Travelling: Monday Blog Post

Mom at her 70th Birthday Party

Newest News:

I’m travelling today. I have been in upstate New York for my mother’s 80th birthday party. So many places to visit and family to see in four days! I have a few pictures on my Twitter: @conniecockrell, and on my Facebook: ConniesRandomThoughts, if you’d like to see.

A new post will be up on the 30th. See you then.

Giveaways:

The newest giveaway is called For the Love of Books, Valentines Giveaway. The link is https://conniesrandomthoughts.com/giveaways-and-prizes/. Click on the Rafflecopter link. This is a short giveaway because we’re lining up one for St. Patrick’s Day. So get in on the opportunity to win $135 in Paypal cash plus prizes from over 40 authors, that’s over 80 prizes! Hurry!

 

Shout Out:

This week’s shout out is for my mom! Hi mom!

 

Where Will I Be?

No appearances in the short-range future. Check my website, https://conniesrandomthoughts.com/where-will-i-be/ for my next engagements. I have contacted both the Phoenix ComiCon (http://www.phoenixcomicon.com/) and the Tucson ComiCon (https://www.facebook.com/TucsonComicCon/) for information about attending their events. It’s still early, they’re not working yet. I’ll keep you posted.

 

Newsletter Sign Up:

Click here to sign up for my newsletter. I’ve put sign-up prizes on both the regular and the Brown Rain newsletter sign-ups. That’s right. If you sign up for my newsletter you get a free story from me. Be prepared for fun and contests! Click on the video link for a short video from me. Hear what I’m working on. Join my “A” Team to be the first to read my books and hear what new books are coming.

 

Newest Book Release:

Mystery in the Woods released on December 24th! I’m pretty excited about it. You can buy it and my other books at: Apple, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, and Smashwords, today! You can also see all my books on https://conniesrandomthoughts.com/my-books-and-other-published-work/. If you’ve read any of my books, please drop a short, honest, review on the site where you bought it or on Goodreads. It’s critical to help me promote the books to other readers. Thanks in advance.

Monday Blog Post: Vacation Part 3 of 3

Lake, Fog, Sunrise, Sacandaga, Northville, NY,

The Great Sacandaga Lake, Northville, NY, Sunrise through the Fog

We began the third and final part of our vacation last Thursday. The morning we left Northville (N.Y.), the temperature was 35 degrees F. As we drove by the lake, I saw that the water was steaming, creating a huge fog bank over the warmer water.  The sun was just coming up and shone through the fog. You can see a picture of it above. It was just a magical and lovely farewell to the area.

Thursday was a short driving day as we stopped just outside of Harrisburg, PA to visit my hiking friend, trail name, Sherpa.  We originally met years ago as part of a group getting together to hike the Appalachian Trail (the AT!). We hit it off immediately and became instant friends. We had many hiking adventures on the AT and still get together, despite now living on opposite sides of the country. We talked and talked Thursday night. It was so nice to reconnect.

The rest of the trip back to Arizona has been relatively uneventful. It was generally an interstate highway slog but Sunday we crossed the western half of Oklahoma, the Texas panhandle and made it about 650 miles to Santa Rosa, New Mexico to spend the night. Here’s my serendipitous story. I used Santa Rosa, NM as the home place of a character in a short story I just sent off  to a magazine. It was wonderful to see the actual area, the Pecos River, which I mentioned in my story and unknown to me, something called the Blue Hole. In my research, I never heard of the Blue Hole. So, since we arrived about 4:30pm, we decided to find this Blue Hole and check it out. It’s pretty cool. A deep, spring fed hole, about 50 feet in diameter and according to the sign, the outflow is several thousand gallons of water per minute of crystal clear water. It’s an amazing thing to find in the middle of a desert area.  The town allows diving in the hole, about 80 feet deep, with the proper permits.

Anyway, I love driving cross country. The landscape between upstate N.Y. and Payson A.Z. is so varied. Farms and fields, cities and villages, cattle, deer, antelope, mountains, rivers and lakes, it is so beautiful and better than TV!

I loved travelling in October–the fall colors in the north-country made it worth the trip.We expect to be home tomorrow afternoon. I’m posting this early, before I get there, so you have your regular Monday post from me.

Thanks for stopping by my blog today.

I published my September newsletter. Did you miss it? Click here to sign up for my newsletter. I make special offers to my newsletter people that I do not make on the website blogs. If you like the content, please encourage your friends to sign up, too. Don’t delay. The October newsletter is coming out soon. Sign up now so you don’t miss out.

Mystery at the Fair released July 15th! I’m pretty excited about it. You can buy it and my other books at: Apple, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, or Smashwords today! You can also see all of my books on www.ConniesRandomThoughts.com, Books tab. If you’ve read any of my books, please drop a review on the site where you bought it. It’s a big help to me in the book rankings each vendor uses to promote the books on their sites. I am also now on GumRoads.com/conniecockrell where you can buy my books directly from me. (Note: I’m still loading that site. Right now there are two books listed there.)Thanks in advance.