08/23/2026
We really enjoyed meeting this duo when they came to the bookstore this week. Diane and Dewey are full-time travelers. The two of them have traversed the US and Canada in her Ram Promaster van, which she bought when she returned to the US after living for a year in France. Diane had the van converted to a rolling home which she and her Dewey have been living in for about a year. She stopped in Eureka, and ended up ‘living’ here for 10 days while her van got some repairs. She was very taken with our area.
“When I got to Vermont,” she said, “I though ‘I will never see a place as beautiful as this,’ but this area is just as beautiful, and it’s not hot and muggy!”
She told me she loved the redwoods, but also the Morris Graves Museum for its art and The Clark Museum, both for local history and because of Dave, the knowledgeable and delightfully engaging museum concierge. She enjoyed all of the murals around town, and found the Old Town district interesting and vibrant.
We fell into conversation when she came to the bookstore and gave me a long list of books that had been recommended to her by friends and people she’s met on her travels. After I gathered a collection of titles for her to consider, she sat at the table where I was working, reading the jacket copy of the books and chatting with me. I was curious about this intrepid, independent visitor, and asked about her background. She told me that she had worked at many jobs in her life, but the one she did the longest was hosting a talk show. Her father was in broadcasting, and when his radio station wasn’t getting much of a female audience, the station director asked Diane if she’d like to host a talk show on topics of interest to women.
“I think he thought he was going to get recipes and homemaking tips,” she laughed. “But ‘topics of interest to women’ should include everything! And I covered everything: science, politics …I interviewed writers…”
Interestingly, though I was asking questions about her life, she also asked at least as many about mine. True to her talk show host past, her questions were thoughtfully worded and precise. She wanted to know about my job, how I’d gotten into it and what I loved about it. She was interested in my daughter, Sophie, whose childhood photos are hung on the back of a bookcase near our buying table where we were talking. Her voice was soothing. I imagine she was very good at hosting a talk show.
As different customers came and went, I greeted many of them by name, chatting briefly with regulars.
“I see that you have a real community,” Diane observed. “I can imagine that having a bookstore like this for a long time, it must be such a big part of people’s routine, to come here. You get to know each other…I miss that. As much as I love traveling and meeting people – and the very best part is meeting people– I don’t have that continuity and a community of people like you do.”
“Both paths have real advantages, don’t they?” I asked. “You have such a sense of adventure, and are always discovering someplace new. That’s a very enviable lifestyle. I don’t travel often, and when I do it’s usually carefully planned. There isn’t a lot of room for spontaneous side trips.”
“Yes, of course I’m very happy traveling. It’s like school, too. Everywhere I go, I want to learn about that place. I didn’t know much about redwood trees, but when I got here I studied up. It was really interesting! And the name, ‘Eureka.’ I wondered where that had come from, so I looked that up too.”
“You’re a Road Scholar,” I joked.
She threw her head back and laughed hard at that. I’m surprised she hadn’t heard that phrase at least a few times before on this journey, but I was chuffed at getting to be the first to say it.
While I don’t have the kind of wayfaring lifestyle Diane does, I'm so fortunate that interesting folks from all over come to the bookstore and I get to hear about their adventures. I really couldn’t be luckier.
