First, thanks to Tawny for giving up her normal blogging day so I could have a launch party here in the Lair to celebrate the publication of my first women's fiction novel, Living in Color. This is a bit of a departure from my normal romance and young adult novels, but it's a story I really thought deserved to be out there in the world. That's why I decided to hop on the self-publishing wave and give it a whirl to see what happened.It's a different type of experience being in charge of every aspect of the writing, editing, marketing and distribution of one's book. So far the only thing I've not done myself is design the cover. I knew I had no talent in that arena, so I enlisted the talented Kimberly Killion at Hot Damn Designs, and I think she did a lovely job. I firmly believe covers are important because they're the face of your book, the first impression. I have no doubt that there are really good books out there that don't get read as many times as they should because they've had the misfortune of having bad covers, though I've been very fortunate with all of my covers to date (thank you, Harlequin and Penguin!). I also believe that the book beyond the cover has to live up to good packaging. I hope readers believe Living in Color does that.
Living in Color is a mother-daughter road trip story, one that leads to healing and some unexpected discoveries. Here's the blurb:
After the death of her father, Sabrina Bishop feels a sense of relief that he's gone. No longer will he be able to abuse her mother mentally or physically, and just maybe her mother might grow to see what he'd done to her was wrong. But with the death of Jim Bishop, Sabrina is now responsible for her mother's well being since Ruby can't read or write and has lived a sheltered life. But Ruby has a very small comfort zone in rural West Tennessee, and that means she can't come live with Sabrina in Atlanta. Besides, Sabrina's job as an award-winning news photographer keeps her traveling around the globe most of the time. As she tries to make suitable plans for her mother's future, Sabrina offers to take Ruby on a road trip to expose her to a world she's never seen. As they travel to sites such as Mount Rushmore, Yellowstone National Park and the Gulf Coast of Florida, the trip becomes a journey of unexpected healing and self-discovery not only for Ruby, but for Sabrina as well.
~~~
As someone who doesn't like to fly, I take a good amount of road trips. I actually enjoy driving long distances and being able to stop wherever I want whenever I want. So I thought I'd share my top five favorite road trip destinations I've been to.
1. Yellowstone National Park -- My sister worked at the park for a year, so I visited once while she was there and a couple more times since then. It's absolutely gorgeous, and I always want to spend more time there.2. San Antonio and the Hill Country of Texas -- My good friend Mary lives in San Antonio, so I've driven there several times. Last month, we also took a trip up to Fredericksburg in the Hill Country so I could do some research for the trilogy I'm writing for Harlequin American. Some of my favorite stops on this trip are the missions along the Mission Trail in San Antonio -- the Alamo and four others (San Jose, Espada, San Juan and Concepcion).
3. Destin/Ft. Walton Beach, Florida (in the sunset photo) -- I love the Gulf Coast. It's so relaxing there. I love driving along the roads that follow the beach, listening to the waves.4. Outer Banks, N.C. -- Home to Cape Hatteras and several other lighthouses, Cape Hatteras National Seashore (wonderful because it's undeveloped like so many stretches of beach), and Kitty Hawk, site of the Wright Brothers' famous flight.
5. Great Smoky Mountains National Park, TN and N.C. -- The roads that crisscross this park pass by waterfalls, beautiful mountain streams, lush green mountains, stunning wildflowers, historic structures of past mountain communities, and even the occasional black bear. It is one of the most richly bio-diverse places it the world and is thus designated an International Biosphere Reserve. And it has the benefit of only being about four hours from my house. :)
What I'd like to know from you all is:
a. Do you like road trips?
b. What are some of your favorite road trips and destinations?
c. Any fun (or horrible) road trip stories to share?
I'll pick a winner from today's comments to receive a road map of the United States and a $5 Starbucks gift card to get you started off right on your very own road trip.If you'd like to read Living in Color (it's a great Mother's Day gift -- hint, hint), you can download it at:
Amazon.com for Kindle
Barnesandnoble.com for Nook
Smashwords.com for Sony e-reader, iPad and various other formats, including for your desktop computer
Okay, break out the freshly made cookies (I hope Joanie made them, and I'd like to request they be just like the ones she made for one of our Bandita get-togethers -- yum!), your favorite non-alcoholic beverage (we are driving, after all), and road map and hit the road!
