WALKING ROUTE 66
A Dream Of The Better Tomorrow Is Delayed
The infamous “red tape” strikes again.
It was an unusual day in many ways.
The plan was to walk only five miles to get to Conway, MO.
Why only five miles? Because I read something that intrigued me.
When I got to Conway around 9 AM, I stopped at the post office, the first building I saw. I had some things that needed mailing. I gathered some information about the little town and was thrilled that it had a library.
The next stop was to get breakfast at the c-store called Summer Fresh. They had a deli, but no breakfast. I ended up with chicken thighs, potato salad, and fruit cocktail instead. Of course, I shared flyers with the people there.
As I was leaving the store, Scott Evans stopped me in the parking lot. He had grabbed one of my flyers on his way out, intrigued by what he read, he came back to talk to me. He became one of my followers on FB.
I stopped at the city park, a spacious place with park benches, on my way to the library. It could be a possible place for the night.
The next stop was the library. When the folks at the post office told me about the library, they forgot to mention a tiny detail. The library only opened on certain days, and only for three hours. Today was not one of those days.
After resting in the library’s patio for a little while, I headed back into town for the ONLY restaurant, Yogi’s Pizza. I ordered a large soda, something I usually don’t drink, and promised the young lady that I will order a pizza later since I had eaten only a couple of hours earlier.
The young lady took it upon herself to contact the Chief of police on Facebook to see if it would be acceptable for me to spend the night at the park, even though there is a 10 PM curfew. The Chief came by the pizza place to talk to me and decided I was harmless, and I can spend the night in the park.
The restaurant owner came by in the evening, and after learning about my situation said that there is an empty shade next door that is a display model. If I didn’t mind the lack of windows, electricity, or a/c, I could take my stroller in, and nobody would care. He even called the Chief to let him know about the change of plans. That is how the day ended in Conway, MO.
As I think back and ponder.
I remember that when I asked around town about the Solar Panel Project, no one seemed to know anything about it. A year later, the project fell apart due to “red tape.” That is what the news was, and there is nothing new about it online.
It is a shame that politics gets in the way of progress, and it seems that when the gain is about clean energy, someone is always getting in the way.
Stay blessed and be happy, my friends.
Day 41: Only Five Miles (Original blog post).
Just for fun.
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Rasheed Hooda is a published author, and a regular contributor and editor for ILLUMINATION, a writers’ community on Medium, where writers support each other.
He is a self-proclaimed weirdo who lives a Freedom Lifestyle and writes about related topics — Travel (a top writer), Personal Growth, Freedom, and entrepreneurship. (Buy him a coffee)