Category Archives: Mind Traveling

Unknown's avatar

One Last Trip

by

I’ve been away from here for a long time, I know. I decided to create a new website dedicated entirely to my published writing and it’s been a difficult process. Things have changed a great deal since I last posted here. I required a lot of help from both WordPress and Lulu “virtual assistants” and I paid money to hire people who knew more than me about marketing techniques. I’m sure hoping it will pay off. You can visit my new website at https://www.judylawlessauthor.com Be sure to add your comments and click the follow option.

Today I’m going to share a bit about one last trip I took the second week of July this year.

My son, who lives near Warsaw, Poland with his wife, Asia, has been wanting me to visit him. I decided in the spring this would be the year. I not only wanted very much to spend some time with them, I needed to step back from all the stress of getting the new website launched, and the constant busyness of maintaining our household.

I booked my flight and bought my medical/cancelation insurance one evening online. Sometime later my two daughters, Ann and Sarah decided they would meet me in Warsaw. I was so excited to see them all together again!

It had been over twenty years since I’d made an international trip on my own. I was a little nervous but determined to not let my age have any baring on my trip. I had three months to organize it, and the biggest issue was finding someone to look after my dog, Marlo, during my last weekend away, because Jim had decided to attend a Ukulele Festival that same weekend.

Jim dropped me off at Terminal One at the Toronto airport at 4:30 in the evening for me to catch my 7:30 fight. I easily found where I needed to check-in. Before I walked away from there, I was told I’d have to catch a bus to another Terminal on the other side of the runways. She told me how to find it. I was later told that was because the airline I’d chosen, at my son’s recommendation, the Polish Airline LOT, had it’s own terminal in Toronto. It was a minor inconvenience. It’s a good airline.

I had to show my boarding pass to get onto the bus. I showed my printed one.

I was one of the first to arrive, but before long there were many people crowding to find seats or at least something to hold onto. Many were visitors from India who didn’t speak English and didn’t care to acknowledge me. A large woman was wheeled in and placed in the seat next to me at the door. There wasn’t much room, but I did my best to stay out of her way while she complained to her companions. When the bus stopped at the new terminal, she was the first to get off. When she stood up, she stood on my foot, apparently unaware. I’d been looking for my Boarding Pass because it was gone from my hand. I began to panic, then I realized I had a digital copy of it on my phone, so I was okay. When the woman left the bus, I found said pass on the floor where her foot had been. I was so glad to get off that bus!

From there to my check-in gate was a long walk and we had an hour wait before boarding. There were constant announcements asking for people, mostly with unpronounceable names, to go to the gate desk to have their boarding pass checked. I thought I heard my name. I pulled my suitcase to the gate desk to check. I was told there were no issues with my pass, but still I was given a new printed one. The flight was late leaving, maybe because so much checking was taking time.

The line of people waiting to board seemed very long. I expected the plane to be full, but it was much larger than I’d anticipated. I had the whole centre section of my row to myself, technically. It was used by different people now and then when they wanted more space from their family. One young man who had been playing games on his phone, then slept for awhile, woke up looking for something. I eventually asked what he’d lost. I didn’t know if he’d speak English as most passengers didn’t. He told me it was his phone. I helped look between the seats and on the floor to no avail, but he eventually found it and thanked me for helping him look. I was impressed.

There was one small girl who was very demanding and screamed when she didn’t get what she wanted. Her mother paced up and down the aisle with her.

Dinner was served a couple of hours later and she quieted down for a bit. Most people were either watching the TV screen or trying to sleep. The girl awoke and started her screaming again. It went on and on. Her mother had a hard time with her, but I’m sad to say, she obviously had not been taught how to behave. She quieted sometime after midnight, and I got some sleep until she started again early in the morning. Oh well, it was time for breakfast.

A bit of an upset stomach worried me the rest of the trip, but it cleared up soon after I arrived in Warsaw. We were put onto another bus to go to the main terminal this time. Before I got off the bus I called Brendan to tell him I’d arrived, and he said he was waiting near the exit doors. Okay. I saw a sign to Exit but no direction given. I noticed a sign saying Border Security in front of a solid wall with one door that could have been an exit door. I tried to ask someone if I needed to go through there. They didn’t speak English, but a Border Security Officer approached and told me I should get into the line that said Canadian Only and present my passport. I followed his instructions. It took a bit of time for the attendant to check my passport and then I had to put my fingers into a scanner to record my fingerprints! That sure didn’t happen back in 1972 or even1999.