71 comments:
Woooot! Hooray, Trish!
Trish, In Living Color sounds like a beautiful story! Congrats on its release--am adding it to my TBB :) As for road trips, I know that I love the idea of road trips, but haven't been on many. I know my husband does not like the idea of road trips, so opportunities to actually travel this way may be somewhat limited ;) I've always wanted to see parts of the US this way, so maybe as the kids get older, I can convince some of them to lobby to road trip?
As for road trip memories, I do recall one that my family took when I was maybe 12? We drove up through Oregon into Washington--the forests were gorgeous, but it was the middle of summer, and since we had no AC, we had to periodically peel ourselves off the vinyl seats, which at one point my younger brother defaced with ball point pen in his boredom... :)
Congrats on your new release!
Congrats, Fedora, on the rooster!
I remember car trips to Washington DC with the entire family (including aunts, uncles, and cousins) when I was a kid. My dad had to rent a van to seat everyone. My younger brother scared my 5-year-old cousin, telling her that the statue of Thomas Jefferson was out to kill her. Ah, family trips...
I still enjoy driving up and down the Northern Californian coast but I don't do that much anymore due to gas prices.
Well done Fedora have fun with him
Trish
Congrats on the release and taking the plunge with self publishing I have added this book to my must get list.
I do so love road trips we have been on a few over the years up to Queensland and down to Victoria and accross to South Australia and I love the fact that you can stop whereever and whenever you want to enjoy the scenery or have a coffee. I do think we might need to plan another one soon it is a while since we have been on one.
Love the sound of the places you have visited.
Congrats again Trish
Have Fun
Helen
Congrats on the GR, Fedora.
Hi Trish,
Congrats on the release of your first women's fiction novel. My cousin used to live in Arizona and I flew there and she took me on a mini road trip to the Grand Canyon. It was beautiful. One of the best road trips was when we drove up to Traverse City and Mackinac Island in Michigan. I wish we could have afforded to stay at the Grand Hotel.
Congrats on your new books ... and the chocolate chip cookies!
I don't like to fly, either, but one must fly to get off the islands! We flew through 20 minutes of turblance between LA and Honolulu, so I was gripping my arm rest!
Should you overcome your dislike of flying, consider the island of Kauai, home of the Waimea Canyon. It is amazing!
When I was a kid the car was the only mode of travel. We would drive to Maryland from WV every year to visit family. At the time I wasn't a great traveler but I did eventually outgrow it.
Congrats on your release Trish. Gotta love the speed and ease of a Kindle download.
have a good day with him fedora
Your book sounds like a good read Trish. If you want to go anywhere in Aus they are all road trips LOL...I have one brother live 8 hours away and the other is 12 hours away... Helen and I had a road trip last weekend (3 hours) to go for lunch with some romance readers in Canberra
Yay! Two parties in a row! Congrats on Living In Color, Trish. It's a lovely cover.
I've been on many road trips in my life, the latest was moving from San Diego to NC four years ago. I'm not sure our kids found it as much fun as my husband and I. One day they will.
Actually, they enjoyed seeing some of the sights. Yosemite was a favorite---simply stunning!
One of our most memorable road trips was when we lived in Italy. We rented a huge van and went on an adventure with some friends of ours. Picture 4 adults and 6 kids on this trip. We drove from Naples to Milan to Lake Como to Venice and back to Naples. I said that if we survived the experience and we were still speaking to each other, we'd be friends for life. And we are!!
Joanie's chocolate chip cookies?! Yum, yum!!!!
Woohoo, Trish!! Congrats on the release. I can't wait to pick it up.
I enjoy road trips. This summer we're driving down to Florida for a a week. Thankfully, my oldest son drives so there is an extra driver. I'm curious to see how my youngest takes it. He tends to get bored easily.
Trish -
My husband and I went on a road trip last fall driving around Florida - to the Keys - to the Gulf coast and the Ocean side. I don't have a problem with flying so haven't explored all the backroads that you have - but when my kids were younger, I used to hand them a map and let them pick the roads to travel for a weekend excursion. They learned how to read a map and we discovered some otherwise "undiscovered" points in Ohio (grin).
