Cold outside, warm inside

I'm running out of words to describe days like today. Let's try "drab". After the beautiful weather yesterday, I wasn't prepared for the gloom of today. But that's Oklahoma for 'ya! Absolutely NO consistency. While the mercury dropped like a stone all day, I stayed relatively warm and cozy at Afton Station. Before visitors started arriving, I managed to get most of my Christmas cards addressed. Then, the travelers did come, and by the end of the day I'd had nine.

A family of 5 from South Korea (my first!) was doing a little Route 66ing over the holiday weekend. The dad is in Missouri on business and brought his family along. Not much English was spoken, but the two little girls sure liked Tripper. (The younger son was too camera shy to pose, however).
Two fellows from Muhlenberg, KY and Graham, KY made my day by buying copies of both Images I and Images II as well as several key tags. Sales have been terrible this month, so this purchase helped a lot. When they arrived, the guys were somewhat "ho hum" about Route 66, but they left as true believers. Score!

A mother from Miami, OK and her adult mentally-challenged son came in because the son loves to look at old cars. He showed his appreciation with many whoops and hollers and a huge smile on his face the whole time he was here. They're welcome to come back any time!

I may not be back in Afton until Thursday, such a long spell away from the place. If I can't stand it, I'll go up there on Tuesday if I get a lot of things on my to-do list at home done. Judging from the length of the to-do list, that's doubtful.

Back Where I Belong

Well, Thanksgiving is over, with not too much damage to my chemical balance! :-) I had a great time among dear friends. And yesterday, I managed to completely avoid Black Friday by going to dialysis. As I told several people, in my opinion even kidney dialysis is preferable to participating in the cattle stampede created by the promise of questionably-reasonable prices on semi-essential hardgoods. In other words, I have survived.

So, today it was back to what I really love to do -- Afton Station. Ron M. went with me, and it was a very serene and yet upbeat day. We had 8 visitors, not counting Betty, who is far more than just a visitor now. She hung out with us for a few hours, and we like that.

Our first visitors were waiting at the door when we arrived. I'm so glad we got there a bit early because they were very interesting visitors indeed. The family of four from the St. Louis, MO area were doing a little long weekend traveling on Route 66, searching for potential places to set up Gordon's (the dad) photo studio. I'd recently been introduced to Gordon's work, some of which can be viewed at http://www.handcolored66.com/. Just as Ron and I were attempting to sell him on one of the buildings across the street, the owner of said buildings, Tommy Bassett, arrived on the scene and he and Gordon had a long talk. As for me, I have my fingers crossed for something to come of this.

Meanwhile, Gordon's two kids, a sixth grader and a fourth grader, amused themselves both inside and outside of the Station. If you want to feel really old, check out this photo of the little fourth grader being enchanted by the dial on our old dial telephone. She'd never seen one before! Oh, my creaky bones!Later in the day, a couple from Broken Arrow, OK stopped in, as well as travelers from Sydney, Australia. The Okies were doing a day trip, whereas the Aussies are embarking on a month-long odyssey covering a good bit of the United States. Yes, foreign visitors are still out there traveling!

Thanksgiving Morning 2009

Beautiful day! From my porch -- lovely trees and the skyline of Tulsa.Serving dishes and stemware ready to go!

Watching the parade while getting food together.

Last-minute cooking.

Table set! Ready to go!

Wishing a wonderful Thanksgiving to all, and. . .

. . .one final thought. . .

A Horse To Ride!

Way back on Aug. 6, 2008 (when I was first starting to blog) I wrote about how some seemingly insignificant things one sees become emblazoned in the minds, thus those things, however unimportant, are sorely missed when they're gone. The item I mentioned was a truly unprepossessing sign east of Tulsa on Route 66 that read "Rent A Horse To Ride". I have never understood why the sign was such a memory for me, but when I discovered one day last August that it was gone, I felt an actual pang of sadness. The field was empty . . . no horse to ride. . . the pasture now sporting a "For Sale" sign. Well, today the sign has returned!!! And it's been cloned into about a half dozen of the signs surrounding the field. I'm happy! (Emily, you'll be happy, too!)

I drove up to Afton today, checked on the Station and found we'd had several visitors while I was not there, apparently hosted by either David or Marly, because there were new names in the guest book from Nebraska and Florida. From there, I drove to David's house in Grove to pick up the turkeys he fried for me and others. He's done this for me every year since we've been divorced. I watched him work the fryer for a while, but forgot to take a picture of the operation. From there I drove back to Afton to meet Betty and give her one of David's turkeys. On the way home, I delivered another one to Brad in Tulsa.

