Residence Turned Commercial

This is the Tristesse Center where Susan works as a counselor. There are two things about this that I find interesting. First that it was originally a family home back in the 1930s. It is located right on the south edge of downtown Tulsa and has been converted into commercial property rather than razed and rebuilt. There is a "neighborhood" of these and to my mind makes a lot of sense.


The second thing is that it is landscaped with a row of Nandina across the front. I have lived in several houses with Nandina and I am very fond of it. It is very hardy once established and maintains a compact growth habit. It blooms with white flowers in the spring, and sets masses of red berries in the fall. The leaves stay green all winter making it an attractive shrub all year around. Birds like the berries and I like the birds. Enough said.

ONEOK Drillers Stadium Update, November 2009

I slipped onto the construction site of Tulsa's new baseball stadium yesterday and took a few photos. It is beginning to look like a baseball field. The lights are up, the grass is in, and the skeleton of the stands are in place. I stitched together a pair of photos to get the whole field in one photo. It is beginning to look like a nice stadium. My guess is that it will be ready on time for next spring's opening and will be a beautiful place to play baseball. Check the Drillers website.

Wordless Wednesday - Wild Persimmons

Wild Persimmons


Here in eastern Oklahoma the wild persimmons are about ready to pick. If they are a little green they are bitter enough to make your mouth pucker up for a 24 hour kiss. But when fully ripe they will fall off the tree at the lightest touch and are so sweet that they are like candy.

You can't buy persimmons like this, they are too soft and fragile to endure being handled and shipped to market. They are free to anyone who can locate a persimmon tree and able to beat the opossums, squirrels and raccoons who gooble them up like greedy children with a bag full of Halloween candy. They make wonderful persimmon pie, and persimmon bread is like nothing else. For some wild persimmon recipes look HERE.

More Wordless Wednesday postings

Autumn Glory

We are enjoying perfect Autumn weather. It is 68 F (20 C), the sky is deep blue and crystal clear. Our trees are in full color.


After a great vacation trip to Santa Fe and back we have seen a lot of different country and have decided that we like eastern Oklahoma the best. It seems to me that we are blessed to be here.

Take Time to Smell the Roses

After a 1500 mile journey it is nice to be back home to relax and smell the roses. I slept late this morning. Poor Saint Susan had to work. There is no rest for the weary.

Day 9 - Home Again, Home Again

From Guymon we came straight home across US 412. After a long week of sight seeing we have had a wonderful time but are ready to get home. Today was all drive, no side trips. Driving east from Guymon we went through Woodward, then Enid, and then a long stretch to Tulsa. By the time we got to Woodward the terrain began to roll again after the dead flat panhandle.


Between Woodward and Enid are a few rough hills, but nothing like New Mexico.

Back in about 1988 I was one of a group of bicycle riders who did an annual bicycle tour called Freewheel. It crossed the state of Oklahoma in a week, usually from south to north. In 1988 it went from west to east and began in Woodward. It was a little longer than usual but the understanding was that it would be easier because the western part of Oklahoma was flat with no hills, and the prevailing wind is from the southwest. What could be easier than a flat ride with a tail wind. The reality was that the terrain was rolling hill after rolling hill, and for the first 3 days we had severe thunderstorms and strong winds out of the north and east. Never try to predict the weather in Oklahoma. Since then the route as returned to some variation of the south to north formula. For a laugh click HERE. The dog's name is Tootsie.


As we approached Tulsa we are back in the hilly wooded part of Oklahoma called "Green Country". This is where I call home.


Back to Tulsa - there's no place like home. Not a good photo but it looks good to me.

To those of you who have followed this journey with us all week , thank you for suffering through far too many photos. But these were only a fraction of the pictures I took. It was hard to choose from them. We packed a great deal into a small amount of time.

Retracing old Route 66 was an interesting experience. This was the road that carried many thousands of hopeful migrant workers to what seemed to them to be the promised land of work and opportunity. Many were from Oklahoma and were derisively called "Okies". As a matter of fact my father went out to California in the early 1930s to find work and found a job as a grocer. Mother came out later to join him and I was born in Long Beach, California in 1941.

