The Shadow Of The Tandy Hills Bald Thin Man On The Phone With Elsie Hotpepper Not In Oklahoma

I was peacefully enjoying my return to the Tandy Hills Natural Sanatorium, hiking the hills and enjoying the return to my circulatory system of mood enhancing endorphins, when the phone rang just as I was trying to take a picture of the Shadow of the Tandy Hills Bald Thin Man.

It was Elsie Hotpepper interrupting my natural reverie.

The Hotpepper wanted me to hop up to Oklahoma with her to have lunch at the WinStar World Casino.

I politely declined the invitation. The last time I went to the WinStar with Elsie Hotpepper it turned into a Lost Weekend in Oklahoma City with dozens of quarters in my pockets.

What happens in Oklahoma City stays in Oklahoma City, so there's nothing more I can say about that particular Elsie Hotpepper misadventure.

Switching the subject from Elsie Hotpepper in Oklahoma back to the Tandy Hills.

Today as I was heading down a hill a wily coyote suddenly ran across the path, ahead of me, running at a very high speed. I whipped out my camera, even though I knew there was no chance I'd get a picture of the coyote.

I do not know if the wily coyote was chasing the Tandy Hills roadrunner.

I Am Thinking About Going To Oklahoma & Noodling For Some Catfish In Murky Water

Big Ed sent me a link to an article in NewsOK, that being an Oklahoma news website, about "How to get started in Noodling."

The article about Noodling had a video about Noodling.

I read the article and watched the video and I still don't think I know what Noodling is, besides having to do with catching a catfish. With your bare hands. I think.

Noodling, whatever it is, is legal in Oklahoma, but with very strict guidelines. And some Oklahoma lakes allow no Noodling.

If you are found to be in the possession of hooks, gaffs, spears, poles or ropes, while Noodling, you can find yourself being fined.

After watching the below video I wondered if maybe the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle should maybe add Noodling to its Happy Hour Trinity River Inner Tube Floats....

In Texas With Theodore Ryan & Ruby Jean Jones

You are looking at the twins, Theodore Ryan and Ruby Jean, born, I think, 2 weeks ago. In the Washington town that goes by the name of Tacoma.

The Jones Twins look awfully tiny to me.

The twins were sent to me, in Texas, via email.

I have not been informed, currently, what exactly is my relationship to TR & RJ. I know I share no genetic connection. However, that just seems like a technicality. Having the same last name cements the relationship deal.

I'm sure that's how it works.

I remember the last time I held a baby in my arms. It was sometime in the spring of 2000, in Mount Vernon, Washington. I held the baby for about a half a minute when it threw up all over me. Those watching the baby throw up all over me found it amusing. I did not.

The last time I tried to change a baby diaper was sometime in 1981. I was baby sitting my nephew Jason. His diaper needed changing. These were old-fashioned diapers, not those new-fangled Pamper things.

I laid my nephew down on newspapers and removed the bad diaper. I got the horrendous mess cleaned up, but then could not figure out how to install the replacement diaper. I called one of my roommates, at work, and she came home and finished the job for me.

Later that night, after Jason's parental units had picked him up and returned home, I got a call from my now ex-sister-in-law asking me why Jason had newsprint all over his butt. Said in a very accusatory tone.

And now here is more trivia.

The roommate who helped me change the diaper, way back in 1981, moved to Ada, Oklahoma one month before I moved to Texas. A little over two years after that a mutual friend from Washington flew in to D/FW. I drove her up to Ada the next day. I so clearly recollect sitting outside, up in Oklahoma, and remarking to my two other Washington natives, something like "if 20 years ago I had told the two of you that in 20 years hence we would be sitting under a pine tree in Oklahoma sipping wine, would either of you have been able to conceive of a scenario where that could possibly make sense?'

Neither could.

And now there is Theodore Ryan & Ruby Jean.

What a world.

So little of it I understand.

Gar The Texan's Birthing Trauma At Turner Falls Park In Oklahoma

I was looking on my computer for pictures of Fort Worth's I-30/I-35/I-287 Mixmaster to no avail when I came upon a folder full of pictures from Turner Falls Park.

