On the Road Again by Paige Shelton

Jenn McKinlay: There is nothing I love better than a good road trip and Mary Higgins Clark Award Nominee (you had to know I was going to work that in, Paige) and dear friend, Paige Shelton, is here to tell us about one of hers! Welcome Paige!

Paige Shelton: I don’t know how we managed to pull it off, but back
when I was nineteen (1984), my best friend and I took off and saw the world, by ourselves. Well, it wasn’t the entire world, it was . . . east of Iowa. That’s the direction we wanted to go, and that’s what we did. 

When we were sixteen, we told our parents we were going to do it. We’re pretty sure they thought we were kidding, but we weren’t. I still remember them looking at us as we drove away, their expressions a combination of disbelief, worry, and certainty that we’d turn around in a day or two. We were gone for thirty. 

We had a CB radio. We had cassette tapes with all the Springsteen anyone could want. We camped out on Lake Erie. We slept in the car – got cleaned up wherever we could. We also had friends and family we stayed with on some nights. We drove and walked all around New York City. We saw Waylon Jennings walking into a studio in Nashville. We drove right into the middle of a shift change on a dock in Newport News. My goodness, we were lucky. We had one car issue, but a sympathetic mechanic (probably had a daughter or two) just took care of it and sent us on our way. We made friends with truckers and had meals with them. We never felt uncomfortable around them, and they welcomed us and watched over us. I wish I remembered the CB names we gave ourselves, but I don’t. I can’t even imagine us getting away with such a trip nowadays. I wouldn’t have let my son take a road trip with a couple of buddies when he was nineteen. The times have certainly changed. 

However, I still love a good road trip and try to take a couple every year. My husband and I even took one during the summer of 2020. We spent most of the time in his truck (a pick-up, not like the big rigs from the earlier road trip) or doing outside things as we traveled up to Omaha to see our son and his fiancé. We wore masks everywhere. Once we’re vaccinated to the max – Maxinated, I call it, we’ll still wear masks but we’re hitting the road again.  



I think my love for road trips started when I was a kid, as, it seems, our genuine loves typically do. We would drive to visit my grandparents in Missouri for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter. My mom slept, but my dad and I sang. I know many old country western songs. Those were also the days when kids sat on their parent’s laps and held onto the steering wheel. I remember those curvy Missouri back roads well. It’s a wonder I’m still here. 

 Driving through Rolla Missouri was when I learned about Route 66. Though on June 27, 1985, it was declared to no longer be a U.S. Highway, there are still many parts that are preserved and can be seen if you veer off the nearby main roads, which are now mostly I-40 and I-44. I still take that back way every once in a while, and I’ve made some fabulous discoveries. My favorite is Arlington in Missouri. 

Arlington is an old train station and ghost town, near Jerome, Missouri, and it’s fascinating. Train tracks run next to the old station and then lead to a bridge over the Gasconade River. There are a few other houses around and I think it was also an RV resort at one time but not anymore. I highly recommend you take a look if you’re anywhere near there. I hear the bridge might be torn down soon. Oh, I hope not. 

Here’s a picture: 


Photo from: www.Hookedonroute66.com
 

Cool, huh? How about you? Do you have a favorite road trip, a favorite place to pull over and look at the scenery? I’d love to know about it. 

 The fabulous Jenn McKinlay invited to me to post today and talk about my upcoming Scottish Bookshop book, DEADLY EDITIONS.

Thanks to Jenn and all the Jungle Reds and readers. Forgive me for being so distracted by the idea that a road trip might be in my very near future, that that’s what I was compelled to write about. I would be thrilled and honored if you checked out the book though. It was a blast to write (Jekyll and Hyde and Scottish pubs abound). It’s book six in the series and it publishes April 6. See, that’s kind of like Route 66. Thank you!

A treasure hunt through Edinburgh gives way to a search for a villain terrorizing the city in the sixth Scottish Bookshop Mystery.

It’s a quiet, snowy morning at The Cracked Spine bookshop, when bookseller Delaney Nichols receives a mysterious visitor, a messenger. He presents her with a perplexing note: an invitation to a meeting with eccentric socialite Shelagh O'Conner, who requests Delaney’s participation in an exclusive treasure hunt. Delaney is intrigued, but also cautious: Shelagh, while charming in person, has a reputation for her hijinks as a wealthy young woman in the '70s. She was even once suspected for the murder of a former boyfriend, though ultimately cleared of all charges.

But Delaney is enticed by the grand prize at the end of the treasure hunt: a highly valuable first edition copy of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson. The winner is also to receive the contents of Shelagh's vast library, and all participants will earn a large sum of cash.

The night after the first meeting of the treasure hunters, however, several homes in Edinburgh are robbed in a manner reminiscent of Shelagh's old tricks. And when a man connected to Shelagh is killed, suspicion builds. Except Shelagh herself has disappeared from her home, seemingly kidnapped by the villain.

Terror mounts throughout the city as Delaney attempts to solve the mystery, while trying to evade the killer's clutches. But it’s hard to know who to trust when around every corner, a new monster could be lurking.

 

Paige Shelton is the New York Times Bestselling author of the Farmers' Market, Country Cooking School, Dangerous Type, and Scottish Bookshop mysteries. She's lived lots of places but currently resides in Arizona. Find out more at www.paigeshelton.com