Northeast Adventure

My youngest daughter and I flew to Portland, Maine and drove back to Kansas City this fall. Of course, it couldn’t be a true adventure without some adversity!

It was the weekend that Southwest Airlines cancelled something like 2400 flights nationwide due to resistance to a COVID vaccine mandate. All the pilots called in sick, I heard. We didn’t find this out until we were ready to land in Baltimore (our 1st stop). While landing, we received a text that they cancelled our connecting flight to Portland. While we, and hundreds of other people, scrambled through the airport trying to figure out next steps, we discovered three things:

1. Our luggage was going on to Portland. (How?)

2. No cars were available for rent. At least there’s Uber. We met some gracious people on (3) of those rides. (to the hotel, back to the airport (long story), and then to Washington, D.C.

3. Few hotel rooms were available. We finally found one and felt fortunate not to have to sleep on the airport floor like some did.

Danielle came up with the brilliant solution of not spending eight hours driving a rental car to Portland, but Uber to Washington, D.C. and fly from Ronald Reagan airport on a flight to Portland. This was still time and money not expected, but we finally arrived the next day - and even connected with our luggage. Then, we had a lost a day in Portland to look around. But we still got a Maine lobster for me to eat and sailed on the old-time Schooner the next morning.

Author Update

1. Hootin Goes Outside! is on blog tour from November 13-26th. I hope the twenty-three bloggers enjoy it and give it excellent reviews. Everyone seems to love the Bandana Acres series, so far.

2. I’m at the Mid-America Association of Christian Schools conference this week as a vendor. Christian educators from all over the mid-west are in attendance. I’m really excited about it!

3. I finally have a new focus for Emeline - Big Decisions. After writing several thousand words, those are in the trash. The overall theme will be that of 16-year-old Emeline discovering she has to be happy with herself before becoming involved with a boy. And she will learn to pick the boy who will make her the better girl. I believe teens will identify with this important topic of struggle and growth.

4. I purchased two new pieces of software: Atticus and Publish Drive. I’m creating ebooks for the four Bandana Acres books that don’t have one yet and am hoping to make them with the OpenDyslexic font for kids with dyslexia. Afterward, I will publish them through Publish Drive. They’ll be available on my website, Amazon, and other ebook sites.

Cutest unboxing ever!

I could watch this over and over all day long. :)