Ted and I started our day by visiting Tulsa’s tribute to Oklahoma’s oil industry: the Golden Driller. The 75-foot tall Driller was created for the 1953 International Petroleum Exposition and is the fifth tallest statue in the United States. It was built to withstand Oklahoma’s 200 mph tornadic winds and its paint is supposed to last for 100 years. It is now the Oklahoma State Monument–utility wires and all.
The Center of the Universe is not too far from the Golden Driller. As a passer-by remarked to us, “This thing is just weird.” The Center of the Universe produces a mysterious acoustic phenomenon. My internet search told me that if you stand in the middle of the circle and make a noise, the sound is echoed back several times louder than it was made–as if you are in a private amplified echo chamber. According to legend, a foghorn could go off in the center of the circle and those on the outside wouldn’t hear it. Human voices are distorted when heard outside the circle. Although there are several theories about this phenomenon, there is no clear consensus about what causes this natural sonic distortion. (Note: Ted and I both experienced the amplified echo effect, but we could also hear each other’s voices outside the circle, although the sound was much fainter than it would normally have been. We think a foghorn blasting from the center could be heard outside the circle.)
Seventy-five feet from the Center if the Universe, stands a 72-foot tall sculpture called the “Artificial Cloud.” The artist based this sculpture on the premise that more people would look at a naturally rusting steel cloud than at the real thing. He also wanted to call attention to air pollution.
After all this artistic stimulation, we were ready to get back on the Mother Road and head for Oklahoma City.
This is a typical scene from Route 66 in Oklahoma. The original sections we drove are rural and dotted with small towns.
This round barn is on Route 66 near Arcadia, OK. There are also round barns in Wisconsin. They are round so the devil cannot sit in the corner to watch you work.
I think I hear my mother calling.
In Oklahoma City, we planned to walk across the Sky Dance Bridge. This is a pedestrian bridge that crosses I-40. It’s 380 feet long and has a 197-foot tall sculpture inspired by Oklahoma’s state bird, the scissor-tailed flycatcher. The bridge is illuminated from dusk to dawn. Except right now.
Civic improvement necessitates completely renovating the land on the north side of the bridge, so there is currently no access to it. . . . But isn’t it a pretty bridge?
We finished our day by googling “restaurants near us” and picked a locally-owned establishment that advertised a nautical theme. The food was good, but the nautical theme was minimal–not even seafood on the menu!
Well, the center piece does resemble the prow of a ship and the rafters are painted blue, but we didn’t see anything else remotely nautical.