The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah

 The world appears small when you try to run away from problems.  Troubled minds don't see it that way.

The Allbright family cannot see it that way.  Husband, Ernt, has been affected by violence which his mind brought home after Vietnam.  His wife Cora will follow him and support him no matter what the situation.  Daughter, Leni, loves her parents, but knows the stress cannot continue.

In the early 1970's, Ernt repeatedly loses jobs.  His last resort at an attempt to provide for the family is to relocate to Homer, Alaska.  He states his volatile moods will disappear if they are off the grid, grow and catch their food, and live on love.

Leni wants the best for him and her mom is her soulmate, so she wants to help make this idea work.  Initially Ernt's temper is assuaged, and he makes a go at living in the wilds.  He makes enemies fast, though.

One enemy is Matthew Walker's father.  The problem with this is, as young teenagers, Matthew and Leni have grown to like and care for each other.  

As winter inevitably overtakes the land, Ernt's dark mood descends and there's little to curb his violent actions toward his family and the surrounding village people.  Leni is forced to hide any contact with Matthew.  It's emotionally draining on Leni, but she knows it has to be no matter what her heart wants.

Arguments and physical fights erupt, people are hurt, and people are killed and damaged for life.  Cora and Leni have one last chance to live or die in the catastrophic winter off the grid.

Their choices change a lot of lives, leaving a new opportunity to start fresh.  Leni's love for Matthew and his for her is pushed aside until an opportunity to rekindle is offered.  The problem is whether their love will bring them together again or the pain endured will hold them back.

The Great Alone creates an unimaginable life, hardship, strength, and weakness that love finds a way to rebuild when the hearts are true.

Happy reading,

Dawn

 

Who throws out a perfectly good space capsule?

Apparently, it happens...and more often than I would have expected.

I recently took a roadtrip with a friend to Southern Arizona, to spend a few days with my good friend, Cheyenne McCray.  On the way, we spied a space capsule out in the middle of a field, next to I-10.  Yep, you read that right...looked like a space capsule fell out of the sky and came to rest in the Arizona desert.  How did it get there?  Did they lose track of it?  Can that even happen?  Was there a momentary black-out on their radar systems?

Thank God it didn’t fall on my house!!!

Being your basic Doubting Thomas, I decided it had to be a hoax and drove on by.  But then when stumped for a blog topic, my friend reminded me of the strange space capsule we had seen.  So, I decided to research it.  Because who leaves a perfectly good space capsule laying in a field in Arizona, anyway?  That must create national security issues.  Isn’t there a department responsible for picking up lost space capsules?

Okay, here’s the deal.  When you have something that goes bad and is no longer serviceable, but is damn heavy, what do you do with it?  Haul it to the dump and pay tremendous fees to have them take it off your hands?  No!  And how would you load it, anyway?  Not gonna happen!

Alright, I’m getting ahead of myself.  The item I’m talking about is a cement mixer.  Yep...you heard that right...a cement mixer from a big ‘ol cement truck has something in common with a space capsule.  

Apparently, the cement mixer thing had outlived its usefulness and the wife of the guy who owned it wouldn’t let him bring it inside the house.  So, there it sat, until some clever mind (an artist named Jack Millard) was creative enough to turn it into lawn art, or in this case, field art.

Be sure to check out and “like” Jack Millard’s facebook page at: 

https://www.facebook.com/pg/voicesthroughtart/photos/?ref=page_internal

Because here is what we saw sitting next to I-10 between Phoenix and Tucson.  Great, huh?  Well, apparently, it’s so great that people have actually placed calls to 911 to report it.  Imagine how fun that first call was to get!  LOL

http://www.fox10phoenix.com/news/arizona-news/234076563-story

Imagine my surprise when I start snooping around on the internet and run across another space capsule in a field in Oklahoma!  It seems Arizona isn’t the only place to have a cement mixer drop from space.  Apparently, the lost cement mixer of Winganon, is reported to have landed in 2011.

