Progress On All Fronts

It was a big day at Afton Station today because there was great progress on two ongoing projects. Early this morning David, Marly and I met with Ottawa County Commissioner Earls to talk about the placement of the granite monument which will demark the beginning of the historic 9-foot "Ribbon Road" a mile from Afton Station. We've been waiting forever (like 2 years) to get a final OK from Oklahoma DOT, and now that we have the proper permission we can proceed. The Commissioner delighted us by saying that his men (shown in photo in neon shirts) will do the installation of the monument and will turn the land around it, which is now a tangle of weeds, into a parklike setting. They'll also make a parking area and install a fence. The work will commence in less than two weeks! We are excited! David will go and pick up the monument (about 300 miles away) as soon as the work starts. YIPPEE!
Here's the site as it is now. Check out the original pavement in the foreground, which the crew promised not to touch or alter in any way. Stay tuned to see the site in a month or so, when it's a done deal.


Meanwhile, Marly and Ron M. hung the big Waldmire mural today. It looks absolutely spectacular up there on the wall. It's 4' by 8', so it was no small feat to get it up there and attached to a concrete wall. Here's Marly admiring his work. I'll post a better photo of the actual mural after the weekend.
Oh yes, and we also had visitors today! There were 17 of them, from Muncie IN, Grove OK, Bologna Italy, Ft. Worth TX, Lodi OH, Timpson TX, Pierce City MO, Fuscaldo Italy, and Santa Cruz, CA. This couple was returning from California, where the Italian gentleman was sworn in as a U.S. citizen! Big congratulations to him! His fiancee is from California, and they were taking a little Route 66 cruise so she could show him "the heart of America".