On Our Way to the Big Eclipse

Took us quite a while to get this blog started for the Epic Journey 2017, but here's the first entry, finally! Waiting this long makes for a long first blog. So don't feel like you have to read every word. We do this mostly for ourselves, so we can remember what happened to us, what we saw, and what we may have committed ourselves to! Here goes: We left home on Friday, July 28, and drove up to Pennsylvania, for the annual Lewis family reunion. We took two cartons of Jack's Civil War novel Storm Coming with us, as we had some deliveries to make along the way.

It rained on us most of the drive, but it wasn't too bad, mostly intermittent. The first book delivery was at the Smithfield Pharmacy: the pharmacist/owner is a history buff and stocks a lot of local history books (much of Jack's book is set in Smithfield) and he ordered 12 copies, so we dropped those off and chatted with him a while. Then we headed to Fairchance, PA, to drop off some copies to Nellie Budinsky, a Swaney cousin there. She is doing a good job of talking the book up to the Swaney family members around the area (the central character in the novel, AJ Swaney, is her ancestor as well as Jack's). Then we continued on our way north to the campground where the reunion was.

Had to set up camp in POURING rain by this time and the campground was muddy and puddly. Fortunately setting up camp for us means just pulling into the slot, so it wasn't bad. Jack's nephew Tom and his wife Pam already had their camper set up in the site next to us, so after a while we braved the rain and moved into their camper to chat, before calling it an early night.

It cleared off fairly early Saturday morning and the sun came out to dry things off--Yay! Had a good turnout for the reunion and it was a fun time. Pam and Tom were in charge this year and Pam had planned lots of "Family Olympics" games, like water balloon toss, relay races, hula hoop contest, etc. and it was entertaining for both participants and observers. The food was great (esp. Susan Hugh's pies!) and Jack's 97-year-old sister Hazel was there, so he got to spend a lot of quality time sitting and talking with her. It was a long day for her, but she was in great spirits and seemed to enjoy everything. We ended up volunteering to host the reunion at our place next year.

Spoons and Rocks - Let the games begin.

The Gold Medal Winners of the Lewis Family Games

We camped two nights, so Sunday morning we did more visiting and then set off for Tom and Pam's house near Pittsburgh--Jack had a radio interview scheduled for Monday morning with a talk show host at a large West Virginia station, and the host asked if we could get to a landline phone, for better sound. So we planned to spend the night with Tom/Pam and use their phone in the morning. Soon after we arrived at their house, Tom pulled out his beautiful little Thunderbird convertible and said we would go to see Jack's brother Tom and sister-in-law Joanne's gravesite, with their stones in place, which we hadn't seen yet. Tom and Jack rode in the convertible and Pam and Carol took their other car. (Carol got to ride in the convertible on the way home.) The cemetery is in a very peaceful, rural setting and the stones are personalized and beautiful.

Tom and Joanne - We miss you.

We had a delicious supper prepared by Pam and a great visit, playing music and singing for a good part of the evening. (Tom is a very good bluegrass/gospel/folk musician--plays many instruments but guitar is his primo one and he also had a banjo for Carol to play.) He and Pam sing great harmony together. Most enjoyable evening!

The 10-minute telephone interview the next morning went well--the talk show host is a friendly, folksy kind of guy, so it was nonintimidating and hopefully got the word out to a few more people in West Virginia who might be interested in reading the book. After the interview we packed up and headed on our way to West Virginia (Pam and Tom had both left earlier for work so we said our goodbyes the night before.)

We had decided to take advantage of our trip leg through West Virginia to do some book promotion and see if we could line up some lectures and newspaper articles, since we think West Virginia history buffs represent a good portion of the potential market for the novel (for those who haven't read it, it basically tells the story of how the state of West Virginia was born). So we planned to revisit the towns that figure heavily in the plot line. The first was Philippi, where the first real land battle of the Civil War took place. We stayed in a motel near there that we'd stayed in a couple of times before and liked--the Mountaineer Inn. It's quiet, reasonable, clean and has a great diner next door. We hadn't made a reservation and at first were told they were booked up due to a large church group visiting the area. But then when the reservationist saw that we were repeat customers, she did some figuring and offered us their honeymoon suite at a great rate! We stayed there for two nights--big jacuzzi in the room--nice!

After we checked in, we drove to the historic town of Beverly, where Gen. McClellan had his headquarters for a while in 1861. We visited the museum and discovered that the Rich Mountain Battlefield Association was having their board meeting that night, so we asked permission to attend and address the board members. (While waiting for the meeting, we drove up Rich Mountain to see the battlefield for the second time, this time from the opposite side. It's a neat, haunting, pristine battlefield--again, it figures heavily in the plot of Jack's book.) We attended the meeting and explained that the novel is all about the history of this area, and we handed out a few copies to the members and asked for their feedback after they have a chance to read it. It was a friendly group, and we got to meet one of the other authors we admire, Hunter Lesser, who wrote the best nonfiction history of the Civil War in West Virginia, Rebels at the Gate. We have plans to have lunch with him on the following day.

On Tuesday we did some work in the room and then drove to Elkins, where we were to meet Hunter for lunch. He is a smart and interesting guy, an archaeologist and a noted West Virginia historian of the Civil War era. He has had a copy of Storm Coming for several weeks and says that he likes it, and is willing to give us a good review quote when he finishes it, so that is great news. He also made some suggestions of contacts to talk to about book promotion. He is a flyfisherman as well, so he and Jack are kindred spirits!

