Silverton Train

The story goes that our Grandpa OK worked on the Silverton Railroad while he lived in Durango (maybe it was Cortez). When we reached Durango , we were told there was no room in the Inns for 2 sisters from Lafayette....but they suggested we try the Iron House Inn, they said there may be rooms there since no one wants to stay next to the railroad tracks due to the noise of the trains...this was perfect for us -- we walked out our hotel room door and only 10 yards away was the train and tracks.

The train from Durango to Silverton takes 3 hours up, 3 hours back and 2 hours to visit the town of Silverton...so there is lots of time to: Sleep, Flash the Kenyan OK (Sawa, Sawa) sign, knit with Zee Lady Bug), viewing the glorious scenery with CJ Happy Feet,

Above: The feather eyerings Sue bought at the Sun House 1063 Blair St. Silverton, CO 81433. http://www.wildspirit.etsy.com/ below the featherman:

Finding Zufalls in Cortez

While in Durango, we went to the historical society and found that there was a George M. Zufall listed in the directory in or about 1911 not in Durango but in Cortez -- about 45 miles west of Durango -- we decided to go to Cortez County Clerks office to follow up...but we first stopped at Addie & Jude's Let It Grow Nursery & Garden Market to have lunch and look up Jude (Tom from Lafayette told us we should check it and him out)

Unfortunately, Jude was not there, but we were able to have a wonderful lunch with CJ Happy
Feet and Zee Lady bug......

....Then we were off to go through the Marriage and Property records form 1908 to 1925.



We found a lot of transactions for a George M Zufall, since OK had named one of his sons George -- we are thinking that OK may have headed to the Durango area because an Uncle was here --- would make sense. We found lots of Property transactions for a George M Zufall...



With the info we went to the assessors office and found the location of the property that was held in his name .. there was a large tract that was probably ranch land that looks like it has only been a few years ago that it began to be developed


He also had 3 small plots in the center of town -- that we think may have been a tire shop in the 1910's since he was listed as a vulcanizer in the historical records. Today part of the property is the Rocky Mountain One Stop (shop for music, instruments, incense, fairies, dragons, T-shirts, body jewelry, and a whole Lot More since 1986) A regular customer, Matt and Waylon may not have given us an OK sign -- but they flashed a bit of attitude for us.

Here is the picture outside of the Rocky Mountain One Stop -- it could have been us behind the counter if George M Zufall didn't lose the property in 1924. : (

CJ Happy Feet & Zee Lady Bug

My 3 sisters and myself have adopted a winged creature to represent us. I am a Yellowbird, Sue is a Wildbutterfly, sister Roseanne is Zee Lady Bug (said with a French accent) and sister Carole is CJ Happy Feet the Penquin. Since Sue and I are the only one's traveling the entire Being OK Tour, we have added Zee Lady Bug and CJ Happy Feet to our tour in spirit. Enjoy the ride!!!

CJ Happy Feet on the treadmill at Walters in Albuquerque

Time for CJ Happy Feet to do the driving

Wildbutterfly with CJ Happy Feet and Zee Lady Bug at the Silverton Railroad Museum

Finding CJ Happy Feet's relatives in New Mexico

Zee Lady Bug and CJ Happy Feet resting in the oldest cabin in Durango (wonder if OK slept here)

CJ Happy Feet found a dilly bar with its dilly still in tact (although it is a bit of a limp dilly)

OK signs from Kenya

My home stay mama from Kitui, Kenya and her best friend showing us their bes OK sign. Sorry we have not been able to update the blog as often as we wanted -- the signal strength has not made it easy to get everything uploaded in a timely manner. Maybe at the next destination.

Albuquerque, Sister Zan & Walter

We woke up in Vega, Texas to a thunderstorm, thought that our days travel would be rained on ,,,

but the clouds cleared the thunderbolts stopped and we took off for the deserts of New Mexico. I started drinking loads of water, so I would be prepared for the altitude change and we had to make many pit stops on out 4 hour trip to Albuquerque. On one of those stops, there was a Dairy Queen and we decided to get a Dilly Bar (a childhood favorite), but to my dismay -- they have taken away the dilly from the dilly bar. I will be posting an essay latter about this lost curly cue of our culture. We were excited to get to Albuquerque-- we were going to be picking up our sister Zan at the airport before meeting up with our dear dear friend Walter. I believe in serendipity...so it was not a surprise that as we pulled into the airport we received a cell call from Zan that she had just landed -- we could not have planned this better -- how can it be that we would reach the airport at exact time -- one coming from a Frontier airline flight and us driving all the way from Indiana. It was than onto Walter's little bit of heaven in the mountions above Albuquerque -- great food, grat conversation and great friendship.