I was thrilled to find Brendan standing in the waiting area, watching for Sarah and Ann who should have arrived before me. We eventually got everyone together and Brendan led us outside, a fair distance from the terminal, to a place where pickups could be made, but they had to be timed. Asia was waiting and watching for us. She moved quickly to the pickup spot and told us we had to hurry. She had only seven minutes to stay there! We scurried to get our luggage into the back and squeeze ourselves into the car, pulling away just in time.

We got a glimpse of Warsaw as we travelled to the rental apartment Ann had booked for us. It had been a very long day!

It would take too long for me to describe all that we saw and did so I’m just going to say, we learned much we hadn’t known before about how Warsaw was treated by both Russia and Germany during both World Wars. Much of the devastation has been preserved around the rebuild of palaces and beautiful parks. We learned to find our way around on foot, on trolleys and underground trains. It’s enough to say, one week wasn’t enough time to see it all. At the end of each day, when the girls decided to go for one last walk, I crashed in my room and enjoyed a good night’s sleep.

I’m hoping I will be able to take Brendan up on his offer of my own suite in his new house, when I can go again for a longer visit.

Unknown's avatar

Lacking Motivation

by

I can’t believe how long it’s been since I last posted here. I used to really enjoy sharing my stories, my life with you all. But now that we’re not traveling anymore, and so far I haven’t been motivated to build a new novel from the many ideas I’ve made notes for, there just isn’t anything to write. Should I shut this one down, and build a new website focusing just on writing? I don’t know.

Unknown's avatar

Publishing a Novel on a Shoestring Budget

by

It’s been both exciting and stressful, creating my first fictional novel and deciding to publish it. I looked at different ways to self-publish, most requiring a bigger investment than I could even consider. I knew editing was important, but paying hundreds of dollars to have it done professionally, just wasn’t something I could do. I had no illusions that my first novel was going to become a major hit overnight. I had no justification for taking such a big risk.

I know I’m a pretty good editor. I often catch typos, or grammar errors when I read. I belonged to an online writing group where my editing tips were appreciated and I received many good tips for improving my own writing, including errors I’d missed.

So I began the first major edit of Being Grace by printing out all those useful tips, along with a paper copy of my draft, and spent several hours going through it to make all the fixes. My adult children all offered to do a read through for me, but they all live miles away from me, and they are very busy in their own lives, so it never happened.

I decided if I really wanted to get this published, I’d have to trust my own abilities and whatever other help came my way.

I spent a month editing, re-reading, editing some more, but alas, I became too anxious to get it published. I couldn’t read it one more time and see any more issues. I decided on a publisher.

Eleven years ago I’d self-published my second non-fiction book using Lulu Press, online. That book was only 124 pages, but it contained numerous pictures. My first one, published four years earlier, using the same program had been only 105 pages, with pictures. I remember at the time it was a bit daunting to figure out the application for submitting my work and it took a few tries to get a nearly perfect book that I could be proud to share with family and friends. We ended up giving many away as gifts, but, fortunately,  the cost wasn’t prohibitive.

Now, with this new book, a novel I hoped would find a larger audience, and contained three times as many pages, there was more money on the line. I again chose Lulu Press and I worried over getting it right. There were no pictures this time, other than the cover, but there were thousands of words of text.

The program had changed in twelve years. There were new options and ways to get things done, which were great, but required a new understanding.  Adding a link into the book content box was simple. Creating the cover was more complicated than I’d remembered, and I had a difficult time finding that eye-catching picture for the front.

The self-imposed deadline I’d set for myself, my birthday, was looming. Finally, I felt confident enough to send the completed project to Publish. I ordered a proof copy and waited. When it arrived, I gave it another quick perusal and then ordered a dozen copies. I was pleased to see shipping charges were considerably lower when ordered in bulk. I sold my first half dozen quickly, to friends from our Ukulele Band, and Pickleball Players. I got an offer from a local store owner to put some copies there for sale. She also offered to host a book signing! I was floating on cloud-nine.

I’d like to say it all went well from there on, but I have to admit, after several typos were pointed out to me, I felt more like a failure. It wasn’t perfect, and that’s always what I strive for. Knowing there were many great books published that weren’t perfectly without errors didn’t help. When I went back to compare the third proof copy with the first, which I’d marked up with changes, I still found things nobody had mentioned, this time with layout. It weighed on my mind that there were many copies already out there with errors, but, at last I’m now satisfied with the final result. I’ve had some great reviews and encouragement from those who have read it.

