Dreams: the Key to Economic Recovery

  I was talking with a guy the other day - self-employed like myself – about how the economy is affecting his business, my business, life in general.

  His response:  “I refuse to participate in the economic downturn.”

   Intrigued, but thinking he must be living in lala-land or at least in a homeless shelter, I asked him to explain his unique philosophy.  Perhaps we could share it with Washington and Wall Street and this whole news cycle could just go away.

  He explained that he was just doing what he has always done as an entrepreneur:  work hard and smart and keep focused on his dreams.

   I like that!  That’s the entrepreneurial spirit that, in my farm girl vernacular, separates the wheat from the chaff.

   And that’s why I responded to an ad on a writer’s forum a few months ago about a new travel e-zine launching. To paraphrase, the call for writer’s submissions admitted that the publication couldn’t, at this time, pay the writers what their work was really worth. 

   I believe the word “horrendous” might have been used to describe the economy, but the ad also promised writers who would hang in there and accept a lower pay scale at this time, would be treated quite favorably when the economy turns around.

  I corresponded with the editor a bit and found her to be inspired.  She expressed that entrepreneurial spirit that keeps people working toward their dreams even in the face of overwhelming obstacles.

Read my story from the Turks & Caicos, under Caribbean Travel, to find out about this little guy.

   So I submitted five stories on Egypt, one from Costa Rica,

one from the Turks & Caicos, one about kayaking, and maybe a few more, I can’t remember.

  The editor has been good to her word, paying quickly and even a little more than first offered.  She’s taking a chance and following her dreams.  You gotta like that!

   The site is www.travelersanonymous.com and subscribe now for free.  Eventually, when the economy turns around, new subscribers will be charged a fee, which will then help pay the writers better. 

  But the first 1000 subscriptions are free and by signing up, you support this woman and her dreams – and her pledge to pay her writers better.

From my story on the Nubian Villages of Egypt. But click to the site to see what it's about.

There’s No Place Like Home – even if it is Kansas

Last summer about this time, Bruce and I were exploring the nooks and crannies of Barcelona after a lovely 12 day Holland America cruise through the Mediterranean, celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary.

  All told, we were in Europe about three weeks, visiting friends in Germany, climbing the caldera steps in Santorini, Greece and falling in love with our brief visit to Cinque Terre Italy.

   Since then, we’ve been to Egypt and Costa Rica together.  I’ve been to the Turks & Caicos, Vitoria Spain, and two dozen or more domestic destinations.

Howler monkies in Costa Rica

   So it becomes really unsettling when our friends and neighbors ask “Where are you going next?”

  In the last month, I’ve traveled to Beatrice Nebraska, Vermillion South Dakota and El Dorado Kansas, all on assignments.  Oh, and I can’t forget Marceline, Missouri, Walt Disney’s boyhood home.

   Not every assignment is to the exotic, but there are stories to find and experiences to enjoy in every destination.  That’s our responsibility to uncover the smallest treasures and recognize the untold stories of every place we visit, even if it’s our own backyard. 

   And when I was in Nebraska, I talked with a couple visiting from Germany, so they thought they were somewhere exciting and exotic.  It’s all a matter of perspective. 

  The mantra of Nancy Bray, one of my undergraduate feature writing instructors, was “Every person and every place has a story.  It’s your job to find it and tell it.”

   Of course, that’s easier said than done when it’s a105 degrees and you’re being eaten alive by bugs in a Kansas state park.

I did enjoy some extensive exploration of Arkansas back in May, and today. I have a little story in the Dallas Morning News about one of those little treasures. 

Razorback submarine in Little Rock

   There’ll be more to come from Arkansas, South Dakota, Nebraska and Kansas.  And I am enjoying some quiet time at home this summer, taking care of issues that have been neglected too long.

   But I must admit that my passport is feeling a little neglected in the desk drawer, and it’s been so long since I boarded a plane that the frustrations of air travel don’t feel so traumatic.

  By the time the weather begins to cool again, it’ll be time to spin the globe and see what stories there are to uncover in places a world away from Kansas City.

Wanted: Real People

     The electronic bulletin boards, chat rooms and social media sites for writers, particulary travel writers, are filled with requests for “real people” who have done something interesting – a home swap in Europe, climbed Mt. Everest, participated in tribal rituals in remote Bora Bora – that kind of thing.  It’s not reality TV.  It’s just reality.

     Real people experiences are the richness of any story, and we recognize that as travel writers we’re not real people.  We don’t know what we are exactly, but for the most part, freelance travel journalists are a little bit off the grid, traveling to the beat of our own drums, or keyboards as the case may be.

Abandoned railroad tracks have been turned into biking/hiking/equestrian trails.

  When I was working on a story about the Rails To Trails Conservancy and the beautiful rails-to-trails projects in this country for a story at American Profile, I needed real people who regularly take advantage of these great resources. 

