I know. It’s been along time since I posted something.
I’m sorry. I have missed you all, and missed sharing my goofy adventures with you.
My life has been a whirlwind of activity this year. Mostly good, I’m happy to say. There’s so much to catch you all up on: I’ve traveled to several states (MN, NY, MS), started a full-time job (entirely virtual, I’m happy and blessed to day), and dodged a couple hurricanes. (Like a good panicky blond lemming, I headed for the hills when Irma and Nate came near the Florida panhandle. As I’ve said before, I prefer earthquakes to hurricanes and tornadoes.)
I took pictures of my travels and will share them with you all in (somewhat) chronological order. So you don’t fell like you missed out on anything, I’ll pickup where I left off…
Gulf Shores, Alabama – by helicopter.
O. M. G. I went on a helicopter ride over Gulf Shores, Alabama! It was awesome!! And beautiful!!
I already knew this area was beautiful, but I didn’t realize it until I saw the Gulf Coast by helicopter.
Gulf Shores and Orange Beach, Alabama, from the air. (and me playing with my camera phone options)
Like a good snowbird, tomorrow I’m heading to Florida for the winter. Pennsylvania’s turned cold (but I think that started a few months ago).
I’ve been ready to leave for a new place for a while. I’m really looking forward to meeting up with about a dozen friends and framily (friends who are like family), several who live there, and several as they come through the panhandle. With one exception, these are all folks I’ve met on my travels. You’ve got to love that!
But I’m nervous about this trip, more so than usual, and I don’t know why. It will take me about four or five days to get there, maybe six.
I’d love it if you all would send me good, safe travel vibes! However you do it: prayer, metaphysically, sending the love, just good thoughts – it’s all good, and I appreciate it.
To RV or Not To RV, that is the question.
You all know I wrote a book, right?
Yeah, you know because you probably saw one of the dozen or so other postings about it.
Thank you to those of you who already purchased a copy! You all rock!
And because my readers rock, I’m offering a 50% discount for you all. The e-guide is only $9.95 to begin with, so you’ll get it for less than $5 with the discount.
How do you get the discount? Subscribe to this blogs posts (enter your name and email in the pop-up window, if you haven’t already) OR comment below and I will add you (you can always unsubscribe later, not that you would want to :).
*Once you do that, I’ll send you the code. Sign up for this blog via the pop-up or by commenting below no later that midnight eastern time, Tuesday 10/4/16 in order to receive the discount.
(After a long day on the road, I’ve realized it’ll take more time for me to email the code to each commenter and new subscriber so I’m just going to post it here for the next few days. Knock yourselves out ,feel free to share the code with friends and stuff. It expires 10/4.)
For the two weeks after taking my online dating photos offline, I had a blast hanging out with some fellow single RVers at the get together at the coast.
This was when Pye stowed away in the RV chassis for 150 miles. I still can’t believe how many opportunities she had to abandon the RV and take off, but she stayed with it. This gives me hope that someday she just might become a willing co-pilot.
Meanwhile, my dating profile photos were offline and I received no notifications of interest – not one. I added them back in over the weekend. Since then, I have received about 80 indications of interest – but no emails. I look through as many as time allows, and send the same back to those I also like. There are five mutual likes.
I’m actually excited about a couple of them. I’m curious to see how many of those will actually send an email. Call me old fashioned, but I just feel the man should email first. I’ve done it the other way, and it has always set the wrong tone for the rest of the relationship. Men seem flattered if you ask them out first, but, in my experience, they seem to pursue you with less fervor from there on out. It’s like the title of that movie, “He’s Just Not That Into You.”
As we wait for the brave ones to contact me, I’m going to show you some snakes.
No, no, no! I’m not referring to the “snakes” in the pictures the half-dressed men have sent of themselves. Although, I probably would post them if I didn’t think I’d be breaking some kind of copyright or privacy law.
So the title of this post is not a reference to men and the online dating arena. But I can see how you might have made that connection.
We interrupt our regularly scheduled episode of the Online Dating Chronicles to bring you …this post. I don’t know what to call it. I can’t make this stuff up. Even if I could be that dishonest, I’m neither that creative nor bright.
In the latest episode of OMGOMGOMGOMGcrazy shit Pye doesThe Life of Pye, she stowed away in the chassis/undercarriage of my RV for almost 150 miles and 3.5 hours!
