Saturday, September 13, 2014

I Don't Even Know Where To Begin!

It was a crazy day, a continuation of the record-breaking week we've been having at Afton Station.  It's almost hard to believe that each day brings more visitors than ever before.  I hope the same is true for all of Route 66 because, if it is, there's even more certainty that the Mother Road is gaining in popularity by leaps and bounds.

Today, the bulk of our visitors came from three different sources.   An unannounced group of classic car owners rolled in from Claremore, OK just up the road, a Poker Run was using Afton Station as one of its required stops, and a tour bus filled with folks from the United Kingdom, guided by Route 66 friend Jim Conkle, arrived for a visit.   On top of all that, we were having a birthday party  for Betty, Tattoo Man, and Robin, and of course other visitors stopped in as well.   The weather was cool and sunny so the door remained open all day, the air filled with the sounds of roaring Harleys and what seemed like an inordinate number of trains passing through and blowing their whistles.  It was a very noisy day!

I think we had 86 visitors altogether, but in the chaos I may have missed a few.  Besides the three groups I mentioned above, our guests came from Arkansas City KS, Heidelberg Germany, Manford OK, Rush City MN, Galena KS, Kansas City MO, Fribourg Switzerland, Leavenworth KS, Esslinger Germany, Hamburg IA, Seattle WA, Adair OK, Langley OK and Rio de Janeiro Brazil.
Here are the folks from Heidelberg, Germany.
And here is the young couple from Fribourg, Switzerland.


 Some of the cars in the group cruise from Claremore.
This is Jim Conkle, our dear friend from California who leads guided bus tours of Route 66.  This time he was escorting a group of 20 citizens from the British Isles.  It's always so great to see Jim, and the last few times he was here, I wasn't.  I'm glad we finally found each other this time around.
The Poker Run drew 25 people to Afton Station.  It was a fundraiser for the Veteran's Cemetery in Commerce, OK.  Two gentlemen representing the Cemetery Association spent the day with  us.  We were very  happy to help out this very worthy cause.

Meanwhile, we celebrated the birthdays of Tattoo and Betty, who share a birthday next week, and Robin, whose birthday was a couple of weeks ago.   It was a little  hard to do a proper celebration with the crowds coming through all day, but where there's a will, there's a way. And when there are sweets to be consumed, we will always answer the call.  The birthday celebrants were joined by Marly, Sue, Ron M., Marlene, and me.


I feel I've forgotten something, but there's always tomorrow.  We'll be at the Station again tomorrow and hope so have as spectacular a day then as we've had each day this week.


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