After two school visits in Lubbock on February 22 I faced a long drive the next day over to Norman, Oklahoma. That night, I checked the maps and saw I would pass near the mystical town of Muleshoe on my way.

 

There's no way I can find it I thought. I'm an adult. Only children can find Muleshoe. Wait--that was back in the Wild West days, the era of the Hideout Kids. This is now. 

 

So I loaded the car the next morning and drove on up to Muleshoe. What a lovely town. I took a few pictures and decided that if in case I were to drive past the Mary DeShazo Elementary school, I would drop in a couple of books with the receptionist. At that very moment, completely by happenstance, I drove right past the school. I gotta go in! So I did, and I couldn't have met with a warmer reception from Principal Erin Boatmun and her staff. After hearing my story, she immediately called her student "Board of Directors" over the inter-school speakers and we did a short, impromptu school visit.

 

The kids were truly amazed to hear about this magical town which once stood within their city limits. I can't wait to go back.

 

Here is what Erin had to say on her school website:

 

"What a SURPRISE today! DeShazo had author Mike Gleason stop in and visit with our Muleville Board of Directors. He has written a book series, Hideout Kids, set in the town of MULESHOE! The first 4 of the 16 books are out with 4 more being released this year. Thank you Mr. Gleason for stopping by! We can’t wait to read them!"

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And I heard from the teacher Chantel Riley, who was so kind to get in touch via our site and posted this review of Tuff, Sadie & the Wild West: "I just finished reading the first book of the series to my reading classes. I teach in Muleshoe, Texas! This made it especially exciting for us to read! The kids' comments were that it was awesome, funny, loved it, are excited to read the second book, and they thought it was cool that the characters are kids! It was an easy and fast read. But, as a teacher, I loved that it had tons of context clues for the words the kids didn't know. I was teaching context clues at the time, and this book lent us wonderful passages for us to analyze for word clues! The kids are wondering about Billy, one of the characters- will he return in a later book? My students also liked the idea that the kids don't use real guns but slingshots, don't drink alcohol but drink sarsaparilla, and don't play Poker but play Go Fish! (cute adjustment for kids!!) Thank you, Mike Gleason for a great book using our town as the setting!!"

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Thank you very much, Chantel, and thank you, Erin for so graciously welcoming me. Here are a few pictures from my visit to my favorite town in Texas.