Kahuna

Mooooore Chama

That is David Morrell in the photo taking notes as I give him some helpful hints. The other photo is our dog Kahuna. I noticed David takes my helpful hints about as well as Kahuna.

The old school bus on train wheels is another examplel of a Galloping Goose, although this goose has been cooked beyond its prime.

The Chama train passing on the trestle is where we parked our RV.

More Chama

The Caboose Mobile (RV) is back with illustrations from the RCC plastered to the sides and back. Dawn Phillips was the illustrator for The Red Candy Caboose and her name is now being drug across America. I hope Dawn approves.

That is me standing over David Morrel

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Chama

As many people have told me "There is a gap between your blog postings." Yep, I've noticed. I try not to write much about cutting the grass and eating breakfast. And many days that seems to be the featured events.

Last night we got back from Chama, NM. Friday started off with a radio interview at FM 96.1. If you are interested you might be able to pull it up on their web site. They started the interview by playing our RCC Theme Song and wrapped it up by playing it again. Chama being a tourist train town, the song is expected to get more local air time.

David Morrell wrote First Blood, better known as Rambo along with 36 other books. David has sold over 18 million books. His booking schedule is full of places like New York, Chicago & LA. Who woulda' thought he would show up in Chama, New Mexico. He was our key note speaker for the event and gave talks on Friday and Saturday. David hung out with the other NM writers for the entire week end. Few people have touched me like David Morrell. He was inspiring, kind, down to earth and a pleasure to hang out with. When I got out of high school I worked in a factory as a press operator, punching out auto parts from raw metal. My sleep was frequently interrupted by waking up drenched in sweat and searching the bed for my lost hands and arms.

My first inkling that I liked this man was when he told of his experience right out of high school of being a press operator in a factory and the terror that came with it. I wish I could say our lives continued to parallel each other as we aged. Unlike me, David went on to get his PHD in literature and has become one of the best writers in American in our current culture.

After seeing the first Rambo movie I never had much desire to read David's work. However that changed this week end when David spoke of the true characters that inspired First Blood and the battle with the movie industry to keep some integrity in the movie that would attempt to shadow the book. I now have appreciation of authors who write good books that frequently get made into movies that often fail to mirror the intent of the original creator.

I'll try and post more photos later of the event. My camera is sitting in the motorhome on the other side of town, but I did receive the poster today that shows Micki, our good dong (supposed to say "dog") and me at the book fair.

We did sell some books while in Chama and more importantly established a retail outlet directly across from the train ticket office.

While Albuquerque and Santa Fe had temperatures hovering around 100 degrees, Chama was comfortable and we got to park the RV by the Chama River which was rapidly flowing with fresh snow melt from the mountains.

We kept asking each other "Why don't we come up here more often?" A riddle we soon hope to solve.

We leave Wednesday for Minnesota.