Lemonade Mouth Across America! Blog

Holy Homecomings! We Made It Back! (8 Weeks and 12,592 Miles Later...)

2007-08-26T22:05:18Z

Yowza! I can’t believe we did it! I’m amazed that 1) our car actually made it, and that 2) I'm sitting at home writing up the last blog entry. It's hard to find myself at the end of LEMONADE MOUTH ACROSS AMERICA!, my family's audacious, summer-long road-trip adventure across America and back in our little minivan. But here's proof that we really made it all the way back:

And here's the final tally:

Miles traveled: 12,592
Days on the road: 57
States visited: 38
Bookstores visited: Somewhere between 50 and 60*
Trips to the Honda Dealer: 3 (two oil changes, one $600 exhaust job)

*It’s hard to be sure of the exact bookstore count since, in addition to scheduled events, we also did a bunch of unscheduled drive-bys.

We’ve been home for a couple days now, and to be honest I’m feeling a little sad to be writing this last dispatch. But we all know what they say about all good things… Below are the following:

· “Oh my God! Did We Really Just Drive 13,000 Miles in a Bright Yellow Lemonade Mouth Minivan?”

· “Holy Crap, Was It All Worth It?”

· Closing comments from each of us

· What’s next?

· Stuff people have told me I ought to have done a while ago

But first: Let’s catch up:

MASSACHUSETTS

So, on Monday we drove south from Manchester, VT and after 56 glorious days away we finally found ourselves crossing the line into our very own home state (it’s a commonwealth, actually), Massachusetts! It was a strange feeling. We’d been gone so long and had visited so many beautiful places, and yet I think it made us appreciate our own corner of the country all the more. Before going to our own house, though, we thought we’d stretch out the fun one extra unplanned night to visit my family in Otis, MA in the Berkshires. Here we are with my parents, my sister Jennifer, and my niece and nephews – Sophie, Myles (our godson!), and Leo. :-)

KAREN'S SIDE-TRIP TO THE GARDEN STATE
On Tuesday, the kids and I hung out while Karen took a side-trip to visit her mother and to pick up our much-missed doggie, Wendel.

Here’s Karen:

Karen: While the others stayed in Otis I took at 7-hour side-trip (3.5 hour each way) to New Jersey to visit pickup my Mom, and to pick up Wendel, our dog (MARK: For those wondering, he’s a wild mountain cockapoo) and to celebrate my mother’s birthday before coming home to Massachusetts. Wendel spent the summer with my mother. Here are my mother and Wendel. Happy Birthday Mom!

HOME AGAIN! HOME AGAIN! JIGGIDY-JIG

And then, late Tuesday night after eight weeks, a zillion miles and a crazy number of states, we finally pulled up at our very own little white cape house! To our amazement, our friends had decorated it with a huge "Welcome Home" banner for the occasion…and even had a cake for us! Thanks Sylvia, Jay, Megan, Tia, and Grace! :-) What a wonderful surprise!

(By the way, all summer long while we were away Sylvia took care of things for us, checking in on the house, collecting our mail, sending us care packages, and doing countless nice things—including surprising me by cleaning out my little green Toyota. She's a wonderful friend. A very special THANK YOU to Sylvia!)

Okay, so that was our trip. After such a long and amazing adventure, I now feel the need to add a few end-of-trip comments, musings, and other stuff; and of course—“what’s next?” So here they are:

END OF TRIP COMMENTS, MUSINGS, AND OTHER STUFF—AND “WHAT’S NEXT?”

QUESTION: “Oh my God! Did We Really Just Drive 13,000 Miles in a Bright Yellow Lemonade Mouth Minivan?”
Answer: Yep. (Well, 12,592 miles, actually.)

QUESTION: “Holy Crap, Was It All Worth It?”
Two Answers:

Was it all worth it financially?:
Well, I don’t know. I don’t think I’ll ever really know. But to be honest, we didn’t really spend that much on this trip, considering. After all, we mostly stayed with friends, plus we did some camping. In fact, out of 57 nights we stayed at hotels only 10 times (11 if you count the youth hostel in Taos, NM). That’s not so much, really. And we kept the eating-out to a minimum by going to grocery stores, which we would have had to do at home anyway. And as far as visiting bookstores as a promotion for Lemonade Mouth, well, it can’t have hurt, right? And meeting book people sure is a lot of fun!

But, was it all worth it in general?:
Oh god, YES! We truly just had the family adventure of a lifetime. The kids will remember this for their entire lives—and so will Karen and I. The five of us saw the country, visited friends and family, met lots of new people, and had a country full of new experiences. It sounds shmulzy, but we really did have a great time every day. So, no question about it, it was so, so worth it! :-)

COMMENTS FROM EACH OF US

EVAN: My favorite parts of the trip were the roller coasters in Disneyland, especially the California Screaming, which is a super-fast, super fun roller coaster. I liked riding in the car because I got to read, I got to watch TV, and listen to music. I liked Texas a lot. There was a fun swimming pool in Fort Worth and it was a lot of fun walking around the cowboy stores and stuff too. I liked the twin cities. I liked the aquarium in Atlanta. I liked seeing the buffalos in Yellowstone Park. It was just a scary fun experience. I liked the rodeo in Wyoming, too. The trip was a lot of fun. I would probably do it again.

LUCY: I remember the Grand Canyon, Count Mushroom (that’s how Zoe says Mount Rushmore), Lake Huron. I’m sad it’s over but I’m happy to be back home.

ZOE: I liked swimming where Gigi took me (MARK: a lake in Ft. Worth, TX), I also saw Buffalos. We were going to see wolves but we couldn’t because they were hidden (MARK: She’s talking about Yellowstone Park). Also the beach Dylan took us, too (MARK: She’s talking about Lake Huron). That water was so, so cold. We have a dog, he is crazy and hairy.

KAREN: First thought, I had no idea the US was so big, so vast and so different. Corny yes, but it made me proud to be an American. New Mexico and Wyoming were my favorite places. Second, I had a chance to spend time with wonderful people (long time friends, family, new friends, and people we met on the way)….that was the best part of the trip. Third, I have never been to a rodeo, ridden in a Sturgis bike rally (driving “Penelope” – our car- does count!), worn a cheese hat, ate southern food, and slept with bears and rattlesnakes! It doesn’t get better than that. I wish I could keep traveling!!!!

MARK: I don’t want to sound too gushy, but I loved everywhere we went for different reasons. Here are a few random highlights off the top of my head: the sunset in Cedar City, UT; the rodeo in Cody, WY; the longhorn parade in Ft. Worth, TX; reading on the porch next to Lake Huron in Ontario; screaming like a little girl on a scary high-speed roller coaster loop-de-loop with Evan and Lucy in Disney’s California Adventure (years ago I swore I’d never go on a ride like that, but the kids convinced me), Zoe grinning on a mechanical pony in Taos, smooching with Karen at the Grand Canyon…I could go on and on, but I’ll stop there.

THANK YOU: Thanks to all the family and friends, old and new, who we saw along the way. Thanks to the many wonderful bookstores that hosted us. A thousand thanks to Susan Green and Sylvia Rodgers for all your help. Special thanks to Karen, Evan, Lucy, and Zoe for being such terrific adventure partners. I’m so glad we had a chance to do this together. Big love to you all. And finally, thanks to you for coming along with us on this journey—I’m thrilled by the great response and the many, many kind emails I’ve received. What a great feeling to know that so many were interested in my crazy family’s audacious trip! And the response to this blog truly added to our adventure. Thank you!

WHAT’S NEXT?

It’s Saturday morning as I type this, so we’ve been home for three full days now. For years, Karen and I have been planning to switch roles eventually, where I’d quit my full-time day-job working for other people and instead stay at home with the kids while she goes back to work. And so that’s what we’re doing. As you know, I quit my job this past March. Two days ago Karen started working full-time again after more than ten years at home with the kids—she’s a Spanish teacher at Shrewsbury High School. (Yes, I’m a lucky man. Big love to you, Karen!)

Here’s Karen home from her first day of work.

The students aren’t back at school yet until next Tuesday, and so it’s been teacher-prep stuff so far. Yesterday (Friday), the kids and I went in to help her decorate her newly-assigned classroom.

And here I am two days ago (Thursday), my first-ever stay-at-home-dad day, walking back from Starbucks with the kids and Wendel. (The kids got hot chocolates, I got a tall Verona, and the dog got a nice walk).

STUFF PEOPLE HAVE TOLD ME I OUGHT TO HAVE DONE A WHILE AGO

A few people have emailed saying that I haven’t talked specifically about Lemonade Mouth, the novel, much in this blog, and that unless I do, I’m wasting a good opportunity. So, if you’re interested, below is a link where you can read the first few pages. The book is about five high-school outsiders who get in trouble, meet each other, and form a very strange rock band that changes the world.

Click on the image to read the first few pages

HOW YOU CAN HELP:
Another thing people have often asked me is "How can I help you? Is there anything I can do?" Well, it's a generous thought, and yeah, since I'm not J.K. Rowling or Philip Pullman I sure could use a little help getting the word out about my books. So, if you're willing, click here for some ideas of how to help.

ONWARD TO THE NEXT ADVENTURE!

But hang on…we’re nowhere near the end of our adventures!

Next up: Being a stay-at-home dad, taking care of three kids and the house, and trying to write my next novel whenever I can find a moment. So…fasten your seatbelts! Off we go!

Best,
--Mark

LEMONADE MOUTH (Delacorte Press, 2007)
I AM THE WALLPAPER (Delacorte Press, 2005)

A State Shaped Like a Hand, Spanish Speaking Canadians, and a Whole Lotta Pigs: MI, ONT, NY, and VT

2007-08-23T04:55:50Z

Sunday, Aug 19 4:20pm:
As I type, we’re roaring down the New York Throughway past Exit 31 to Utica, NY. Karen is blasting the Lemonheads album It’s a Shame About Ray, the album that gave us our son's name (after Evan Dando, the singer/songwriter). Outside the window, it looks and feels like we’re almost home. So far our minivan has traveled almost 12,000 miles in 54 days, with only 2 sunsets left until we’re back at our little cape house in Wayland, MA. :-)

Let’s catch up:

MICHIGAN

On Tuesday we arrived in Michigan, where we stayed with our friend and Karen’s college housemate Kelly McDonnell (no nickname—go figure). It was a quick visit of only one night, and Kelly made us a delish BBQ and we pretty much just hung out—just what we needed. Thanks, Kelly!

The next day we were off to meet the pastor who married us eleven years ago. We hadn’t seen Father Lew Towler since September of 1996, but we called and asked if he wanted to meet us for coffee—and he said yes! So…we were psyched to drop by and say hello. :-) First, some quick background on our wedding:

We were married in Wickford, RI in the Old Narragansett Church, a tiny, 200-year-old colonial church built in 1707. The wedding took place in a hurricane (Hurricane Fran) so it poured with rain and roared with thunder and lightning and was very dramatic. For our reception afterwards, guests dressed up as either something Latin (Karen’s family is from Argentina) or something English (my family is from England). So people came as burritos, teabags, mad cows, banditos—you get the idea. Anyway, here are a couple of pictures, including one of Father Lew dressed in some kind of British military outfit (he’s on the left, next to my father). Father Lew is a fun and funny guy:

So…here we are with Father Lew eleven years later—with his dog, Bella. Lew moved from RI to Ann Arbor, MI in 2000-ish. It was so cool to meet him again. Still a warm, sweet guy. Terrific to see you again, Father Lew! :-)

By the way, Ann Arbor was great—a busy college town with a lot of coffee shops. We wished we could have stayed there longer.

