Thursday October 20, 2005

New Milford, Connecticut

I know, it's been a while since I wrote an update - well, at least my track record is better than Travis. Actually, I talked with Travis not long ago and he's doing fine. It looks like we'll be getting together sometime soon.

Now here's some of the scoop since our journey's end:

I've spent most of my Route 6 time working on the book. I've been shopping for an agent - and have a few dozen rejections to prove it! I'm starting to feel that they don't think the subject has a broad enough appeal. Also, doing all those pictures in color would make it expensive to print. I'm sending out another batch in the next two weeks or so. If we don't make any progress, I will be looking into self publishing. I'm sure we can sell enough books to at least cover our costs.

During these last few months I've also been giving talks to many local groups about our Route6Walk adventure. Today I talked with about 80 people in Ridgefield which is about 20 south of where I live. I have another talk scheduled in about a month and a couple of others farther down the road.

I do miss all of the people who were so good to us on the walk and think about them often.

Yesterday I was wondering how Todd Franco, formerly of Indiana, was doing. And I was wondering whether I ever sent a thank you note after our talk in Meadville-Linesville, PA. I must have. I'm always feeling bad that I never sent out enough thank-yous during the walk. Be assured, Travis, myself and Jim (the computer guy) are very grateful. [Ok, that's the end of the sappy stuff!]

On a personal level, I'm still adjusting to semi-retirement. I still write about one story a week for the newspaper. That keeps some money coming in. I may have to go out and get a second part time job in a while, but the book comes first. It's funny I used to be so envious of people who had lots of free time. Now that I have more time, it doesn't seem so special and things seem to flow in to take up that time! In some ways, it seems as though you're still just as busy as you ever were.

Pat and I are hoping to take a trip to Cape Cod in a month or two. I want her to see the Cape when it's deserted. It's so wonderful then.

That's it for now. I'll try to write an update every week or so from now on. Oh, I guess you've heard that before. This time will be different. Honest.