Turner Falls Park is one of my favorite places I've been to in Texas. Only it is in Oklahoma. A short 60 miles, or so, north of the Red River border.

The crystal clear water of Honey Creek is what falls over a cliff, making Turner Falls. Turner Falls shares tallest waterfall in Oklahoma honors with a waterfall called Natural Falls. Natural Falls is in Natural Falls State Park in the Ozark Mountains part of Oklahoma.

In Turner Falls Park you will find the aforementioned waterfall and crystal clear creek. You will also find the remains of a castle, some caves, some cliffs to climb on, trails to hike and cabins and campsites to stay in.

In the picture, above, you are looking at Gar the Texan trying to relive his birthing trauma by climbing through a hole in one of the Turner Falls caves. I do not remember if Gar the Texan got stuck, or if he successfully birthed himself from the cave. I do remember being very surprised that Gar the Texan was being so adventurous, at great heights, with nary a sign of a case of the vapors.

Noontime Thunder Rumbling Upon Return To Fort Worth From Virtual Trip To Oklahoma's Natural Falls

You're looking at the almost noon view from Miss Puerto Rico's balcony. I was hoping to catch a bolt of lightning, but, though I heard thunder rumbling in the distance, I saw no bolts.

I did catch a few drops of rain. It was refreshing.

I had multiple reasons to not go swimming this morning.

Instead I got my cooling refreshment by going up to Oklahoma's Ozark Highlands Region, virtually, to feel the cooling mist from what used to be known as Dripping Springs Falls, but is now known as Natural Falls. Natural Falls falls is in Natural Falls State Park.

While altering all my Oklahoma webpages I came across a photo of something I saw years ago, in Oklahoma, that became blogging fodder for my Washington Blog.

I continue to hear thunder rumbling in the distance.

As you can see in the 7-Day Forecast, there are no 100 degrees days currently planned. And 4 nights under 70 are currently scheduled. The HEAT reduction has my brain less swelled up and thus working better. Or so it seems.

With School Almost Out For Summer It Is Time For Texas Oklahoma Tourist Attractions

It is almost that time of year in Texas when school is out for the summer.

Six Flags Over Texas, in Arlington, is already in school is out for summer mode, open daily.

I can tell when summer nears, and vacation time arrives, due to a sudden increase in visits to my various webpages that have to do with Texas and Oklahoma tourist attractions.

Texas does not allow gambling, of the big casino sort, that all the states bordering Texas allow. In the past couple weeks about a third of my webpage hits have been from people looking for information about Oklahoma Casinos. I have not been up to WinStar World Casino Resort, right across the border on I-35, since it became the 5th biggest casino in the world.

Just north of WinStar World Casino, a few miles, you'll come to Turner Falls Park. Turner Falls is in the scenic Arbuckle Mountains, just a few miles west of I-35. At Turner Falls Park you'll find, in addition to the biggest waterfall in Oklahoma, the extremely crystal clear water of Honey Creek, caves, castles, trails and other good stuff.

Between Turner Falls Park and WinStar World Casino, south of Ardmore and just a little east of I-35, you'll find Lake Murray State Park, one of the oldest, if not the oldest, in Oklahoma. Going further east you'll find Beavers Bend State Park and north from there you'll come to Grand Lake o' the Cherokee.

Enough of Oklahoma, let's head back to Texas. But not before we drive one of the best preserved stretches of the most famous road in America, Route 66.

In the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex zone there are some good summertime tourist attractions in addition to tired theme parks. I like Fair Park in Dallas. It's like a sophisticated theme park. And now you can get to it via the DART train. Also in Dallas you'll find the Dallas Farmers Market. This is the closest thing I've seen in Texas to Seattle's Pike Place Market. You won't find anything like Dealey Plaza in Seattle, or anywhere else in the world. The 6th Floor Museum is excellent.

In Fort Worth, though some of the locals seem embarrassed by it, my favorite tourist attraction is the Fort Worth Stockyards. My visitors from the Pacific Northwest may all be unsophisticated hicks, but the Stockyards is usually the place I take them that they like best of anything in the entire D/FW Metroplex. In Fort Worth you'll also find the Fort Worth Nature Center Preserve. This is one of the biggest urban parks in the world. You'll find a prairie dog town here. And buffalo. And a bayou. And maybe an alligator. To my way of thinking, it is borderline criminal that the city started charging an admission fee to this park. It should be a city amenity available to all, paid for the way other large urban areas pay for their civic amenities.

