Hot Books For A Hot Summer

Most of the month of June has been unseasonably hot and humid. All-in-all, the kind of days where I don't want to stray very far from the air conditioned comfort of home. Thank goodness my office is in my house. :)

I think this hot weather deserves some HOT books, so I thought I'd revise one of my blogs from last summer that seemed appropriate.

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The weather isn't the only thing contributing to the hot days of summer. There's also the blazing SUMMER SIZZLE of a California beach town and the sultry heat found on FORBIDDEN ISLAND, a privately owned Caribbean retreat. These two books are incendiary enough to burn up the pages while making you reach for the we need to cool things down setting on the air conditioner.

The Romance Studio gave SUMMER SIZZLE 5 Hearts and had this to say: "Unlike many romances now where the story is a set of sex scenes loosely connected by fleeting emotion or inane dialogue, Ms. Gentry has crafted a rich tale that makes the reader care about these two characters in a memorable way. The characters are fully realized and come to life in a story that was impossible to put down. The story was well thought out, the plotting spot on, and the dialogue was refreshingly realistic. Because I was so emotionally engaged as the reader, the sexual scenes meant something and were perfect for this story. This is the first story I've read by this author but it definitely won't be the last. Ms. Gentry is an extraordinary voice in today's romance market. Check her out today!"

Do opposites really attract? And if they do, can it lead to something real rather than a momentary connection based on nothing more than a hot physical attraction?

Vicki Templeton and Blake Callahan seem to be about as opposite as two people can be. She's compulsively organized, every hour of her day planned out in advance. All her efforts go toward building a financially secure future for herself by working hard and sacrificing today's fun for tomorrow's security. Blake, on the other hand, has learned a painful and emotionally devastating lesson about today versus tomorrow. His experience has taught him that no one is guaranteed a tomorrow so living for today is what's important.

Regimented work schedule versus spontaneous spur-of-the-moment fun. So what happens when these two totally mismatched people each claim to have a legal rental agreement for the same beach bungalow? While Blake plays havoc with her neatly ordered life, Vicki has him thinking beyond today and speculating about the possibility of what tomorrow can bring.

Can two people who don't agree on much of anything except the scorching hot physical relationship that nearly bursts into flame whenever they come into physical proximity manage to cohabitate for the duration of the summer? Can each discover the pieces missing from their respective lives? Can the heat of the day match the SUMMER SIZZLE pulling them together?

SUMMER SIZZLE is available from Cobblestone Press.   http://www.cobblestone-press.com/


And to continue with our HOT weather selections, maybe I can tempt you with some sultry tropical breezes on FORBIDDEN ISLAND.

Romance Junkies gave FORBIDDEN ISLAND 4.5 Blue Ribbons and had this to say: "Chantal and Murphy’s scorching hot romance is only intensified by the exotic location. Despite there being ten years since they last saw each other there’s an undeniable connection between these characters and they certainly don’t waste any time making up for all the years they’ve been apart. FORBIDDEN ISLAND brings to mind all those fantasies about a romantic encounter with someone special in your own private paradise."

Have you ever met someone in passing and immediately knew you wanted to rip off his clothes and drag him to the nearest bedroom? No commitment. No concern about tomorrow. Someone you couldn't get out of your mind regardless of how much you tried?

That is Chantal Stevens' problem. All it took was an introduction and a businesslike handshake for her to know Murphy Abbott was that someone. But nothing came of their meeting. He was polite and charming, but seemed in a hurry to leave. She was mesmerized. But that's all the further it went. For the next ten years she continued to ask herself what if until she knew she had to do whatever it took to find the answer to that question, something that would allow her to satisfy her curiosity. Could any man really be as incredible a lover or have as much stamina as her fantasies had attributed to Murphy?

So Chantal devised a plan—a deception that would get her an invitation to Forbidden Island so she could meet face-to-face with Murphy at his private enclave in the Caribbean and answer once and for all that elusive question…what if?

But to Chantal's surprise, when she arrives at Murphy's island she discovers she's not the only one who has played the mental what if game during the last ten years. Murphy has his own thoughts about what the weekend will bring.

FORBIDDEN ISLAND is part of the Destination Pleasure series of short story quick reads from The Wilder Roses, the Scarlet Rose line of erotic romance from The Wild Rose Press.  http://www.thewilderroses.com/


I hope I've caught your interest and you'll pick up these two HOT reads. Check my website for excerpts from these two books, as well as my other current releases.   http://www.samanthagentry.com/

What You Can Steal From Your Hotel Room—Guilt Free

Lots of jokes abound about the things people feel compelled to steal from hotel rooms when they check out. There's even the unconfirmed tales of people changing their name to correspond with their newly acquired monogrammed bed and bath linens.

There are items in your hotel room that the hotel is happy to have you take—free souvenirs, mementos of your trip, a keepsake from a special occasion.  And then there are the items that at the least can result in a hefty additional charge on your credit card and possibly even something as serious as criminal charges.

Pens and Pencils: Stationery, pens, pencils, and the postcards in the room are yours to take. Every time you use them, it's free advertising for the hotel.

Towels and Linens: Towels are not yours for the taking, but they are the top item to disappear from hotel rooms. Holiday Inn alone estimated that they lost 560,000 towels in one year. But to also take the bed linens? Just how big does your suitcase need to be to have that much extra room in it?

Lotions and bathroom items: All those little bottles of shampoo, hair conditioner, body lotion, and soaps are there for you to use and take with you whether they've been opened or not. They're the perfect travel size and take up very little room, not to mention that they're sized to meet the airline 3 oz. rule.

