janet's journey jaunts

Wild goose chase ends up finding route for next bike trip

janetsjourneyjaunts — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 17:07:56 +0000

Went on a wild goose chase today, as I had been told about the Tahlonteeskee Courthouse in Gore which I had never heard of, thought I knew just about every site in Oklahoma. So googled it and found some information from Cherokee Tourism that said it was open and gave hours, another site I found stated it was closed in April 2010. The pictures looked like it might work for a group so off we went to see if it was worthy. We found it no problem. Unfortunately, it was closed, and looked like it had not had any maintenance in a while.

The day was not a total wash as we enjoyed the drive and I was reminded of a great stop for ladies, Emily’s Tea Room and the Garden Gate Shop. Leaving Gore we decided to take 10 A to Fin & Feather, it was closed for the season, bummer. From here we took 100 north around the east edge of Lake Tenkiller and stopped at Cookson Smokehouse for lunch. This was an excellent choice, the building inside and out looks like a log cabin and has a very rustic atmosphere. Antiques and wildlife mounts on the walls. The food was good and could accommodate a group, also is biker friendly. Continued north on Hwy 100/82 to Keys and at South Indian Road then headed south around the west edge of the lake. This would make a perfect bike trip and at the intersection of Hwy 82 and Indian Road is Tenkiller Lodge which looked like some nice accommodations, and will my choice when going back on the bikes. I’m looking forward to returning with the bikes and taking the route around the lake as it has some nice curves, actually I may have had a little too much fun taking them in the guppy. Oh well, what can I say, a girl has to have fun.

You don’t have to leave Oklahoma to have fun

janetsjourneyjaunts — Sun, 31 Jul 2011 22:04:00 +0000

Headed out several weeks ago on the bikes for Durant and the Choctaw Casino Resort. We made a stop in Sulphur at the Chickasaw National Recreation Area to take some photos and drive through the park. Dan wanted to get some pictures of the bikes going across the low water bridge near the Travertine Nature Center. Not only does the guppy swim but my bike can swim too. I got wet up to my knees, Dan said I was going to fast but I just coasted down the hill and across the bridge. The photo of me was out of focus, but got a good one of Dan crossing it.

We arrived in Durant at the Choctaw Casino Resort about two, hot and ready to take a break. Spend a couple of hours that afternoon at the pool. There are actually three pools, one indoors that connects to one outside, then one they call the Oasis. The Oasis has water falls, fountains, an area that resembles a cave, hot tubs, and an adult only area that has a bar where the bar seats are in the pool. If you like to people watch you can do it here. From little ones, to teens, to adults of all ages. We went back to the pool that night and it was a totally different experience with tiki torches near the waterfalls and colored lights in the water. We don’t do a lot of gaming but the choices of restaurants and swimming areas made it a nice weekend get away at a reasonable price.

Forever changing

janetsjourneyjaunts — Wed, 25 May 2011 03:15:01 +0000

I was recently sitting in a waiting room visiting with a lady that lived in the country about 40 miles out of Oklahoma City. She had been back in Oklahoma a year after living in Florida for 10 years. She went on and on about how things had changed in Oklahoma City and was very negative about it. I made the comment to her that I’m sure if she had been away from Florida for 10 years and went back it would not be the same either.

Devon Tower downtown OKC

I personally love the changes that have happened and are happening in Oklahoma City. It’s been exciting to see the development of Bricktown. I remember when it was nothing but abandoned buildings. I remember the Canadian River before the lock and dams. Today we know it as the Oklahoma River and is one of the best rowing venues in the country. The Myriad Gardens just re-opened with a totally new look. As I walked through the gardens during the Festival of the Arts all I could say was wow. It far surpassed my expectations. I am witnessing the Devon Tower going up and seeing the change in Oklahoma City’s skyline daily. Next, big change will be the relocation of I-40, which will drastically change the landscape of downtown Oklahoma City.

I love the changes and look forward to the changes to come. What a boring life we would have if nothing ever changed.

