Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Screeching halt?

Here's the YouTube video Ron M. made of clips of the Road Crew presentation at Afton Station. Very good, considering the little Flip Video camera! I'm so pleased to have a record of the great day!



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When the tourist season ends, it feels like it comes to a screeching halt. I hope that the paucity of visitors today at Afton Station doesn't signal that halt, but it might. Maybe the fabulous weekend was a "last hurrah". This morning was so dark and gloomy and rainy that I had a premonition of loneliness even before I got to the Station. Dark thoughts were in the passenger seat as I drove down Route 66. Human cruelty. The ridiculous state of political insanity in my country. The ugly (and absolutely unnecessary and off-putting) attack ads for Mayoral candidates here in Tulsa. Can't we all be friends? Can't we ALL be infused with the spirit of Route 66 every day of our lives? Why do we swat flies mindlessly when we don't even know for sure if, when they land on us, they might just want to be friends? Why can't the Road Crew just move to Afton and play music for me every day of the year? Why do we thrive on scandal? How will I get through a winter of few visitors?

As you can see, I was pretty down by the time I arrived in beautiful Afton. No worries, it's a passing thing that happens to me every year when I experience the first day that "feels" like winter is coming. Intellectually, I know that I'll still have plenty of visitors at the Station. I have four (count 'em, FOUR) bus tours scheduled in October alone. And my daughter Sarah and her hubby Matt are coming to visit for a week on the 16th! How could I be depressed?! Buck up, Laurel!


I recovered shortly after I arrived. I had some clean-up to do after Sunday's concert. Once that was done, I did some sales tax work and then started to sort out heaps and heaps of old (from the '40s, '50s, and '60s) travel literature, trying to decide what to do with it. In the past, I used to buy whole large lots of old travel literature and cull out the Route 66-related stuff for my collection. That leaves tons of it I don't want any more and I need the space in the cupboard for other Afton Station-related items. Does anyone who reads this collect such things? If so, have I got a deal for you! I'll just throw it in a box and it's yours!


Afton Station is abuzz with the aforementioned flies. Must be mating season or birthing season or something. With my newfound sensitivity to the mindset of house flies, I decided to go easy on the fly swatter today. So, when I left, about a half dozen were still buzzing around. I hope they have a nice evening. Humane kindness in action... I guess.


There weren't many visitors today. Two men from Reseda, CA and one gentleman from Vinita, OK were my morning guests. This afternoon, Joanie the Cruiser, my friend from Indiana stopped in on her way back from a 6-week Route 66 trip. I'm jealous! David's wife Sylvie stopped in to show the Station to a friend. And Betty saved my day by coming for the last hour and even helping me close up. Betty is always a bright spot in my day.


I don't even have any pictures for today, so I'll close with this one I took of Ron over the weekend. Either he is getting an early start on Halloween or he ate WAY too much candy last week! Tee hee.... Sorry, Ron!

6 comments:

Ken Riches said...

The flip is awesome. Hope you have a few more weeks of visitors :o)

Ron McCoy said...

Can anyone recommend a good orthodontist in the Tulsa area? :-)

Beth said...

Floss, man, floss! LOL

Great job on the video, Ron. Nicely done!

Laurel, I experience the same thing with the onset of fall and winter. I definitely think I have a touch of S.A.D., because I go into hibernation mode in the winter. Feeling the end of summer can almost be painful to me, but I know that there will be another one next year. :) Winter hasn't killed me yet, and it's not going to...but I'm already looking forward to next summer! Hugs, Beth

Ron McCoy said...

Thanks, Beth. I'm not totally "sold" on the Flip Video for two main reasons: 1. No video stabilization. If the little camera isn't planted solidly on something, you get the shakes. 2. No jack to plug in an external mike. With the built-in mike, it all comes off tinny. BUT, for a $150 camera, I guess it's not all bad! :-)

Trevor Hilton said...

"The ridiculous state of political insanity in my country."

Well, the only thing you and I agree on there is, we don't agree on a single thing.

"The ugly (and absolutely unnecessary and off-putting) attack ads for Mayoral candidates here in Tulsa."

People SAY they don't like negative campaigning, but, for some reason, it still seems to work. Hmmmmmm.

We won't have a perfect world until Jesus Christ returns.

Unknown said...

Laurel, Wish we could move there too! Had a wonderful time with you and the gang. You can see and even download photo from our trip at roadcrew66.com. Hope to see you soon.