Kathleen Walls's Blog, page 6

Following Freedom’s Trail

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Today, I’m going to paste my schedule in to show you what we are doing here.

Of the places we visited yesterday, the Arabia Museum impressed me the most. All of them were interesting and a vital part of history but the hands on do it ourselves attitude of, Dave, our guide and one of the owner of the museum, won top exhibit for me. He and his family actually excavated the steam ship Arabia, set up the museum and are still working the exhibits consisting of one of the largest catches of 19th centu

And Now The Finale

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John Percy from Niagara, NY Travel Board spoke  there and enjoyed it immensely. Wrote a piece partially based on my visit to Elmira, NY on the post trip and previous visits to Andersonville, GA. Elmira was the worst of the Confe3derate prison camps and Andersonville was the worst Union prison during the Civil War. Also wrote a piece about the night life in Niagara.

Joanne Ve

TMS Moves Onward

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Wednesday, this is the first full day of Travel Media Showcase. We started off with breakfast at 8 in the convention hall at the Hyatt. It was really good, or else I was really hungry. Both I think. At 9 the convention began.  My first meeting was with Huntsville in booth 201, 13 fast minutes where Charles, the Huntsville rep, both discussed what I would like to see in Huntsville and why I should visit.

Before we got nearly through, the bell rang, two minute warning to head for the next appointm

Arrival at Travel Media Showcase

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The trip was a bit hectic. On the second leg of the flight, from Atlanta to Kansas City, I discovered that there were some other TMS people on board. We arrived in Kansas City late after a slightly bumpy plane trip. We could not land in Kansas City as there was a thunderstorm in progress so we diverted to St. Louis and refueled then returned. This time we landed.

Naturally, my luggage was one of the last off the plane. A TMS rep was waiting for us and got us safely on the shuttle to the Hyatt Re

The Heart and Soul of Travel Writing

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Today, I am headed for the airport and Travel Media Showcase. I thought this might be a good point to discuss what makes travel writing different from any other kind of writing.

Now matter how far you roam; successful travel writing is governed by what you carry within your soul not what you see with your eyes when you visit a place. If you are not searching for your own past, you cannot translate the beauty of white soaring columns of a Greek Revival mansion in the South to mere words on paper.

The Life of a Travel Writer

Hard as it is to leave Martin, Romeo and the cats on their own, I’m hitting the road for six days. Martin needs to keep his own website, www.cajuntreasures.com,  updated, handle any promotion and/or orders ( if we get lucky) for Wild About Florida, and most important, feed all the animals.  Tomorrow I’m off to Kansas City, Mo. Not to see the wizard. Hopefully my arrival won’t have anything to do with a tornado although Gustav may hit my birth city of New Orleans and Hanna may decide to hit my pr

Marine Science Center

<!--[if gte mso 9:]> Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 <![endif:]--><!--[if gte mso 9:]> <![endif:]--><!--[if !mso:]>--> <!--[endif:]-->A few days ago, we visited the Marine Science Center in Ponce Inlet, located in Volusia County, Florida. It only opened in 2002 and expanded to include the bird sanctuary in 2004. We had not been there before so this would be all new information for our book, Wild About Florida: Central Florida. We arrived at the Center just in time to join guide, Shari from West Virginia, as she led us on a tour of the Mary Keller Seabird Rehabilitation Center. She was joined in the tour by her feathered fri

Marineland’s Blond Dolphin

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I seem to have gotten into a circle of rare white animals in the past few days. Two days ago, it was white alligators at Alligator Farm Today we visited Marineland and spent the day watching dauphins and people play together. It is a toss up as to who had the most fun. Then we had the chance to see another unique pale creature.

Marineland is a truly unique place. It is possibly the only city in the country where the animals outnumber the people. It has a human population of eight and a dolphin