I arrived in Minnesota last week just in time to participate in a local arts festival last weekend. In other circumstances I might have brought along some quilts to sell, but since all my quilts are stuck in Egypt at present, I sold books instead.
It was my first time to stand next to a table displaying all my books and it was both a thrilling and uncomfortable experience. Thrilling because I think my books are beautiful and I’m proud of them and seeing them all on display together at long last was wonderful, and uncomfortable because I’m not used to putting myself out there next to them in the flesh, particularly among people I know in real life. It’s not a nice feeling when someone glances at your books and keeps walking, or picks one up and reads the blurb and then moves on.
Fortunately, I kept my expectations pretty low so any time I sold a copy it was a thrill. It was an even bigger thrill when a woman made a beeline for my table and told me she’d seen my book Separation Anxiety reviewed in the local paper and she’d come out to the festival to look for me.
Of course, I went looking for a newspaper as soon as I could. I will link to the online article as soon as it’s available, but in the meantime you can click the image below and read the review below.
I don’t know if it was the review or the display or a combination of both, but I did pretty well at the sale. I sold out of Separation Anxiety and I’m still coasting on the high of the good review.
My children were selling bottle cap magnets and pet rocks and they made a bundle. They nearly sold out of magnets the first day. When you can sell lake rocks in rock country then you know you’re either a born salesman or very, very cute.
I won’t be able to sign them for you, but all of my books are available on a summer sale at Smashwords.com. Available in multiple digital formats just use the code SSW25 at checkout for 26% off during the site-wide promotion! (Offer good thru July 31, 2011)
Think about how much junk mail you might get in a typical week – maybe even in a typical day. If you take the time to open it all, how long does it take you? A couple of minutes? Now imagine how long it would take you to open it all if you only did it once a year like I do.
Ridiculous.
My step-mother dutifully saves every piece of mail that I get at their address and stacks it up for me all year for when I come back in the summer time. You might wonder why she doesn’t recycle some of it before I get here: she’s the Post Mistress. It’s against her sacred duty to discard someone else’s mail.
Most of what I get are catalogs and solicitations for money. Once you make a donation to one charitable organization, you can be sure that they will be back in touch along with at least a dozen more organizations to whom they have sold your information. Even more than the time that it takes me to go through it all, it’s appalling what a waste of resources it is – resources that you would think could be put to better use supporting whatever cause for which they are trying to raise money.
It’s not only the paper and postage they use to send out the requests, it’s the free gifts that they include to try and guilt people into contributing. I do the majority of my correspondence and bill paying online these days – as I suspect many others do as well – so who is using all of the address labels that are sent out? I could never get through all of the labels that even one organization sent me before the next lot started to roll in. I also got two free calendars, six sheets of wrapping paper (Christmas and all occasion), plus a nice stack of note cards. The March of Dimes even sent me an actual dime. How much did they spend sending out actual money? It makes much more sense to me to just tell me what gift will be sent if I contribute – and to give me the option to donate and say “no thanks – keep the gift”. Chances are that if I can afford to donate money, I can also afford to buy an umbrella or a shopping bag and I’d rather the money I send be used for the cause for which it is intended.
The free gifts are not entirely ineffective – I’ll probably make a donation to at least one of the groups that solicited me. But I almost wish I could manage to do it anonymously so that I could avoid getting another big stack of desperate solicitations. I know that my FIL also gets mail for me at his address, but since he has no ties to the post office he has no scruples about recycling it as it arrives!
Whenever I’ve taken long road trips in America via the interstate I am often left feeling slight disoriented. America looks disconcerting the same from the interstate wherever you go: the same gas stations, the same strip malls, the same restaurants. I’ve had moments when I’ve been driving along in a daze and suddenly looked around and panicked because I forgot where I was and had no way to tell from looking at the sights around me. One Cracker Barrel looks much like another as you zoom along at 70mph.
I have planned my last couple of long state-to-state road trips with the express purpose of avoiding large metropolitan areas which has had the unexpected benefit of not only avoiding large sections of interstates but also in rediscovering small town America. It’s surprising how many really well maintained state highways are out there.
