We are on an Alaska Airlines flight heading back to Tucson at the end of the tour.  In a couple of days, we’ll close up the Tucson house and head north, as our snowbird season comes to an end.

First and foremost, thanks to all my fans we made the lists—we made ALL the lists.  Man Overboard was #10 on the Wall Street Journal and NYTimes best sellers list, #9 on the Publisher’s Weekly list, and #12 on USA Today.  Since the USA list includes fiction and non-fiction, and since two of the top ten are non-fiction, by my count that makes me #10 in fiction on USA Today as well.  In other words, for the first time ever, we ran the table.  Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!

This is not a tour where there have been cheery Tales from the Trail blog updates.  All of you are well aware of what a difficult time this has been after losing our little Bella.  I’m so grateful to my daughter, Jeanne T., for stepping up and writing last week’s post.  I’ve literally spent days responding to the countless messages of condolence that have come in to me and to her.  I’ve tried to respond personally to each and every e-mail.  If yours somehow fell through the cracks, thank you.  It means so much to me to know I have so many caring and animal loving readers and fans out there.

There were times during this tour, like last night in Lake Forest Park for instance, when I just couldn’t wrap my head around giving a formal presentation.  Knowing that I was in a roomful of loving fans, I was able to turn the event into a full-blown Q and A.  Thank you to the guy who wanted to hear the “red tie” story.  Thank you to the guy who wanted to hear the “Doug Davis” story.  Being able to answer questions last night was a huge help to me.

But it turns out, last night in Lake Forest Park was almost my last appearance in Lake Forest Park.  After dropping my daughter and grandson off in Redmond, I headed home down 132nd NE in Bellevue.  Halfway through Bridle Trails, 132nd makes a sharp turn to the left and then another one to the right.  It’s a tricky corner, one that already has a cross and a marker for a guy who didn’t make it.

Last night, as I approached the first curve, driving at the speed limit, a guy in an SUV, driving in the opposite direction and not observing the speed limit, came around that curve with both his left hand wheels on MY side of the double yellow line.  I hung onto the steering wheel for dear life, headed for the narrow shoulder, and prayed like crazy.  I’m assuming he made it the rest of the way without crashing, but it was a very narrow escape, and I was too shaken to go back to check on his well being.

I can tell you I was very grateful to arrive safely at home a few minutes later, and I’m incredibly grateful to be on the right side of the grass and writing a blog post this morning.

So thank you reading this, and thank you for being my loyal readers.  Once we land I need to go back to work on Proof of Life.

For all of those dyed-in-the-wool Beaumont fans, he’ll be back.