Road Trip to Cincinnati and Castles for YHL – Part 1

It’s been a whirlwind weekend as Bill and I roadtripped to Cincinnati for the first stop on YHL’s book tour.  It was TONS of fun and I wish there were more hours in the day to see more of what turned out to be a very friendly city.  Let me tell you about it!

My Friday started in DC with some caffeine from Starbucks before heading north to Pittsburgh to meet up with Bill.

Then after a brief reunion and packing the car we were off for the second leg of the trip – the 5 hour drive from Pittsburgh to Cincinnati.

In order to get from Pittsburgh, PA to Cincinnati, OH you actually have to drive through West Virginia.  It sounds crazy, but because of how south Cincy is down the Ohio river, and how WV has this crazy spike or ‘pan handle’ that points north, there’s just no avoiding it.

We stopped for gas and I found the paper you see above at a Sheetz just outside of Wheeling.  We had a few good chuckles at it before hitting the road again.  From there, Ohio was mostly rain.

A late dinner at Cracker Barrel before checking in and hitting the hay at our hotel.  It was undergoing renovations annnnd lets just say the room numbers were DIYed.

By 10am the next day we were parked outside the Duke Energy convention center where the Books By The Banks event was to occur.  I got nervous.  Bill laughed at me.  What if we’re the only nerds there all awkwardly geeking out for John and Sherry?   We got inside to find that the event was larger than we thought – and the line for signings from the Young House Lovers was already wrapped around the room!  Both so awesome for them, but also a little overwhelming!  They even ran out of books!  ….but Bill’s awesome and ran to get me a copy before they sold the last one.

Before it was our turn to awkwardly gush at John and Sherry, their author spotlight panel discussion began.  Here’s where I am an especially bad blogger and was scolding myself for forgetting my good camera and having to rely on my iPhone.  Sorry these are a little blurry.

After a brief intro (from their publicist?  The organizer of Books by the Banks?) there were a few technical difficulties with their slide show.  So they snapped a few photos of the crowd – and if you look about 4ish rows of faces back on the left side, you can see Bill & I in their Instagram!

Luckily their tech issues were fixed quickly enough and they gave an excellent talk.

Not only did they highlight a few of the projects in the book, but they also gave some great examples of how to break things down and actually START diy projects, as we all know sometimes making that first stroke with a paintbrush on an otherwise perfectly good white wall can be paralyzing.  But why live with something you’re just ok with?

Of course, Sherry talked with her hands a bit, and there was discussion about taking photos in fancy public bathrooms and whispering to John that she’s ‘soaking it in’ — which is just the Young House Love charm we love!  HAHA! But what Sherry meant was that you can gather inspiration from anywhere, be it a DIY Blog you love, Pinterest, or yes even in a nice bathroom.

After their discussion, it was back to signing!  I can’t imagine the writer’s cramp they must have had by the end of the day.  It ended up taking about 35 minutes in line before it was our turn to try to keep our cool and not be total fools.  The blank copy of their book served as a sort of yearbook, and John and Sherry had everyone sign for their memories too.  At Sherry’s suggestion, Bill drew them a castle which we laughed about before snapping a quick photo with them.

Ahhhhhhhhh!  We got about 5 paces away from the table before I couldn’t contain my glee anymore.  They were SO NICE and gracious and I’m so happy for their success.

So that’s the adventure we had driving clear across Ohio to meet John & Sherry of Young House Love.  But we didn’t stop there!

We’ll be back on Wednesday to share with you a NEW travel series we’ll be starting.  Come back and take the journey with us!

~ Beth