A short drive from the D/FW Metroplex, heading southwest, you'll come to 2 of my favorite places I've been to in Texas. One is Dinosaur Valley State Park. Great hiking and mountain biking. In addition to dinosaur tracks. Just a bit south of Dinosaur Valley you come to Fossil Rim Wildlife Center. Without a doubt, the most fun I've had in Texas.

Down south in the Houston area my favorite places are Galveston, largely recovered from Hurricane Ike, and Galveston's Moody Gardens. A short distance west of Houston you'll find the Kemah Boardwalk. Also largely recovered from hurricane damage.

Austin is west and a bit north of Houston. There is a lot to see and do in Austin. The thing I enjoyed most, in Austin, was the LBJ Presidential Library on the University of Texas campus. Hippie Hollow was also refreshing.

South of Austin, before you get to San Antonio, you'll come to New Braunfels. This is where the world's top rated waterpark, The Schlitterbahn, is located.

Austin is in what is known as Hill Country. Also in Hill Country you'll find Fredericksburg. This is sort of a German theme town. Nearby you'll find LBJ's ranch on the Pedernales River and the LBJ Historical Area. North of Fredericksburg, a few miles, you come to my favorite thing I have climbed since I have been in Texas, Enchanted Rock. Enchanted Rock State Natural Area can get so busy the park shuts down at times.

So, there you go, some of my favorite Texas and Oklahoma Tourist Attractions. I think it is going to be a Long, Hot Summer. So, get your Texas Touristing done before the sun goes into heavy duty bake mode.

Tornado Season Texas Twister Time & Oklahoma Tarantulas, Snakes and Tornadoes

Speaking of Twisters, I just got a blog comment from Twister raising the Karen Silkwood specter. Last night I got emails raising the same concern. What I'm concerned about is what in the world happened to this zone of America that makes some people so wary?

Speaking again of Twisters, this morning, for reasons I've now forgotten, in an email reply to the Wild Woman of Woolley, aka Miss CVB, I mentioned a tornado that came down the driveway of a mutual classmate of ours, who had moved to Ada, Oklahoma.

This mutual classmate has an irrational fear of her name being on the Internet, so, for anonymity's sake, I will call her Miss CMP.

Miss CMP and family moved to Oklahoma about a month before I moved to Texas. I've known Miss CMP since early grade school and she's always been one of my favorite people. Visits up to Ada were quite fun. Miss CMP has since abandoned me and has moved back to where I came from, the Skagit Valley of Washington.

When Miss CMP moved to Oklahoma she had 3 major concerns, Spiders, Snakes and Tornadoes.

The first time I visited up in Ada, I drove us all over the place, with Miss CMP verbalizing her tornado worries. They'd been up to Oklahoma City to see the horrible damage done by a monster twister. I pooh poohed Miss CMP's concerns, asking do you see any tornado damage as we drive around? She proceeded to point out tornado shelters.

Switching from twisters to spiders. Miss CMP was not long in to being an Okie when one night she felt something moving on her bed. The lights came on. It was a huge tarantula. It remains a mystery, to this day, how this happened. As in there are not a lot of tarantulas in the Ada, OK zone. I've only seen 1 in my zone of Texas.

Switching from spiders to snakes. At one point Miss CMP and family discovered they were living with snakes in the attic. This was discovered, when one day, it was difficult to open the exit screen door. Because a huge snake was snuggled up against it. The snake slithered away, and to the family's horror, it slithered up a pole and squeezed into their attic. Later it was discovered the attic was home to a lot of snakes. This became a serious issue with air conditioner repair guys who needed to be in the attic.

Back to twisters. So, so far, 2 out of 3 of Miss CMP's worst fears have come to be reality. And then, one fine Oklahoma day the sky turned frightful, the wind began to blow. tornado sirens began to wail. Miss CMP and family stood outside watching the storm.

And then a tornado came into view, heading towards their house, heading straight up their driveway. The formerly scared of tornadoes, Miss CMP, told her daughter to get in the closet, but Miss CMP stayed outside taking pictures.