ORIGAMI AND CRISPY NOODLE SNACKS IN WEST BLOOMFIELD, MI

That night we stayed with our friends Greg and Tomie, their kids Alex, Amelia, and Skyler. Here’s Evan:

EVAN: This was a very enjoyable part of the trip because we got to try Japanese snacks like chocolate covered macadamia nuts and crispy noodle snacks, and we played Japanese video games and it was very relaxing. Alex was very nice. He taught us how to make origami boxes and he played a lot of games with us. Greg and Tomie made us a very good dinner of roasted chicken and a great breakfast too.

Thanks, Greg and Tomie, Alex, Amelia and Skyler!

O CANADA!

We had a quick and easy ride passage through customs and then, on Friday, we arrived in Ontario, Canada.

LAKE HURON

We were lucky enough to spend a couple days visiting our friends Philippa and Steve and their son Dylan (Look, Daddy! Actual Canadians!) on their lake house near Bayfield, Ontario on beautiful, amazing, magical Lake Huron. It perfect and relaxing:

Here’s something weird about me: I keep a list of the very best years, months, weeks, days and hours of my life. Apart from the obvious births, weddings, etc., my list includes things like the day I spent writing in the shade overlooking a coffee farm in Costa Rica, and the three hours I spent in Tijuana in April of 1996 – these are some of the best, best times of my life. This trip will definitely go on the list, of course. But in particular I’ll also have a separate entry for the two hours I spent on Saturday morning reading on Phil and Steve’s porch. It was fantastic. I took a picture – here I am, enjoying Harry Potter 7 and just listening to the waves:

Thanks, Phil and Steve!

THE VILLAGE BOOKSHOP

The village of Bayfield, Ontario is home to a friendly independent bookstore with a devoted following of local readers. Right on the main thoroughfare of town, the store gets its share of tourist traffic, and it also hosts many author visits including big-name Canadian authors like Margaret Atwood and Jane Urquhart. Here I am with bookseller Mary Wolfe. Thanks for your support, Mary! It was great to meet you!

LUCY IS STUNG BY A CANADIAN BEE

In the park in Bayfield, Lucy was stung on the shoulder by a Canadian bee. Lucy was very brave, and screamed only briefly. A pastry from the local bakery worked miracles. Bzzzz, eh? (Something to ponder: Due to the exchange rate, are Canadian bees only 90% as painful as U.S. bees?)

TORONTO, ¿QUE PASA?

As it turns out, everyone in Toronto speaks Spanish. At least everyone I met there did. We stayed with Karen’s cousins Victor and Betty, and their lovely family—they’re all from Argentina, Venezuela, and parts thereabouts. Here’s Karen.

KAREN: Wow! I never expected to do a US road trip and to find myself in Toronto at a “Parrillada” with my extended family from Argentina! It was awesome! For those of you who don’t know, a Parrillada is a giant barbecue with beef, sausages etc (many types of meat are cooked in a special Argentine way and are very, very tasty!) I officially vote my cousin Victor as the Supreme Parrillada Chef!! I met my cousin Andrea who lives in Montreal (Victor and Betty’s Daughter…Ana, Andrea’s sister is in Belgium..hi Ana!). I also met Andres, a cousin that I haven’t seen since I was a wee little child! There were lots of other cousins there too. We all ate, drank lots of wine, and spoke in Spanish. Mark held his own really well, did you know that he speaks Spanish too? I can’t wait to go back! Besos a todos!!

Another trip through customs--including a looooong, sloooow traffic jam to get across the border--and we’re back in the U.S.A! :-)

NEW YORK

NIAGARA FALLS

We stopped in Niagara Falls this morning. It was rainy and crowded, and the surrounding streets looked disturbingly like Las Vegas. But you can’t see that in the photo:

This part was written the following day...Monday, Aug 20 6:30pm:
FLYING PIGS FARM

We arrived last night in Shushan, NY on the far eastern border of the state. It's a green, hilly area that looks like something out of the old sitcom where Bob Newhart used to run a hotel. (I know, I know…that was Vermont not New York--but Vermont is almost literally a stone’s throw away!). It’s also the home of Flying Pigs Farm, which is owned and run by my friends Jennifer Small and Mike Yezzi—I grew up with Jennifer in Barrington, RI and have known her since kindergarten. We were lucky enough to spend a day there. It truly felt like something out of Dick and Jane Go to the Farm. There were pigs and cows and roosters and all the other usual suspects. Evan even got to do some chores, and we all stepped in plenty of animal poop. It was so much fun! Here’s Evan:

EVAN: There were lots of pigs and chickens and three cows. I got to collect the eggs from the chicken roosts. Some of the chickens were vicious, but I wore a glove to protect my hand. One of the chickens pecked at an egg in the egg basket and ate the inside. That chicken was a cannibal! Or was it a chicken-ibal?!

It was great to see you, Jen and Mike! Thanks for a memorable day on the farm!

VERMONT

NORTHSHIRE BOOKSTORE

We've just finished our final official book stop—Northshire Bookstore is a fantastic, big independent in Manchester Center, Vermont. They obviously had one heck of a Harry Potter event because in addition to having an entire “stone” entrance to Hogwarts, they also had a giant Sorting Hat and an absolutely humungous spider. Here I am with event coordinator Linda Ellingsworth and general manager Chris Morrow. Thanks, guys, for making my last official bookstore stop so much fun!

But hang on…we’re still not quite done with the trip yet! There’s one more day to go!

Next blog entry: The Berkshires, home, and deep questions like, “Oh my God! Did We Really Just Drive 13,000 miles?” and “Holy Crap, Was It All Worth It?”

Best,
--Mark

LEMONADE MOUTH (Delacorte Press, 2007)
I AM THE WALLPAPER (Delacorte Press, 2005)
www.markpeterhughes.com

Misunderstood Lands, Prairie Lands, and Dairy Lands: South Dakota, Minnesota, and Wisconsin

2007-08-16T02:29:47Z

So far we’ve gone 10,956 miles in 49 days, with only 6 days to go. As I type we’re whooshing down Route I-94 heading toward Michigan. Not too long ago we went into Indiana, a state we’re passing through for only a few minutes—but it still counts! :-) The grass and shrubs have definitely looked more shaggy since Illinois, but that’s new. For the past few days we’ve been in clean, manicured farm country.

Let’s catch up:

Wall Drug, SD and the Badlands

Wednesday, the day after we saw Mount Rushmore, was a long driving day (about 700 miles!), but Karen is never one to let a cool-sounding place pass by without calling out “Stop!” So that’s what we did in Wall Drug, South Dakota, where the annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally was in full swing. The entire town, which was originally built around a drug store, was filled with bikers, bikers, and more bikers. How could we pass up a chance to buy a Harley Davidson t-shirt in the biker heartland of America?

BIG, BAD BADLANDS

The badlands: Truly bad, or just misunderstood? Here’s Evan:

EVAN: The Badlands were covered with white rock and it seemed sort of like the moon. It was very hot and I liked it because in some places the rock was burned so badly that it made colors (Mark’s note: actually, this was different levels of sediment—and way cool) and suddenly when you leave the Badlands it looks like you’re in the regular world again. There were a lot of motorcycle guys everywhere too.

Minnesota

So then we reached Minnesota. The photo above was the most difficult "entering a new state" photo we've taken. The sign was on the highway, and we had to climb up a hill, through some brambles, and then squeeze into a tiny area of dirt in the middle of some bushes. Note that Evan is parting a shrub with his arm so the state name can be seen.

In Minnesota we stayed Chaska, just outside of Minneapolis, with our friends Patricia Danielson, Vicki Boeddeker, and Mike Weinkauf. Patricia took a couple of days off work to show us around the Twin Cities. We saw first-hand the damaged remains of the collapsed bridge on I-35W—just awful. Five weeks and two days after crossing the Mississippi in the south (into Louisiana), we crossed it in the north. It’s a lot calmer in the north! We also saw the beautiful state capital building. Thanks Patricia, Vicki, and Mike!

A note from KAREN: Mark asked why I’ve only been writing about bad experiences. I don’t see it that way, I see them as different experiences than life in Wayland, MA. For example, my 2^nd night in Vicki’s house. Here we are, comfy cozy, away from bears and rattlesnakes, what else could happen at night? My first big lightening storm on the prairies of Minnesota, that’s what!! Holy cow ! I got out of bed and was blinded by the flashing lightning, and then jumped out of my PJ’s when I heard the loud crack and kaboom of the lightning right outside the window! Did a tree fall down? Did we get hit by lightning? Another night of no sleeping because of fear!! The next morning, as usual, everyone including Mark said it was a normal storm, no big deal . WELL, we got an email from a friend in the area who said the storm blew out windows like a tornado and power was out for a few days. She asked if we were in the eye of the storm! See, I’m not crazy!!

WILD RUMPUS

Wild Rupus was wild indeed. An amazing independent bookstore in Minneapolis, the whole store was designed to look like it was transforming from an inside space to the outdoors. Helping to create the effect were a whole menagerie of animals, including chickens, ferrets, Australian flying squirrels, fish, tarantulas, rats and many more. The kids were in heaven. Here we are with Manager Kristin Bergsagel bookseller Josh Harrod, Poopsie the ferret, and a Japanese chicken named Elvis. Thanks, Wild Rumpus—you are terrific!

THE RED BALLOON

Like a matching bookend to Wild Rumpus in Minneapolis, St. Paul is home to another amazing bookstore called The Red Balloon. Susan Hepburn was a terrific host, serving up lemon drops and lemonade. The Red Balloon is another must-visit bookstore for anyone the St. Paul area!

As a nice surprise, we were lucky enough to meet Shelley Swanson Sateren, fellow SCBWI member and author of the middle-grade novel Cat on a Hottie’s Tin Roof. Here’s Evan’s review:

EVAN’S REVIEW: Cat on a Hottie’s Tin Roof is a fun book about a girl who is geeky who when her friend moves away from Paris she finds a new friend who is stylish and cool. It was an interesting story because it’s interesting to see how a girl with so much smarts can try and be cool and fit in with everyone else. You should read it.

It was great to meet you, Shelley!

BACK TO THE HONDA DEALER ONE MORE TIME

Penelope’s rattling got kind of dubious so we stopped at the Honda dealer in Hopkins, MN. $560 later, (replaced ‘severely cracked’ exhaust manifold and gaskets, oil change, new battery) the minivan sounded a bit better—at least for the first twenty miles or so. After that, we’re pretty much back to the rattling we started out with. Oh well, it’s only money. :-)

Here’s Shane Beals, the Honda guy who washed Penelope—she badly needed it. Thanks, Shane!

Wisconsin

Next we drove through Wisconsin, a land of beautiful manicured farms and more red barns than you can shake a cheddar wheel at. So lovely!

In Green Bay we stopped to see a surprisingly large athletic facility where a local team plays a sport that apparently involves feet and leather hats. I hear that the locals are rather enthusiastic about it.

