Debra Parmley's Blog, page 2

FB fan group Beautiful Day Dreamers: facebook.com/groups/debraparmley/

To Catch An Elf FB group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/793115644206381/

Book Bub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/debra-parmley

Poems on K0-Fi: ko-fi.com/debraparmley

Articles on Medium: medium.com/@debraparmley1

Writing Classes on Teachable: beautiful-day-dreamers.teachable.com/

Cover Model Corner blog: https://covermodelcorner.wordpress.com/

Debra’s old radio show Book Lights: http://bit.ly/BookLights

Debra’s books on Amazon: https://amzn.to/2EsbWsa

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Published on August 02, 2022 13:41

Outer Banks of North Carolina: Workamping the Summer of 2022 at Camp Hatteras

Have you been wondering why I’ve been quiet on this blog? I’d like to catch you up with where I’ve been. Last winter 2021-2022, I took a break from blogging to finish my newest novel (Montana SEAL Protector came out Feb. 2022), and then we traveled to visit family before taking jobs in May as workampers at Camp Hatteras for the summer!

Here is an aerial view of Camp Hatteras. There are 400 campsites here, with sites on both the ocean side and the sound side. We are camped on the ocean side. It’s just a short walk to the beach from our motorhome.

Oceanside Camp Hatteras, Rodanthe, NC

For some travel writers, their blog or YouTube channel is their entire job. But for me, I’ve been a published novelist and freelance author for thirteen years. My first book signing at Burkes in Memphis back in 2009 seems like ages ago and I’ve had many adventures since then. Now I’m having them in a motorhome!

In Nov. 2020, we moved into the motorhome full-time and I started this blog as a way to share my travels with friends and family. I’ve been thrilled that so many of my readers have wanted to follow along with me.

We wintered in Clewiston, Florida in the 2021-2022 season, which is sugar cane country, in the middle of FL near Lake Okeechobee. There’s not much there other than the cane fields, but that was good for writing. I wrote my seventh Brotherhood Protector book there and we took day trips to explore FL sites. I had planned to return to Wild Deadwood Reads in Deadwood, SD again this summer to sign books and spend time with readers and author friends. Then diesel prices went way up. We have a 43 ft Tiffin Allegro Bus/motorhome which is diesel, and we pull a Colorado truck which is also diesel. So we started looking for summer jobs as workampers. What, you might ask, is workamping?

Workamping is an arrangement for a period of time where you work in exchange for your RV site fees. Some jobs, such as the ones we accepted, also offer full hook-up utilities and an hourly rate. We have other perks such as cable, ice-cream at the ice-cream social, hot dog lunch on hot dog day, and a tie-dyed t-shirt on tie-dye day.

Our RV is the brown and gold motorhome behind the tree. The trees here are fascinating with the way they grow in the winds.

This summer, we’re working at Camp Hatteras, in Rodanthe, N.C. which is in the Outer Banks on Hatteras Island North Carolina. I’ve always wanted to live on the beach, and this places us five hours from our kids and grandkids, so it’s a great summer job for us. My children and grandchildren came to visit and to celebrate my 60th birthday, which was the best present I could ever have asked for.

Another aerial view of Camp Hatteras

It is beautiful here and I’m learning what it’s like to live on an island on the outer banks. Life on a sandbar is unique and I think you have to experience it to truly get it. Yes, I will set a novel here.

For now, I’m collecting information, photos and experiences for future writings. I’ve also started writing a book about our first year of full-time RV living and traveling, to share with you how we “sold it all” to begin this new lifestyle and the 109-day trip we took from Ohio to CA to see the redwoods and back to Memphis, TN. I’m only about eleven pages in but its a start. I sometimes write poems and I’m collecting the beach-themed ones into a poetry book with that theme. And of course, I’m also at work on book eight in the Brotherhood Protectors series which should be out in December. It’s common for me to have multiple book projects, generally, around thirteen or fourteen of them started at any given time. If you’re a writer and you have story ideas, you must get them written down, or like dreams, they drift away.

Back to workamping. What are these jobs like? There are workamper jobs all over the country. Each setting is different of course, and that can be part of the fun. I’ve met workampers who come back every season to work at the same place and workampers who change locations each time to see another part of the country, who enjoy that variety. For those of you who have asked, how can you afford to travel in a motorhome? Workamping is one way.

Mike and I on the beach at Camp Hatteras which is part of the Cape Hatteras National Seashore.

I’m lucky in that I can write anywhere and run my little publishing house from wherever I am. My husband started to get bored after eighteen months of being “retired.” People kept saying he was retired and he would say, “No, but I owned my own business for twenty-three years. So I’m taking a day off.” He certainly had earned it. Our 109-day trip out west took a good chunk of that eighteen months off, visiting family took another chunk, and I was on the opposite end of what he was experiencing work-wise. I got behind on writing and publishing though I did manage to get one book out in 2021, and another out in Feb. 2022. Last winter we sat still, in a more remote RV park on purpose, so I could get that Feb book done.

