Thursday, September 6th, 2007, 4:40 p.m.

Greetings from beautiful Lafayette, Indiana, U.S.A!

We left our home in northern Michigan yesterday morning. Lily Munster was on her first nap of the day, and she didn't want to be disturbed:

Of course, when I said the words 'Road Trip!' she and Scooby-Boo headed straight for the 'Chillers' van!

Today, our first stop was at Mintonye (say: min-TAH-nee) Elementary in Lafayette . . .

Everybody got into the Spooky Laugh!

We had a short break, so we took Lily Munster and Scooby-Boo for a short walk. They're enjoying their road trip!

Then, we were treated to lunch at Mintonye! What a great spread!

From Mintonye, we traveled to Mayflower Elementary for a great afternoon . . .

People don't think my stories are true, but here is a picture of some 'real' iron insects in Indiana!

Well, as you can imagine, all the hard work guarding our van really took it out of Scooby-Boo . . .

. . . and Lily Munster . . .

This is our very first trip with both dogs. They're doing pretty good, although they miss their daily swims in the lake. It's great to have them along. Lily Munster is a good driver, but Scooby-Boo still has a lot to learn about driving vehicles.

All for now. Special thanks to our new friends at Mintonye and Mayflower Elementaries! It was an honor to visit your schools (dude!). We'll be at one more Lafayette school in the morning, before heading back to our home for the weekend. Don't forget: if you're in the Michigan Tri-Cities area, you can read my new book 'The Ghost of Gratiot Road' in the Saginaw News and Bay City Times. Look for a new chapter each Tuesday, beginning on September 11th!

Best wishes, happy reading, and . . . WRITE ON!