It also was an opportunity for towns and businesses located along Route 66 to prosper from the many hungry weary travelers who drove it. The Interstate highways that replaced Route 66 provided safer faster travel that sped by the little towns and shortened the driving distance. In doing so it cut the economic lifelines for whole communities. It was sobering to see so many of these small towns reduced to skeletons. In most of them were rows of abandoned restaurants, motel, and garages that were built to serve the travelers who were channeled away by the new expressways. I took lots of pictures but decided not to depress you with them.

On the other hand some of these businesses have survived to become attractions of their own. Some of these communities have managed to sponsor events that draw people back. People are ingenious. The mystique of Route 66 remains.

As a destination Santa Fe is unique. The community is one big art and antique gallery, second only to New York City. It has an active performing arts program with resident opera and ballet companies. There are many schools for graphic and performing arts. Art of all description is the foundation of the Santa Fe economy. It is a fascinating place to visit or to live.

To the friends who left a comment, thank you very much. I apologize that I did not respond to you. I tried to edit and post the activites of the day and be then I was pooped. I appreciated that you were following the blog but was too tired to reply. Thank you Elleona, Micki, Anne, Driller, Renny, Laurel, Yogi, Zhu, Nancy, Catsynth, Sukhmandir, Snowcatcher, and Kathy. Finding a comment on a blog post is like finding a present under the Christmas tree. And a special thanks for Zhu whose wonderful trip through South America early this year served as a model to my little trip.

Susan and I had a great time. Thanks for coming along.

Route 66 Roadtrip: Day 8, Santa Fe, NM to Guymon, OK

Santa Fe was great and we wish we had more time to enjoy it, but we need to start back home. We will go back a different way than we came. There is some very interesting country to be seen by going out of New Mexico through the northeast and shooting down the long narrow Oklahoma panhandle.

As we leave Santa Fe we are struck by how much of the city is adobe. The thick walls of a real adobe house are red clay baked hard in the hot sun. Most of the modern houses are cement but the look is the same. The thick walls insulate from the heat.


We go out US 25 towards Springer to connect with US 412 for the drive east through Oklahoma.


How would you like to have this view out your back door?


As we approach the northeastern corner of New Mexico we get close to the southeastern corner of Colorado. Off in the distance we can see the peaks of the Colorado Rocky Mountains. Oklahoma borders Colorado on the far northeasern end of the panhandle but we will not pass through there.


We paused in the little town of Springer, NM to take a picture of this little church. It is St. Joseph's Catholic Church.


The last town in New Mexico before we entered Oklahoma is Clayton, NM.


We intended to drive straight to Boise City, Oklahoma but noticed on our road atlas that the hughest point in Oklahoma is Black Mesa at 4,973 feet, and that Black Mesa State Park was only a 20 mile side trip. Oh well, what is another few miles. We may never pass this way again. The view from the mesa was great.


We drove to the park headquarters cabin over this little low water crossing.


We didn't have time to hike to the high point but enjoyed seeing the camping area. These are individual camp sites for tents or RVs.


This is the area where the group camp cabins were located. There were maybe 10 little cabins and a larger mess hall kitchen facilities. This would be a great place to bring a youth group.


Sue walked Smokey down to a watering hole so he could add a little moisture to the water table.
If you would like more information about the park link to HERE.


After our detour of Black Mesa we went on to Boise City which is the county seat of Cimarron County. This is the county courthouse which sits on an old fashioned town square.


I don't know if the caboose is the location of the Boise City Chamber of Commerce or they just donated it for a display. We did not stop to ask.


The next 61 miles from Boise City to Guymon, Oklahoma looked just like this - flat as a pancake and straight as an arrow. We are here for the night in Guymon. We have been staying at Comfort Inns where we could. They are our favorite dog-friendly motel. Tomorrow is Tulsa.

Oh! When Sue and I went out for dinner this evening we encountered several young boys and girls who were decked out in wonderful costumes. That's right, it Halloween! I almost forgot. Allow me to extend the greeting for the day. BOO! There now, that's better.

Route 66 Roadtrip: Day 7, Santa Fe, NM

At last we have a full day to explore Santa Fe. After rain and snow we are blessed today with cloudless skies and cold crisp air.

Santa Fe was first occupied by Pueblo Indians in about 1100 and was settled by Spanish colonialists in 1598. Now The population is about 75,000 of which about 45% identify themselves as Hispanic. For more about Sante Fe's remarkable history look HERE.


