Travel Passages

The Mississippi River near Genoa, Wisconsin

This winter has been dreary—cold, snowy, lots of time spent on marketing instead of writing—so I decided to get started on the next book to boost my spirits. I’m ready to get moving. I have ambitious plans for this year, with two books to market and plans to research and write two more. The third book will cover the Mississippi River from Lansing, Iowa north to Hastings, Minnesota, territory that includes what is arguably the most scenic stretch of the river.

Just another January drive

I had planned to get started after a book event in Iowa, but another major storm forced us to cancel the event. I wasn’t in the mood to stay home, so I decided to hit the road, anyway, even though it meant driving through the tail end of that storm. It really wasn’t too bad; I stuck to the major highways and got to La Crosse (Wisconsin) in about nine hours, only a little longer than it would normally take.

Call me a geek, but it was worth the effort to get the feeling of being back on the road, even if back on the road means spending all day in the library reading local history books. After all, sorting through these old books, it’s not unusual to come across an occasional gem like the picture below.

Put on your mask and celebrate Julebukk!

Julebakk is an ancient Norwegian Christmas tradition that involves dressing up in tacky costumes, wearing a mask to hide the fact you’re wearing a tacky costume, gathering your friends who are all wearily similarly tacky outfits, and harassing your neighbors until they guess who’s who. Yea, it sounds like Halloween, but the prizes are not candy and chocolates but lefse, lutefisk, and grog. I love it, and I think we should all give it a try this year.

So begins the work for book three.

© Dean Klinkenberg, 2010