BUTTERFLY BOOKS

Just south of Green Bay, in DePere, is Butterfly Books, a roomy and cheerful independent bookstore run by Barbara Wilson. Barbara and her friendly team of booksellers were very kind, staying open later than usual on a Saturday afternoon just so that we could visit. Here I am with Barbara and Samantha Parker, bookseller and saxophone player. Great to meet you!

ROLLING AROUND IN PAIN IN MILWAUKEE

In Milwaukee we stayed with our friends Posh (really Josh, but he’s yet another friend with a mysterious nickname given by Karen) and Boris. They showed us around Milwaukee, and took us for custard at Kopps, a Milwaukee thing-to-do. The custard was a lot like ice cream except a lot denser—it’s made with eggs and who-knows-what-else and it sneaks up on you. Thank god I only had a small cone—by bedtime I felt so full that I rolled around in pain clutching at my stomach. But honestly, it was so tasty it was worth it! :-)

MILLER TIME

As any fan of Laverne and Shirley can tell you, Milwaukee is home to many breweries, so how could we pass up the opportunity to tour the Miller factory?

CREEKSIDE BOOKS

In beautiful Cedarburg, WI, about twenty minutes north of Milwaukee, is the terrific Creekside Books. Owner Glen Switalski is a man with an amazing story: After his doctor told him he needed to lose weight, he lost well over 100 lbs by exercise, diet and sheer force of will. Today he can be seen riding his exercise bike in and around his store every day. The guy is an aerobic, bookselling powerhouse! Creekside Books is a great independent bookstore, and Gary is a truly an inspirational guy.

Here I am with Lindsay McLaughlin, a reader and artist who came to see me. She was fun to talk with, and very helpful in suggesting places we could go in the area. Great to meet you, Lindsay! :-)

Illinois: An All-Too-Short Trip Through the Land of Lincoln

Southward from Milwaukee...! Unfortunately, we had only a few hours in Illinois. Still, it counts as state number 31 on our trip! :-)

UNDER THE SYCAMORE TREE

In Grayslake, Illinois, about forty minutes north of Chicago, is a magical bookstore called Under the Sycamore Tree. A new independent store, owner Jackie Harris opened up shop this past November. It’s a roomy, bright place with a big “sycamore tree” inside. The store has taken inspiration from Wild Rumpus (see Minnesota) and filled its space with wild animals. My kids were in their element. Zoe ran at me with a giant grin and a very big python named ‘Snakey’. Under the Sycamore Tree is yet another example of how independent bookstores tend to be run by smart, thoughtful, nice people. Jackie, it was a pleasure to meet you!

Here I am with Jackie and her daughter, Haley:

CHICAGO
Because we’re meeting a friend in Michigan later today, we had only about an hour or so to see Chicago. I know, I know—not even close to scratching the surface. So on top of just driving around a little, we decided that with our limited time we’d stop by Lake Michigan. As far as my eyes could tell, the lake might as well have been an ocean. Way cool. Next time, we’ll plan to spend more time here!

Our Trip Through Indiana: Don’t Blink Or You’ll Miss It

If you thought our stop in Chicago was too short, Indiana is only about a half hour of highway to us. Still, it counts as state #32. :-)

Next stop, Michigan!
--Mark

LEMONADE MOUTH (Delacorte Press, 2007)
I AM THE WALLPAPER (Delacorte Press, 2005)
www.markpeterhughes.com

Large Hairy Animals, Rodeos, 4 Big Heads, and A Whole Lotta Nothin’: Lake Tahoe to Mt. Rushmore

2007-08-08T07:14:51Z

10:23 AM Tuesday, Aug 7:

For those keeping track, our van has so far driven 9,024 miles since we left home. We passed the 9,000 mark yesterday, 13 miles west of Cody, WY. This is the 42^nd day of our trip. We have 13 days left to go.

I can’t believe I’m in a hotel in Wyoming. Wyoming! To me it seems so far away and unlikely, it’s almost like being on Mars, except with cowboys. We went to an old-fashioned photo place in Jackson Hole, WY a couple days ago and had this photo taken:

Look at Lucy and Zoe's faces in particular. Don't they look like they'd shoot you as soon as look at you?

Not a lot of bookstores since my last update—not only because there aren’t a lot of antelope, rattle snakes, or bears who care for YA literature, but also (okay, mostly) because I didn’t schedule much for this leg of the trip—I wanted to make sure we enjoyed the national parks and cool cowboy stuff while putting some miles behind us.

Let’s catch up.

BURNING UP IN LAKE TAHOE, CA

When we got to Lake Tahoe, Evan still wasn’t feeling very well. Thankfully a very generous friend, Michael Zifcak, had let us use his condo in Tahoe for a couple of nights so we had a little time to rest and let Evan get back on his feet. (Thanks, Michael!) But the first night, he had a fever of 103.5 F so we ended up taking him to the local urgent care clinic. The doctor said he just had a virus and that the only thing to do was to let him ride it out. Almost immediately, Evan had a miraculous recovery. I’m not sure why, but there you are. He’s been fine, fine, fine ever since (and that was almost a week ago), and we were able to enjoy beautiful Lake Tahoe. We only wished we had more time there.

Here I am at Neighbors Bookstore, a local independent, with bookseller Sue Ottman. Support your local independents! :-)

A LONG DRIVE THROUGH A WHOLE LOTTA NOTHING

...Then back eastward through Nevada, heading toward Idaho. One thing that has impressed me as we’ve driven through the western half of this country is how much nothing there is. You can drive for hours and hours and only come across maybe one little town made up of a gas station and a couple of trailers. Really.

We drove through Carson City, the capital of Nevada, and were surprised by how little the state legislature building was. To my eye, it looked only a tad larger than your standard McMansion. It was tiny! We’ve seen a lot of state capital buildings on this trip, but this one warranted a photo. These are not big government fans...

OREGON (SORT OF)

I hadn’t realized we were going to go through Oregon, but there it was. We ended up cutting through the southwest corner—which was another long stretch of nothing. But it counted as a state! I think that brings us up to a total of 37 for the trip??

OUR OWN PRIVATE IDAHO

I didn’t know much of anything about the state except for the B52’s song and the movie Napoleon Dynamite. But the truth is, Idaho sneaks up on you. The drive from the Oregon border to Boise is one of the most stunningly beautiful that we’ve had the whole trip. Farmland, green hills, lovely countryside, lakes, clear blue skies and beautiful, sunny weather, which I’m told they have almost every day. I’m not surprised why so many Californians are moving out there.

We stayed with our friends Glenda and Bill, who live in Meridian just outside of Boise. We met them in Alaska last year in a hot tub (along with their daughter Melissa and their son-in-law Leighton—who are off somewhere eating Swiss chocolates in the Alps now), and they invited us to visit them sometime. Well, here we were! :-) They fed us and gave us comfortable places to sleep. After breakfast in the morning, we met their brother-in-law Tony and the kids got to jump in a trampoline. Thanks so much for your kindness, Glenda and Bill! See you in Boston sometime soon!

WYOMING

Wyoming made a dramatic entrance. The pictures can’t do it justice, but here they are:

MOSEYING THROUGH JACKSON HOLE

Here’s Karen…

KAREN: Jackson Hole is a cowboy village just south of Grand Teton National Park. I loved it. My favorite part was the Million Dollar Cowboy Bar, which was packed with cowboys, drinking, and two-stepping. Unfortunately, they wouldn’t let us in with three children. (Note to self: Come back another time without children!)

GROPING OUR WAY THROUGH THE GRAND TETONS

KAREN: We left Jackson Hole and spent the next fifty miles driving slowly in the dark trying not to hit any large animals who might suddenly leap into the road. There were bright blinking signs everywhere warning us about frequent fatal collisions with wandering elk and buffalo! Nice relaxing ride!

EVAN: We ended up getting to Teton National Park at 11PM and we went to a park ranger and asked him where the cabins were. The park ranger said all the cabins were full. We protested because we had a confirmed reservation. (MARK: This is true!). The ranger said sorry but we could still camp. And so at midnight my mom and dad set up the tent by the headlights of the car. The next morning when we were ready to leave we tried to turn on the car but the car battery was dead! And so we had to get the park rangers to get a truck to jump-start our battery.

AVOIDING GETTING EATEN OR GORED IN YELLOWSTONE PARK

Zoe will now describe Yellowstone Park. Note: She did this in English, so no words were changed:

ZOE: I saw a lot of buffalos and I couldn’t stop looking at them. I saw a buffalo that was in the water and it swam all across to the other side. I saw tons of buffalos and I saw just right now some cows (MARK’s comment: She means now, two days after Yellowstone Park, because we’re now driving through central Wyoming now as she’s talking and I’m typing) but not a lot of cows, just a teeny bit. And we were about to see wolves (MARK’s comment: She’s talking about Yellowstone again) but we couldn’t because we needed special binoculars ‘cause they’re far, far away. And we went in a bridge where we could see a bunch of volcanoes (MARK: Not really—they were steaming geysers with very hot springs and bubbling mud) and they were really, really stinky (MARK: from the sulphur) and we couldn’t touch them because they were lava and they were hot and if you touch them that would be weird.

Camping in Yellowstone was quite the experience...

MARK’S VERSION: Karen was very nervous about sleeping in a tent in bear country. Who can blame her, right? There were signs on every corner warning about bear safety. But Karen was way nervous. I mean way. She kept jumping at the slightest sound. And then at 4:30 A.M. she woke me up by pounding hard on my chest several times and then whispering urgently in my ear that she’d heard some kid in a nearby tenting screaming and that there was a bear outside. Now, it’s possible that there was. I don’t know. But in the morning I asked the nearby campers and nobody knew anything about it. But there I was at 4:30 in the morning, wide awake and freezing in my underwear wondering what the heck I was supposed to do about the possible bear outside our tent.

Still, she’s cute so we’ll keep her.

KAREN’S VERSION: Ok, I wasn’t too sure that I wanted to sleep with bears (especially after hearing about how some kid in Utah was pulled out of his tent by a bear a few weeks ago!). So, here I find myself putting up a tent at MIDNIGHT in the middle of bear territory…which I was constantly reminded of as I saw warnings (don’t leave food for bears, every year people are attacked by bears etc..) posted at the camp entrance, the women’s bathroom etc! On top of that, I got lost in the pitch darkness trying to find our tent…lovely. Night one without sleep. Then the next night we camped in Yellowstone and I decided not to be a wus and go with the wildlife adventure.Yeah right! Not only were there signs warning about bears everywhere, there were signs warning about getiing gored by buffalo too!! Mark thinks I’m insane, but YES, I did hear a bear growl in the middle of the night which scared the @#$% out of me!! Granted, it might not have been close by, but I heard it loud and clear! I had to pee very badly all night long, but there was no way I was leaving the tent! Later I heard a child screaming insanely (maybe he saw something, maybe the bear I heard? ….he is probably ok, but I know a kids cry and a kids scream of fear!!) Enough said, I woke up Mark and was completely panicked! But really, what can one do at 5 am in a national park, there is no where to go except to meet more bears and buffalo which come out especially at dawn! Night two no sleep. I loved Yellowstone during the day, but I think I’ll take a break from camping for awhile!

