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When we finally left the Fort Worth area, we knew that we were en route to Colorado. But, of course, that was going to be a long drive. I kind of thought of that central U.S. area as being … well … empty. So our first stop along the way was a pleasant surprise. We spent the day in Tulsa, OK, hanging out with fellow photographer Joe Glyda. Joe has been living in Tulsa for a few years, so he gave us the grand tour. It turns out, there was a lot more there than I expected.

We started out at the Philbrook Museum., where there was an exhibit going on called “American Streamlined Design: The World of Tomorrow.” This is the design style that Ben loves and is using in the vintage bus project, so he was totally loving it. What I thought was pretty funny was that since Ben has been collecting these kinds of things for the past year or two, he actually owns some of the items that were on exhibit!

We also spent some time checking out the museum grounds, which were gorgeous. They actually reminded me of Longwood Gardens in PA, where I used to go shooting a lot. You could spend a long time just exploring all the nooks and crannies in that place.

After that, Joe took us on a little driving tour of the downtown area, we got lunch (some of the best sushi ever…. in Tulsa! Who’da thought?) and then went to the giant Tulsa Oil Man. Anything overly huge, out of the ordinary or just plain odd is totally right up our ally. And this dude was definitely huge and out of the ordinary. Dubbed “The Golden Driller,” he’s reported to be the largest free-standing statue in the world, measuring in at 75 feet tall, and was built to be able to withstand 200 mph tornadoes. (Good thing, too. Could you imagine this giant gold dude flying through the air toward your house??) There’s more info on the Golden Driller over at good old Roadside America, and you can read that right HERE.