This city is the center of southwestern art and culture, and a tourist mecca. The central downtown is one big shopping area full of art and artists. The preferred style of architecture is adobe. We are here on a cold windy Friday morning in October and the city was full of people.


There are so many thing so see here. I took a hundred photos and had trouble whittling them down to 15. This is the Santa Fe Performing Arts Center.


We went through the Santa Fe Museum of Contemporary Native Arts. Click for information on Native Art in Sante Fe.


Within the Museum grounds is the Alan Houser Art Park, an enclosed courtyard of contemporary sculpture. For more about this artist see HERE.


The contrast of light and shadow against the azure blue sky is very striking.


The Cathedral Basilica of Saint Frances of Assisi dates back to 1610. The congregation will celebrate its 400th anniversary next year in 2010. For more information see their website HERE. For an excellent Wikipedia article with a virtual tour of the cathedral see HERE.


The interior is light and colorful. Some cathedrals are solomn and austere. Here is a feeling of openness and joy. Clearly this is the home to a living community.


Beautiful stained glass and intricately decorated ornamentation stands out against the white surfaces.


Santa Fe is most of all a center for art and artists. Along the long shelter of the Governor's Palace are artisans selling their work. Paintings, jewlery, sculpture, artifacts of all sorts are laid out on blankets for you to see and hopefully buy. Most of these are not expensive.


In the many shops are the unusual and beautiful. These are not for those of us with limited resources. But window shopping is free. This is a wooden bowl, carved on a lath from a single block selected for its grain. Where there are natural cracks in the wood, crushed turquoise is worked into the cracks and the whole thing is polished to a glassy shine. Very unusual.


Many things here are made from turqouise and sterling silver.


This cat is covered entirely in bead work in stunning patterns. There are so many lovely things offered for sale that I can only offer a brief sample.


And of course when Susan saw this Christmas shop she had to go inside for a look. We had a wonderful day and a wonderful week.

Saturday we will start back home. Rather than retrace our circuitous drive down route 66 we will swing back by driving straight down the Oklahoma panhandle. Stay tuned.

Route 66 Roadtrip: Day 6, Santa Rosa, NM to Santa Fe, NM

No sooner had we started out this morning and I discover that my camera's batteries are dead and and so are my spares. So here is one from my iPhone. Not a bad picture from a phone camera. We stopped at a gas station and bought some AA batteries.


As we drove to Santa Fe we used old route 66 when we could. We used Highway 84 which was built on top of 66 for a good bit of the way. When they separated they ran adjacent to each other so it really didn't matter which we were on. This is on 66 and would make a great example of the "vanishing point" in an art class.

This is such beautiful country that you can point your camera in most any direction and take a good picture. I took far more photos than I can use here. You will see them sneak in as time goes by.

As we drive north the terrain becomes more mountainous. By the time we get to Santa Fe we will be at about 7000 feet (2134 meters).

We stopped to visit the Pecos National Historical Park in Pecos, New Mexico. There is a very nice visitors center with tours. Since the hike was a bit too much for me even with my new chair, we were allowed to drive up to the main attraction which is the ruins of a Pueblo village and Mission.

There was a sophisticated society here at one time. The park has a good website if you would like to know more. Link to Pecos National Park.

This area is also home to a well known Baptist Conference Center.

Enormous cumulus clouds kept rolling by. We passed in and out of sunshine then it began to spit rain.

We decided that we would not mind living in this house.

By the time we arrived in Santa Fe it began to snow, a few flurries at first then rather heavy. Not the sort of weather we had in mind for looking at the many shops and attractions of Santa Fe.

Susan took advantage of a break in the snow to take Smokey for a walk. He has been a good traveler. After a break we went to dinner at a Mexican restaurant called Tortilla Flats. This was recommended by the guide book we are using and was excellent. While we were eating it continued to snow. It melted on the streets but covered the grass and autos with a thin layer of white. The forecast is for it to clear off tomorrow and we are hoping that is correct.

Our plan for tomorrow (weather permitting) is to go down town and go through the many shops and attractions in Santa Fe. When my son David was stationed in Albuquerque with the Air Force I came up here with him and we had a nice time. Susan has never been here before and we are hoping for some decent weather.