I drove from Ohio up through Michigan to get to Minnesota just to avoid Chicago. I succeeded in spades: I didn’t see one big city, one traffic jam, and had next to no construction delays.
Sure, you may have to slow down while passing through a town once in a while, but what’s the big rush anyway? Slowing down gives you more opportunity to really look around and appreciate the scenery. Where else are you going to see thriving mom and pop restaurants advertising homemade pies and award winning pasties? Where else might you encounter a gas pump that still has flip numbers (do you even remember how to work one of those? I do) and when you walk inside to pay, find that they have a deli counter where they sell freshly made fish jerky and homemade jam? There are more small hotels out there proudly advertising color TVs and showers than you’d think. (What more do you really need for a night or two?)
I have also discovered that I’m not a huge fan of driving across bridges – particularly impressive suspension bridges with steel decks {shudder} but I digress.
It’s nice to know that while my world traveling days are at least temporarily on hold, there is still plenty to see and explore and appreciate in everyday life – all you need to do is choose the right path. Or perhaps it is more a matter of appreciating the path you take…
For anyone who is keeping track, I officially gave up on my diet plan a couple of weeks ago. I liked the concept of the Lose It! site, but also found it a bit demoralizing. Food just has too many calories in it!!!
On the up side, keeping track of my food and liquid (that is the real downfall for me) intake for a week was a great reminder to be more aware of consumption and thinking about how many calories I was consuming was a good incentive to get out and get active. I even started walking 4 miles a day which certainly didn’t hurt a thing. I lost a couple of pounds and I felt better both physically and mentally.
Realistically, I am not going to keep track of every item I put in my mouth when I’m traveling and on a dial-up internet connection. In truth, I guess I just don’t care enough.
I told my sister my tale of woe and she suggested I just buy bigger pants. It’s a good thing that I left some of my larger jeans there last year because I have the feeling they are going to come in handy…
The children and I have done many long haul trips together, but primarily by plane. This year we are driving up to the north woods of Minnesota since we are already on this side of the Atlantic Ocean and we have a car. I told the kids that it would be better than flying – that we’d be able to make our own schedule, eat what and when we liked*, and I even borrowed a dual screen portable DVD player for them to simulate that plane experience (which is more than I ever had on our long drives from Louisiana to Minnesota when I was a child we didn’t even have air conditioning or radio for many years!)
I also told them we’d have more space in the car. I may have misled them a bit on that count. A Volkswagon Golf hatchback holds more than you’d think, but not quite as much I’d like. Every square inch of space is taken, including the back dash and the floor space in the backseat. On the up side, no one will be reclining the front seats into their laps, the kids have about twenty new-to-them movies to watch, and all the other stuff I told them is true – we can eat when and what we want, *provided of course I can find anywhere to stop in the rural areas we’ll be passing through.
I expect the drive to take between two and two and a half days. I used to make the 19 hour drive between Kent, Ohio and Baton Rouge, Louisiana in one shot back when I was in grad school by leaving at 3am, but I think if I tried that now, I’d have a mutiny on my hands. Besides, I’m not 22 years old anymore. One benefit to air travel is that someone else is doing the driving so you can nod off if you wish!
Given the limited nature of the internet connection at my father’s house, I may post a bit irregularly in July and August. That’s okay – it’s summer and I’m sure you have better things to do than haunt my blog anyway, right? I’m sure I’ll be around at least a couple times a week though – after three years of blogging, I’m well and truly hooked on it!
While the children were outside playing tag and chasing fireflies at the Wigwam Village, I took advantage of the quiet and watched a few episodes of Extreme Couponing on TLC (they were running some sort of marathon). I admit it: I love a good deal and if I end up moving back to the US, I’d love to learn a bit more about taking advantage of coupons.
The show was interesting, but ultimately I was disappointed by it. I am sure that the people who were featured are very good at getting a good deal at the grocery store, but the way the show was presented left a lot to be desired in my opinion.
