Tag Archives: Skywatch Friday

Skywatch Friday – Strolling Down America’s Main Street

Last week I attended the funeral of former coworker. I was sad for him and his family but I also got to see a bunch of other coworkers who came to the services as well. Afterwards I felt like checking out some of the new attractions on Tulsa’s portion of the Route 66, aka, The Mother Road, or the America’s Main Street. Turns out America’s Main Street is on Eleventh Street in Tulsa.

For some reason a half mile stretch of Eleventh Street has been taken over by “Muffler Men.” Supersize fiberglass sculptures. I love them, they are so oversized and colorful, how can you not like them.

As you can read on the mural behind him, this is “Meadow Gold Mack.”

I don’t know what this gal’s name is but I like her. Quite fetching don’t you think.

I love all sorts of Route 66 attractions. You know what my favorite is? A very little known sign where Paul McCartney stopped in the 2000’s while driving Route 66. He stopped and knocked on the door of a farmhouse and asked for directions. Can you imagine Paul McCartney knocking on your door? He was driving a 1989 Ford Bronco so he had no GPS in his car. I found this sign as I was looking for a geocache.

It’s the hundredth anniversary of the Mother Road next year and Tulsa is at its epicenter. National Geographic has some great information.

What about you? Do you like Route 66?

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Skywatch Friday – Back on the Trail Edition

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To recap, about two weeks ago I slipped and fell while hiking. I’ve done that a lot but this time my knee and the rest of my body went different directions and I was sore. So I hiked back to my car, went home, took a shower and then my wife took me orthopedic urgent care where they took xrays, said that my new knee was in good shape, wrapped my knee in a wrap patted me on my head said go see your surgeon.

I talked to my surgeons PA and said no damage to the knee so released me to do whatever as I felt able. I didn’t do much for a couple days and then gradually started getting more active.

My first hike was a mall walk where I saw that rugby shirts are a thing again, along with earth colors. Oh well.

I graduated to slow walks at local parks. Much better!

I love this fence.

And then back to Turkey Mountain for hikes on trails that are flat and don’t have technical feature.

This is the best vista on Turkey Mountain.

And then little bit longer hikes on more challenging terrain.

I found this bike jump on my a hike. Mountain bikers are crazy. You jump over the trail and onto a very steep slope on the other side. That’s a big nope for me. I have yet to ride a bike on Turkey Mountain.

I love this trail bridge over the dam at the YMCA at Turkey Mountain. Tulsa has the best fall weather of any place I have ever lived. Cool night, warm days, blue skies. Sign me up for all you have.

My beautiful wife Heather had an afternoon free, so we did a two mile hike at Turkey Mountain on the Sanctuary area.

I love old appliances on the trail. Turkey Mountain is an old farming, ranching, and oilfield area so there are lots things to look at that are interesting.

And at one spot, there is an old oil well with rods sticking out of the ground. I reminded Heather that we had been here before, 11 years ago. We were on an outlaw trail. The land was private but some bikers and hikers blazed a few trails through the tract and Heather, Me, and son Logan checked it out.

Heather and Logan found them selves an #oilwell on #turkeymountain #tulsa #oklahoma #igersok

So this is wife and son from nearly eleven years ago. Except, now RiverParks owns the land and it is legal to be on it.

Next up on the agenda. The Tulsa Area Geocachers are having their Fall Fest Geocaching Event at Lake Okmulgee on Saturday, and Sunday, the Tulsa Urban Wilderness Coalition is at Chandler Park partnering with the county on a trail maintenance and a cleanup day there. I’ll be at both events.

I am linking with Skywatch Friday

Skywatch Friday – Walking the Trails of Lake Bixhoma

Lake Bixhoma is a water supply lake for the Tulsa suburb of Bixby. It’s a not a big lake but is very pretty especially in the fall. This is from an outing a few years ago. I’m kind of out of commission temporarily I went and fell during a hike last Friday and not getting around too much lately. But hey, I’m healing fast!

Lots of people go fishing on the lake and there is a decent network of trails there as well. Plus geocaches. In fact I took these photos during a geocaching event at the lake.

It is just a great place to go wander around in. Kind of snaky though so watch your step!!

Part of the trail system goes by this beautiful cliff. I’m told by my geology minded people that those rocks are about 330 million years old and are full of small fossils. I’m a lousy paleontologist. I can see the fossils when they are pointed out to me otherwise all I see is rock.

Those rocks from deep under the earth played a role in a nuclear test treaty between the United States and Russia under the terms of the Threshold Test Ban Treaty in 1990 at the nearby Leonard Geophysical Observatory. Check the link for the story here. They monitored American and British underground explosions in Nevada from the site. The arrangement only lasted a few years and then the Russians gave the site back to the Americans and left. I’ve read other articles that I couldn’t find online. One thing that amused me was that the Russians refused to honor no smoking rules in the buildings. They’d say, this is now part of Russia and we don’t have no smoking in Russia.