I was amazed when I heard this and saw the pictures.

You can see Miss CMP's Oklahoma Tornado here.

My mom and dad want to come visit Texas again. My mom also has an irrational fear of tornadoes. This will cause the visit to take place after tornado season. I have sort of dropped hints that tornadoes can happen, here, any time of the year.

The Texas Grapes Of Wrath

I've read The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck. I've seen the John Ford movie version several times. A couple days ago I watched The Grapes of Wrath for the first time while both living in an area of America affected by the Dust Bowl of the 1930s and during a recession which is the worst America has suffered since the Great Depression.

Times were way tougher in the 1930s. People were left to fend for themselves way more than they are today. And the police could act in bad ways that are much worse than the current day abuses of the Fort Worth Gestapo and other misbehaving police.

In the 1930s there was no Internet, no cable news, no nothing to shine a light on the abuse heaped upon those forced to escape the Dust Bowl. It was an era of foreclosures, much like today. And like today, you could be ordered out of your home with bulldozers soon to follow, ala Jerry Jones, the Dallas Cowboys and the City of Arlington.

I have personally known escapees from the Dust Bowl. The parents of my best BFF, known as Big Ed, in Texas, escaped the Dust Bowl, from Ness City, Kansas in the mid 1930s. Big Ed's mom and dad had 2 kids at the time. Big Ed's dad made a makeshift camper on the back of a pick up truck. One of those old time vehicles, which started the engine using a crank in the front. I was to see that truck, still running, in the 1970's, hauling firewood in a pasture in Washington. It should have been in the Skagit County Museum.

Big Ed's mom and dad made their way west on Route 66, joining thousands of other Kansans, Okies and Texans, seeking work and a life away from the walls of lethal dust and grinding poverty.

Big Ed's mom and dad eventually made it to Yuma, Arizona. There was cotton to be picked. Ed's dad, a real hard working man, picked cotton for one day, declared it the hardest job he'd ever done, quit and headed north, towards Ely, Nevada, where they heard there was work to be found in mining camps.

Big Ed and I have driven through the same areas his mom and dad traveled through on that old truck, including Yuma and Ely. Even today, Ely is a very isolated place, at the east end of the Loneliest Road in America.

They found work at the mining camp, room at a boarding house. Ed's mom worked as the boarding house cook. Ed's mom was not a good cook. But she made really good bread and homemade noodles. I suspect those were her specialities in the boarding house.

Eventually Big Ed's mom and dad got a letter from some Kansas friends who had made it all the way to western Washington, to this valley called Skagit, near this town called Alger. They told Big Ed's mom and dad that there was logging work and land for sale, cheap.

So, the family loaded up their makeshift RV, again, and headed north, by what road, I do not know. I do know there are some high mountain passes to cross between Nevada and Washington and that the roads were not quite what they are today.

Eventually the family made it to the Promised Land. A job logging for Weyerhauser was found. Land was bought, from Weyerhauser. The makeshift RV was taken off the pickup and became the first part of what became the house Big Ed and his twin, Wally, grew up in.

The Dust Bowl and the Great Depression trauma continued to affect Big Ed's mom and dad decades later. They were very frugal. Indoor plumbing was not introduced until the 1960s. In the 1970s I told my mom that Big Ed's mom had this cool thing with big rollers to wash clothes with. My mom was appalled. Mom decided she needed a new washer and dryer. Big Ed's brother-in-law, Keith, Big Ed and I brought my mom's old washer up to Ed's mom's place. Ed's mom was not happy at first, but she soon learned to like the modern appliances. When those wore out, she bought new ones.

Years later I remember visiting Big Ed's mom and being fascinated by her tales of life in Kansas in the Roaring 20s. She was a flapper! Big Ed had no idea his mom had such a scandalous past. He'd always known her as an extremely pious, Christian mom. Not a bob-haired, short-skirted Charleston dancer.

And now, all these years later, Big Ed finds himself back in the Dust Bowl zone, during yet one more Great Depression, trying to figure out if he needs to fashion a makeshift home on the back of a pickup in order to escape this place and seek his fortune elsewhere. What an ironic conundrum.

