I speak at a Rotary meeting in Wickenburg.

Can you believe it? The local Wickenburg Rotary invited me again as a speaker. I guess that with meetings every week, they must run out of new people to invite.

What did I talk about? I told them about my work as a writer and as a pilot. I showed them some recent books and left them as silent auction items for their upcoming Rotary Dinner. I lectured them on the importance of free speech and their duty to speak out about things that they think are wrong. I showed them some aerial photos of downtown Wickenburg that we’d taken for the Town Manager. I told them that if they were ever at the Grand Canyon, they should treat themselves to a helicopter ride.

I answered questions. Why I didn’t have a New Jersey accent. (Who wants one of those?) Whether I thought helicopter flights at the Grand Canyon were dangerous. (No.) What kind of plane Mike flew. (A Grumman Tiger.)

And that’s it. They applauded politely. A few of them shook my hand as they filed out. One of them stopped for a longer chat about his extensive collection of Wickenburg postcards; I’m trying to convince him to publish them in a book.

I didn’t embarrass myself. I didn’t make anyone angry. I did a fine job.

Heck, it was only 20 minutes. I could have gone on for hours.