Memorable Summer Adventures
Join me for a cup of coffee and some reminiscing about memorable summer adventures.
July 4th, 1976 as the United States celebrated the bicentennial, we boarded a plane for a trip to England and Ireland.
Young, naïve, and with our 18-month-old daughter, we thought we could do England and Ireland on $20 a day. At least that’s what the book we read said. It should have been a clue when an hour into the flight, the attendant accidentally dropped an ice cube on our sleeping baby. She woke up screaming and I’m not sure she slept for the rest of the trip. I know I didn’t.
Once we landed at Heathrow, jetlagged with an even more jetlagged baby, we discovered the agent had booked us into a hotel that didn't exist. That was clue number two that this would be a memorable trip. When we found lodging it was more expensive than the promised $20 a day. Clue number three—we ran out of money the first week. These were the days before credit cards. Travelers used traveler’s checks and we were down to our last one before we’d even visited Buckingham Palace. It took two fraught days of waiting for our bank to wire money because Western Union was on strike.
We were saved from total breakdown by a friendly B and B provider in Ireland who offered her teenage daughter to babysit so we could take a bus tour of Galway. The driver took us to a pub and drank a lot and had little to say about the countryside except the hospital was new. We didn’t care.
We survived, marriage intact and daughter intact. We haven’t been back but if we go, we will not rely on a book about cheap vacations. We will have our credit cards, an itinerary and rooms booked. Enough of trying to be a free spirit. (There’s a murder plot in here somewhere.)
Deceased in the Dumpster
My short story “A Deceased in the Dumpster” is featured in the August edition of Mystery Magazine. This story grew out of two things: First, an article in the newspaper about a local man asking permission to put a body in the neighbor’s dumpster. (Who said criminals were smart?) Second, my daughter gave me a book by Mandy O’Brien and Dionna Ford entitled, Homemade Cleaners: Quick-and-Easy Toxic-Free Recipes. Thus was born my investigator who runs “Greta’s Green Clean.” It was fun to marry the organic cleaners with the story line. You can check it out at: https://amzn.to/3Yhxv3w
Death of a Fox is getting excellent reviews. Thank you for all the stars and keep them coming!
Until next time, enjoy a cup of coffee and a good read!
— Linda
