Hi, I'm Rebecca Haldeman and I am eight years old. I will have my ninth birthday party at Ted Drewes Frozen Custard on Route 66. I have been going on cross country bicycle trips with my parents since I was one year old. This year we will be riding Route 66 from Chicago to Los Angeles. There will be thirty four riders in our group. During the tour I will be riding a tandem bike (a bicycle built for two) with my dad about fifty miles per day. I will also be helping with the support van which prepares lunches and rest stops.
My favorite things to do when I'm not on bike trips are swimming, playing with American Girl Dolls that I collect and playing with my friend Leah's toy horses. I like school and my favorite subjects are science, social studies, field trips and art. I like playing sports and playing basketball, volleyball, and soccer.
During our tour of Route 66 I will be testing the best ice cream cones across America. I will keep you updated on what I find out and other adventures from the "Mother Road"
I saw a train with 4 cars and another one with 102, I counted them all, but skipped a couple.
Rebecca's impression of Chicago is: It's a dirty town with lots of graffiti. That's not a fact, remember, it's only my opinion.
Today my Mom told me that she'd order my a half CamelBak. A Camelbak is a backpack type of thing that carries water. It has a tube that you bit and suck so the water comes into your mouth. So a half CamelBak is just half of that size.
There's a swimming pool with no water in this motel.
I'm looking forward to traveling the rest of Route 66.
June 3: Litchfield
Today I didn't ride my bike because it was too cold. It rained and
sunshined, and rained and sunshined all day long.
The people from Elaine's college came and did interviews on the people in the lunch wagon such as Dennis Toeppen, my mom, and me. Lon Fogel tried to get in the film and sing the Route 66 song but the producer didn't let him. The producer asked me about the net 66 thing and I answered most of the questions.
We visited the Cozy Dog and the Pig Hip Restaurant. The Pig Hip Restaurant was closed, but we still had our rest stop there and the man came out to talk to us and we invited him to the Cozy Dog for lunch so he came and brought his wife.
Today at the motel the swimming pool was freeeezing cold! But it was also a cold day. So I wouldn't be surprised if it was freeezing cold. At first I thought it was warm, but nooo way, I was wrong. It was freezing cold. I went swimming in it and I made a big mistake about that, because it was freeeezing cold!
I got a little booklet from the Cozy Dog Restaurant (that my dad gave to me) and I turned it into an autograph book. It has alllll the PAC Tour rider's names in it. And that's all I have to say about that!
June 5: Lebanon
Hi, Rebecca again. Yesterday was my birthday. I walked out on the Chain
of Rocks Bridge. It had lots of grafitti. James saw a date on the bridge
that was 6-3-96 the day before my birthday. I road my bike through St.
Louis. It took a long time. It was mostly up hill. I got two cups of
custard because one melted while I was opening my birthday presents.
Tonight we are staying at the Munger Moss Motel. At first thought it was called the Munger Moss Motel because it had moss in the swimming pool, but then I saw the pool and there was no moss in it. And then my Mom told me the story of the Munger Moss Motel.
Today I didn't ride. It was cold and hilly. Actually in the first part of the day it was warm then it flooded, or at least it felt like it flooded. Then it got really, really, really hot. And I think that might be it.
June 6: Joplin
Today I went to the Exotic Animal Farm near Springfield. We saw a whole
bunch of animals. we mostly saw deer and I mostly fed deer. They were
very gentle and I touched their male deer antlers whcih felt like velvet.
We met Ranger Chris who looked and act ed kinda like Santa Claus. I went
into the Petting Zoo and I got my picture taken with a minitaure circus
pony. There were two new -born twin goats and a wet baby deer. It rained
after we left the animal farm and during lunch. Tonight there is a pretty
sunset. It is yellow, orange, peach, pink, purple, blue, light gray and
turquoise and a way dark blue.
June 9: Weatherford
Like yesterday, I have a lot in my head but I can't get it out. Well I
can get it out but it's hard, there's just too much in my head. Well,
let's start at the beginning.
I was in bed this morning, and I couldn't get out because I stayed up late. Actually, me and Susie snuck out of the room to get a cherrylimeade at the Sonic. It was a "Route 44" size, about as big as my head. Then we watched a movie on television.
Well, being in the car, getting out of the car and going to the two rest stops was boring. But after I started riding, with my Mom, Dad, Elaine and Susie it got more fun. I rode with my Dad on the tandem and my Mom rode on the tandem with Susie and Elaine rode a single bike. My Dad and I drafted a wheat chopper combine machine. We visited Lucille's gift shop and she gave me a free round leather thing. A man there called Lucille, "the mother of the mother road". When we got to the motel, they were filling up the pool. In the three foot area there was only three inches of water. But in the six foot area there was four feet of water. For dinner I had an ice cream su eating problem. It's not like I throw up at every meal but sometimes my stomach shrinks and I'm not that hungry and then it grows and I'm starving.
Now I'm going to bed ....
June 10: Shamrock
"A long way for alittle kid like you," a Texan man might say. A couple of
days ago Elaine said that most kids are sitting in front of the television and
wasting their minds. But a girl such as Rebecca is riding her bicycle.
