LIGHTS ON!

I think I was the only one there when they turned on the neon tonight! Here's the Meadow Gold sign at exactly 8:30 when the lights finally came on. Beautiful! I would have stayed until it got totally dark, but I'm tired. :-) Oh, and an added bonus.... I snapped this one on the way to the sign -- two blocks from my house and two blocks from the Meadow Gold sign. The skyline of Tulsa at sunset. How pretty is that!?!

Meadow Gold Sign Dedicated

The restored Meadow Gold sign is finally "official". Although I was about 10 minutes late for the ceremony (dialysis, y'know), I managed to get there for all the significant speeches. Lots of speeches. LOTS of speeches! There was a good crowd, most of whom are people I know, familiar faces from the OK Route 66 Association, Tulsa city government, reps from the Tulsa Foundation for Architecture and the Historical Society. Kaisa Berthuli from the National Parks Service traveled here from Albuquerque to make presentations. I was glad to meet up with a few people I haven't seen for ages, which is always fun.

I took a few pictures and Ron M., who is taller, took a few with my camera since I was in the back row. Ron Warnick of Route 66 News (http://rwarn17588.wordpress.com/) was on the front row (actually, on the ground in front) so you might want to check out his pictures later, as I'm sure they'll be much better than mine.

They're going to light the neon tonight, so if I can stay up until dark, which is not always easy for me, I'll drive down there and get the much-anticipated night shots. Meanwhile, here are a couple for now.....

Kaisa Berthuli of the National Parks Service addresses the crowd

I like the skyline of downtown Tulsa slightly visible in this picture.

ADDED ATTRACTION

Brad Nickson just sent me this picture that he took this morning. That's yours truly, looking rotten in red, and Julie Miner, LaSandra Nickson, and Marilyn Emde, all friends from the OK Route 66 Association.

Loose Ends

I realized that I have a lot of loose ends to clean up from yesterday, so here's another hodgopodge of things that are on my mind.

The water tower, like so much in Afton, could use a makeover.

Ron M. led me to this great photo of the Meadow Gold sign in it's original location, about a mile from where it's being reconstructed. As you can see, it used to be on the roof of a building (a bar, actually) whereas now it has it's very own "pedestal".

A local Afton resident came for a visit yesterday and brought his '84 Olds 98, of which he's very proud. Here he is showing David his pride and joy.

Tulsa was named the No. 1 city in the country by Relocate America. This is the 12th year they've produced their "TOP 100 Places To Live" list. Relocate-America's™ 2009 Top 100 Places to Live Relocate America helps home buyers and sellers access relocation resources that make moving easier. The Relocate America team reviews local economy, housing and other essential statistics important to making key real estate buying decisions. I get very excited when I hear about things like this, since I agree with them completely. Tulsa is simply THE BEST! As a relative newcomer to Tulsa, I'm happy every day that I made the decision to move here.

Finally, I forgot to tell you yesterday about the big doings that are going to take place at Afton Station on Saturday. David has invited over 100 people, driving about 50 vintage cars, to drop in for lunch! It seems he volunteered us as the lunch stop for the Route 66 Vintage Sports Car Rally, a 4-day rally on (you guessed it) Route 66. We're donating the food, since the rally is a fundraiser for the Autism Society. We've had big groups at Afton Station for lunch before, so it's not complicated. We'll put out a buffet of barbecued brisket (pre-cooked and sliced), buns, potato salad, and beans. Very picnicky, but always well-received. It should be a lot of fun, and I'm sure there'll be some great photo ops while David does all the work. :-)

That is all.

Tuesday Hodgepodge

Even after doing my grocery shopping in Tulsa at 6 a.m., taking the groceries home and putting them away, and driving to Vinita for breakfast of eggs and a biscuit, I still had almost an hour to kill before needing to be at Afton Station. So, I drove around some back roads in Vinita. I saw this photogenic rock building and stopped to take a picture.

Also, there's a small road that takes you down behind the "World's Largest McDonald's" which is on the turnpike, without having to get on the turnpike. Actually, it's no longer the "World's Largest", the title having been usurped by China or Russia or someplace (not sure... I don't keep up on McDonald's lore, but you can probably look it up). At any rate, it's the "World's Only Drive-Under McDonalds", since the turnpike passes under it. The picture I took from the side road isn't good, so I endangered life and limb on the way home tonight by getting on the turnpike and taking a pic of it while driving under it at 75 mph. Neither picture turned out to be worth the trouble, in my opinion. The McDonald's used to be the Glass House Restaurant, a fancier place where it's said that high schools used to hold their proms, looking down at the romantic headlights from passing trucks, I guess. Whatever.

Once at Afton Station, the day moved quickly. David was there even before I arrived, working on the 2CV. He stayed all day. Betty came and brought me a treasure -- some more pictures of the tamed buffalo that used to perform with his trainer, Larue Olson , at Buffalo Ranch. These pictures are a treasure because they're from Betty's personal collection. As you might recall, the trainer was eventually accidentally killed by the buffalo. From looking at these pictures, I can certainly see the danger!

