Two Journeys

I've just committed to joining my Austin friend, Vive, for ten days as she re-creates a trip her grandmother did when she was exactly her age, 37, using a journal she discovered among some old photographs and letters a few years ago. Vive's keeping a blog of her research, preparations, and musings, all of which will eventually become a book. (If anyone out there knows of someone with any kind of car sales or rental business who wants to sponsor the trip in exchange for a little publicity, please let me know.) She's starting in Bridgeport, Connecticut, on June 15th, traveling to L.A. through the northern U.S. and then returning via the Southwest. I've already seen much of the Southwest, so I was very interested in seeing places like Wyoming and South Dakota.

This will be a second road trip for Vive and me. She accompanied me when I moved to New York, sharing the cab of my trusty Ryder Truck. We stopped by the town in Mississippi where my father was in the seminary and by the Carolina town where she was once married to a fireman (we both held our breath when a fire truck pulled up alongside us for a long stretch, the men hoping to flirt. Fortunately the ex wasn't among them...).

I'm also investigating the possiblity of blogging the trip for my About.com site -- reporting on indie bookstores, local authors, local publications, etc. as I go. If anyone has information re the literary West (Minnesota, South Dakota, Wyoming, and Utah in particular), let me know. At the very least, I think I can do a few pieces on Western literature a la Brokeback Mountain.