It was very early, and the sun was just coloring the sky when I passed the beautiful Desert Hills Motel sign. This shot would have been nicer without all the poles and overhead wires, but I did the best I could with what I had to work with. :-) While listening to NPR on my way to Afton, I heard them discussing the absurdity of the recent American obsession with gas prices. I realized that I'm as guilty of this as the next guy. Whereas I can do an entire week's grocery shopping without ever glancing at the price of anything I put in my cart, recently I find myself reading every gas price sign I pass as I drive. Who'da thunk it? This morning, for example, I filled up here, in Catoosa:
But then, I passed this cheaper place:
And then even cheaper:
Oh, well.....I had visitors at Afton Station today from Sweden, Santa Barbara CA, Topeka KS, and a family group of six from various towns in western Oklahoma. Most cars passed right by, since there was a huge car show about 10 miles away. I did get to watch a lot of classics and customs whiz past. Marly came by on his way to the car show with the '55 Packard 400, which is looking gorgeous these days. I'm betting that it will get a trophy. Marly also had some good news about a new home dialysis procedure which I will be looking into. It appears to be the stuff my dreams are made of, but we'll see.
Just as I was leaving, a woman from Boston arrived. We had spoken via email about a potential visit from her while she's in town doing a research paper on old motels and also attending the Preservation Conference next week. What a lovely young woman! We talked for about 15 minutes and...... I now have a visitor from my 49th state... Massachusetts! Now all I need is someone from Hawaii to walk in the door (or hula in, as the case may be) and I'll have met folks from all fifty!
5 comments:
Oooo, I love the motel sign! Gorgeous Googie signage! Cousin Shane and I just went up to a town near Chicago for a concert, and drove through Gary, Indiana. Terribly depressed city, but we saw some great signs along the way. Didn't have time to stop, unfortunately. :(
I don't doubt for a moment that you'll eventually get that Hawaii visitor!
Hugs, Beth
I am sure you will get a Hawaii visitor soon. Glad you had some visitors today, and hope your friends gets a reward at the car show :o)
Didn't Barack Obama grow up in Hawaii? Maybe he'll do some last-minute campaigning on Route 66. That'd be cool....
They may not appeal to everyone, but those poles are as much of the "authentic" landscape on 11th as the Desert Hills sign and everything else. No need to apologize for such a nice picture.
Also, I noticed that that really low fuel price was for E-85 (85% ethanol, 15% gasoline), not unleaded. In my thousands of miles of burning E-85, I've noted that E-85 typically yields about 75% of the fuel economy of unleaded, so you need to take that into account (along with emissions benefits, potential reductions in fossil fuel depletion, etc.)
Good job on the blog - keep it up! :)
As for a Hawaiian visitor, I would be beyond thrilled to have Obama be the one to complete my "states" list, but if I counted people who had once lived there (rather than live there at the present moment), I could count myseslf, as I lived there for two months in 1970. :-)
As for the Ethanol comment, Richard, I agree with you. In fact, that is one of the very few stations I've seen around here that offers both Ethanol blends AND regular unleaded.
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