The Route 66 Chick

Monday, July 4, was the official release date from Arcadia Publishing of Route 66 in Kansas ,  when it became  available from Amazon, Arcadia, and other book sellers. Route 66 in Kansas is the second book collaboration between Joe and me, the first being Route 66 in Illinois , which was released in 2014. The Kansas book is my sixth book for Arcadia, and Joe's bazillionth...or maybe ninth or tenth.  Joe and I worked hard on this project, enjoyed every trip to this special 13.2-mile stretch of Route 66, and sincerely hope you like the book! Our first signing for the new book is Sunday, July 10, from 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. at the 18th Annual World's Largest Catsup Bottle Festival at Woodland Park in Collinsville, Illinois. We hope a lot of friends in the Edwardsville - Collinsville - St. Louis area can stop by! We are really looking forward to sharing the new book, AND, you'll have a ton of fun at the Catsup Bottle Festival. Think car show, tater tots with catsup, and...

Today I managed to shrug off my time-management-deficiency guilt from yesterday and just be productive. Of course, not having to drive 335 miles today, most of it in the rain, helped both my time management AND my mood. It was a lovely day. This morning I did a media interview by phone about the upcoming conference. Wow, the interest and momentum are really growing. The new format of this event coupled with the amazing lineup of Route 66 experts all descending upon Illinois, much less Edwardsville (a charming Route 66 city with a less than stellar past of promoting it) is creating some local buzz. (Seriously, dear readers, if you are not signed up for this event, go to the website, check it out, and then ask yourself why not.) Back to my morning. Conference (and book) details, communications, and posts plus a nice walk finished up the morning hours.  This afternoon I spent at the delightful Baxter Springs Heritage Center, happy as a clam down in the basement archive room...

But we were there - for a couple days of work on the new book.  I drove out to Baxter Springs on Saturday to get there in time to spend a couple hours at the Baxter Springs Heritage Center. There, I needed to pick up scanned photos from Museum Manager Linda Kennedy and take another look at the exhibits.  (On our trip there back in April, co-author Joe Sonderman and I enjoyed a guided tour of the museum from Linda. Then we spent hours perusing the exhibits and photos, snapping reference photos, and compiling a list of what we would use from their great collection.) Late Saturday afternoon, after some time at the Center and a visit with Linda, I took some photos of the Fort Blair site on nearby grounds. Baxter Springs has a significant military history, which we'll reflect in the book. Then it was downtown (a whole couple blocks away) onto Military Avenue/Route 66 for some photos and a light supper at Cafe on the Route.  Next was...