DUNE 7 BLOG

Sunday, August 27, 2006

Half Moon Bay and Sacramento

We arrived in the lovely coastal town of Half Moon Bay, south of San Francisco, in the middle of the afternoon, with enough time to check into the hotel. Tor Books had splurged this time, giving us fabulous rooms at the gorgeous Ritz Carlton on the coast, a spectacular castle-like structure on a cliff above the sea. I took a walk in the afternoon, climbing down to the beach and walking along the sand while I called my sister Laura on my cell phone to wish her a belated happy birthday.

At this point after a rugged tour, my suitcase was getting banged up, and it finally started to breathe its last gasp. The main zipper had begun to break, and one of the corner seams was unraveling (the suitcase is only a year old!). Alas, I was sure it would not survive the flight back home.

When we reached the bookstore for our evening signing, I went over to a drugstore, hoping to find a luggage strap (no luck). Since it was after 7 PM on a Saturday night, not much was still open in the sleepy town of Half Moon Bay. I asked the bookstore owners for suggestions (one offered to get a bungee cord out of his truck), but still found no solution. Rebecca's cousin Rob and his wife Grace arrived at the signing and they immediately went into problem-solving mode. Before the end of the signing, they had procured a new dog leash and a tough-as-duct-tape adhesive Ace bandage to wrap around the suitcase in a pinch!

Next morning we were set to drive to Sacramento for our last signing. On the way through my old home of Livermore, we stopped in a Wal-Mart and did find a real luggage strap, so I was set.

We got to Sacramento with barely half an hour to check in, change clothes, then run off to the bookstore, a brand new Barnes & Noble. On the way out, we bumped into some members of the rock band Journey, who were also staying at the hotel and climbing aboard their tour bus to go perform at the State Fair. (I used to listen to them when I was in high school!)

The last Brian & Kevin signing was a big success, with a large crowd and lots of books sold. Afterward, we had a nice celebratory dinner in Old Sacramento, and said our goodbyes. I was flying home early in the morning, and Brian and Jan were driving to stay in a house in the Bay Area.

(And when I retrieved my luggage at the Denver airport, I found that the "helpful" people at TSA had unclipped my hard-fought luggage strap to inspect my suitcase, then left it dangling loose during the whole trip. Fortunately, the zipper did hold together for its one last journey, and I got home intact.)

-- KJA