Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Back to Gulf Shores



What fun!

I am taking another little vacation back to Gulf Shores, Alabama.  My sisters will be joining me in the evening on Thursday.  I decided to come out the day before them so I could open the condo up, make sure everything was working, get some food in the fridge and run up the road and meet up with Dust Bunny Hostage :)  I'm going to see her in about 11 hours from right now.  I'm excited.



The drive over was so easy.  I had a book on CD - I can't remember the name of it... lets see if I can Google it and get a name.  Yep!  I sure can.  The book is called "Time is a River" by Mary Alice Monroe.  Honestly, I have to say, that this book is probably furthest from any book I would have chosen, but it was one of the only unabridged books in the Cracker Barrel CD book rack.  I rarely get an audio book that's abridged.  The story moves along far too quickly and I find that what gets cut out of the story is the vision!  and on this stretch of Interstate 10 that is long and straight and flat, I need to be able to have a vision of something else.  




On the authors website, a USA Today article gave a real good synopsis of the book, below.
"Mia is the main character in Monroe's new novel, Time Is a River (Pocket Books, $25), the tale of a 38-year-old breast cancer survivor who, after finding her husband in bed with another woman, heads to the mountains of North Carolina to find herself. Little does she know she'll also find herself knee-deep in water, fly-fishing."
If you know me at all, you know that I'm not a water person - so a book about fly fishing is pretty far off my path.   I usually try to stay away from survival stories like this one because I live and breathe the transplant community and would like a break from it at times.   I had a feeling, though, this was going to be a bit different.  I was right.  I am completely in love with this book.  I may just have to read (on my Kindle of course!) one or two of her other books.  The audio book is read by the author, so that's fun and interesting to be able to actually hear the voice of the person who penned the book. 



The photos I've posted are all from the trip down I-10.  There was a 10 mile stretch or so where the wildflowers were just spectacular.  I didn't have an easy point and shoot camera so I just held up my big one and just clicked without looking through the viewfinder.  I couldn't stop the car, so I did the next best thing.  When I got to a rest area, I checked the photos.  I took a lot of pictures of the tops of the trees - but I did manage to get a few shots of the wildflowers through my dusty windows.  Ahh, this is talent folks!  I didn't even edit them since I don't think editing would improve them.  I do like them though because they show the wildflowers that were so pretty.

I hope that some sunshine has been able to creep into your week.  I have a very sunburned arm from my drive today.  I have tinted windows, but I guess it didn't help at all. I have a real doozy of a farmers tan now!!  I'll have one of my sisters take a picture of it - it's pretty funny looking.

Have a wonderful delightful day!
Kristin

I just had to include this photo - it's one of the mistakes, but how interesting that I caught the sideview mirror and the trees in the mirror.  Very odd.

6 comments:

Keetha Broyles said...

I never buy an audio book - - - I just simply check them out from the library. I LOVE having a book to listen too - - - Fisherhubby, not so much.

Kristin - The Goat said...

I don't buy the audio books either - I rent them Cracker Barrel for $3 or $4 for a week. Usually I'm traveling longer than the library allows for the rental - but shoot, this time I would have been well within the time limit.

I only listen to audio books when I'm alone in the car. I don't know if Tom would like them or not, but I have a very strong feeling he wouldn't like them at all.

qandlequeen said...

I'm sure someone would take issue with driving and taking pictures, but I've been doing it for years. And you get some really unique shots. I've done it several different ways from balancing the camera on my dashboard and click (great for long straight parts of the road) to sitting it on my left arm for a little balance and blindly snapping several shots hoping for at least one good one (not very effective, usually blurry)

Debby@Just Breathe said...

The book sounds interesting. What a great idea when you are traveling alone. Have a great time seeing Jennifer. Enjoy you time with your sisters too!

Anonymous said...

that last shot - the mistake is funny .. i need to look up and figure out the difference between abridged and unabridged .. you lost me there. I have never rented a book on tape but I think that may be a great idea the next time i'm driving far.

Leigh of Tales from Bloggeritaville said...

LOVE ALabama!
Love a road trip.
And a good book!!! Enjoy your trip!