Excellent YouTube video below about The Grapes of Wrath. And how it mirrors our current troubled times....

Environmentally Friendly Texas Popcorn

I had not thought of air popping popcorn by sticking some in a metal container and setting it outside, til Alma, the Songbird of the Texas Gulf Coast, sent me this picture this morning.

I'd pop some outside right now, except it is only 82 and a bit cloudy. I'm thinking it needs to be over 100, with direct sunlight hitting the popcorn popper, to make it work.

I got up late today, which happens once every few years, so, I canceled my regular early morning swim, because it was no longer early morning by the time I got my usual tasks out of the way.

I did nothing aerobic yesterday, except for the early morning swim. And that really is not all that aerobic. I did not go on a walk or a hike yesterday. I'm am turning into a sedentary slob. I will try to end this slob trend today. Even though it is off to a bad start with that missing morning swim.

I watched all of the Obama news conference last night. I don't recollect the last time I made it all the way through such a thing. I thought he made a compelling, if somewhat vague, case for moving fast on health care reform.

Having seen the medical business up close and personal, about 25 years ago, I was shocked and appalled and disgusted with the business, way back then. The bills had so many mistakes, some outrageous. I was able to catch some of them. How many was I unable to catch? They mixed up my files and sent me in for something called a Gallium Scan, when I thought I was there for a CAT scan. Thinking I was someone else, they had me drink a foul liquid, prior to the test, that was not for me. After an hour of me fussing and asking why the tests had been changed, a couple doctors showed up and apologized for the mistake.

I'm off to take a virtual drive down Route 66 in Oklahoma now. Talk to you later.

Befuddled In Texas By Oklahoma Casinos

So far today, this second Friday of this year's July, things have not gone well. Up to the point where I tried to go up to Oklahoma to a couple casinos, those being the WinStar World Casino and the Riverwind Casino, I was having me a good day.

I was in the pool early, the water about the same temperature as the air. I just remembered, the bad Friday started off bad way before the pool. I must have temporarily blocked the trauma from my memory.

I got up, made coffee and about 5 minutes later was sitting in front of the computer monitor. I took a sip of coffee and something other than coffee floated into my mouth. I spit it out. I could not find whatever it was. My worst case scenario is it was a cockroach. But I found no evidence.

So, a couple hours after possibly having a cockroach in my mouth, I decided to make some webpages about Oklahoma casinos. I make these things for purely non-altruistic reasons. Usually I whip them out, slap ads on them and am done with it. But it was one screw up after another. Like the Riverwind Casino. A couple weeks ago I'd made a webpage about Riverbend in Oklahoma. I kept changing Riverwind to Riverbend. You would think this is no big deal, but after you've slapped the wrong name on multiple pages, it is a big deal.

And then, somehow I put the Riverwind info on the WinStar page, and vice versa. That also sounds like no big deal, but trust me, it was very befuddling.

I made a map for the Riverwind one. After it had uploaded I saw I'd turned it into Riverbend. This involved re-doing the map in a photo program. Sounds like no big deal, and it did only take about a minute, but it's just the making the same mistake over and over again thing is annoying. Very annoying.

I have not been up to the WinStar since its name change from plain ol' WinStar to WinStar World Casino. I knew they had expanded the thing, but I had no idea it is now the world's 5th biggest casino. I really have trouble believing that. I have been in some pretty big casinos.

I'd not been in the WinStar since several years ago when Chris, then living in Ada, met me there to go to the buffet. At that point in time the WinStar building was a tent-like building. It looked very cheap. Now it looks like real buildings. And is huge. Themed, with 6 of the 10 casino plazas making like you are in a foreign city. You can walk from Vienna to Rome to Madrid to Paris, then cross the channel to London, before you take a long flight to Beijing.

The new WinStar sounds sorta fun. But I know I'd be disappointed and regret it later. I always am and I always do. Usually. I think maybe I'll go hike the Tandy Hills and see if that improves me foul mood.

The WinStar is not far from my location. About an hour and a half drive, a mile across the Red River and the Oklahoma border. Below is a video that takes you on a virtual tour of the WinStar World Casino. Who wants to meet me there for lunch?

