Thursday, July 22, 2010

The Three Musketeers

These three happy friends from Guadalajara, Spain were among my first visitors today. They're doing the whole Route 66, and all are in the U.S. for the first time. I enjoyed meeting and chatting with Javier, Jesus, and David.

It wasn't a very busy day today at Afton Station. I still think the intense heat is keeping folks off the road. It didn't stop some however, from Portsmouth NH, Bartlesville OK, Chelsea OK, and a couple from Melbourne, Australia. Twelve visitors altogether. Betty W. came for the afternoon, too.

I'm (finally!) starting to make these laminated signs for the cars. They will cut down on questions I can't answer. I need to wait for David to return from his vacation, however, so I can quiz him on under-the-hood details for some of the cars. Since nearly all our vehicles are "orphans" (cars of which the manufacturer is no longer in business), I will also add some history to each sign.
Akkey Takeuchi sent me this picture taken at the Festival in Kansas last month. It's Ron M., me, Akkey, and Marian Clark. Akkey is from Japan, but he and his family are annual visitors to Route 66, and he is the author of the book ""The Tropic of Route 66", full of beautiful photos.
It has been confirmed that this building, still standing in Afton, is indeed the remaining unit of the old Acme Courts which were built in 1936. Although the motel was directly on Route 66, this small unit was at the east end of the court and now hidden by trees. One tree, in fact, grows straight through the unit.

2 comments:

Trevor Hilton said...

Do you know anything about that old motorcourt on the south end of Afton? It's three small buildings with an old, rusty sign in front of it. After the Tri State Festival I parked my 'cycle in front of it and took a picture

Laurel said...

Yes, Trevor. It's what remains of the Avon Courts. Originally, the little cabins were joined, creating car garages between each. You can see a couple of old postcards of the Avon on the ""Then and Now" video I posted on YouTube a while back..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krW-LNfsCaI