New Mexico is supposed to be dry, right?

Not this summer.

KRQE-TV in Albuquerque has this remarkable excerpt in a story about the heavy rains that have struck the area in the past few weeks:

Late in the afternoon, another busy area road, Old Route 66 through Laguna Pueblo, was reported closed by high water.

And here’s more from the Valencia County News-Bulletin:

At mid-morning Tuesday, two homes were flooded in the area southwest of the Old Route 66 railroad bridge. Several other houses were in potential danger if the water rose higher.

By noon, the county road to the 12 houses in that area had flooded out and people had to walk through the flowing water to reach their homes.

During the next four hours, the water had risen four inches and was threatening to overflow onto Old Route 66.

A private road that is the only access from Old Route 66 to 92 homes was also in danger of flooding. Valencia County Road Department personnel worked through the afternoon to place dikes along the road to prevent overflow.

Red Fork Hippie Chick is planning to help a volunteer work crew on Saturday, Aug. 19, at the Triangle Motel in Amarillo, Texas. Read about why she’s going, and why you ought to help out, too.

I’ve acquired computer artist’s renderings of the Route 66 Station park, which will be in the 3900 block Southwest Boulevard in Tulsa, in a current vacant lot cross the road from Daniel Webster High School.

Route 66 Station will be funded by the Tulsa County Vision 2025 sales tax. I’m told it should be bidded out and under contract by the end of the year. It’s hoped it not only will be a nice tourist attraction, but it will lead people to other tourist attractions in the area.

First off is an overall aeriel rendering of the Route 66 Station:

The centerpiece of the park is a Frisco Meteor 4500 steam locomotive. The first picture is an actual image of the train a similar-looking Frisco Meteor 4501; the second image is the Frisco 4501 in the artist’s rendering.

There also will be a replica of a section of the 11th Street Bridge, aka the Cyrus Avery Bridge, that carried Route 66 over the Arkansas River. This bridge section, however, will be just 14 feet wide, reflecting the original width of the original road. (But there are old sections of “sidewalk highway” Route 66 near Miami, Okla., that are just 9 feet wide.)

This display will pay tribute to McIntyre Airport, which was on Route 66 and served as Tulsa’s first airport. The display will plug the new Tulsa Air and Space Museum.

This is a rendering of a replica of the historic Council Oak. I’m not so sure I care for this, since the real one is just a short drive away. A small “replica” oak seems to diminish the genuine tree somehow.