Wow! Another week gone already, hardly seems possible. Somehow, having several weeks of posts ready to go while we were on the road skewed my sense of Patreon-time and I find myself suddenly confronted with a deadline looming. Or maybe it's just the time-dilation effects of retirement that are caused when we no longer have to know what day it is.
In any case, I have some photos from our Big Trip to share with you today.
The Big Trip provided not only adventures, it also gave us plenty of photo ops as we traveled across the country. Some places were more photogenic than others (the white sand beaches of the Florida panhandle), some were odd or unusual (I mean, a statue with a bare backside visible from a wide swath of the city?), and some were impressive for their size (Meteor Crater comes to mind-maybe I'll do a post about our adventures there at some point). There was the Owl Court in Oklahoma City which carried a huge personal significance.
Photos cannot capture the colors of the surf, sand, and sun along the Florida panhandle. At least not photos with our limited equipment. But trust me, this is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been - even when you need SPF 100 to venture out on the sand!
Then there were the statues. No, not the historical ones, or those that were part of a monument, but the ones that can only be described as city-wide public art.
We saw more than one of this type of installation, and have begun to suspect that there is more to the story than the statues themselves. How they came to be, who created them, who encouraged their use, even what they mean to the community - those are all questions that come to mind.
I must confess I haven't researched the background or meaning of these collections, but we did have the opportunity to document two of them (with plans to return and do a photo tour of a third one we found) and I would like to share one of them with you today.
The train station that welcomed visitors throughout Shawnee's history. For many, this is where their adventures began.
We came through the small town of Shawnee, Oklahoma, on our way home, between Little Rock and Oklahoma City. After a day of driving through storms, flood warnings, and heat it seemed like a good spot to stop for the night. It was not quite dusk, and Steve had heard about the train station so we turned up the AC to cool our room and went exploring while it cooled down.
This cemetery gate caught our eye as we were driving past. The stone work was similar to that of the train station, and stretched several blocks. Somehow it seems as though it should have been on a quiet side street, not a busy street with fast-moving traffic, and I can only imagine that the street was far less traveled when this was first built.
This cemetery gate caught our eye as we were driving past. The stone work was similar to that of the train station, and stretched several blocks. Somehow it seems as though it should have been on a quiet side street, not a busy street with fast-moving traffic, and I can only imagine that the street was far less traveled when this was first built.
We got our photo, pulled back out and almost immediately spotted another horse! Sure enough, there are multiple colorful horses in Shawnee. In no particular order, here are the pictures. I don't know if we got them all, but these are the ones we managed to find.
This guy was in a tiny corral next to the train station. I felt sorry for him in such cramped quarters!
Horse standing guard over an intersection at 45th and Harrison in front of the Sonic Drive-In. All the statues we saw were on Harrison Street, our exit from the Interstate.
Regal Car Sales has this blue-and-gold statue out front. Maybe this is a one-horsepower model?
Blue seemed to be a common color for the statues, including this one at the BancFirst building.
This one stands in front of a large Shell gas station/convenience store. Notice the sign at the foot of the statue. Apparently some people can't resist the temptation to ride a fiberglass horse!
This statue is in front of OK Classics, a car dealership. We spotted him from across the street and only got a long shot of his paint job.
Given the paint job and the rental van in the background, I doubt you’ll have any trouble figuring out where this horse stood! If there’s any question, yes, that it a U-Haul logo on the flank.
This was perhaps the most unusual statue. Standing in front of the Sac and Fox Nation Multi-Purpose Center, it is covered with writings and symbols that hold significance for the Native population.
Each of these statues is distinct from the others. Although there seem to be only two stances - either on two feet or four - they each have their own decoration and paint scheme. Even those that are similar in color (blue seemed to be popular) have their own design.
That, I think, is the lesson we can take from this little photo tour: Even when we start with a similar idea or premise the end result will inevitably reflect our own approach - like the cactus stories I shared some months back. No matter how much your idea may seem like someone else's the end result will always be your own.