Restless Roaming

I went to Afton this weekend, not to open up to the public yet (that will happen, finally, next weekend), but to pick up some material I'll be needing for the program I'm giving on Tuesday. I also wanted to say good bye to Phil, who will be leaving for California tomorrow and may be gone for an extended length of time.  As it turned out, Phil never made it to the Station, so we only stayed for a couple of hours.

Within those hours, however, we had a visit from a nice family from Ft. Worth, TX.  The little girl collects pressed pennies, so she, her mother, and her grandparents decided to do most of the Oklahoma portion of Route 66 while collecting pennies. I very much enjoyed this family.   It was great to have unexpected visitors, plus they purchased a good bit of stuff, which is also a bonus.  Maybe I can pay the heating bill for another month!  

Ron M. was with me today, and Betty stopped in for a while.  Another unexpected bonus!  It is always great

to visit with those two. 

Eventually Ron and I decided to leave the freezing cold confines of the Station and drive up to Miami to check out the new sign which has been erected over Route 66 at the west entrance to their Main Street.    It looks good, and by reading the explanatory sign next to it, we found out things we hadn't heard before.  The giant sign is actually a replica of a sign from the 1900s which was taken down in the 1930s.  Knowing that bit of history made it even more impressive.  

 It was still early, so Ron and I decided to go home "the long way", via Welch, Lenapah, Nowata, Oologah, Talala, and Owasso.  If all those Indian names have you dizzy, feel free to follow along in your atlas.  Ha ha! It is always refreshing to explore roads that are NOT Route 66 between Tulsa and Afton.  No offense to Route 66, but I have to admit to being just a bit tired of the same old corn fields and cows.  The new fields, cows, and small towns we saw today were charming.

Marly opened the Station again late this afternoon to greet 16 photographers from an Arkansas group.  He just reported to me that it was a very successful visit and lots of photos were taken.  When the photos are put online, I'll show some of them here.  Thanks, Marly!