Our church does not hold regular services during the summer. It’s not that we completely shut down — there are still some informal services held in the air-conditioned common room, but the regular ones in the sanctuary stop for three months. Then we start up again, the Sunday after Labor Day weekend. And, weather permitting, [...]
Filed under: Scandinavia, children, holidays, religion, road trip, weather | 4 Comments »
Dear Grandma,
I miss you. Lately these flashes of memories keep intruding on my day.
Your laugh. You looked so regal, so classy. But your laugh was down home, real folk, spilling out of you whenever the smallest opportunity for mirth arose. How much we laughed, working on your book, our book. Every Sunday night when I [...]
Filed under: Scandinavia, biography, creative non-fiction, family, grandma, grief, memoir, memoir writing, research, road trip, travel, weather, women, writing | 1 Comment »
Did I mention I’m going to Sweden and Norway in less than three weeks to find my roots?
Yeh, well, I am. I’ve been planning the trip for months — it’s meant to help fill in the gaps in Grandma’s first chapter: “The Old Country.” I’m very excited about going and have been working [...]
Filed under: biography, children, family, food, grandma, memoir writing, research, road trip, travel | 5 Comments »
Well, it´s been a pretty long two weeks, but as always happens, the end sneaks up on ya and it´s hard to believe it is almost over! Tomorrow we leave Huarmey for Lima on the 11 a.m. bus. We get to the airport early, rent lockers for our bags, and then take off on a [...]
Filed under: American West, Peru, children, creative non-fiction, education, food, memoir, memoir writing, mining, road trip, travel, travel writing, weather, women, writing | 2 Comments »
It has been raining in the mountains. It started the day we arrived in Peru, sadly. That means the mountain region, above about 7,000 feet in elevation, is relatively unaccessible for the rest of the trip, unless we decide to rent donkeys to take us and our equipment up the dirt roads in the drizzle [...]
Filed under: Peru, children, creative non-fiction, education, fear, food, memoir, memoir writing, road trip, travel, travel writing, weather, women, writing | Leave a Comment »
Yesterday (Mon.) we spent the whole day repacking our bags and getting ready to split into four groups. I am told that this is the most stressful day of the trip usually. Certainly it was stressful, though I am impressed with how well the group is working together. No biting off of heads, no fisticuffs [...]
Filed under: Peru, children, creative non-fiction, education, fear, food, memoir, memoir writing, parenting, road trip, travel, travel writing, women, writing | 4 Comments »
We left Lima on the four o´clock bus to Huarmey, traveling on the Pan American highway for most of the trip. That road follows the length of South America and goes up into the United States as well. I remember hearing about it when I was a kid, but I don´t know where in the [...]
Filed under: Peru, children, creative non-fiction, fear, food, memoir, memoir writing, road trip, travel, travel writing, women, writing | 3 Comments »
Yes, I should be sleeping, but I’m writing instead. Just a quick post to say I’m headed down to Peru tomorrow. I am told that we will have access to internet maybe three or four times in the coming seventeen days, so I hope to post a few times before I return on [...]
Filed under: Peru, creative non-fiction, education, fear, good books, memoir, memoir writing, parenting, road trip, travel, travel writing, women, writing | 2 Comments »
“I recommend you get some mosquito netting,” says a veteran Peru-goer in our group. Eleven of us were sitting around the table in Engineering 407, pizza boxes lining the center of the table, calling to me to abandon Weight Watchers in favor of a slice… ah, but I digress.
“Yeh, mosquito nets are good,” pipes [...]
Filed under: Peru, creative non-fiction, memoir, memoir writing, road trip, travel, travel writing, weather, women, writing | 4 Comments »
So that YouTube stuff is pretty cool… Yeh, I’m behind the curve — I never said I was a technogeek, just a lowly English professor. I’ve known about YouTube for a while, but finally had occasion to visit the site because, of all things, my son’s Spanish teacher gave the kids an assignment [...]
Filed under: Peru, biography, memoir, memoir writing, research, road trip, travel, travel writing, women, writing | Leave a Comment »
