T ulsa and Route 66
Sidewalk Tour, Skate Travel Journals
February 2010
to Surface Motion Skate Tour
Sidewalk Tour Feb-Mar 2010
Southwest & Plains
February 2010
Feb 17
Trying to Leave: Santa Crz CA
Feb 18
Poor Sdwks, Nc Views: Phnx AZ
Feb 19
Hullucntry Entry: Amrllo TX
Feb 19 10 AM
Alongside Textures: AZ, NM
Feb 20
Sidwalk Pics on 66: Tulsa OK
Feb 20 1 PM
Red Barrel Downtn: Tulsa OK
Feb 21
Rainy Sidewalk Day: Tulsa OK
South
February 22-25 2010
Feb 22
Skipping to Memphis: Memphs TN
Feb 23
Waiting for Morning: Memphs TN
Feb 23 2 PM
Vance St Revisited: Memphs TN
Feb 24
Finding the Funeral Hm: Memphs TN
Feb 24
Encounters on Beale: Memphs TN
Feb 25
Leaving Memphis: Memphs TN
Feb 25 4 PM
Familiar Aves in Nashville: Nshvill TN
Feb 26
Germantn, Farmers Mkt: Nshvill TN
Feb 26
Decoding at Rippy's: Nshvill TN
Feb 27
Last Sidewalk Mileage: Nshvill TN
Feb 27
Through Otherville: Xville TN
Feb 28
Looking like the east: Roanoke VA
NY to Detroit
March 12-16 2010
Mar 12
Leaving NY: New York NY
Mar 13 6:30 AM
Akron Revisited: Akron OH
Mar 13 9:30 AM
Odd Shapes nr Toledo: Sandusky OH
Mar 14
Sets and Other Hats: Detroit MI
Mar 15
Woodward Ave tour: Detroit MI
Detroit to West
March 17-20 2010
Mar 17
Leaving Detroit: Detrt MI
Mar 18 6 AM
Skate Revisit St. Louis: St L MO
Mar 18 1 PM
Brief Revisit Kansas City: KC MO
Mar 18 4 PM
Kansas Still: Salina KS
Mar 19 12 AM
Unreachable Salt Lake: Denver CO
Mar 19 8 AM
Force Majeure: Denver CO
Mar 19 2 PM
Red Dirt Under White: Pueblo CO
Mar 20 8 AM
Calif Via South Rte: Indio CA
Mar 20 9:30 AM
Homeward Hassle: San Bernadino CA
Mar 20 3:30 PM
New Color Scheme: Coalinga CA
Sidewalk Tour 2009
Tour Inventory 2009
Backpacks
Clothes
Gear
Boards
Phone/PDA
Mobile blogging
Northwest: June 2009
South: Mar-Apr 2009
East: March 2009
Bridge Skate Training
Oct 08-Mar 09
February 20 - 22, 2010: Travel in Southern Plains, Oklahoma, US
Tulsa, OK
Introduction
In contrast to the sidewalk tour of 2009, which was largely improvised, in 2010 I had some goals in mind. I wanted to revisit a couple of places I'd been to last year, and I had a new southern destination in mind. The reason I came to Tulsa, Oklahoma was to get research and inspiration for a project I'm doing on jazz trumpeter Chet Baker. I hoped to find some information and photos in the jazz museum in Tulsa.
I didn't get much concrete information about Baker, but I got a strong sense of the place he came from, and an understanding perhaps of why the trumpeter liked to include the color red in his stage outfits. I got more from the sidewalks in east Tulsa, out on the 11th Street which runs along a portion of the faded Route 66 highway. I found interesting textures and materials in the sidewalk itself, which made for great longboard touring, and there were plenty of interesting sights alongside to photograph and observe. The material of the grass and dirt itself made an impression. The shops and structures presented their humorous and sad stories for me to document with my camera and noteboook.
