billbauer

We drove from Emporia, Kansas to the Twin Cities today: 599 miles, 8 hours and 22 minutes. I was shocked today when we crossed into Minnesota and noticed ice on a lake.  I had completely forgotten. We're back ... mostly.

This is the first of our two long days driving back north.  This is pretty much what today looked like. Actually now that I think about it, Texas didn't look like this at all.  In Texas, we would subtract the wheat and add "fines double in work zones" signs. Tonight we are in Emporia, Kansas having gone sans reservation again until about an hour away.  When we arrived a little after seven this evening, the hotel was sold out.  So I'm guessing that this is another limit to no reservations: time of day. Today's drive was about 690 miles in 10 hours, 35 minutes (total time in the car).  According to Miss Guided (the car navigation), we have about 585 miles remaining tomorrow to return to Summit View.  Our goal was to get half way today which I estimated to be about Wichita, Kansas.  Emporia is about 87 miles farther along than Wichita so we have made our "half way" goal.  Bev and I switched off driving every few hours so that made it a lot eas...

Today was the meat of this entire road trip, the American Booksellers Association Children's Book Conference.  This was the reason we commenced this road trip.  So, of course, we were not on the road today.  The car sat idle in the parking garage. Not that there weren't exciting moments today.  Whenever we get together with other independent booksellers from across the country we feel the passion and energy of matching books with buyers and helping to facilitate literacy and reading.  This conference was no exception.  Although many indies had a tough winter due to cold weather, the passion remains and optimism for the independent bookselling industry remains.  Nationwide, sales gains in 2014 so far have been modest but the number of independent bookstores across the country continues a four year trend of modest increases. We heard from Tim Federle ( Five, Six, Seven, Nate ) at breakfast this morning.  Tim has hung up his Broadway dancing shoe...

We checked out of our Kerrville hotel and picked up coffee in Comfort, Texas this morning for the drive to the LBJ ranch in Stonewall, Texas  (free range cattle) with a visit to Air Force one-half (LBJ's term) for the smaller Lockheed plane that landed here on the ranch (because the Boeing 707 Air Force One was too large to land here). LBJ spent one-fourth of his presidency at the "Texas White House" (a modest 8,400 square feet). After lunch at the Redbud Cafe in Blanco, Texas we headed to San Antonio for the American Booksellers of America Children's Institute conference. Brad Meltzer ( The Fifth Assassin , I Am Amelia Earhart , I Am Abraham Lincoln and out soon I Am Rosa Parks ) was our opening plenary speaker this evening.  The message of his speech was to think about our legacy, i.e., what our lives mean to (1) our family, (2) our friends and co-workers, (3) our community, and (4) strangers.  What would we like our obituary to sa...

We had a real luxury this morning because we didn't need to load the car to head to a new destination since we are staying two nights in hill country.  The guidebooks all say that the best place for breakfast is the Old German Bakery & Restaurant on Main Street in Fredericksburg and we joined the crowd.  While in the restaurant, we spotted friends from Cable who also are down here on vacation.  Small world. When we arrived, Main Street was nearly deserted except by the restaurant and the restaurant was packed.  I ate too much, of course.  So much so that I turned down a free high end chocolate sample moments later.  The desolation quickly changed. We spent most of the day shopping the downtown district of Fredericksburg only returning to the car when we couldn't carry more.  They have a nice mix of trinkets stores and higher end shops but a paucity of coffee shops. Later in the afternoon, we toured the Grape Creek Vineyards and sampled ba...

Before we got very far this morning, we stopped and had four days of road dirt washed off of the car.  Gas stations in Texas don't have car washes.  They say it is a water thing ... as in they don't have very much water.  So stand alone car washes are a big deal.  The one that we went to had easily fifty cars sitting around in various stages of wash.  The waiting room was almost as big as my house.  We got the cheapo bare bones outside only wash after first driving through the entrance in the wrong direction and making a U-turn in their driveway.  They are not impressed by Minnesota driving.  Maybe it is because I don't have a gun rack in my back window. With a clean car we start off across the north Texas countryside on sometimes curvy two-lane roads with, generally, 75 mph speed limits.  I don't even feel like taking my "extra 5 mph" that the police allow.  At one point while watching flat Texas scrub country roll by Beverly is hear...

I asked the person at the front desk of the hotel yesterday where to run this morning.  I was instructed to run to a park just north of downtown and given a map.  It turns out that it was all of half a mile to the park!  He wasn't much of a runner himself.  Luckily I had memorized the map which indicated a trail along the river so I got in my 3.7 mile run in 72 degree heat at 7AM.  A view of the river along the running path: After kicking back in the hotel room this morning after breakfast on the outdoor patio on the 16th floor, we toured of the Price Tower, the Frank Lloyd Wright highrise building that houses our hotel.  The building was built as a combination office tower and residential units.  We toured the 17th, 18th & 19th floors containing the original building owner's two floor apartment and the executive offices of the owner's company.  No photography was allowed.  Well worth the visit. We also don't have a picture but tw...

We spent the morning hiking around Eureka Springs which you know, if you've been here, is built into a hillside.  After breakfast at the hotel we hiked down through the main shopping area and took the hotel shuttle bus back up.  Eureka Springs is a cool, sort of Bohemian town and a neat place to visit. We found a cool book-themed stained glass window in the Carnegie library. On the way toward Bartlesville, we stopped at Roaring River State Park in Missouri for a short hike.  The river may be roaring on some days but this wasn't one of them. After being pleasantly surprised by Oklahoma speed limits, we arrived in downtown Bartlesville in late afternoon and checked into the Inn at Price Tower, another one of the Historic Hotels of America.  The Price Tower was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and is the only high rise structure built to a FLW design.  The upper floors of the building are a hotel.  This is the main reason we are in Bartlesville ton...

A good second day of the road trip.  Beverly and I are still talking to each other ... and having a good time. It was 41 degrees when we left the TC yesterday morning.  This morning in northern Missouri it was 28 degrees.  What is up with that?  I went for chilly morning run past the campus of Truman State University.  Kirksville really is running friendly: I also ran past WhyNotTat2s and TnTGuns.  We're in the south. We had a mid-day stop in Columbia, MO where we visited the Shelter Insurance Gardens and found spring before having lunch in the arts district at the Utopia Cafe (farm to table). We still have the blueberry and goat cheese pie and bread pudding for eating in our room this evening. On the way further south after driving through Lake of the Ozarks, we couldn't resist visiting Nancy Ballhagen's Puzzles in Sleeper, Missouri with over 3.100 different puzzles in stock.  Fancy it was not.  It's one of those places that ...