The name says it all

janetsjourneyjaunts — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 23:10:06 +0000

If you’re wondering why I named this blog Janet’s Journey Jaunts first of all its about me, Janet. Journey is defined as “traveling from one place to another, usually taking a rather long time”. Jaunts is defined in dictionary.com as “a short journey, especially one taken for pleasure.”

This blog is about my journeys or jaunts of travel and exploring the countryside and cities, via car or my motorcycle. It will also include blog posts on the journeys of my life, that may include; work, school, family, etc.

It’s not about the destination…its about the journey

HootSuite add ons make tweeting faster and easier

janetsjourneyjaunts — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 02:04:47 +0000

For all my social media addict friends that have not discovered HootSuite yet, I highly recommend checking it out. HootSuite allows you to manage multiple social media accounts as Twitter, Facebook, FourSquare, and RSS feeds. You can manage up to five free, more than that you will need to upgrade to a paid plan.

What I just discovered and have been experimenting with are some HootSuite Extensions. I downloaded the HootBar extension for Firefox and also the Hootlet Firefox Add On. The Hootlet Add On lets you post to a social network with one click from the Hootlet icon on your toolbar. HootBar allows you to post links from the URL window. How cool is that? On a web page you want to share? Click the Twitter Bird in the url bar and post the link to your Twitter account. You can even add text from the URL bar.

Click here to find out more about these add ons and make managing your social media easier.

Traveling backwards for a moment

janetsjourneyjaunts — Sun, 17 Apr 2011 18:18:42 +0000

I’ve always said life is a journey, but that journey is not always forwards. Sometimes it takes you backwards to unpleasant memories and pleasant things. The two intertwine making us who we are. Most big trucks and equipment have a warning beep when they begin to go in reverse. Wish the same where true when life puts me in reverse, I would like a warning that this is going to happen. Yesterday afternoon I had some unpleasant memories come flooding back to me, that were quite overwhelming. Yet, that morning I had found a box of old recipes from my dads mom that brought pleasant memories. They were dated from 1952 to 1967 and as I went through them I found several dishes that I remembered from years past. Well, actually they were mostly desserts, cakes, pies, and jello salads. Some have turned into holiday traditions as the Cherry Bing Salad. Both of my grandmothers were wonderful cooks especially when it came to desserts. And this was a time when the cakes did not come out of a box and the pie crusts were not frozen. I remember Grandpa Mounts always saying there were only two kinds of pies that he liked, “Hot and Cold” and this I have always agreed with. My grandmothers may have been responsible for my love of eating, but I did not inherit their love or talent for cooking. I wonder what my grand kids will remember about me? Defiantly not my cooking, maybe my love of travel and motorcycles. Hanna has called me her Hippie Biker Grandma. Yes, guess that will definitely take presidence over cooking when they remember me 50 years from now.

But from reverse we must go forward. We pull into a parking spot, then we back out and go forward again. Even at the airport the plane must go backwards from the hangar before it can take off again. Most of our cars have a few scratches and dents but they still keep running. And lets not forget the speed bumps that make us slow down and take it easy for a short time.

It’s not about the destination, it’s all about the journey…..and that journey takes us many places through many valleys and over many hills.

A journey to Kansas begins with safari pioneers

janetsjourneyjaunts — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 02:52:17 +0000

Yes, there may be some gypsy blood in me. I love to go places I have never been and see new things. For me its all about exploring the places I have yet to discover. So this weekend we took off in the car, just because the weather report was not favorable for taking off on the bikes. We began our adventure with a stop in Chanute, KS at the Martin and Osa Johnson Safari Museum. This couple from Kansas truly lived a life of “adventure” as they traveled the depths of Africa from 1917 to 1936. They lived and filmed the wilderness, wildlife, and local tribes that they connected with. Their story is fascinating, their adventure was dangerous, their photography and movie filming are amazing for this era when motion pictures were so new. The museum has some wonderful artifacts and a great story to tell. You can begin with a short introductory video, but personally I wished there had been video screens through the exhibits with short clips of their movies.