Love the sound of this book. I have a friend who used to wait till she had the kids in a car to have serious discussions with them. She figured they couldn't escape and had to participate in the discussion or at least listen. Anxious to hear how the self-publishing venture works for you.
Hey, Trish, congrats on the new release! It sounds wonderful. I'd love to take a road trip with just my mom some day, see all the sights we didn't see when we were kids because oh dear lord who wants to spend three weeks in a van with four girls trying to kill each other & a flatulent dog? It was bad enough driving the four hours up to our cottage.
I would truly love to see the scenery out west--Yellowstone, Glacier, hit Theodore Roosevelt Natl Park along the way...
I'll pick up Living in Color for inspiration! I love a good road book!
Thanks, Fedora. And congrats on nabbing the rooster. Hey, maybe you can convince him to go on a road trip -- as long as you stop at a few hen houses along the way. :)
Oh, I remember no air conditioning in vehicles and the seats being so hot. We'd put bath towels on them so we didn't scorch our legs. But your road trip sounds beautiful. Unfortunately, the only time I was in Oregon, I was on the train and it was night so I didn't get to see much of it.
Sheree, yeah, gas prices are making leisurely road trips more expensive. Boo! I am lucky to have a car that gets good gas mileage, but someday I hope to buy a hybrid or maybe the Nissan Leaf.
LOL on your brother's tale about the Jefferson Memorial. That sounds like something a little boy would do.
I had to rent a van last year when my mom, my sister and my two nieces and I went to Florida. That was a lot of estrogen in one vehicle!
Helen, I bet road trips in Australia are awesome. I read Bill Bryson's "In a Sunburned Country" and it made me want to visit Australia even more. Now if I could just get there in a blink of an eye and not have to do the whole plane business.
Jane, you mentioned two places I want to visit but haven't yet. Hubby is talking about us taking a big trip out west to visit a lot of the national parks -- the Grand Canyon, Canyonlands, Arches, etc. Would love that.
And I've been wanting to visit Mackinac Island for years. It looks gorgeous.
Kim, every time I watch Hawaii 5-0, I want to go to Hawaii more. Maybe I can overcome this fear at some point because I want to visit so many places overseas -- Hawaii, Scotland, England, Ireland, Australia, China, Norway, Sweden. So many beautiful and interesting places to see.
Thanks, Dianna. I think one of the reasons we never took big car trips when I was a kid was the fact that almost our entire family lived in a two-county area of Western Kentucky. You could get to anyone's house in 30 minutes max. Maybe that's why I like road trips now.
Barb, that's the impression I got -- that it's a long way to everywhere in Australia! :) It can be that way here too, especially when you're driving across the Great Plains or states like Wyoming and Montana where you have to plan your fuel and potty breaks very carefully. :)
Gannon, I want to visit Yosemite so much. In case you haven't noticed, I'm quite the National Park fan.
I didn't realize you'd lived in San Diego. I was out there a couple years back for an RWA Board meeting and really liked it. I stayed afterward and my sister and her family flew down from Washington state. We did the famous zoo, Cabrillo National Monument and Torrey Pines park. Got to stay on the bay and watch all the Navy ships come and go during the board meeting but then moved to a hotel in Del Mar overlooking the ocean. Lovely trip.
And your Italy trip sounds amazing, if perhaps a big loud with all those people. :)
Christie, maybe invest in some handheld video games. :)
I love Florida, so I hope you all have a great time on your trip.
Donna, your Florida excursion sounds great. I haven't been down to the southern part of the state yet. May have to do that next time.
And letting your kids pick the roads sounds cool. I love maps. We have a map store here, and I love looking through all those maps. (Yes, I'm weird.) But it's amazing how since GPS units have started becoming popular that lots of people can't read maps anymore.
Susan, ugh on the flatulent dog, but that did make me laugh. :)
Another lovely place to put on your future western trip is the Badlands. I've been to the parts in both South and North Dakota (including the Theodore Roosevelt National Park you've mentioned). I would never be able to handle the winters, but North Dakota was surprisingly beautiful. I drove across it a few years ago. It's filled with lakes and ponds and waterfowl before you get to the Badlands, and then there's all that red rock. Just lovely.
Congatulations on the release. It sounds beautiful. I enjoy road trips and they are memorable. One that was special was through the Rockies.The beauty, scenic vistas and places were incredible.
