FIRE, HEAT, AND JAPANESE VISITORS – IT MUST BE SUMMER IN ARIZONA
Another interesting week, and weekend, is drawing to a close. It kicked off with an exciting array of developments with the various aspects of the Jim Hinckley’s America project, and a delightful dinner with friends from Holland and their tour group.
It is closing out with near record heat (still not hot enough for me to pay full price for shirts with half the sleeves missing), a potentially serious fire in the Hualapai Mountains south of town, replacing a battery cable on the ’68 Dodge (AKA Barney the Wonder Truck)at sunrise, and an interview with Masashi Taki, a Japanese travel writer working on a series of featrues about Route 66 and the America southwest. In between I filled the spare time with work on the Route 66 historic atlas, preliminary promotional work for the book due out in October, travel plans for the trip to the International Route 66 Festival in Joplin next month and development of promotional opportunities on the trip, and development work on the radio program in the hope we can take it into syndication, which would provide a wider market for promoting the people and places that make Route 66 unique.
I also managed to find time for crafting several scripts for the first segments of a program for Gary at Route 66 Radio. Then, last evening, my dearest friend and I caught up on our missed cinema classics by watching Dances with Wolves.
Overall, I found it to be an excellent film. However, I could see the seeds of political correctness that dominate our culture today germinating in it.
The week ahead looks as though it will be just as busy even though there is a holiday, one of my favorites, thrown into the mix. If we are going to Joplin, I will need to double up on the work that is going into the atlas so as not to fall behind. I will also need to finalize travel plans.
Such is life when we hitch our wagon to the world of Route 66. Just ask Laurel Kane at Afton Station.