6 March 2018 Visiting Tulsa

I was on a different mission this evening. We had retriecved a travel bug from a Buffalo area cacher. The bug had a mission to visit Route 66. I was lucky enough to have found fun caches placed by the travel bug owner and happy to be able to assist with the goal. After leaving the office, I picked up the traces of 66 and made my way to Tulsa.

It's not easy to find old 66. Redevelopment, time, and decay are taking their toll. This old steel building is of a vintage to have been on the Route when it was still US66.

Sprawl and changing retail patterns have taken their toll. This row of old shops on 66 is empty. It seems the street facade is being maintained to keep the 66 image alive.

My evening's journey brought me to a small railroad display of old rolling stock. The display included the correctly painted 4-8-4 Northern 4500 steam locomotive sporting its correct Meteor paint scheme. This 1942 locomotive was returned to Tulsa for display in 2011. I was glad to be able to see it. Always a rail fan, my dad would have loved it.

My evening ended early. There was a wildfire to the north and the wind was blowing right to bring irritating smoke toward Tulsa. Besides casting a strange glow over the area, it made breathing difficult. I decided for an early return to the hotel. My mission was done, and I saw new sights.

5 October 2017 A Second, Short Visit to the LBJ Grasslands

Vacations end. This one seemed really short. It was time to leave Oklahoma.

It was late afternoon by the time we completed our drive back to the grasslands. We had time for a few walks on the trails.

Our journey included a well done ammo can hide. This one had no tree fasteners so it met the guidelines though the use of carabiners. These do not show up often anymore so it was fun to find.

We also spotted this pool, which had FROGS!

It doesn't take much for a frog to amuse us.

Our last stop of the day was Cottonwood Lake in the grasslands. We made a couple finds here and left the ones on the back of the lake as we still had a drive to Dallas. It was a good stopping point for a fun vacation.

Nice tree at the parking area

4 October 2017 Visiting Geronimo's Grave

It was strange to be visiting Fort Sill to find geocaches. It had been a long time since I was on the grounds of a military base. Thankfully the person who interviewed us when we entered knew about the geocaches. I really wanted to take pictures inside the base while we were in the operations areas, but held back for concern I would capture something I wasn't supposed to photograph. We started our journey at Medicine Bluffs.

Our next stop was at the Apache Prisoner of War Cemeteries and the home of Geronimo's final resting place.

The offerings left to his spirit were interesting. It looked a bit like someone had turned over the plastic bag in a geocache and dumped the contents, inculding forbidden disposable lighters.

The rest of the cemetery and the other markers were a sobering story of our past.

Our next stop was the tiny town of Medicine Park, Oklahoma. It was a cross between quaint town with cobblestone structures and tourist area where large yellow ducks were by the side of the road. The rain caught up with us here during our walk. Ileft the camera in the rental and captured images between the heavier rains with the iPhone.

Welcome to Medicine Park Oklahoma

Cobblescones seemed an appropriate name for a bakery. Too bad it was closed for the day.

Bath Lake Park is a pleasant park along the water. While we were there multiple people were fishing.

We spotted this question mark butterfly near a support post for the bridge crossing the river.

I'm not sure I would want to live in a town this small with an open theater on the main road in town. The town has quite a music lineup and offers a multi-page line-up for lodging.

After leaving Medicine Park, we stopped for a last visit to Wichita Mountains and a few short hikes.

We made our way to Cedar Creek and a nearby virtual cache hoping the thunder and lightning in the distance would hold off.

Hopefully, we will be able to return and revisit the area some day.

3 October 2017 Longhorns and Bison

We were back for our second day at the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge. Yesterday's blue skies had been replaced with grey clouds. The clouds did not diminish the beauty of the area and our fun on the trail.

The three turtles on the log were interesting. Even more interesting was the interaction between the middle turtle and the turtle whose head can be seen just out of the water. The turtle in the water was trying to join the other three except the middle turtle kept reaching out a leg and pushing the turtle back into the water. It was an interesting view of turtle society. We are used to seeing many turtles sharing a log with no indication of exclision.

We stopped for a virtual on a flat peak. There was a good 360 view and different vegetation on top.

We spent time trying to convince this tarantula that it did not want to be in the middle of the road. I guess we were successful since when returned there was no evidence of the tarantula as roadkill.

We needed to cross the cobblestone dam in order to read information on a plaque at the far side. We looked and looked and I ventured onto the dam.

My brain kicked in and the reality of a long way down convinced me the crossing was not about to happen. Instead we spotted the plaque on the far side and used the zoom on my camera to gather the answers.

We had seen a few longhorns here and there, but the real numbers of these large, horned animals was found in a picnic area. There were dozens. We stayed in the rental to watch the longhorns as they passed by. There were a lot of young ones in the mix.

We were also treated to a large number of bison. They are in their natural element here in the plains.

There were even a few longhorn not in the picnic area. ;)

it was good to spot butterflies even this late in the year.

The day's grey start had been replaced by blue skies and fluffy clouds.