High 90′s, high humidity — it sucks mental and physical energy like a high def camera from a battery. My first day at Route 66 State Park drained everything. So, as I crashed in the dark under covers, I considered how I could work my schedule to avoid midday heat. I made the tough move with eyes squinting in the cell phone light:

MENU + 7 + 5 = ALARM CLOCK
Alarm: On
Time: 6:15 AM

At least these plants sat still for me.

So I dutifully woke up early, arrived at the park just after 7 a.m. and . . . got rejected by visitor after visitor. Some were default rejections, since most everyone bikes/runs/rollerblades/Trikkes the 2-mile loop. Others were resistant, several were avoidant, and one woman taught me to use a Trikke but wouldn’t be on camera, so made her five-year-old son do the interview instead.

Similar story at the Visitor’s Center.  Not even the travelers from Holland would talk to me.

Later in the day, five minutes before the VC closed, I asked a straggling couple if they would help and got one of the most detailed, energetic interviews I’ve done in three weeks. I then went to the park part of the park (MODOT closed the old 66 bridge, so now the park’s split in half . . .  that’s a whole other story), where only 2 cars were parked, and thought about calling my boss to warn her I’d have sub-par footage.

Then lo, I spotted a couple in the picnic area. They turned out to be huge fans of Route 66 State Park and were happy to help promote it. Whenever the wife isn’t working, she said they go there to grill, swim and ride their bikes—about four times a week. Even the sad past of Times Beach had a silver lining, as they could pick out where old houses once sat by the way plants grew. Way cool.

In addition to being incredibly nice, this couple owned sweet bikes.

They felt like they owned the park, and that’s what I fell in love with at Route 66. People use it. And if it weren’t a park, it would no doubt give way to suburban development. No, thank you.

And the place is pretty, in a quirky way, with its big sky, ornamental bushes and huge herds of deer. It’s like the high school counselor who got into psychology after he had a bad run-in with drugs but is now clean, excited, and full of rad personality. Everyone liked that guy.