GOING NATIVE

So, since we’re driving through sagebrush and tumbleweed land, we decided to assign ourselves native names that we’d use until we left cowboy country. Did you ever see Dances With Wolves? There was much discussion and controversy, but in the end here’s what we came up with:

Karen: Flees From Bears
Me: Brakes for Buffalo
Lucy: Screeches Like Cockatoo
Zoe: Little Deer With Barbie Laptop (Zoe came up with that on her own)

Evan was difficult. We considered Pees In Woods, and Tinkles on Prickers, but we wanted something less bodily. We tried Annoys Like Mosquito but, while it does suit him (sometimes), it still wasn’t quite right. In the end we settled on Acts Like Monkey.

YEE-HAWING AT A CODY, WYOMING RODEO

Three hours west of Yellowstone is Cody, Wyoming where, last night, we got to go to a rodeo.

LUCY: We got the best seats in the rodeo. And suddenly lots of cowboys, horses and bulls came on and got knocked over. And then they were chasing baby cows and they tied them up by their feet and their heads and it was unbelievable because all the cowgirls lost and all the cowboys won. I wished at least one of the cowgirls won. Then this clown called out for all the kids to come down to the rodeo stage and me and my brother and sister went down there. There was lots of dirt. The clown said for all the kids to roll around in the dirt. Me and my brother did but Zoe didn’t. It was fun. There were lots of baby cows running around with ribbons around their tales and I was chasing after them but then my new cowgirl hat blew off and kids were about to step on it so I went back to get it. My brother would have caught the cow but he had flip-flops on. And then we went in line to get our hats autographed and the three cowboy clowns signed my hat. It was really good. It made me really happy.

EVAN: What was really interesting was that they put little kids on the bulls and they did bull riding and barrel racing. I think I’m going to do that when I get back to Cody.

VENTING A BIT ABOUT THE REAL AMERICA

I’m going to gripe just for a moment.

So, the rodeo MC made a political joke putting down a major presidential candidate (I don’t want to get political here so I won’t say who the put-down was directed at, but it rhymes with Shmillary and it involved a cow) and then he asked the crowd, “Anybody here from the east coast?” A huge roar followed—I’m guessing more than half of the people in the stands. Then the MC followed up with, “I’d like to welcome you to the United States of America. This is the real America.” Huh? So, the east coast isn’t the real America? What’s up with that? And I might point out that the vast majority of the space in the middle of the country is empty. Empty as in nothing at all. Nada. No people. No towns. No buildings. Nothing. Shall we review?...

So, yes, of course Wyoming is part of the real America—and a lovely part, too—yet I can't help pointing out that if you look at where the majority of the American people actually live, well that’s nearer to the coasts. And we citizens of the coasts represent the real America as much as that rodeo MC does.

Okay, I’ve said it and now I feel better. Thanks for humoring me. I’m done griping.

BACK ON THE ROAD

4:34 PM: We’re driving again, roaring down I-90 near Gillette, Wyoming heading toward South Dakota. Flees From Bears is at the wheel. Penelope, our minivan, is still doing okay. I think the occasional rattling is coming from her exhaust pipe, which shakes a bit when we’re idling. Its probably missing a screw or something, but every now and then I push the exhaust pipe in with my shoe and the rattling gets better. All good. :-)

SOUTH DAKOTA, MT. RUSHMORE, AND THE STURGIS MOTORCYCLE RALLY

12:09 AM Wednesday, Aug 8:
We made it into South Dakota around 7:30 this evening and then booked it over to Mount Rushmore before the sun set. We made it!

Here we are doing the obligatory impression of Mt. Rushmore:

We didn’t have any hotel reservations (we’re living life on the edge) and it turned out that this week just happens to be the huge annual Sturgis motorcycle rally, attracting about 100,000 Harley Davidsons in around the Mount Rushmore area. I have to admit, we were sweating it out for a little while, but in the end we did manage to get the last room available in the last hotel in Keystone, SD, where I’m posting this blog. It’s biker heaven out there. There’s loud partying, loud engines, and more bikes in the parking lots than I may have ever seen before. Karen, Zoe, and I walked around outside a few minutes ago and talked to a few bikers.

We have a wake up call for tomorrow at 7:30 AM. We have 650 miles to drive through the badlands. I can't wait! Next stop…Minneapolis!

--Brakes For Buffalo

LEMONADE MOUTH (Delacorte Press, 2007
I AM THE WALLPAPER (Delacorte Press, 2005)
www.markpeterhughes.com

California Rattling

2007-08-03T15:26:43Z

We’re driving away from Napa Valley on I-50E heading toward Lake Tahoe on yet another tree-lined mountain road snaking back and forth and up and down, making me queasy as I type. This more or less officially marks the end of the halfway point on our trip, where we now begin heading back east toward home. And we still have twenty days and four thousand miles to go. Still, California continues on and on. We’ll be sad to leave it.

Let’s catch up:

L.A. , MICKEY, AND THE DARK SIDE OF THE FORCE

So, we made it to the great state of…

CHILLIN’ WITH JUNIOR…PETEY REDUX

…where, in Alta Loma, about an hour outside of Los Angeles, we stayed with our friend Junior (real name=Janine but for some reason that I can’t recall, Karen has called her this nickname forever) and her two kids, Kimberly and Grady. And guess who was there to meet us? Remember our friend Petey from our stop in Bryan, TX? Well, he and Karen and Junior used to be roommates back in the day, and Petey had some extra vacation time coming so he flew out to meet us! Isn’t that cool? :-)

DISNEYLAND

On Tuesday and Wednesday we took the kids to Disneyland.

The first thing we did in Disney, of course, was look for a cup of good coffee. We went into a place on Main Street and the lady assured us that she had the very best coffee in Disneyland. So expectations were high. Unfortunately, they weren’t met. I’m not going to say that it was the worst coffee ever had. But that’s because I don’t want to say bad stuff about the Magic Kindom. So I won’t. The Disney lady was very nice, though.

They had this Jedi Training Camp thing where little kids get to put on Star Wars hoods and a Jedi instructor teaches them about the force and about how to use a light saber. (I’m not sure what Star Wars has to do with Disney, but there you are.) And then in the middle of the instruction, there was suddenly a disturbance in the force and who swaggers out but Darth Vader. Pretty cool, huh? But it gets better…then Evan got to have a light saber duel with Darth! How cool is that? He tried to persuade my son to turn to evil (he kept saying stuff like, “If only you knew the power of the dark side…”)—and Evan confided to me later in a totally serious voice, “You know dad, I seriously considered it.” But I’m proud to say that not only did Evan remain good, but he totally kicked Lord Vader’s butt. Check out this amazing photo. I’m not sure who’s more psyched about it, Evan or me:

BARBECUING AMOUNG THE BOXES

Also in the L.A. area we met up with our friends Kathy Reed and Eric Hughson, and their kids Johnny and Livia. They just moved to the area, but even though they hadn’t completely unpacked they still invited us, Junior, Junior’s friend Lee, and all the kids over for a barbecue. It was great to see them. Thanks, guys!

VROMAN’S

We stopped in at Vroman’s Bookstore, a big independent in Pasedena. It’s another one of those great stores where you want to grab a book and sit down and read all day. Here I am with Kris Vreeland, Robyn Kamimura, and Katie Fraley. They were terrific—and Vroman’s is awesome!

Now, here’s another one of those weird and lovely things that happen in life. Remember the Battelo family who we met in the hotel in Santa Fe, New Mexico? Well, when we got to Vroman’s they surprised us by being there, waiting! Turns out they live in the L.A. area and Heidi, Nick and Sam drove more than an hour to come see us—isn’t that nice? What a great surprise!

SANTA BARBARA AND THE DRAMAMINE HIGHWAY

We left the L.A. area and headed north. Santa Barbara is beautiful, and gave the kids their first experience with the Pacific Ocean. We walked up and down the beach. There, we met up with Teresa Tucker-Davies, the Producer of the movie HOLES, among other films. We picnicked with her by the beach and found this huge rock that looks like a giant shell.

Here are a few more photos from amazing Santa Barbara:

Then northward. Route 1 is sometimes called the Dramamine Highway because of its constant sharp turns back and forth and back and forth as it winds its way up the dramatic California coastline. I have to admit, I got the queasies. Along the way there’s a little town called Lucia, which is Lucy’s real name so we had to take this picture of Lucy under her sign. :-)

SAN FRANCISCO

We mooched off my cousin Phil and his wife Barbara for two nights. Barbara is an amazing and artist and their house is filled with her beautiful paintings. She and Phil were a lot of fun and very kind and showed us around San Francisco. Here we are in Bubba Gump’s on Fisherman’s Warf with my cousin Evan (Phil and Barbara’s son) and his friend Kevin.

BOOK PASSAGE

Not far from Fisherman’s Warf is Book Passage, a lovely bookstore in the Ferry Building. (They also have a larger location in Corte Madera, CA, in Marin County. Here I am with Ron Jin and Eamon Doyle. This was a particularly nice store—and they were very sweet to my family and me. As I left, Ron presented me with a beautiful box of personalized stationary that said ‘Mark Peter Hughes.’ That’s never happened to me before at a bookstore. Thanks guys! :-)

PENEPOPE STARTS TO MAKE FUNNY NOISES

In San Francisco our minivan, Penelope, started to make some strange rattling noises. It only happens when were stopped, with the brake on. If I put it in park, it goes away. Still, it's rather disconcerting. Hmmm...

THE SHINES AND MUIR WOODS

We spent an afternoon with our friend Marianne Shine and her three boys, Riley, Cooper, and Sawyer—another family of artists—who live in Mill Valley and Bolinas, in Marin County. They took the afternoon to show us around. It was great to see you, Shines!

They took us to see the ancient redwood trees in Muir Woods. This is yet another moment of our trip where I can’t adequately convey how I felt from being in a very special place. It was an incredible feeling to be among such ancient living things.

THE DEPOT BOOKSTORE AND CAFÉ

In beautiful Mill Valley in Marin County just north of San Francisco is a cool little bookstore called The Depot Bookstore and Café. It’s a place where authors often do readings, and mountain bikers meet for refreshments after long rides. Here I am with booksellers Debra Hammond and Kevin Brooks.

There we met with Pam and Larry, their daughter Zoe, and their dog Dipsy—friends of friends, and now our new friends—who are lucky enough to live in this gorgeous part of the world. Great you meet you!

CHINATOWN AND KARAOKE WITH A SQUALKING COCKATOO

In Richmond Heights, CA (just east of Berkeley), we stayed two nights with our friends Darlene Drapkin, Ken Lindgren and Rosa, Darlene’s mother. Darlene and Ken have a large white cockatoo named Leonard Birdstein, and it loves to swing across the living room hanging from a rope and shrieking "Hola! Hola!" It did it over and over again, and the kids shrieked with laughter every time. :-)

Unfortunately, the next day Evan wasn’t feeling well and ended up staying at home in bed. :-(

Ken was very kind to stay with him and take care of him while Darlene took us into Chinatown.

That second night, we put the kids down to sleep and then broke out Ken’s karaoke machine. It was a night of golden tones and golden oldies. It was kind of like American Idol, except without Paula Abdul or talent. :-) I’m amazed the neighbors didn’t complain.

Evan was feeling a bit better in the morning as we headed out of the San Francisco area toward Tahoe. Here we are in front of the Golden Gate Bridge, and doing a very brief wine tasting in Napa Valley.

