SunChaser

Dear Travelogue,

Chin-Chin! Cheers to starting my very first blog! In this post I welcome myself back to travel as well as reminisce on blogging, ALL of the places I’ve lived thus far, and what type of snowbird I will become.

While…

sitting on my tropical bamboo couch with my feet up, the movie Julie & Julia (circa 2009) comes to mind. I have made Julia Child’s beef bourguignon recipe, try it! Remember the days of the early blog-o-sphere? Remember MySpace? Xanga? Computer keyboards clacketing and clicketing as witty quips grow then pop overhead. Personal journal-ism became the new gold rush. [insert future ad space income here ;)]

I can share that I have never really been an early adopter (…leading edge, yes). And what more proof do I need as publish my very first blog post in 2023, 14 years after we saw the blog craze portrayed in the societal mirror-meme we call Hollywood.

Back to me on my couch…it’s September and I am moving next month. I’m starting this travel adventure blog, taking my consulting business on the road, flying south for the winter (which makes me some WONDERFUL type of bird; I’ll have to think about which one…).

You’re invited to come along as I explore new lands as an American Snowbird and reflect on my previous travels.

To give you an idea of the flow of my life, here’s a lil list in enjambment form:

Moved from the farm in Onamia
to the house by the lake on the gravel road

Then from the house on Mille Lacs Lake to
the Holly street house on Gregory Park
5 years old to 18 years old

Then from b-town to the dorms
UW-Madison campus

Then from sharing a room
to the top floor apartment on State Street
with my friend-to-this-day “K”
Remember our fire-escape balcony?

Then from Madison’s infamous State Street to my friend J’s house
in Rockford, Illinois home of the 20th century Capone Mafia
so much drama

Then got hitched and moved into a gorgeous Bungalow on Prospect Street
all of my passwords back then included “Prospect”
We had all the music stuff in the basement including our rotating Leslie speaker

Then from Illinois back to Minnesota because my mother was terminally ill
Being
Closer

Then Charlotte Isle happened
A Portal
A Crossroads
We restored an old farm house
wrote music
played south-by for the first time
and learned how to smoke old Uncle Adolph’s tobacco pipes
beside my copper firepit

Then started touring North America and Europe more frequently

Then from Charlotte Isle to Chicago
Logan Square
My widowed father came for the holidays
We all tried binge watching our grief away with Parks & Rec.
(Laughter is good medicine, but not grief’s only medicine)
(crying in hot yoga highly recommended)

Then from Logan Square to Lake Nokomis
Got to know my grandfather better
He loved Roy Orbison

Then from Nokomis to 224 Emerald
All along the Watch Tower of Prospect Park
(My life is full of Prospects)

Then flew to Viet Nam with Walter (my nickname for Walt Whitman [link to future blog post here]
Then into the E-Tech Apartments which were above the offices of an elevator company which felt lucky considering there were no stairs

Then the Swedish guy’s beachside building with the western beds
(as opposed to hard mattresses near or on the ground)
Then my beloved 220 at the Mango Pine

Then back to The States
Landing at Jean’s farm in Luck, Wisconsin
Sat on a lounging horse [need to find that photo]
Stayed with my folks in Baxter for a few months

Then to Mound, MN where the Andrew Sisters summered
Then to West Bloomington with a heated pool and garage
Then I became a resident of South Dakota

Come October I am nomadic once again