Be sure you go to their page and “like” it! 

https://www.facebook.com/search/photos/?q=winganon%20space%20capsule

So...not just one space capsule sitting abandoned at the side of the road, but two!  We have either become the most wasteful society on the planet, or the most creative...I vote for creative.

Anyway, if you are ever traveling between Phoenix and Tucson, watch for the space capsule in the Arizona desert...and be sure to email me if you see it.  I’d love to hear about the strange and unusual sights you have seen in your travels, especially if you’ve seen the sister capsule in Oklahoma.  I’m thinking about making a trip back there in the spring...so I need an address.  LOL

Well, that’s my story, silly and spacey, and I’m stickin’ to it.  Hang on tight now, ‘cuz we’re gonna go real, real fast!

Love Ya,

Kayce

The Unknowns of Eastern Europe…

I recently returned with jet lag from a tour of Eastern Europe, Germany, Czech Republic, Slovakia (home of the handsome professional cyclist, Peter Sagan), Hungary, and Austria.  It was a fantastic trip, all the history, sites, food, and culture.  We all know that’s what can be enjoyable in a foreign tour.

I’ll tell you a few things people don’t usually comment on, serious and not-so-serious.

The fields in the northern countries are covered with corn, sunflowers, and solar panels.

The toilet paper is like a strip of Bounty…not soft.

Some water closets (toilets) require a fee.

Prague and other cities have a scooper person following the horse carriages.

Wine is served with all meals!

Hot men own wineries.  Their favorite wine is red.

Eating and drinking on a river boat in Budapest (pronounced Budapesht) after the sun retreats is phenomenal.  Buda is on one side of the Danube River and Pest on the other.

Dogs can go into restaurants and water closets.

Coffee is served per half-cup.  Plenty of room for cream and sugar (I don’t use those).

Brie cheese was included with every morning breakfast.  I acquired a taste for cheese with breakfast.

There are armed guards in front of palaces and around the Hungarian jeweled crown, which had been guarded in the US for many years.

Vienna is paradise.  Time to pour a glass of wine.

You can walk the streets at night and feel safe in all of our locations…yet watch out for pick pockets.  My husband and I outsmarted the group of three studying us.  Yeah!

The Hapsburgs ruled all of Bavaria (all these countries and more) for 640 years.  The summer cottage is smaller than the winter palace.  They’re both palaces and I find that funny…the summer palace has about 1400 rooms.

A Viennese symphony concert in the king’s palace is outstanding. 

By the way, does anyone read or write about the Hapsburg reign?  I bought a book and it remains somewhere in Eastern Europe.   Along with the bookmark.

The shower in the Vienna hotel, the Renaissance, had a Renaissance print on the whole wall of the shower.  If I ever remodel my shower, I know what it will look like!

Austrian Alps are magnificent.  The lower mountains have not had snow on the caps for the last twelve years during summer.  First time in recorded history.

The Kleinstanhaus, Eagle’s Nest as named by American soldiers, is on top of a mountain and former home of Hitler.  An amazing piece of architecture and history.

I must say that the funny and fantastic local guide for Austria, Natasha, told us that the “N” word (Nazi) must never be used and never raise the arm in “Heil Hitler.”  You will be pummeled. 

Yodeling is easy.  Just say… Little old lady who, Little old lady who.  Yeah, right. Natasha told our group not to give up our day jobs. 

Hell, let’s have some more wine!

I think long distance flying sucks.  I’m not afraid and I don’t get sick.  It’s really hard to sit in one place for so long.  Alcohol affects me greatly, but I still can never sleep.  Each end of the trip resulted in being wide awake for 22-24 hours.  Bring a book or three.

I must leave this on a good note.  I love men with a European accent.  It makes them all sexy.  I think that’s part of the requirements for the waiters.  I have a picture of one.  Actually, I have 664 other pictures, but I won’t bore you as I did my mother. 

