The day is finally here, the first day of my four-week book tour, and as usual, despite my careful planning and preparation, I’m still running around at the last minute: paying that last bill, printing up those workshop handouts, changing my mind about today’s reading, oh, and breakfast… did I buy gas? Yet I’m happy, excited about going on another shoestring journey to celebrate the book about my shoestring journey: They Only Eat Their Husbands: A Memoir of Alaskan Love, World Travel, and the Power of Running Away. This time, I’m married, but I’m kindly leaving the husband at home – taking him on this whirlwind tour might actually devour him, and in my opinion that would be bad manners.
In about an hour, I’m jumping in my car and heading to Cheyenne, Wyoming, where I’m speaking at the Laramie County Library at 2:00 this afternoon. Get this: parents can send their kids to the Storytime Room for Ice Cream Sunday, then sneak over to the Cottonwood Room to hear me read about how I ended up in a love triangle with two alcoholics in Alaska, and then ran away to trek around the world alone. I even have pictures: of my world tour, not the love triangle… sorry.
If you don’t live in Cheyenne, but you do live in the American West, there are many more chances to join in this on-the-road, out-of-my-mind adventure. From today, March 20 through Saturday, April 16, I’m driving my rattling, rusty, dented ’95 Honda Civic Hatchback through Wyoming, Montana, Washington, Alaska, Oregon, California, and New Mexico. This is a Girls-Trek-Too style journey – I’ll be surfing couches and staying in hostels all the way.
Although I’ve planned most of my events, I have no clear idea of how this tour is going to go, who I’m going to meet, what I’m going to see, and that’s the way I like it. Once your basic needs are met, life should be an adventure.
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My next reading is at the Parmly Library in Billings, Montana this Tuesday at 7:00 p.m. If you’re interested in learning to plan your own independent adventures, I’ll offer free Girls Trek Too Workshops at several stops. If you want to know “Where’s Cara?” during my Book Tour Adventure, please check my Events page. You can also follow the wanderings of @CaraLopezLee on Twitter or on the Facebook Fan Page for They Only Eat Their Husbands.
