Chapter 2 and Marketing
This week we wrote deep into Chapter 2 and kicked our pre-release marketing up a notch.
Chapter 2 – State of Illinois
It has been fun to reminisce about bicycling around the City of Chicago, playing tourist, and finding the official starting point of Historic Route 66. However, we did shudder a bit while recalling riding a trail detour that took us right through the second story of a parking garage. No, really! It was dark in there. South of Chicago we rode some wonderful trails, but then experienced our first major mechanical issue and were delayed for two and a half days in Joliet. Back on the road we joined our first real stretches of Route 66. This is where the classis Route 66 tourist attractions truly begin, interspersed with the area’s natural beauty. Tallgrass prairies, national cemeteries, Muffler Men, and 1950s diners have all been on the menu. We cannot wait to write about what comes next.
Tracy will be out of town much of next week visiting her parents in Milwaukee, Wisconsin so Peter will be flying solo on the book writing. Since we usually write as a team, we are rereading our blogs and Facebook posts for the next several days of the trip so we can decide who will write which sections, do research, and tell which stories. While Tracy is gone, Peter will write his sections and lightly edit Tracy’s which should help her catch up more quickly when she gets home. Go team Flucke!
Marketing
We began distributing pre-release book flyers to our local and national partners this week. Previously, we have been posting on social media (@peterFlucke, @tracyflucke, @webiketc, @coasttocoastonatandem) and blogging. Posts have focused on the new book and Historic Route 66 fun facts. The flyer features cover photos of our 2017 book, “Coast to Coast on a Tandem,” and our current project, “Bicycling Historic Route 66,” along with information about both books and relevant links.
If you would like a flyer to display, please send us an email at peter@webike.org or tracy@webike.org. We would be happy to send you a digital and/or hardcopies.
Guest Blog
Next week we will be providing a book update and featuring a guest blog from our friend Steve Horrell. Steve is a former reporter for the Edwardsville, Illinois Intelligencer who interviewed us while we were bicycling Historic Route 66. His interview resulted in several stories, a Skype interview with his journalism class, and a lasting friendship. You will love his writing.
Camps, motor courts, and motels
Motorists along Route 66 during the 1920s usually carried the essentials with them and often simply set up camp on a rural roadside. Eventually, tourist camps began to spring up along the highway. At first, these campsites and cabins, offered for 25¢ and 50¢ apiece, were unfurnished; the tourist camps offered few amenities. As amenities such as communal toilets began to appear, travelers began to demand them. The camps gave way to motor courts that consisted of a row of cabins, then motor hotels, long buildings with individual rooms side by side and parking in front of them—the name for which was in time shortened to simply “motel”.
OUR BOOK
OUR PARTNERS
WE BIKE, etc. 
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