Hi Trish! The book sounds amazing, def something I'll read.
I love road trips, think I've mentioned that before here in the lair.
My favorite was just a few years ago. Hubby & I packed our two little girls in the car and drove down the coast of CA stopping at all the beach towns. Pismo was a huge favorite, great beach, and great downtown area to stroll. Of course we had to try all the different restaurant/bars that overlooked the ocean. We've got a great pic of us at Duke's (Malibu) with our Tropical Itch's in hand.
Love the cover--and totally didn't realize it was a self-published book! :) Very cool!
As for the questions:
Yes, I love road trips, though there are some people who are better to travel with than others. I love to travel with my friends Pam, Tammy, Jackie, and Holly--though not at the same time. NEVER at the same time. Really I travel better with only one other person. I imagine I'd hate road trips if I had a husband, 2 kids, and a dog to contend with.
Destinations? We roadtripped from Columbia, MO to Colorado Springs, CO. And I've roadtripped to Arkansas and back...and Chicago and back. I think Boston is great, but it wasn't a roadtrip--that was a FLIGHT and then some roadtripping in a rental--but I highly recommend it because we got to see Concord and Lexington as well as Boston. And I've been to New York (which is too busy for me in general), but I think the sense of adventure was still alive and well in us. We had our maps, we figured out where stuff was, and we took the subway at some points as well as walking. We got lost occasionally, but never felt we couldn't get to where we were going--that's a road trip to me. And I laughed with my best friend a lot. (So while I still don't care for New York, I do maintain it was a good road trip.)
Bad times? Undoubtedly--but I try to forget about them and focus on the good stuff. Nothing Chevy Chase worthy at any rate: getting lost in east St. Louis, losing half your car, et al.
Your release is so appealing. Road Trips are the way to travel. So much to see, and if you have time unforgettable. Niagara Falls, Thousand Islands and Eastern On. when I was young.
Hi, Traveler. The Rockies are gorgeous, aren't they? Very awe-inspiring.
MsHellion, Boston is another place I've not been that I'd like to go. In fact, I'd love to do a great big road trip through New England.
New York isn't my favorite either. I mean, I like to go in for a day or two, see a show, etc., then leave. I feel a bit claustrophobic there. My favorite part is actually out on Liberty and Ellis islands.
petite, ah, Niagara Falls, yet another place I haven't been. You all are tossing out so many great destinations for me to add to my list. You mentioned Ontario, and that made me think I'd love to do a trip from coast to coast in Canada.
Congrats on your new release!
Actually, I prefer train trips.
Doobie Brothers- Long train running
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnD0eVdHJfI
Yay Fedora !! He is visiting you today!
And DOUBLE YAY, TRISH !!!
I know this book is going to be fabulous!
I do like road trips, but my only recent ones have been to RWA. We drove to both DC and Orlando and had a great time.
Road trips to visit my Dad's family in Pennsylvania when we were kids were always an experience. Sometimes good. Sometimes bad! LOL
One of my favorite road trips was to New Orleans one weekend with a couple of my former students. We decided late one Friday night that we wanted to go to New Orleans to see the Aquarium of the Americas, which had just opened. We drove all night, checked into a hotel on Charles Street, slept for a few hours and spent the rest of the weekend visiting the aquarium and the zoo and Bourbon Street (the other zoo! LOL) We spent all day at the zoo and they were getting ready to close the night animals house. We were standing in front of the pangolin exhibit and I was droning on about how neat they were, how endangered and how lucky we were to see one when the keeper strolled by and said "Do you want to meet him?" She went through to the back and opened his cage and in a few minutes down the hall waddles a real live pangolin! He sniffed our shoes, looked up at us and it was just one of those once in a lifetime moments. It has been years, but anytime I see those students they always remind me of that trip and meeting the pangolin.
Congrats on the release! My most memorable road trip was when my parents took us to the Maine seacoast and stopping at McDonald's and my mother digging through the trash because she threw away the change on her tray - while all four of us girls and my father walked out of the restraunt and hid in the car pretending we had no idea who that lady was.
Congratulations on your latest release, Trish! I can't wait to read it - sounds fabulous :-)
I love road trips. When I was a kid we made two long trips - one down to Orlando and one to Nashville. Not sure I loved spending so much time with my sisters in the backseat of the station wagon but I love taking road trips with my own kids *g*
Jenn, I bet that trip down the California coast was beautiful. There's just something very attractive and relaxed about beachside towns. Would love to live in one.