Who took the Dilly from the Dilly bar

Essay to follow... well I have not yet been able to post my own essay on losing the dilly from the dilly bar...yes at our first DQ visit..the dilly bar had no dilly what so ever ...perfectly flat...at later visits there was some semblance of a dilly...but not the perky one like the picture at the left....but here is a comment below from our friend KK in NO....he says it best and we can not wait to get his own report on what he finds while doing his own research...

I must say that your recent revelations were very distressing. i’ve let it sink in and simmer before getting back. i mean what is this world coming to if one can’t rely on the curly-q adorned dilly bar? but your message was cryptic - do they still offer dilly bars, but without what must be the “dilly?” have they stopped serving them nationwide as some plot to foil the election of barack obama (chocolate on the outside, white on the inside)? or did that particular location simply tire of the hoards of midwesterners, hell bent on re-living their childhood, making puny stick-welded purchases when their profit center was firmly rooted in the double-basket “half-pound flamethrower grillburger” accented with a “dq waffle bowl sundae?” i suspect the latter, and sometime this week will make a trek to inspect our one and only “dq” (alas, they no longer call them dairy queens due to protests by gay dairy farmers) some 20 miles away in a rural suburb (a sub-suburb) - report to follow. (written before your visit to the other dq where the cq was intact – love following your phenomenal “ok” tour. every time a bug hits the windshield, that’s me.)

Day two photos

Made it Vega, Texas -- to celebrate the Summer Solstice

Jordon (formally known as Steven Jr.), Patricia, Nicolette, Breonna & Aysia. We were half way between Tulsa & OK. City. Thanks for your OK's -- Sawa Sawa--See you soon-- Tutonana

Ride'm cowgirls

Our cabin accommodations


Larry from Nebraska -- originally a Hoosier from West Lebanon-- his sister Retha works at Purdue -- found him in Carthage Hotel Parking lot.

Our Hotel Keeper in Carthage

Cactus Sculpture at the Cowboy Museum

Day one Pictures

Our Peace and Love Charm -- Thanks Mom & Dad!!!

We made it all the way to Carthage, MO on our first leg of the "Being OK Tour" . Since Hannibal was the Carthagian Knight who crossed the Alps to conquer Rome -- it was appropriate to make this our first stop

Route 66 in Livingston Illinois

The boys of Livingston,Illinois ...Chris, Kyle, Jordon, Drake & Dyllon. They saw our Indaina License Plate and keep calling "Hey Indiana" until we came over to talk to them -- after we took their picture -- they keep asking for apples, bananas or strawberries.

Dwayne of Urbana, Illinois

Maiden Voyage of the "Being OK Tour" 8.28AM June 19, 2008

Even babies do it

This is Knox, a friend of baby Max
he is flashing us his best OK sign : )

New Car Sign

Hi, y'all!! Here are Nancy and I with our family and our new "Being OK Tour" magnetic car sign. If you see us on our trip, show us your best OK sign and we will publish it on our blog. Sue

Make one family OK (Sawa, Sawa)

We are only a week away from launching into our adventure. I had always wanted to somehow use the tour to raise awarness or funds for an organization, but just counldn't decide what to do. It than dawned on me, I can not make the whole world OK, but I can help one person or one family become a little more OK. So we have decided that we want to help one family be OK. That family is my family -- not my USA family, but my Kenyan Peace Corps Homestay family-- the Mwendwa family. Baba yangu (my dad) Nicodemus, mama yangu (my mom) Zipporah, dada yangu (my sisters) -Kalumu, Mawia, Mbite, Mwende & Ruth, kaka yangu (my brother) Sammy and mtoto kaka yangu (my bably brother) Courtney Mumo (he was named after my son Courtney and has just started kindergarden. Education is so important to Nic & Zip and we want to send any funds raised to them for the cost of educating all their beautiful children. My son is going to design a really cool t-shirt that we will post on the blog and maybe list with etsy.com and ebay. profits to the Mwendwas. SAWA, SAWA (OK in Swahili)

People showing us their OK

SISTER CAROLE

KIRA

ALL TOGETHER NOW

TOBY & KEN FROM NEW ORLEANS

MANDY, ME & MOM

KYLEE

WILLIAM & JEANNINE WILSON FROM
BAYMINATE, ALABAMA