April 10 thru 16, 2024, Stillwater, Oklahoma

Long ago, I visited Stillwater, OK, for business and remembered it being a nice college town. Joani's research found plenty to see there so she booked us a week in Wildwood Acres Campground. It was only 299 miles from Steve's place. I fought powerful head winds most of the way. One heavy gust actually made the coach downshift just like we were going up a hill.

In particular, I wanted to revisit Eskimo Joes. I think it had grown in the last 30 years. Joe has multiple parking lots along the street and we barely found an open spot.

The "sweet pepper bacon cheese fries" were recommended and they did not disappoint! I had the Fire burger as well laced with habanero peppers and an excellent spicy wing sauce.

The restaurant goes through 6000 pounds of potatoes a week thanks to the popularity of their signature fries.

Another day, we dined with Eskimo Joes cousin, Mexico Joe. Yet another excellent meal and now we have to start thinking about returning to some sensible eating.

We visited the Oklahoma State University campus a couple of times to stroll around. It was very pretty and almost deserted. The lack of students led me to believe the classes were over.

We visited the OSU Botanic Garden. I had the sense they were just getting started and it will be growing in the coming years. Of course, not a lot was in bloom this time of year. There was a garden resident that politely slithered across our path 

The G&M body shop in Stillwater must be owed by a Transformers fan. He had a replica of Optimus Prime at his east side shop and Bumblebee at his west side shop. They were each impressive, I guessed at least 20 feet tall, and obviously took a significant amount of time to build based on the detail we saw.

 

We spent one day in Oklahoma City. Unfortunately, the Oklahoma City Museum of Art and the Oklahoma Railway Museum we wanted to see were both closed on Monday. The Myriad Botanical Gardens were open and quite nice. It was overcast and cool so we spent most of our time inside. Curbside parking was limited to 2 hours, we could have easily spent twice that amount of time admiring the gardens.          .

Inside the Crystal Bridge Tropical Conservatory were some of the most wild and wonderful flowering plants we have seen in while.

We included a few of our favorites...

There are 28,000 varieties of orchids.

This is my favorite goofy orchid center.

I see an eagle in the center of this one! Can you see the reflections in the drop of water?

This one seems to have laser beam eyes.

Plumeria 'Orange KLS'

Dogbane Family Apocynaceae

Several days we noticed Woody the Woodpecker right outside our window attacking a colony of crickets under on old tree stump. I was able to sneak a few shots of him between bites.

The wind ruffled his normally swept back crown feathers

On our last day we visited the OSU Art Gallery. It was small and had only been open for 10 years and has rotating exhibits. Kerry and C. Betty Davis had collected 67 works of African American art on a postman's salary over 35 years. They owned a modest home in Atlanta, Georgia that housed the collection: "They happily sacrificed material goods and comforts in order to surround themselves with the drawings, paintings, prints, and sculptures they loved."

OSU students watched our every move as we viewed the artwork. I think they were noting our reaction to the individual pieces or maybe they were making sure we didn't touch anything. The torn paper collage below was my favorite. The oil on canvas below that was Joani's favorite.

Alvin D. Loving, Jr. (b. 1935-2005)

Crotch of Fire, 1980

Torn Paper Collage

Stefanie Jackson (b. 1957)

Exodus, 2007-08

Oil on canvas

Monday, April 8, 2024, Total Solar Eclipse, Bluff Dale, TX

Steve and I studied Google maps and an eclipse website to find an appropriate site to view the big event. The ranch was close but at 99.98% totality, I wanted more. It would have been about a 2 hour drive to the centerline and 4+ minutes of totality, but the clouds were threatening so we might not have seen anything. That was not worth the gamble so we found a much closer location (30 minute drive) that gave us 1.5 minutes of totality. It was a large parking area outside Glenn Cemetery on the outskirts of Bluff Dale. The news led us to believe there would be wall to wall people everywhere for the eclipse so we were pleasantly surprised to find we were alone at our selected site.

We drove the last 3/4 mile on a dirt road. It was secluded and ideal.

The cemetery proved to be an interesting diversion while waiting for the moon and sun to align.

The parking area also provided us with some beautiful shade under a large live oak tree.

We were fortunate that the clouds cooperated and gave us clear views throughout the entirety of the eclipse. I replaced the telescope tube with my camera on the tracking mount. I mounted a mylar filter on the Sony a7iv and 600mm lens using a 3-D printed part my son, Jon designed. It was serendipitous that it fit both my telescope and the telephoto lens.

I used a remote app on the phone to control exposures on the camera and I took a lot of exposures! (700+)

I could not be more thrilled when I saw the solar prominences during totality - I was not expecting that with my basic mylar filter. Some of us simply chilled in the shade and marveled at the neat effect of the crescent solar disc imaged through the pinholes between the tree leaves.

I love the pinhole effect during an eclipse. 

Totality ended around 2:00 and we were hungry. Just a few miles down the road in Stephenville was Hard Eight BBQ, a place Steve had wanted to try. It was fantastic!

Angie treated us to great BBQ! It was memorable.

I would have to say the day could not have been more perfect.

Saturday, April 6, 2024, Steve & Angie's Ranch

It was easy to get back on the road since we left the car on the dolly. A quick stop to empty the holding tanks and we were off. The Texas winds were pretty stiff. I estimated 20 to 30 mile per hour gusts and, of course, they were targeting the passenger side of the coach. We filled up at a Flying J for $3.05/gal – significantly less than Arizona prices.

It is always great to see my cousin Steve and his wife Angie and this year our timing was right to see Texas in bloom. 

The salmon/orange flowers are "Indian Paintbrush (Castilleja)" 

It is the first time we have passed through while the "Texas Bluebonnets (lupinus texensis)" are in bloom! This variety only grows in Texas.

Another 195 miles east on I-20 brought us to their place near Weatherford, TX. I was beat from battling the winds so it felt good to get out and walk around. We set up at our usual spot away from the house. We determined previously it was ideal since it is level and the ground is solid to support the jacks.

The sunsets are always amazing at the ranch.

The "ranch" has no livestock but it is about 17 acres of Texas beautiful with a variety of wildflowers and cacti. They successfully cultivated a large stand of bluebonnets.

The sunset was colorful as it often is at the ranch. We're keeping our fingers crossed the skies remain clear for the big solar eclipse in a few days.