Now, in my new job at Camp Hatteras, I work at the front desk, evening shift, which is from 3:00 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. Mike works security, the evening shift which has similar hours that vary just a bit and he also does some maintenance. The setting at the camp is beautiful and it’s fun meeting all the travelers and the other workampers. We work weekends, so our days off fall mid-week. This is when we do our exploring of the islands and I do my research for future books. I work four days a week, one day we have off together for exploring, a second day off we do our grocery restocking and errands, and the third day is for writing and laundry. In between all that, I squeeze a little more writing in where I can as well as any other book-related business.

Sunset on the sound side Camp Hatteras, OBX

Many new things are coming, and I will post more travel blogs here, from NC as I can, so stay tuned for more beautiful days.

For more about Camp Hatteras, the only oceanfront to sound front camping in North Carolina visit: https://www.camphatteras.com/

Family-owned since 1991. Over 400 sites with concrete pads. Enjoy full hookups, the beach, sunsets on the sound side, a tennis court, indoor and outdoor pools, hot tub, shuffleboard, miniature golf, basketball, children’s playground, bike rentals, bathhouses, activities, and a fenced dog park with a washing station.

For more about Debra and her travels, check out her YouTube channel. Right now its raw videos uploaded with no editing or commentary. When she has more time she will update them.

Follow Debra’s Beautiful Day YouTube Channel: youtube.com/channel/UC27hTWse4gLJxTETQw6i7xw/

For more about Debra and her books:

Website: debraparmley.com

Newsletter sign-up: https://landing.mailerlite.com/webforms/landing/w9s9h0

FB fan group Beautiful Day Dreamers: facebook.com/groups/debraparmley/

To Catch An Elf FB group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/793115644206381/

Book Bub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/debra-parmley

Poems on K0-Fi: ko-fi.com/debraparmley

Articles on Medium: medium.com/@debraparmley1

Writing Classes on Teachable: beautiful-day-dreamers.teachable.com/

Cover Model Corner blog: https://covermodelcorner.wordpress.com/

Debra’s old radio show Book Lights: http://bit.ly/BookLights

Debra’s books on Amazon: https://amzn.to/2EsbWsa

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Published on August 02, 2022 13:41

Where Has This Beautiful Day Traveler Been? Workamping on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, Summer 2022 at Camp Hatteras

Have you been wondering why I’ve been quiet on this blog? I’d like to catch you up with where I’ve been. Last winter 2021-2022, I took a break from blogging to finish my newest novel (Montana SEAL Protector came out Feb. 2022), and then we traveled to visit family before taking jobs in May as workampers at Camp Hatteras for the summer!

Here is an aerial view of Camp Hatteras. There are 400 campsites here, with sites on both the ocean side and the sound side. We are camped on the ocean side. It’s just a short walk to the beach from our motorhome.

Oceanside Camp Hatteras, Rodanthe, NC

For some travel writers, their blog or YouTube channel is their entire job. But for me, I’ve been a published novelist and freelance author for thirteen years. My first book signing at Burkes in Memphis back in 2009 seems like ages ago and I’ve had many adventures since then. Now I’m having them in a motorhome!

In Nov. 2020, we moved into the motorhome full-time and I started this blog as a way to share my travels with friends and family. I’ve been thrilled that so many of my readers have wanted to follow along with me.

We wintered in Clewiston, Florida in the 2021-2022 season, which is sugar cane country, in the middle of FL near Lake Okeechobee. There’s not much there other than the cane fields, but that was good for writing. I wrote my seventh Brotherhood Protector book there and we took day trips to explore FL sites. I had planned to return to Wild Deadwood Reads in Deadwood, SD again this summer to sign books and spend time with readers and author friends. Then diesel prices went way up. We have a 43 ft Tiffin Allegro Bus/motorhome which is diesel, and we pull a Colorado truck which is also diesel. So we started looking for summer jobs as workampers. What, you might ask, is workamping?

Workamping is an arrangement for a period of time where you work in exchange for your RV site fees. Some jobs, such as the ones we accepted, also offer full hook-up utilities and an hourly rate. We have other perks such as cable, ice-cream at the ice-cream social, hot dog lunch on hot dog day, and a tie-dyed t-shirt on tie-dye day.

Our RV is the brown and gold motorhome behind the tree. The trees here are fascinating with the way they grow in the winds.

