How NOT to have a productive day

Posted on March 15, 2011March 15, 2011 by Dusty Roads

Editor in Chief

Hi. It’s me, Editor-In-Chief Rocky, here to make our apologizes for the missing post today. Our traveling correspondent and main author, Dusty Roads, is having a BAD day. And that is really bad with a capital B! She just locked herself out of the house for the 2nd time in a week. It wouldn’t have been so bad if the spare key she keeps hidden hadn’t fallen out of its hiding place yesterday and she brought it inside and yes, you guessed it, she didn’t put it back out.

So now she’s spent all morning running around trying to find a way to get back in. Inspiration finally hit her. The pet sitter, my 2nd favorite human, has a spare set. So She called Diane and yes, Diane had the keys with her so off Dusty went to pick them up.

She just got back in and wanted to put the spare key back out in its secret place and, well, umm, let’s just say it was shiny and it had tape on it…two of my favorite things. Well, I don’t think she’s in the mood for me to tell her where it is right now. She’s turning the diningroom and livingroom upside down and inside out because she knows she left it on the diningroom table yesterday.

I think I’d better just sit back and watch. Sooner or later she will give up and I can sneak it back out for her to find. It is rather amusing watching her stress out like this. But I can tell you any creative juices have taken a run for it for today.

Scout is preparing a Scout’s Tips column for tomorrow in case Dusty is not back on track by then. So please accept my apologizes and thanks for your patience.

Rocky

WOW Another Monday!

Posted on March 14, 2011March 14, 2011 by Dusty Roads

I dropped the ball today. I usually take time on Sunday to prepare a post for today but instead I went “gallivanting” out to Plymouth Harbor to take pictures. Apparently while out there I caught a cold that has settled into my lower back..OUCH***..But enough excuses..Let me ramble on a little and you can comment with your cheers and jeers .

First Plymouth Harbor is a pretty little harbor. The Mayflower isn’t out of winter dry dock yet so it was pretty quiet. I like their sea wall. It isn’t just this cement wall rather it’s made of stone and cement. There are rocks set in the top row that kind of point up. It reminds me of a moat on a medieval castle. I think it’s mostly decorative.

I got a couple of nice sunset pictures. The sunsets this time of year seem to be more pastel than red.

When I got home I was reading one of my travel magazines that came Saturday. There was an article about Arizona ...Arizona for all seasons… so I checked that out. It covered the whole state and since we won’t have time for the southern end , south of Phoenix, that section was merely interesting but not useful for our upcoming trip. The northern recommendations involved mostly road trips and did hit some of the high points we have planned. One place that came up in the article and in an article in Popular Photography was Canyon de Chelly. I wish we had time for that but I think this trip is going to be packed to overflowing. We’ll have to see.

And the last but not the least thing I want to mention was an article in the same Travel Magazine about The Black Hills and Badlands of South Dakota. Sandy and I were there last June and had a wonderful time. In the article this family was there for 2 days…1 weekend….48 hours and they saw, according to the article, everything we saw in a week!

There are pictures with the article too. They even went to Crazy Horse Memorial.

Like us they used Rapid City as their base but they didn’t mention much more about the city than that. They went to Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse Memorial (We only drove by Crazy Horse) Wall Drug, The Badlands (can I assume they mean they drove the Badlands Loop?)and Custer State park. They mention seeing buffalo, antelope, big horn sheep, the Beggin’ Burros and prairie dogs…Ok I got all those with my camera too and I bet they didn’t get a prairie dog with a flower either!

Scout

But to do it all in 48 hours? I like the way we did it much better. Even if the authors think we were slow it seemed like we had full days so I wouldn’t do anything different.

Well, that about wraps up my travel thoughts for the day.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Not much to say about the spring trip until we start booking and that’s going to be soon. I’ve started exploring options for the 2012 trip but that’s still in the early, early stages..not ready for publication so I’m not sure what we’ll talk about tomorrow but I’ll think of something. Toss out some suggestions if you like. Maybe they will get my creative juices flowing. Maybe Scout has some tips up his furry sleeve.

Introducing SCOUT!

Posted on February 28, 2011February 28, 2011 by Dusty Roads

SCOUT

Scout is our Prairie Dog Mascot. If you’re new to the site he got his name in a poll of the names suggested by our readers. Scout has a function of more than being a “pretty face”. Scout reviews travel magazines, newspaper articles, travel emails and attends travel conventions like AAA Travel Marketplace coming up this Friday in Foxboro.

He also talks to fellow travelers and compiles their recommendations for reference.

Scout asks questions

If you have travel questions you can put them in the comment sections and Scout will do his best to get an answer for you. Once he has it, you’ll see a Scout’s Tips column with what he finds out.

Scout keeps alert and when he runs across a good travel tip, he will report it right here!

Scout is Alert

So stay tuned for “Scout’s Tips”. I know he’s got some coming up.

Scout

Name The Prairie Dog~The results

Posted on February 21, 2011February 21, 2011 by Dusty Roads

Editor in Chief

Well the votes are in as you know and there was a 3 way tie between Scout, Flower and Whiskers.

Our editorial panel has been considered the choices because they liked them all but after much deliberation and consideration of all your comments the final choice is………

Prairie Dog with Flower

Flower is a skunk in Bambi and Whiskers is the name of a cat food. But Scout is what a Prairie Dog does. He’s curious and “scouts” his area to watch for predators so he’s always on the alert.

SCOUT

Thank you all for participating. The suggestions were all great. I was surprised that “Scamper” didn’t make the cut because I thought that was kind of cute too but Scout it is.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.