Friend-filled day at Afton Station

Somebody in Chelsea must share my love of sunrises. This mural showed up on the side of a flea market there this week. Although it looks a bit like sun rising over the ocean (and Route 66 parting the waters -- how Biblical!), I still appreciate the effort.

It's nice when friends come to visit. Today at Afton Station was that kind of day. Unfortunately, I must review the day quickly here because I'm going out to dinner with friends (yaayy... more friends!) shortly.

Ron "Tattoo Man" Jones helped out at the Station today. We also met unexpectedly at Clanton's this morning and had breakfast together. The morning was slightly slow, but when people started arriving, they didn't stop. Pat and Jen Bremer (the couple from Indy whom I introduced to one another and who later got married, -- and I'm proud of it!) came first. They're taking a short 3-day Route 66 trip, and will be coming back here to Tulsa in about an hour so we can go to dinner together to celebrate Pat's birthday. Randy and Kelley Chevrier, friends from Tulsa also dropped in on a weekend jaunt to Joplin. They were accompanied by their two delightful and well-dressed doggies, Riley and Jenna.

This little boy from Minnesota took some time out to bond with Jenna.

Later in the day, Jim Conkle (from CA) and Croc Lyle (from TX), who are traveling together to deliver editions of the brand new, wonderful Route 66 Pulse newspaper arrived. http://www.route66pulse.com/ I just gave it a cursory reading, and I like it a lot! I have two articles in it myself, actually (brag, boast, and obnoxiously pat myself on the back!). Jim and Croc stayed for a while and we chatted. I'll probably see them again next week when they come back through Tulsa. When they left, so did I, in order to get home in time to meet Pat and Jen here.

Amid all these old friends, there were others who stopped by, too. Strangers become NEW friends when they step through the door of Afton Station. My new friends today came from Mayview MO, Kansas City MO, Long Prairie MN, Ventura CA, Arlington TX, and Colcord, Grove, Broken Arrow, and Miami, OK. There were 25 visitors in all, new and old.

Cleaning out my photo file

Since it's unlikely that I'll be blogging tomorrow and possibly not Sunday either (guests coming, remember?), I wanted to touch bases with all you fine folks who take time out to read my drivel each day. I will keep notes on the activities at Afton Station, of course, and we'll catch up next week. Until then, I was cleaning out my picture file and came across a few to post here. They are aren't remarkable, significant, or even very interesting but, well, I hate to see a blank page.

Forthwith...
Ghost sign on a cafe on Route 66 in Litchfield, IL.
The ugliest house I've ever seen -- in a suburb of Chicago. (If the owner of this home, by some unreal coincidence, happens to see this, my apologies. But don't you think it's a little tacky to have cartoony murals all over your house?)

"Root 66" Real Estate, Bristow, Oklahoma
When the MetLife blimp came to Tulsa for a week during the PGA Golf Championship. I LOVE blimps!

FOR SALE: My 1991 TC Maserati, which just sits in the garage because I never drive it. Black, low mileage, perfect condition, soft top and hard top, all the bells and whistles.

A visit from a tomato plant

Ron M. came to Afton with me today, and although we had a few "down" moments, for the most part the day was busy. Once again, the visitors were varied and interesting. There were 14 in all, and they included people from Plano, Dallas, and Liverpool TX, Melbourne FL, Newport News VA, Arroyo Grande CA, and Prescott AZ.

The truckers from Liverpool TX were driving two big tankers in tandem, coming back from delivering jet fuel to an airbase in Missouri. The Dallas family included a little girl (about 10, I'd say) who was cheery, responsive, and a BIG fan of Route 66, especially the movie "Cars". Of course we sent the family down the road to see Tow Mater at the 4 Women on the Route in Galena, KS. The couple from Arroyo Grande, CA were on their way to the national Square Dance Convention. The man from Prescott, AZ was an Auburn (the car) collector and was heading down to Broken Arrow to meet Glen Pray, the man who bought the Auburn Cord Duesenberg Co. and runs it there. The Melbourne, FL folks were retirees heading north for the summer in a fairly gigantic motorhome.