Texas Swimming In The Dark With Nancy's Fried Pies In Oklahoma On Route 66

I was up way before the crack of dawn, again, this morning.

When I checked email I found one from Perkins telling me that the Nancy's Fried Pies Video was not working on my Eyes on Texas website.

What fresh hell is this I thought. It did not take me long to find out that Perkins was correct. Nancy's Fried Pies was not working, nor were several others. It did not take long to figure out the code had changed.

The process of getting new code over taxed my computer and brain several times, severely vexing me. By 5 am I had the videos all back working and had added two new ones to go along with the webpages I made yesterday, so now there is video about Grand Lake O' the Cherokees and Beavers Bend Resort Park & Broken Bow Lake that you can look at and be surprised at how scenic Oklahoma is in certain locations.

After all that video exhaustion I decided to go take a cover of darkness dip in the pool. It was pleasant. The rest of the morning was filled with more website stuff. Oh, and one extremely rude person said my sad sleepwalking episode sounded like a drunken stumble bum. I can not remember when last a remark filled me with such a high level of umbrage.

It's cloudy and not hot again today, only 86. By noon all my travails had my head hurting, so I went to Oakland Lake Park for a walk. The walking turned extra long because at the start of the walk I called Chris M.P. up in Washington, formerly of Oklahoma. A fellow Pacific Northwesterner, she abandoned me last summer, leaving me with hardly any long time acquaintances within a 1,000 mile radius.

I must remember to call Chris M.P. more often. I always enjoy talking to her. Chris is missing Oklahoma, I'm sure, below is a video of Ollie's Station Restaurant on Route 66. I don't remember if this is one of her favorite places or not...

First Tornado Storm Of The Year Kills 8 In Oklahoma

Last night's first T-Storm of 2009 produced a killer Tornado, about 100 miles north of my location, in the town of Lone Grove, Oklahoma. That's a bit west of Ardmore, about 20 miles south of Turner Falls Park.

Here in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex, the Thunderstorm and its accompanying high wind and heavy hail, ripped off roofs in Colleyville. Colleyville is a town about 10 miles north of my location, which I will be driving through in about 2 hours, on my way to Southlake.

My location was on the southern fringe of the storm. The lightning stayed north of me, no overhead strikes. I could hear the booming and see flashes in the distance. I experienced one short outbreak of heavy rain and hail. My bedroom window was open, due to me forgetting to close it. This resulted in a very slight flood. I doubt I will report it to FEMA.

There were reports of Tornado sightings in the Metroplex, but no reports of a Tornado touching down in the Dallas/Fort Worth zone. Daylight may change that, as the damage is assessed, in the bright light of day. And it is a bright light today with the return of blue sky here in North Texas.

Turner Falls In Winter With Gar The Texan

I was scrolling through Picasa looking for pictures of Mount Rainier to go along with one of a Volcano Eruption Evacuation Route sign, when I came upon pictures taken up in Oklahoma, in January, at Turner Falls Park.

The pictures include ones of the illusive Gar the Texan, who does not use photos of the real him on his blog. I understand that several years of marriage to a butter-loving German has added some poundage to the skinny Gar the Texan we see in these photos.

In the first photo Gar the Texan is climbing down some steep stairs at the Turner Falls Castle. This very eccentric, well, castle, was built during the Great Depression.

The day that Gar the Texan and I went to Turner Falls Park in Winter, on the way north, he had the worst case of the vapors I'd seen him have. A Whopper at Burger King revived him. But, even after the revival I was concerned as to what he'd be able to do at Turner Falls Park, due to a lot of climbing and hiking being involved.

There is a cave high up the cliff beside the falls. Gar the Texan was determined to get into that cave, because we'd seen people in it when we looked down on the falls from the overlook. I am a bit of an acrophobe, though my acrophobia is very situational, as in it makes no sense. Get me at the Grand Canyon and I can climb out on some precipitous ledge and not be queasy. But if you mix a waterfall into the steepness, I get wobbly.

So, I followed Gar the Texan higher and higher as we climbed the Turner Falls cliff. The effort came to a point where I did not want to go further, but Gar did, climbing through a hole and then into the cave.

To celebrate his triumphant rock climbing and spelunking, Gar the Texan climbed a pinnacle high above the falls and let out some sort of primal scream that had me, for a second, thinking he was having another case of the vapors.

