Ups and Downs

Saturday morning, birds chirping, door open, gentle breeze, sun, silence broken only by passing vehicles and an occasional train. The roars of semis are like background music to me now. I hardly hear them any more. There aren't many big rigs out on Saturday mornings anyway.

A quick trip up to the Buffalo Ranch before opening Afton Station today rewarded me with a bison right up near the gate in photo position. Usually they're way back in the field where you can't see them. There was also an awesome old Greyhound SceniCruiser, now privately owned, in the parking lot. Have I told you lately how much I love vintage buses?

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Betty spent part of the morning with me and her sister Marlene stopped by for a while, too. It's 1 p.m. and I've only visited with one traveler. He was a good one, though. Steve, from McLoud, OK was worth a busload! He's a passionate roadie and a long-time collector of roadside postcards and other ephemera, so we had much to talk about. We both got our love for road travel as children with our parents, and we both feverently hope to keep the Mother Road alive!

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At 2 p.m., I'm beginning to think they'd closed off the town at the borders. Traffic is light and the vehicles driving past don't look like tourists at all. In this job, you get to knowing which cars will stop, even before they pull into the driveway. There are very few of those today. One gentleman from Catoosa, OK stopped briefly, but those two are all so far. I'm stunned by the lack of visitors today.

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Apparently the best way to lure travelers to Afton Station is to start turning off the lights and closing the door. That happened today, and I'm so glad I was able to receive these last minute guests. A couple from Australia, traveling with a lady from Surrey, England came in right at 3 p.m., and at the same time the two guys from Vintage Iron Motorcycle Museum down in Miami roared in on their gorgeous bikes to present me with one of their calendars, in which Afton Station is Miss August! I'll try to scan and show it to you when I get the time. It's a great picture of the Station with a vintage motorcycle parked in front. Here are those guys.

It turned out to be a good day after all. And tomorrow will be even better!