Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Quik Trip (and I don't mean the convenience store)

This was the first actual day that I took "off" from my regular Tues., Thurs., Sat., and Sun. Afton Station schedule. I celebrated by. . . driving to Afton Station! LOL! Although I have let it be known that I'll basically only be open on weekends during the winter, I realize it's going to be difficult for me to stick to this schedule since, let's face it, I love driving up there!

So today, I did. I had a good excuse. Yesterday I picked up some foam material that David needed for his motor home, since it was only available in Tulsa. So I took it to him and spent a little time (very little -- I didn't even turn on the heat) at the Station. I did close out the November books, which took mere minutes since we only had 158 visitors for the month. I was, of course, grateful for all of their visits, and even for the average $1.99/person they spent. I didn't get rich in November! :-)

I drove up to Grove to deliver some Afton Station brochures they had requested at the Grand Lake Visitors' Center, but they were closed. :-(

On the way back to Tulsa, I just had to do something Route 66-ish, so I stopped at the Blue Whale in Catoosa. You've all seen photos of the whale himself ad nauseum, so I decided to photograph some of the other buildings on the site, or what's left of them. Some folks don't know that the Blue Whale itself was part of a larger -- but still small -- amusement park, privately owned. It included a replica of Noah's Ark and several other buildings. All that's left of those other edifices are the bones, and plenty of "No Trespassing" signs because of their instability. Here are a few pictures:
What's left of Noah's Ark
No ducks here. Just a warning of a low doorway.
Ticket booth
Someone has done some more recent painting.


I wish I'd been around to see the Blue Whale park in its heyday. There was swimming, a snack bar, and other attractions. Sometimes it hurts to know that I missed out on some of those old-time fun places.

4 comments:

Becky said...

Laurel- I for one think there will never be too many photos of that adorable, kind eyed Blue Whale... it must have really been a "must stop" in its heyday! I'm glad Thomas Repp was able to research and write about it. Take care and keep writing!

Trevor Hilton said...

I visited the Blue Whale, but didn't know about the other stuff.
Thanks for telling me. Now I need to visit again to see what I missed.

Beth said...

I'm with Trevor...I didn't know there were other structures still standing on the site!

LOL at your previous post about dialysis being preferable to Black Friday shopping. I am in complete agreement! :)

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