Next stop, Lake Tahoe!
--Mark

LEMONADE MOUTH (Delacorte Press, 2007)
I AM THE WALLPAPER (Delacorte Press, 2005)
www.markpeterhughes.com

Voldemort, Heat, A Big Hole, and an Impressive Thermometer: Utah, Arizona, Vegas, and Baker, CA

2007-07-24T03:47:06Z

It's Monday afternoon, and as I write this we are flying down route Rt. 66 (now called I-15) with the air conditioner pushed to its very limit. It’s 108 degrees just outside of Baker, CA and we’re on our way to L.A., passing through the edge of Death Valley. Death as in nothing grows here. It’s dry and hot and we’re blasting the soundtrack to High School Musical for the zillionth time, and all of us our singing along at the tops of our lungs.

Let’s catch up.

UTAH AND HARRY

So, on Friday evening we arrived in Mapleton, Utah, just south of Provo, to visit my friend Tyler and his family. After ten hours of driving we were there at 11:50 PM, disappointed that leaving Boulder later than planned meant we’d arrived too late to join in any Harry Potter hoopla. But it turned out that Tyler and his daughter Johanna weren’t even home after all—they were in line at a Borders in Provo to purchase HP7. It was 30 minutes more driving, but we tore up the highway to join them. Here we are meeting Tyler at the store.

We were all exhausted, but even the kids were excited—as excited about Harry as Karen and I were. Even though it was about 12:20 A.M., it was still a mad house—crowds, costumes, lines. At about 1:15 A.M., we finally got our copy. :-)

THE MUSICAL JENSENS
We stayed with Tyler that night, and the next day we met the rest of his lovely family. Tyler, Lori, Jaelise, Johanna, John, and Josh were so kind to us, taking us in feeding us two home-cooked meals, and showing us around. They had more keyboards and other musical instruments than I could count, which makes them my kind of people! Then, we felt privileged to be shown the beautiful Provo LDS Temple, which was soon followed up with an ice cream at Brigham Young University. Thanks, Jensen family, for a much-needed family stop!

Utah is an impressive place. In parts dry and empty with desert brush and a whole lotta nothin’, but also filled with stunning mesas and canyons of red, red rock. In Cedar City we saw one of the loveliest sunsets ever.

ARIZONA AND THE GRAND CANYON

(Check out the sign in front of this gas station. We really aren’t in Massachusetts anymore.)

So, it turned out that taking the side-trip to see the Grand Canyon added about five additional round-trip hours of driving to our already long journey from Cedar City, UT to Las Vegas. But in the end we figured, hey, it’s the Grand Canyon. Even if it’s just okay, how can we not go see it?

Well. Let me tell you. They don’t call it grand for nothing.

I have to admit, I thought I’d ooh and ahh for ten minutes or so and then be ready to move on. As it turned out, I was far more affected by the canyon than I ever thought I would be. Looking down into it, I actually got choked up. The thing is huge. And far more impressive than I can relate here, or than my little camera could possibly capture. We were on the north rim, and we followed a long, long footpath that snaked across a dramatic finger of red rock that jutted over the canyon. There were points where we were standing a mile high over a sheer cliff that dropped straight down on either side of us. Thank god for the hand-rails. Anyway, I’ll stop gushing about the canyon. It was something special. ‘Nuff said.

VEGAS, BABY!
A few months before we were married, Karen and I spent twenty-four fun-filled hours in Las Vegas. We’re not gamblers, but we were thrilled to run into a few Elvises, take in the Liberace museum, visit a couple of all-you-can eat buffets, and see a whole lotta other cool weird stuff. Coming back with three kids, however, was a whole nuther kettle of candelabras. I don’t think of myself as a particularly prudish guy or anything, but holy g-strings, Batman! Get that poor ad-girl something to wear! Didn’t her momma teach her how to act in front of children? Jeez. All I can say is, thank goodness our kids are sometimes completely oblivious to the world around them.

The NeverEnding Story

At the other end of Las Vegas, where actual people live actual lives, is a truly marvelous bookstore called The NeverEnding Story. They’ve only been around for a couple of years, but owners Kimberly Diehm and Jennifer Graves have already created a loyal following among teachers and readers of quality kid’s books. The store is colorful and comfortable, with high ceilings a terrific reading area at the back, which is where they served lemonade for my visit. Here I am with Jennifer and Kim, as well as bookseller Ani Tomasic, and Kim’s son Lukas. Ani, at sixteen-years-old, is working on becoming a famous film director someday—and after spending time talking with her, I truly believe she’ll make it happen. Thanks, guys, for a fun stop! And a special hello to Judy the Librarian, who came across town just to see me. It was lovely to meet you! Thanks for your support, and a big wave to all your librarian friends! :-)

And then we came to California...

BAKER, CALIFORNIA
A few minutes ago we stopped in the fabulously weird Baker, California—gateway to Death Vally and, for most, a mere pit stop on the road between Las Vegas and L.A. But Baker’s coolness runs deep. It’s the home not only of U.F.O. sightings, but also of the tallest thermometer in the world. It’s 134 feet tall, and when we were there it confirmed that it was hot like you read about. 108 degrees.

...but it’s a dry heat.

We’re still driving on I-15 ... Next stop, Los Angeles! :-)

--Mark
www.markpeterhughes.com
LEMONADE MOUTH (Delacorte Press, 2007)
I AM THE WALLPAPER (Delacorte Press, 2005)

Hot Sauce in the Spicy Southwest: New Mexico and Colorado

2007-07-22T04:29:40Z

As I write, it's Friday afternoon 7/20/2007 and we’re driving through the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, heading toward Utah. It’s difficult to write, though, not only because the views are stunning up here at 10,000 feet, but also because the narrow roads are snaking back and forth through the valleys and are making me queasy. More about Colorado in a bit. First, I’ll bring you up to date. Karen helps out—she’s in a different font.

GREEN CHILLI AND GATOS, GATOS, GATOS IN NEW MEXICO

MARK: New Mexico is truly one of my favorite places on earth. I spent a summer in Albuquerque in 1994 and fell in love with adobe houses, pow-wows, green chilli, and the Spanish language. I met Karen the following spring and I think my introduction to the Espanol of New Mexico played a role in my early spark with her – Karen’s family is from Argentina, and from the very beginning I was eager for her to teach me Spanish, which is why I can speak it today.

I think every state has its own unique personality, but in my humble opinion there are probably none so distinct as New Mexico’s. When you’re there, you know it. “The Land of Enchantment” (that’s the state nickname) just looks and feels different from anywhere else.

SANTA FE

KAREN: Santa Fe is beautiful. We spent most of a day walking around the town center. We visited the Georgia O’Keefe museum which was very interesting and gave us a good look into her life and why she loved New Mexico so much. Then went for lunch at a great Mexican restaurant called Tomasitas, where they were amazingly kind to us. Ignatios Patsalis, the owner/manager, showed us the royal treatment by giving us a tour of the restaurant. He took us into his the kitchen and showed us how they make Sopapillas. (MARK: A sopapilla is kind of a deep fried New Mexican donuty thing that, unfortunately, I can’t get enough of.) KAREN: Here is Ignatios showing us a barrel of red hot chili peppers. (MARK: Unfortunately, Lucy decided to stick her finger in and touch one, prompting Ignatios to have us wash her hand with soap immediately, before any of the spiciness got in her eye and burned her. Ahh, life with Lucy…) KAREN: Yes, even Evan ate the red and green chilies! It was the best Mexican food ever!! Thanks Ignatios and Tamasitas!

GARCIA STREET BOOKS

Santa Fe is the home of Garcia Street Books, a charming independent bookstore just a short walk from the center of historic old Santa Fe. They host quite a few authors. Here I am with bookseller Adam Gates, a recent transplant from the east coast. :-)

OUR FIRST STRING OF HOTELS

So far on our trip, we’ve been fortunate to be able to stay in the houses of generous friends and family on all but one night. In Santa Fe, though, we started a string of evenings where we actually had to spring for hotels. :-( But the good news is that we’ve been running into terrific people wherever we’ve been. Here we are with Vince, Heidi, Nick and Sam Battelo of Redland, CA. We met Vince, Nick, and Sam at the Holiday Inn swimming pool. Nick took this underwater picture of Evan as he jumped into the pool. Way cool! Great to meet you, Battelo Family! :-)

YOUTH HOSTELING, CATS, AND A CHURCH-GOING BIKER GANG IN TAOS, NM

Just outside of Taos (which we loved!) we stayed overnight at a youth hostel called “The Abominable Snow Mansion.” It was warm so we had the window open. All night long a parade of cats kept walking in and out through the window, and I kept getting up to shoo them out. I’m allergic to cats. Lucy loved it, though. She has since said those cats were one of her favorite parts of our trip so far.

Staying with us at the hostel was a fun gang of bikers from the Ft. Worth, Texas area. Here we are with Dwight Wilson, Scott Dishnow, Malcom “The Dukester” Duke, Craig Bearden, Jeff McDonald, and Noel Yandell. They told us they are all from the same Sunday school.

MOBY DICKENS
Taos is the home of the fantastic Moby Dickens bookshop. In addition to having an excellent selection of new books, they also order and research rare and out of print books. Another draw to the store is Ruby the Cat, who appeared at the store’s door in 1995 and has lived there ever since. Ruby apparently has a slew of fans who visit the store just to see her. Here I am with Mary Raskin, Carole Vollmer, Elizabeth Shuler, and Susan Hilliker. I didn’t catch the name of the gorilla. :-)

LIVING THE ARTIST'S LIFE IN COSTILLAS, NM

KAREN: On our way from Taos to Denver we stopped by to meet Linda Louden a friend of my cousins Bernie and Liz of NYC. Linda is an artist who dropped everything in her high-flying New York life to move to a one-bedroom white adobe house in Costillas, NM with her dog Daisy. Now in her backyard she has a re-vamped trailer that she converted into a studio. When you walk into her house you feel an immediate sense of tranquility, and she is surrounded by her art and the art of her friends. There is nothing in the town except for a few houses…it made me appreciate Georgia O’Keefe’s reasoning to go into the New Mexico Desert to create art. Here we are with Linda, who gave us osha, a new Mexican root that is rumored to heal just about anything, and some hot cheese & jalapeno bagels. Thanks Linda! You are an inspiration!

UPS AND DOWNS IN THE MOUNTAINS OF COLORADO

MARK: By two days ago, when we came to Colorado, we’d been traveling for 22 days. We passed the 5,000 mile mark in Denver—which is why I upgraded my total-mileage estimation from 9,000 to 13,000. I think that’s why yesterday we all seemed to crash a little. We were tired. We needed a down-day. We’ve recovered now, but our little dip in energy meant that we didn’t do full justice to Denver. I’m sure it’s a lovely city – and what little that we saw of it (see below) was very nice – but we definitely benefitted from lazing around the hotel room and staring at the boob-tube. All better now. :-)

OBSERVATIONS ON TRAVELING IN THE LEMONADE MOUTH VAN WITH THREE KIDS

A yellow van that says “Lemonade Mouth” in big, bold letters seems to sometimes confuse passers-by. Here’s a guy in Denver who came over to ask if we had any lemonade for sale.

Sorry, overheated Denver guy. No actual lemonade here.

BTW: We’ve christened the car Penelope.

