite sport of listening in on other people’s conversations. My favorite eavesdropping is mother-daughter fights, second is spousal spatting.
Nothing like that was going on but there was a guy, maybe a decade younger than me who was talking to some college age guys. He was trying to be all cool and that. What is it about guys that think that when they are fat and forties that somehow the’ll get mistaken for 19 and cool? Yeah, I don’t know either.
Anyways, he asked the guys if they were in college and they said yes, most attending the University of Alabama and a few from Louisiana State University (“LSU”). Oh, my guy thought that was great. He said those were fine schools.
He informed them that his daddy went to Tulane University. He said that his daddy regretted that his entire life. He said that Tulane was a fine university and all that but where he really wanted to go was LSU. He made the mistake of putting academics over football and his daddy thought that was the biggest mistake he ever made.
“You see guys”, my friend told the college men, academics is great but when you tell people that you went to a great football school like LSU or Alabama, either one, people look up to you. They give you a more regard than if you went somewhere like Tulane. I mean, nothing wrong with Tulane mind you, but it is not anything special, not like LSU or Alabama.
He explained that when it came time to pick a college his family had moved from New Orleans to Houston. He said that at the time Texas A&M University was an up and coming football school. He told them, “You know, I thought I had it figured out. The A&M alumni, can raise the money like nobody’s business. You know it takes a huge amount of money to be competitive at football. I thought I would follow the money.”
Then he said, “You know guys, it just hasn’t worked out like I thought it would.” They have never really moved up into the big time. They just haven’t got it done. And you know it has cost me, they only people that ever get excited about me going to A&M is other Aggies. Others just don’t seem to care, I don’t get that look of respect in people’s eyes like an Alabama or an LSU man. If anything, they smile and ask if I grew up on a farm and then they start telling Aggie jokes. You know, some of my fellow Aggies love Aggie jokes but I don’t see what is so great about being the butt of everybody’s jokes. No sir, it just hasn’t worked out like I thought it would.”
“I mean they have Texas and Oklahoma and all that but those teams are living on past glory. They are not consistent. I mean Darrell Royal and Bud Wilkinson are long gone. There is nothing wrong with those schools, mind you guys, but they are not consistent. They do well for a little while but they fade.”
“I’ll tell you one thing guys, LSU and Alabama may not win National Championship games every year, but they would never lose to a glorified NAIA team like Boise State in a National Championship. Nope, you will never see them bite down hard on a sucker play like OU did on the last play of the game and blow it all on National Television in front of the whole dad burned world.”
“So I’m proud of you guys, school can be hard but you have to stick it through to the end. Get your degree and you’ll see what I’m talking about. LSU and Alabama men are respected because they come from great football teams. It hasn’t quite worked out for me. I’m not complaining but I think things would have worked out better for me if I had gone to the schools you guys are going to.”
Hey dear readers, don’t blame me, I’m just reporting the facts.
I went on an early Sunday morning run a few weeks ago. To the east I had a sunrise, to the west a moonset.
Found on Route 66 in Stroud, Oklahoma, right next to the Rock Cafe.
Signs, Signs
(I know that I’m not supposed to photograph an even number of anything, but which of these would you cut out?) (It’s a rhetorical question, ok?)
I visited Botanica in Wichita, Kansas last week. It’s a great botanical garden.
It’s got flower of course, trees, shrubs, lots of volunteers, shady spots, sunny spots.
It was kind of quiet on a weekday, with school starting and everything.
(Gaillardia, “Punch Bowl”, I always thought Gaillardia was a bad tropical disease.)
I love the flowers, I only noted a couple though. As I’ve said previously I can hardly tell a rose from an iris. Yes, I know, that is bad of me.
Lots of sculptures both contemporary and domestic in mood and more formal.
It had the most high tech sundial I’ve ever seen, placed in a well shaded spot of course.
It had lots of water features. That was appreciated on a day when it was well over 100F.
I loved the statues scattered through the gardens.
Their new children’s garden has been open only a month. It is made for kids to climb, sit, stand, touch, feel, all that stuff. Everything except run. Why is that nobody wants kids to run anymore?
It was fun. I talked to one of the volunteers, they miss the kids since school started. They love having the kids.
Its very colorful and educational. They have little boxes with books that explain lots of things if the kids are interested at all.
Check out Botanica if you are ever in Wichita, Kansas.
Check out the new Our World meme. Thanks Sandy and Sylvia for starting it.