After lunch, we dropped into the county library and talked to a couple of librarians who were very helpful. They would like Jack to come back for a presentation.

On Thursday morning we drove to Wheeling, WV and visited their central county library downtown. We donated a copy of the book to the library, and then one of the librarians promptly purchased a couple more copies. We spoke to a second librarian in charge of their educational programs, on Hunter's suggestion, about their Lunch with Books program, where they have authors in to give a talk during lunch on a Tuesday once a month. She asked if Jack would give a program in June next year, on West Virginia Day, so we booked it.
Lunch With Book - Ohio County Public Library - Wheeling, WV

After that, Carol visited Independence Hall in downtown Wheeling and spoke with the director of the museum, and she also indicated that she would like to have Jack there for a lecture sometime after the first of the year. So we definitely have another West Virginia book tour in our future.

In the afternoon we drove across the Ohio River to Steubenville, Ohio, to meet up with Gloria, the mother of one of our friends back in Oriskany, who had invited us earlier if we were in the area to visit a museum she's on the board of, Fort Steuben. She had done some "advance publicity" work for us (Gloria is a powerhouse!) and the museum store purchased 8 books. We toured the Fort and met her friend Jerry, who does a LOT of work with the Fort and is also on the board of directors of Fort Steuben and is running for mayor of Steubenville. We had a fabulous Italian supper with Gloria, and then attended an evening concert at the Fort of two "oldies" bands. It was a great day, of meeting and talking to some wonderful new friends. Their enthusiasm for Storm Coming was encouraging.

Gloria and Carol - Fort Steuben

Jack, Gloria and Jerry - Fort Steuben Gift Shop

We had a leisurely day of driving to the Louisville area on Friday, heading to another family party on Saturday, actually in Madison, Indiana, at the home of great-niece Miller Lynn Israel and her husband Michael. The occasion is Miller's 40th birthday and their 20th wedding anniversary. Their parties are known for fabulous fireworks displays, which we'd heard about for years but had never managed to see. They have a beautiful house on a hill overlooking the Ohio River. Michael and their daughter Rebekah (premed student) had spent days setting up the fireworks display, which was a BIG pile of explosives arranged on several platforms way down over the hill from the house and swimming pool.

Michael and Miller Lynn dance by their pool overlooking the Ohio River.

It was great getting to see Miller Lynn, Rebekah, and Michael again, and their parents Franklin and Joanne, who are particular favorites of ours, were also there for the party, so we enjoyed spending time with them. Great party, and the fireworks were jawdropping. It was like 35 minutes of nothing but "grand finale" fireworks! The cool thing is that we sat at the edge of the ravine and the fireworks were below us, so they exploded almost at eye level instead of way above. You almost felt like you were inside the explosions. Terrific! Another highlight was a bunch of us lining up on the edge of the ravine holding Roman candles and having Michael go down the line lighting them up--that was a pretty light show. And then Michael had a "surprise"--he and one of his buddies had spent time preparing "sleeves" of Roman candles--eight or ten per arm--and they came out, looking like those Transformer robots, shooting giant fireworks off their arms! Made me wonder whether Michael (a critical care physician) was trying to drum up more business for himself! Quite the spectacle.

Michael starts the fireworks with an impressive display of his own.

Sunday morning we went to church with the family at the historic Methodist church in Madison. We attended the contemporary service and both Rebekah and Michael took part in the service. Afterwards we went to lunch at the Key West Shrimp House and yakked for a couple more hours. Such a nice visit!

Historic Methodist Church In Madison IN. On far right Miller Lynn (Michele) and daughter Rebekah

The next few days were spent making our way West, driving across America's heartland. Carol had a book editing project so we drove half a day and worked half a day on most days. We stayed at a Walmart near St. Louis one night, and KOA campgrounds two nights. We dodged a nasty bullet at the KOA in WaKeeney, Kansas--we had been driving through a rainstorm for a couple of hours, and started seeing ice piled up on the roads, a snow plow on the interstate, disabled vehicles, and flashing lights as we approached our exit to the KOA. It turned out that we had just missed a massive hailstorm over the town of WeKeeney, with hail up to the size of softballs! All those who had been at the campground had major damage to their campers and vehicles--windshields and windows smashed, badly dented vehicles. The flowers and flowerpots at the campground were smashed and shattered. Fortunately no one was injured at the KOA, but at least one person had died on the highway due to the ice on the road. Unnerving! We decided to pay a little more attention to the weather as we're driving from now on.

Hail storm damage to windshield and dents all over body (not noticeable in photo).

One weird thing happened with the Roadtrek during the drive. At one point, the engine light came on (steady, not flashing, so not supposed to be an emergency). This had happened before so we weren't that worried about it. But then the vehicle started misfiring badly, losing power and jerking all the time. Carol was driving and managed to limp 9 miles to the next exit, where, magically (thank you, Lord) was a NAPA auto care and parts place. We got a manager to look at the engine and he immediately spotted a cable laying on the the manifold and thought it looked like it was arcing. He said the clamp probably was broken by the last person who worked on it and the cable started flopping around and landed there, where it could arc and would cause the symptoms we were having. He clamped the cable up where it's supposed to be using some zip ties and we test drove it--fixed the problem! Yay! He cleared the engine light issue--not sure if it was even related. (And we later purchased one of the engine code readers so we can interpret the problem if it happens again.)

Our next destination is the home of our good friend Kelly and her husband Todd, who live in Lakewood, Colorado, a suburb of Denver.