Always with the Traveling Adventures

As a kid, my family used to visit Myrtle Beach at least once a year in the summer. We practically grew up thinking that was a life requirement. As an adult, my mom and I (in separate houses) lived in North Myrtle for a few years. But life gets crazy, and I haven't been to any American beach in YEARS so I've been overdue. To celebrate a break in my online classes, I rented an Airbnb in Saint Helena Island, South Carolina (I love Airbnb, by the way).

If you've read my blog posts on any sort of regular basis (which might be hard since I'm so bad about posting regularly), you know that I never had an uneventful trip.

Now, let me preface everything else by saying this: I had a great weekend! I loved Saint Helena Island and can't wait to go back. It's quiet and peaceful. It's remote enough that I lost cellphone signal in the house here and there. Just beautiful and amazing. My misadventures are not a reflection on this beautiful location or its friendly residents.

Having said that, if I believed in such things, I would say I'm cursed by the travel gods. Early in the week, I started watching the weather. Slight chance of rain. By midweek, it looked better. By Thursday, rain seemed inevitable but scattered. "Okay," I told myself. "It'll still be okay."

Friday night, my friend and I loaded into the car after work and started the three hour drive. Through rain. And more rain. Then even more rain. The house was beautiful and the screened in patio magnificent which I thought was a plus since I figured we would be seeing it a lot over the weekend.

My friend and I decided we'd just take a walk in the morning on the beach even if the weather wouldn't permit swimming. Rain. Maybe we'd go to the state park. Rain. Let's try going into historic Beaufort to shop. Rain stopped. Therefore, I decree that the shopping was condoned by the travel gods (if I believed in them), and we had to do it.

Historic Beaufort is fabulous, and we ate at Panini's. Fantastic! We had coffee and gelato at Common Grounds. We browsed the stores and sat on the waterfront swings. As soon as we sat on the swings, more rain. Still, we had a good time before the rain caught back up to us.

It's hard to be mad about the rain. The area had been under a drought, and they needed it. Not only that, they needed some steady rain to really soak the ground, and they got it. So the rain might have spoiled some of our plans, but I'm still glad for it.

The morning has been clear so we finally walked to the beach. Look at this picture and be jealous.

I am still working on book three, by the way. Promise.

Adventures in Traveling

To give you insight into the writer's mind (and woes), I started this blog post last November. November people. Since then, I've been pulled in 800 directions but all good! Two books in the works and another announcement coming soon. Anyway, here's my unfinished blog post:

One of my favorite romance authors is constantly flying to book signings and events. She posts lovely pictures from the plane window, and I think, "How glamorous and sophisticated. I'll feel like that the next time I fly!"

No. Not how it works for me.

First of all, I'm me so not glamorous or sophisticated. Not saying this is a problem. I like me, but glamorous and sophisticated, those are not adjectives that describe me. Goofy. Playful. Sometimes very crabby. Much more appropriate.

Secondly, I'm not jetsetting somewhere for a book signing or appearance. I'm traveling for training related to my day job. On a side note, if someone in Hollywood would like to buy the movie rights to All From Dreams, I could seriously crank out the next books (possible movies) in the series much faster. It's a goldmine. Seriously. You want this. Just sayin'...

So in light of these things, my flying experience has been... interesting...

I dragged one of my friends out at an ungodly hour to take me to the airport so I wouldn't have to leave my car at the airport for the week. The pair of us looked like zombies as we made our way to the airport in the pitch black of the morning.

I told her she didn't have to stop to let me out, just slow down and I'd tuck and roll with my suitcase. She was nice enough to stop.

Once inside, I asked the same question about four times of each person, my sleep-deprived brain not registering what people are saying to me.

Because I just had surgery on my wrist, I thought it best to wrap my wrist up to protect it and make it obvious I have an injury (maybe I wanted some sympathy, maybe I wanted help with my luggage since I'm not supposed to lift more than 10 pounds yet). Evidently, a bandage means you have to be checked with the wand, your injured limb groped, and hands swabbed for possible explosive material residue. The TSA employee was professional and nice and tried to be gentle, but gack!!! Ouch!

I flew out of a small airport so no troubles finding my gate. Made my flight without trouble and sat next to a nice young man.

Okay. That's as far as I got. I had a whole, long, brilliant, fun continuation to the story, but um... it's February. The only other thing I remember is giving my card with my author info out to some people and the guy sitting next to me on the plane on the way back actually holding my hand because we (I) thought the plan was going down. He was really nice. I was sad to learn he was married. Anyway... I'm traveling again at the end of this month. God help us all.