Monday September 19th

Arrrrrr!!
It be Talk Like A Pirate Day and I be needing to cast me books far and wide - Friday me books were scattered into the ocean (as a good pirate would) and me pirate heart was heavy as the misty rain swept them out to sea

Avast! me call to duty is at hand and I be off to the fair city of Eugene for to surrender me plunder to land-lubbing booklovers!

hmmm..this writing like a pirate thing is not so easy

Bloody Anne Flint be me pirate name.....releasing books be me pirate game

Thursday - what I really did

stayed up late on Wednesday with Dennis chatting about the book biz, it's highs and lows, and enjoying a cool clear Oregon fall evening - Thursday we drove around Eugene and Springfield and then I spent some of the afternnon just exploring downtown Springfield - interesting community and quite different from the energetic atmosphere of Eugene - I guess the university makes a huge difference there - Eugene had several interesting bookstores which I intend to explore later - Springfield has an wonderful Public Library - lots of comfortable seating - apparently enough internet terminals - a nice section just for young adults and a huge children's department - the place was quite busy and it was great to see so many folks actually using the library - bought a copy of books at the thrift store (what was I thinking - I'm supposed to be getting rid of books) - then Dennis and I drove up to Corvallis to meet the pirate guys - I got in too late on Wednesday night to meet them in Eugene but Corvallis is only about an hour away - what a sweet town but it needs more bookstores - hmmmm.....

anyway the book signing was at Grass Roots Bookstore, nice place, nice folks, funny pirates - run out an get a copy of Pirattitude and then have the pirate guys come to your town for a book signing - I tried to explain about my trip and how thrilled I was to meet them - got pics taken by their lusty wench and she promised to post them on their website on Friday - they plan on spending Monday at their faorite billiard parlour in Albany and I think I can stick around to see what that might be like

now I have to figure out where to go on Friday

Thursday continued.....

So on Wednesday after leaving Wyoming I found myself crossing Utah and decided that the road to Winnemucca looked interesting (what did I know - I'd never been to Winnemucca) - I started listening to Peter Mayles "Hotel Pastis" which is every bit as charming as his "A Year in Provence" - from Winnemucca I head north toward Oregon and I find myselof lost in Mayles tale of the burnt-out middle-age advertising exec, who decides to chuck it all in and restore an old building Provance by turning it into a hotel - wonderful writing - lovely images - funny dialogue - I'm sensing a theme now among my travelling companions - In fact I was enjoying the book so much I forgot to leave books along the way as I drove the back roads of Southern Oregon - there are some really interesting geothermal events happening at the wildlife refuge and I loved the caution signs for wild burros - I had orignially planned to drive up through the middle of the state to see the Oregon Bulge (thanks Dave Barry for alerting me to this unusual phenomena but it was getting late and it would mean camping along the way so instead I headed toward Klamath Falls and then up past Crater Lake leaving one book along the way at a rest stop (yikes - I forgot which book I left there) - I got a call from my friend Dennis in Springfield and decided to just drive on since I could make it there before it got too late- perhaps the mysterious volcanic development in Central Oregon can be explored on the way home

Wedneday...no it's Thursday

Ok so I lost a day somewhere on the road.....my laptop's battery needs to be replaced so I'm doing this from notes.....got to Cheyenne quite nicely Tuesday night and headed to Laramie to get gas....leave a copy of "The Cinderlla Complex" at a the gas station and then decided that I really didn't want to listen to music so I picked through all the books on tape that I nabbed from the library before leaving and settled on the abridged "Blue Highways"....now normally I'm a bit of a snob when it comes to books and would never have anything to do with abridged versions of anything but "Blue Highways" is one of my faves and it was the only edition that the library had...what can I say..it was perfect

I met the author many years ago at a library conference when the book was hot and life seemed pretty good for me...I couldn't really relate to the soul-searching introspective aspects but his writing is close to perfection....travelling the back roads of America...looking for something...not knowing what it was...gee is this starting to sound familiar? Anyway..it is always number one on my reading list and now it got me started on this little adventure

I drove through Wyoming late at night wondering what the heck I was up to and lo and behold the shooting stars seem to be coming out of nowhere...what a trip...hey, maybe I should leave that trashy novel at the rest stop or perhaps they need a little relgious inspiration......napped a little...drove a little and then before I knew it I was in Utah and the sun was up and I had to decide which way I was going before reaching Salt Lake City......

Finally.....

ok...it's 8pm Tuesday night and I just got the car loaded.....it's been undergoing a repair to the crankshaft pulley which set my trip back 2 days......I won't talk about the bank account

I'm off to Cheyenne to get a full tank of gas and then head West with the Night...uh oh...book title already...wasn't that Beryl Markham's book about her adventures flying around the world?...hmmmmm....a foreboding perhaps

The journey........

ok....so here I am getting ready to hit the road for a multi-state tour of the Western US which involves distributing books and registering them on BookCrossing and hoping to make it to Oregon in time to meet Pirate Guys and talk like a pirate on September 19th.....along the way I expect to resolve some unfinished mental business and start getting rid of the books that are weighing me down...since closing the bookstore last year I haven't found that path that I keep hearing about.....working in the Estes Park Public Library part-time and delivering pizzas the rest of the time isn't exactly following my bliss (hats off to Joseph Campbell)....let's see where the road goes......