The Opening to Beyond Hope BBB On 66, Beale's Strange Camel

February 8. 2026

After a storm and in the twilight, Beale's camel Seid glowed like a ghost.

Daily Whip Out:

"Beale's White Camel Glowed Like A Ghost" 

  I'll soon be out on the road again. Heading for Seligman on April 30 for the celebration of Angel Delgadillo's 99th birthday and Seligman's 100th. Oh, and Route 66's 100th. 

BBB at Home On 66

(photo by Rooster Rob Mathisch) 

   And speaking of which, this photo was taken across the street from the Sno Cap Drive-in last November when Rob and I cruised through Seligman on our way to Music Mountain. Love that place. I will be the MC for the all day event.

   Here's the opening to a dark desert noir I am working on with Stuart Rosebrook.

   A ten-X Beaver Stetson floats upside down in the deep end of the swimming pool at the Westward Ho Hotel. 

   Above, in the gathering darkness, a fiery sunset lights up the sky.

CUT TO:

   A close-up on the license plate of a 1962 Rambler in the parking lot of J.D.’s in the River-bottom. As the camera slowly comes up we notice that the car is rocking. Muffled moans come from inside. The camera does a slow zoom into the back window and we see a Mexican Mariachi bobblehead on the dash with big eyes wobbling in the moonlight. The camera keeps pushing through the windshield and across the hood and we see another car—a 1957 Austin Healey—coming into the packed parking lot and we see the neon lights of J.D.s and on the marquee it says, Waylon Jennings Upstairs & Buffalo Springfield Downstairs. The camera continues it’s slow zoom-pan and we see a long line of patrons snaking out the door. One of them is a gawky kid with big ears and he says, "I turn 21 in five minutes and there's nothing they can do about it. They have to let me in. Man, this is going to be a night to remember!"

Best Poetry Comeback by An American Outlaw

   When Charles Boles, alias Black Bart the Po8 was in prison for his many stage robberies (where he often left doggeral poems) he was asked if he was going to write any more poetry and he answered, "didn't I tell you I have given up my life of crime!" 

"Black Bart Po8"

By Thom Ross

“There is no doubt fiction makes a better job of the truth. Because the truth is never just one thing is it? Life is layered, contradictory, always in flux. To try and pin it down is like trying to catch wind in your hands. But through story, through emotion, we get close to something that feels real.”

—Doris Lessing, “The Golden Notebook”