i'm writing a book - right here!

[AAC Cadet Leader]

hi fellow antique aviation fans. a few of you here already know about my six-month-long aerial barnstorming hitchhike i made through the continental USA in 1988 and that i have been sporadically writing a comprehensive book about it ever since to be titled, "Have Goggles, Will Travel!"

i know, i know, i should have finished it long ago, but completing the endless details of that book has proven to be a much larger task for me than completing the remarkable feat of the journey, itself.

in an effort to get something into print before any more of my generous pilots leave earthly bounds (and don't return to land), i have a new sub-goal: to create a less comprehensive, much smaller book with photos and memories of then until now and how my epic aerial journey has influenced my life. my hope is to get this interim book into print within a few months, and at the same time reformat my 45 minute multi-media slide show/talk to dvd so that i may again be available to share the journey at aviation banquets and schools, etc in 2008. now that my two children are teenagers and quite independent, i feel i can leave them for a day or two at a time, whereas before now i wouldn't consider it.

writing is an incredibly lonely task, which is one of the reasons i have started and stopped the progress on my comprehensive book in the past. having this thread for the development of the new interim book and having some of you check in on me daily and offer occasional encouragement will help keep me accountable to my committment of writing @ 500 words a day, which may not be much for many of you, but for me with all of the other things i have to do, it can be a lot.

i don't have any idea really how i'll write this book or what all will be in it, so it should be interesting to see it unfold and compile right here on the aerodrome which has become my online home for the past few years. you'll be seeing the unedited version before a publisher gets their hands on it.

please feel free to offer occasional constructive critiques or questions you have, etc. please forgive that i won't attempt to answer you directly on thread as it takes me a lot of time, but i will read all posts. replying directly to posts might change the immediate flow of the writing which might not be where i was planning to go with it, but having your feedback and questions will help me plan what subjects within the entire text i should address.

to begin, i’ll do my best to summarize my journey in three paragraphs:

_____________________________________________
Summary

Much of the momentum and success for my journey was due to the fact that the press took immediate and continued attention for my romantic goal of traveling through all of the lower 48, living the part of and dressed as a 1920’s barnstormer with only pocket change, and getting rides onboard the wings of antique aeroplanes, piloted and hosted by their owners. Meeting and flying with different pilots every day hither and yon about the USA, criss-crossing my own path several times over the course of 183 days aboard some of the most beautiful open cockpit and vintage luxury cabin aeroplanes, held constant surprises and adventures, mostly excitingly romantic, sometimes exhausting, and on a few occasions - terrifying. The red carpet was rolled out for my arrival in many places and I was given royal treatment: TV cameras and newspaper reporters upon our arrivals and departures, fine dining and the finest hotel rooms and guest rooms in homes, the mayor’s keys to two cities, the right seats to the Spuce Goose and the Goodyear Blimp, the backseat of three P-51’s, the front seat of a 1918 Jenny, and a hundred other flights of fancy that most pilots in love with the days of aeroplanes & aviators only dream about.

In many other places, I was an unknown, and was dropped off by the last pilot and met with little or no fanfare nor notice. It was in those places that I was able to experience more of my vision of a true itinerant barnstormer of olde, unrolling my bedroll for the night under the wing of an aeroplane, in the backseat of an airport courtesy car, and on the couches of pilot’s lounges. The fare was equally rough in some cases. At times I subsisted on candy and chips from the airport vending machines – in one instance in rainy, cold Ypsilanti, Michigan for three days in a row, at night, I rolled out my sleeping bag on the dusty floor of the old, abandoned control tower on the airfield, while waiting for the weather to clear and a ride out.

My 199 pilots became my friends and my heroes, always dropping what they were doing and in some cases flying hundreds of miles to unfamiliar airfields to come get me, and to then take me further along my journey toward the next state that needed to be checked off on my map. Along the way they pointed out some of the most incredible hidden things from the air that I would’ve otherwise missed, and on a few occasions from low altitudes (usually by my encouragement,) we experienced some rare and privileged viewing angles of America’s iconic treasures: Mount Rushmore at eye-to-eye level with the Presidents; the Grand Canyon from a tiny plane; a steep turn over top of Niagra Falls; an encircling, slightly-above torch level view of the Statue of Liberty; a circuit around Mount Saint Helen’s still-smoking, ash peak and toothpick trees; beside red plateaus and huge natural, red rock formations of Sedona, Arizona and the snow-covered, black granite peaks of the Grand Tetons near Jackson, Wyoming. There were a few flights at very low altitudes, including: between a low-level thunderstorm and a Missouri highway; alongside a semi truck on a mostly-deserted Nevada highway (in a P-51); within the walls of a quarry in Georgia; and the lowest – beneath a bridge in North Carolina.

