YURTS East Coast tour

Just arrived back from my East Coast tour, and what a great tour it was!  I love meeting yurt people and hearing their dreams and their stories. Here are some highlights from the tour…

My first stop was Northshire Books in Manchester Center, Vermont, voted 2006 best independent bookstore by Publisher’s Weekly. They deserve the title! An old Victorian house full of books and meeting spaces with an adjoining café, it’s at the heart of the cultural life in this southwestern Vermont town.

Stanley's Tapered-Wall Yurts

Stanley McGaughey was at my Northshire talk. He’s still finishing up the final details on an amazing set of tapered wall yurts. Look for his story in our upcoming “Yurtspeak” newsletter!

Odyssey Bookstore in North Hadley, Mass, is another family owned, extraordinary bookshop. There we ran out of chairs and the crowd overflowed to the back of the room, the floor in front, and finally spilled over onto the stairs leading up to the presentation space. A great crowd which included some of the photo contributors to the book, wonderful people who’ve studied felting in Mongolia and helped Bill Coperthwaite build yurts.

Beautiful Blue Ridge Yurt

My final weekend was spent at Floydfest, just off the Blue Ridge
Parkway in southwestern Virgina. Eleven thousand folks at the festival,
and I enjoyed meeting many of them and answering their yurt questions in the
Blue Ridge Yurts 16’ demo yurt. Sunday morning I did my slide show in
the yurt. How many people can fit in a 16’ yurt? At least 20!  Over the weekend owners Kathy and Sharon and I became fast friends. Take a look a this beautiful yurt that they recently put up for Sharon’s daughter…

Yurt and Pods

Here are some photos from the “Yurt and Pods” that Sharon  took me to visit. A very interesting setup with a central 30’ yurt and three 16’ “pods” (two bedrooms and a bathroom).

Thanks to all the fabulous bookstores and other venues that hosted me (like Moose Pond Arts and Ecology in Maine) and to everyone I met for a fabulous East Coast Tour!