Tag Archives: Oklahoma

Entertaining One’s Ownself

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.

I’m linking with Skywatch Friday – come join in!!

Shadowy El Reno, Oklahoma

Shadow Selfie at a Shadow Gate in downtown El Reno, Oklahoma

Checking out El Reno’s namesake, Major General Jesse Lee Reno while tracking down an Adventure Lab Geocache.

I’m linking with Shadow Shot Sunday 2.

Philbrook Reflections

I was at Tulsa Philbrook Museum Gardens checking out the fall foliage when I noticed some crystal balls hanging in one of the trees. So I went to check them out.l

They had hung all these balls in the lower branches. I loved them. I think they are for the Christmas holidays.

I had my lensball with me so I made a crystal photo of a crystal. I love garden decorations.

I’m linking with Weekend Reflections. Come check it out!

The Bronze Zoo of Broken Arrow

One of my hobbies is geocaching which involves finding stuff out in the world using a GPS receiver or an app on a smart phone. I’ve been doing it a long time and love it. (Check geocaching.com for more information.) One of the newer types of geocaches is Adventure Labs. I’ve done several of those. One I did recently was an animal sculpture themed geocache in the town of Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. I had to navigate to the sculptures and find out some information about each one. The technology utilized includes an electronic fence which means that I had actually had to go rather than sit in my easy chair and google to find out the information.

Anyway, its lots of fun and I found out new stuff. For example, downtown Broken Arrow has a life sized installation of a mouse. It’s on a windowsill. Why? I have no idea but its there. I love finding out new things in areas where I live and travel.

I’m linking with Mosaic Monday. Come join in!!

Calling the Hogs

Friday, my wife and I were in a parking lot and came across this bright spot. I was like, What!!

Somebody had an Arkansas Razorbacks plate and it reflected perfectly on the ground. I love it.

I’m helping take care of a monarch way station on Turkey mountain. The stake fence makes for some nice shadows.

I get bored while watering so I made a time lapse video of it.

And the other day while hiking on Turkey Mountain I came across a family of deer grazing including this one coming out of the shadows. I am glad the deer are returning. The mountain has become really popular but the hub bub has died down a little bit and the deer are coming back.

I’m linking with Magical Mystery Teacher’s Shadow Shot Sunday 2. Come join in.

Our World – Philbrook Flowers and Reflections

The tempietto at Philbrook has to be the most photographed thing in town. I’ve taken a bunch myself. Back when the Waite Phillips family lived here way back when, the pond was a swimming pool and supposedly there was a changing room underneath the tempietto.

The pond makes for some nice reflections.

I love all the flowers at Philbrook.

On another water body, Crow Creek, which winds through the property, there are lots of turtles.

And another flowers.

An invitation to look for a stone flower.

There it is!!

Stumbled upon the secret garden. The restaurant at Philbrook uses it for growing herbs and such.

It was too early to catch the change of color in the trees. Almost as good is this installation. “Oklahoma Autumn” by Eric Baker. It’s my favorite sculpture in the garden. There are two other pieces of this off to the right.

They got a lot of stuff in the 25 acres of gardens. Over 1200 trees and fifteen sculptures. I wonder if somebody is in charge of the tree count?

I’m linking with Our World Tuesday. Give it a try!

Skywatch Friday – Stormy Weather on the Drive Home

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.

Come join the fun at Skywatch Friday

Escape to Margaritaville by Jimmy Buffett

Saturday afternoon, Heather and I ventured downtown to the Tulsa Performing Arts Center and watched “Escape to Margaritaville” a touring Broadway production featuring the music of Jimmy Buffett in a musical with a romantic comedy production. It was a lot of fun listening the tunes. It turns out that other people can sing Buffett tunes besides Jimmy.

It was a lot of fun. Here is the schedule. They are going all over the country. Sioux Falls, South Dakota is next.

The Performing Arts Center in Tulsa required all attendees to wear masks and it looked to me like everybody was complying.

Skywatch Friday – Ida Skies

We had some nice skies for part of the week. I think they were offshoots of Hurricane Ida. The victims of the storm are in my thoughts. So many people had to leave their homes. It’s going to be a long time before they get the electricity turned on. The storm continued up to the east coast causing flooding and tornadoes. What a miserable storm Ida was.

I went looking for a geocache. The spoiler is that I didn’t find it but I found something else. I was looking at the these cottonwood trees and it looked kind of funny.

It’s hard to see it in this photo but there is a trail that starts out and goes down to the Arkansas River. I was checking it out and a guy with a fishing rod came by and we chatted a bit. For a minute I thought it was Jimmy John Shark. Apparently you walk down the trail to the river, wade across part of the river and climb up on a sandbar and right there is a big hole that he says is full of catfish. You learn something new every day. I tried explaining geocaching to him and I could kind of tell the young man was worried about me. He was wondering if I was right in my head.

I wasn’t fishing, I was geocaching and the cache was hidden in the rip rap. I clambered around looking in all the nooks and crannies and couldn’t find it. Apparently nobody else could either. I got an email from the owners who said that they checked and it was missing and they are going to replace it soon.

On the way out I passed a tube bending company in an industrial area. They built this thing to show off their craft. Tube bending is useful in making chemical and refinery processing equipment, especially heaters and such. Tulsa has a lot of oilfield manufacturing companies and expertise.

The next day I went on a bike ride on the RiverParks trails along the Arkansas River here in Tulsa. I stopped to check out the construction of the new low water dam and pedestrian bridge. I think that it is going to be another two years or so before they are done. I’m looking forward to it. Click here for a look at the conceptual design.

And finished up at what I call the Bear Fountain near where I parked my care. The temp was in the low 90’s F but the heat index was about a 105 F. Time to go get cooled off. I was going to go geocaching again but didn’t want to get back out in the heat.

I am linking with Skywatch Friday – come join in!!

Our World – Union Pacific’s Big Boy Goes on Tour

One day earlier this month my friend Tom asked if I wanted to go see Union Pacific’s Big Boy locomotive. It was on a ten state tour and was going through Oklahoma on August 12. So the next day Tom and I went up to the little town of Vinita where the Big Boy was scheduled to appear.

Turns out about half the population of Oklahoma was there as well. Train fans of all ages were there. It’s nice to see that people still get all excited about trains.

The locomotive pulling this train is special. It is the biggest and most powerful operating steam locomotive in the world. With its tender, it weighs 1,951,000 pounds, it is 133 feet long and over sixteen feet tall. Twenty five of these monsters were built during World War II to pull freight trains over the Wasatch Mountains of Utah.

They were in service up until 1959 when they were replaced by cheaper to run diesel locomotives. There are only eight left. Seven are static displays in museums. The one we saw, number 4014 is the only one operational. Union Pacific reacquired it in 2019 and brought it back to working condition. The originals burned coal, 4014 is converted to burning used motor oil. It is used for promotional purposes by UP now.

It is very impressive and very loud and everybody was excited to see it including me.

It is still on tour, so you can still see it if you wish. They are touring ten states and it ends September 7 at UP’s station in Cheyenne, Wyoming. Check here for details on the schedule and stops.

Hey everybody else was getting a selfie why not me?

It stayed in Vinita for an hour or so while the crews fussed over the locomotive adjusting this and that and asking hundreds of questions.

The crew and the other UP employees were obviously proud of the engine. I was proud also. I worked for an oil and gas subsidiary of UP back in the late 70’s and early 80’s. They didn’t let me near a train but I still get their yearly train calendar.