I went walking around Tulsa’s Lafortune Park. Saw this tree, half in the sun, half shaded. I loved it. I did an edit with the iphone app ArtCard.
And then later on my walk encountered this big ole thing the parking lot. It looks very official.
And this is from my back yard yesterday morning. It looks warm and sunny and it was 44F. Not warm in my book.
I am linking with Shadow Shot Sunday 2 by the Magical Mystery Teacher. Check it out!!
It’s hot here in Oklahoma. I am still running and hiking but I live for the shady routes like above on Turkey Mountain. It’s all shade there but you have to watch out for ticks, chiggers, and snakes. Deet works wonderfully for the bugs, snakes, just keep an eye out if you can. My biggest problem is tripping on the rocks and roots.
My other route is Lafortune Park. No bugs, snakes, rocks, or roots there but a lot less shade except in certain areas.
It borders a golf course which makes it kind of scenic.
This is my favorite post workout drink (after I down about a liter of water.)
My advice for running or hiking in the heat is to take it easy and take lots of water.
I’m linking with ShadowShot Sunday 2. Come check it out.
I was at the gym the other day and I peaked out into the courtyard and saw this almost bulls eye pattern on the astroturf.
Nearby on a walking trail I saw a more natural shadow.
I’m linking with Shadow Shot Sunday 2. Come join in!
I went on a walk at Tulsa’s Lafortune Park. The trail is 3.1 miles long and loops around two golf courses, baseball fields, a tennis complex, a high school, a public library and there is almost always something going on except it was a cold windy day and I had the place to myself. The skies were overcast so I took photos of the trees on the golf courses.
I love trees in the winter. Their twiggy fingers reaching to the sky. I love trees in all the seasons, how about you.
I got my first Covid vaccination shot this week. I think it is crazy that every state in the union has their own way of doing things. I spent two days refreshing my browser every ten to fifteen minutes. The other thing is that here in Oklahoma just because a site says no appointments available doesn’t mean anything you have to click through to be sure. I know others out in blogland have related similar stories. Anyway, I am glad we are finally getting a foothold, a beginning, to rid our earth of this awful disease.
I’m thankful for the vaccine and for the many millions of caregivers around the world who have risked their lives taking care of people who got sick with the disease.
I’m linking with Skywatch Friday, come join us.
I’m still learning this whole retirement thing. One thing is trying to figure out how to structure my day.
So after over 40 years of getting up early during the week and hurrying to get my exercise, breakfast, and newspaper reading in, I started going to bed a little bit later so I could watch Stephen Colbert and waking up later and doing my coffee drinking, breakfast eating, and newspaper reading.
And that was fine the problem was exercising. It’s summer in Oklahoma and as usual it is hot. So by the time I got done with the preliminaries it would be like 11 am. So I’d go do my thing, run at Turkey Mountain or on the river or whatever.
So today is like, okay Colbert is not the funny without an audience. I like to read more than watch television and I hate to say it but I may be a natural early riser. So today I got up and went to Lafortune Park and run/walked my three miles and then went to the gym and used their hot water and towels to clean up.
So I am going to try this a little while. I think it might work out until the weather changes. It’s kind of like my friends that go on mission trips to Tanzania. One thing they love is that when you are over there, when it gets dark you go to bed, and you get out of bed when the sun comes up. They love the simplicity, among a bunch of other things.
And talk about simplicity. My antique Iphone crapped out on me. I tried everything I could do and ended up taking it to one of those store front phone doctor places. Wish me well. Just to have some thing I went to Target and bought a $20 burner and 30 minutes worth of time. Just talk and text, no internet, no nothing. Remember those days? Don’t you worry though I’ll be back in business in two days with either my antique or a brand new one.
On the pandemic side it kind of looks like due to a lack of interest in doing anything about it by our national and state leadership, it is skyrocketing. New cases per day in Oklahoma have gone up by a factor of eight since early June.
So I’ll be socially distancing and isolating for the foreseeable future. What about you? How are you doing?
Seen at a local park a couple weeks ago.
I am looking forward to Springtime with its longer days and warmer temperatures. I am a little anxious to get out on the trails with my bicycle.
I am thankful for the four seasons and the opportunities to be outdoors for all of them.
I am linking with Skywatch Friday
It’s been cold here and I’ve been cooped up. Sunday morning I went for a walk around Lafortune Park, a 3 mile trek around a combination golf course, library, playground, tennis complex, and little league ballparks. One of those huge rambling urban parks that I tend to love. I’ve been around it hundreds of times over the years and of course I took my camera and I took this photo just focusing on the water and not paying attention to the sky. I was pretty happy with the result. I got a pretty good walk in also.