Honey Creek is what flows over Turner Falls. The water comes out of an underground spring a short distance away. It is very clear water. In summer the water gets nice and warm. In winter, not so much. But there is more of it in winter, making for scary rapids above the falls.

I have not been back to Turner Falls Park since the visit with Gar the Texan. I have been up to Oklahoma, a time or two, and have driven by the exit from I-35 that quickly leads to Turner Falls.

All year long the Turner Falls pages on my Eyes on Texas website are the most visited. Why? I do not know.

The Reddest State in the Union

Slightly edited incoming from Don Young....

Which is the REDDEST state in the U.S.A.? (red from embarrassment?)

Is it Texas? Nope.

Is it Alaska? Nope.

Is it Alabama? Nope.

Is it Arizona? Nope.

Is it Utah? Nope.

Is it Arkansas? Nope.

Is it Wyoming? Nope.

The winner of the honor of being the REDDEST state in the nation goes to Oklahoma! Home of Chesapeake Energy and Aubrey McClendon. And likely Snidely Whiplash, but I'm just speculating on that.

There is not a single county in Oklahoma that went BLUE. Oklahoma voted 65.5% for McCain to 34.4% for our new President, Barack Obama. A larger McCain margin of victory than any of the other 49 states.

Obviously, this is a strictly non-partisan message. That goes without saying, so why did I say it, I can't help but wonder....

Turner Falls Park in Oklahoma

Until I visited Enchanted Rock State Park I would tell people that Turner Falls Park is the most scenic place I've seen in Texas. Even though Turner Falls isn't in Texas. It's across the border in Oklahoma.

I'd driven right by Turner Falls Park several times, not realizing it was worth seeing. It's only a few miles off I-35. When you are driving the Turner Falls Park zone of I-35 you see signs telling you that you are in the Arbuckle Mountains. But being a person from a land of actual mountains, I didn't know what they were talking about.

There is a scenic lookout exit from the freeway. I pulled off to see the scene. But to my eyes there was none. So, my first time to Turner Falls Park I had very very very low expectations. The first surprise is that almost immediately upon exiting the freeway the road does seem like a mountain highway. Twists and turns and steep drop-offs.

Then you come to an overlook built by the CCC, back in the Great Depression era. It is from that overlook you get your first look at Turner Falls. That's a zoomed view, from the overlook, you see in the photo above. The CCC also built a rock trail to the valley below, from this lookout.

You pay a fee to enter the park. There is a lot to do there. An underground spring created Honey Creek, which goes over a cliff creating Turner Falls. It is crystal clear water. And quite a pleasant temperature in summer. There are several swimming holes, including one right under the falls.

Turner Falls Parks has camping, cabins, a rock castle, lots of trails. And caves.

Go here to see photos from my first visit to Turner Falls and park info.

Go here to see a winter visit with better photos.

Go here for a map of the Turner Falls Park area.

Go here for a very short Turner Falls Park video.

Oklahoma Up In Flames

Just a few days ago I was shocked to learn that a fellow northwest native in exile who moved to the South about the same time I did, me to Texas, she to Oklahoma, is returning to Washington in a month or two.

And then today I got email from the temporary soon to be ex-Okie saying that she and her first husband had been burning stuff, things like magazines. The fire smoldered for a day or two, due to all the magazines. My acquaintance, who insists she not be referred to by name, let's just call her Miss McNoodle. Anyway, Miss M was looking at her airplane tickets when her first husband, let's call him Mr. McNoodle, or Mr. M, shouted that the field was on fire.

The fire spread rapidly. 911 was called. The fire spread to the neighbor's field, trees started burning. Miss M and Mr. M reached what they could with their garden hose and then started beating the flames with a wet towel. Finally multiple fire trucks arrived, but not before several acres were burned.

Miss M sent me several photos of the fire with the strict admonition that I not use the photos on my website. She did not ban me from using a photo on my blog. We must be precise in our verbiage lest we give a weasel wiggle room. She should have told me not to use any of her photos in any electronic media that is viewable to the general public. Live and learn I always say. That and when there is a burn ban in effect don't light a fire.