This trip has given me a "total feel" of writing books located in these countries.  I can't wait to get to them! 

I’m sure I left a lot out, but I hope you enjoyed my virtual tour!

Travel lots, travel safely, bring a book,

Dawn

Holy Flying Vodka Bottles!!!

Hey there, how ya’all been?  Good, I hope!  I’m doing better now…now that Murphy has been evicted from our couch!  Okay, I know none of you have any idea what I’m babbling on about, so let me back up and fill you in on what’s happened.  I’m currently on an extended road trip from Arizona to Pennsylvania, and back again by way of the scenic route.  In short, I think we are going to hit about 25 states by the time we are done.  All right, maybe not quite that many…but close!

Anyway, this trip has been a real learning experience for me and the toughest part was learning to drive a 30’ motor home.  Driving 5000 miles isn’t a problem.  Staying away from home for 3 weeks isn’t a problem.  Traveling with a woman I’ve met only once before isn’t a problem.  But getting this stinking house on wheels down the road seems to be a life-altering challenge.  I kept thinking if others could do it, I can.  But I might have been wrong.  LOL

Okay, here’s the deal.  Within the first week on the road, I’d broken 2 pairs of reading glasses and a pair of flip flops.  Then I broke the motor home.  Okay, I’m getting ahead of myself here.  Remember Stupid Girl—my alter-ego that does all the stupid crap…or at least takes the wrap for it?  Well, she’s along on the trip too.  I tried to make her stay at home, but the bitch jumped in the RV and refused to get out…so I had no choice but to take her along.  Who knew she was going to insist on driving?!  And who knew she'd invited Murphy to tag along too.

Well, the second or third night out, we pulled into a gas station in Oklahoma (with Stupid Girl behind the wheel).  We had been either behind or ahead of the tornadoes the entire way through Texas and Oklahoma, so she was a little on edge and still trying to get the hang of missing curbs.  Well, there was this stupid ‘ol curb at the gas station…one of those things that sticks way out in everybody’s way for no logical reason at all and serving no purpose?  Yeah…you got it…Stupid Girl hit the damn thing and the RV momentarily became airborne.  Woo Hoo!  Who knew she’d need a pilot’s license to drive the damn thing?!  We all got out and walked around the RV and looked it over and all was well…only a little curb, nothing damaged, we’re good.  We get gas and we head on down the road.  It was a huge relief to finally get to the RV park without having the RV picked up and blown into Kansas like a flying cow.  So we parked and got out, hooked up the utilities, and then noticed one of the 4 tires on the back was flat as a pancake.  Crap!  Stupid Girl!  So we call the RV rental place and they dispatch a fix-it guy to the RV park.  I’m imagining a long night going from place to place trying to get the tire fixed.  But we lucked out.  We got a smart guy who realized the absence of a hubcap on that wheel meant the valve extender thingies were hanging outside the rim.  So when Stupid Girl hit the curb, she took a little chip out of the rubber valve and all the stinking air leaked out.  Voile…flat!  So our clever fix-it guy just pulled the valve extender off, put air in the tire, and we were good as new.  Yeah for smart fix-it guys!

 (smart fix-it guy)

Now, you might think that was the extent of Stupid Girl’s idiocy…but you would be dead wrong.  She got us to Pennsylvania right on schedule and we picked up our third passenger and set about visiting family.  Now, anyone who has ever driven in Pennsylvania knows the roads this time of year are either crap or under construction.  They are rutted and torn up everywhere.  It’s a mess!  So here comes Stupid Girl still learning to drive a 30’ RV into a town with teeny tiny narrow streets that go up hills and down hills and the straight roads only have 6 curves per half mile.  Holy hell…we need Batman to drive these roads and all we’ve got is Stupid Girl.