Minna, I like train trips too and I take those sometimes on the longer excursions or when I'm going into NYC. No way I'm driving there.
Louisa, what a fun trip to New Orleans. And your post made me think about how cool it is to just decide on a whim to take a road trip. Just toss some things in a bag and hit the road. I think I have a bit of wanderlust in me. There's a part of me that would like to try living in a nice RV for awhile and just traveling around and staying in various campgrounds, exploring the country at leisure and meeting all the other interesting RVers.
I had to look up what a pangolin is. Had no idea. But they're cute.
In Living Color sounds wonderful, Trish. Congratulations on the release and on venturing into new territory.
You mentioned one of my favorite drives--through the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Just incredible! The best road trip I've ever taken was driving with a friend from Atlanta to Ashville and on to Williamsburg and then back down the coast from Norfolk to Charleston to Savannah. We had mountains and shore in one trip and decided each night where we'd stop the next day. I loved every moment of that trip.
Dtchycat, LOL on the parental unit embarrassment moment. Had a few of those myself throughout the years. :)
But I bet the trip through Maine was gorgeous.
Congratulations, Trish! Your book sounds lovely.
I've never been too excited about road trips, but my husband looooves them. He hates airplanes and is much happier when he can see the landscape zipping by. SO I've learned to appreciate them.
My favorite trip was one we took to Northern Michigan in the summertime, visiting Mackinaw Island and Petoskey, stopping at roadside stands to buy fresh cherries, watching the waves roll up to the shore.
Thanks for reminding me!
Thanks, Beth. Your comment reminded me of a story my husband tells about his family's drive-by tour of the West. One summer while he was in high school, he, his parents and his brother loaded up the car and headed west. They had 2-3 weeks, I think, so they didn't spend much time at any one place. I think that trip might have done him in on long car trips. Imagine four tall people (his mom was 5'10", and he and his brother and dad are all over 6 feet) crammed in a car for 3 weeks.
Janga, that sounds like a wonderful trip. I love Williamsburg and want to go back. One of my favorite eras of history is American Colonial, so I totally dig Colonial Williamsburg. And Virginia is so incredibly rich in early American history. I love it.
Having the mountains on one side and the beach on the other is one of the reasons I like North Carolina so much. Asheville is a gorgeous area, and I want to explore the town more soon.
Saralee, that sounds like a lovely summer trip. One other drive that I didn't include but could have easily was through Door County, Wisconsin. If you look at a map of Wisconsin, it's the thumb that juts out into the lake. It's beautiful and full of cute little lakeside villages.
Trish, we also visted Old Salem and Flat Rock while we were in NC. i especially loved touring carl Sandburg's home.
WOO HOO!!!
Launch Par-Tay! Cabana boys! Bust out the industrial sized blenders!
I love driving around once I get to a place, but I really don't have a lot of patience for a looong trip to get there. Last really long road trip I took was driving from NorCal to my sister's house in Tulsa. BOOORING! I told her next time, pick me up at the airport! :-P
Of course some places you MUST drive, like Yosemite, or Arches, or Canyonlands. They really are in the middle of nowhere, but so worth the drive.
I LOVE driving in Florida. It's nice and flat and you can get to places relatively quickly (NOT like Cal or Texas). Plus there's lots of lovely water and so many interesting sights. Last time we were there we drove along "alligator alley" and stopped several times to view the gators. LOVED IT!
Pass those chocolate chip cookies and milk, please. The alcohol laced beverages need to wait for a couple of hours. ;-)
AC
Janga, I wanted to visit Old Salem when we were going through N.C. a few years ago, but I'd gotten sick and just wanted to get home.
Cindy, my in-laws did that Alligator Alley trip several years ago and enjoyed it.
Congrats on the new release, Trish. LIVING IN COLOR sounds like a tender, sweet story. I'm so glad you made it available in a variety of platforms!
Road trips, oh, no! If I'm the one driving and I can make pit stops whenever, I love them. Otherwise, they're a pain in my patootie LOL.
