Illustration of a family with a child and a rainbow-colored van over Route 66, desert landscape with a straight road, surrounded by yellow sky, and a large number 26 with the words 'Sunshine Wagon' at the bottom.

26     SUNSHINE WAGON               

KEY CONCEPTS:  happiness, contentment, happy marriage, family life, good fortune, bringing items into the light.  (Corresponds to Sun)

MESSAGE:  Far out!  The sun is always beaming on the sunshine wagon. This free-spirited family of flower folk hit the highway in search of counterculture living.  They yearned to feel the wind blowing answers through their hair.  They hoped to hold hands and find harmony in nature’s delights, ditching mundane Midwest mores for good vibrations in the west.  California dreams for baby Sunshine’s bright future shine on the horizon.  Could you leave your cares behind to become like a newborn babe?  Here’s your chance.  This roadside reverie offers the perfect inspiration; sunflowers forever turn their golden faces to follow the sun.

Historic 66 provided the quintessential road trip experience to Aquarian Age travelers. The “Mother Road” promised perfect freedom to this young mother and her budding family.   Hippies used the old highway as a migratory corridor west.  Flower children’s exodus from constrictive corn belt traditions bore similarities to the earlier migration of their dust bowl-era forebears.  What they failed to recognize was that their departure was spurred by abundance, unlike the desperate journey of hard luck predecessors.  It’s one thing to choose destitution when tuning in and turning on, but quite another to limp away from a market crash and life-threatening blight. Or is it?  All adventures embrace the unknown.  Migratory Boomers kept America’s Main Street alive in the sixties when interstates encroached.  Meandering paths through tiny towns meant lower speeds.  This helped hippies hitch a ride…or limp a sputtering microbus all the way to the coast. 

When you draw Sunshine Wagon, you’ve boogied beyond your bad days, dear traveler.  “No” is only a response to a season...your ultimate answer is a great big, smiling “yes.”  Bask in the sunlight of happy times; don’t don blackout shades and complain about the dark.  If even a single ray of light glimmers, darkness doesn’t exist.  It’s not about the destination, man...your journey is the key:  let it all hang out and let the sun shine in.           

RELATED SITES: MUSEUM COMPLEX, PONTIAC, IL; HACKBERRY GENERAL STORE, KINGMAN, AZ; BROOKDALE FARM, EUREKA, MO; SUNFLOWER SIGN, BAXTER SPRINGS, KS; RT 66 HIPPIE CRICKET GIFT SHOP, SELIGMAN, AZ.