First of all, you didn’t really learn anything about *how* the people figured out which coupons to use when and there is definitely timing involved in getting the most bang out of them. Second, the people on the show had obviously been told they should set themselves some sort of challenge for the benefit of the show – which was fairly extreme and not necessarily how they would shop on a normal basis. Third, by showing the sometimes bordering on absurd stockpiles of merchandise these people had already accumulated, the show was not so much showing how rewarding saving money with coupons could be, but instead made the people look a bit like lunatics. Who wants to see open shelving for groceries all through the house? Storing 4000+ rolls of toilet paper under every piece of furniture does not come across as sensible or desirable.
One woman set herself a challenge to purchase $1800 worth of groceries for nothing. She actually achieved her goal, in fact she made $.31 on the transaction, but she also spent almost 2 HOURS at the register! A man who was on one episode I watched had a goal to buy supplies to put in care packages for soldiers in Afghanistan – a noble cause, but he already had 1000 tubes of toothpaste in his basement in addition to countless other things. Why not just use some of that??? Surely it will expire before he gets to it himself. There was also a set of twins on the program, one of whom had bought enough diapers to last a baby nearly 2 years and yet neither had any children. Crazy. Why buy more than you can actually use? Even if you get it for free, isn’t it a waste of time and energy and space in your house?
The only woman on the show who made any sense to me was one who was buying things with a goal of making a big donation to a food bank. She knew how to get stuff for free so she wanted to do it, but she wasn’t warped enough to think she herself needed 50+ bottles of mustard.
The show has a compelling voyeuristic quality, but instead of promoting couponing, it seems to subtlety denigrate it as a pursuit for borderline hoarding types.
In fact, you don’t actually have to spend 8 hours clipping coupons or make your shopping list in a spreadsheet. The friend that I’ve been living with for the last few months is great at using coupons. She looks at the weekly ads for her area stores, compares it to the coupons she’s collected from the newspaper and online, and combines coupons and sales when she can to get the biggest benefit. Sometimes that means she divides her list to get some things at one store and other things at a different store. She has a quick mind for math and a good memory for which store charges what for various items she buys regularly – and she doesn’t have a basement full of things she isn’t going to use but ‘were too good a deal to pass up.’
Her method doesn’t make for as good a TV show but watching her get $200 of groceries for $85 was still impressive… and inspiring.
There was a very dramatic thunderstorm the night we stayed in the wigwam. One lightening strike was so close I began to wonder about the odds of us experiencing a lightening strike while sleeping in a concrete teepee. Fortunately, we survived the storm but it was still raining when we woke up. There would be no Lost River Cave tour for us this visit.
Instead, once it stopped raining, we decided to visit another nearby attraction: Kentucky Down Under.
Honestly, if someone had given me a stack of brochures and just told me to choose a couple of places, I probably would not have selected this one. An Australian themed petting zoo in Kentucky??? Skipping it would have been making a mistake. We had a wonderful time.
The admission price may seem a little steep: $22 for adults and $13 for children under 14 years, but the price includes everything and is good for two consecutive days. I only wish I had known that on our first day!
Our first stop was the Budgie house. I have never been all that interested in birds – I like to see them in the wild but they don’t do much for me when they are in cages. This was a bit different though: you walked in with a cup of bird seed. I still might not have gone in if the children hadn’t wanted me to go with them.
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This was a prime example of not knowing what you are missing until you try it. The birds knew the drill and swooped down on us the minute that we entered their space. What fun! My children were a little weirded out by having birds all over them, but I went back for seconds on seeds!
Our next stop was the Woolshed where we got to watch a demonstration of a dog herding sheep and then learn a little bit about various aspects of sheep farming in Australia. After the talk, we were invited to pet the sheep. Doesn’t this guy look content?
We had a little time before our cave tour so we visited the exotic bird garden and also the Lorie cage. These birds are a bit larger and the children were not as keen to walk inside the enclosure. Perhaps this sign (outside the parrot and cockatoo cages) put them off!
I finally managed to talk my son into coming in with me and at least taking my picture.
The birds were beautiful and it was amazing to have them land all over me. I am happy to say that the thief on my shoulder was unsuccessful at dislodging my earring!