The final version is now available online, including at Amazon, in both paperback and e-book. I hope some of you will find it and read it. I’d love to hear what you think.

It takes a lot of learning, hard work and determination, but you can publish a good book on a shoestring budget if you put your mind to it. Marketing may be a little more challenging. 🙂

Look for my book at these web pages:

https://www.amazon.com/author/judylawless

https://www.goodreads.com/author/list/18718120.Judy_Lawless

https://www.lulu.com/spotlight/judy-lawless

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/being-grace-judy-lawless/1143334097

Unknown's avatar

A New Venture in Writing

by

During Covid-19 I needed to find something else to occupy my time, since we weren’t able to travel, so I joined an online writers website and began submitting stories about our travels, and my life. I also read and reviewed the works of many fellow writers. I’d often wished I had the imagination to write a fiction novel, but always dismissed it. After following many such works on this site, I decided to take a chance. I had one fictional story, based on a tidbit of a story told to me years ago, so I decided to start there and see where it would go.

My first chapter was well received, but it was a month before I came up with the next one. With much encouragement from my fellow-writers, the plot began to develop. After two years, I had a complete draft. I chose to withdraw from posting on that site for now, and spend my time editing what I had.

I’m excited to say that my historical romance novel is now available to order on Lulu.com in both paperback and e-book.

I will also have them for sale from home, or possible book signings, for local audiences.

If you do read it, please consider leaving a review with Lulu or on this blog post.

Unknown's avatar

A Day in Quebec City

by

Once we were settled into our suite in Levis, Quebec, we drove to the Ferry Terminal, parked the car, and did a walk-on sail across the St. Lawrence River to Old Quebec City, a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Leaving Levis for Quebec City

We’d both been there before, once together when we did this trip on our motorcycle, but it’s always interesting. Like many tourists destination, it has become more commercialized and, being a long provincial weekend, it was crowded on that very hot day. It’s situated on the side of a hill, overlooking the river, meaning a challenging number of stone steps to climb if you wish to walk All the way to the top. This time, we took the cable car to the top and walked back down when we were done exploring.

The first time I journeyed to Quebec City was as a chaperone when my daughter, Ann’s grade seven (or maybe eight) class went on a bus as their special end of year field trip. That one was very different from this trip. That time we spent the night in a beautiful historical home that had been converted to a Bed and Breakfast, and we toured historical buildings, and the Plains of Abraham, where the British Army and Royal Navy battled the French Army during the Seven Year War. It was the pivotal battle that saw the British claim the land known then as New France, which later influenced the creation of Canada.

I don’t recall any major shopping trips or crowds of people that time, but we did visit a few little gift shops.

This trip, like the last one, was mostly to enjoy the atmosphere of the French culture that now dominates the Province of Quebec.

There are many levels to this interesting city. When we disembarked from the ferry, we walked up one block where there were a number of restaurants with outdoor patios. But it seemed we weren’t the only ones hungry for lunch. We had a shorter wait on Petit-Champlain, a pedestrian street hosting many local shops and bistros. It’s also a great place to people watch and enjoy the music provided by a few buskers.

Cable car track in centre back
Cable Car

When we’d finished our fish and chips, we caught the cable car that took us up to another level and a wide, wooden board-walk, offering an interesting stroll. Looking up, we admired the colourfully painted wooden homes, or hotels on the next level, and the quaint stone buildings further up.

Chateau Frontenac, the most famous landmark, which has been completely renovated since our last visit, majestically overlooks the boardwalk. This stone hotel is a beautiful place to stay, if you can afford it. We didn’t even step inside, but watched some more buskers perform in the courtyard outside. The view down and across the river is also incredible.

It was a long day. We’d heard there might be fireworks somewhere that evening, but the people at the information kiosk new nothing about it. We were tired anyway. We took the ferry back to Levis, found a place for dinner and returned to our hotel room. We would be on the road again early the next morning.

Levis
Levis

Unknown's avatar

On Our Way in Earnest

by

After two days in Kingston, Ontario with friends, watching some of the Canadian National Pickleball Tournament, we got on our way to Halifax in earnest. First we had to pick up an extra car battery to boost the almost new one we have.