I’d love to see the old test monitoring site but it is all fenced off now.

I am linking with Skywatch Friday

Skywatch Friday – From Here to the Moon and Back

Here: Taken on a recent morning hike with a friend through The Sanctuary at Tulsa’s Turkey Mountain Urban Wilderness Area. It’s kind of an isolated part of Turkey Mountain so we don’t generally see anybody early in the morning.

To the Moon!: The Full Harvest Moon for a couple nights ago. Clear skies in Tulsa made this one easy. Social media blew up as thousands of people posted their Full Moon shots that night. I loved it.

And back: From an October 2019 trip to Jackson, Wyoming. My wife and I hiked all over Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Park. What a beautiful place that is.

I’m linking with Skywatch Friday

Skywatch Friday – Autumn Surprise Spider Sunrise

I was out with the dogs the other morning admiring our sunrise when what did I see?

A spider on a web also admiring the sunset!!

Another sign of autumn is that I am starting my gig as a volunteer reading tutor. I’ve already met the young person I’ll be working with and am looking forward to helping them learn to read.

Another sign of autumn is that an organization I am with, the Tulsa Urban Wilderness Coalition has restarted our trail maintenance projects. It’s too hot in the summer!! Our latest project which we co-hosted with another organization had over fifty people working on various projects on Turkey Mountain.

I love autumn, it goes on for months here in northeast Oklahoma.

I’m linking with Skywatch Friday

Skywatch Friday – Williams Crossing Bridge

I was at Tulsa’s Gathering Place Monday evening for a presentation having to do with Monarch Butterflies. After the presentation I wandered over to the nearby Arkansas River to see what I could see.

The Williams Crossing pedestrian bridge was open and all lit up. Just using my old iphone I took a few photos. They are not too bad. This is a view from downstream of the bridge.

And the view from upstream. The lights reflect nicely on Zink Lake.

Across the way, on the downstream side, is Public Service Company of Oklahoma’s Tulsa Power Station. An ancient old plant that is still active. Long time ago I worked for the pipeline company that delivered natural gas to the plant. It was always the last plant to come on during high demand periods and the first to be turned off when electric requirements tailed off.

I went kayaking on the Arkansas River’s Zink Lake last fall and got this photo of the bridge and power plant together.

The Williams Crossing bridge replaced and old railroad bridge that got converted to pedestrian service back in the 1980’s I think. It was a pretty cool structure itself. Here is a photo from before it was demolished to make way for the new bridge.

I checked on construction on the new bridge pretty frequently. About once a week or every other week depending on the season. Like all construction it seemed to go slow.

I’d love to learn how to operate the machines.

I just love bridges. What can I say?

Linking with Skywatch Friday

From the Moon to the Gulf of Mexico

I totally forgot to post my Full Blood Moon photo last week, so I am doing it now. The internet is forever right?

A morning sunrise shot in the neighborhood.

One afternoon I noticed low thin clouds late in the day so I went home and launched the drone from the backyard and I’m pretty happy with this.

I got a ton of skywatch photos on our vacation to Orange Beach, Alabama, on the Gulf of Mexico back in August so I’m still posting these.

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Skywatch Friday – Far and Away and Online

From our vacation last month. A distant rain shower moving across the Gulf of Mexico.

And in the neighborhood here in Tulsa a colorful sunset.

And not photo, not my copyright, although somebody holds it. A jigsaw puzzle I finished earlier this week. The sky was a bugger on this one. I’m working on a sea turtle puzzle now. It’s really hard.

I’m linking with Skywatch Friday

Skywatch Friday – New Veterans Park

This is a park just off downtown Tulsa. It used to be known as Centennial Park but is now known as Veterans Park. It’s a very nice retreat. Lots of landscaping and it has a trail that goes around and a big pond and some other water features.

Back when I worked this was part of one of my downtown running routes.

The building in the background is now home to Tulsa City Parks. I just happened to have a meeting over there and so I got there intentionally early so I would have time for a brief walk around the pond.

So whatever they call it, it’s a nice park.

I’m linking with Skywatch Friday.

Skywatch Friday – Watching the Waves Roll In

beach scene_DAP_Glamour — Not AI – I used Dynamic Auto Painter to modify a photograph.

The thing about a beach vacation is the beach and the water. Here is a scene from our condo balcony on the fifth floor with the gentle morning waves of the Gulf of Mexico rolling up on the beach. So we’d watch the Gulf from our condo with our morning coffee, breakfast, and newspapers. Then later we’d go hang out on the beach and then we would do a walk on the beach. Then we would go out and about town and return to beach in the late afternoon and then when it got dark we were back out on the balcony watching the Gulf some more. It was heaven.

I’m linking with Skywatch Friday