* * Arriving home

I’m home!
I returned after midnight last Monday from five weeks in Bolivia.  Bolivia is the poorest, highest country in South America.  It was an experience being there like no other.
I was the team leader of a GSE (group study exchange) team sponsored by Rotary International.  My team members were coincidentally all teachers.  They ranged in age from 28 to 36 and were from Lexington, Elton, and Front Royal. 
There is much to like and much to dislike in Bolivia.  The best part is the people.  Whether I was able to communicate with them or not, I found them warm, welcoming, and friendly.  They greet newcomers with a warm handshake (if between men) or a kiss on the cheek (if between women or between a man and a woman).  They put up with terrible hardships in worker strikes, unstable governments, theft (or the threat of theft), and unsanitary public facilities, but maintain their positive outlook and desire to help the world.
When I awoke at home the next morning, I looked outside into the dawn sunlight and the trees were green, brilliant green.  When I had left in late March, springtime was only on the way.  I had no sense of any seasonal change in Bolivia, the transition from fall into winter.  But here things had changed dramatically.  There is nothing more deliciously vibrant than an Appalachian spring!
My first book was published by Pocahontas Press here in Blacksburg.  When the sole proprietor, Mary Holliman, died last August, the company fell into disarray and I took over ownership of the book and have printed and marketed it myself since.  In the meantime, Jane and I have been negotiating with Mary’s heirs to take over ownership of the company.  That was completed shortly before I returned.
This past week, I finalized my third book, Harmonic Highways, Motorcycling Virginia’s Crooked Road, and I sent it to the printer for the first set of 50 copies.  So it won’t be long until it’s in print.
Tomorrow I leave for three more days on the road.  Johnson City, TN, has invited me and another motorcyclist and writer to ride the backroads of the area with some local folks and write about it.  The hope the publicity will bring tourists to town.  I don’t have a confirmed outlet, but they have offered me a hotel room and meals anyway. 
I have another commission to write about SR-16, the sinuous road from Marion, VA to Fayetteville, WV, for Blue Ridge Country Magazine and another to write about a long-term employee of The Greenbrier for Greenbrier Quarterly Magazine.  Looks like it may be a busy summer!