  One of the trails I included in the story is the Elroy-Sparta Trail in Wisconsin, widely accepted as the oldest or first in the country.

   So I contacted my partners in crime in that part of the country, Mary Bergin and Melanie McManus. 

     Mary is a great resource.  She has her own newspaper syndication in that part of the world and has written two books about the little nooks and crannies of Wisconsin.  She is an expert on pie, and since I am a huge fan of pies, particularly raspberry, and since she was raising money to have me bailed out of jail in Egypt, and because she’s not afraid to travel with a teddy bear, I decided Mary is a credible source.  As you read my story in this week’s American Profile, you’ll see the resource that Ms Bergin provided for me. 

  Then Melanie – well, she’s a little over the top with fitness and exercise.  Not an ounce of body fat on her.  She writes regularly for Runner’s World and Bicycling and Shape and the like.  So at the risk of her not being a “real” person in that regard and also because she’s a

Melanie and me at the Sphynx in Egypt, just before I was hauled off to jail.

travel writer, two strikes against her in the real life column, I couldn’t help but use Melanie’s family experience of biking the Elroy-Sparta Trail as the lead to my story.  At least her kids and husband are real.

   The rest of the people in the story, I just found the old fashioned way – calling and talking to people, doing a little leg work, research and such.  It’s called journalism, baby.

  I also included the Old Dominion Trail in the Washington, DC area.  It’s the most utilized rails-to-trails project in the country.

The Katy Trail at Sedalia, MO

   And then I included Missouri’s fabulous Katy Trail, the longest in the country.  Actually, my adoration of the Katy Trail was the inspiration for pitching this story in the first place.  There’s a big cross state ride on the Katy June 22-26, which I’ve never done, but hey, there’s still time for YOU to sign up.

The Katy Trail near Rocheport.

   So the story is out in American Profile this week.  With a circulation of 8 million or more, hopefully some of you will be seeing it in print form. Except in the Eckert household in Holland Michigan.  I understand it was a little soggy and Mr. Eckert trashed my brilliant efforts.  Shame, shame.

   But for the rest of you, as you read the article and admire Bruce’s photo from the Katy Trail,  you can say “AhHa, now I know the story behind the story.”  Not quite Paul Harvey’s “the rest of the story, but you get the idea.

Summer Deals in the Smoky Mountains

The last post, we talked about gas prices going up just in time for summer vacation season.  It surely is gonna be a great vacation season, because prices continue to rise at the Phillips 66 station closest to our house, where I often visit each day for a fountain Dr. Pepper.  Fountain is always better than bottled, BTW.

My friend Tom Adkinson says that 75 years ago you could buy 25 gallons of gas for what one gallon costs today.  Now I haven’t researched and verified that for myself, but it sounds about right.  Generalities are too often the norm in today’s journalism, and if this was anything more than my personal blog, I would check it out.

And of course, most of my readers don’t know Tom Adkinson. Is he a credible source?   Those who do know him might find him a little suspect,

Fly fishing in the Great Smoky Mountains

 a shady character who enjoys standing around in mountain streams harassing innocent, defenseless little fish.

However, Bruce likes him because he is considerate of photographers and packs a red shirt that looks great in photos.

So Tom calls me this morning to tell me about the price of gas 75 years ago.  I was expecting belated birthday greetings, but instead Tom, who does public relations for the community of Pigeon Forge, TN, right outside the gates of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, had spent my birthday researching all things 75 years ago.

That’s because that great park is turning 75, which we’ve talked about before.  But Tom calls because Pigeon Forge has come up with this pretty cool celebration of the park’s birthday (not mine Tom?  Let’s work on that next year). 

Click on the website www.pf75.com   There you can register for a chance to win $75 worth of gas, $75 worth of go-cart rides and other fun stuff in Pigeon Forge, admission to Dollywood and all sorts of stuff.

It’s a pretty good deal and a pretty great place.  And next year, Tom will have an even great package celebrating MY BIRTHDAY!

Economic Stimulus We All Deserve

  It’s officially summer vacation season now, a date not recognized so much by school calendars, vacation calendars or seasonal calendars as by the prices at the gas pump.  Yep, last week, they popped up a good 50-cents over what they had been.

   That was just in time for me to make about an 800 mile round trip to southern Illinois for a graduation event,

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

followed by a visit to the highest point in Missouri – Taum Sauk Mountain State Park – while doing some scouting work for one publication that shall remain nameless at this point.

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   Fortunately, that publication reimburses my mileage at the government-allowed 55-cents per mile – a really nice perk not always offered travel writers.

   And that’s good for another reason:  I’m taking off this week on another scouting expedition for this publication, driving into South Dakota to explore some state parks, go kayaking and poke around in a few art studios.  The outing should put a couple thousand miles on the little red Cougar, always my favorite mode of transportation.

