Saturday, August 10, 2013

Scootin In The Boonies...

We were thrilled to wake up to 72 degree weather outside.  Poor Ms Vicky had been sitting for close to two weeks as it is just to hot to ride when it is over 100 degrees in the shade!  So, today was the day to go in a different direction than what we had been.


Scootard and "Maj" were getting reacquainted.....



Our first leg of the trip only took about 30 minutes.  I had not been to Elgin, Ok in many years.  I wasn't even sure of what was there or no longer there.  But one thing was for sure, we started out at 9:00am and we were both hungry and needed coffee....


I took a shot of the street in both directions so that you can get an idea of what "nearly ghost town" would look like...And this is on a Saturday!


The bank was right across from the restaurant.  I guess for folks who say they don't have any money after they have already eaten...ha


This is the direction that we came in from....


When we went inside the restaurant, this was the first thing that I saw.......So, I'm thinking this is going to be interesting.


Even the restaraunt looked like a ghost town!


It was a "country" kind of environment.  They had their own jams and breads sitting around for you to purchase if you wanted to.


The menu was uneventful.  I ordered a typical breakfast and some coffee......


Scootard was already taking pictures before I had sat down good......:-)


   The building almost reminded me of what could have been a large home at one point that had the walls opened up to accommodate the growing business.  And it was full of all kinds of stuff that had been given to them through the years from their patrons.  Now, the place was full of "trivits"....


They even had stuff from the local school and a gas station hanging on the wall.......



Meanwhile, Maj and Ms Vicky were patiently waiting for us to come out and twist the throttle......


This was another "room" that was just off the bathrooms...


More "trivits".....


I had to chuckle when I saw this thing that appeared to be a computer cord or router cord hanging from the ceiling, but going nowhere.  It was attached to ......well, nothing.   


The coffee finally arrived in two of their customer provided cups.......



And I gotta tell ya; DON'T DO IT!! That had to be one of the worst cups of coffee I have ever had.  It looked like coffee, and it almost smelled like coffee, but WOW...... just don't.  Trust me.


I almost lost my sense of patriotism!



 I mean this is Scootard's face after his first sip.........hahahahaha


We ate our food (in somewhat of a hurry) and decided it was time to GO!  We were told that the restaurant had been there since the late 70's.  I think the coffee had been there that long too.......sheesh...


Scootard was ready to get out of there as fast as he could....haha.  Still needing coffee!



We made it to our next destination which was Fletcher, Ok.  We have some dear friends who live there, but are always on the move, traveling the world like Scootard and I.  So, it was a long shot that we would find them there.  Besides, we didn't even have an exact address!  But hey, this is Fletcher....How hard can it be??
In our search, we came across this adobe brick church.  I had never seen this before.  Thought is was interesting.....:-).


And of course, Scootard was busy snapping pics as well.......:-).


If this gives you any idea of how small this town is, here is the Town Hall.......



I was impressed at how when a building is burned away or destroyed for whatever reason, they try to fill in the vacancy with something nice rather than letting it look like a ghetto area......


 
Here is the police station!  WHAT!!??  Who's watching the town???  hahaha
Not a single, solitary car in sight.......


Here is a picture of Ms Vickey.  She wanted me to take it from her "good side".....:-)



Fletcher seems to be yet another dying town in Oklahoma.  You know things are getting rough when nobody is manning the police department and you have to fight to keep your post office open.



And then, low and behold.  Right after taking the picture of the sign, I sat down on the bench while Scootard went across the street to inquire about our friends.  And just as quickly as he disappeared into the tag agency, they pulled up in their car and spotted me sitting on a bench on the corner.  Here is my dear and long time friend and fellow laborer in the Gospel...."Becca"....:-)


We went to their home which happened to be just a few steps from where we stopped and had some COFFEE! ha.  It was a heck of a lot better than what we had just had in Elgin.  But ANY change at all from that last cup had to be an improvement....  Here is Becca with her husband Tony and Scootard.  We spent some time talking about our missionary experiences, upcoming trips, etc.


You would never know that someone is living here in this building....:-).  It still looks like a business from the outside, but they have made it their home on the inside.


The last photo was part of this larger photo below.  This business is no longer as the owners were offered quite a bit of money from Ford to close it.


Well, it was time to say goodbye to our dear friends and head back home.  We wished them well on their next adventure, prayed for them and them for us in regard to our upcoming European adventure next month.



And so, it was that after a wonderful visit and a nice ride on a not so scorching hot day, Maj and Ms Vickey have returned to their temporary resting places....
  


See you on the road!