2 authors, 4 books, 10 cities

This will be VERY short tonight. I have nearly completed my re-packing in preparation for leaving one brother's home in Clinton, IA, and driving to the other's in Greenfield, IA, tomorrow. We'll be making a stop in West Des Moines to deposit the vast sums of money we've made here at our Clinton / Quad Cities / Iowa City events. Wait, I really didn't mean that as sarcastic as it came out - not at all, actually. We've done well with the book signing aspect of our time here and even better with the new contact and friends we've made.

Today's "Lunch & Learn" at Trinity Medical Center in Rock Island, IL, (which, for those of you not familiar with this part of the country, is one of the Quad Cities - the others being Moline, IL, and Davenport and Bettendorf, IA) was well attended, fun, and productive. It was primarily staff from virtually all departments of the large hospital and several outlying clinics and a few cancer and stroke patients and caregivers. Most of the staff present were nurses, whom Megan and I were absolutely delighted to talk with during our presentation.

After we packed up from the Trinity signing, we drove a couple miles to the Wester Illinois Area Agency on Aging (WIAAA) office where brother Dave works. He showed us around their very overcrowded office and introduced us to everyone there - a bunch of busy, productive, passionate people. Dave works closely with the senior volunteers who are placed in a variety of jobs and organizations, from hospitals to schools and everything in between. It was really nice to put faces to the names of people Dave has talked about over the years he has worked at WIAAA-RSVP (Retired Senior Volunteer Program).

This evening we had dinner at a new friend's home, David and Monis Ramnath. Megan met David while walking and asked him to come to our book signing at Book World last Saturday. He did and bought the only books sold that afternoon. He so enjoyed our spirited conversation then that he wanted to continue it and invited us, his sister, who is the Director of Clinical and Professional Development at Clinton's Mercy Hospital, and another couple to enjoy dinner that he and Monis prepared. Megan and I have never been known to pass up good Indian food and this was great. And, they insisted on buying some books, which we had not brought with us. But David was acting as our chauffeur for the evening (freeing me to enjoy TWO glasses of wine with dinner!) and so took our personally autographed books back to his family and friends after dropping us off. A wonderful end to a very enjoyable day.

So, that's it for today. Goodnight!
NL