Tag Archives: Sapulpa

Through My Lens – Sapulpa, Oklahoma

A couple months ago I stopped in the Tulsa suburb of Sapulpa to check things out.

Close to the downtown of the city I saw this large church. It was very imposing but I thought it looked a little awkward looking with that steeple that seems to need to be attached to a much larger building.

It is Prase Fellowship Church. I don’t know much about it but I liked the design on their sign showing clasped dark and light hands. I guess I am woke but I like the imagery. We need more woke stuff in my opinion.

The core downtown of Sapulpa has all sorts of trendy stores, restaurants, and a brewery. I liked this “umbrella alley” I’ll call it. I know lots of other places have similar installations but this is the first one I have seen. I love the different colors. The thing about Oklahoma is that the wind blows a lot here and the these umbrellas were dancing around pretty good. It looks like there are a few gaps where maybe a few umbrellas just flew off.

This is a mural on the city’s performance playhouse. I love murals and I think this fits.

And this is interesting. At first I thought it was a bar for surveyors or geocachers. Nope, its an outdoor event space.

Route 66 runs right through Sapulpa and there a lot of Route 66 themed stores and restaurants in town. This was on the outskirts. It is a barbecue restaurant. It wasn’t open when I was there.

So after seeing the sights I headed back home to Tulsa. I am linking to Through My Lens.

Through My Lens: New Rock Creek Bridge Attraction on Route 66

Here in the USA, a big deal this year is that it is the 100th Anniversary or Route 66. The cross country highway between Chicago, Illinois, and Santa Monica, California. Made famous in the book, “The Grapes of Wrath” by John Steinbeck telling of the migration of people from the Midwest to California during the depression. It has since become a destination in itself of people wanting to make the trek. All up and down the length of the road, individuals, cities, and states are sprucing up their attractions along US 66 for this year.

Rock Creek Bridge 1_HDR

Oklahoma is full of Route 66 attractions and I have been to almost all of them. The Tulsa area has its share, including Rock Creek Bridge near the suburb of Sapulpa. The above photo was taken in 2021 when one could still drive across it.

Below is two years ago when it was blocked off because of safety concerns. You could still walk across it with no problems.

What has happened since then is that plans were made and money was spent and a grand opening was held this past April making this bridge a destination.

They have parking areas, picnic tables, lights.

And walkways so you could legally get an angle to get better photos of the bridge. Before you might have to venture out to some pretty thorny, snaky areas, to get a shot but now you can do it safely. They still have that big ugly power pole to deal with but it’s authentic.

You still can’t drive on it. But that is okay. This is the view from east to west. I think the bricks are mainly original.

And this is from west to east. Yep, I used a filter on the photo because the sky was white and not too pretty.

And a sign and sitting area, just waiting for people to make selfies.

And an old vintage truck is installed.

And an old decorated, still in service, oil tank as a background.

It’s nice to see things spruced up.

Here is a link to an article by the National Park Service on the Bridge, and here is a link by a local television station that covered the grand opening festivities.

I am linking with Through My Lens

Rock Creek Route 66 Skywatch

Recently I went to the Tulsa suburb of Sapulpa to check out the Rock Creek Bridge. A must stop for Route 66 fans especially since this year is the 100th year of Route 66’s existence. The bridge is open to foot traffic only.

From there I ventured back into Sapulpa and found this Umbrella Alley. I love all the colors. The day I was there the wind was blowing pretty hard through the alley and the umbrellas were dancing. As they say in the musical “Oklahoma”

**“Oklahoma, where the wind comes sweepin’ down the plain,
And the wavin’ wheat can sure smell sweet,
When the wind comes right behind the rain.”**

If you love wind. Move to Oklahoma, we have lots for everybody.

I also found this brand new place, The Waypoint Lounge! I was sure it was a bar for geocachers. But alas, it is an event space with lots of amenities. Check the link. It is hard to make money off of geocachers. They really like free stuff.

Back home, a view down the road in my neighborhood.

I don’t have copyright

And I finished a jigsaw puzzle. I google lensed it and it is Hallstatt, Austria. Sure is pretty place is what I think.

