WALKING ROUTE 66

First Challenge and Many Delights

Entrepreneurship and customer service are alive and well.

After a good night’s sleep, breakfast, and updating my blog, I headed out around 9:30 AM.

The plan was to walk about 10 miles and get to the north end of Springfield, the Capital of Illinois. Spend the night there and walk another 10 to 12 miles the next day to get across town, before heading out the day after.

I had barely walked an hour when I had my first flat of the trip. I was not just unprepared; I was clueless. But first things first. I had to get near civilization to see what I can do.

I saw a roadside fruit stand and stopped to get something to eat. I bought a big, plump tomato, and the guy gave me a peach - on the house - because he said I looked like a “weary traveler.” He was busy, taking care of his customers, with a zeal for life.

It turns out, that the fruit stand used to be his daughter’s lemonade stand, many years ago. He had a picture and loved to talk about her. He was a welder by trade, and when he got laid off and couldn’t find anything else, he noticed the abundance of fruit stands along the highway.

“They must be doing well,” he thought, “or there wouldn’t be so many.” He did his research, and now he is having the time of his life. His friends want him to find a job, so he doesn’t have to peddle fruits and veggies. “They don’t understand,” he told me. “I am not doing it because I have to, I am doing it because I want to. I am a free man.”

He has discovered and designed his Freedom Lifestyle.

Airing up the tire did no good. I found a Wal-Mart and headed there because I had bought the stroller from Walmart.com. They didn’t have the equipment to fix stroller tires, and since I had purchased a service warranty, Preston, the manager on duty, just replaced it with another.

Anytime Fitness was just across the street. The manager showed up because someone called him about a bum in the gym. He was reading my story on FB when I came out of the shower because I had tagged them. He signed my shirt and gifted me with an Anytime Fitness t-shirt.

Chilli and Frosty was for the dinner at the nearby Wendy’s. Mmmmm Good.

Day 19: More Delights (Original blog post)

I invite you to tag along if you’re up to it. I am tagging a few friends who I think will be interested. If you are tagged but don’t want to read my stories daily, just let me know in the comments, and I will not tag you moving forward. If you are reading this and aren’t tagged but would like to come along, let me know so that I can tag you.

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As always, thank you for reading and responding.

Here are a couple of earlier stories:

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. (Get the Newsletter)

More about me:

An interview by Dr. M Yildiz for ILLUMINATION

Testimonial by other writers.