After a long, visitorless morning, the traveling folks started to arrive at Afton Station around noon. Prior to that, Ron M., Tattoo Man, Robin, Betty and I just hung out and did our usual chattering. Robin had the good news that on Wednesday and Friday of this week, while she was here working, we had quite a few visitors, coming from Arkansas, Ohio, Arizona, Washington, Oregon, California, Missouri, and Oklahoma. Proof enough for me that the traveling season has begun. Finally!
Today, our first visitors were two fellows from Sao Paulo, Brazil who rented motorcycles in California and are working their way east on Route 66 to Chicago. They're enjoying the trip, despite needing to get used to snow for a while out west. It was quite a new experience for them. They took numerous photos of each other with their bikes in front of the gas pumps.
The remainder of our 9 visitors came from Gilmer TX, and Grove, Coweta, and Afton, OK. Sandy, the lady from Afton, initially came in to solicit a pledge for a charitable run that will take place next month, but once I gave her a small contribution, we started to talk about the Afton she remembers from childhood. She had some good stories about her grandfather who was a dear friend of the famous Jim Thorpe, and how Thorpe would visit him when he passed through Afton. She also had knowledge of the various outlaws who came to Afton -- Bonnie and Clyde, Ma Barker, etc. (Did I ever tell you that apparently Bonnie and Clyde stopped at Afton Station when it was the Eagle Service Station? Whether this is just a piece of local lore or the truth is uncertain, however I've heard it from four separate people thus far.) Anyway, Sandy knows lots of interesting things about old Afton, and you know how much I love to hear those stories!
So, a slow start gave way to another interesting day on Route 66. But then again, aren't they all?
2 comments:
We were talking about you and your wonderful collection today. We took a very short drive on Route 66 (now 266) from west side of Springfield to Halltown. Saw several old rock buildings and houses,always think they were built during the '30s. This is beautiful farm country, hadn't been through there for years.
For the perfect idler, for the passionate observer it becomes an immense source of enjoyment to establish his dwelling in the throng, in the ebb and flow, the bustle, the fleeting and the infinite. To be away from home and yet to feel at home anywhere; to see the world, to be at the very center of the world, and yet to be unseen of the world, such are some of the minor pleasures of those independent, intense and impartial spirits, who do not lend themselves easily to linguistic definitions. The observer is a prince enjoying his incognito wherever he goes.
Post a Comment