AND SO BEGINS ANOTHER ADVENTURE
What an amazing weekend this will be on Route 66! We have the annual Route 66 Fun and the Laughlin River Run being held at the same time.
That means we will have more than a thousand vintage and special interest vehicles on Route 66 in our corner of the world and more than 30,000 motorcycles converging on Laughlin. Add in a few dozen specialty events to piggy back on these two, such as Chillin at the Still, a get together at the distillery in Kingman, and the big events at Mother Road Road Harley Davidson and boredom should be a very rare commodity.
The on going cycle of odd weather is the only threat to a perfect weekend. Yesterday we had a light breeze and around eighty degrees, today the temperatures are supposed to be in the mid sixties with high winds.
For my dearest fiend and I this years Fun Run is rather special. Dale Butel and his group from Australia will be attending. Dave, a friend from Australia is also in town, and Bob Stevens, a friend who weathered the demise of Cars & Parts magazine with me last fall, will be driving in from Ohio.
I will be in the office until noon today which means we will miss the big cruise from Seligman but will catch the main event in Kingman as we will be photographing the cars for a publication or two and for the blog. I also promised to send photos of the most interesting vehicles to Jay Leno.
http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=1968adventurer&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=0760338434&fc1=000000&IS2=1<1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifrThe month of May and the first months of summer promise to be a very busy, high stress time in our household, a continuation of the fun that began last October. You might say it is an opportunity to put the money where the mouth is when it comes to faith.
Review copies of the new book, Ghost Towns of Route 66, are headed out and the publicist I have worked with for several years had to take an early retirement effective this past Friday. About five years ago I survived a similar episode but the new book at that time, The Big Book of Car Culturehttp://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=1968adventurer&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=0760319650&fc1=000000&IS2=1<1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr, didn’t fare very well even though it was the recipient of the bronze medal at the International Automotive Media Awards.
The KABAM (Kingman Area Books Are Magic) festival is now less than two weeks away. The event continues to grow in scope as well as popularity and I am quite honored to be a part of it.
In June we have the official kick off for the new book at the 2011 International Route 66 Festival in Amarillo. It will begin with a singing and discussion at Barnes & Noble on Thursday evening.
Jay Leno called last week and we discussed an interview about the new book for the book club section of his website. Now, we just have to find a point when his schedule and mine will intersect as my vacation time will be spent on the road to Amarillo and I still have a day job that supports the writing habit.
Then, if I get bored, there is the current project, a Route 66 encyclopedia, to finish. The word count has topped 90,000 with a projected text for the final draft being somewhere between 120,000 and 150,000.
If you ever find yourself craving additional stress, and want an illusion of fame with the tantalizing promise of possible fortune, try becoming a writer. Then if you really crave that pressure that comes from floating checks to forgo eviction quit the day job and depend solely on the written word for your income.