I am linking with Skywatch Friday.
This past weekend son Logan and I decided to take a walk around Tulsa’s Lafortune Park. Lafortune Park has a big playground, picnic areas, tennis courts, a high school, baseball parks, and two golf courses with a walking path about 3 miles long winding around it all.
I didn’t bring my camera, just my cell phone. Luckily there were some pretty decent skies.
Part of the trail was a little muddy. In the 26 years we have lived in Tulsa I bet that I have either walked or run around Lafortune hundreds of times.
I love pedestrian bridges. Logan is now 20, when he was about 3 he liked to go hide under this bridge and pretend he was a troll. The kid used to drive me crazy!! Perfectly good playground 100 feet away. Oh well.
There he is. He lags a little behind but it works out because I take pictures and study on things and eventually he catches up to me.
I’m linking with Skywatch Friday.
This month we had the Harvest Moon. I love full moons. I take photos of all I can and apply all sorts of filters and editing to them. I hope that doesn’t bother you.
I went for a walk last week and caught a sunset and as a bonus I got lots of long narrow tree trunk shadows.
This is the Powerline Trail on Turkey Mountain, here in Tulsa. It’s the fast route from the north end of the wilderness park to the parking lots on the south end. It’s not the easiest though, you go straight up and down a couple of big hills. But is hard to get lost on it.
Various sights around Tulsa this week.
I’m linking with Skywatch Friday
Started when the sun was low which makes for long shadows. Since my knee injury a couple years ago I always walk a half mile before running.
I am being a little ambitious with my running this Fall. I have signed up for the Tulsa Run 15K and the half marathon event of the Tulsa Route 66 Marathon. I’m also thinking about doing the 25K event at a Trail Race on Turkey Mountain. And of course it is all well and good to sign up for this stuff but at you also have to train for the runs.
Tulsa is a city of trees and Up with Trees is a great organization that wants us to have even more!!
So most of my training runs have been up and down the River Trails here in Tulsa. I love the River Parks trails but you know, you need a little variety now and then. There is a park a few miles northwest of our house, Lafortune Park. It has an 18 hole golf course, and a 18 hole par three course, lots of picnic areas, tennis courts, a library, a tennis center, a lawn bowling pitch, a high school, with football and baseball fields, and best of all a 3 mile running/walking track that winds its way around all of those other things.
I ran by the offices of Crisis Pregnancy Outreach. This is a great organization that is devoted exclusively to the babies and their mothers. No time for wedge politics or anything like that. You want to do politics go somewhere else. If you are concerned about babies and mothers, this is your place.
I have run around the park many times, and Heather and I have walked around it a lot, even son Logan and I have done the three miles a bunch of times.
The closest thing to Fall Color I saw on my trek
Well I wanted to close the loop so to speak by running from the house to the park. From the house I have walked, run, and biked to the Creek Turnpike Trail. And although I have not done it all in one outing, I have walked, run, and biked about 20 miles to the east, and to the west and northwest probably 30 miles or more. So I wanted to extend my connectivity the few miles to Lafortune and get an 11 mile run at the same time. I had already done nine miles last week, so I wanted to do 11 this past weekend.
I love old signs. This sign has been there a long time even the store is long gone. It’s days are numbered though as there is some construction going on.
So off I went. It was different than running on a running path. First of all I wasn’t wearing headphones. Running on the street with headphones is a prescription for getting run over. I had a good friend who got run over and died while running on a freeway frontage road with headphones on. Second is the camber of the road. The crown. You really have to alternate what side of the road you run on otherwise you will tear up your knees or ITB band.
I passed a new restaurant going in at a busy intersection. I am a sucker for glass blocks.
But hey, it was all good. A nice brisk, sunny day.
Saint Francis Hospital.
It about wore me out. I didn’t have any time goals. I just wanted to finish and yes I walked a lot.
Probably 60% on the streets, roads, and sidewalks, the rest on park trails or vacant fields.
I know, I know, I should have been in church on Sunday morning but running had me totally in the moment and it all seemed to go by in a flash.
Next Saturday is the Tulsa Run 15K. It will be my 23rd. it is my favorite race of the year. It will be cold!!! but that is okay. I have the cold weather gear. I know how to dress for the cold weather, the hot weather, and wet weather, and dry weather. It doesn’t matter to me.
Here is the garmin video my very slow run.
Here is the much more fun “relive” version of the run. I like it much better for its 3D aspect plus it makes it appear that I ran the whole way.