The lady from Newport News, VA is doing Route 66 in a late model VW Westfalia van, complete with a solar panel on top with which she draws energy to run her refrigeration in the bus. She is traveling with her dog Katie, as well as a tomato plant which rides shotgun with her. She also has a small herb garden in the van. When she reaches her destinations at night, the plants come out for a bit of sun. They seem to be doing well as "roadie plants", and the tomato plant already has some fruit on it. Pretty neat! The peace symbol on the back of the van made me happy.
Betty came for a visit too, and we sat outside for a while, although the noise from passing trucks and train whistles became almost unpleasant at times.

This picture has nothing to do with anything. I snapped it while waiting in front of the QuikTrip while Ron went in for some coffee. I just kind of like it (even though I have absolutely NO appreciation for carbonated beverages). :-)

Just musing about my past

This. . .

. . . not this.

Those who know me fairly well know that I don't like salt water. I'm done with salt water, having lived near it, vacationed on it, and sailed on it for years and years and years and.... well, you get the picture. I'm happy to be in the middle of the country, about as far away from the sea as one can get in the United States. So why, when I caught a whiff of something on my way to Afton yesterday that reminded me of the sea, did I suddenly have a pang of nostalgia for my sailing days on Long Island Sound and and the Atlantic? Incomprehensible!

I don't dislike water in general. I like lakes, and I love rivers and streams. I like boats -- I mean the kind that don't tip over in the slightest wind and threaten to throw you overboard into an angry sea. In fact, had I still been married, I'd be living on a lake right now, and I'm sure I'd be spending a lot of time in our bass boat. And yet, nothing can compare to my beloved flat, dry Great Plains, where I can see for miles in every direction, where I can watch wheat wave and corn grow and cattle graze, where roads are arrow-straight or gently curved, where breezes are free from sticky salt spray, where I can appreciate the beauty of cloud formations rather than analyze them for signs of impending disaster, where a good rainstorm refreshes rather than frightens me.

So why the sudden nostalgia? I guess it's because nostalgia is an insidious thing. It grabs at your mind when you least expect it, and it's not related to much of anything. Nostalgia works hard to make sure we don't ignore our past, since our past is what we're made of. Apparently there's still some salt water rolling around in my veins somewhere, and today it reared it's ugly head. I hope it doesn't happen too often.

Pilgrims from everywhere

What was it that I said on Sunday about the trend toward more close-to-home vacationing this year? Boy oh boy, things change on a dime around here! Although I had a slow morning, there was an explosion of visitors after about 11 a.m., and here's where they came from (in descending order of distance traveled to get to Route 66):

1 - A couple from Perth, AUSTRALIA who had rented a motorcycle and were doing most of the Route, with a side trip to Ohio to visit friends.

2 - A couple from Bordeaux, FRANCE.

3 - Two folks from Leicester, ENGLAND who bought a pickup truck and a very large 5th wheeler to spend 6 months in the U.S. They will store it here when they go back, and then return next year.

4 - Two absolutely delightful Hispanic gentlemen from Templeton, CALIFORNIA who kept me laughing the whole time they were there. I'd say they were the highlight of the day because of their great sense of humor.

5 - Three guys on motorcycles from Chattanooga, TENNESSEE.

6 - A multi-generational family of 6 from Coleridge, NEBRASKA.

7 - A couple from Branson, MISSOURI.

8 - A couple from Guthrie, OKLAHOMA who are doing the eastern portion of Route 66, having done the western half earlier.

9 - People from Wellston, OKLAHOMA who got lost looking for Afton Station, but thought to call ahead so I could give them directions.

June is shaping up to be a busy one for Afton Station and me. I have three sets of out-of-town houseguests coming (from Indianapolis, North Carolina, and Orlando Florida). Also, Croc Lyle and Jim Conkle will be coming through Tulsa while delivering the new, reborn Route 66 Pulse newspaper, and we always get the Tulsa gang together for a dinner somewhere when they visit. On Sat., June 20 I must open Afton Station at 8 a.m. for a Volvo group to come to tour, after which the Oklahoma Route 66 Assoc. cruise comes through, but I can't stay long for that because I have to be back in Tulsa at 1:45 to give a speech to the same Volvo group that's coming through earlier. I'm told there will be 65-70 people at the speech. Yikes, better get moving on planning that! On the 27th, a group will be stopping on a poker run. All this, and also my usual Afton Station days, long trips to and from, and three mornings a week in dialysis. Whew! Anyway, bear with me if blog posts get a little thin as the month wears on. I'll do my best to be a loyal blogger, however.

