We've been nominated for a 2009 Okie Blog Award. A very big thank you to everyone who nominated us for an Okie.

BlogOklahoma.us was nominated for Best Rural Blog, our sister blog, Blog Oklahoma, was nominated for Best Representation of Oklahoma, and the Blog Oklahoma Podcast was nominated for Best Audio/Podcast Blog.

It's an honor to be nominated with all you other wonderful Oklahoma blogs.

Again, Thank You. ~ Kevin.

It’s your chance to count for fun and count for the future, from Friday, February 12, through Monday, February 15. Whether you participate once or several times, by submitting your list of the birds you see at www.birdcount.org, you will help scientists learn more about how birds are faring in your neighborhood.

Fri Feb 12 – Mon Feb 15

For those of you who are fans of the old Route 66 TV series, its now available for instant viewing at Netflix.

Route 66 on Netflix
You are probably asking why I posted this. What does it have to do with Oklahoma history? Well it's Route 66. Okay Okay, I haven't posted anything here in a while so I thought I'd pop in and say, "Hey we're still here." It's been a quiet winter so far. We're so looking forward to the spring when we can get out there and travel. Until then we're going to live vicariously through this old TV show traveling up and down Route 66 getting into all sorts of shenanigans.

Our friend James over at okghosttowns.us was looking at Custer City, Oklahoma, with Google Maps when he made an interesting discovery, an AWAC caught mid-flight.


View Larger Map | Screen capture image of map

The skyline of the State Capitol Complex, once the sole domain of oil derricks, changed this week. There derricks remain, but they’ve been joined by wind turbines.

This week, crews from the Department of Central Services announced the installation of two 10-kilowatt wind turbines by state buildings. Crews installed one turbine on the Governor’s Mansion grounds, while a second turbine was placed near a Department of Human Services building at the intersection of Lincoln Boulevard and the Broadway Extension. ...

Read more at journalrecord.com

My friends Naomi & Larry and I loaded up in their PT Cruiser and headed for Ardmore. The sky became foggy just about the time we made it to Ardmore, we stopped at the Santa Fe Steakhouse where we ate steak and got some cute drink glasses,laughed and took our pictures. Larry knew where to go in Ardmore, of course, he got me all turned around. I remembered that there was a Spirit of the Buffalo and Larry found it a the train station. All the pictures we took have spots on them, the camera took picture of the misty spots. Next on our trip was to head to the Festival of Lights. If you never have seen the lights, you drive, drive and view from your warmth of your car. It is a spectacular display of lights. Well worth the hour and half that it took us to get to Ardmore.

Ardmore Festival of Lights

As I post this, 2010 is only a day and a half away. Happy New Year Everyone!

Today I'm taking some time to review my task list for BlogOklahoma.us and 2010. On top of the usual visit more historic places, fill out the historic places database, and put out more podcasts. I've got a few new projects to add to the list.

One I'm hoping to roll out during the first half of the year is a complete revamp of BlogOklahoma.us mobile. Using some of the latest web technology, I hope to make it a web application most useful in traveling the state.

As always please feel free contact us with your comments or questions. You can get hold us in a multitude of ways just visit www.blogoklahoma.us/contact for more information.

So here's to a productive 2010!

Using the new UStream.tv broadcaster iPhone app I took this short video of the blizzard that blew through Oklahoma on Christmas Eve.



This video just doesn't do the wind justice. It was a bitterly cold gusty wind that howled for hours on end. In the video after I opened the door you can hear a clanging noise. That is from a flag pole at a near by school. Besides the wind driven sleet and snow hitting the house you could hear the occasional bit of blowing debris. On the plus side, I think most of the pecans are now finally off tree in the back yard.



Oh and one little lesson learned from this blizzard. Check your weather stripping around your windows and doors before winter. Otherwise this might happen to you:



The wind blew so hard if forced snow through a hole in our screen door's weather stripping.

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