FALLING FOR THE STRANGER - Gold Country Book 3 – is coming!

Happy March, my friends! It’s looking like a busy one for us: Paul’s final appointment with his knee doctor, Daylight Saving Time, St. Patrick’s Day, and, most importantly for me, our son’s birthday.

I’d hoped to have Andi’s book—FALLING FOR THE STRANGER—ready for release on April 1, but given the issues I had with Amazon’s delay of Book 2, I decided to do a longer pre-order to give myself a cushion. New release date: May 2, 2022. I’ll have pre-order links for you in my next newsletter.

Besides, it’s almost spring—one of my favorites and, sadly, shortest seasons. I love to be outside.

Plus, we have a wedding coming up next month! My Mother-of-the-Groom dress should be arriving any day. (Is it me or has the fun completely gone out of shopping in brick-and-mortar stores? I couldn’t find a thing in six stores, so I ordered three festive dresses online. This one is for the post-wedding brunch.)

Southwest Travels, Part 2:
The road to Joshua Tree National Park

We left Phoenix on I-10 headed west toward Quartzite—a location made famous in the movie, Nomadland. I read somewhere that more than 750,000 RVers populate this little crossroads town every January.

My photo’s not great, but it was hard to capture the full scope of this venue since campers were spread out in every direction. I did particularly like this “house” boat. 😉

We pulled in for gas and added about 40 minutes to our trip—that’s how busy and haphazard the fueling station was. Definitely not our favorite spot.

A few miles later, we entered California and turned north to follow the Colorado River to another crossroads. Sadly, the river drive didn’t live up to the image I’d pictured in my mind. A river in a desert doesn’t change the fact you’re in a desert.

The next stretch of road was eye-opening, too. We lunched on the remains of an old wayfarers’ stop. Paul wanted to take the sign with us. This is where we turned west on Highway 62. For many miles we paralleled the railroad. Its raised bed provided miles and miles of blank canvas for a new kind of graffiti made of rocks, old lumber, branches, bottles, etc... I’d never seen anything like it. Frankly, I like it a lot better than spray paint.

For a while, we started to think the road had turned into a treadmill. It felt like we were moving but not going anywhere. The map told us we were right beside the northwest edge of the park, but there wasn’t a single Joshua tree in sight.

Until, finally, we reached the park’s western entrance at Twenty-Nine Palms and, twenty miles later, the road to the park’s main entrance at the little town of Joshua Tree. To say we were underwhelmed by the campsite I’d booked online would be a gross understatement. (A mattress in the dumpster across from our spot might be a clue.)

Happily, the next day, Jon-Paul got permission from his AirBnB for us to park there, instead. We not only had a view, Paul got to use his new solar panels! We couldn’t have been happier.

This is when the fun—and our appreciation of this unique area—began.

To be continued…

Wishing you a wonderful St. Patrick’s Day, my friends. I’ll try to share a snippet from Book 3 next time.

Happy reading. Pray for Ukraine.

Deb

Twin update: the girls had their first bath. Their nurses love them; they are in such good hands. (True story: My first nurse was rocking me in the hospital nursery and smoking a cigarette at the same time. Ash from her cigarette dropped on my neck. I still have the scar. This was long before suing people became popular, but my mother says she raised enough of a ruckus that the woman got fired. I’m so glad times have changed.😉)

Upcoming Thursday – 3/24: Falling For The Stranger snippet and preorder links; Joshua Tree National Park photo highlights!