Now that the weather has turned colder and snow is just around the corner, at least in the northern Mississippi Valley, I expect to be spending a lot more time at home. This is not a bad thing. My summer was draining. Most weeks I left town on Thursday and came home Sunday. I spent evenings from Sunday through Wednesday entering notes, labeling pictures, and generally keeping my work organized. Oh, I also had to do all the work for my day jobs between Monday and Thursday. And, yes, all of those domestic issues, like relationship maintenance, also were packed into those limited hours from Sunday through Thursday. It’s a good thing we’ve been together for a while, or I don’t think John would have tolerated the summer as well as he did.

So how is the whole process coming along, you wonder? This summer was one long, drawn out pilot test, as I continually refined my thoughts about how to organize the book, how to organize researching the book, and how to maintain some sanity in the midst of it all. I think the biggest struggle is still finding the right balance between spending enough time in an area to learn what I need to learn and keeping the process moving forward, so I have a chance to finish this thing before I am Medicare-eligible. I don’t have a clear standard in my head, I just kinda know that one visit to a town is rarely enough, and that I rely on my gut to tell me when it is time to move on.

So, yes, I am looking forward to having some weekends at home to write (and rest) instead of simply organizing notes and entering facts into my database. I have four chapters in progress, each at a very different stage of completion. I am nearly done with the St. Louis chapter and can probably finish the Quad Cities chapter with a couple of solid days of work. The other two chapters are at the outline stage. One thing that has become very obvious is that writing is much easier and quicker when I feel like I have a good sense about a place. When I sit at the computer and struggle to get a few sentences out, it usually signals the need to get back on the road and continue exploring. OK, so that’s not exactly a novel insight, but it helped me understand my own writing process better.

Although my travel will slow considerably now, I still hope to hit the road a few times this winter. I just expect to limit the number of trips to one a month. A few possibilities intrigue me. Right now, thousands of tundra swans are migrating from the, um, tundra, to their winter home on Chesapeake Bay. They stop to rest for a few weeks in the Mississippi Valley around Lake Pepin, a spot that is about an hour’s drive southeast of the Twin Cities. I would like to get up there before they are gone, but time is already slipping away, as they typically move on by mid-November. I’m still trying to convince John that the traditional “Dropping of the Carp” in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin would be a novel way to celebrate the New Year. I also want to get further north in January to visit one or two of the many eagle festivals hosted by river towns. Then, at the end of February, I hope the weather cooperates so I can drive to Wabasha, Minnesota for the Grumpy Old Men Festival. Wabasha was the fictional home of the cranky oldsters played by Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau, so the town started an annual festival in honor of the movies. Now that’s an idea I can get behind. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Today’s Bad Decision: Trying to do it all. Now. When I started this project, I failed to realize just how much I would have to learn in a short period of time. In my abundant free time this summer, I started learning (or re-learning): ACCESS, web design, digital photo processing, how to use a new digital SLR camera, networking with other travel writers, and marketing. Geez. No wonder I need a real vacation.

© Dean Klinkenberg, 2007