Road Trip Day 1

We’re on our way to Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida. It’s 17 plus hours by car.

We must be out of our minds.

Harry Potter here we come. My son is very, very excited. Karen and I are too. We’re stopping in Baltimore, Raleigh, and Atlanta on the way down with short stops in Richmond, Greensboro, and Charlotte for bookstores too.

We’re going to hit as many independent bookstores as we can.

It’s old fashion, door to door, at stores that probably don’t carry Open Wounds but which I’ll pitch the book too and try to build up some interest in through face to face contact – in other words building relationships. I think it’ll work. Even if it doesn’t I’ll meet some great booksellers and see some great stores in different parts of the country that I’ve never been to before and that will be cool.

Really.

It will be. Even if my butt is sore from the 4-7 hour days in the saddle, I mean car, and I’m hopped up on too much caffeine, way past my coffee limit (watch out for the Tazo Awake tea latte – it’s deadly too). That’s what vacation is for.

Adventure.

Today we left Jackson Heights four hours later than we thought we would. Basically we were right on schedule… for us.

We hit an hour’s traffic on the BQE in Brooklyn. It was sixty road workers, most carrying “slow” signs, a few with machines of some sort, maybe replacing the pavement, many standing around. It was like watching a battalion on parade in yellow and orange wearing hard hats. It was six lanes condensed down to one. It took an hour to go maybe a mile, maybe two. My hair was standing on end and I had a silent scream locked in my throat. My son’s face was pressed against the side window. My wife took mental pictures to use on twitter and Facebook later. No, really, we got through okay but it was an hour! We soared through to Baltimore from there.

In Maryland we saw one guy working on the road, a dust cloud surrounding him from some machinery he was using. One  guy. In yellow and orange. No sign-holders. No traffic jam. Thank you.

I’m writing from a Day’s Inn with an Indian Restaurant attached to it. I love Indian food so I wish we’d known ahead of time and ate here rather than the diner we hit along the way.

Tomorrow morning I’m going to Red Canoe Bookstore Cafe, while Max and Karen take a swim in the pool before we head to Raleigh. We’ll hit Richmond along the way and go to the Fountain Bookstore.

It is so good to be on vacation.

Two and a half weeks.

Day 1.