"The best one yet"

The title does not necessarily reflect my feelings about today at Afton Station, although it was an exceptionally great day. Instead, it is the proud owner of a Route 66 business bragging a little bit about some guests' opinion of their experience at the Station today. A very attractive couple from Newcastle, England declared, after several weeks traversing Route 66 and other tourist attractions in the U.S., that their visit to Afton Station was "the best one yet", and then they verified their opinion by stating it in the guestbook!

But having excellent taste in tourist attractions (ha ha) wasn't the only cool thing about this very sweet couple. They were traveling with a 4-month-old baby! That can't be easy! The little girl, Tallulah, was smily and good natured, the kind of cute that made me want to squeeze and pinch her pudgy cheeks. Here are Tallulah and her mom, Pollyana. Don't you just love both names?

This British family didn't corner the market on cute today, however. Here's another visitor, Jack Fanning (whom you may remember from his visit last week at which time he gave me a ripe, delicious cantaloupe) who came back today and brought Molly McFanning, a rare spotted cocker spaniel, with him. Cute, cute, cute! Nice to see Jack again, too.

It was another extremely busy day at Afton Station, with 44 visitors in all. Some were Route 66 travelers and some were local folks whose plans for Independence Day weekend boating on Grand Lake were quashed by the rain we experienced for most of the day. Visitors hailed from Salem OR, Spavinaw OK, Hood River OR, O'Fallon IL, Grove OK, Littleton CO, Mooressville IN, Tyler TX, Nashville TN, Garfield Heights OH, Owasso OK, Tulsa OK, Palmer TX, Ennis TX, Vinita OK, Wichita KS, Langley OK, and the family from Newcastle, England.

I was fortunate to have Ron M. with me to help out today and Tattoo Man helped for most of the day as well. Tattoo Man was also there yesterday, and in my absence visited with ten travelers. Ron M. and I drove home tonight in some pretty strong rain -- nothing like last week's downpour, but a real soaker nonetheless.

Happy Fourth of July to ALL!!!