Photography: Close to Home

Today’s satellite view is complements of Bing Maps, which is currently more up to date for my part of the world. Look for the bright aqua numerals along the southern edge and then up starting with the office park; the numbering doesn’t include the map image. The creek bed there is Crutcho Creek and it runs NNE in this area.

It’s a cool day and I didn’t feel too ambitious about riding. However, I felt drawn to take pictures of the new bike path that Midwest City is building along SE 29th between Air Depot Boulevard and Sooner Road. Most of it is finished and looks quite nice. I spotted this patch early henbit blossoms (right) along the way. We are just starting our green-up around here and henbit sprouts early because it can take a light freeze, which we still have some mornings.

The bike path is just a little narrower where it passes under the Interstate. The current rough spot is where it needs to cross Crutch Creek, running out of the Tinker AFB golf course. The bike bridge is still under construction. The current work is setting a concrete abutment to prevent the pilings washing out when the creek floods. These are huge prefabricated concrete blocks you can see all over the place. Most of them are made by our local monster company, Dolese Brothers, and you can see those blocks used like fencing around anything Dolese owns. There was a matching abutment just to my left off-camera, already finished. It’s gonna take a while before it’s finished.

This blossoming tree has no scent, and stands near the entrance to an office park. On the northeast corner of SE 29th and Sooner Road was a gas station, now some forty years gone. At one time the monster First Southern Baptist Church wanted this corner, but Tinker AFB nixed it. The general’s excuse was that a monster church house was too close to their flight line. That was bullshit; Boeing wanted to build an office park there. Boeing has since moved to the southwestern gate of Tinker, building a massive campus with several multi-story buildings.

Hidden back in the woods near the creek was this small pavilion. The rook is pre-cast concrete. Some internal concrete block walls have been knocked down. On the northern end of this little pocket has once been a church summer camp. In the satellite image you can see a patch of little concrete pads. Those were tent sites for the camp. Every summer the folks would gather out here for a two-week long revival camp meeting; I recall seeing them there as a teenager (1970s). All the men and most boys wore which shirts, and some had ties. The gals all wore long dresses, despite it being typically hot weather.

Some mapping services show this as a park, but I believe it’s now private land and up for lease with signs promising they will “build to suit.”