WALKING ROUTE 66
When You Are Surprised And Delighted
People do go out of their way to be nice.
After getting ten hours of sleep under the stars, I was ready for the 16 miles for the day. I got a pastry and some coffee from the c-store and started rolling toward Avilla, my destination for the day.
I’ve lived in Texas for 30 years, and I have seen my share of dead armadillos on the road, but I saw more in one day in Missouri that I had in 30 years in Texas.
“Why did the chicken cross the road?” “To show the armadillo that it can be done.”
Ummi is a German bicyclist who was riding Route 66. She stopped to ask me if I was the guy who was walking Route 66. She had stayed with Dale the night before and learned about me from him. We chatted for a while and exchanged information before we moved on in our own way.
The restaurant about which I had learned was closed when I arrived in Avilla. So I moved on to the park where I planned to spend the night. I was looking for a place to charge my phone when a man, who looked like a member of ZZ Top, said, “If you’re looking for an outlet, the one in gazebo works.”
I moved over there to plug in my phone, and we started to talk. I asked if anyone would object to my staying in the park for the night. He told me people do it all the time.
“My brother is a member of The City Board, and his wife is the City Clerk. They have no problem with it,” he said. “By the way, we’re having chili tonight.”
It was the Labor Day weekend, so I asked where I can get some of that chili.
“At our house right here,” he pointed to the house next door. “That’s what is for dinner tonight .” How cool!
He came back a few minutes later.
“Are you Muslim? Do you have any dietary restrictions?”
I told him that I didn’t eat pork, but anything else was a go.
His brother Rese, the city board member, knew a Muslim doctor in Joplin and made the introduction via phone. I was trying to find a place where I can store my stroller while I traveled to Houston for a week.
I told Dr. Ahmed, who happened to be from Karachi, my home town about it. He said that there is a Masjid (mosque) in Joplin, and I might be able to store it there; we can talk about it when I got to Joplin in a couple of days.
Chili and cornbread dinner was simply divine. I met the family, and we chatted for an hour or so before we headed to bed. The children had to go to school, and I had to hit the road.
As I think back and ponder.
When it’s just you and the road, you have a lot of time to think. It amazed me how wonderful and inviting people were. Not only that, but they would be willing to go out of their way to accommodate my dietary needs so I can eat with them is mind-boggling.
I say it is mind-boggling because that is not the image of people we see on TV, Newspapers, and the movies.
Stay blessed and be happy, my friends.
Day 48: Small Town Charm (Original blog post).
Just for fun.
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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 coffee, he drinks a lot of it.