I Have Returned

Yes, I managed to enjoy my vacation! There were a few flight delays that made the travel portion of it stressful. Once we got there, it was all worth it.

We went to the Grand Canyon, if I hadn’t mentioned that. It was incredible. This national park is world famous, and I think everyone must have seen pictures. To be there in person was so much more. The scale of the place is hard to describe. You stand at the edge and it’s so far down. So far across. It extends both left and right as far as you can see.

There are layers of those colorful rocks — yellow/white on top, then blazing crimson, then a strange gray/green, and this craggy black stone at the very bottom. You see these eroded bluffs, but there’s another layer beyond, and then another and another. So many layers! Even the wind has a different sound in the vast gulf of the canyon.

We also had half a day of layover in Las Vegas. That was mind-boggling in a different way. The huge hotels were covered in lights, and there were these fabulous giant sculptures of tropical plants, Egyptian temples and Roman colosseums. My husband dragged me up and down in the heat, not going anywhere particular, until I set my feet and demanded ice cream.

I kept thinking that if I put something like the Grand Canyon or the Las Vegas Strip into a book, it would be mocked as overly dramatic. And yet, the real world goes beyond what any author could invent.

I didn’t get a whole lot of writing done. It was too far off my usual routine. But I did take my notebook along, and I came home with a few pages of scattered ideas. Something will come of it, I’m sure.

Eventually.

Have you read one of my books? Then it would be great for you to leave a review! Meanwhile, if you’d like to learn more about me and my work, check out my web site, Facebook, Instagram and/or Twitter.

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