Saturday, February 20, 2010 - Get Sidewalk Pics on Route 66
Neon motel sign, Rte 66
2.20 10 AM Tulsa, OK. The portion of historic US Route 66 that runs through east Tulsa on 11th St is bordered by an unlimited variety of stores, much of them having to do with driving, almost all of them old, passed from owner to owner with previous owners ghosts hanging around in painted over signs.
Claude's, formerly Floyd's, car repair
When I arrived late afternoon Friday the 19th, I walked up 66 and decided to not shoot pictures, even though there was still enough light, preferring to push on and find the Desert Inn Motel I'd read about in Lonely Planet guide. I regretted that this morning (Sat), since the weather had taken a turn for the worse. Light rain was going to make it hard to shoot without risking my camera. I came up with a plan to shoot from under awnings and roofs, and shield the lens with my poncho. Fortunately the rain stopped after a big breakfast at Tally's, and I started to walk and skateboard on drying pavement.
Tally's diner at night
Neon and Rte 66 decor in Tally's
Perhaps Route 66 11th Street in Tulsa is the ultimate sidewalk tour. It has it all, fun challenging sidewalk skateboarding, no pedestrians, not much aggressive traffic, and amazing, hilarious scenery.
I found that going west into town had a lot more downhill sections. Coming down from the Desert Hills I bumped along the gravel strewn and fairly deep cracked sidewalks, constantly getting distracted by oddball storefronts and structures of all sorts. One of the first things that attracted me was a tune up shop with a mysterious old classy car, kind of Studebaker like, behind a fencelike door. The car turned out to be a Ford, with a thick coat of yellow paint.
Discovering an old Ford behind glass and cyclone fence
I turned off 66 and found some classic old concrete streets to skate down. I think it was red dirt concrete, laid in big slabs with substantial cracks that I chose to hit at an angle, maybe every twenty feet.
Cracks punctuate a ride over classic Tulsa concrete
One block over from the Route was an amazing bottle bush- someone had put many blue Skye vodka bottles on sticks and made a bush. There were other artifacts around the yard. I skated away and found the road contoured into a hill that looked like it rolled down gently away for nearly a mile. I would have been pleased to skate the whole thing but I stopped short and went over to the highway to get back to the sights of rusting Americana.
Bottle bush at residence off Rte 66
At the corner was the Jim Blue Barber Shop, closed. I saw a couple of classic old barber seats and nice deco mirrors which I got decent shots of through the window. Kitty corner from Jim's was a cool Big Time Pawn shop painted green with motor cycle themes. Two annoying dogs barked in the side yard. I crossed the street and got a shot of the American Sewing Center which abutted the Blue Barber Shop. From these perambulations I had a nice collage of awnings and the odd shops they shaded.
Finding reflected awnings and distant awnings beneath awnings
While shooting pics of the dollhouse like little Wood Motor shop I noticed the sign above the front door that said beware of dog. A thin guy in red sweats, who seemed like a cousin of the red shirt guy in Flagstaff, came along and brought his nice, reddish dogs. He said the cops made him put up the sign even though they hadn't threatened anyone. They didnt seem like the kinds of mongrels, curs, or guard dogs you needed to beware of. Pretty friendly. What didn't look so friendly were the guy's hands. His work tested hands were gnarled around some construction tool, perhaps a big staple gun or a nail gun. He fingered a large key which he wielded in petting his dogs. This was the embodiment of a colorful character, his red skin, outfit, hands, and face went along perfectly with the brick inlayed sidewalk and surrounding bricks, and more bricks. And more red.
Reddish dogs come running to the red outfitted Wood Motor guy
The last part of 11th St before town was almost all downhill. Tough skating, lots of gravel, and no wonder, Rte 66 on 11th has absolutely no one walking the sidewalk, not a soul.
A shop across the street had a sign "George Tunes", which sounded like pretty standard tune up garage titling, but the little blue house stuck on the wall to its left suggested a music box house with fairy tale music as the "tunes".
Tune up shop and adjoining house
The sidewalk came into prominence near a stretch of little stores. The inlaid column of red brick seemed reflected by the brick building facades and walls, a highlight being a Mexican restaurant with a cool neon sign.
