I like to explore and tell descriptive stories about places. I also make jewelry, music and mixed-media art.
“Down in the Virginia mountains, On U.S. fifty-two, There is a long old mountain That truckers blood does stain. Four miles from top to bottom, That trailer brakes will burn, Many curves ahead, They call it Fancy Gap.” From “Ballad of Fancy Gap” by Jim Marshall of Hillsville,VA Some of my first memories are riding […]
Read More Ballads of Fancy GapYears have passed…life got busy, a pandemic came, and I stopped traveling for a while. For 2022, a goal of mine has been to travel again and tell stories of the land, if only to a quiet section of my current state. Little is hidden forever, and much can be recovered, including this blog.. So […]
Read More New River Valley calm, old mining towns, and a return to writingMarch 14-17, 2018 From a cold blustery sunrise at Amarillo travel center and the cycle of truck stops to the forested hills of the Ozarks, i try to make it across the midsection of the land in one day. Friends in Arkansas have invited me to visit and stay, and if i get there tonight […]
Read More Another cross country drive 2 – Oklahoma into Eureka Springs ArkansasTravel dates: April 24-5, 2017 Thanks to TAP Portugal airline, i have an overnight layover in Lisbon and can enjoy a bit of this awesome city on the way back to the USA. The plane from Barcelona arrives around sunset. From the airport it’s two trains on the metro to station Mãrques de Pombal and […]
Read More Lisboa in 1 day (not enough!)Dates of travel – April 18-24, 2017 The train whips through rolling fields of red flowers on the 2 hour ride south to Barcelona, gradually filling with passengers as we approach the metro area. I sit in euphoria from the experiences of the past few days, scanning the hills for more dolmen we may pass. […]
Read More Barcelona for 7 daysAfter a fun final night in Marseille with my host and fellow traveler but on three hours of sleep, I depart this beloved Mediterranean city toward Spain with no fixed plans until Figueres on Saturday. My preferred next stop is Avignon, and a ride offer comes by my fellow couchsurfer and her fiancé. They have […]
Read More Crossing the south of France – Avignon, Nîmes, Montpellier, and the Via DomitiaWhen i wake, the first light of the sun passes through a gap in the range of rolling hills. Green fields with creeks and oak groves become slowly visible. The isilines bus stops near Montelimar, at an oak-lined rest area, and the air feels cool yet dry. I had slept deeply. Around 11 am, the […]
Read More Marseille – Mediterranean gritty euphoriaParis is an awesome city, and of all its great places, nowhere was a day more well spent than cemetery Père Lachaise, la grande ville des morts. From the metro stop I accidentally walked into the Jardin Samuel de Champlain, on the cemetery’s east side, enchanted by a statue on the outside wall…a woman, arms […]
Read More Cemetery Père Lachaise – A realm beyond Paris/ a day with the greatsOn the last day of my tour in Belgium, my cousin planned a visit with a relative who lives in Spa. Until this trip, I thought of a spa as a high-society healing center, refined and removed from nature. Now i understand it is a town of mineral springs, acid fountains, in the Ardennes forest […]
Read More Ceci n’est pas un Spa – Spa, BelgiumAn hour or so west from Brussels by road lies Ghent, important and prosperous medieval market city and now university town with historic center. There are several places here I wanted to visit, and these would consume most of a day. Being flat land and closer to the North sea, this area has a changeable, […]
Read More Ghent/Gent, Belgium – torture and trade inspire gothic arts
arianna's creative travels 