Today we rode our bikes to downtown Tulsa

This morning we were deciding what we were going to do today and since the temperature was suppose to be cooler today than the rest of the week we decided to ride our bicycles to downtown Tulsa.  The ride was only about 12 miles, which isn't very long, but about one third of it was in downtown Tulsa and it was really warm.  I think the high today was 92 but the rest of the week it's suppose to be in the mid to upper 90's.  We are about four miles south of downtown Tulsa and are by the river.  The bike path is across the street from the rv park where we are staying which made it convenient for us to get on the trail and ride to the city.  We are staying on the west side of the Arkansas river and downtown is on the east side so we had to cross the bridge to get downtown.  On our way back we stopped at a restaurant for a snack and some refreshments.

After our ride we took the dogs for a walk and then did some site seeing on old route 66 east of Tulsa.  Along route 66 there are all kinds of quirking things to see and one of them is east of Tulsa.  This one is called the Blue Whale.  After seeing the whale we took the long way back to the rv park and then hit the swimming pool. 

Tomorrow we are going north of Tulsa and are going to take a 35 mile driving tour of a prairie that contains wild bison and many other animals.  We plan on being gone a long time so we are taking the dogs with us. Here are some pictures from the last couple of days.


Driving through Ok.

Whenever we leave the rv this is the site we see when walking up to the door when we come back.   Sydney gets up on the passenger seat and Tanner is on the couch behind her.

This is the center of Tulsa's downtown night life that is called the Blue Dome District that has restaurants, shops and bars etc. in a nine block area.  This building used to be a 1920's gas station on historic route 66.

On our first day in Tulsa this is our visit to an establishment that has a lot of character.  We do this in about every town we visit.  Rolling Rock for $2 a bottle from New Jersey which used to come from Latrobe Pa. before  Anheuser-Busch bought it and moved the brewing operations to NJ.

 

You can't tell but no fluorescent shirt on today.  This is one of my other favorites though that Huli hasn't hid from me.  You ever notice whenever we go into these unusual little places how I almost always sit with my back to the wall.  I bet 90% of the people in this bar said hi to us while we were there.  A neat place that we may go back to before we leave.

They have a dam across the Arkansas river south of the city that keeps the water level up around town.  Beyond the dam things are drying up.

Left side up from the dam things look good.  Down stream from the dam not so good.

We really didn't want to do any hills no matter how small they were today but it didn't work out that way.  Seemed like we were going up or down throughout most of the town.  Part of the problem for us in addition to the heat is we don't ride our bikes nearly as much as we used to.  We brought our off-road bikes and were on the road the entire time.  In the past on other trips we had our road bikes with us and it seemed we were always riding on gravel and dirt paths.  Oh well.

A restaurant by the river that we stopped at to get something cold to drink on the way home.  The water misters outside kind of drew us to the restaurant but after walking into the air conditioning we decided to sit inside.  Were getting soft.

Here Here.

The pedestrian bridge we took going back across the river.

 

This is a shot of the city as we are going home back across the river.

The Blue Whale.  Somebody had too much time on their hands.

They have what I think are roosters tied up to each little house with a bowl of food and water.  That is one occupation I never contemplated "rooster raiser".

You see these every now and then out in the country.  Oil is what built most of Tulsa and its downtown buildings.  Men with names like Sinclair and Phillips built them during the oil boom of the 1920's and 30's.