'Book Tour'

A behind-the-scenes look at my recent trip to Central Oregon

BEND—I always laugh when someone who learns I spoke more than once on a trip says, “So, how did your book tour go?”

It’s like asking a Fern Ridge paddle-boarder how they enjoyed their cruise.

Once, at an event for American Nightingale at the Jantzen Beach Barnes & Noble in Portland, nobody showed up to have a book signed. I waited around for an hour. Still nobody. Finally, as I started to leave, a woman rushed up to me.

“Oh, oh, oh,” she said, handing me a book. “Will you sign my book? Will you sign my book?”

I took it from her and immediately realized a painful truth: It was not a book I had written. It was a book on goat cheese.

At that point, I was so desperate I briefly considered signing the book and sharing with her my favorite kinds of goat cheese, perhaps asking if she had any goat cheese recipes she’d like to share.

Given that I recently spoke multiple times in Central Oregon—four, to be precise—I thought it might be fun to take you along on the trip. Thought it might give you an unvarnished, behind-the-scenes look at an obscure author’s “book tour.” Consider it a boat ride on my stream of consciousness.

The April “tour” opened Thursday evening with a gig at the Sisters Athletic Club, which had welcomed me for two previous events (American Nightingale and The Wizard of Foz) and which, weirdly for an athletic club, always musters good turnouts. And great accommodations. I got to stay in a $350-a-night cabin (it’s the offseason) at the Five Pines Lodge, a counterbalance to what would be my Friday night accommodations: a $59-a-night motel in Bend that smelled like the waiting room of a two-star veterinarian clinic.

I checked in to the Pines, drove a quarter mile to my cabin, dressed for the event and drove a few hundred yards back for the talk. (I would have walked but had books to carry.) I walked through the door, pulling my suitcase of books, and thought: Hey, this looks and feels exactly like the Five Pines Lodge where I just checked in.

It was. I’d mistaken it for the athletic club, which was just down the way.

Sometimes you show up for an event, even at a major bookstore, and the staff seems a bit surprised to see you. I’ve had folks putting up folding chairs fifteen minutes before I was to talk.

This was different. Tate Metcalf and his staff warmly welcomed me to speak on Seven Summers (And a Few Bummers): My Adventure Hiking the 2,650-Mile Pacific Crest Trail.

People started arriving, which is always reassuring for a speaker. Among those people: two friends from my high school days 50 years ago, with their respective spouses. A nice surprise. Refreshments were served. The talk was fun. The audience lively. The questions good. The book sales steady. A wonderful evening all around.