Hi Jerry, Thanks for your blog about the travel memoir. I just read one, Men of Salt: Crossing the Sahara on the Caravan of White Gold, Michael Benanev's account of his camel-and-foot trek from Timbuktu to Taoudenni salt mines in Mali, West Africa, and I found it a suspenseful adventure story as well as a personal memoir. He does sometimes interrupt the story with the kind of digressions you speak of, but I found most of them quite interesting--for instance, he goes on for a few pages about the Sahara dwellers called the Taureg (who were there before the Arabs and have their own language), but I found their history fascinating. I'm glad to see your blog recognizing books like this as memoirs.
My problem is that I've written a combination travel/dysfunctional childhood memoir and I fear it may not hang together . . . but I'm joining a critique group and opening myself up for criticism, so there's hope.