Trippin' with Susan Straley

Saturday, September 7, 2019 Hi, What do you like about travel?  I have always loved coming across the unexpected.  Arriving by bicycle into a neighborhood that is having a funky festival with music and fun.  The joy I feel after a bear crosses the road in front of us, or we see a unique piece of folk-art. But I also like the little tidbits of learning.  That's also why I love podcasts.  I love learning a part of history I didn't know before, being blown away by the feat of a person or towns people.  I got a little bit of that today, I hope it is just a peek at the fun moments to come on this trip. I turned off the route to find a place to get coffee.  I haven't been making my coffee in the morning yet.  Just getting up and packing and heading out.  So I turned off the route and headed into Abbeville. I was first delighted to find a lovely town square surrounded by well-kept colorful old buildings.    The Courthou...

Friday and Saturday, September 6th and 7th, 2019 Hi, Friday night I had no reservations and didn’t know where I would land. Some people love that. Me, I was worried.  It was a Friday night,  a time of festivals, concerts,  fairs and sold out camping areas. I drove the back roads heading toward Greenville. I had stopped at a McDonalds to get access to Wifi and blog.  After that, I didn't get very far and I saw an Anytime Fitness and stopped in to work out. I was aiming for a state park just north of Greenville, South Carolina.  It was 5 hours away at least, according to Googlemaps.com When I stopped for lunch I gave the campground a call to see if there were any sites.  They had 7 tent sites available but they would not save let me reserve one. When I told them I would probably be there after 5, they said the sites would not still be available, there was music in the park this weekend, it was filling up. I looked for motels in t...

Good morning!   A few friends have posted some unbelievable photos of sunsets after the hurricane past.  Bright red, and they assure me the pictures are NOT enhanced. This is my sunrise this morning. I have met a few people who say they don't like to travel. They don't like the mess of getting there, the air flight, the packing, the checking in. And some don't like it because when they are gone they worry about their stuff or their people back home. So why go? This is my exploratory trip to see if I like travel.  I am doing three different kind of trips this fall. On this trip I will be traveling for a full month in my Chrysler Town and Country mini van.  Trying out camping, staying with family and friends, tasting how far I like driving in a day, eat out vs picnic. Day one I only went 200 miles.  But it took all day long! I left after 9:00 a.m.   I would have left earlier, but I had to wash the sheets.  I h...

Hi, That's what I want to know, does the sky look different when a hurricane is just a few hundred miles away? Earlier this week it seemed strange, a fog, it was above us... maybe you would call that low-hanging clouds. And now the glows seem to move fast and there is a wind, but that could be normal. We are the fortunate ones.  Just out of the danger range.  One county over, the schools are closed so they can remain open as storm shelters for those escaping Hurricane Dorian. Hurricanes are relatively new to me.  Born and raised in the Midwest, the tornadoes would come and go in a matter of minutes.  Here, we start watching the storms form over by Africa and talking about the chances of it coming our way.  And then Hurricane Dorian lost the push of high-pressure behind it so we were expecting it to hit on Sunday, then Monday, then Tuesday.  In the meantime I have hauled plants into the house outdoor furniture to keep if from flying around and da...

Hi, There is a storm heading our way... or not. Dorian, currently a tropical storm gaining momentum in the Atlantic, may head this way, may not. My heart goes out to all those caregivers trying to figure out where to go, whether to go or stick it out.  In The Journey Continues I wrote about our trip to escape hurricane Irma.  We were lucky, we had the means and ability to get away.  Some of the friends in my dementia caregiver support group had a heck of a time during Irma.  One took her loved one to a special needs shelter.  Can you image what it is like to hunker down in a storm (and its aftermath) when you have someone you love with dementia? They are confused sometimes even in their own home and taking them into a huge space with cots set up row after row, no place to sit comfortably, nothing to occupy them. It was a nightmare for my friend and her husband.  Then the special needs shelter got over crowded and under-supplied.  There wa...

Exciting times!  So much to learn, to decide, to experience! Ok, now what do I start talking about first?  Do I start off talking about what I have been thinking about?    If I believe the science telling us that climate change is happening and that human activity is a big contributing factor, what am I doing and what CAN I be doing (or not doing) to reduce my impact.  And then, I remember something I heard... "No snowflake feels responsible for the avalanche." Do I start off telling you about the "Trippin'" that is coming up?  North Carolina, Ohio, Wisconsin, Everglades, Florida Keys, Arizona... too much? Or do I start off telling you about what is happening with the books ? Audio, large print, book launch events... Ok, ok, ok, stop twisting my arm!   I will talk about the progress of the books first. If this isn't of interest to you, skim down.  You won't want to miss the Trippin' we are going on this fall! (I promise t...