Des Moines Costco Book Signing

It was exciting to see my books included with the assorted books in Costco in Des Moines, Iowa but I was concerned that I might not sell 62 books in my three days of book signing. Also, the other employees told me that there weren’t as many customers because of the Iowa State Fair. Thursday, August 19, was okay but I needed to do better. Friday was great! Saturday was awesome! I sold out of books four hours early!

John and Kay made my day when they told me that they bought both books on Friday, read the first book and decided to return 40 miles one way to Costco to buy another six books for gifts. That only left one book for me to sell.

Summer in Iowa

I'm in Iowa. Terry is in Alaska. We will meet again in September. I've taken photos but don't have my commuter tech with me to help put them on the internet.

Good things I've done are spent 3 weeks with Texas grandson Jake aged 15, saw my classmates at a high school reunion, attended my nephew's wedding and joined a family reunion.

Bad things that have happened are my 16 grandaughter was burned on her face and left leg and foot from a bonfire. My 12 year old grandaughter was shocked from a electrical outlet and is in intensive care because of a heart arrythma .

Future events in Iowa are my father's 90th birthday party, a book signing at Costco in Des Moines, and another class reunion.
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Karol's Alaskan Trip

After the book signings, my daughter Karol visited Alaska. She wanted to see things that she couldn’t see in Iowa. There are no mountains in Iowa so that was the easiest of all to see. Mountains are everywhere. We hitched a ride with Raymond in the big dump truck and walked down the mountain road beside his place. Karol couldn’t believe the size of the flowers that grow in almost 24 hours of sunlight. Even the dandelions were hip high to her.

The Miller apartment is over the three-car garage with the deck overlooking Upper Fire Lake. Of course we wanted a ride around the lake. We followed the Little Susnita River where Karol decided to test the water temperature on our way to Independence Gold mine. I remembered the mine in much better shape. Even the visitor’s center was permanently closed. A marmot decided to check out an abandoned building. We drove further up the mountain where there was still snow by the side of the road.

No trip to Anchorage is complete without driving around Turnagain Arm. At the Portage Visitor’s Center, Karol saw an iceberg for the first time. We decided to drive the long, long, tunnel to Whittier even though it was raining. The train had already gone through so we didn’t have to wait very long but we took too much time driving around and photographing the water falls so we needed to wait about a half hour before returning to the main road. Cars were parked on the edge of the road so we stopped to see what was happening. A few feet from the road, we saw this Bull Moose.

Raymond and Teresita let us use their slide-in camper for our trip to Seward. Since we were camped along the water, we could sit outside the camper and watch waves, boats, and sea otters. We walked to the aquarium where Karol photographed the horned puffin.

The next day we took the Kenai Fjords eight and a half hour boat ride. Here we saw glaciers, humpback whales, porpoises, puffins, and sea lions and otters.

Since we booked our cruise online, we even got a free pass to the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center. Since I have already placed a number of photos on the blog from my last trip here, I won’t use more space except for this photo of the wood buffalo.

More Book Signing

Evan Swensen, who is a distributor for my books, took the photos in Costco on Dimond St. There were as many as ten authors at the store at one time. The tables were set up in a huge U shape with the authors sitting in the middle of the U. It was very interesting to meet the Alaskan authors who wrote children’s stories such as “Alaskan Animals, We Love You” historical books such as “The Buffalo Soldiers,” personal experiences such as “Why Alaska” and novels such as “the Fraternity.” The youngest author was 10-year-old Sam Allred who wrote about his experiences with his kidney disease called IgM Nephropathy in a book called “Opening Hearts.”

La Von told me about going to an RV park and selling books there. I asked Evan about it. He called the Golden Nugget RV Park who were having a soup supper with music afterward that evening. They wanted me to give them some jokes and anecdotes and set up a table so I could sell my books after that. I said, “Yes”.

Instead of going back to Eagle River after the Costco, I headed for the RV Park. The people were very welcoming. A teenager took the photos of me. The “talk” went well and I sold a lot of books.

Two Events in one Day

Besides visiting with family and going on cruises, I have been doing book signings of my books, “RV Chuckles and Chuckholes- The Confessions of Happy Campers” and “More
RV Chuckles and Chuckholes- More Confessions of Happy Campers.”

June 5, I was at the BX at Edmonton Air force Base. They had a fire at the commissary and evacuated everyone. This is a first for me. I never before had a book signing where the place caught on fire. No it wasn’t a book-burning event. They said that a toaster caught fire. Everything was back to normal after an hour.

On June 12, I was able to do two events in one day. In the morning was the author’s meeting upstairs. It was good to see everyone again. (Some of the chapters in the More Chuckles. . . book had been critiqued by this writing group.) In the afternoon, my book signing was from 1 to 4. Pictured are some of the women from the group who also took the photos. Yes, I took my glasses off for the pictures because of the glare.

On June 17, 18, and 19, I will be with other authors at the Costco store on Dimond St. in Anchorage from 10am till 5 pm for Costco Road show event.

Kenai Fjords Tour from Seward

We enjoyed the 8-½ hour tour through Kenai Fjords National Park with dinner at Fox Island. Not only did we see wildlife but also had a wonderful meal of salmon and prime rib as the entrees.

Shortly after we left Seward we saw mountain goats with their kids on the mountainside. This time they were close enough to see which end was front and which was back. They don’t have the curved horns of the mountain sheep but little spiky horns.

It was fun to see the otters play in the water. Another name for seagulls is kittiwakes. Their nests were lower on the rocks while the puffins burrowed higher up.

Sea lions played at the bottom of the rocks.

The Aialik Glacier sounded like thunder or a shotgun blast before huge chunks calved or broke off and fell into the water.

The blowhole of humpback whale was seen before we saw the side and fins.

We saw more wildlife on this cruise than on any cruise that we have taken. I would recommend this cruise to anyone who goes to Seward.

On the Way to Seward

If you have a limited time and want to see Alaskan animals, I suggest you visit the “140-acre Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center, jaws drop in awe-even those of longtime Alaskans who've studied grizzlies and other animals up close. AWCC's mission is to provide refuge for orphaned, injured, and ill animals-those that can't survive in the wild.” This quote is from their web page.

The only place we saw musk ox in the wild was close to Dead Horse-Prudhoe Bay area. Then they were only seen afar off.

The brown bear was not hurting the other bear but playing with him. The shaggy bison is loosing his winter coat. The black bear is scratching his head.

Jerry, here is another eagle. He is located in a large wire cage that presents a challenge to taking photos.

On the road again, we stopped at Exit Glacier. The brown flat area in front of glacier is where Terry walked in 2000 or 2002. A moose crossed in front of us on the walking path.
A far off shot of her shows a large white scar. I wonder what happened to her.

Robert, here’s your photo of a magpie.