route 66 to the milky way
Route 66 to the Milky Way
FBI agent Frank Ryder, his reputation damaged by the Roswell incident, is desperate to regain credibility with the bureau’s Extraterrestrial Task Force. His chance comes when a reportedly dead nurse turns a chunk of petrified wood into a living but extinct sapling.
Ryder’s on the trail of Homer and May, extraterrestrial plant forms, who crashed in the midst of the Pearl Harbor bombings. To survive in Earth’s atmosphere, May, the female, vines into the nearest hospitable body—Polly Johnson—a beautiful Navy nurse. Homer, her male counterpart, has two choices, a man with an ultimately fatal brain injury or a grouper. He makes the wrong choice.
May receives a single coordinate “66” and searches post WWII Route 66 for the dimensional conduit, a time portal, their only way home. She reads about a girl’s fall down a rabbit hole—surely a type of Earthly dimensional conduit—and tries to eat her way out of this galaxy, like “Alice” in the book. Homer, convinced of the literal truth of human words, buys a new, 1949 Oldsmobile Rocket 88 to shuttle them home. He falls in love with the shiny, powerful car and wants to stay here.
The newly created CIA swallows the FBI’s rumor that May is a Russian spy and assigns its own agent, Noble, to find her. Now there are two agents from rival agencies searching for the same woman, each with a different agenda.
Ryder finds May first, but before he can take her into custody he is critically injured. An Indian medicine man, sympathetic to May, tries to implant the dying Homer into Ryder’s body. During the process, the chain-smoking Ryder gains insight and empathy for these quirky aliens, becomes afraid of fire and develops an aversion to tobacco.
Both the FBI and Noble are in hot pursuit and May, frantic to find the conduit, convinces Ryder to help. Unsure if he is falling in love with a beautiful human body or if he is attracted to this innocent, peculiar alien, he devises a plan for her to disappear into the forest of humanity.
An imaginative, light-hearted and tongue-in-cheek journey on the iconic “mother road”. A “sci-fi” light”novel set against the backdrop of Area 51, Roswell and all the mystique of 1949 USA.
What People Are Saying
“Takes you on an adventuresome trip down the Mother Road, circa 1949, with truly unique aliens. This imaginative novel fuses soft science fiction with FBI suspense. A real page turner.”
JUDY A. BERNSTEIN
AUTHOR OF THEY POURED FIRE ON US FROM THE SKY: A TRUE STORY
“Adventure, love and intrigue. Well-drawn characters come alive on the page and you live their exciting trip right along with them. If you like sci-fi and crime don’t miss this gem of a novel. For creativity, imagination and unique characters it’s hard to beat.”
DAVID PUTNAM
AUTHOR OF THE DISPOSABLES, THE REPLACEMENTS, THE SQUANDERED, AND BRUNO JOHNSON SERIES
“I enjoyed this book and its wonderful verve and imagination. Science fiction and suspense blended with a wry sense of humor. What could be more fun?”
WILLIAM BERNHARDT
AUTHOR OF THE BEN KINCAID SERIES AND PRIMARY JUSTICE
“A humorous and simmering read with a surprisingly unique sci-fi twist. You’ll be captivated till the very last page!”
PAUL BERNSTEIN, MD
AUTHOR OF THE AWARD WINNING NOVELS: COURAGE TO HEAL, FLASHBLIND, ROCK BOTTOM, AND RERUN
“Rendall blends language and geography to evoke and revisit that moment in post-war America, just before everything shifted. Her captivating alien has learned a whole lot about humans during her eight years on earth, and she has nearly mastered dictionary English. But that leaves gaps. And through them—through May’s drop-dead serious observations and her hilariously off-base utterances—Rendall draws a deft portrait of Cold War America: the paranoia, the blind faith, the growth of bureaucracy. The question that lingers, as May searches Route 66 for her way home, is not so much whether she will get back safely in her altered state – but will we.”
MARY AMES
AUTHOR OUTCOME UNCERTAIN: SCIENCE AND THE POLITICAL PROCESS
Paula Calvanico, Reviewer
“What a good read this was. Science fiction isn’t my usual genre and I found this interesting and a breeze to read. What a pleasant surprise.” Read more...
Route 66 Bizarre and Fun Facts
From Legends of America
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Current maps do not include old Route 66. The last stretch of the road disappeared from “official” maps in 1985.
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Route 66 crosses 8 states and 3 time zones. The states that the Mother Road runs through are: Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California.
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During all of its life, Route 66 continued to evolve, leaving many abandoned stretches of concrete, still waiting to be found by the more adventurous traveler.
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The famous KiMo Theater along the Mother Road in Albuquerque, New Mexico is said to be haunted by the ghost of a six year old boy by the name of Bobby Darnall who was killed at the theater in 1951 from a boiler explosion. According to legend the impish spirit causes the performers problems by tripping them and creating a ruckus during performances. To appease the spirit, the cast leaves doughnuts backstage, which are gone the next morning.
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Elvis Presley used to like staying at the Best Western Trade Winds Motel in Clinton, Oklahoma
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The last original Route 66 road sign was taken down in Chicago on January 17, 1977.
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You cannot count on the road to be marked with road signs. Though some states and organizations have posted signs, these often disappear with souvenir hunters. Others are simply never posted.
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Bobby Troup wrote the song, Get Your Kicks on Route 66 in 1946. It has been performed and remixed by several musicians, including Nat King Cole, who first recorded it in 1946 scoring a major hit, the Rolling Stones, and Depeche Mode
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Quapaw, Oklahoma , the first town on the Mother Roadin Oklahoma , is famous for “spooklights”, bouncing bright balls of white fire that have been reported as far back as the 1700s.
From TheRoute-66.com
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San Miguel Mission, also known as San Miguel Chapel, is a Spanish colonial mission church in Santa Fe, New Mexico, by Route 66. It was built between 1610 and 1626 and, with four hundred years of age, it is the oldest church in the United States.
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Zuni Pueblo just south of Route 66 in NM, was the place where Europeans and Native Americans first met (1540) in what later became the U.S.
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The expedition led by Lt. Edward Fitzgerald “Ned” Beale (1822 – 1893) to survey and build a wagon road from New Mexico to California, followed the 35th parallel, its course was later followed by Route 66. He used camels, imported from Tunis as pack animals. Though hardier than mules, the camels scared both horses and mules. The Army decided not to use camels in the future.
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There are several Dead Man’s Curves on Route 66, these are some: one near Carnuel in NM, another between Mesita and Laguna in NM the other in Towanda, IL.
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The very first ever McDonald’s opened on Route 66 in California: it was located on 14th and E Street in (San Bernardino, CA. It opened on December 12, 1948. The McDonald brothers sold 15 cent hamburgers using a “Speedee Service System”.
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A World War II Prisoner of War Camp was located near Exit 146 on I-40 2 miles east of McLean, Texas. It operated between 1943 and 1945 and housed over 3,000 German prisoners.
From Phactual
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Steinbeck’s inspiration: “The Grapes of Wrath” was the product of inspiration for John Steinbeck on a 1937 drive from Chicago going west. He called it the “long concrete path” and in the novel it was referred to as the “Mother Road”.
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Route 66 was not always a tourist attraction: Its original purpose was to link linked hundreds of mostly rural communities in Illinois, Missouri, and Kansas to Chicago; thus enabling farmers to transport grain and produce for redistribution.
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The Great Depression paved Route 66: From 1933 to 1938 thousands of unemployed male youths from all over the U.S. went to work as on road gangs, paving the final stretches of the road. Because of this tremendous endeavor, the Chicago-to-Los Angeles highway was recorded as “continuously paved” in 1938.