Poker... I mean Marble... Run

We were expected to host one stop on a Route 66 Biker Poker Run coming to Afton Station today, but instead we got a Marble Run.  What?  Due to objections by a variety of entities,  the term "Poker Run" is now supposedly an offensive term.  (Remember, this is a state that has 120 casinos!).  Anyway, instead of drawing from a deck of cards at a number of businesses in the Grand Lake area with the winner being the person with the best poker hand, this time they drew colored marbles out of a bag and somehow the winner is discerned via a combination of colors.  Hey, it's just a Poker Run disguised as something else, so never mind.   The proceeds from the entry fees are going to the Veteran's Cemetery Fund in Miami, OK, a very worthy cause.

Chaser and Bear (above) arrived first on their interesting trike.  Sent by the Veterans group, they set up inside the Station and were responsible for  overseeing the marble picking all day.  What nice people!   We enjoyed having them around for the day and they're now our new friends.

Approximately 40 other bikers arrived all day, a few at a time, and drew their marbles.  (As far as we could tell, none of them lost their marbles...:-)

  This guy was a hoot, plus he reminds me of Willie Nelson.  I just had to snap his picture.

Nearly all of the bikers stayed long enough to have a look at our old cars and they all appreciated them very much.   But amid all the chaos, we also had 24 visitors of our own.  They came from Quebec Canada, El Dorado TX, Hamburg Germany, Oconomowok WI, Grove OK, San Antonio TX, Charleston SC, Kansas City MO, Anchorage AK, Carrolton GA, and Stuttgart, Germany.

A French Canadian gentleman, from Quebec, was our first visitor.  Traveling alone across Route 66, he seemed to be intrigued by all he'd seen so far and was eager to see more.

A family group came for a visit, checking out a little bit of Route 66 while staying at a resort not far away on Grand Lake.   The three on the left (grandfather, grandmother, granddaughter) are from Anchorage, Alaska, and the couple on the right (son and daughter-in-law) live in Carrollton, Georgia.  They "met in the middle" for this vacation!

Ron M. helped me all day as usual.  Tattoo Man, Crazy Legs, and Scruggs also came by.  But the best news of all is that Phil is back!    Yes, he's back, at least for a while, from his extended visit to his parents in California. While he was there, his father passed away and he stayed to care for his 92 year old mother.  But this week, he packed up his mom and they drove back to Oklahoma!  I do hope they stay a while, or better yet, permanently!