Kentucky Down Under also has a cave to explore and we were lucky to get there in time because they only do the tour once a day.
It wasn’t the largest cave in the area but it was lovely. I felt a little like a muppet in Fraggle Rock wandering around all these passages and stairs in the rock!
This was a mammoth stalagmite that has already pretty well blocked on side of the stairs (we came down on the right).
From the cave tour we went to the Outback Walkabout to pet kangaroos – why yes, it did seem a bit surreal! Kangaroos are much softer than you would think they’d be. They are so soft, I’m surprised that you don’t find things made from kangaroo fur – or maybe you do when you are in Australia!
Did you know that kangaroos continue to grow right up until they die? Also, they can jump 9 1/2 feet straight up off the ground. I was glad that they remained calm while we were in their yard walking around with them!
The only two things we did not have time to do were attend a program on Australian Aboriginal customs and traditions including things like boomarangs and didgeridoos and also the presentation on snakes because we had to get on the road to drive back to Ohio. (Sshhh! I might have omitted the snakes on purpose!) We made one last visit to the Budgie house before getting in the car to drive back to Ohio, high on our wonderful day at Kentucky Down Under.
So, having taken the children to see Kung Fu Panda 2 on Friday, exploring caves in Kentucky over the weekend, not to mention the Wigwam Village fun, is it any wonder the children awarded me the Best Mom Ever award on the way home?
Would you think less of me if I admitted that when I was considering making the trip down to Kentucky to visit the caves, that the idea of staying at the Wigwam Village was what truly sold me on the idea? I have a real weakness for anything quirky or weird or retro and this place had high marks on all of those criteria.
The Wigwam Village was built in 1937 and is only one of three that remain in the country. The entire area was like going back in time to the 1950/60s which is something that I enjoyed tremendously. (Is it a surprise that I also enjoy vintage clothes and purses and watching Mad Men?)
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The children were both intrigued and skeptical when we pulled up in the parking lot outside. They’ve stayed in more than their share of nice hotels with all the traveling they’ve done at their young ages. Fortunately, they’ve also stayed in some real holes in our tours around Egypt so they have a wide range of what is acceptable!
The room was actually much larger than it looked from the outside. It wasn’t luxurious, but it was clean and everything worked. The bathroom was a narrow strip on the back of the wigwam – the mirror above the sink was actually hung at a downward angle because of the slope of the wall – and the only fault I could find with it is that the shower had no light source and an opaque shower curtain so it was dark in there!
The best part of the Wigwam Village was the open space. Because the rooms were not designed for staying in and lounging, the playground was the place to be. There were many other families with children staying that night and all the children found each other outside and played tag and hide and seek until the fireflies came out, at which point they all started chasing the bugs instead. It truly warmed my heart to see them all having such a great time in such old fashioned ways.
While the children were playing, I wandered over to the office / gift shop to have a look around. When I went in, the owner was there by himself so I started chatting with him. Ironically, he is an Indian man from India. When I started to tell him about living in Egypt and all the places I’ve traveled (including India) he really seemed pleased to talk to someone with an international perspective (me too!). I was planning to purchase a couple of postcards featuring a picture of the hotel but before I could he made a gift to me of two postcards and also a plaster replica of a wigwam that he has made locally.
He suggested that I might clean it up a bit and paint a “15″ on the back to remember the room we stayed in. I just might. I like my little wigwam quite a lot and every time I look at it I remember that pleasant conversation.
What can I say about the Wigwam Village except that I loved it. So much of America has been franchised by chains of one sort or another that there are fewer and fewer truly unique places out there anymore. If you like the homogeneity and assurance of a certain level of quality that the big hotel chains offer, then the Wigwam Village is probably not for you. The Wigwam Village did not have a pool, the playground equipment was in need of some attention, there was no Wifi, and the cable TV was snowy. On the other hand, because there was nothing much to do in the rooms, people came outside and mingled and children played in the twilight.
There is an area of Kentucky only a few hours away from where I am currently staying that apparently has the world’s longest known cave system, with more than 390 miles explored. I’m always up for seeing something interesting so I packed up the children and set off for some weekend fun.