NGC 6357/Pismis 24 (Chandra/Webb)
I don’t have copyright

And from our outer space. This is from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope augmented with data from the Chandra X-Ray Observatory. It shows “Nebula NGC 6357 that contains Pismis 24, a young cluster of stars about 5,500 light-years from Earth.”

To me this is breathtaking.

So that’s a wrap for this week. I’m linking with Skywatch Friday

Sapulpa’s Route 66 Christmas Chute

Tuesday night Heather, Logan, our Pom Kodi, and I loaded up and drove to the Tulsa suburb of Sapulpa to check out the Route 66 Christmas Chute in their downtown. We went last year and loved it!!

The city blocks off several blocks of Route 66 downtown and install these big frameworks and then people decorate them. You walk underneath the decorations. It is wonderful and you have great light for taking photographs. Also the merchants really go all out decorating their storefronts for the occasion.

Most of the restaurants are open if you are hungry or thirsty plus there are pop up shops selling food, drinks, and gift items.

Logan really loves gingerbread cookies.

Heather loves snowmen.

I love the reindeer and the sled.

Kodi loves Heather!

He also found two other poms to have a faceoff with. They were barking at him and he was just looking. He didn’t like being pulled away. I swear Pomeranians are the most spoiled dogs ever but we still love ours.

The Grinch was in a storefront!!

I figured out what Santa is going to leave me.

If you like Christmas trees, they have dozens of them, from little dinette sized trees.

To living room sized.

And big ole – courthouse plaza sized.

I think a good time was had by all.

It’s open every night through December 31. Check out their website. Download the printable scavenger hunt check list.

I’m linking with My Corner of the World

Skywatch Friday – Spring is Having a Little Trouble Springing

We are having a very wet and cool Spring here in Tulsa. We get soaked with rain for a day or two and then the sun comes out and all the mosquitoes celebrate!

I like the cloudy skies because they make for more interesting photographs. I like the sunny days because they are fun for walking or riding my bike.

I go outside with the dogs every morning to keep them from barking and bothering the neighbors. Sometimes though when I let them out and their are rabbits and squirrels in the yard the dogs are going to bark, and bark a lot!! And then if there are other dogs in the neighborhood barking, then our dogs are going to do what I call “Update their Barkbook Status”

Sometimes one can get pretty decent skywatch photos from your own home. I got this last week when I was out retrieving the paper. I think papers are a thing of the past. Used to be almost everybody had a paper on our street, now I think we are the only one.

Lafortune Stadium Baseball

Son and I went walking around Tulsa’s Lafortune Park and I noticed that some kids were playing baseball at Lafortune Stadium. I think it was what used to be called Pony League. I think they have a different name for them now. I love baseball, at any level, from peewee t-ball up to the major leagues. Tulsa has a AA Los Angeles affiliated team, the Tulsa Drillers. They didn’t play last year, I’m hoping to catch a few games this year if it seems safe to do so.

This is another Route 66 site. The Rhett Mansion in Sapulpa, Oklahoma. The former home of an oilfield gazillionaire back in 1911. It is now a wedding venue and from what I can tell on their web page and it has been very nicely restored and furnished. I love when historical buildings are repurposed into profitable enterprises. Not every building is suitable to be a museum.

The thing about Route 66 is that is more like a threaded stream of roads. The original road was called the Osage Trail. They didn’t build the Trail from scratch, they pieced together a bunch of existing roads and called them that. And since the start the various states would replace sections of Route 66 with new, wider, more modern roads and the old “alignments” as they are called reverted to being just local county roads. On one of these forgotten alignments sits the Teepee Drive in Theater on the outskirts of Sapulpa. It closed in 1990 and has sat there ever since. Apparently somebody wants to reopen it. So we’ll see what happens.

I know that I am on a little bit of Route 66 thing right now. Two things, first there are a lot of geocaches on it now in the Tulsa area especially the new Adventure Lab geocaches and I turned 66 last month so I am on a “66 on 66” type thing right now.

I wish everybody a great week! I am linking with Skywatch Friday, come check it out.