Today I started riding at the 65 .1 mile mark. It was the lunch stop at Sonics. Now I have only gone to Sonics three times. The first time I barely knew what a Sonic was. It's like a drive thru McDonalds's where you push a button and people say 'Sonics, may I take your order please?' That's my dad's way of saying it. Then you order the food on the menu.
There was a river that we crossed and there were 98 pillars on it. We went on a looooooong side road that my legs got really scrapped up on. We saw a snake on it. My dad said it was just an ordinary python, but I knew it wasn't, it couldn't have been.
When we got the the town of Erick, we stopped at an old museum which was closed. And then we went to a mini mart and I got a sports bottle of strawberry kiwi Gatorade. I don't know why I got it. It just sounded good.
We also went to a church in Texola (ghost town). And that was all the exciting stuff. The rest of the ride was pretty boring. We saw the U-Drop In place with unleaded gas for 7 cents and the restaurant.
June 14: Albuquerque
Today I rode 46.40 miles, and all of it was cold. It rained and rained got
colder and rained and rained (while it rained we were in the hills. It was
reeeeallly hilly)
After that it rained some more. It was all very miserable. I hated every second of it except for one time when we went to the natural food store which had potato chips with no fat, chocolate peanuts with no sugar, chocolate chip cookies with no flour and not fat and no sugar and Dr. Becker and Dr. Pepper with no sugar with no sugar that tasted reeeeeally bad. That was bad. But the only things that I liked were chocolate covered peanuts with no sugar and the potato chips with no fat they were French Onion, my favorite. The cookies had too much molasses. It might be short but I am finished cuz I rode tooooo much today. Bye Bye.
June 15: Grants
Today was a beautiful day. So far it didn't rain. It didn't hail. It
didn't snow. It didn't sleet. It didn't thunder. It didn't lightning. So
I guess there was no precipitation, evaporation, and no condensation. It
was just plain beautiful. Not a lot of clouds in the sky during the day,
just a lot of smoke. There was a lot of smoke in the air because all the
local people said that New Mexico was burning up cuz all the drought.
Today we trespassed, me and Elaine. We went into a gas station that forgot to put a window in it. The reason why I don't think the window was broken is because there were no pieces of glass on the inside or outside, and there were no jagged edges near where we slipped in, me and Elaine. Back to getting in. The door was padlocked so we climbed in the window that didn't have a window in it. Well, we searched some of the rooms and we saw a pop machine. It had a whole in it though. We took out a can of Cherry Coke and we went back and showed all the other people. Then Elaine said 40 cents was the cost of life. The cans cost 40 cents. We paid for the cans 50 percent, or half price because they were out of date. I left the money in the coin receive thing.
I didn't ride my b-i-c-y-c-l-e today. I just didn't feel like it. For the
last 20 miles there was a strooonng headwind.
Here's a song called, "Used to Be". It's a country - western song,
something about Route 66. It goes like this:
Roadside motor court, cabins made of sandstone. Traveling in style was
important to them. If those walls could talk, stories they could tell
some. they could tell
some. Roadside motor court was important to storm - or something like
that.
But now there's holes in the roof and weeds by the door, The building's
still there but they don't see no travelers no more.
I guess they used to grow cotton on these tired old farms. Filled their
wagons time and again with their weary old arms. Pay some money at the
gin, pay some credit at the store. The scratched and they worked at the
land till the dirt got pour. But now that old cotton gin some kind of
second half store. The building's still there but they don't gin no cotton
no more.
There used to be dancing, at the Log Cabin Bar, laughing and carrying on
making out in the car. They used to put sawdust on the concrete floor.
They danced all night long till their feet got sore But then one Sunday
morning all shut her down. Now there ain't no place to go dance this town.
There used to be a place to go dancing in this town. There used to be a
place to go dancing this town. There used to be a place to go dancing
this town. There used to be a place to go dancing this town. There used to
be a place to go dancing this town.
(Instrumental)
The building's still there but they don't see no travelers. It's been a
long time since they ginned any cotton. There used to be a place to go
dancing this town. There used to be a place to go dancing this town.
There used to be a place to go dancing this town.
And that's the song, "Used to Be". Goooooo bye, bye....
Oh, my brain is dead. I must be dreaming because when I looked at the
mirror in the motel it looked like I was wearing glasses. I've been having
all these glasses dreams. Every single dream from nightmares to flying
dreams I was wearing glasses. Does anyone have any suggestions as to what
is happening? Is it like the future that is coming true, cuz I kinda do
what glasses but ah, ... my brain is dead again...
Right now I'm writing in the car with Elaine coming back from the Grand
Canyon. I'm about to fall asleep. It seems to be kind of tiring....
June 17: Winslow
Today I met this beautiful young black cat. Susie said it was a boy. He
has yellow eyes, awfully skinny. But that was at the motel. Otherwise it
was a regular gift shop day. We went gift shopping. I got me two horse
charms, a rabbits foot, and a dream catcher - that's all. I got all that
stuff at the Jack Rabbit Trading
Post. The people there were really nice. I saw a whole bunch of stuff and
a lizard was in the store.
June 18: Williams
Today I went to the Grand Canyon. When I found out that the van was $45 to
get in, I didn't exactly want to go anymore. I hiked down a trail but we
only got a quarter way down because we did not have a minimum of one half
gallon of water, or any food. There was a sign that said "Do not continue
if you do not have food or water, a minimum of one half gallon per person.
No water for 1.5 miles".