Another thing, we’ve been seeing so many amazing sights for so many days now that I think the kids are starting to get a little jaded. Example from this morning: “Look, Lucy! Have you ever seen such an interesting-looking bridge? I know I never have!” Lucy momentarily glances up from her Barbie laptop and in a bored singsong monotone says, “Whoah. That certainly is an interesting bridge.” Then back to Barbie.

As I type, we’re still driving through the Colorado mountains toward Utah. I’ll ask the kids what was their favorite part of the trip so far and report it here. Here are their answers:

LUCY: When the kittens slept with me. (MARK: That was at the youth hostel in Taos, NM).

ZOE (Note that she and I only speak to each other in Spanish): ?Te acuerdas el caballo mecanico? (MARK: Translation – “Do you remember the mechanical horse?” She’s talking about a horse ride in the center of Taos, one of those rides for little kids where you put a quarter in the slot and the horse rocks back and forth for a minute or so. I wish I’d taken a picture. She really did love it.

EVAN: Burger Beach in Fort Worth. Remember? The big pool with all the diving boards and swings?

Okay, so not exactly the o-beautiful-for-spacious-skies answers Karen and I were hoping for. Still, I know that they really have enjoyed themselves so far. We all have. And they’ll always remember this long road-trip discovering America with their family. At least that’s what Karen and I keep telling ourselves. :-)

THE TATTERED COVER

No book-lover's trip to Denver would be complete without a pilgrimage to The Tattered Cover. It's the second largest independent bookstore in the country. And it is huge. Sidney Jackson and Judy Bulow and met us and showed us around. Their Colfax Street location is in an old building that used to be a theater, and it still has the curtain, the lobby, the orchestra pit, etc. It’s way cool. Here I am with Sidney. Thanks, Tattered Cover!

THE BOOKIES

The Bookies is a smaller but absolutely amazing bookstore away from the center of town. They specialize in books for kids and also teacher resources. Karen is a high school Spanish teacher, so she immediately got absorbed by the Spanish teaching resources and ended up buying a pile of loot. Here I am with Suzi Fischer, Vicki Hellman, and Mary Lou Steenrod. Such nice people!

HOTEL FROM HELL
Our hotel in Denver wasn’t that great. It was cramped, one of the beds actually broke when we sat down on it, and the TV didn’t work very well. Then as a final farewell just as we left, the toilet overflowed and ran out all over the floor. Lovely.

Goodbye, gushing toilet from the Hotel from Hell! :-)

THE BOULDER BOOKSTORE

This morning we went to The Boulder Bookstore, another big independent that makes you want to lose yourself in its many comfy, shelf-lined rooms. Arsen Kashkashian met us and was very kind. Tonight is the big release-party for Harry Potter 7, and the Boulder Bookstore is having live owls, an actual wizard, and a lot of other fun stuff including this gigantic papier mache sorting hat!

TAJIKISTANI TEA WITH LUCY

While Evan, Zoe, and I went to fetch the car from our distant parking spot, Karen and Lucy had tea at The Boulder Dushanbe Teahouse, which is a big ‘ol fancy Tajikistani tea room in the middle of Boulder. Apparently the barista, Rama Kho, did magic tricks with Lucy and gave her a complimentary hibiscus flower tea.

TROUBADOR BOOKS
Troubador Books is a lovely independent bookstore outside of the center of Boulder. It specializes in new books and books on performing arts. Deb Evans and Julie Leonard really went out of their way for us, including providing lemonade and helping us figure out our route to Utah. It’s amazing how friendly booksellers can be! Here I am with Deb and Julie. Thanks, guys! :-)

HERE AND NOW

As I type, it’s 6:42 PM and we just got out of a lengthy traffic jam on Route 70 heading toward Grand Junction, CO. I took this photo of the Starbucks in the mountains because it seems very Colorado: half coffee-place, half camping store.

Next stop, Utah!

--Mark
LEMONADE MOUTH (Delacorte Press, 2007)
I AM THE WALLPAPER (Delacorte Press, 2005)
www.markpeterhughes.com

Minivan with a Fringe On Top: Oklahoma and Amarillo

2007-07-16T15:27:15Z

I’m sitting in a hotel room in Santa Fe, New Mexico. We arrived a couple hours ago and just came back from eating tacos and hot green and red chili. But I’ll blog about that once we’ve finished our time here. Over the past few days we were in Oklahoma and Amarillo, TX, so I’ll catch you up on that. Karen helped out with today’s blog. She wrote the section on Palo Duro Canyon near Amarillo, TX (below, in a different font).

OKLAHOMA CITY LOOKED OH SO PRETTY

We arrived in OKC from Dallas on Thursday evening. There, we stayed with our friends Rich Schwab and Margaret Mantooth Schwab. They were incredibly nice to us, and took the day off on Friday just to drive us around. Thanks, Rich and Margaret!

COX TV

First stop in Oklahoma City, I was interviewed on “Read All About It,” a state-wide show about books and authors that's produced by the Metropolitan Library System for Cox TV. Now, I can’t say I’m used to being interviewed on talk shows, but boy-oh, this was fun. First, they put make-up on me (not sure why—isn’t the pasty-white look in?), then I hung out in the green room with other guests, including some way-cool local librarians, one of whom was doing a review on the novel Rules by my friend Cynthia Lord. Then they called me to the set. I was on for about eight minutes, interviewed by BJ Williams, the show’s producer and host. We talked about Lemonade Mouth and the tour, etc., etc. I think it went well, but who am I to say? It was my first time. I’ll get a copy of it whenever I can. :-)

Thanks to BJ Williams and Cox TV! Hats off to "Read All About It" -- what a wonderful way to promote books and reading!

Best Of Books

Later that afternoon we stopped at Best of Books, a terrific store in Edmond, OK, where Julie Hovis and Kathy Kinasewitz, the co-owners, were great to my family and me. The store has been in business for years, and it’s carved out a niche as one of the few independent booksellers in the area.

While there I ran into an old friend from Massachusetts, Meredith Pearlman, who had made the drive from Tulsa to see us--she moved to Oklahoma only three months ago. It was so great to see you, Meredith!

We made a stop at the memorial for the Oklahoma City bombing of 1995. It was very moving. They have a place for kids to leave messages in chalk. Evan, Lucy, and Zoe each left one.

Uh-Oh. Oil Trouble!

We were driving around the city when suddenly a light started flashing on our car’s dashboard – it was an oil can. Uh oh, oil trouble. So we made a quick detour to the local Honda dealer, where Stephen Sponsler did a quick diagnosis – we were almost completely out of oil! Yikes! We must have a leak, but it must be a slow one because after he changed the oil he didn’t see the car lose any more. So, new strategy: We’ll check the oil every 500 miles or so!

While we were waiting for the oil situation to get resolved, we stopped into a local Barnes and Noble, where we met Chuck Ackerly and Dean Kraushaar. A cool way to spend the pit stop!

IN AMARILLO, WE GRABBED A PILLOW

On Saturday (yesterday), it was goodbye Oklahoma, and back into Texas. We arrived in Amarillo where, in accordance with the old classic song, we grabbed a pillow.

Karen wrote the next part:

Camping in Palo Duro Canyon
KAREN: On Saturday night we went camping in Palo Duro Canyon, near Amarillo, TX.

It was a wild experience. First, we set up camp at the bottom of the canyon (the 2^nd biggest in the US)! We spread out our tent on the hard red dirt covering all of the ants and other variations on bugs. The minute we got there, we were all being eaten alive by bugs. I could tell right away that I could never have been a cow girl. Even though I’ve camped in the past and loved it, I was already dreaming of a comfy bed in the air conditioning. Lucy, Zoe, and Evan were complaining about being bitten, Mark was complaining about how hot it was (it was 7pm), so I knew it would be a long night especially when Mark announced to the kids that if they see a Rattlesnake, don’t try to poke it with a stick! Rattlesnakes, no one prepared me for this!! The kids started to freak...who could blame them? Next we had dinner, no fire of course because we were too hot and would have roasted even more. Who told me that it cools down in the desert at night??

That evening we went to an amazing musical show called “Texas” in an amphitheater actually in the Canyon. It was all about Texas history, songs and there were even fireworks!

I liked the show so much, I even started thinking it would be fun to be a real Texan. I was amazed at how the Texan settlers could live here! Ok, so I could make it one night, why not?!

Wrong!

I was up all night listening to various interesting sounds of wildlife. While the family snored happily, I kept thinking of all those Rattlesnakes. I swear I heard some close by slithering. Mark thinks I was imagining things, but I DON’T THINK SO!! The next morning Mark admitted that the park ranger warned him that there was a “bumper crop” of Rattlesnakes in the canyon this year. Enough said!!

The next morning, getting up at 7 am with 3 hours of sleep and all wet because there was a lot of dew all night (so much for comfortable sleeping in the dry desert), we rushed to pack up camp, eat and dress to be presentable because in one hour we were going to be interviewed by the Amarillo NBC TV station at Barnes & Noble! Can you believe this? The only time in my life that I was a actually going to be on TV is after spending a night camping full of dirt and bug bites…so much for any beauty rest! I’ll let Mark tell you the rest, I’m fading from exhaustion!

(I just re-read this and although it sounds like I had a miserable time, it was a great adventure I wouldn’t have missed. We really are having a great time. Our next camping trip might include bears. I’ll let you know if we go do it and I don’t chicken out!)

ANOTHER TV INTERVIEW!

MARK: Jeez, I can’t believe I’m still typing. This was an action-packed few days! So, in Amarillo, TX this morning the local NBC-TV affiliate (KAMR) was there to interview us! They have a weekly series on families doing stuff together, so our trip kinda fit in. (Note, this gig was due entirely to the amazing promotional efforts of my friend Tyler Jensen who, out of sheer kindness, sent out a funny email to media outlets all over the known world, telling them about our road-trip. Thanks, Tyler! You da best!) for the interview, Evan stole the show when he described the camping experience and gave an enthusiastic, detailed tour of the van. They loved him so much they ran out of videotape filming him. No kidding!

The series runs every Friday, part of the local evening news. Our story is scheduled for four Fridays AFTER this Friday. Faith, the local news anchor (she was the one doing the interviews!) promises to let me know when it runs, and how I can get a copy of it. I’ll get the word out when I have access to the video. :-)

KIMBERLY WILLIS HOLT
We were very lucky to meet up with Kimberly Willis Holt and her husband Jerry for coffee. Kimberly is the New York Times bestselling author of such books as When Zachary Beaver Came to Town, My Louisiana Sky and Waiting For Gregory. Such nice people! We ended up chatting for quite a while. :-)

Finally, here’s a picture of Samantha Adkins and Cassie Mason, two soon-to-be high-school seniors who we met in Amarillo. Among other things we talked about Harry Potter and his unknown fate—which will be known later this week. Nice to meet you, Samantha and Cassie!

Next stop: Santa Fe!

Cowboys, Heat, and Texas Swimming Pools: Dallas and Ft Worth

2007-07-13T17:34:47Z

What is it about Texas? Sure, it’s big. Hot too. So hot and humid that sometimes I can barely stand it. Still, there’s something about this state that sets it apart. Wide, wide highways, state flags flown just as high as old glory (Aren’t state flags usually flown a little lower than the U.S. flags? Is it just me?), and enormous guys in Stetsons and wranglers – and they’re dead serious. There’s no place like Texas.

Fort Worth--at least the touristy part where we looked around--is full of honest to god cowboys. And lots of cowboy stuff. Here are Karen and Zoe bellying up to a bar in Fort Worth – note that the stools are actual saddles!

