Thoughts from a Route 66 Business Owner

The only photo I have for today is this one of the beautiful roses Betty brought to me this morning from her garden. She stopped in and spent a couple of hours with me, and as a special treat her sister Marlene visited for a short time, too.

Every trip to Afton, no matter how routine they become, yields something new. Today, just west of Vinita, I spotted a tiny "Cabin Creek Battle Site" sign with an arrow pointing to the right down a country road. I had a little extra time, so I followed the road for about 5 miles and never found the battle site. Because my free time was running out, I turned around and drove back to Route 66. When I got home I did a little research and found out a bit about the Civil War battle. I will go back, and this time I'll follow the directions on the website. http://tinyurl.com/4bpcxh

I am somewhat heartsick about missing a classic car cruise that apparently cruised past Afton Station on Thursday. I learned about the cruise online this morning, and then when I got to Afton there was a phone message from the group (from Wednesday) saying they hoped I still expected them the next day. I absolutely have no memory of scheduling a cruise at Afton Station on this past Thursday! I don't know if I'm losing my mind or if there was some misunderstanding. I hate that they may think I just blew them off. I'll try to call them when the weekend is over.

Meanwhile, it was a great day at the Station. A family from New Zealand were my first guests. They're on a 4-month trip to all corners of the United States. Their daughter (about 11 or 12 years old) took a liking to the penny pressing machine, as so many kids do. The family has already driven over 12,000 miles and have another month to go. They bought a pickup truck and travel trailer when they got here, and they'll sell the trailer at the end of the trip and send the pickup back to NZ. Lucky them!

A gentleman who is in the U.S. on business in Tulsa took the weekend off to do some exploring of Route 66. He works in Liechtenstein but lives a couple of miles across the border in Switzerland. Too bad he doesn't live where he works. I would have liked to add Liechtenstein to my list of visiting countries.

Two of our cars were at a car show today, so the place was a little more empty than usual. I wonder if they won any trophies. I'll report when I find out.

Other visitors today included people from the south coast of Great Britain, Newtown PA, New York City, Social Circle GA (love that town name!), Cleora OK, and good 'ol Afton OK. There were 17 visitors altogether.

UPDATE (from about a month ago): The Nut House in Catoosa is now accessible from the East. The road construction is almost completed, and a cut has been made so that cars can cross to the south side of the road. I'm so glad for those folks, since pecan season is starting now.