So this morning we headed out from Amherst, Mass. and put the address to Betts Books into the GPS. We were checking out of our hotel at noon and a last minute check had me finding that Books closes at 3. With a 2 hour drive that would leave us an hour for browsing. We were off!
We were making great time and then when were about 10 minutes away we hit some major traffic so we took a detour that would add another 20 minutes to our drive. That would give us only 30 minutes to browse...that is if they decided to stay open. Indie bookstores have that luxury of "O no one is in, let's close early".
The GPS started leading us into a residential neighborhood. Initially Griff thought it was giving us a shortcut but all of a sudden we found ourselves parked in front of someone's house with the GPS announcing we'd reached our destination.
BUT THIS ISN"T A BOOKSHOP! IT'S SOMEONE'S HOUSE.
I was freaking out and screaming swear words at the GPS for taking us to the wrong damn place and threatening to destroy it for its stupidity.
Griff drove up the drive way. "But this is someones HOUSE" I kept saying.
Griff, "Look, see that SK sticker on the car? I'm going to go and have a look. If it says Stephen King, I'm knocking on the door. If not, we're driving!".
Next thing I see my husband going up to knock on the door and lo and behold, the gentleman does run the bookshop for his home. Apparently most sales are done from online and about 5 people in the last 3 years have shown up on his doorstep.
He was amazingly kind and we had a great chat about King books, illustrations and was able to examine some great editions.
And Yes. I did buy something. I bought a 2 books and some prints.
Happy Birthday, Merry Christmas, Happy Valentine's to me.
2 comments:
I love this. I NEVER would have thought to knock on the door. I would have continued to scream at the GPS, and possibly throw it out the window.
Fortunately, Griff is more level headed than that. And you got to chat about Stephen King!
We both figure everything can be forgiven in an English accent so I let him do all the "crazy" stuff. Bumbling Englishman ftw!
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