My 12 visitors today included folks from New Orleans, a trucker from Missouri, guys from Bartlesville and Miami, OK, and two young Mormon missionaries. The missionaries were really nice guys who stayed for about a half hour while I pelted them with questions about what it must be like being so young and landing far from their homes (in their case, Nevada and Wisconsin) in a little town like Afton. The LDS religion has always fascinated me.... not the dogma, but the lifestyle.

On the way home, I noted that the Meadow Gold sign seems to be done, and then got an invitation in today's email to it's Dedication on May 22. Exciting! I took this picture, but it's impossible to photograph both sides at once. But hey, they're identical anyway!

I have a "before" picture too, but since I think there are probably already too many pics in this entry, I'll save it (along with some others) for tomorrow.

Lots to say.... stick with me

First of all, a quick picture of Side Two of the Meadow Gold sign. They're moving right along. They don't seem to be working today, but we're having intermittent rain so I'll forgive them. :-)Now about yesterday..... Wow, what a day! I haven't had a day at Afton Station pass so quickly in a long time. And it was a whole lot of fun, too. We only had 9 visitors in total, but they were all the kind of people with whom I like to spend lots of time.

Ron M. was with me yesterday. We had drop-in visitors from Washington State, Great Britain, and California. But we were also awaiting visits from folks we were expecting. Shortly after we opened, one anticipated guest arrived on his motorcycle. He's Larry Banks from Springfield, MO. Last month, my friend Mike Ward and I devised a Route 66 Trivia Contest for members of the Route 66 Yahoo eGroup http://groups.yahoo.com/group/route66/ which, frankly, we both thought would be too difficult for most people. We had five or six entrants, but the big winner was Larry, who answered all but two questions. He drove down to Afton yesterday to claim his prize (a book). He revealed that he happened to have three days off from work during the time we posted the contest, and he spent most of all three days doing research. Nice job, Larry! That's what I call persistence! Larry stayed for almost two hours, and there was no lack of Route 66 chatter with this true Roadie.Then David, my crazy ex, arrived to put a few "finishing touches" on the Citroen 2CV he's been restoring. By finishing touches, he meant that he felt he had enough of it stuck together to take it for a maiden voyage. As you can see, it's far from what most people would call finished. Nevertheless he took the seatless, windowless, doorless, hoodless, fenderless hulk out for a spin around Afton, and bragged that he got it up to 80 KPH. That's kilometers..... not miles... thank goodness. It was a little unsettling. However, he didn't fall out, nor did he get arrested for any of the two dozen laws I'm sure he was breaking. Sometimes it's nice to know that Afton doesn't have much in the way of law enforcement..... sometimes.

Our next guest of honor was Mary Graham, Ron's next door neighbor and a friend of mine, too. She was also taking a "maiden voyage".... her first solo car trip. She was headed for Kansas, but her first stop was Afton Station. Mary is always a lot of fun, besides being a tremendous cook who is always willing to share her goodies. She brought us some yummy muffins, almost hot out of the oven. Betty came in shortly after Mary arrived, and -- wouldn't you know it -- they had a very good friend in common! The friend is now deceased, but Betty and Mary had a lot of good memories of her to share. Here they are... sharing.

As we were getting ready to head for home, we had a visit from Bob Gehl of the Route 66 Association of Missouri. http://www.missouri66.org/ He lives in St. Louis but was in Oklahoma on business so he stopped in. We had a great visit with him, too. He's a fellow postcard collector, so of course those had to be discussed at length.

We finally got on the road to home, but almost an hour late. That's just fine.... it was definitely worth it. Have I told you lately how pleased I am with everything that's happening at Afton Station so far this spring?

I never give up!

Determined to take a decent picture of the Meadow Gold neon, I went back down there a few minutes ago. The results still aren't good, but at least I was rewarded by finally seeing the guys up there working on it. Here 'ya go....I hope all you non-Tulsa people aren't getting sick of seeing this thing! :-)

Neon!

I should just defer to Ron Warnick's blog today, since his picture of the newly-installed neon on the Meadow Gold sign is MUCH better than mine. Check it out: http://rwarn17588.wordpress.com/. I didn't get up close enough to take a good shot because I didn't want to park and walk across the busy street, and there were tons of trucks in the parking lot below the sign. So, what you see is what you get. Ok, I know you can't see the neon tubes, but take my word for it, they're there. It's just nice to know that the neon is installed on the one side of the sign, because that brings us that much closer to the big lighting ceremony.

The Meadow is here

Part 3: The Meadow is up!

Of course, this is just one side of the sign. And, what's up there now is just the backing for the letters. All the neon tubes need to be attached, too.

Gold Standard

We've struck Gold! Here's the latest progress on the Meadow Gold sign. I stopped for a quick picture on my way home from Afton Station._______________________

I'm writing this at Afton Station while trying not to be overcome by gasoline fumes. Don't worry, we're well-ventilated, but David is here attempting to tune the engine on the Citroen 2CV. He's out back, but I can't help getting whiffs of the burning petrol, and it ain't pretty. But hey, this is, after all, a gas station -- and today it truly reeks like one.

