Bookstore tour, continued.

On our way, we popped into the Chiloquin Bookstore. It is such an anomaly, such a black swan, that I'm not sure what to say. A huge bookstore with a huge number of books, about as isolated as you can get. I really can't figure out his organization, though. All over the place.

Visited a nice bookstore, Basin Books, in Klamath Falls. Only bookstore left. About a third to half of the bookstores on our trip we remembered visiting last time or which were listed in the Yellow Pages were gone.

Basin Books seemed to have a handle on things -- the only wrinkle I pointed out to Linda was that I thought their policy of trading CD books for CD books made sense, but she's heard it before from me. We haven't had to change our very simple trading policy since we started, and the minute you start making exceptions, you stray. So....well, good for her for sticking to basics.

Also in Klamath Falls, we talked to a downtown owner, who was upbeat. Whenever I talk about how downtown Bend is booming to other downtowners in other towns, they always nod their head and say, "Yeah, we're getting busy, too."

They have no idea. The other day, I was getting away from my own store and standing in Pave Jewelers next door, with their wrap around picture windows on the corner and was just amazed and astounded by the hordes of browsers. Never would have thought it would happen in my lifetime. Most of these other downtowns are miles away from that. Miles away. I always mention that there is both good and bad in these crowds, but I'd have to say I'd rather have the raw material to work with. Keep those hordes coming!

We're not seasoned travelers. Being able to afford motels is relatively new for us. So we didn't make reservations. We were shocked by the price of the big motels by I-5 in Grants Pass, as well as the fact they were sold out. Checked the older motels in the downtown area, and the first two places we checked were also sold out. So we tried Motel 6.

I had no idea it was such a basic motel. Half the price, a tiny room, zero amenities. Didn't bother me at all, but I think Linda was disappointed. We rarely get to go on trips and I think she's willing to pay more for amenities. My bad.

In the Grants Pass area, we found a bookstore called Oregon Books. It was new/used and also a very nice bookstore. I took a few notes and we moved on.

In Crescent City, Linda insisted on trying an older motel that her sisters had once stayed at.

Wow. Perfect. It was on the beach -- I mean ON the beach, 300 feet from the waterline. Beach level. You could sit on the bed and hear the waves and watch the sunset, or sit on the porch and watch the falling stars. Just about perfect. I ain't telling you the name. It's a secret.

After spending time on the beach and picking up rocks (and trying to dissuade Linda from picking up skeletons) we checked out the last bookstore we could find in Crescent City. This store had morphed into a music/bookstore, and seemed, well, less orderly than the last time we visited.

We were a little shocked that Crescent City was so run down. We'd heard it was coming back, but it looked seedier than we remembered. Linda grew up there and as long as her mother was alive we'd visit every year. Looks as though they'd torn down buildings in preparation for new ones and got caught by the slowdown. Downtown was a ghost town.

We jaunted up to Brookings.

Bookstores everywhere. Checked into Earl's Books, which was a very nice store, one of those nook and crannies and little rooms connected to little rooms type bookstores I like. He sent us the Abbey's Bookstore, who told us they did a large amount of their business online. When we questioned them, they told us that if we were making enough in our brick and mortar, to stick with that.

That's a pretty constant refrain we get from people who's business is partly online. They are less than enthused, and seem to view it as a necessary evil.

Found a new bookstore, Words and Pictures, run by an petite older woman who really knew her stuff. We seemed to really hit it off. She knew what I was saying, and I understood what she was saying. Maybe it's just that we'd both been doing it for 25 years or so. Liked her and her store. She had an art gallery connected, which was the third store on this trip that was also either a music store or art gallery.

We also popped into FullSpeed Comics and said hello. Tiny comic shop, in a very small town, but obviously a labor of love. Tried to give him a pep talk about carrying graphic novels, but didn't push it too hard since it was obvious he had some capital restraints. Young guy, who was trying to do what was common 20 or 30 years ago in the comic trade, but which is harder to do now: start small and grow. When did I become the grizzled old veteran?

Finally, we had heard about a bookstore in Rogue River.

If you had all the money you needed to buy any book or accoutrement you wanted? That's this bookstore. In a tiny tourist town.

Interesting.

This store would absolutely kick butt if it was in Bend. I thought the selection of books was great. Really well done. Too many knick knacks for my taste, but they were intriguing knick knacks. They had the best stuffed animal collection I've seen. A huge stuffed Otter that I insulted them by calling it a bear -- biggest stuffed animal I've ever seen.

Took lots of notes.

Just as we were leaving, the owner came in, and we introduced ourselves as two bookstore owners from Bend.

"That's nice," she says, and leaves.

Which kind of reminded me that most of the bookstore people on this trip were more talkative than usual. I made it very clear to all of them that we had no intention of leaving Bend -- and I suppose we are far enough away not to be a threat.

Linda made a comment that I thought was right on. All these bookstore people had great pride in their stores, and felt they were doing it the right way.

"I bet they shake their heads after we leave and wonder how we stay in business..."

More than one way to skin a cat -- though I still think we've got the best handle on things.....