Sunday, October 13, 2019

Tulsa, OK - Day 25 - REST

Tulsa, OK is the city that oil built - hence the 70ft statue of the 'driller man' (sponsored by Pepsi and Ford!) that stands at the expo center. The town boomed in the early 1900s (hence many awesome art deco buildings downtown) but when oil fell to pennies a barrel and the dust storms came in the 1930s things didn't go so well for awhile but has rebounded to about a million people in the area (2nd largest in OK). Spent some time at the Gilcrease museum today - amazing western art and also poignant displays of works of Dorthea Lange and other photographers from the Farm Services Administration who succeeded in their mission to document the plight of farmers and laborers and generate support for the programs of FDR - interesting how today, no matter how desperate the photos of the homeless or the impoverished that we can't generate that same commitment to help. Also an exhibit on immigration and many cartoons and paintings recollecting the same anti-immigrant sentiments about the Chinese from the 1850s that we see reflected in some of today's politics. Here's a quote from the exhibit:

Walked the art deco district and then the 'Blue Dome' district - named after a distinctive blue-domed historical gas station at its heart, then around our hotel in the Brady District - home to the Woody Guthrie museum and soon the Bob Dylan museum (in the meantime, there's some stuff of his at the Gilcrease including his draft of 'Chimes of Freedom' lyrics on Waldorf stationary - his Nobel and Pulitzer prize are not on display though). A nice rest day, tomorrow it's saddle up for our 9th century ride 112 miles as we're back on Route 66 toward Miami (OK).
Soooo good! Chocolate doughnut with just the right icing and candies at Hurts Donuts ('want a Hurts Donut?')

Though Remington did amazing paintings he said he 'would be forever preserved in bronze'

One of Dorthea Lange's iconic images and backstory


They don't build gas stations like they used to! Very cool!

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