The statistics: 199 pilots, in over 200 vintage aeroplanes, 330 flights, 29,117 miles through 48 states, 183 days, 9 marriage proposals. The best part: 1000 new friends.
__________________________________________________

[Sandy Spigot-Colon]

M,
Put me down for a copy.
If you need an incentive--it's your first customer.

S S-C

PS Thanks for the b'day wishes the other week and now get back to bl**dy writing.

[WarrenD]

You go girl! Get that writing done. I'd like to buy a copy too.

Warren

[Barrett]

...and how many marriage proposals did you accept?

Consider sending a proposal of your own--to some magazines. Make 'em short, explaining basically what you posted here. The editors ALWAYS want pictures.

A few articles could grease the skids for a book contract.

Good luck!

[FliegerJG1]

Originally Posted by AAC Cadet Leader

The statistics: 199 pilots, in over 200 vintage aeroplanes, 330 fights, 29,117 miles through 48 states, 183 days, 9 marriage proposals. The best part: 1000 new friends.

AAC,
I'm hoping those 330 were flights, and not fights!

You were such a courageous soul to pursue this dream. I wish you all the best as you follow another dream to publish your story.

Blue skies,

FliegerJG1

[Der Grüne Flieger]

Martha,

I love the idea and am looking forward to reading your book. I didn't know about your epic journey, but it sounds like it was a gas.

Phil

[mike_baram]

God, I'm jealous....to have a dream and achieve it....way to go, Martha.

BTW, guys, every one of those marriage proposals was from a man with impeccable taste.

[cfgray]

Just an amazing thing to do, even more amazing to have actually stuck it out and accomplished the task.

What is writing a book after doing something like that... remarkable (many of us have suspected that you are, now we know).

Best,
cfgray

[Roadhog]

Dear Martha, Having written 3.2 books I know what you mean. I write from chapter and character outlines. It helps break things down into "bite size" managable units. First I write the parts that keep playing n my head like old movies and then I do my best to connect the dots in a readable and believable manner.

Then I always ask for people who know their stuff to read my work. Thus far I have had Forum members read about five chapters of my WWI novel. I would rather have a mistake pointed out while I am writing the darn thing than two days after it hits the street. I re-wrote my Civil War novel three times and the Yankees still won!

So if I can help just let me know. Your friend, Scott Price, a.k.a. Roadhog

[AAC Cadet Leader]

thanks all. your comments, questions and encouragement are making me smile. and barrett's made me laugh.

_____________________________________

Of the over one hundred newspaper and magazine articles written about my journey that people I met along the way sent to my mother, no one had a better grassroots flair for writing than Gordon Baxter. When I was in college at Kent State University, working on the flight line and learning to fly Cessna 150's, I used to buy FLYING Magazine just to flip to the last couple pages to read his monthly column, titled "Bax Seat."

I had the brainstorm nine months before the start of the journey, and I knew I'd need lots of help with publicizing my crazy dream. One of the first things I did was to write a letter to Gordon Baxter to ask him if he would write an article about my wish to find owners of old aeroplanes who would be willing to take me towards the next state needing to be crossed off on my map of the USA. He liked my idea. We had a couple of long phone conversations and he asked me to write him another letter and tell him about my background. His first article was published in the May 1988 issue, just in time for me to pack along with my special logbook I made just for the journey. Having that shiny magazine article handy was proof to the sceptics I met along the way that in fact I wasn't nuts, well, maybe, but anyway, at least Gordon Baxter thought I was alright.

Halfway through my journey, I met up with Gordon at the big EAA week at Oshkosh where he was giving his annual standing room only talk in one of the seminar tents. He introduced me to the crowd, and told them again what I was in the midst of accomplishing. Afterwards we had a sandwich at one of the picnic tables while watching the wingwalker on the Waco with the trailing smoke. Three and a half months later when I finally completed the journey, I wrote again to Gordon at his request and he generously wrote a second follow-up article. It made the May 1989 issue:





I met up briefly with Gordon again at Oshkosh in 1990 and in 1992 and these times I had my own seminar tent to show the slides and tell about my adventure, and I also was given the use of Theater in the Woods to present my show - pretty neat! When my son was born, Gordon sent him a handsome, hand-crafted wooden toy plane with his name on it. He was a dear man.