Change the World Tour: Day 13

The Tour is not over. In fact, it will never be over. But our first 2 weeks are done, and the Change the World Tour is officially paused. I thought I'd be so relieved at this point, but I'm actually sad because I had so much fun with the students, teachers, librarians, foundation folks, bookstore employees, etc. It was an awesome experience that I'll never forget.

Yesterday, Day 13, I went to Hooper, Riverdale, and Pioneer Elementary Schools. The amazing Cathy and Rachel from Deseret Book were the poor souls who had to go around with me, and it was great to have them along. I feel like I'm out of superlatives to describe these school experiences, so I apologize to those toward the end of this 2 week tour. But I loved being with you just as much as those at the beginning.

A huge thanks to everyone for making this an unforgettable time (especially Cathy Blaisdell, who has supported me from the Jimmy Fincher days and is one awesome lady).

Last night was a great way to end it, too. We'd sold 60 or so books at the schools during the day, so I expected a repeat of the slower signing the previous night. Instead, we had a big crowd that lasted a couple of hours. Even then, we got a call from a parent asking me to stay just 10 more minutes. I did, of course, and luckily got to meet the Official Last Person to Buy a Book from James Dashner on His Two Week Tour That's Not Really Over but is now Paused. Congrats, Lucas.

Here are the official stats of the past 2 weeks. Most of these are estimates, but should be pretty close:

States Visited: 4
Schools Visited: 24
Students Spoken To: 6,000
Book Signings: 7
Books Sold (with me present): 900
Posters Signed: 1,000
Total Signatures: 1,900
Carpal Tunnel Injuries: To Be Determined
Unhealthy Meals Consumed: 8
Somewhat Healthy Meals Consumed: The rest
All You Can Eat Sushi Meals: 1
Traffic Tickets: 1 (Photocop in Duluth, GA for running a redlight. I have no memory of doing this.)
Blog Posts: 13
Airplane takeoffs: 5
Airplane Landings: 5
Obnoxious Snoring People Within Three Feet on Airplanes: 1
Miles Travelled: 5,632
Books Read: 0.5
Pages Written: 0 (This is my most shameful statistic.)
Wives Missed: 1
Kids Missed: 4
Friends Missed: 1 (You can all fight over which one it was.)
Episodes Behind in "Lost": 4
Total Books Sold So Far: No idea
Times I Thought This is Too Good to be True: 1,534,846
Days Until Book 2 Comes Out: 350

Well, as promised, I posted about every day of the tour. I kinda got lazy toward the end, but I felt like I was just repeating myself. My final conclusion is that being an author is the best thing on the planet, especially a children's author. I have no doubt that never in my life have I had so many fulfilling moments jam packed into such a short period of time.

To all of you elementary and middle school students I had the fortune of visiting, thank you. And a big thanks to all the "old people" I met, too. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Look for details on more tour dates, coming soon.

And next week, I'll resume regular blog posts, talking about anything and everything, no matter how stupid. Bye!