So I’ve got my hiking stick packed, along with the new Off clip-on bug repellent (I’ll let you know how that works out) and my favorite little traveling companions.

It should be a fun week.

 

However, if I weren’t heading north on I-29, I would certainly consider heading to Brown County Indiana, a great place because it has more log homes per capita than any other county in the US, and of course, Bruce and I want to live in a log cabin some day and this week, Brown County is having a log cabin open house and tour.

And then we would probably head down to the Smoky Mountain National Park because June 15 is the 75th birthday of that beautiful natural resource and well, you just can’t get enough of those great silent places.

  Or, we would head west on I-70 to Telluride Colorado for any of the many blues, jazz, food and doo-dah festivals that makes Telluride so much fun.

So we’ve done stories on all, so I hope you’re clicking on those little highlighted lines and making us lots of money.

  But in the meantime, get your road map out and figure out where your vacation, your work, your dreams and your favorite mode of transporation will take you this summer.

   It’s our patriotic duty to stimulate the economy and our spirits - one tank of gas at a time.

In the News

    Writers live and breathe to see their words in print, being consumed by others, hopefully with appreciation and resulting understanding and insight of a subject.

   Seeing our byline is a nice little treat, although my favorite place to see my byline is just after “Pay to the Order Of…”   That’s all of the public recognition I really need.

   But sometimes journalists end up a part of the story, as Bruce and I have done this week in the Daily Dunklin Democrat, a well-written albeit small circulation newspaper in the bootheel of Missouri.

   See what it’s about…http://tinyurl.com/cxfhya.

    That’ll explain to you some of the serious work Bruce and I do – really a project we really enjoy and we hope brings a little bit of enlightenment and understanding to the world.

   And just because I finally found it, and we’re on the subject of journalists, I wanted to share a picture with you of me and my new friend.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

OK, not much of a blog post this week, but I’m running in circles to meet other deadlines and hit the road again tomorrow.

Ciao dahlin’!

Around the World in a Click of a Mouse

  There’s a globe sitting on my desk, like the ones that used to sit on every teacher’s bookshelf in every classroom in the country.  I don’t think they do that so much anymore, primarily because the world is changing so fast that the globes become quickly outdated.

   The one on my desk is so old that it includes all of the Soviet Union and countries in Africa that have changed names and dictators a half dozen times or more.

   I could give that globe a spin today and land on a half dozen destinations about where I’m currently writing stories.

   The most current is our fabulous and recent exploration of Costa Rica’s Pacific Coast.  Bruce was going nuts taking pictures of monkeys and birds and slimey critters hiding in my computer bag.  I was working hard the whole time, as you can see.

But I did produce a story that appears here:   

 More to  come from Costa Rica. We loved that place, and really, I really worked hard down there.  Really.

 I’m also working on a story from Egypt that will appear in a new e-zine in a few weeks. I’ll share that link with you when it’s done, but here’s a hint.  Hum a few lines of Elton John’s “Crocodile Rock.”  Seriously.

 And I just posted a couple of stories from our 2006  trip to Alaska on Suite101.com.  Click here.  I was having a little fun with this picture.   What is that otter so upset at us about?

It’s amazing the filters on-line these days that won’t let you even use the words “obscene gesture.”  No complaints.  The on-line world needs a few more filters.

 And I’m looking for a place to sell a story about Vitoria Spain, a beautiful city in Basque Country where there’s a restaurant that’s been in operation since the 15th Century and a church, built in 1200, that was the inspiration for Ken Follett to write “Pillars of the Earth.”

OK, this picture is a replica of the church made from cards, but it turned out better than the one I took of the real church.

So, that’s what I’ve been working on lately, but that goes on hold as I drive to Wichita tomorrow to research the botanical gardens there.

   Maybe if I click my heels together three times, I’ll find my way out of Kansas and…

…no not really.  It’s good to be home for a while. 

   Dorothy is right.  There is no place like home, unless it’s Costa Rica, Vitoria Spain, Alaska, Egypt…..

Georgia on My Mind and My Hips

Still recovering from 12 days in Georgia, I’ve spent a lot of extra time on the elliptical machine at our health club – attempting to rid my arteries and my hips of those heapin’ portions of fried okra, fried green tomatoes and fried everything else that makes southern cooking so good.

   In addition to exercising Georgia off my body, Georgia has been on my mind.  I’ve created a story for Log Home Living’s Great Places column.  I’ll let you know about that when it appears in print.

   And I’ve sent lots of ideas to editors.  There’s a pretty good brewery called Terrapin in Athens.  That needs some ink.  There’s also a fabulous pottery community in Watkinsville.  I like writing about that stuff.   Bruce and I have a bit of a pottery collection from our travels.