Here are a couple of photos of the "Afton Used Car Lot". Anybody need a gently-used pre-owned vehicle? Bring a weed-whacker.

Super Chopper

First, let's get the sunrise picture out of the way. :-)
There, now I can proceed with my Ramblings....

I'm afraid this will be the last day this summer that I'll be able to have the door open and the A/C turned off at Afton Station. It was HOT today, but I was once again too stubborn to flip on the air conditioner to get some relief. I know the electric bills will soar to unbelievable heights when I finally succcumb, but it's not fair to my volunteers and guests to make everyone suffer just because I'm feeling like a cheapskate lately. So, I surrender! On Tuesday, there will be COOL!

Loose bull! Loose bull! I've seen more and more cattle grazing dangerously near the side of the road lately, having escaped their fenced pastures. Usually they're cows -- this time it was a bull!
My photo du jour is of Cotton Eyed Joe's BBQ on Route 66 in Claremore. I love their sign, I love their atmosphere, and I particularly LOVE their barbeque! Try it some time. You won't be sorry. You don't have to take just my word for it. Marian Clark, author of The Route 66 Cookbook, is also a fan.
Despite the heat, it was a very good day at Afton Station. Ron "Tattoo Man" Jones was there most of the time, and Betty came for a few hours, too. We started the day with the arrival of folks from V8 Choppers in Miami. http://v8choppers.com/ They custom-build gorgeous motorcycles with automobile V8 engines! They came to take some photos of one of the Choppers in front of our gas pumps. The photograper made us a little nervous by spending an inordinate amount of time in the middle of the street, but since he managed to escape death by semi-tractor trailer truck, it was a pleasant visit. Here's the rather spectacular 350V8 bike. Get a load of that engine! If it toppled over, I believe one would need a tow truck to upright it.

Other visitors were mostly of the tri-state variety. There were 20 of them, and the farthest came from Carthage, MO. The others came from Bentonville, AR and Owasso, Miami, Shindler, Tulsa, and Claremore OK. Perhaps all those predictions that family travel will be of the closer-to-home variety this summer will prove to be true. Most of the travelers were either on day trips or weekend outings. There wasn't a long-distance Route 66 traveler in the bunch. No matter, they were all enjoying the sun and the road.

For the birds

Today was one for the birds. Well, not all of it. But, any stretch of time at Afton Station that's as painfully slow as our morning turned out to be is definitely for the birds. We were so bored that Ron M. and I decided to take our chairs outside to watched the trucks go by -- that is, until we noticed a small flock of starlings bathing in a mud puddle just to the side of our driveway. Staring at them kept us occupied for at least an hour. Yes, that's how bored we were. On the way to Afton, we had stopped at QuikTrip and decided to try an order of their new "Roasted Potato Bites". They were so bad that we attempted to feed them to the birds, but apparently they don't appeal to starlings either. The little yellow blobs you'll see in the foreground of this picture are the potatoes, which are being summarily rejected. A robin joined the starling bath for a while.
Ron speculated that the birds may have been summoned by the ephemeral raven that lives on the curtain across the street at the Bates Motel. His existence having been revealed in Ron's photo, perhaps he called in his reserve troops to prove strength in numbers.

Thankfully, the afternoon improved considerably and we closed the day having greeted 21 visitors, from Farmington NM, Denton TX, Kansas City KS, Broken Arrow OK, Atlanta GA and Purdy, Crane, Marionville and Marshfield MO. Smashed pennies sold well today. Two young boys from the neighborhood came in toward the end of the day and spent what I am thinking may have been the majority of their allowances in the penny smasher. We were late closing because some late visitors lingered.

I guess Ron found the time to sneak away with my camera (perhaps while I was entertaining visitors) to take this photo -- a new perspective on Afton Station, which is peeking artfully out from behind weeds growing in a box across the street.