I am most fortunate to be blessed with an adventuresome wife. Thankfully she is also patient.
Both of these attributes have been put to the test on more than one occasion. And on more than one occasion her adventuresome displays, such as the recent birthday request for a back country adventure to Crown King, have even surprised me.
Still, this year is shaping up to be one for the books. A few of the pending Route 66 adventures will be way beyond anything previously experienced. Suffice to say, Nancy Mueller isn’t the only one with a Route 66 secret.
From our earliest dates (stories that are best left to her for telling) normal was a setting on a dryer and a mythical place like the land of Oz. At the time my daily transportation was a well worn ’46 GMC, double dates with friends included trips to the drive in an an equally worn ’49 GMC stake bed or a ’26 Ford touring car.
She was even game enough to accept my invitation for dinner knowing that it was my cooking, that it required a twenty mile drive on a gravel road each way, that we would be dining by coal oil lamps, that dinner would be cooked on a wood burning stove, and that Critter would be our dining companion.
Fast forward thirty plus years. The ’46 GMC has been replaced by a ’68 Dodge pickup and a ’98 Jeep. Most of the old friends, including Critter, have moved on or passed on. We are grandparents, the homestead is only a few blocks from the supermarket, lights come on with the flip of a switch instead of the flip of a match, and with her encouragement, the quest to become a writer when I grow up is well underway.
The common thread tying all of this together is the old road signed with a pair of sixes. That is also the road that is linked to the pending adventures.
There was an interview with Rudy Maxa, a pending one with Frommer’s, and another with National Geographic Explorer. A major book signing(again, details not available quite yet) that if it comes together, would be nothing short of astounding even though it would again require fighting our way through LA traffic.
Lets see, there is the pending Route 66 International Festival, an eagerly anticipated opportunity to share Kingman with our friends from all over the world. Tied to this is an interesting venture in Holbrook (another subject for future discussion) that will be our contribution to ensuring the cities Route 66 festival scheduled for the weekend before the one in Kingman is a success.
Then there is the pending adventure that will require a passport, which in turn requires the adventure of obtaining a passport. This too will be the subject of future postings.
The long and short story of this mornings post which appears to have developed into a series of teasers is that my dearest friend will have an almost endless opportunity for giving free reign to the adventuresome spirit. Meanwhile, I am off to see wait new adventures unfold today.