So…first couple of days she does good.  She makes every turn, doesn’t hit anything going forward or backward, and life is good.  Then we head to the park for a picnic and this is where Stupid Girl really earns her reputation.  We make it down the incline on a very rutted dirt road into the park just fine.  No problem.  Then it’s time to go home.  Uh-Oh!  Going down the incline wasn’t a problem…crawl and take the bumps very slow.  Going up is a different story because you have to go at least fast enough to maintain upward motion.  So she is doing good until we come to the big hole where the entire RV seems to be swallowed up and spit out like we’d fallen into the belly of a whale.  The motion causes all of the upper cupboard doors in the RV to fly open and the little gremlins that were hiding in the cupboards started throwing everything across the RV.  This is where the flying vodka comes in.  Now…just to be clear…no one had had a drop to drink.  This was a totally teetotaler picnic.  The vodka was just inappropriately stored in an upper cupboard and the little gremlin living in that cupboard had a terrific arm.  Because he hurled the damn vodka bottle across the interior of the RV.  Stupid Girl heard the pans hit the floor and the horrific thud of the vodka bottle.  So she stopped dead on the incline which now looked like Mount Everest!

Everyone else in the RV scrambled to make sure no one had been hit and to retrieve all of the projectiles from the floor and stow them safely in the lower cupboards.  When everything was once again stowed, Stupid Girl was still shaking from the commotion that had scared her half out of her wits.  So when she started to again pull out of the park and onto the teeny tiny little street made for mice pulling garden carts, she didn’t see the curb on the passenger side.  In her defense, she was sitting with the front end pointed in the air and she was shook up from the near-miss with the flying Smirnoff.  So imagine her surprise when she hears the bottom of the RV scrape the curb!  Maybe it only scraped the bottom, huh?  Noooo.  Then someone says, “I think you caught a post.”  Noooo!!!  Okay, let’s stop right where we are and let’s get out and see what happened.

It is not pretty.  We get out and look and there we are…we are off the curb and there are no steps to get into the RV.  Huh?  That’s not right.  What’s all that metal crap hanging down under the RV?  Oh crap…those are the steps?  Maybe we can just straighten them out, but first we gotta get out of the road.  So Stupid Girl jumps back in the RV and pulls it straight across the highway onto a side street where we can better assess the damages.  Then we get out again and this time we notice the odor.  Definitely not good!  Sewage is now spilling from the bottom of the RV onto the street.  I think I actually recognized last night’s dinner as it floated past us on the street.  We stared, dumbfounded, as our black water tank emptied itself on the streets of Wrightsville, Pennsylvania.  Residents of Wrightsville…we are soooo sorry!

Now what?  Let’s open the door and see how badly damaged the steps are.   No…let’s not!  We open the door and there is a 2’x2’ hole in the floor.  Where there used to be steps inside the entry door, there is now a drop to the pavement.  That’s not good.  Oh, and under the steps…that’s where the 2 house batteries are stored.  We are screwed!  We have a 2 foot hole where our steps used to be, the batteries are wedged in sideways about 6 inches off the pavement, sewage is pouring out of our black water tank, and the broken pipe is hanging about 3 inches off the ground.  Holy Crap!

But, Thank God, we are not without resources.  We have a wonderful friend named Debbie who manages to come up with a pair of pliers and some wire.  She fearlessly crawls under the RV and manages to wire the pipe up so we have a good 6 inches of clearance now.  Yeah, what a woman!  We have called every RV repair shop in the county and no one is willing to come out and look at it.  Did I mention this all happened at 4pm on a Friday afternoon?  Well, of course it did…because Stupid Girl was driving!!!

Long story short, we limp back to our camp in the next town over where my friend’s 3 wonderful, amazing, resourceful brothers all show up with blow torches and hazmat suits…okay, maybe a slight exaggeration.  But they did show up with tools and know-how and they took the steps out, found the backup shutoff valve for the black water tank, put a temporary patch over the 2 foot hole in the floor of the RV, and straightened the door out enough that we could open it in case of a real emergency.  Then the next morning we make more phone calls and find a wonderful repair guy in Dover, PA who comes up with an ingenious temporary way to put another fitting on the black water tank so we can use the toilet and dump it at the parks.  Yeah again for smart fix-it guys and good family!!!