This summer, we’re working at Camp Hatteras, in Rodanthe, N.C. which is in the Outer Banks on Hatteras Island North Carolina. I’ve always wanted to live on the beach, and this places us five hours from our kids and grandkids, so it’s a great summer job for us. My children and grandchildren came to visit and to celebrate my 60th birthday, which was the best present I could ever have asked for.

Another aerial view of Camp Hatteras

It is beautiful here and I’m learning what it’s like to live on an island on the outer banks. Life on a sandbar is unique and I think you have to experience it to truly get it. Yes, I will set a novel here.

For now, I’m collecting information, photos and experiences for future writings. I’ve also started writing a book about our first year of full-time RV living and traveling, to share with you how we “sold it all” to begin this new lifestyle and the 109-day trip we took from Ohio to CA to see the redwoods and back to Memphis, TN. I’m only about eleven pages in but its a start. I sometimes write poems and I’m collecting the beach-themed ones into a poetry book with that theme. And of course, I’m also at work on book eight in the Brotherhood Protectors series which should be out in December. It’s common for me to have multiple book projects, generally, around thirteen or fourteen of them started at any given time. If you’re a writer and you have story ideas, you must get them written down, or like dreams, they drift away.

Back to workamping. What are these jobs like? There are workamper jobs all over the country. Each setting is different of course, and that can be part of the fun. I’ve met workampers who come back every season to work at the same place and workampers who change locations each time to see another part of the country, who enjoy that variety. For those of you who have asked, how can you afford to travel in a motorhome? Workamping is one way.

Mike and I on the beach at Camp Hatteras which is part of the Cape Hatteras National Seashore.

I’m lucky in that I can write anywhere and run my little publishing house from wherever I am. My husband started to get bored after eighteen months of being “retired.” People kept saying he was retired and he would say, “No, but I owned my own business for twenty-three years. So I’m taking a day off.” He certainly had earned it. Our 109-day trip out west took a good chunk of that eighteen months off, visiting family took another chunk, and I was on the opposite end of what he was experiencing work-wise. I got behind on writing and publishing though I did manage to get one book out in 2021, and another out in Feb. 2022. Last winter we sat still, in a more remote RV park on purpose, so I could get that Feb book done.

Now, in my new job at Camp Hatteras, I work at the front desk, evening shift, which is from 3:00 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. Mike works security, the evening shift which has similar hours that vary just a bit and he also does some maintenance. The setting at the camp is beautiful and it’s fun meeting all the travelers and the other workampers. We work weekends, so our days off fall mid-week. This is when we do our exploring of the islands and I do my research for future books. I work four days a week, one day we have off together for exploring, a second day off we do our grocery restocking and errands, and the third day is for writing and laundry. In between all that, I squeeze a little more writing in where I can as well as any other book-related business.

Sunset on the sound side Camp Hatteras, OBX

Many new things are coming, and I will post more travel blogs here, from NC as I can, so stay tuned for more beautiful days.

For more about Camp Hatteras, the only oceanfront to sound front camping in North Carolina visit: https://www.camphatteras.com/

Family-owned since 1991. Over 400 sites with concrete pads. Enjoy full hookups, the beach, sunsets on the sound side, a tennis court, indoor and outdoor pools, hot tub, shuffleboard, miniature golf, basketball, children’s playground, bike rentals, bathhouses, activities, and a fenced dog park with a washing station.

For more about Debra and her travels, check out her YouTube channel. Right now its raw videos uploaded with no editing or commentary. When she has more time she will update them.

Follow Debra’s Beautiful Day YouTube Channel: youtube.com/channel/UC27hTWse4gLJxTETQw6i7xw/

For more about Debra and her books:

Website: debraparmley.com

Newsletter sign-up: https://landing.mailerlite.com/webforms/landing/w9s9h0

FB fan group Beautiful Day Dreamers: facebook.com/groups/debraparmley/

To Catch An Elf FB group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/793115644206381/

Book Bub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/debra-parmley

Poems on K0-Fi: ko-fi.com/debraparmley

Articles on Medium: medium.com/@debraparmley1

Writing Classes on Teachable: beautiful-day-dreamers.teachable.com/

Cover Model Corner blog: https://covermodelcorner.wordpress.com/

Debra’s old radio show Book Lights: http://bit.ly/BookLights

Debra’s books on Amazon: https://amzn.to/2EsbWsa

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Published on August 02, 2022 13:41

Deadwood, South Dakota: Brothel Tour

On June 17th, 2021, the authors at Wild Deadwood Reads met in the morning for a private tour of the Brothel in Deadwood, South Dakota. I was excited about this tour as I love history and had never toured a brothel before. We were to meet at 610 Main Street at 10:00 a.m. and were told to look for the green door. My husband took this picture before we went in. You can see my excitement. What could be behind the door?

Through the green door and then to the red stairs and you know you are in the right place for the Deadwood brothel tour. I was very curious to what we would find inside and looked forward to hearing the history and the stories.