The last photo above is of some nice local women we ran into.

We almost got kicked out of a high-end cowboy-stuff store. No kidding. I'm not proud of it, but it's the truth. So, we go in and I'm admiring the $5,000 boots, and Karen whispers to me, "Hey, Mark. Go put on those cowboy legging thingies and Evan's hat and let me take a picture of you for the blog. So I do. But then this cowboy guy sprints over and calls out, "Can I sell you some chaps?" Now, I honestly had no idea what he was talking about. Chaps, apparently, is the name of the pants I was wearing. But I wasn't sure what he meant. So I said, "Uh...I'm not sure. How much are they?" And he says, "Oh, about $500 dollars." Eventually I understood what was up. This was his way of saying, hey don't mess with the expensive cowboy stuff unless you're a serious buyer! And he didn't have an ounce of humor in him. He gave me an earful about real cowboys and Texas mesquite and I came off as the ignorant Yankee (which was only appropriate since that is exactly what I am). In the end we weren't exactly buddies, but we managed to smooth it out between us. No cause for interstate alarm. Plus, Karen did manage to snap a pretty good shot. :-)

Another great thing about Texas (and the south in general): fantastic barbecue. Here's Lucy and me enjoying some amazing ribs.
:-)

In Dallas, we stayed with our good friends Gigi and Johan, and their 6-year old son Anders. They were very kind to us. Johan made Swedish pancakes every morning, which Evan scoffed down like a starving Swedish boy. They also took us to an amazing lake/water park in Ft. Worth.

We also got a babysitter and went out to a cuban restaurant in Dallas. My camera's battery was about to run out, but I told the waiter that if the camera actually lasted long enough to take a picture of him I'd put it up on the blog. So here he is, our waiter, Mathew Morgan:

As we've traveled the country so far, one of the most surprising things we've experienced is the incredible kindness of people. Here's a great example: Jay Moody is our neighbor from Massachusetts. He spoke with his mother, Ann Moody, and she offered to throw us a shindig when we came to Dallas. Well, did she ever. I'm guessing there were forty or fifty people at her house in Irving -- all there to meet us, all happy and excited for us and about Lemonade Mouth. At not one of them had ever met us before. Ann is an amazingly gracious person. She served dinner, wine, cheese, and desserts, and opened up her home to us--and her swimming pool to our children. It was a truly wonderful event, and an incredible show of support for total strangers. We met lots of great new friends there too. I cannot fully express our gratitude to the wonderful Ann Moody. Many, many thanks!

While we were in the Ft. Worth area, we visited the lovely Bryston Children's Books in Watauga, TX. What a great store! And unusual too--many of their clients are teachers so their books are separated into school subjects like science, math, etc. Here I am with Adrienne and Dana Harper, who run the store (which has been around for over 15 years) along with their mother Marianne (not shown). Dana's the one with the ukulele and the rock 'n' roll snarl. :-)

Next stop Oklahoma!
-- Mark
www.markpeterhughes.com
LEMONADE MOUTH (Delacorte Press, 2007)
I AM THE WALLPAPER (Delacorte Press, 2005)

After Breakfast We Went To Texas

2007-07-10T04:45:14Z

MARK: Today I had help from Lucy, age 8, with today’s update. I asked her to talk about our stays in Bryan and Austin, TX while I typed what she said. Full disclosure – I took what she said and changed the order of some sentences so that it goes in chronological order. Otherwise, though, this is what she said. Her comments are in the larger font.

LUCY: When we came into Texas, we were listening to a song named "After Breakfast Let’s Go to Texas.” My mom and dad are in a band that’s called the Church Ladies and it's their song.

We went to Bryan, Texas and stayed with Petey, my mom’s friend. Petey is a really nice man. We walked around Texas A and M. It was really hot out and I liked it a lot. Petey told us about butterflies and Texas Rangers and trees.

MARK: For the Texas A&M football team, there is great importance given to "The Twelveth Man." Here's Karen with her hand on the thigh of that hallowed player.

Also, in Bryan we finally got our antenna fixed! Yay! Here's a picture with Daniel from the Honda dealer. Such a nice guy!

LUCY: We went to a restaurant. It was my dad’s birthday. It was a Mexican restaurant and I tried Sopapillas and I loved them. In the Sopapillas we put a candle and sang Happy Birthday to my dad.

Another day we went to Aunt Pat and Uncle Frank’s house in Austin, Texas. We saw Suzanne and Stephen my second cousins and Francesco, which is a baby, my new cousin. Francesco was 3 months old when I met him. He was really cute. I love the way that he holded on to my finger.

MARK: Here's Zoe with lovely Francesco, and then my family:

MARK: While we were at in Austin, Lucy decided to play with my aunt’s weight set and promptly dropped a 5lb weight hard on her left ring finger. It then proceeded to turn purple and swell up. It’s still purple and swelled, but a bit better now. And she can move it around, so we’ve decided it must be okay. Yet another adventure with Lucy.

(I have a picture of Lucy's finger but Karen seems to have hidden the camera and she's asleep right now -- the nerve! -- so I can't download it. But I'll put it up here soon)

LUCY: We went to lots of bookstores and me and Zoe got these little stuffed animals and my brother got a hat. We went in the kids section and played with the trains.

MARK: We loved the beautiful state capital building -- where we arrived just in time for an amazing tour. And we remembered the Alamo...

We visited an amazing independent bookstore in Autsin called Book People. They were very kind to us!

At a Barnes and Noble in Austin we had an unlikely encounter too strange for fiction: I was standing there talking with a bookseller when I heard a woman’s voice behind me say, “Mark? Mark Hughes, is that you?” I turned around and there, out of the blue, stood a familiar face from Rhode Island. Beverly Pettine is a friend of the family who used to work with my mother. Beverly doesn’t live down here in Texas--it was just a strange coincidence that she just happened to be visiting her sister in Austin (who knew?) and just happened to be in exactly the right the bookstore with her sister and niece when she saw a sign announcing that I was going to be appearing here. She looked at the time and my appearance just happened to be exactly when she was here. If I were to put that in a story, no one would believe it. Yet, here’s the proof: Here I am with Beverly in front of our car in Austin, TX, of all places. Whoda thunk? :-)

We also had a very nice afternoon with friends of friends. Our neighbor, Jay, grew up in the Dallas area so we were very pleased to meet Brad, Holly, Katie, and Grace, who live in Austin. Lovely people and our new friends in Texas. :-)

LUCY: Yesterday we went to Stephen and Jonathan’s house and they have five dogs. Their names were Max, Casey, Billy, Toby, and Lloyd. They were cute. I loved to pick Max up. He was the littlest but he was 31 years old. We went in Stephen and Jonathan’s pool and swam. Stephen and my dad and mom threw us in. It was really fun.

Right now my brother and sister are filling their stomachs with Cheetos. We’re driving to Dallas, Texas. We’re going to stay with Gigi. We were just listening to High School Musical in the car.

MARK: A sad note: I just got some terribly disappointing news from NPR – they are not going to air the road-trip stories after all. Given their already busy line up and the fact that the producer working with me will be away in Alaska for a month starting this week, they made their decision not to go forward with the road-trip stories. I can’t tell you how disappointed I am about this. I sent out the message about NPRs decision earlier this morning and was truly touched by the many, many the kind emails people sent in reply. I’m grateful to have such a supportive network.

On the other hand, I’ve already learned a great deal from working with NPR so far, and the experience has been a lot of fun. Perhaps after the summer is over I’ll submit some commentaries in the style of the first one, where I talked about quitting my job. We’ll see.

In any case, this is so far the only significant set-back in an otherwise successful and happy road trip/book tour. And I’m determined to get over it before we reach Dallas. :-)

I appreciate your friendship.
-- Mark

LEMONADE MOUTH (Delacorte Press, 2007)
I AM THE WALLPAPER (Delacorte Press, 2005)
www.markpeterhughes.com

Deep South, Sweet Tea and The Elvis of Country Music

2007-07-06T06:27:15Z

Today I share the blogging with my son, Evan, age nine, who earlier today wrote an update of our time in the deep south (see below). Evan's comments will be in a bigger font. We just arrived in Bryan, Texas a moment ago, so I don't have much to say about Texas yet except that it is big and dark and rainy. [Oh, I just realized that as I type this, it is techincally by 41st birthday! :-) ]

EVAN: Ok, so yesterday we left Atlanta (we got up at 7:00) and did a 2 and a half hour drive to Alabama, and all Of a sudden, we see this sign that said: ENTERING ALABAMA CENTRAL TIME ZONE . What?! We shouted. Then the clock that before said 9:49 (which was when we were supposed to arrive) went down to 8:49. We could have slept an hour later! Well, at least we get to relive the past hour, said my dad. On the road we made up a game. The game was, if you saw a water tower and shouted torre de agua (that’s Spanish) first, then you would get a point. At the end of the trip, whoever had the most points, won. To me, the driving wasn’t very long, but that’s probably because I was waching tv.

MARK: I love the south. It's green and lush, and the people are friendly and the weather has been beautiful. I also love that it has a chain of grocery stores called Piggly Wiggly. Whevenver we see one, we Hugheses are all about the Piggly Wiggly! I took this picture through the windsheild of our car on our way to Birmingham, AL:

Oh yes, Piggly. I will follow...

One thing I do miss about Massachusetts, though, is the availability of Starbucks. In fact, I've been on a daily quest to find one anywhere near where we go. On the way to Birmingham I found one! I was so pleased, I took a picture of my grande Gazebo blend.

Evan: We went to the Alabama welcome center and my dad and me got Hank Williams posters. Hank Williams is like an Elvis to country music. My dad was very happy. I was happy too, except I had never heard of Hank Williams before this. But I'm sure he must be pretty good.

Mark: Because of the unexpected time-change (what? did we miss a memo or something?), we arrived in Birmingham earlier than planned, which allowed us time to look around. Since Birmingham metal-working played a big role in the city's history, they have a huge statue of Vulcan, the Roman god of the fire and forge.

EVAN: Later, we had lunch with Hester Bass the author of So Many Houses, and her family (father Clayton, kids Anderson and Miranda) in Birmingham. We ate at a Cracker Barrell, a southern place I'd never eaten before. It was good. My mom and dad ate southern food. I ate grilled cheese. It was good. Hester gave us copies of her book, which was very nice of her.

Mark: In addition to being the author of the early reader So Many Houses, Hester is also the author of a soon-to-be released picture book biography of American artist, Walter Inglis Anderson, to be illustrated by the acclaimed E. B. Lewis and published by Candlewick Press. Hester and her family were amazingly kind to drive all the way down to Huntsville to meet with us. It's lovely to meet such wonderful people when you're far from home. Many thanks to the 'Bama Basses, our new friends!

EVAN: Next, we had dinner with the Campbell family In Jackson, Mississippi. I played with three boys named Graem, Nathan and Douglas. They had a big snail called a wolf snail. I let it crawl up my arm. It was so cool!

Mark: Sarah is the author and photographer of an upcoming picture book about wolf snails, snails that eat other snails -- an amazing creature I'd never heard of before. Her photographs are absolutely beautiful and her book will be published in the Spring. Although we were total strangers, Sarah and Richard and their boys fed us and treated us like family. We had a wonderful Mississippi evening which we will never forget -- complete with fireworks set off by neighbors. Thanks you, Campbells, our other new friends in the south!

