Walk, RIde, Paddle

Senator Tim Kaine will be joining us at the festival to talk about and sign his memoir about "a life outdoors." Between 2019 and 2021, Kaine hiked the length of Virginia's A.T., rode more than 300 miles of the Blue Ridge on his bike and paddled the James River from its headwaters to the Bay. This is a story of Kaine's great love of the outdoors and the space it gave him to reflect on his life and public service. We'll have books on hand to sell (sales benefit our festival) and to have signed at 1:30pm in Hillsboro's Old Stone School auditorium.

Here's a preview of what's in store for you in the senator's memoir: 

From the prologue of WALK RIDE PADDLE: A Life Outdoors, by Tim Kaine:

This book is an account of three journeys I undertook deep into Virginia nature from May 2019 through October 2021. I planned the multiyear experience in 2018 to commemorate turning sixty and reaching twenty-five years in public life. What I didn’t know when I hatched the plan was that the adventure would coincide with two impeachment trials, a pandemic killing more than a million people in the United States and causing global economic meltdown, a violent attack on the Capitol with the intent to overturn the 2020 presidential election, and racial justice protests sparked by the murder of George Floyd and others. As a senator, I was in the middle of all of it.
 
I kept a journal each of the seventy-six days I was hiking, cycling, and canoeing across Virginia. Afterward, I added notes on each trip and planned the next portion. Each chapter is about the day’s journey, the history—both human and natural—of the places I traversed, conversations with companions and passersby, memories of earlier trips, and thoughts occurring to me along the way.
 
The journal became an organic reflection of the extraordinary events occurring in America during the years of the journey. That daily turmoil filled my thoughts and came to play a larger part of the narrative than I would have predicted when I began. But the time in Virginia’s wilderness also proved a balm for the chaos I was living.
 
Along the way, I’ve learned much about Virginia, America, nature, other people, and myself. I’ve resisted the temptation to revise sections of the journal based on what I now know about how these events played out. Instead, this is a real-time reflection of how I experienced these events, with only the knowledge I had at the moment, never sure what I would see around the next bend. Even now—more than at any time in my life—I’m not sure what I will see around the next bend.

--Senator Tim Kaine

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