Roller Coaster

                                    

I don't like roller coasters, real ones or emotional ones.  It's easy to avoid the real ones, much harder to prevent the ups and down of the emotional ones, even if they're circumstantial.  Should I really be thrust into the pits of despair just to learn that the Czech group scheduled for yesterday never showed up?  I wasn't at the Station, but Robin and Tattoo waited all day to no avail.  Where were they?  I don't know and may never know.  They've always been like clockwork in the past.  I'm getting those "I'm just not good enough" feelings.  Robin greeted only 4 visitors yesterday.

I believe that my main purpose at Afton Station is to be a good ambassador to Route 66 and to help people with their trips by providing both information and enthusiasm for our Road.  This includes recommending other neat stops along the way, of course.  Should I stop doing that?  Should I start thinking of other Route 66 stops as rivals instead of friends?  Absolutely not!  Although so many wonderful places have opened recently, we are all different and all exciting in our own ways. 

I just arrived here at the Station and I'm hoping that an influx of visitors today will pull me out of this funk.  The weather is perfect and I'm loaded for bear (figuratively, of course).  Now all I need are some smiling guests.

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And here they are!  Richard and Gail Talley stopped by.  They are the owners of the historic Safari Motel in Tucumcari, NM, one of the must-stay motels in that town.  They're in this area looking for a lake  home.  I  hope they find one soon!  It will be nice to call them neighbors!

 This gentleman from Davenport, IA is traversing Route 66 solo, with the little sign he's holding.  It will appear in every photo of him along the Route.  He's having a great trip.

Cologne, Germany was also represented today.  More smiling folks helping with my escape from my blue mood.  

 This biker comes from Kenosha, Wisconsin.   When he had a life-threatening accident a couple of years ago, he decided it was time to work on his Bucket List.  So among other things, he's been skydiving and scuba diving.  Now, he's on his end-to-end Route 66 motorcycle trip.  He adapted his newer model Harley to resemble an oldie, and the paint job is gorgeous!   But listen to this :  The person working at the OK State Information Center when he came into Oklahoma told  him he needed to get on the interstate after going through Oklahoma City because "there's nothing to see on Route 66 after that point"!  I am incensed!  I will see that their employees are better informed from now on!   Grrrr!

The remainder of the folks who brightened my day were from Toronto Canada , Spring Valley, OH, Nunspeet Netherlands, and Grove, OK.   The Spring Valley couple arrived in a shiny new red Corvette.  They and the Canadian couple were all taking their first post-retirement vacations.

Fantastic folks today.  I'm now very, very happy!