Major Twiddling of Thumbs

Yeah, Ron M. and I had plenty of time to twiddle our thumbs today at Afton Station. Seems not too many people were cruising the Mother Road on this chilly, cloudy day. Our entire visitor roster consisted of one -- yes, ONE -- visitor, a truck driver who said he passes the Station frequently but finally had time to stop today. He was from Alton, Illinois.

The boredom was broken briefly by a visit from David, who brought two gifts. One is the divided tray I asked him to buy for me. I've been madly making and stockpiling small stickers to sell when "the season" begins. This new tray will keep them divided and will help to keep little hands from shuffling them.

David also bought a new popcorn machine for the Station. It will replace the old, big one. It can sit on the small fridge and free up a bit of space for more displays. We tested the new one, and it works just fine. Anybody want to buy an old popcorn machine? It's for sale. And if you're in the neighborhood, come on in for a bag of freshly popped corn!

Ron cleaned and slightly rearranged the counter area, and it sure looks nice now. What did I do? Not much! I was just a lazybones today. Waiting for visitors who never came was my main activity.

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.

Super Sunday... in Afton

Just call me impressed by the number of visitors at Afton Station this weekend when I was anticipating, basically, none! This is undeniably not traveling weather, and yet folks are out and about. I've been open for 25 minutes at this writing and have already greeted 5 visitors. A couple from Dallas, Texas on their way home from Missouri were at the door when I arrived. Right on their heels were a grandma and grandpa from Summit, Arkansas with their 4-year-old grandson. I held my breath through their whole visit. The little boy, clearly hyperactive to the max, ran around screaming the entire time. Attempts by grandparents to calm him were met with some good doses of kicking and biting. Whoa! Fortunately, Afton Station was still intact when they left. Not sure about the grandpa, however.

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Tattoo Man surprised me by arriving around 10:30 with his new partially-finished Bob Waldmire tattoo. It will be completed next week and he asked me not to post a photo until I can show the finished product. It's very nice!

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Tattoo left around 1 p.m. We had two more visitors when he was here, a couple from Big Cabin, Oklahoma. Soon after Tattoo left, Betty W. arrived, stayed with me for a while, and helped me close up when I decided to close 45 minutes early. Since it's Super Bowl Sunday I suspect people will be hunkering down in front of the TV all afternoon. I probably won't, but I might record it so I can watch the ads later. We're expecting more snow tomorrow (maybe 4-8 inches.... GRRRR!). With luck, it won't be around to keep me away from Afton on Tuesday.

David put higher output bulbs in the gas pumps, so now they are well-lighted during the day as well as the night.
Ron M. took this reflection pic yesterday. In it, you can see the new yard flag made by Betty B. and available at Afton Station. It's very well-made, just like all of her merchandise.

Mud bar?

Big news in Afton! A bar and grill has opened up in a building that once held another bar and grill but had been closed for several years. It ain't much to look at, but for the first time in quite a few years there's a place to get a sandwich and beer in beautiful downtown Afton. The parking lot, however, makes visiting the establishment a bit dicey, unless you're wearing your hip boots. I'd like to think that they'll be correcting this flaw, but this is, after all, Afton.

Presumably, their signature drink will be a Mudslide. . .

The other good news is that it was a busy day at Afton Station today, much busier than I had anticipated. We had a total of 9 visitors, all of them locals. It was the kind of day when local folks, having been pent up by recent unpleasant weather, wanted to get out and stretch their legs, I guess. Visitors stopped in from Langley, Bartlesville, Afton, and Grove, Oklahoma. Our friends Ron Warnick and Emily Priddy from Tulsa drove up and stayed for an hour or two. Ron M. was with me today. Betty B. met us at the door when we first arrived this morning and brought with her another treasure trove of very, very neat things she crafted herself. If you are in the area, you MUST stop by Afton Station and check out the cool stuff Betty makes. Because she searches the whole country for fabric, she uses some uniquely patterened Route 66 material that you won't see anywhere else to make tote bags and other items. She also works with old license plates and unusual "found" items. Everything is Route 66-related. Come check it out!

We arrived this morning to find the remains of our snow "Mr. Bill" -- just a pretzel mouth, one grape eye, and two plastic knife arms. R.I.P. Mr. Bill!

Last week I said I'd keep you up to date on the progress of the Extreme Makeover home that was being built just off Route 66 in Tulsa. Well, it was finished on Wednesday and the family moved in on Thursday. I never got close enough to take photos during the building project, but we drove past this morning and snapped this photo of the finished product. Remember, this home was built, decorated, furnished, and landscaped in a bit less than ONE WEEK, even after great delays caused by the weather. I still find that remarkable. Over the course of the week, we were able to hear some "inside info" on how the whole project works and I know that much of the planning for the build is done far in advance, but that doesn't alter the fact that the actual construction is honestly done in 6 1/2 days. There were thousands of volunteers involved in the project, and some auxiliary charity events were held in conjunction with it. Interesting. Here's the house. It's very nice.

I'll be in Afton again tomorrow, hoping it will be as busy and varied as today.

Vojo66

I didn't go to Afton Station this morning because some important things came up here in Tulsa. This is the last time I'll allow this to happen, but I decided it was a good day to get some somewhat urgent things done at home since it's another ugly rainy day which is probably not very traveler-friendly anyway.

I found this strange video on the internet. It's the song "Get Your Kicks on Route 66" sung in Esperanto. If you've never heard of Esperanto, it's defined in Wikipedia as "the most widely spoken constructed international auxiliary language. Its name derives from Doktoro Esperanto, the pseudonym under which L. L. Zamenhof published the first book detailing Esperanto, the Unua Libro, in 1887. The word esperanto means "one who hopes" in the language itself. Zamenhof's goal was to create an easy to learn and politically neutral language that would serve as a universal second language to foster peace and international understanding."

In other words, it's a language that isn't really spoken by anyone, but it's there in case we need it. :-) Obviously, someone learned enough of it to translate this song. I'm posting it here just because I think it's kind of bizarre.

Mr. Bill

It has been brought to my attention that Ron's snowman (featured in yesterday's blog post) bears a resemblance to Mr. Bill. So I made the comparison myself, and I'm convinced. I think it's the expression in the eyes and flailing arms. . . a combination of fear and amusement.

In further snowman news, I am proud to report that he was featured on the 6 a.m. news/weather report this morning on KJRH-TV, our local NBC affiliate. I sent them the photo, and they chose to show it on the air. Unfortunately, however, they completely ignored the fact that it was on Route 66. That's a shame, because I sent it in to get a little publicity for the Mother Road. Well, at least the shield was prominent in the on-air picture.

At last! Back to Afton!

After what has seemed like a very long time, I was back at Afton Station full time today. It wasn't the most beautiful day (cold and kind of dark), but that didn't stop three visitors from stopping in. Ron M. was with me, Betty stopped in for a while, and David dropped in, too. There was also a trucker from Fond du Lac WI, a man from Seneca OK, and another gentleman from Miami OK. The man from Miami has a Model T of his own which he's restoring. The trucker has traveled all of Route 66, both for business and pleasure. One of David's winter projects has been to restore the end pieces for the corners of the roof. They're ready to go on as soon as the weather clears a bit. Gee, it was so good to get back in the swing again.

Ron M. made a snowman (a very small one) to celebrate our return to Afton.

Ron is proud of his snowman, which has eyes of grapes and a mouth of pretzel

Ron kissed his snowman. This, I cannot explain. :-)

By the end of the day, the snowman was still standing, but sans eyes and mouth. The temperature went into the 40s, and that's sure death for tiny snowmen.