*blond lemming faints*
Friday morning, on my way to meet up with a group of other single RVers, I packed up the RV for the first time in awhile. I was excited to finally be taking the RV on the road after many months. But, like so many things, this packing-up made Bipolar Pye nervous. (Last time, when I moved from one side of the park to the other, she peed on the driver’s seat because she was so freaked out.)
This time, she took to her favorite sleeping and hiding spot behind the couch/hide-a-bed. It’s quite safe and secluded because the only way in is by diving down the small space between the back of the couch and the wall. And the only way I can retrieve her is by partially unfolding the couch/hide-a-bed, then crawling under and pulling her out. Knowing she was fairly well sequestered, I continued packing up the RV.
I didn’t think she would leave the comfort of her hard-to-get-out-of hiding spot, but much like my last choice of dates, I was wrong. After pulling in the RV slides, I went outside and checked everything. When I opened the door to come back in Pye leaped out! But, wait! There’s more…
‘Too Cold To Snow.’ I heard that phrase for the first time just before I left for the Frozen Tundra. (no, this is not about football – it’s about snow and ice)
I now know there must be such a thing as too cold to snow because yesterday I landed in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, aka ‘The Frozen Tundra’, and am experiencing bone-chilling cold as I’ve never known.
Here are some pictures taken before I knew better than to stand outside.
The Frozen Tundra, aka South Dakota.
Ok, ok, so I took the photos from inside the rental car. It was still really cold out.
The temperature last night was 28 degrees. WTF? I don’t own clothes for 28 degrees! I own bikinis. (It was originally going to be 16 degrees but I panicked and changed my flight. Twice. I TOLD you people I’m not well.)
Do you know what temperature it was a couple nights before I left Texas? 73 degrees! SEVENTY-THREE degrees at night!
This is the current temperature in Sioux Falls. (Why, you ask, are my butt-cheeks turning blue in Sioux Falls? Another one of those “anniversaries of my 29th birthday” is rapidly approaching and I need to renew my driver’s license. Why South Dakota? Because South Dakota is one of the few states that caters to full-time RVers. SD is awesome!)
Can you guess where Chickenbone (my sister) is? She’s in HAWAII. Again. What is she doing in Hawaii? She’s posting pictures ‘from the lanai’ where she’s having breakfast. Bitch.
Chickenbone’s picture from ‘the lanai’ in Hawaii. Did you see where I am? Not there.
A park in Sioux Falls, SD. Not at all like Hawaii.
This is just so wrong. She likes to snowboard, she should be in Sioux Falls. I like the beach and have no plans to ever try skiing again. Once was enough.
In this part of the country, atop the Eagle Ford Shale and in between all the cows, oil derricks dot the land.
One of the larger oil derricks in the area, and the subject of my tour.
Besides the cows and oil derricks there’s not a lot around for many, many miles. In this particular town the bovine to human population is 10:1. At the very least.
I don’t even know where to start. Really, I don’t. That’s partly why this post is so late in coming.
Many RVers know about Slab City, some like it, some don’t, but everyone said, ‘You have to experience it at least once.’
I asked, ‘Why? What’s the attraction?’ No one could really say why, they just said it was ‘different’.
Different.
My readers and fellow travelers have led me to some of the most interesting places so when they say I have to go somewhere, I usually go.
Plus, Me = Different.
While Slab City looks similar in some ways to scenes straight out of the Mad Max movies, it is unlike anything I’ve ever seen or experienced. I now understand why no one could muster an answer when I asked why I should go.
Rather than attempt a lengthy description, I’ll do a series of bullet-point descriptions occasionally accompanied by photos and a video. It’s that “A picture is worth a thousand words” thing. Plus, it’s easier because I’m swamped trying to get a new dinghy tow vehicle so I can get out of Dodge A.S.A.P.
For more detail about Slab City, read my previous articles: one for Yahoo! News (republished on this platform after Yahoo! cancelled their Contributor program), and one about the death in the hot springs.
Known locally as Creed’s Castle, you can barely make it out atop the distant plateau.
Rising up out of the St. George, Utah, suburbs looms a large plateau. There is nothing on top of it: no trees, no other homes. Except for a castle.
For the many years members of my family have lived here I’ve wondered about this castle sitting atop the plateau. At night I could see the lights in the castle turret come on. I was transfixed.
The castle was calling to me.
Known locally as Creed’s Castle, I wanted to see inside. I wanted to see their view at night. And I wanted to know who lived there.
So on this trip to Utah I invited myself over to the castle.
No lie. This Princess invited herself to the castle. This is not a castle open to the public – it’s someone’s home.But, wait! There’s more…