Thanks, Jo. And LOL. I agree, I need to be in the driver's seat on road trips. :)
Gotta love a road book! Congrats! In Living Color sounds lovely. A new read for my Nook!
The only time I don't enjoy a road trip is when it has to be quick and as-few-as-possible stops. I'd much rather enjoy the journey--but I'm alone in my family!
I love road trips. I would love to take a road trip out west to Grand Canyon.
Trish!!! I'm SO excited about in Living Color! WOOT!!!
I adore road trips, I love the Hatteras Seashore, and the Great Smokies, and Pisgah National Forest. Loved our road trip last fall to Chattanooga and the Aquarium there. LOVE road trips. We've got one in the planning stages for visiting Minor League ballparks at spring break sometime in the next couple of years. Grins.
Not too many horror stories, but do remember riding in the back window ledge - horrorifying for me now as a mom - on road trips. Grins.
And JT's cookies....ahh.....Between that and PJ's chocolate frogs... Yum!!!
Like Susan, I too want to hit Yellowstone. I've never been there. I'd love to go to the Grand Canyon again, and to Napa Valley again....
Deb, I agree. Those hurry-up road trips aren't fun. They just make me tired.
Hi, runner10. The Grand Canyon definitely is toward the top of my to-visit list. It's so iconically American.
Jeanne, I bet your crew will love the baseball parks road trip.
Isn't Chattanooga pretty? Several years ago they totally revitalized the downtown. It used to be dirty and industrial, but now it's full of restaurants, shops, museums, the aquarium and IMAX theater. Very pedestrian friendly.
And you simply must get to Yellowstone. It's wonderful.
Congratulation, Trish! I'm really interested to follow your journey--not only the road trip in LIVING IN COLOR but your foray into e-publishing. The book sounds wonderful. Ever slow on the uptake, I'm going to start shopping for an e-reader. Back at'cha tomorrow!
Thanks, Kathleen.
Everyone, be sure to come by tomorrow when I'll be hosting Kathleen, who has long been one of my favorite authors. She'll be here to talk about her newest release. (Psst, there's a hot cowboy on the cover.) :)
Hey, Fedora, looks like the chook is going on a road trip!
Trish, sorry I'm late to the party. I've got some cabana boys to catch up on... Um...cabana boys COCKTAILS, that is! You girls have such naughty minds.
Congratulations on the release of LIVING IN COLOR. It sounds like a moving, emotional story - wonderful stuff. And didn't Kimberly did a beautiful job of your cover? It's so atmospheric. I hope you sell a million!
I love road trips. I was lucky enough in 1985 to spend six months touring through Europe in a new Citroen - the greatest road trip EVAH!
A couple of my fave road trips are:
The Great Ocean Road in Australia (unforgettable!).
The Road to the Isles in Scotland (the most beautiful part of the world - yeah, I know, I'm biased!).
The Grande Corniche on the French Riviera. Hey, thank Grace Kelly and Cary Grant in To Catch a Thief!
That's probably enough to be going on with!
Fedora, congrats on the bird!
Trish, congrats and good luck with your new book. I agree with you on the importance of a cover, and this one is great.
I wrote you a long comment, which Blogger ate when it told me it could not log me in (no reason given), except that when I went to the homepage to log in, I found that it DID log me in--just lied and ate my comment.
Grr.
Anyway, we love road trips. I count our trips to the UK because even though we take a plane to get there, we then drive everywhere except London. We also love the NC Outer Banks. We drove to New England once, and around it, and had a wonderful time.
I have fabulous memories of building sand castles with the boy (or watching him build them) at Nags Head, watching him fly a kite at the Wright Brothers monument.
The dh and I have walked the walls of the Tower of London, fought a headwind as we crossed a pasture to reach Hadrian's Wall, and the three of us have sat at breakfast in Middleham, North Yorkshire, and watched the racehorses come back from their morning gallop across the dales.
Most of those trips, I recorded on Kodacolor Gold film with an Olympus OMG and a 35-70mm lens. My digital point and shoot with WhateverX zoom doesn't get nearly as close, and it doesn't stop motion, and it has shutter lag. But Kodacolor Gold is a thing of the past, and I have to admit the digital pictures are handy.
Congrats again on your new release!
But still . . .
Anna, your road trips all sound fantastic! I love the sound of Great Ocean Road. We have the Great River Road that runs through Tennessee and several other states along the Mississippi River.