With my interest in Social Media I was intrigued with how they are using this area of marketing for the museum. On Twitter you can follow @SafariMuseum for short excerpts from Martin’s dairy and @SafariMuseum2 you will find tweets from Osa’s diary. They are also using Twitpics to add photos to their tweets. On YouTube there are several short film clips to tell you more about the Johnson’s and the museum. There is one titled Baboona that gives you a sampling of what they brought to the movie theaters at a time when sound movies were so new to the screen.

Tag that Flickr

janetsjourneyjaunts — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 01:00:23 +0000

Tags are everywhere, there are name tags, tags on clothing, a tag on your car, tags on merchandise, your dog even has a tag (or should have).

What is a tag? A tag is an identifier! So why is it important to place tags on blog posts, Flickr photos, and YouTube videos? Chapter 8 in my Social Media class specifically talks about tags in Flickr. These tags increase the search ability. Even when placing a photo into a web site or blog it should have tags. Tags on photos often cannot be seen to a viewer on the web site, but the search engine sees them and this enables a higher ranking in searches.

Tags in Flickr became very important to me while working on my app about Oklahoma City. The programing that Sutro Media has developed will automatically let you search Flickr for photos that have a Creative Common license. While my hubby had thousands of photos on Flickr I realized I could not find them as many did not have tags. It’s much easier to add tags when the photos are uploaded vs going back and adding them later, so tag, tag, tag…..TAG YOUR IT!

Create Tag Cloud from Flickr Photo Tags with Tagerator (madrasgeek.com)

Widgets galore

janetsjourneyjaunts — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 23:59:27 +0000

In Social Media we have been studying widgets and badges. I became acquainted with widgets several years ago when I began this blog, at the time they were a new concept for me. I assumed the word “widget” was a word added to the dictionary in the last decade or so due to the development of widgets to be used on the web. But when I did some research it seems as if “widget” was in the dictionary back in 1930 and defined as a noun for gadget.

WordPress defines widgets as:

“Widget is a fancy word for tools or content that you can add, arrange, and remove from the sidebars of your blog. Widgets make it easy to customize the content of your blog sidebar.”

I have several widgets in the right side bar of this blog. One is a widget for Twitter which feeds the latest tweets into the widget, then there is a widget for Facebook, Flicker, Examiner.com, and one for my travel app “OKC: in and around”. Click on any of these and it takes you to the site for each account. Instead of overloading my side bar with widgets I used the Gravater Hovercard to connect with some of my other accounts, as LinkedIn, Foursquare, YouTube, and FriendFeed.

Seems as if the use for widgets is unlimited. There are lots of sources to create your own widget so let the fun begin, widgets for the blog, widgets for the desktop, widgets for websites . . . hum wonder if there is widget to remind the hubby to take out the trash. (-:

I just may be addicted to apps

janetsjourneyjaunts — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 03:23:29 +0000

As a class project we were to create an app using a free trial from Widgetbox and place some of our social media sites into it. I had more fun working on this and decided it could be addicting. I titled my app “…it’s all about me.” In the app I incorporated my Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, a page about my OKC app, and then included a page with some fun stuff about me. It also allowed me to place a poll, I chose the topic “Are you addicted to Social Media?” You can answer, “Yes, definitely”, “Maybe, somewhat” or “No, not at all.” So check it and out and vote in my poll.

The one thing that I could not get to work was placing a feed in it from my Facebook page. Every time I tried, it gave me an error message. I did some googling on it and some said you had to use a Facebook app to create a RSS feed. Then others said Facebook had changed some features and you could not do a feed from your Facebook page any longer. I finally abandoned the attempt to get Facebook interrogated into it.

The preview while you are working on the app does not seem to view well in Firefox and the site recommends using Google Chrome browser. After downloading Google Chrome the preview worked perfect.

The app can be downloaded to an iPhone or Androids and can be found by clicking her e. Or scan this QR code