Oklahoma Route 66 - Part 2 9" Ribbon Highway and Afton

First, if you click on the Route 66 tab, you'll find some history and maps of our journey we're continuing. I'd like you to take a ride with me from Miami (remember..in Oklahoma it's 'Mi-am-uh' ) down the Ribbon Road (sometime call the Sidewalk Road).  We'll begin just South of the Marathon Station where we ended Part 1.

Keep going South past the Marathon Station...once you pass the Rte. 125 turnoff, the road narrows to one paved lane, with a wide gravel shoulder on either side.  Historic Route 66 signs will help you find this route. This road was built in the 1920's and predates Route 66, but it's a can't miss stop along the way.  Ready....Let's go.... This is the beginning of the 9' Ribbon Road...

Remember that a click on the photos will enlarge

For the next 13 miles, remember back to a time when there were no DVD players, no iPods and earphones.....that was a time when we actually looked at what the car was passing.....

We're about to tun the corner and you'll see a lovely wild rose bush that years before had been tended...and yet without tending it has persevered

...and a little further on the left and way back is a farmhouse....probably the farmer that took care of this wheat field...

A little more road.....and on the right are some cattle grazing....without a care in the world. :)  and just passed the cattle is a very large corn field....the question is....for food or ethanol???????

When I look at the lilies growing where once someone had planted I'm reminded of   Matthew 6: 28 & 29 which reads:    Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

OK, girls and boys.......we'll soon be headed toward Vinita

We'll be going through the town of Afton and ...while there is not much to see in Afton....the DX Station is a must and a treasure trove of Route 66 stuff!

The next three photos are of Afton.....pretty pitiful looking....but...there is a reason.  You see, Afton is the gateway to Grand Lake O' the Cherokees and Shangri-la Resort.   The people and businesses are still in Afton...just out where the money is spent.   

The impetus for my beginning this journey was that when I looked on the Web for Oklahoma Route 66, the photos make it look as if our State if rather dilapidated. Oklahoma is a great State in which to live, work and play....I just wanted to share it. :)

 Actually, as I've traveled from Kansas to Oklahoma City,  this is the only blighted town. In Part 3 of our journey we will go through Vinita and Chelsea.