On the way to Afton this morning, I stopped to take photos of two places on Route 66 in East Tulsa that I don't believe I've shown here before. Here is an old fake wooden water tower shown on this postcard from the early '50s, when the building was a railroad-themed restaurant. Following is a picture of the old water tower today. It's still in existence, but now advertises a public relations consulting firm. Here's an unremarkable building not far from the above water tower. It's obviously been abandoned for years. It would have completely passed my notice if an elderly lady hadn't approached me after Route 66 program I participated in in Tulsa several years ago. In her hand, she held a photo of the building when it was first built, and which she told me had served as her parents' grocery store for several decades. She said she hadn't seen it for years, so I took a photo of it and sent it to her. In return, she sent me a picture of the building when it was a vital business. I seem to have misfiled the photo, but when I find it, I'll post it here.I got home around 3 p.m. and have spent the rest of the day in the kitchen. Thanksgiving tomorrow! Hope it's a good one for all!

"Bob's Last Art Show"

Since I was unable to get to Springfield, IL for "Bob (Waldmire)'s Last Art Show", I'm grateful to those who have posted photos and reports on the event. Apparently it was highly successful, to the point of being almost overly crowded. Excellent! Some good photos of the event can be seen at Denny Gibson's site: http://www.dennygibson.com/bobs_las/day01/index.htm. There are some other neat Route 66 pictures there, too. Denny writes a really excellent daily blog every time he goes on a road trip, and his observations always make me want to follow in his tire tracks.

Today, I had my first "day off" since April (i.e. a day when I had neither Afton nor dialysis), and I put it to good use. First, I gave in to a need to do some shopping. I hate to shop, but sometimes it's just plain necessary. I rewarded myself afterwards with a breakfast of steak and eggs at Jimmy's Egg. For the rest of the day, I've been at home cleaning up loose ends here. My life now seems at least semi-organized.

Since I hate a blog entry without a photo, here's one of the four pressed pennies I offer in my penny squasher at Afton Station.

Keep those travelers coming!

Morning rain gave way to sunshine as this fine Saturday wore on. Frankly, I wasn't feeling very hopeful for a scintillating day at Afton Station today, but it turned out to be just fine. We only had 7 visitors, so Ron M. and I did have some time to pursue other activities, mainly figuring out what happened to totally screw up the Afton slide show I had just about perfected last week. Ron feels that I may have forgotten to save some elements of the slide show before I signed off after working on it. Or, it could be something else. At any rate, we got it back on track, although I still have some tweaking to do. When it's done, you'll be the first to know.

Our visitors today weren't all locals. Yes, people are still traveling on Route 66, even this late in the year. Wouldn't it be wonderful if the "tourist season" on Route 66 lasted all year round? Maybe this will be the year. Travelers came from Stafford VA, Rockwell TX, West Allis WI, Washington D.C., and Pryor OK today. This young couple from D.C. stopped in on their way across the country to put down roots in Los Angeles. They've been trying to follow Route 66 as much as they can. They're both actors and are seeking to pursue their craft where it's more marketable than in the D.C. area. We'll look for them in a few years when they're accepting their Academy Awards!

For a book he's writing on ghost towns, a friend asked me some questions about the carriage company that was once in Afton, so I asked Ron to take some pictures. The building is still standing and happens to be the building that until recently housed Bassett's Grocery. It's now empty, like most other buildings in town. I know I've shown this here before, but here it is again.
Except for a short time on Wed. morning when I drive up to pick up my annual fried turkey from David (since he got the turkey fryer in the divorce, he makes a turkey for me every Thanksgiving!), Afton Station won't be officially open again until a week from today. There might be someone there, however, so if you pass thru town, look around for a car or truck and you might get lucky. I'll be posting here periodically, however. You can't get rid of me that easily! :-)

Topiary Tripper

Y'all know about my pet 6-foot tall penguin named Tripper. Many of you have met him, in fact. Well, yesterday, when leaving Afton, I happened to notice that a tangle of brush growing over some wires created a Tripper in topiary. Don't you think? Well, ok, maybe not. Maybe you had to be there. . .

I'll be back at Afton Station tomorrow, so I'll try to write about more interesting stuff rather than this nonsense. Sorry!