This morning (actually, yesterday morning now) we stopped by at Lemuria Books in Jackson, a cool independent bookstore with a relaxing atmosphere. Here we are with a very nice bookseller named Ciel.

Lots of traffic problems on the way through Louisianna to Bryan, TX, so it took us much longer than it should have. Still, we're here safe, sound, and happy. Soon I'll actually go to bed.

A big, Texas good night to y'all.
-- Mark

Amazing Giant Bugs in Atlanta: Georgia On My Map

2007-07-04T03:50:24Z

I'm typing in the air conditioned comfort of an old, high-ceilinged, civil-war-style house in downtown Atlanta, GA -- have you ever seen Gone With the Wind? It's like that, only instead of Rhett Butler, it's just us inside. The house belongs to our friends Ayesha and Dave, but they're not here either--coincidentally, their already-planned vacation coincided with our visit (at least they told us it was coincidental…) so they're off in parts unknown. Still, they let us use their glorious pad in their absence. Thanks, guys!

Here’s a picture of us in Frisco, NC, before we left. Also, a picture with Leslie Ann Lanier of the wonderful bookstore Books To Be Red in Ocracoke, NC. A must-visit if you're a bibliophile on the Outer Banks. The 'Red' in the store's name comes from Ann's hair. Isn't that cool? :-)

Two days ago we left North Carolina's Outer Banks at 9:30 AM and drove all day, arriving here after midnight. Believe it or not, it wasn't too bad a trip. The kids were happily involved with the backseat DVD player (many thanks to my parents for providing that!), and Karen and I actually got a chance to talk. Weird, huh? We ended up stopping at South Of The Border (http://www.pedroland.com/), a Mecca for weary travelers of Interstate 95. There we had a fabulously fun 24-story elevator ride up into a giant Mexican sombrero. Que barbaro! :-)

I love Atlanta! Such nice people, such nice weather, good coffee--it's got it all. And Evan, Lucy, and Zoe are fascinated by the GIANT bugs we see everywhere here in the south. I need to take a photo. They really are somethin' to see!

Yesterday we were given the royal treatment by the Barnes and Noble in Alpharetta, GA. Before I spoke to readers, they had a 'dragon' -- a big ol' lizard -- as the opening act. I never opened up for a reptile before. :-) Here’s a picture with Cindy Rittenhouse, who runs the amazing children’s/young-adult section and Rachel, a high school junior and future star critic.

The Little Shop of Stories, a fantastic independent book store in Decatur, GA, did an absolutely amazing window display about our road trip. See the pictures below -- although they don't actually do justice to it. Still, can you believe this? In the last photo I’m also shown with store co-owner Dave Shallenberger, who did the artwork, and Terra McVoy, store manager. Thanks, guys!

Here are Elle Race and Regan Foster of Storyville, a lovely book shop for younger kids in Duluth, GA. They served lemonade for my visit--a very nice touch. They're a new bookstore in the northern suburbs of Atlanta -- Good luck to them! :-)

Some fun news: Check out the Publisher’s Weekly Web site – we’re the lead article! :-) Here’s the link:
http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6457079.html

A Note added by Karen: A highlight of our stay in Atlanta was that we met up with one of my best friends from high school, Karen Sytsma and her family! I haven't seen Karen in 20 years, and we hit it off as if we see each other everyday! Karen and her sons Josiah and Caleb followed us to all the bookstores, and we got a chance to visit her husband Mike at work! Josiah showed the kids a dragon lizard called Beowolf...a relative of the giant iguana we saw earlier. All these lizards in Atlanta, is it a requirement to have one? What a great visit!!

Tomorrow we’re off to Jackson, MS, via Birmingham, AL. :-)

Happy travels!
--Mark
www.markpeterhughes.com

Pink Eye on North Carolina’s Outer Banks

2007-06-30T17:15:07Z

Sorry to take so long in updating this blog, but Internet access has been spotty at best. I’m sitting in an Internet café called Ugly Mugs in Avon, NC on Hatteras Island, and even here over the past half hour the connection has been intermittent.

So, here’s the lowdown:

The first stop on the trip from home (just outside of Boston, MA) was Rhode Island College where I was finishing a 5-day stint as a faculty member of the first annual A.S.T.A.L Writers Institute . It was the final day. Here’s a photo of the whole group in front of the van.

Then southward.

DISASTER #1: NO RADIO
As I wrote in my last posting, DISASTER #1 occurred around New Haven: the antenna fell off the car. Yikes! Oh well, onward…

After a quick visit with a friend in Philadelphia, it was down to National Public Radio’s headquarters in DC for a quick-and-dirty lesson in recording sound. They told me that the broadcast of my 2^nd piece for NPR, where we’re packing for the trip, was delayed because apparently they want to hold off until they get the 3^rd piece in hand. It’s even possible that they’ll start our trip without the packing piece – so it’d begin with whatever story I record next. (Boy, I sure hope I come up with something good!) Here I am with NPR announcer Robert Siegel, and also with “All Things Considered” Senior Producer Art Silverman.

From there it was a loooong drive down to North Carolina. Rush hour traffic from hell in the Virginia Beach area. Arrived in Avon, NC around 9PM.

Here’s the thing about our Outer Banks visit. We built this into our route schedule as a nice, easy beginning for our trip -- my family comes out here every year together with our Polish friends from Connecticut and Philadelphia. It’s always fun, because our friends are fun – and some of them have kids the same age as ours so everyone is happy. Sure, it’s hot outside -- and I’m definitely not a beach person. Still, I think of this as my central-air-conditioning holiday. We do beach fires at night, or hang out in the hot tub. All good.

Yesterday (Thursday) we visited the terrific Manteo Booksellers. Here I am with the store’s owner, Steve Brumfield.

It was also Lucy’s 8^th birthday, which was all very nice...UNTIL...at the end of the day came DISASTER #2:

Lucy has developed ‘pink-eye’—conjunctivitis, which she caught from Natalia, one of our friend’s kids. Yikes! This has been a bit of a crisis because 1) it’s not comfortable for her, 2) it’s very contagious, and 3) we’ve been scrambling to find a doctor and get her a prescription for Erythromycin. Lucy should be using it every four hours, but so far we’ve been unable to make contact with any here in the middle of nowhere. We don’t know any local doctors, and today is Friday so we’re finding that many physician offices are closed today, and others will be heading out for the weekend shortly. Plus, we’ll be leaving on Sunday for Atlanta so we’re in a tizzy trying to figure this out today! Tension is high. Not sure what we’ll do, but like everything else, we’ll figure it out somehow…

DISASTER #2: LUCY HAS PINK-EYE

On the brighter side: Looks like we have our antenna situation figured out. A special part needed to be ordered and it was kind of a biggish deal, but we’ve arranged to get the whole thing replaced at a Honda Dealer in College Station, TX on July 6. Until then, we’ll just have to hum a lot… :-)

Sunday we’re off to Atlanta. Stay tuned!

-- Mark

www.markpeterhughes.com

P.S. Update 6/30 1:15pm: We finally managed to get the eye goo for Lucy. It required a little devilish cleverness (which I will not detail here for fear of a criminal investigation...just kidding) but now all is well. Onward! :-)

On the road now...exhausted in Philadelphia

2007-06-27T03:39:02Z

This will be only a very short post. For the past three nights I've been going to bed at 2 or 3 AM and getting up at 6 AM so as I type this I'm a zombie.

The road trip has officially begun! And to prove it, I can now announce that first disaster of the trip has reared it's head: I left from Massachusetts this morning (with a stop at Rhode Island College as part of their amazing A.S.T.A.L Writer's Institute -- more on that later) but then continued southward only as far as New Haven, CT before the antenna of the car blew off. Yes, you read that right -- it just...blew away. One minute it was attached to the car, the next it wasn't. I didn't even notice it happen. It just did. So...this means that we may very well be facing a 9,000 mile road trip with three small children and no radio. I have faith, though, that there is a solution. I'm not sure what it is, but I'll figure it out. It'll have to wait until tomorrow or the next day, my bed is calling....

I'm typing this from a friend's house in Philadelphia. My bed is calling, though. Tomorrow I'll be stopping in Washington DC, Virginia Beach, and then heading down to North Carolina.

Bed. Bed. I want you bed.

Best,
-- Mark
www.markpeterhughes.com

Check it out! We Got Our MiniVan 'Wrapped!'

2007-06-24T12:48:40Z

Karen arranged to get the minivan 'wrapped,' which means it's covered with the Lemonade Mouth cover. We're thrilled with it!

Check out these shots:

So here we are with our lovely 'new' van! We can't wait to get going on this tour! Two days to go...! :-)

-- Mark

LEMONADE MOUTH (Delacorte Press, 2007)
I AM THE WALLPAPER (Delacorte Press, 2005)
<http://www.markpeterhughes.com>
<http://www.lemonademouth.com>

So, here's the deal...

2007-06-24T00:13:49Z

I'm a writer. I write novels for teens. Three months ago I quit my day job as a healthcare data cruncher to become a full-time writer, and now I'm doing my best to get the word out about my recent novel, LEMONADE MOUTH. And this is what my family and I came up with...

LEMONADE MOUTH ACROSS AMERICA! is my family's audacious attempt to make a writer's dream come true with a road-trip adventure and a shoestring budget. It's a summer-long, 26-city, 9,000 mile book tour across the USA and back--two adults, three small children and a pile of books all crammed into a minivan! For the story behind the story, click here. My website is www.markpeterhughes.com.

The Route: For a list of cities and dates, click here. If you're nearby, come see us--we'd love to meet you!

National Public Radio: NPR recently ran a commentary about me, my books, and how I quit my job to write full time. To hear it click here.

THE STORY BEHIND THE STORY

It all started as just a little idea...
After recently (March 30, 2007) quitting my day-job to become a full-time writer--a big financial risk that my wife and I decided to take (carpe diem!) – Karen and I talked about ways to make the most of our summer. It started as a just little idea: Let’s take the family on a fun road-trip in our rusty minivan and stop at some bookstores along the way...but it quickly grew into something much larger. Now it’s a summer-long, 26-city, 9,000 mile adventure across the USA and back!

Our friends think we’re crazy, but we’re doing it anyway. Thing is, we probably have only a narrow window of time in our lives when this is even possible: Karen’s starting back as a Spanish teacher in September, the kids are young (Evan 9, Lucy 8, and Zoe 5) and still want to be with us (that surely won’t last forever!), and I have a new YA novel out. So the timing seems perfect, right? Except...t we have no money, and our mechanic wonders whether our 1996 Honda Odyssey, which has close to 200,000 miles on it already, will make it--not to mention that this is the summer of the final Harry Potter, so Lemonade Mouth is going to have a tough time attracting any notice at all in Harry's shadow.

But...we decided to do it anyway! (carpe diem again!)

Brace yourselves! We’re setting off on June 27!
We'll be stopping in cities all over the country, dealing with heat, kid issues, and close quarters while doing our best to make a writer's dream happen on a shoestring budget--all while discovering America!

-- Mark

LEMONADE MOUTH (Delacorte Press, 2007)
I AM THE WALLPAPER (Delacorte Press, 2005)
<http://www.markpeterhughes.com>
<http://www.lemonademouth.com>