Congratulations to Rich Herron for winning a copy of the book through the From Left to Write Book Club Contest!
The Book Contest Winner is…
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Interview with Christi on From Left to Write Book Club
From Left to Write Book Club did an interview with Christi! Read it here. And there is still a chance to win a free book, this time leave a comment about what luxury you would pack on your boat trip around the world.The winner of the book contest will be announced on their site on July 29th.
Ask Christi a Question and Win a Free Book!
From Left to Write Book Club is going to be interviewing Christi. They are taking questions from the general public. To encourage people to submit questions, they are giving away a free book. Each separate question posted in the comments on their site is an entry in the book contest. Now is the time to ask all those questions you’ve been wondering about! http://www.fromlefttowrite.com/ask-the-author-christi-grab/
June 2011 Update
Part 1 of the Unexpected Circumnavigation continues to sell well, for a self published book at least! We are working on getting it onto Kindle and into other e-pub and mobi forms. Right now it is only available in PDF, which isn’t quite the same as e-pub.
Part 2 is in the home stretch and should be completed relatively soon. Christi hasn’t been updated the blog primarily because she is focusing on finishing the book.
We have loaded a few photos from our circumnavigation onto Facebook (you do not need to be a member of Facebook to view them). There aren’t a ton on there now, but we have been slowly but steadily adding photos. If you “like” the page, you can see the photos as they are posted. Or, you can follow Christi on Twitter, which also notifies you when photos are added.
Work is keeping Eric very busy, but we have hopes that later this year he can try working remotely. If he can, we’ll do some limited coastal cruising and see how working remotely goes. With that goal in mind, we’ve been steadily getting Kosmos ready for cruising, including a new drawer freezer than can run on either AC or DC, new batteries, new alternators, and a whole host of other items we will hopefully get around to writing about soon.
Remembering Joplin, Missouri
Note: This is Part 7 of the Passage Across America series. While it is out of chronological order (this was posted a year after the rest of the series), it is in the right geographical order. Read Part 6 here and Part 8 here.
Last year, we took a road trip across America in our diesel VW Jetta. The twist to our trip was that we drove from San Diego to Maine on one load of fuel (on the way back we stopped at gas stations). The theme was Americana; our goal was to never stay at or eat in chains, to only visit mom and pop places to see the “real America.” We posted pictures of most of our trip along the way; however, when we got home, we realized we’d lost the SD card with the pictures and we couldn’t post the last few days worth of photos.
Last month we went to France. When we got home, we found the missing SD card while we were unpacking our suitcase, tucked in a small interior pocket! We have been meaning to post the last of the photos from the road trip ever since, but life has gotten busy. The tragedy in Joplin has inspired us to make the time.
Joplin was one of the cities we visited along the way. We drove all around the town. Our impression of Joplin was that it was dying. It looked like it was once a vibrant city, but there clearly had been an exodus. Too many buildings were empty. Too many of those empty buildings were run down to the point that it was clear they’d been vacant for much longer than the current recession.
We stayed at a B&B run by the kindest people, Bill and Marge Meeker, both retired school teachers. They confirmed our suspicions. Joplin was originally a mining town established in 1873. It grew beyond mining, though, with many businesses, probably aided by the fact it was on the infamous Route 66.
The Meekers said when they opened their first B&B many years ago, they were booked solid every night, mostly with business travelers. But as jobs were exported, less visitors came to town, and the more local businesses died. We left there thinking that Joplin was living proof of why America should have more protectionist trade policies. Our heart goes out to those who live there and the horrible tragedy they faced.
On the evening of April 28, 2010, we had dinner at The Red Onion Cafe in downtown. Here are some photos of the downtown area. Notice how empty the streets are.
