Hot Vacation Spots

As Tera pointed out earlier this week, Las Vegas is hot hot hot in the summer. I happened to be in New Mexico this summer when it hit some record highs. After my cousin's wedding in Carlsbad, this is how hot my car was. Yes, that reads 138 degrees fahrenheit, folks. Even after I started it up and drove on the highway at 70 mph, it only went down to 119. YIKES!

Now, I'm just going to post a few fun photos from New Mexico, which is only one of the nine states I have been in or will be before the summer is over. I hope you enjoy!

Being a cave dweller in Carlsbad Caverns, a Santa Fe sunset, and if you look closely at the Hobbs sign, you'll see tiny me! And here's big me holding a tiny wild turtle. The turtles thought my toenails were strawberries and kept nipping at them at the most unsuspecting moments! Last but not least I enjoyed hanging with the local folk in Roswell.

A Busy Bee Returns

As you might have guessed from my oh-so-long absence, it's been a wild summer. I've spent most of it in travel, hitting America from coast-to-coast. (Literally. I've been from New York to California and most places in between.)

But I'm back. Well, my brain might not be entirely back, but I'm working on it. As part of my re-entry program, I want to share with you some photo highlights from my trip. Enjoy!

First, my parents and I drove cross-country from Oklahoma City to Las Vegas in a mini caravan...


...then I flew home to Houston to do a few book signings for the release of Goddess Boot Camp.


Next, I flew back to Las Vegas...


...and took in some shows.


After a brief stopover at home, I flew to Washington, DC, for the RWA national conference, where I won the RITA award for Best First Book. (Omigod, squeeeee!!!)


With RITA by my side, I took the train to New York, where I did not go to the Met, because it's summer, people, and there are like billions of tourists in the city. (I walked down Fifth Avenue to the Frick instead. Much better.)


After that I flew back to Vegas for the last week of my parents' summer program (the Stagecraft Institute of Las Vegas), which was about stage makeup.


Then, after many more grueling hours of driving (in which I listened to the Taking of Pelham One Two Three by John Godey--amazing) I finally made it back home to house, where my apartment complex was a different color than when I left.


So that's it. My summer life in pictures. Hopefully by next week my brain will have returned in full and I'll be able to write a real post.

Hugs,
TLC

OH. MY. GODS. (now in paperback!)
GODDESS BOOT CAMP (out now!)
Get your goddess on. Join the Ning!

The Great American Road Trip

Back in the day of un-affordable air travel, my parents and I used to road trip across the country at least once a year. Usually it was to visit some relatives somewhere (like when we lived in Montreal and my dad's family lived in southern California). I can't count how many hours I spent in the backseat of one car or another, begging my parents to play the license plate game or Amboy or Animal Poker. I slept a lot, too, because my parents always said that made the trip go faster.

Here's a shot from the driver's seat of my old blazer on one of our cross-country moves.

But, since airfares came into the non-astronomical range, most of our regular travels (outside of moving, of course) are of the airborne variety. Until now....

This weekend I'm flying up to Oklahoma City to visit my parents on their 43rd(!) anniversary and to see the opening of my dad's new show (The Full Monty). Then, then next day, we're driving(!!!) their car and a rented van all the way to Las Vegas. That's a 14+ hour drive, folks, across some of the--shall we say--less than majestic regions of the country. It's going to be hot and long and very, very flat.

Do you have any good time-passing advice/activities/suggestions to make the long drive seem less ... endless?

Hugs,
TLC

OH. MY. GODS. (now in paperback!)
GODDESS BOOT CAMP (coming next week!)
teralynnchilds.com