PIPER REED TOUR, DAYS 5-8, IF IT'S MONDAY IT MUST BE TAMPA

After a lovely last day in Orlando(Thanks, Zenaida Rollins of Carillon Elementary and Barbara Willow of Wicklow Elementary), I drove over to Tampa. My GPS, Beatrice (Yes, she's Beatrice, not Bertha,) helped me avoid some traffic jams. Her warning: "Heavy traffic ahead, recalculating. Exit at ...."

Now when I first heard Beatrice do this in New Orleans, I ignored her. After all, I was familiar with the Big Easy. I thought there was a hiccup in the system. I can't tell you how many times she wanted me to exit. When I finally decided to amuse myself and follow her suggestion, I was amazed at how smart the little device was. She guided me onto the service road and back to I-10. I must have saved twenty minutes alone. So now I listen. And that's when I named her Beatrice.

My husband joined me in Tampa for a couple of days. After my Barnes and Noble event (Thank you, CRM Beth Gaffney,) Jerry and I drove around Tampa. Tampa is the kind of city that makes you think of summer vacation even in October. Yesterday we went to Ybor City, a community created from the cigar factory business. At the Visitor's Center we learned that the factory workers hired a reader to read to them as they worked. (The picture above shows a reader, sitting above the workers as he reads.) The employees were some of the most educated factory workers because all day they heard newspapers, magazines, and novels. Now that is what I call a job perk!

Today I visited Carrollwood Elementary (Thanks, Kimberly Davis) and St. John Greek Orthodox Day School (Thanks, Cynthia Strickland.) The students were bright and enthusiastic. This morning two boys came up to me after my presentation and asked me a similar question--"How do you get unstuck when you don't know what else to write?" Now I love questions like this! Because of time, I had to give them a short answer, suggesting that they dig into that wonderful imagination and ask themselves "What if?"

How do you get unstuck?