Suddenly I Can't Drive
Sep. 28th, 2008 10:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
livingdebSunday we drove to Stillwater, a college town that seemed like it might be a good place to live. Note to self: when fantasizing about a college town, make sure to find out whether it's a good college or a party college. We didn't find any signs of anything fun to do there.
Then we went to Tulsa. As we had been warned, Tulsa does not have access roads. For those of you who are used to not having access roads and don't know what you are missing, these are roads that parallel the highway and do not have a separate name. They are usually one-way roads, though in small towns, they might be two-way roads. So, if you don't want to get on the freeway because you don't want to pay tolls or because you're afraid to merge, you can just stay on the access road. If you miss your exit, you just get off the next exit and make a U-turn.
Suddenly, I no longer knew how to drive. You can't make a mistake because you can't make a U-turn; the exits just lead you down other roads. You can't pull off and get your bearings. You can see things next to the highway, but not be able to get to them. And when you want to get on a highway, you should not ignore that creepy one-way road to nowhere near where the sign says to go, because that probably leads to the access ramp.
That's how we ended up at the Gilcrease Museum. I didn't really want to go there, but I ended up doing things just as if that were my plan, so I gave in to fate. This is just outside the museum:
Fortunately for Robin, there was a gigantic Ansel Adams exhibit. I'm not the biggest Ansel Adams fan because although many or most of his pictures are exactly the kind of pictures I like to take, I really like color. According to him, that makes me take the "obvious" shots rather than focusing on the underlying drama and textures. That's okay; I love the obvious shots.
I learned that Ansel Adams was kicked out of several schools when he was a kid apparently because he was hyperactive. And his first profession was music, but finally he decided to make the switch to photography. It really helped him make some money when he got a public relations guy to market him.
Throughout the remainder of the trip, we would find times to tell ourselves, "Ansel Adams wouldn't respect this picture I'm taking." It was fun.
Outside the museum is Stuart Park, a hilly scrubby place where, among other things, you are not allowed to play golf. Golf must be very popular in that area!
Where our hotel was, there was a fake access road. So instead of getting off the freeway, driving past the intersection to the hotel and then turning right into the hotel parking lot, the road just takes you right back onto the freeway. Instead you have to turn right at the intersection, then turn left at the fake access road, and then turn right from there into the hotel parking lot.
Then we went to Tulsa. As we had been warned, Tulsa does not have access roads. For those of you who are used to not having access roads and don't know what you are missing, these are roads that parallel the highway and do not have a separate name. They are usually one-way roads, though in small towns, they might be two-way roads. So, if you don't want to get on the freeway because you don't want to pay tolls or because you're afraid to merge, you can just stay on the access road. If you miss your exit, you just get off the next exit and make a U-turn.
Suddenly, I no longer knew how to drive. You can't make a mistake because you can't make a U-turn; the exits just lead you down other roads. You can't pull off and get your bearings. You can see things next to the highway, but not be able to get to them. And when you want to get on a highway, you should not ignore that creepy one-way road to nowhere near where the sign says to go, because that probably leads to the access ramp.
That's how we ended up at the Gilcrease Museum. I didn't really want to go there, but I ended up doing things just as if that were my plan, so I gave in to fate. This is just outside the museum:
Fortunately for Robin, there was a gigantic Ansel Adams exhibit. I'm not the biggest Ansel Adams fan because although many or most of his pictures are exactly the kind of pictures I like to take, I really like color. According to him, that makes me take the "obvious" shots rather than focusing on the underlying drama and textures. That's okay; I love the obvious shots.
I learned that Ansel Adams was kicked out of several schools when he was a kid apparently because he was hyperactive. And his first profession was music, but finally he decided to make the switch to photography. It really helped him make some money when he got a public relations guy to market him.
Throughout the remainder of the trip, we would find times to tell ourselves, "Ansel Adams wouldn't respect this picture I'm taking." It was fun.
Outside the museum is Stuart Park, a hilly scrubby place where, among other things, you are not allowed to play golf. Golf must be very popular in that area!
Where our hotel was, there was a fake access road. So instead of getting off the freeway, driving past the intersection to the hotel and then turning right into the hotel parking lot, the road just takes you right back onto the freeway. Instead you have to turn right at the intersection, then turn left at the fake access road, and then turn right from there into the hotel parking lot.