Brick and more brick, and even redder neon
There was a gap, a few missing squares in the sidewalk, just gravel, and I skirted it by riding on the red brick border getting squeezed into the wall. It was really fun, constantly mixed terrain. The red brick strip ran along the route for miles, punctuated with black metal emblems, which showed a considerable amount of wear when viewed up close.
Brick inlay in sidewalk and iron Rte 66 emblem, detail
A bank under a bridge looked skateable but just had too much grit. Just past the bridge was a narrow drain ditch, fairly dry and skateable. It was a luge. The luge proved to be a bit too tight and wasnt so fun, a feeling like swerving in a v and not a u. It was worth doing it as my first southwest ditch and in tribute to the olympian and all others who have given their lives for going downhill on a piece of wood.
Luge like drainage ditch and red dirt bank
Saturday, February 20, 2010 - Skating a red barrel downtown
1 PM A penguin sculpture with vaguely indian styling served as a marker to the end of Rte 66 and the beginning of downtown Tulsa. The penguin flapped in front of an art deco skyscraper in the foggy distance.
The downtown area was almost deserted. I found a few nice art deco building facades to shoot. An unusual skateboarding spot presented itself. A scaffolding tunnel of appropriately red tubing was set up under the Atlas Life building. It was fun to grab alternate tubes with right hand then left, gaining speed going through the surreal dream metal wave barrel tunnel with arm power instead of the usual pushing.
Scaffolding barrel, red of course
Sunday, February 21, 2010 - Rainy Motel and Sidewalk Day
I switched rooms which helped. A crazy lady was ranting the first night and woke me up at 4:30 with loud spanish music. Also the first room was really smoky, like a lingering settled residue of cigar smoke. My nose was partially stuffed up and I know it wasn't the air outside.
Sunday morning was really rainy and I decided to stay an extra day. I now realized how lucky I'd been to get a dry day of skating and shooting Rte 66 on Saturday. I worked on some art projects all morning. Finally the rain let up and I went out again. This time with no board.
Red lawn encroaches on sidewalk by the Western Inn
A few blocks up on Rte 66 I found a concrete plant, with stacks of redi mix cement out front. For a tour-journalist whose central theme is concrete, it was as if a goldsmith had found a gold factory.
The source of the terrain under my wheels
At the Big Time Pawn I shot a few pics thru the door then decided to go in. I asked if I could take pics. I got a few of the bikes and a comicly unflattering statue of Fidel Castro. I asked if they'd seen the History Channel show about the pawn shop in Vegas. The lady clerk said Pawn Stars was fake because people just want the money right now and would never wait for a specialist consultant to arrive to assay anything.
The Big Time owner, a heavyset wheelchair bound guy in a neck brace, came out and said "may I help you?" I said I was doing a skateboard tour project and didn't represent a competing pawn shop. He was not amused and seemed uncomfortable with me taking pics. I got off a few ill composed shots and said it was a cool store, losing my wit and charm more by the second. I looked down on his counter and gruffly he conceded, quite literally, a tidbit of a story from the shop. I saw him hold up a small log. He identified it as Fidel's detached finger. Maybe it was a subconscious insult but I took the hint and left. I should have brought in the board to hock, that would've broken the ice. Leaving the board is almost always a mistake, even in foul weather.
Unusual items can be found at Big Time Pawn
If Big Time Pawn was the place you could go to raise the money for a haircut at Jim Blue barber shop across the street, a little farther down could be found Big Comb barber shop where for $8.00 on a Tuesday, a Tulsa offender could go to make himself more presentable before picking up a Fletcher bail bond next door.
Bail bonds office and adjoining barber shop
By the Sandusky Ave Christian Church running along the characteristic double strip of parallel bricks there was a particularly lush piece of the kind of tortoise shell Tulsa grass that is the companion to the sidewalks on this particular tour.
Red appears to bleed from the brick strip into the lawn