We made it through Montreal during a provincial holiday – Saint-Jean Baptiste Day, and arrived at our first planned overnight stop in Drummondville, Quebec. We stayed at Hotel Alouette on Mercury Boulevard, which we highly recommend if you’re passing through. It is well maintained, very clean and has good high-speed internet. Because the rooms are very compact, you might not want to spend more than a night at a time, but the owner is very friendly and accommodating. 

We didn’t have time for much exploring in Drummondville, but we did take time to look for the Hemmings Generating Station before we left the following morning. We had to take a bit of a morning hike to get close enough to take pictures, and we got scolded for leaving the trail to do so, by the security guard. Actually, he was very kind about it, taking pity on us because all signage in Quebec is now in French only.  

This generating station is just one of many that are part of the James Bay Project, the construction of a series of hydroelectric power stations on the La Grande River in northwestern Quebec, Canada, by the province owned Hydro Quebec company.

We were in Levis, Quebec by noon that day.

Unknown's avatar

On the Road Again!

by

After three years, we’re finally getting on the road again! Sadly, we gave up our motor home last fall because we knew we wouldn’t be going back to Arizona for winters any more and it seemed a waste of money to pay for storage and insurance on it when we couldn’t go anywhere else, during COVID. But now we can travel across Canada, and we’re setting off in our car today for Halifax, Nova Scotia taking our time along the way.

Today’s destination will be Drummondville, Quebec. I hope you’ll follow along. There will be pictures in future posts, promise!

We’ve had some problems with the car battery dying, even though we recently replaced it. Something is draining it. But Jim just puts the charger on it for a couple of hours and we’re good to go for a day or two. Wish us luck.

Unknown's avatar

Changing Times

by

It’s been too long since I’ve posted on this site. During COVID shutdowns, because we could do no long-distance travel, I immersed myself in other types of writing. But you might recall that we did do some local travel on our e-bikes.

This past week, we sold our motor home, so our journeys to Arizona are done. We have no plans for escaping the cold of  winter, yet, but we did embark on a new biking journey this week. We took our bikes to Long Sault, Ontario on Thursday evening, after a stop in Prescott to take my brother out for a drive and dinner. We spent the night at the Lion Inn so we could ride the Long Sault Parkway Trail on Friday morning.

The air was cold when we started out, shortly after 9:00 am, but the sun was bright. I took enough pictures to give you an idea of the beauty of the area.

Directly across from our hotel was a round-about intersection with a pedestrian/bicycle crossing that took us to the River Trail, which led us to the Parkway Trail.

The Beginning of the Long Sault Parkway Trail and a bit about it.

The Islands. The eleventh island isn’t named on the map, but there was a road to the right named Moulinette Island Road, which seemed to lead to a private community.

Most of the islands have campgrounds and beaches, that have restroom/store buildings, but there are no houses or businesses. We could hear birds in the trees and see some on the water. It truly is a peaceful green space.

When we reached the end of the trail at Ingleside, we found a great little place in a plaza to eat lunch, before the return ride.

There is a story behind these islands. They were once a part of these two cities, until the 1950s when an agreement was made between Canada and the US to flood the St. Lawrence River that ran beside the towns and between the two countries, in order to expand the shipping lanes. On MacDonnell Island there is an information area with posters that tell the incredible story of houses and other buildings being moved, and the Highway #2 being flooded. We found the small portion of the highway that remained above water.

The road that goes nowhere

Most of the pictures on the boards are now faded beyond recognition, but I did capture the written story in pictures. If you take time to read it, you will be amazed.

The information is posted in both English and French. I cropped out the French only to adjust the pictures to a smaller size and square them up. You can find more detailed information on the Wikipedia website.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this journey. I can’t say when the next one will be but I hope you’ll join me when it does. Happy Travels!

Unknown's avatar

How Many Computer Geeks Does it Take?

by

Originally posted on August 13, 2010

Day 7 (Tues)

After discovering that the device for getting onto the internet, which we bought the night before, just wasn’t going to work, we headed back into Rapid City with computer packed into the saddle bag, expecting to get help quickly from the computer geeks at Best Buy. The first geek couldn’t do it so he called the sales associate from the mobile phone department. He could do it through the phone help line, if only he could get through to them.

