A Jolly time at Ollie's

Wow, the weather has taken a turn for the WET! After weeks of virtually no precipitation, it's coming down in buckets as I write this. It's a great day to be indoors, which is where I'm staying. As is usual on Wednesday, I didn't go to Afton today, and I'm glad. I'd rather stay home and watch my parched pansies and mums come back to life as they drink up the rain.

The dinner gathering last night was a lot of fun (and a wee bit of business, too). We had a private room at Ollie's Station Restaurant, on Southwest Blvd. (Route 66) in west Tulsa. It was such a nice way to see the out-of-town Route 66 folks who are here for the Preservation Conference. Jim Conkle and Glen Duncan flew in from California, Jim for a meeting and Glen to make a presentation at the Conference. Jim is the Chair of the Route 66 Alliance and Glen was president of the California Route 66 Association and is a prominent preservationist.
Here are some of the others who attended the very informal dinner. There's Ron "Tattoo Man" Jones from Bartlesville OK, Joy Avery from Tulsa, and three preservation-minded women from the Kansas Route 66 Association, Carolyn Pendleton, Carla Jordan, and Catie Myers. If the name "Avery" sounds familiar, she's the granddaughter of Cyrus Avery, the "Father of Route 66". Cyrus Avery - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Joy is the lady in the white jacket. Here are Glen Duncan, Marilyn Emde (Admin. of the Oklahoma Route 66 Association) from Chandler OK, and Brad Nickson (Tulsa Rep., OK Route 66 Assn.) from Tulsa.
And of course, here's Ron McCoy, who is spending every day this week as an official volunteer greeter and registrar at the Conference. With about 3,000 people to register, it's a very big job.
Mostly, we ate and chatted, but Jim did give us an update on the newly-formed Route 66 Alliance, a group with the intention of uniting all the state associations under one umbrella. The organization is in it's formative stages, but progress is being made toward establishing by-laws and other administrative details.

Tomorrow is the first big Conference bus tour coming to Afton Station. For the sake of the participants, I hope the rain stops by then.

UPDATE: I just got a call from David and Marly, who report that Ethyl and Regular Fred's heads now light up!