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Our first stop was Mammoth Cave National Park. They have big caves and several tour options, so it seemed like a natural place to start. TIP: if you should decide to visit the park yourself, book your preferred tour online. We arrived just before noon and most of the best tours were already sold out. Since we were there, we did a self led tour which was just the ticket to whet our appetites for seeing more.
I’ve never had any reason to visit Kentucky and have never given it much thought except as a place I need to pass through to get to some place else. It really is a beautiful area.
Mammoth Cave is so called because it has a really large central chamber – the scale of which is hard to appreciate in this picture. As it turns out, it is only the sixth largest chamber of caves in the area. We didn’t see the others but I was pretty impressed by this one so I can only imagine that the other would be more impressive yet.
Apparently the cave was mined for salt peter during the Revolutionary War to use in the production of gun powder. Interesting!
Seeing the cave at the park only whet our appetite to see more so we headed off next to see Diamond Caverns.
It’s hard to appreciate the beauty of the caves in photographs – things looked so much different with and without a flash.
With a flash…
And without.
Each cave has its own beauty and you can appreciate the depth and scale so much more with your own eyes – and also the cold drips from the ceiling!
The guide called this formation “cave bacon”. It reminded me a little of the alabaster pots I have in Egypt, which glow so prettily when you put a candle inside.
See the stalagmite slab cut off in the bottom left of the photo. Apparently people used to believe you could date a stalagmite as you do a tree, by counting rings. A lot of effort to cut it off to be WRONG!
There were many levels to the caves. I think the deepest under ground we went in this one was about 80ft.
There were clear rules when we entered the caves: No purses or bags, No touching the cave formations. Obviously people were not always so observant of preservation of natural wonders – note the stalagtites which are snapped off flat.
By the end of our tour of Diamond Caverns the children and I were so high on cave exploring we decided to try one more: the Lost River Cave. Long time readers might have noticed by now that I’m a bit of a sucker for adventuring, but especially adventures that involve riding animals or interesting vehicles. The Lost River cave tour is in a boat in an underground river – the only such tour in Kentucky according to their brochure. How cool is that? Unfortunately, the tour was not operating that day due to excess rain fall – the water level in the cave was too high. Disappointing, but now we have something to look forward to next time we are in the area.
I have been in idling mode this last week. Technically now that school is over, summer vacation has begun but it doesn’t really feel like it yet. I’ve just been killing time.
I’ve been told I’m a good mother, but I am not without my weak points. For instance, I am no good at organizing housebound activities. Though I am a crafty person myself, I am no good at directing craftiness in my children. They are always enthusiastic about making things, but inevitably the set-up and clean-up portions of the program last much longer than their actual interest in the project. Also, they take a much more haphazard approach to making things and I have a hard time not interfering in their process. In short, I either take over or make it an unpleasant process for us all. (They want to make pet rocks and bottle cap magnets for an upcoming arts festival in Minnesota… god help me!)
It’s better for me to just step away from the paint pot / glue gun / glitter glue and leave that to their teachers at school.
I much prefer just keeping the kids moving and active. Tennis lessons, swimming, zoo trips – anything where we can get out and go. It not only keeps them busy and entertained, but it usually has the bonus of making them tired as well. Win-win for me.
I’m starting my summer this weekend with an overnight trip to Cave City, Kentucky. It’s apparently one of (the?) largest natural cave formations in the world and it’s only a few hours from here. How could I *not* go to see it? One of the cave tours is offered on a boat. Cave exploring on a boat? I am so there.
I write books for fun so why is it so hard to write my own bio? I am an American currently living in Cairo, Egypt. Aside from writing, I'm a married mom of two under ten, a decent (if reluctant) cook, an encyclopedia of random scientific / medical facts, a wine lover (but not a snob!), and a Capricorn. I love to travel, spend time with good friends, and laugh at life's surprises. View of life - definitely half full.
It’s a good thing that I left some of my larger jeans there last year because I have the feeling they are going to come in handy… 
