WALKING ROUTE 66

Oh, I’ll Get You a Reporter

And I was in the newspaper the next morning.

Damn, I’ve got dark in a week.

The highlight of my “dash” from Odell to Pontiac was a couple of bicyclists that were headed towards Chicago, presumably having started in LA. One of them raised a fist in the air and yelled, “Power on, man!” It made my morning.

Once in town, I headed straight to the police station to find out if there was a place where I can legally crash for the night. They showed me a map to a campsite west of town. I made a note that there is a DQ on the way there.

Meet the reporter.

It was barely noon. I had plenty of time to explore.

As I headed toward the Route 66 Museum, and I am NOT a museum buff, I noticed something else.

We have a community newspaper called The Leader in Houston, and I wondered if Daily Leader was a newspaper. So I went to investigate. I shared my flyer with the receptionist who took one glance at it and said, “Oh, I’ll get you a reporter.”

Luke Smucker came with a tape recorder and a camera. We walked outside and across the street where they have a historic bus parked.

We talked, Luke asked pertinent questions and took some pictures. The story was published in the newspaper the next morning.

Afterward, I visited the Route 66 museum and was impressed. They even asked me to sign one of my flyers to add to their collection of Route 66 memorabilia. My favorite piece on display was a VW bus.

Lunch? Dinner? Tea time?

The breakfast/lunch combo is called Brunch. What do you call a lunch/dinner combo?

The Dairy Queen had a bulletin board where local businesses advertised their offerings. The manager said she would add my flyer to the collection there.

While having lunch and charging the phone, I noticed there were families with children in the restaurant. Naturally, I took out my balloons and handed out balloon animals to the kids.

As it often happens, when I hand out balloons, people hand out money. I never ask for it. Most people just want to show their appreciation.

I had not realized that the campsite was quite a bit out of town, and it took me over an hour to get there, but I made it before it got dark and was able to find a pavilion with picnic tables. That’s where I spent the night.

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 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.