10 October 2012 - Blue Whales and Tornadoes

I had some fun today. I was in Catoosa, Oklahoma for a meeting yesterday evening, and the earliest available flight back was at 5 pm. Since I had a car I thought I would explore the area.

First on my list was a trip to the Dick Duck Cemetery. I had tried to find it on my trip in May but ended up some 20 miles in the wrong direction. Imagine my astonishment (with better directions) to find the cemetery is not even two miles from the hotel I was staying in. 

Dick Duck Cemetery has a reputation for being haunted. I was there on a sunny day, and didn't see a single haint. The cemetery is very well cared for. It is quite small and has many tombstones from the early 1800s and as recent as last week. There were many areas of family plots. 

I went looking for the stone for Bluford Duck, a notorious outlaw who was more known for his friendship with Belle Star. His stone was in an area of Indian graves. Many are just marked Halfbreed.
It was a different time and culture, but I for one, am glad it is over. 
From here, I went to the Redbud Valley Nature Preserve. The first thing you see as you enter is a big sign of Do's and Don'ts.  I have to admit I was tickled to see this sign. More places should have similiar rules.

Do... 

Hike, daydream, bird watch, visit with a naturalist, sketch, photograph butterflies, relax, study the wildflowers, forget things, look for fossils, remember things, sit, stare, listen... do all these things and more. There are a multitude of possibilities - invent some of your own.

This is not the place to...

Ride your bike on the trails
Walk your dog or other pet
Play a radio or tape/CD deck
Have a picnic
Go fishing
Go hunting
Target practice with gun, bow or air rifle
Make a fire
Go swimming
Camp overnight
Use fireworks

And please do not disturb the plants, animals or other natural features here in any way.

What is interesting about this preserve according to the ranger I talked with is that it is a series of microclimates that are not found anywhere else in Oklahoma. She described the area as taking a walk from Missouri to Texas, as those are the habitats you will see. 

I thought it was lovely and walked all the trails. I climbed the so-called rugged trail to the top of the bluff. The trails were very narrow and barely wide enough for one person. The bluff trails were incredibly rocky. Bear with me here, way too many pictures of the bluff trail, but it was amazing. The only problem is that the pictures don't really do justice to how steep the climb was. 

 This rocky bluff area is the Missouri part. The top of the bluff is like Texas. One inch of poor soil on top of rock. Commonly found on the top prairie area are tarantulas, scorpions, snakes including copperheads and rattlers. Ticks and chiggers are pretty common too. Oh boy. I didn't see any though. The prairie was really dry, soil was hardpacked and cracked. 

My surprise was finding this area filled with prickly pear cactus. When they say stay on the path, they mean it. As I mentioned, the paths were barely a foot wide, so when the cactus was growing into the path, you had to walk very carefully. 

I found a really interesting creature on the path. Stopped me dead in my tracks. This little caterpillar was not even an inch long, but check out all those defensive spines! Isn't he great?

 At the end of the walk, I went back to the ranger station, showed her my picture and asked if she knew what it was. "Oh yes," she said. "Good thing you didn't touch it."  What? And how did she know?  Turns out that if I had touched it I would have been swollen and itching from the venom in those spines. I learned that this caterpillar turns into a very small brownish moth and the caterpillar belongs to a class known as spiny slug caterpillars, even though they are not related to slugs at all. 

From here I went to a piece of Old Route 66 to see the famous Blue Whale. If this whale doesn't make you smile, I don't know what will. He is such a happy thing! 

 Hugh Davis built this as a present for his wife, with the help of a friend who was a welder.  The pond was on their property and the kids kept asking for something to jump off of into the pond. It became very popular, so they added a picnic area, lots of sand and a snack bar. The picnic table supports and benches are miniature whales. 

Inside the whale is a ladder to an upper floor in the head. You can look out all the portholes. On either side of the whale where the flippers should be are slides. There is another ladder to a platform on top of the tail which is a great place to do cannon balls into the pond.  I was charmed.  

You can see by the watermarks on his side that the water level is down over two feet. It has been a dry year in Oklahoma, too.

 

This is inside his head up on the platform. Nice views from the portholes and lots of light from the blowhole.  

                              Looking back at the tail, you can see the diving platform on top.  Swimming is no longer allowed, but you can just imagine how kids must have begged their parents to come here. 

Next I slammed on the brakes and dove into Catoosa's Fire Station parking lot. As I tumbled out of the car, camera in hand, a fireman came out to see if I needed help.  "Yes!  What is that?"

Any guesses? It is a tornado. The guy who owns the building makes safe rooms for people who live in tornado country. This sculpture is motorized so it swirls, and there are flecks of metallic paint that sparkle and shine.  It is cool! Wonder what the neighbors would think if I had one on my house. This is ultimate yard art.

I had wanted to drive down Route 66 to Sapulpa, but I was running out of time. So instead I slowly worked my way back to the airport, stopping at the Historical Museum of Catoosa, where two men were working the restoration of a caboose. They were getting ready to repaint all the yellow parts. 

Almost forgot! I stopped at the DW Correll Museum, but it was closed. Drat! But the buildings were really neat. Mr. Correll has three large pole barns full of stuff from antique automobiles, to gems and minerals to historical itmes form Oklahoma's past. But what was neat is that he had created a rock wainscotting on the outside of the buildings.  

When you got close, you could see that he used an incredible array of rocks: rocks filled with fossils, or crystals or really different formations.

It is so rare to have a poke around day, I enjoyed every minute of it.