And I hope I sell a million too! So dos my number cruncher hubby. :)
Thanks, Nancy. We stayed in Nag's Head when we went to the Outer Banks. That's been years ago now, so I'd love to go back. I also want to go up in some of the lighthouses. I got sick while we were there (allergic to something, back in the days before I was on allergy meds all the time) and didn't feel like the climbs when we were there.
Your England adventures sound wonderful.
Trish, it's very wild country south of Melbourne at the bottom of south-east Australia, best done in a two-day trip although you can do a long day trip and see the most famous bits like the Twelve Apostles. The cliffs are really rugged, the seas are really wild and they've carved amazing shapes from the rocks. There's also a lot of history as it's always been a big shipwreck coat. One of the famous wreckes was the Loch Ard in the mid-19th century. Everyone was lost and they named the place the ship went down Loch Ard Gorge. When you're there, you can see why the death toll was so tragic. Very haunting place! In between the wild bits, are really pretty little coastal towns and national parks full of magnificent big trees. It really is breathtaking.
Anna, it sounds lovely. And your tales of the shipwrecks reminds me that the area off the Outer Banks, particularly off of Cape Hatteras, is called the Graveyard of the Atlantic because of all the shipwrecks there.
Oops. The "but still" was supposed to be photography paragraph.
We had great adventures, but we won't repeat them for a while. We're about to be paying college tuition.
I forgot that when I was growing up, we drove to Florida every year to see my dad's brother and his family. We had a VW bus, and my parents turned the center seat around, put the ice chest in between the two rear seats to serve as a table, bought us a board game we opened as we pulled out of town, and we were off.
Nancy, love the image of the trip to Florida in the VW bus!
Trish, I'm so excited about this book! It sounds like my very favorite kind of story. I love mother/daughter books AND road trips. Combine them in one book and I am THERE!
I'm with you on loving the Outer Banks (not Nags Head or Kitty Hawk, but way down at Avon and Buxton) and the Great Smoky Mtns National Park. The best trips of my childhood were to the Smokies and to the sugar-white beaches of Panama City Beach, FL. The Gulf Coast is just magnificent - well, other than what BP and developers have done to it!
My husband and I are jonesing to get out to Glacier National Park before the glaciers are gone - they are disappearing at an ASTONISHING rate. I'd also love to get to the sequoyahs and tool around the Pacific northwest. So much to see, so little time!
I may have to pick up Susan and do that sans kids. Maybe sans husbands, too. Girl trip! :)
Worst road trip ever: I was six months pregnant and heading to Destin, FL from Chapel Hill, NC with my husband and 6-1/2 year old son in a rather old Ford Escort. It was packed to the gills with Christmas gifts, since we were on our way to spend Christmas with my father, stepmonster (and extended family), three of my four siblings and their spouses/kids/significant others/hangers-on.
The Escort made it almost to Athens, GA. Middle of the night, I'm bussing down the Interstate at about 70 mph in the fast lane when the engine shuts off. I manage to somehow get in the slow lane and coast to the breakdown lane without incident. We start debating whether my husband should hike back to the last exit or take his chances up ahead. He went up ahead. Apparently, some young dudes picked him up and took him to the next exit, which was about 5 miles away. He got a tow truck to come fetch us and the car to Athens.
Fortunately, my sister Holli lived outside Atlanta at the time and had not yet left for Destin. She came flying to Athens and we loaded all the Christmas crap into her sedan. She drove us to her apartment and we spent the night there. When the car was finally fixed late the next day, she took us (and our crap) back to Athens where we reloaded the Escort and proceeded on to Destin.
All was well and it ended well, but pregnant Caren was quite stressed out the entire time!
Caren, I too like the less developed areas of the Outer Banks too, those little seaside communities that are in the national seashore stretch.
I've been by Glacier on the train but not actually visited the park. My sister and I both want to visit there and drive the Going to the Sun Road.
Oh, and then there was the time my sister Susie and I were trapped in Nova Scotia when 9/11 happened. That was a LONG road trip, driving from Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, Canada to Charlotte, NC in the USA!
Caren, I can imagine that 9/11 road trip was more scary and uncertain than enjoyable. Hard to believe so many years have passed since then.
Post a Comment