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My mom sends me messages through Cardinal birds
Some people will think this is crazy, just a string of coincidental occurrences that I’ve bent into having larger-than-life significance. Others will understand, probably because something similar has happened to them. I think seeing a Cardinal bird is a sign from my mom that she is still with me spiritually even though she died in 2006. Not every Cardinal, just the ones that talk to me. KIDDING. I’m not that kind of crazy…yet. Here’s why I connect Cardinal sightings and my mom: First of all, my mom was a lifelong St. Louis Cardinals fan and loved birds, especially hummingbirds and redbirds. FYI: while she was in the hospital trying to…
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Trip pix: The Oz Museum in Wamego, Kansas
I’ve lived in Kansas for 18 years now {oh my god what I have done to myself} and in my frequent travels I’ve heard a gazillion Dorothy comments or questions about tornados. The Wizard of Oz and killer weather: these have to be the two things that come to mind most often when I tell someone I live in Kansas. {Notice that I say I live in Kanas, I’m from Missouri. There’s a difference!} Honestly, the Dorothy and Toto stuff can easily become cheesy so when I heard some 10 years ago about a new museum dedicated to Oz, I was skeptical. This is a cheese-free museum, people! Seriously, it’s…
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Tripping: an experiment with Hotel Tonight & Hotwire for discount hotel rooms
Lee and I were early adopters when Priceline came out in the late 1990s with the name-your-own-price concept for booking a hotel room, so we’d been not-so-patiently waiting for a chance to try the one of the newer discount options, Hotel Tonight. In fact, more than a few times we played vacation from our couch in Doodah, Kansas – selecting a city from the list of offerings on the Hotel Tonight app on our phones to see what our options would be if we were there and in need of a room. If you’re not familiar with Hotel Tonight, here’s how it works: it’s only available through a free app…
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2013 Final Four: lessons learned on buying tickets for big games
This is the second of a two-part guest post from Lee about our amazing road trip to follow one of our favorite teams to the NCAA Championship … something neither of us were sure would happen in our lifetime! Read his first post if you missed it. ~~~~ Yes, I was disappointed when Wichita State lost to Louisville in the 2013 NCAA national championship semifinal but the ride had been more than I ever expected. Five months of all the ups and downs with the Shockers can be frustrating but when they made it to the Final Four I had to go. When your team finally makes it to a…
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2013 Final Four: a tale of two road trips
This is the first of a two-part guest post from Lee about our amazing road trip to follow one of our favorite teams to the NCAA Championship … something neither of us were sure would happen in our lifetime! ~~~~ The road trip to Los Angeles was 25 hours – and I had seriously considered making the drive to watch the Wichita State Shockers in the NCAA’s Western Regional. So when the Shockers won that regional and advanced to the Final Four, I had no qualms about driving 15 hours to Atlanta. I’ve always enjoyed driving and we would have enough time to break it up and not drive all…