Skip to content

Homecoming 17: Trucker Hats

Homecoming 17: Trucker Hats published on 53 Comments on Homecoming 17: Trucker Hats

This page is kind of self-indulgent, as I basically just really wanted to draw some of the ridiculous Route 66 tourist traps you can find on the Interstate between Rolla, Missouri and Springfield, Missouri. I drove this road a lot when I was in college so the road holds a special place in my heart. The actual Route 66 crisscrosses the Interstate in meandering off-roads, leading a lot of adventures and unexpected finds, like the Elbow Inn located in scenic Devil’s Elbow.

53 Comments

Totem pole? Ooh!

Random thought: Would it be possible, in the Bingiverse, for Greg, if he so wished, to have his ears “fixed” surgically?

Say he’s tired of hiding them all the time, or perhaps lands a job where he’s not allowed to wear a hat of any kind. The medallions don’t actually transform the wearer, they just cast an illusion around them. So theoretically, Greg could have cosmetic surgery to have his long floppy ears turned into something more normal and human like, but said alteration shouldn’t affect his ability to shift, or any of his powers. (In-universe example is Jim’s dad, who had to have his wings amputated due to injury.)

Doc.

Somehow, I doubt a college student would be able to afford that kind of surgery.

Well, sure. I’m not saying that needs to be incorporated into the storyline, I just brought it up as a topic for discussion. I mean, “fixing” Greg’s ears- if possible- would be easier than Myra’s eye, after all…

And besides, as far as cost goes, presumably there’s an Avalon agency that helps persons in need. Their entire society depends utterly on secrecy, so you’d think there’s groups or individuals that can lend various forms of aid to those that need it to maintain their ‘cover’.

Doc.

Yay! I grew up in Tulsa, and drove Route 66 quite a few times between Tulsa and OKC (also Tulsa and Joplin) –the REAL one, that starts on 15th Street and wanders around in the back woods, back and forth under the turnpike, and has stoplights at every town. You won’t find “The World’s Biggest McDonalds” there, but be sure to stop to rescue turtles in the spring.

It’s like Flagstaff, AZ! We used to take 66 in college out to… er… do illegal things in the woods. Out on the Navajo reservation the speed limit drops down to 50, then 40, then 30 on down until you’re going 15mph past a series of signs that say “Chief Yellowhorse says slow down and stop a while.” Next to a stand selling “authentic” Native American trinkets. Then comes back up to speed about a thousand ft later. This reminds me so much of that! (that might not actually be Rt 66, but I wasn’t in a state to remember what road I was on half the time)

Continue heading South from Springfield and you’ll hit College of the Ozarks where I graduated from.

Also, if you get off of 66 onto 76 you’ll hit most of the major attractions. And further down in the Hollister area is a spot called The Landing with lots and lots of old shops, my favorite being a semi-big candy shop. I keep forgetting its name since I tended to indulge in the various sweets, but I remember exactly where its at. :P

Am I the only one whos super pro Greg X Michelle

Pretty sure everyone is pro Geg x Michelle at this point! :D
…what would their kids(no pun intended) be? Just.. thinking.. It’s the wee hours of the morning here and that’s where my brain immediately jumped.

hahahaha, I have fond memories of that area too, between Springfield, Rolla, St. Louis, and Salem, where my paternal grandparents have lived at for pretty much most of my 22 years. Especially of the Merimac Caverns, another great little tourist trap that is given regular tours of. Panel three brings to mind miles of open roads, with carved out stone walls to either side, rolling along with plant life growing under, above and right on the craggy stone.

I can’t swear to it, but this looks a heck of a lot like a stretch of highway on the way from Springfield to Branson in Missouri that I’ve been down a couple times back when I was driving a semi. I swear that you can tell what state you are in by the roadside vegetation and geography. I KNEW by watching when I went from Nevada into Utah, or Kansas into Missouri into Arkansas into Tennessee. I wish I’d had the time to stop at places like this just for something besides 10,000 miles of asphalt.

BWHAHAHAAAHA!!! They finally got their trucker hats and chotchkies like Michelle wanted to first page. Happy friends are happy. And Dragontech, you’ve got it right on the nose, my dad, an interstate truck driver says the same thing, that he can tell what state he’s in by local geography and some such. Hell, im pretty sure i’ve been down the same roads the first three panels showed, they look so familiar to the roads my family took for visiting the grandparents in Salem.

hang on, hang on.
Wouldn’t normal people kind of wonder where the crap Michelle got real feathers that big? Or would they just kind of assume they were fake?
Just kind of… wondering…

I’ve seen real feathers that big. I think they were eagle feathers. Some of the larger birds like eagles, great blue herons, large turkeys etc can have really sizable feathers.

Don’t peacocks have tail feathers the size of a small child?
(I know, I post a lot. I have the website on my tabs and check every day for a new page)

Lots of mundane birds are large enough to provide feathers that size or larger. Aside from raptors, I’m reminded of macaws, cockatoos, and other large parrots. For example, the flight feathers of a blue & gold macaw are plenty long enough; bright blue on the upper/dorsal side, and bright yellow on the lower/ventral side.

People might wonder if the orange feather was dyed, or just came from a species they don’t know.

They do have tail feathers of rather impressive size, but also truly singular appearance. Their tail feathers would never be mistaken for anything else. However it does occur to me that birds of paradise have huge tail feathers too, but they look more “regular”. Just really colorful. That’s why 19th century hat makers almost drove the species extinct, big colorful feathers for ladies hats.

Just rereading this comic and I just realized I passed though that town on I-40 when I was moving back to Indiana from Southern NM in 2020. I stopped for the night just Northeast of there in Sullivan. I really wish I had chosen to stop in Devil’s Elbow now. Man…I almost did too.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar