Ailana’s Journal: Part 1—2026-06-25 (and Island Kids) (Patreon)

Most of this post is viewable by everyone. However, within the post is a line beyond which paid membership is required.

Some posts and sections of some posts are reserved for Supporters. AGI Stories content almost always appears on Patreon first, ahead of all other platforms. You get it first!

GOOD MORNING by Ailana Geven Keller

I guess I’m in a hurry today. Jason met me in the bathroom to take a good-morning picture.

“You’re going to tell the story, right?”

I nodded, and he smiled. “I think this is awesome.”

After dinner last night, we all had a few hours to put notes together and close out the content gathering for the day. Emily watched what I was doing with a lot of interest.

“You have to be really organized,” she observed.

“For fiction, too. You have to keep up with all your characters’ details.” She nodded, and then I said, “So, did you like the Bottle Tree Ranch?”

Emily tilted her head. “Um…sort of? It was cool when we first walked in. All the bottles and rusty stuff looked weird in a good way. Kel got some really cool pictures.”

Her tone suggested there was more to her answer. “But?”

“But after about ten minutes, it was mostly more bottles on more metal poles.” She shrugged. “If you’re really into Route 66 history or folk art, you’d probably love it. Or if you’re the kind of kid who automatically looks for the strangest thing in every corner.”

“And if you aren’t?”

Emily gave me an apologetic smile. “Then somebody needs to give you a mission. Find the weirdest bottle. Pick the tree you’d put in your yard. Take the most ridiculous picture. Something.”

“Otherwise?”

“Otherwise…” Emily drew the word out, then covered a yawn with her hand. “Roadside yawn.”

She fell silent as my mind raced. “I have an idea.”

She looked at me a little curious. "What is it?"

“What if you wrote about the places we visit, but from a teen perspective. Tell readers what is good about the places and what would bore teens. Give the places a…a…yawn rating based on whether teens would like them or not.”

She smiled. “That could be fun, I guess.”

“It could be more than fun,” I said.

“What do you mean?”

“I’ll call my agent. And Josh’s. Let’s see if we can sell your work as add-ons to our articles. I think they would make great sidebar articles.”

The rest of this chapter is exclusive to Patreon.

Emily was much harder to convince than Josh and Jason were. Josh called his agent before we got back to the hotel.

Emily looked at me like I was suggesting she could be a power forward in the NBA. “There’s no way this could happen.”

“It depends,” I said. “You’ll have to commit to writing a lot of them and submitting them with Josh and Jason’s travel articles. And some of my work would fit the idea, too. What would you have told parents about taking kids to the Everglades?”

She smiled.

I went on. “And you have to know that you’ll get more rejections than you get acceptances. If Josh sells three pieces, maybe one of the magazines will buy your sidebar, too. We’ll learn what markets like the idea, and which ones don’t. Maybe we can put together some agreements for package deals.”

She was still smiling.

“What do you think?”

She took a deep breath. “I guess the only thing I have to lose is time. Do you really think I can get paid for writing my ideas?”

I nodded. “I think so. Josh and I have agents who’ll catch the vision. They’ll help. “I think it’s really doable, and I’ll help you edit everything.”

“Kel can be my photographer,” she added. “Ideas from the teen point of view. Pictures, too!”

So that’s where we are this morning. And Jason is so excited that he wanted the story told before makeup and coffee.

I think this has a lot of potential. Let’s see what happens.

Help AGI-Stories grow… If you’re enjoying the stories, please tell others. Word of mouth referrals and your endorsements are the best way for things here to grow!

Support AGI with:• one-time contribution through TipTopJar.• one-time contribution through Throne.• Patreon Membership.

All characters in this story are fictional characters, their images generated with AI for AGI Stories. They do not represent any real person, nor is their appearance based on any real human.

KINGMAN AND BEYOND by Ailana Geven Keller

It’s midday, and we’ve made a few photo stops along the way—Needles and Topock, to name a couple. We’ve collected a lot of pictures and notes so far.

In Kingman, we stopped for lunch at a retro diner. Mr. D’z Route 66 Diner looks exactly like the kind of place Route 66 promised us: pink and turquoise booths, a checkerboard floor, walls packed with old pictures, and a glowing jukebox waiting in the corner.

It’s bright, cheerful, slightly over-the-top, and completely committed to the experience. We stopped for lunch, pictures, and the excuse to sit somewhere that feels like the road-trip version of stepping back in time. The homemade root beer didn’t hurt, either.

Kingman calls itself the Heart of Historic Route 66, and I understand why. The old highway doesn’t feel like a forgotten road here. It runs through the city’s diners, signs, museums, murals, and gift shops like everybody agreed the past was worth keeping around.

Some towns are places you drive through. Kingman feels like a place built to remind you why you started driving Route 66 in the first place.

Our next stop was… something.

Giganticus Headicus is a fourteen-foot-tall green head standing beside the road at Antares Point, east of Kingman. Artist Gregg Arnold built it during 2003 and 2004, apparently deciding Route 66 needed something that looked like an Easter Island statue, a tiki, and a giant roadside joke all at once.

I stared at it for a minute, took pictures, and still had no better explanation than: somebody had an idea and committed to it completely.

Honestly, I respect that.

Kel and Emily did their Roadside Yawn Meter pose because neither of them understood it—but it made both of them laugh, and they want to make it their next article. That may be the whole point. You stop, you look, you say, “What in the world?” and suddenly everybody is smiling.

Route 66 is very good at that.

I’ll be back tonight with a recap of the afternoon. See you then!

OUR FIRST ARTICLE by Emily Amos

Ailana, Josh, and Jason got this big idea that Kel and I could write sidebar articles to go with the pieces they sell to publishers. I don’t think they were just trying to keep us busy. Like, they think this is real.

After breakfast, I sat down with Ailana and sketched out some ideas. She almost made it not fun by starting me in Google Docs with folders, but a few minutes in, I saw where she was going and figured it was best to—as she said—start with the end in mind.

“It can get really out of hand fast,” she claimed, “if you don’t get organized on the front end.”

Well, Kel and I spent the whole ride working on yesterday’s stop. Ailana said we should share it and see what you think, so here goes!

Roadside Yawn Meter: Elmer’s Bottle Tree Ranchby Emily Amos and Kel Ryan

Yawn Factor: Medium—5 out of 10

Kid Verdict: Maybe: It looks really cool when you first walk in and is definitely different from anything you’ll see at home. After a while, though, it starts feeling like bottles on metal poles followed by more bottles on more metal poles.

Best Part: The whole place looks like somebody built a forest out of old bottles, rusty signs, tools, typewriters, railroad pieces, and random garage finds. Every direction has something strange. Kel liked the railroad-crossing sign covered in stickers and the bell hanging above it.

Boring Part: There isn’t much to do besides walk around and look. Once you understand the place, the surprise wears off pretty fast.

Parent Warning: Don’t tell your kids, “Go look around while I read every sign.” They may disappear into the RV and start asking when lunch is.

What Would Make It Better: Give everyone a mission. Find the weirdest bottle. Pick the bottle tree you’d put in your own yard. Take the funniest picture. Try to spot five things that aren’t bottles. A scavenger hunt would make it way more fun.

Kel’s Photo Note: Don’t only photograph the whole ranch. Get close to the stickers, rust, glass, bells, and strange little objects. The details make much better pictures than one giant pile of everything.

BACK IN THE CAR by Sasha Everett

Patreon Exclusive Content

After Emily and Kel finished their article on Elmer’s Bottle Tree Ranch from yesterday, they created a new comedy bit that Abbott and Costello would approve of.

It began innocently with a discussion of “diner” and “dinner” and how the doubled n keeps the i short. After a few miles, Emily was typing out the bit.

“Dinner?”

“Sure. At a diner?”

“Dinner at a diner? Which diner?”

“Dina’s?”

“Dina’s diner in the desert?”

“Definitely dinner at Dina’s Desert Diner. Disagree?”

“A Dina’s Desert Diner dinner sounds divine.”

“Then dinner at Dina’s Desert Diner it is?”

“Dessert?”

“Definitely!”

“So dinner and dessert at Dina’s Desert Diner. Deal!”

Clay probably enjoyed all that more than they did. Just saying.

GOOD NIGHT by Ailana Geven Keller

Hey, friends—it’s been a really good day. Travel was relaxed, and the conversation was great.

We had lunch at Mr. D’z in Kingman, then pointed ourselves east and started collecting roadside stories. From Hackberry to Seligman, Historic Route 66 gave us one memorable stop after another.

Giganticus Headicus made us laugh, Hackberry General Store gave us plenty to photograph, and Truxton and Peach Springs gave us quick stops for notes and pictures. We stretched our legs again near Grand Canyon Caverns before finally reaching Seligman around dinnertime.

It was one of those afternoons when the drive itself became the attraction—giant heads, old signs, dusty storefronts, snacks, bathrooms, pictures, and one more reason to understand why people still love Route 66.

Seligman feels like the kind of town that understands exactly what Route 66 is supposed to feel like. It hasn’t been polished into something modern.

It leans into the old signs, the weathered storefronts, the souvenir stops, the nostalgia, and the playful roadside energy that makes this whole trip fun. By the time we rolled in this evening, the light had softened, the neon was starting to glow, and it honestly felt like we had driven straight into a postcard.

The Historic Route 66 Motel, where we’re spending tonight, is part of that charm. It has that classic motor-court look that instantly makes you think of road trips from another era, but in the best way.

The neon sign is the star of the show after dark, and standing there with the old car and the lights coming on made this stop feel like the perfect ending to a long day on the road.

May you find one little stretch of road that feels like time slowed down just for you—and may tonight end in soft neon, tired smiles, and gratitude for the miles.

Good night.

One last thought to the paying members of Patreon…

Watching Emily and Kel embrace this chance to write has made me prouder than I expected. They did not treat it like another assignment the adults dreamed up to keep them occupied. They started asking questions, taking notes, comparing ideas, and figuring out how their different strengths could work together.

That also leaves me feeling responsible.

I told Emily this could become something real. I told her agents might understand the idea, publishers might buy the sidebars, and she might actually earn money from her words. Now I want to help make that claim come true—not by promising her an easy path, but by teaching her how to give herself the best possible chance.

I keep wondering what my life would have looked like if, at sixteen, I had been able to sit beside a working author and learn the ropes. What if someone had shown me how to organize ideas, shape a draft, accept edits, study markets, and keep going after rejection?

Maybe I would have become a writer much sooner.

Maybe I would not have become a model at all.

But then my whole life would be different. I would not have met the same people, made the same choices, or followed the path that eventually brought me to Jason, this family, and the life I have now.

So I am not looking backward with regret tonight.

I am at peace with how things turned out for me.

I just hope I can take what I learned along the way—both the good parts and the difficult ones—and help things turn out well for Emily, too.

Good night.

Message to Paying Supporters:

Thank you for helping support AGI Stories. I always consider you—the paid members—when deciding how content is shared.

As of now—late in June, 2026—between donations here and Instagram monetization, about 70% of the software costs are covered. That's huge, and it is because of you.

Because of your generosity, I am able to keep going.

~AGI Original Stories & AI Images