What's that???

That yellow spot you see over the mirror in the above photo is the rising sun! Yes, the sun! It's been a while since we've seen it around here, and it's nice that it hung around all day. It's still really cold, but that's ok. Seeing the sun fixes everything.

I celebrated the sunshine with another one of those "I'm Never Eating One Of These Again" omelets at Clanton's in Vinita. They're huge and awesome and rich and they leave me groggy all morning. I'm never going to eat one again. No, really. Well, maybe. While there, I got a wad of their business cards from the owner so I can hand them out at Afton Station. See? It was a business call!

Today was extremely long and boring at the Station. There were three visitors, two guys from Neosho, MO who were very interested in the cars, then another guy who just wandered in. I think he was lost. Although he did look around a bit, he didn't seem very interested in much of anything other than how to get to Grove. David was there working all day, so I did have someone to talk to, and that was nice. I really can't wait until the tourists start arriving.

Ten minutes in Afton

Good sense took over yesterday and I decided I really needed to drive up to Afton and check the Station. I hadn't been there for almost two weeks, and with all the unseasonably frigid weather, I was losing sleep over the possibility of frozen pipes, car damage, or other tragic occurrences. David has been on vacation since before Christmas, so he hasn't been there to check, either. So, I gathered up Ron M. and off we went. We stopped at Clanton's in Vinita for lunch. I can't say enough good things about that iconic Route 66 cafe. It was crowded, as it always is, yet it was comfortable and there were tables available. The chicken and dressing I chose was the perfect comfort food on a 19 degree day like this. It went down very easily.
Afton Station was just fine, thank goodness. We never turn the heat down all the way, so it was extremely cold but not freezing. It appeared that absolutely nothing had happened there since before Christmas. There weren't even any messages on the answering machine. Route 66 almost entirely shuts down in December. The obvious lack of interest lessened my guilt feelings about having not gone there for a while. My next goal is to get up there on Tuesday and spend a good part of the day there, or at least stay until I realize that nobody is going to visit.

There was a beautiful sunset last night. It snowed a bit overnight, just a dusting here in Tulsa. However, in Afton it's still snowing and there's been more accumulation, so that will prevent me from driving up there today (although I hadn't really planned to, anyway).

Breakfast hangover

Ok, I challenged Clanton's cheese and sausage omelet this morning for breakfast and the omelet won. Even though it was about the most delicious thing I've ever tasted, I couldn't even begin to finish the whole gargantuan thing. And, as a result of this terrible excess, Afton Station isn' t even open yet and I'm already nodding off. Sorry Clanton's, but no more BIG breakfasts for me. From now on..... an egg and toast!

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I'm home now. Eleven hours later and I'm still not hungry! Every now and then there will be a day at Afton Station that can be described as "routine", and probably won't make a very exciting blog post. Today was that kind of a day, so this will be short... with no pictures.

I had 11 visitors today. The first couple was from the Algonquin National Park area way up north of Ontario, Canada. Since we used to vacation up there, we had much to talk about . They were on the way to the Grand Canyon. Next came a fellow from Virginia on a motorcycle. Betty stopped in, then David. Betty brought me some of her special spiced pretzels. I tasted them and they were excellent, but I was still full from breakfast.

Later in the afternoon, a delightful couple from Broken Arrow, OK came for a visit. He used to work for Sunray D-X so he was interested in our D-X memorabilia. Then, a couple of my "regulars" from Afton dropped in to say hello. I love it when younger people from right here in town get that amazed look on their faces when they learn they live on Route 66. Shortly thereafter, another local lady came in to introduce herself. Finally, as I was closing, a guy from Picher who was very interested in the cars came in and stayed for quite a while. A day filled with nice people, old acquaintances, and new faces.

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April 14th has always felt like an important day to me, and I always wake up on the 14th with thought of two tragic historic incidents that occurred on this day -- the assasination of Abraham Lincoln and the sinking of the Titanic. I pondered on both of these things today, as I always do.

First of two big days, I think

Sunrise on 66 this morning

I stopped for breakfast at Clanton's in Vinita this morning on the way to Afton Station and was surprised when Tattoo Man Ron Jones tapped me on the shoulder and asked if he could join me. Of course! I guess we had a simultaneous hankering for Clanton's awesome breakfast.

The morning at Afton Station sure wasn't as satisfying as breakfast. On the contrary, Tattoo and I sat around all morning with the only guests being one young Afton couple who wandered in and stayed for a very brief time. The town was dead (but then, what else is new?). The grocery store is closed, but there's a new sign in the window upping the discounts from 10% to 20% in Tommy's attempt to get it cleared out. I looked in the window. There's not much left in there. Tattoo eventually got bored and went home around noon.

I closed out the February books. That took about 10 minutes. LOL! We only had 94 visitors for the month, averaging about 6.26 visitors for each of the 15 days we were open. Worse yet, we only averaged sales of about $9.25 per each of those days. Good thing we're not depending on Afton Station for our income! That doesn't even cover the phone bill, much less the astronomical winter heating bill, the electric bill, the cost of fuel for my 180-mile round trip, etc., etc.

Later in the afternoon, business started to pick up, and I ended up greeting a total of 13 visitors today. I was encouraged by the relative youth of most of the travelers today. Route 66 can use all the young faces it can get, since most travelers seem to be on the older side. But today, we had a young family of four from Austin TX, three relatively young fellows from Des Moines IA who were delivering some furniture to their mother in a nearby town, another young couple from Jay OK, an older car guy from Broken Arrow OK who went nuts over the cars (I like that!), and one other guy who just stopped by to remind me that his car club is stopping by next Saturday. Sounds like there are going to be a lot of cars, so I'm psyched about that.

On the way home, I had decided to stop at Clanton's and snap a picture for this blog, but I was stopped in my tracks by bulldozers and hardworking guys right in front, looking like they were tearing up the place. Turns out they are just excavating to put in some sewer pipe (much needed in Vinita, where the streets flood at the first drop of precipitation), but at first glance it looked like one of my favorite restaurants was succumbing to the bulldozer.
All in all, it was a pretty good day at the Station, and having 13 visitors in March ain't bad!