Author: davetline


Please be sure to check out the first post in this series and support A Ride for April. davidtimberline.com/a-ride-for-april/

Wow, that was a day! Beginnings can be rough and today kinda was.

First, I kinda downplayed my bike ride from the train station last night. It was only 3.5 miles but it was thru a steady rain. The cool part was the hotel was by a huge bridge heading over to Canada that looked super dramatic at night.

But the not so cool part was waking up with soaked shoes. After employing some small hotel garbage can liners over my socks, it was off to Lake Huron where a very nice lake-gazer relented to my picture request.

And then I was off! It was dreary but dry for the first half of the day. It enabled me to take in some local sights like this creepy mannequin on a roadside gate.

Then, perhaps ironically, as I pulled into Richmond Michigan is started pouring.

The semi-bright side of that was Richmond was the beginning of the Macon Orchard Rail Trail, a nice flat, peaceful ride, traffic free even if it was very damp.

A highlight of this trail was a bike bridge that had a barn facsimile on the top. Not sure why they chose that motif but it made for a cool bridge!

I eventually pulled into Romeo, quite a hopping little town. Sadly, I couldn’t find a nearby companion city named Juliet. 38 miles down – just 260 to go!

On this, my first day of biking, it seems fitting to feature “If You Should Hear a Honey Guide.” It was April’s first book so also a beginning for her. Written in the second person, April made this particularly appealing to children by writing it in the second person, essentially making the listener a character.

This was a favorite at our house when our girls were little and I think it gave us a little extra cache with the kids when we said we knew the person who wrote the book.

April has talked about how many times her first book was rejected, a hard thing to persevere through. I was thinking about that (and her) as I was trudging through the rain today.

Sent from my iPhone


Please be sure to check out the first post in this series and support A Ride for April. davidtimberline.com/a-ride-for-april/

Today was a day of moving around: a tranquil couple hours spent in April’s backyard, then off to the airport, drive to Paw Paw, then to Kalamazoo, finally ending up in Port Huron. The only biking so far has been from the train station to my hotel.

But at least here’s a beautiful picture of my lovely wife by April’s backyard pond.

It seems like a good day to draw attention to April’s book, “It’s My City” with the subtitle “A Singing Map.”

It’s easy to pigeonhole April as someone who only wrote about nature but this book is a great reminder that she was an amazing, imaginative writer no matter what topic she turned her attention to. This book celebrates the urban environment and overflows with the sights and, even more so, the sounds that you only find in a city: clanking metal grates, noisy street vendors, whooshing trains, and more.

Tomorrow I’ll be hitting those streets for the beginning of this cross state adventure. Can’t wait!

Sent from my iPhone


If you are new to this site, please read my initial post explaining my Ride4April: davidtimberline.com/a-ride-for-april/

Today was the celebration of April’s life and it was so many things: a moving tribute, an inspiring remembrance, a delightful display of her prodigious talents, an example of the enduring love between two humans, and much more. There was music, there was laughter, and there were a lot of tears.

I could try to capture the atmosphere but words wouldn’t do it justice. April was smart, funny, quirky, and productive (82 books!) and all of those aspects of her were on display. She influenced and connected with people from all over the world: talented, fun, eclectic people who, if they had anything in common besides April, shared a love of nature and a devotion to fostering creativity. It made the conversations struck up in the day’s transitions interesting and fun, and led to at least one exciting new connection that will continue into the future.

Among the dozens of books that could have been used as a centerpiece was “Stars Beneath Your Bed: The Surprising Story of Dust.” On a sign in the “Gallery of April” next to where the celebration was held, April is quoted as saying she thought it was probably her best writing. To me, it reflects her unique ability to explicate the extraordinary facets of even the most mundane aspects of life.

After the celebration, there was a reception & luncheon that had the most creative assemblage of food I have ever seen. April’s husband Jeff had consulted with a local chef, using April’s books as the inspiration for different dishes. The results were unbelievable, from a salad that looked like a garden of radishes and carrots to multilayered mousse tortes cradled in bowls of solid chocolate. Each dish had a themed “mocktail” that was equally surprising. In the midst of it all was an ice sculpture of a frog, one of April’s favorite subjects.

Holly and I both experienced too many feelings to enumerate, as did others who we talked to. But I think what all of us felt in various ways was extremely lucky to have known April, to have enjoyed her off-hand wit and unique blend of deep intelligence and genuine warmth. We are also lucky to have remnants of her beautiful life in her wonderful books. It will ensure that she will never really be gone, even after all us who loved her are no longer around.

(If you are new to this site, please read my initial post explaining my Ride4April.)
As I have been getting ready for the memorial service for April beginning tomorrow, and for my bike ride afterwards, I’ve been reading through this great book that April wrote called, “Unfold Your Brain.”

There are a lot of books about exploring creativity and releasing one’s artistic potential. This book provides a lot of specific tips and tricks. But the real joy in this book is the small peaks it gives into how April thought, how she worked, what inspired her and how she and her husband Jeff complemented each other in their creative endeavors.

If you don’t know April, other selling points about the book include the very small bite-sized chapters. Each delivers one bit of advice or example, usually supplemented with an activity, and then she moves on. She also has a completely original take on some aspects of creativity.

One chapter I particularly loved was called “The Shopping Urge, the Art Antidote” where she likens our desire to buy things with something she calls “blackberry greed.” She also throws in a Star Trek mention for the true nerds in the crowd.

Near the end, she digs into the economics of being an artist. She is blunt and honest and it’s great: encouraging aspiring artists without providing a sense of the challenges in store has always seemed unconscionable.

I’m hoping 300 miles on my bike will unfold my brains in new and interesting ways, and I’m in debt to April for giving me new tools for the journey.

Give her book a read — you won’t regret it!

And please support my Ride4April. Thanks!