          (those were our steps)          

 (that's where the steps used to be)

So how, you ask, are we doing now?  Well, we can’t use the door so we have to enter/exit the RV through the cab by climbing over the seats.  But we can use the toilet.  Yeah!!!  We have to crawl under the RV to dump it and often have to get creative on where/how to park so the drain tube will reach, but we’re getting pretty good at that.  Stupid Girl seems to have finally figured out how to miss the curbs, so life’s been pretty good for a few days.  Now we just have to deal with the rental place when we return the unit.  Of course, we have been good doobies and kept them appraised of the events and progress, but I’m certain they are sitting there holding their breath and expecting Stupid Girl to return their RV as a convertible.  It could happen, ya know.  We have 3 more days to go, so cross your fingers that Stupid Girl is done being…well, STUPID.

That’s my story, stupid and stinky, and I’m stickin’ to it. Hold on tight now ‘cuz we’re gonna go real, real fast.......(and Stupid Girl is driving)!

Love ya,

Kayce

(Thanks to Peg for the pictures...check out some of her pics and quotes on Facebook at "Humans I Meet".)

A Romance Author's Vacation...Part One

You may wonder what kind of vacation a romance author takes…the main difference from your vacation and mine is that I’m still constantly thinking of a plot for the next great American romance!

I just returned from a tour of the United Kingdom…England, Scotland, Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, and Wales.  I’m not a historical writer, just reader, so I think about how I can turn this tranquil kingdom into a suspenseful arena. 

Yes, I saw beautiful castles, cathedrals, landscape, and ate English food.  I’m sure you’ve all seen documentaries and magazines depicting all of the above, so I’m going to relate a few personal adventures.

After an eventful flight from O’Hare to Heathrow, yes I got sick on the plane probably from too many “relaxers”, my husband and I exited the spacecraft.  The atmosphere of Heathrow was, to say the least, a bit spooky.  The two story walls were glass and stark.  We were directed through a series of turns, stairs, and escalators with only the light from fluorescents. 

Not too bad until I noticed not a single shop or kiosk, only the people from arriving planes, and police everywhere.  It was quiet.  The bathrooms had one toilet.  England’s terrorist alert had raised a level the day before.

Led to a long line of travelers, almost two hours later we handed our travel documents, passport and card explaining who we were and our reason for arriving, to one of a dozen officers.  

I can’t help but add a little controversy.  My card read…JOB:  Govt.  I do work for the govt. (USA), but I didn’t expand.  The officer looked me up and down-no I looked a wreck at this hour.  He rummaged through my carry-on, looked me up and down again, then said, “You work for the government?”

I said, “Yes.”  Could I be more obtuse, or what?  I felt the thrill of a challenge brewing already.  With the bobbies of England!  I was messing with the police!  My heart thumped and thudded as I waited for his dark eyes and thin lips to respond.  I have a former Marine at my side and wasn’t afraid to use him.

It ended well as he chuckled, stamped my card, and moved the long line forward.  I think I was a bit relieved.

Now I am in London!  Our hotel was two blocks from the Thames and we had legs ready to go with no sleep for twenty-seven hours. 

One more story about the infamously bad English food…

That first day our stomachs drove us to find a café for breakfast.  We eagerly tried an “English breakfast.”  I thought I over reacted, but my husband didn’t like it either.  Imagine, a poached egg, tiny hash brown (not too bad yet), a mushy tasteless sausage, and flavorless baked beans.  Don’t forget that a cup of coffee comes in halfsies and no refills.  Tea is abundant, but I couldn’t solely rely on it.

Sorry, but I won’t be gaining weight in England.

So much more to tell…Our hostess, Alexis, will need to give me more time to relate the interesting parts of the tripJ

Always travel with a mission and get the most out of it!

Dawn