He was on hold for twenty minutes, when another geek, the head of the department suggested that a different device would work better for our needs and could be installed very quickly by her. It was more money, but we decided it would be worth it if it was going to work. So, we made the exchange. That wasn’t a simple process. A monthly invoicing system had to be set up because, unlike the previous device, a one month prepaid card couldn’t be purchased. Our having a Canadian address made that process complicated. It took about an hour just to set up the account.

Then, it was back to the geek desk. A half hour later, the geek was still trying to get this device to work. In the meantime, the head of the mobile phone department came in (he’d sold us the original device) and he tried to help with first the account set-up and then the device set up.

We left for lunch. When we got back, the head geek had left for the day, leaving the problem with yet another geek. Another half hour passed before it was finally discovered, by the mobile phone fellow, that the battery hadn’t been installed in the device!

We thought that was the quick fix, but no, it still wouldn’t work on our computer, but it did work on theirs. So, after wasting four hours of our day, we left with computer and device once again stashed in the saddle bag.

Jim decided he’d like to take a back route home, and it was a lovely ride, until we ran out of gas! Fortunately a kind lady who lived nearby went home to get us enough to get us to Sturgis and a gas station.

Once we were finally back in the RV Jim went to work on the computers and internet device and he got them both working. At least the day ended better.

Unknown's avatar

At Last, Sturgis!

by

Continuation of the Series Sturgis and Beyond

Originally posted on August 10, 2010

Days five and six

On Sunday morning, still in our campsite near Mitchell, South Dakota, we took our time getting ready to leave. I did some laundry; Jim repaired a window screen that had become loose, and I finished blog and Facebook postings. While I sat outside completing these tasks, I watched streams of motorcycles speeding past on the I-90. By 10:30 we had joined them, but the bikes ruled the road.

With a couple of stops along the way to refresh, we finally arrived at our campsite at Sturgis around 4:00 pm.

One of many camping sites

The day was another very hot one, reaching temperatures in the upper nineties. Our poor old motor home began to protest when we stopped to register. She didn’t want to start again. But we managed to slowly move her to our campsite and backed into place. We did our nesting; electric hooked up, table and chairs out, awnings pulled to provide some shade. We started a list of things we should purchase the next chance we got, like a sewer connector, a new door blind and stamps to mail cards. After a frustrating evening of trying to get and stay connected to WiFi, an internet stick was added to the list. Hence the reason no news got posted that day.

On Monday we took the bike into downtown Sturgis, list in hand. Lots of luck! There were many interesting sites and lots of pictures to take. Beer could be bought at nearly every corner; if you wanted a souvenir t-shirt or cap or any biking paraphernalia, you had hundreds of shops to choose from. But nowhere in sight was there a computer or mobile phone store, or a grocery store. Our list had to be discarded for the time being. We just parked the bike and enjoyed the show. The streets were lined with bikes of every shape, size and description that you could imagine. Granted the majority seemed to be Harleys. At least the loud pipes on our Virago blended right in.

There were bikes customized to look like cars; there was a bike that looked like our Venture, but it pulled a coffin for a trailer, painted to match the bike. The licence plate read “X-wife”.

The people riding the bikes and walking on the streets were just as varied. Jim especially enjoyed photographing the buxom women who equally enjoyed flaunting what they had. It seems that pasties are the only top covering required in this state. We saw people dressed in caveman/warrior garb, women in bikinis, old people, young people, an extremely tall woman, probably seven feet.

We stood in the crowd for the daily group photo. If you look really closely you can recognize Jim’s hat in the crowd. Well worth the $10 we paid for a copy. We poked through several of the shops, ate pulled pork for lunch and ice cream cones for dessert. We visited the Knuckle Saloon for a cold drink and a listen to some excellent guitar picking and songs by Rogan Brothers Band.

By 4:30 the sun and the walking had done us in so we found our bike and decided to look once more for the Post Office. By the time we found it, it had closed and there seemed to be nowhere else to buy those stamps. Some suggested we might try the grocery store and told us where to find it, but it would mean another slow ride through town; We came back to camp.

But the desire to get internet connection to complete some business and post our updates led us to get on the bike again and head sixty miles east to Rapid City. There we found the internet stick we were looking for and an IHOP where we finally had some dinner. It was nine o’clock by the time we finished eating, time to return to camp. Perhaps tomorrow we’ll get that list taken care of.

In the evening we were still struggling with internet while enjoying some live music coming from the beer tent.