    But it will be months, maybe a year from now before those stories appear in print.

   That’s why I’m getting addicted to some of these on-line sites.  I like the immediate visualization, the feedback, etc.

   So after last week’s post about Ramblin’ Man/Lambdin Man and the Allman Brothers, I spent a few more minutes putting together more words about Macon and the Allman Brothers.  Really, it’s more of a story about a restaurant called H&H and a scrappy woman called Mama Louise

Mama Louise still cooks with lard.

who has contributed to my need to be on an elliptical machine for the rest of my life.

 It’s posted on the site, Suite101.com, and get this… my editor flagged it as an Editor’s Choice for the week or month or something.  Click here to see it.

   I don’t know what that means, but it seems like a good thing to me, and we all need a little pat on the back, a little encouragement in our work and daily lives.

  My friends Amy and Mary visited Mama Louise with me, all three of us sitting on the floor to interview the woman.  And they too have written stories about the experience.  It’s always fun to see how three good friends with lots of good experiences in common can walk away with three totally different stories.

  So here’s a link to Amy’s story.  http://tinyurl.com/co3gy6

And here’s a link to Mary’s.   http://tinyurl.com/dbtfkd

  They deserve a pat on the back for their good efforts.  They’re good people and good writers.  But if you like my story BEST (which you should since it’s my blog), it’s not because Georgia is not on Amy and Mary’s minds.  I just have more of Georgia on my hips.

I Was Born in the Back Seat of a Greyhound Bus

     When my son was young, we would ride along in my car jammin’ to the hits of the 70s – my era.  One of my favorites is The Allman Brothers Band and “Ramblin’ Man.”  However, my precious son, in his sincerity and limited vocabulary of a child heard  only words he knew.  So the song “Ramblin’ Man” became Lambdin Man.

“Lord I was born a Lambdin Man.”

  You can see how it worked in his life.

   So in one of those quirks of fate, the Midwest Travel Writers Association and Society of American Travel Writers scheduled conferences almost at the same time in two different Georgian cities.

   We started out in Macon Georgia, the home of the Allman Brothers Band.  Somehow none of their hard core fans really understood or appreciated the “Lambdin Man” story.

   I’ve traveled the Antebellum Trail up through Milledgeville and Watkinsville to Athens, and will be writing stories about all of these great places.  Athens, too, is the home of some great bands, such as REM and the B-52s, but they don’t sing “Lambdin Man”, so sorry, they don’t get much space in my blog post.

   However, one story that got a lot of attention in my blog post last fall, and was a result of an MTWA conference, was a story in the Kansas City Star from the MTWA conference in Door County Wisconsin.  Remember fish boils? 

   I’ve re-purposed that story now for Suite101.com, so check it out there.

   Well, in toot toot mode, which the experts tell us we must do, I won a little award for that story at the MTWA conference, and another award called “Releasing Your Inner Emeril” that can be seen on my website now.

  Over the next few weeks/months, I’ll be working on stories from all over Georgia, so stand by for my moaning and groaning as I look for the right angle, the right editor, the right outlet for these works. 

  In the meantime, if your travels take you to Georgia, this Lambdin woman has been there/done that, rolling down Highway 41.

Words, Some of them Foul

   I like words and I like listening to how other people use words. I’m not quite so geeky that I’ve read the dictionary from cover to cover, but it’s frequently open on my desk at any given time of the day.

   I subscribe to a daily word service cleverly called “Word a Day.” In recent weeks, I’ve incorporated two good words into my vocabulary. 

The first is mathematicaster.  It means a minor or incompetent mathematician and I’ve used it already to describe myself, my friend Mary Bergin and our friend Bob Barrett.

Mathematicaster.  It’s a good word.

   The other word is doolally.  It’s an Indian word that means crazy.  I could also use that to describe myself, my friend Mary Bergin and our friend Bob Barrett.

   But many of the new words in my vocabulary these days haven’t come from the dictionary.  They come from cybermonkeys. 

   Cybermonkeys are the people who are running the cyberworld these days and they’re making me learn new words for this new media in which an old-school journalist is having to make a living.

  I won’t try to impress you with my new found vocabulary, because some of you have probably known them for months longer than me – none of these words have been around probably more than a year.

   And those of you who don’t know the words, well you’re in good company.

   But there’s one thing I need to explain, because I introduced you to it in my last post.

   Pay-per-click.  That’s a website where writers post their material and get paid only when viewers click on the site.  The reader doesn’t get charged, but the advertisers on the site know someone has been there and assume that person has seen their ad and well…it’s worth a penny or two.

   So the pay-per-click site I’m writing for is Suite101.

 I’ve got about a dozen stories posted there now and most of them with Bruce’s pictures.  Click here and make us a few pennies. Click again.  Click again. 

 

Next week’s lesson:  E-books on lulu.  But this one will cost you.