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 headwinds 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 has 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 Joe's 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 who politely slithered across our path 

The G&M body shop in Stillwater must be owned 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, but 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 a 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 an 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 had 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