After you climb the stairs, there is this sign.

Seen on a sign as you enter the brothel – “This building, located at 610 Main Street, was built in 1902-1903. The main floor was home to an auto parts store, an electronics repair shop, an assay office, an art supply store, and several bars.

Residential apartments were located on the second floor. By the 1930s, it was a boarding house, and local newspapers reported several arrests for ‘dry law’ violations and keeping a “house of nuisance.” Some resourceful residents even hid a stash of liquor behind a sliding wooden panel built into one of the walls.

By the late 1930s, legitimate boarders had all moved out, creating an opportunity for not – so – legitimate boarders to move in. It was then that the brothel known as the “Shasta Rooms” was born. Over the next 50 years its name would change to the “Beige Door,” and the sleazy little place would see more action than an episode of Game of Thrones.”

Here is the common room where the ladies would offer the men refreshments and music before heading to the bedroom. There is artwork throughout the building, paintings of nude women which I cannot show on this blog as it is for the general public, all ages. You will have to visit the brothel museum yourself and take a tour to see those.

The peacock above the piano was just one of the exotic sights here.

The first bedroom, below, depicts what a soiled dove’s bedroom would have looked like in a brothel in the 1900s. There is a washstand in the corner, a chamber pot, a brass bed, and a quilt. A typical dress is spread across the bed.

There are many names for soiled doves that have been used throughout the years. Words are my thing, so I will list them for you here: Courtesan, Demimonde, Soiled Dove, Painted Ladies, Madam, Whores, Working Girls, Upstairs Girl, Call Girl, Prostitute, Street Walker, Hooker, and Sex Workers.

“The Bad Lands district, located on Deadwood’s lower Main Street, was where every sordid form of vice found a home – gambling halls, brothels, saloons, opium dens, and rowdy theaters. Infamous characters such as Calamity Jane, Wild Bill Hickok, Colorado Charlie Utter, and others frequented its many establishments. The Bad Lands was the proverbial line in the sand, separating the heavens from the haloed. Scores of establishments that occupied this devil’s playground, “drew their support from many ‘so-called leading citizens’ and so prospered financially and were let alone by the city authorities.” Sometimes the line got blurred.” – Deadwood the Golden Years – Watson Parker

This bedroom shows what the lady of the evenings’ room would have looked like during the 1920s and 1930s.

With each room we moved from one era to another, getting an idea of how the rooms would have been furnished and what life was like for the women during each era. Not just a history museum of this particular brothel, the tour also tells the history of brothels in Deadwood. You will notice the pictures become more and more modern as you read this blog.

Fancy chairs for the men to wait on in the front room.

The madam’s office, where she conducted business meetings. Notice the dresser as there will be a close-up picture next.

Each of her ladies had a slot where they would place the money they earned.

Famous madams of the brothels.

There ends our brothel tour. There are many pictures and signs explaining things throughout the tour, a movie to watch, and a tour guide to share the stories and bring the tour to life. I recommend this tour if you are able to visit Deadwood, S.D.

I’m excited to be taking part in a new anthology we will be offering for sale at Wild Deadwood Reads this year. The title of the anthology is Once Upon a Time in Deadwood. I’m writing a story with co-author Robert Arrow and this one will be different from my other stories because it’s time travel. Our hero will be traveling back in time to Deadwood during its wild west days. This anthology is a fundraiser for the Shiloh Horse Rescue and it will be available for sale in June 2022.

Remember, “Every day we are alive is a beautiful day.” – Debra Parmley, Your Beautiful Day Traveler

To be sure not to miss any of my travel and RV living posts be sure to subscribe to: beautifuldaytraveler.wordpress.com/

And my videos can be seen at Debra’s Beautiful Day YouTube Channel: youtube.com/channel/UC27hTWse4gLJxTETQw6i7xw/

To see the route we have taken on our Go West adventure as well as a list of the RV parks we stayed in, visit this page https://wordpress.com/post/beautifuldaytraveler.wordpress.com/1976

My other links:

Website: debraparmley.com

Newsletter sign up: https://landing.mailerlite.com/webforms/landing/w9s9h0

FB fan group Beautiful Day Dreamers: facebook.com/groups/debraparmley/

To Catch An Elf FB group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/793115644206381/

Book Bub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/debra-parmley

Poems on K0-Fi: ko-fi.com/debraparmley

Articles on Medium: medium.com/@debraparmley1

Writing Classes on Teachable: beautiful-day-dreamers.teachable.com/

Cover Model Corner blog: https://covermodelcorner.wordpress.com/

Debra’s old radio show Book Lights: http://bit.ly/BookLights

Debra’s books on Amazon: https://amzn.to/2EsbWsa