I've only had one visitor so far, a young man from Maryland on his way to a bicycle trip in the Black Hills. Brrrr!

The town is dead today. Actually, in Afton "dead" is strictly a matter of degrees. Today it's more dead than usual.

Forbes Magazine has published it's ranking of the 379 large cities in the U.S. according to quality of life, or "livability". (No, Afton isn't on the list.... ha ha). However, I'm pleased to announce that Tulsa is #6 on the list!!! I'm not surprised because, of all the places I've lived, Tulsa is the most wonderful by a country mile. The cost of living, recreation and leisure activities, emphasis on music and art, and unemployment rate were all taken into consideration. We fell down a bit in the area of crime, but still came in at #6. The town in Connecticut where I lived for 30 years before moving to Oklahoma came in at #5, but I wouldn't trade it for Tulsa at any price.

_____________________

It's 2 p.m. and still no further guests. I've spent the last 3 hours in the back with David, helping a little bit with installing the interior upholstery but mostly just watching him work. His dog, Blackjack, watched too. A disappointing day, visitor-wise, but actually kind of fun.

Got Milk?

We do! But that's about all we have for now. At last, the installation of the neon lettering on the iconic Meadow Gold sign got started today. It's going to take a while for the whole thing to be finished, however. This pic was taken just 5 minutes ago. The sign is being erected about 4 blocks from my house, so I'll be documenting the work on a daily basis, I hope. Tulsa is very excited about this famous Route 66 sign.

Thursday This and That

Disclaimer: Nothing here has anything to do with Afton Station, and only one thing has to do with Route 66. So, sign off now if you're a purist. :-)

This morning, I ran errands. I haven't been to a big chain store in years, but I decided Target was my best bet for replacing a broken blender. I really do try to support the "little guy" and local places, but for a small appliance, I really wanted a variety to choose from, and Target seemed like it would be the place for that. It was. I ended up with a new blender and also two pillows (on sale for $4 each) for the guest room bed. I didn't stay long, but I did poke around long enough to know that nearly everything I looked at was made somewhere other than the U.S. I knew that before I went in of course, but I just wanted to verify the fact. I do hope that our econony will eventually improve to the point where more folks will be able to afford American-made products, thus bringing a rise in employment for our citizens.

On the way home, I made a detour down to 6th St. in downtown Tulsa. Last night's news announced that the area on and around 6th St. (known as Tulsa's Pearl District) is up for a "major overhaul" and "upgrade". Now, the Pearl District is, admittedly, a run down former small manufacturing, small retail, and warehouse area which has absolutely fallen on hard times. But when I first moved to Tulsa a few years ago, I fell in love with 6th St. in a way that only a weird person who enjoys urban ruins could. I'm sure I'm one of the few people around town who occasionally drives down 6th St. just to soak in the ambience. I can't help it, but I'm a little sad about this proposed gentrification. I took a couple of (bad) pictures of 6th St. as it is now. Plans for the overhaul can be seen at: http://www.cityoftulsa.org/community/Revitalization/documents/6thStreetEntire.pdf

On the way home, I stopped at the site of the Meadow Gold sign reconstruction. (This is the part about Route 66.) The underpinnings are all in place, ready for the actual neon letters to go up. The base is finished and cleaned up. I understand it will be ready for a dedication ceremony in a matter of weeks.

This afternoon Ron and I went to see the movie "Milk". Besides championing a cause of which I'm entirely and steadfastly supportive, the film itself was incredible. It made me an emotional wreck, a condition from which I'm just now recovering. Sean Penn, an actor I've frankly never paid much attention to in the past, delivered a portrayal which, as far as I'm concerned, damn well better get him an Oscar. I can't think of a thing wrong with his interpretation of the role of Harvey Milk. I remarked to Ron that when the fight for equal rights for gays was taking place in the larger cities in the U.S., I was almost completely insulated from it, living in a suburb and raising my small child. I'm sorry about that. I would have been out there on the front lines, I think. I highly recommend this movie to everyone, regardless of how you feel about the issue of gay rights.

Tulsa 66

I had some free time today, so I took a little jaunt on Route 66 around downtown Tulsa. Most sites on this stretch have been photographed to death, but I thought I'd share a few of the less well-known (and also probably less interesting) places right here within a mile of my house.

First, a couple of shots of progress on the edifice being built to hold the iconic Meadow Gold Dairy sign that was a landmark at 11th and Lewis for so many years. I've shown the building before, but now you can see that the structure that will actually hold the sign is going up.

Just down the road is a business that seems to be having trouble finding it's identity. Note that the name on one sign is different from the name on the other sign. This isn't a recent condition. It's been that way since I first started noticing it about 10 years ago. Oh well.... So, anybody need their teeters (or teters) swept?

The mural on the wall of the Goodwill Industries building in West Tulsa pays homage to Route 66, the oil industry, the United Way, and it's Red Fork neighborhood.

Finally, a shot of the skyline of Tulsa from Route 66, approaching from the East.