WALKING ROUTE 66
Surprises and Delights All Day Long
Some days are meant to be pure bliss.
Four years ago, I walked Route 66 — from Chicago to Santa Monica and blogged about it daily. Now, I am reflecting on the lessons learned along the way.
(Read from the start) The saga continues…
I was up and at it early in the morning. After freshening up and grabbing a bite to eat at the c-store on Route 66, I headed west toward Edmond, 16 miles, according to the map.
When you are in a hurry, you create more work and challenges for yourself than solve problems. I wanted to get to Edmond in time to do the laundry and find a place for the night, and I forgot to fill my water bottles. I had two one-liter bottles that I replenished as I went along. I had another four half liters as a backup, so it was not a major concern, but nevertheless.
Three miles down the road, I came upon a restaurant, but it was closed. However, they were receiving a refrigerator; and I asked the gentleman if I could refill my bottles. I handed him a flier. He took my bottles and went inside and returned with two unopened, ice-cold bottles of water. What a surprise and delight that was.
A couple of miles further down, I came across the Rock of Ages Farm. I had to stop and take pictures. As I was busy doing that, a car pulled up, and out came Cat and Zella — Jerry and Martha Starling, with whom I had spent a night a couple of days earlier. Surprise and Delight #2.
As I was speaking with them, a pickup pulled in from the other side. It was Mr. Sam, presumably the owner who volunteers at the Red Round Barn in Arcadia. He said he had left his ears behind and to come back to retrieve them. He went off with a flier as I continued to talk with Cat and Zella.
They said that I was doing a good time because they were looking for me on the road and didn’t think I’d be this far. They had seen the picture I posted on FB earlier that morning. When they didn’t see me for a while, she joked with her husband, that maybe I wasn’t real, maybe it was all a dream. Mr. Sam stopped and gave me some cash and told me to buy a hamburger. Surprise and Delight # 3
An hour later, I was at the historical Round Barn in Arcadia. Mr. Sam gave us a tour of the old barn upstairs and told the story of the dancing tradition. He gave us a demonstration of various types of dances, with the help of ladies in the audience. Then he told us something amazing; he is 89 years old, and he has booked the barn for his 100th birthday and intends to dance with each of the 200 ladies that are expected to be there. The date? March 24, 2027. Mark your calendars.
Across the Coffee Creek, about half a mile from the Round Barn is another Route 66 landmark, Pops. When I saw the sign for Coffee Creek, I thought of my friend Holly Jahangiri. She is such a coffee addict that I thought she’d enjoy the dominance of Coffee Creek sign over the 66 feet tall soda bottle of Pops in the background.
Pops is a travel stop with a gas station, c-store, gift shop, and a restaurant. I was there a year earlier when I spent a month in OKC during my nomadic travels. I had met a lady with a VW bus who was also a nomad. The 66 feet tall pop bottle beacons the travelers in. Inside the store, the walls are literally covered with hundreds of brands of soda bottles.
I went in to get lunch before heading to Edmond. The waitress said that the hamburgers were half-priced on Tuesdays—surprise and Delight #4. I talked to a young couple sitting next to me on the counter while eating my burger. They were curious about my stroller, so I shared my flier with them. When I went to pay for my meal, I learned that the young couple had already paid for it when they left—surprise and Delight #5.
The waitress was happy to get a huge tip.
When I got close to Edmund, I stopped to take a breather. A squad car came by to check up on me to see if I was okay. I assured him I was fine and shared my flier. Here is the FB post where I posted about the encounter. I had some thoughts about the police's role in our community, and meeting and talking with him gave me a chance to express them—many interesting comments from around the world.
https://www.facebook.com/MisterWeirdo/posts/10209313883496940
Finding a place to spend the night was more challenging than usual. The park I had picked out wasn’t practical because it was next to a federal building. I was counting on Whataburger as a good hang out since they are open 24 hours, and I’ve always been treating nicely there. The manager on duty said that I couldn’t stay there for more than two hours. They’ve had problems with homeless people hanging out there, so the store policy was adopted.
I backtracked to a Denny’s I was familiar with, from my travels the year before, and they have a separate room for parties that is usually not in use late at night, so they assigned me a corner booth to eat and relax. All in all, it was a busy, fun, and challenging day. All is well that ends well.
As I think back and ponder.
Most of the recaps I have done have been brief, but I knew this was a day that I wouldn’t be able to do briefly. There were just too many good memories to cut anything out. The first thing that popped (no pun intended) in my head was, “So it’s the laughter we’ll remember, whenever we remember, the way we were.” But I decided to go with another song, as I explain below.
Stay blessed and be happy, my friends.
Day 77: Surprise And Delight (Original blog post).
Just for fun.
A couple of days ago, I shared the Commodores’ song Easy and realized that I hadn’t shared many songs by Black performers even though I have enjoyed many over the years. Then Elisabeth shared how she learned the Lyrics to Lionel Richie’s “Hello.” So, when I was writing about Cat and Zella came looking for me on Route 66, I thought it would be perfect.
I invite you to tag along if you’re up to it. I am mentioning a few friends who may be interested in it. If you are tagged but don’t want to read my stories daily, let me know in the comments, and I will remove your name moving forward. If you are reading this and aren’t included in the list below, but you’d like to come along, let me know so that I can add you.
Michele Amy Trista Henery Timothy Tim P.G. Sherry Saloni Indra B. A. Linda Sharon Tree Linda Britni Desiree Elisabeth Simona Kristin Helen Julia Chris Rosennab Tom Truenorth Agnes Aurora LauraRaduenz Catherine Joe Stuart Gurpreet BFoundAPen Margie Bob NaNa’sworld Wolfie Rebecca Susannah Paul
As always, thank you for reading and responding.
Here are some of my other stories:
Rasheed Hooda is a published author who has contributed to many of Medium’s top Publications; The Startup, The Ascent, P.S. I Love You, Rogues’ Gallery, and ILLUMINATION, to name a few. He is also a Top Writer for several topics. If you like his work, buy him a cup of coffee, he drinks a lot of it.