Laundry Bags: We've all helped ourselves to the plastic laundry bags in hotel rooms to use for dirty clothes or that damp swim suit. No problem there. However, if the hotel uses cloth or canvas bags, you can expect to see a charge on your bill if you take it with you when you check out.

Docks and Clocks: It's safe to assume that a room's clock radio and iPod dock system are not there for you to take home with you. Boston's Onyx Hotel takes a simple approach. "You can take anything you want from the room, but we'll charge your credit card for replacement."

Robes, Slippers, and Umbrellas: It can occasionally be confusing, but most hotels will bill you if that luxurius robe goes missing. Some hotels will provide package rates that include such items as monogrammed robes, slippers, branded totes, books, and even bottles of premium liquor. But beware, those "complimentary" items can come at a steep price as some of the package rates can be as much as twice the regular room rate.

Gideon Bibles: Bibles have been a long time amenity in hotel rooms. Even though they are slowly being edged out, Gideon International still places more than ten million copies in hotel rooms annually to replace those that are taken. They claim they're happy, in this case, to have people break the eighth commandment about stealing.

There have been lots of strange items taken from hotels over the years. The following are some true tales.

A woman from San Jose, California, took the "C" from the coat check sign in San Francisco's Fairmont Hotel and was pursued through the hotel by men in blazers shouting, "Madam, the 'C'…give us the 'C!'"

A Geneva lawyer admits being caught by a receptionist of a Hamburg hotel while trying to make off with "an entire display of apples in a rather large fruit bowl from the hotel lobby."

A huge piece of blown glass by Dale Chihuly was once stolen from a table in the lobby of The Alexis in Seattle, Washington.

Bill Babis of 70 Park Avenue said the most outrageous things stolen from the chic hotel were the thermostats.

So the next time you're tempted to slip a little keepsake from the hotel into your suitcase you might want to ask yourself if it's really a freebie or if you'll end up paying more for it than if you had bought it at a store.

Unusual Uses For Digital Cameras

To correspond with my June Jubilee participation at Coffee Time Romance http://www.coffeetimeromance.com/board/forumdisplay.php?f=1112

and in particular my notes at the Photography topic of the Special Interests section of their forums http://www.coffeetimeromance.com/board/forumdisplay.php?f=1437

I want to continue with that photography theme here...sort of.

I came across a list of unusual uses for digital cameras that I'd like to share with you this week.  In a pinch, you can use your digital camera for the following:

1) Flashlight: Turn on your digital camera and the screen makes a decent light source if you're suddenly trapped in the dark and need to find your way out.

2) Insurance Record Backup: Take pictures, including close-ups, of individual items. With your digital camera, you'll know immediately if you have a viable picture that will identify the item in case of theft or as proof of ownership in case of disaster such as fire. Be sure to keep copies of the pictures some place other than your house so they won't be destroyed should that disaster hit.

3) Mini License Plate: Take a picture of your vehicle license plate, print it and trim to fit in your wallet or purse. You'll never need to make a trip back to your car to check the license number when registering at a motel

4) Passport and Business Card Photos: Take your own photos to use. It's free!

5) Clip Art: Be your own stock photo source. Take your own pictures to use in presentations, blogs, and many other uses. The picture at the top of this blog is one I took of my digital camera using my other digital camera about five minutes before I posted this here.

6) House Buying/Renting: It's hard to keep track of all the details and keep them straight when you tour several properties. Which property had that terrific kitchen pantry and which one had the fireplace in the master bedroom suite? If you take a picture of the house from the street following by a room-by-room tour of the interior, you'll be able to keep it straight.

7) In A Car Crash: You'll definitely want pictures from all angles of all vehicles involved including the vehicle license plates to back up your insurance claim and protect yourself from bogus claims.

8) Foreign Travel: You don't speak the language and aren't sure how to pronounce the name of that hotel or the name of the street. Take a picture of the front of the hotel with the sign showing the name, and a picture of the street sign. You'll be able to turn on your camera and show the picture on the screen to your cab driver or wherever you're asking for directions.

Now, I know what you're thinking. You can do all of that with your cell phone which you always have with you and you might not have a digital camera in your possession at the time. Well…you're right! Whether the digital camera is part of your cell phone or a stand alone item, it's still the immediacy of the digital world.

The Internet Will Fail--and 8 other predictions that didn't come true

That bold prediction was made by astronomer Clifford Stoll. He was quoted in a 1995 Newsweek story, "The truth is, no online database will replace your daily newspaper, no CD-ROM can take the place of a competent teacher, and no computer network will change the way government works."

Here we are, fifteen years later, and the newspaper industry is dying, people can earn college degrees online from accredited universities, and we can easily find information on anyone who has ever had their fifteen minutes of fame.

Lots of people make predictions, many of whom are considered experts in their field. And you have well-known prognosticators such as Nostradamus. Five hundred years later people are still referring to his predictions and debating the validity of the interpretations of his quatrains. And much more recently, there's the twentieth century offerings of Edgar Casey, among others.

Here's a list of eight bold predictions that failed miserably.


1) "Using Twitter for literate communication is about as likely as firing up a CB radio and hearing some guy recite 'The Iliad.'" – Science fiction writer and journalist Bruce Sterling.

Despite criticism, Twitter has proven itself to many thanks to its roles in breaking news and helping organize massive protests in Iran.

2) "For the most part, the portable computer is a dream machine for the few…on the whole, people don't want to lug a computer with them to the beach or on a train to while away hours they would rather spend reading the sports or business section of the newspaper." – Founder of early computer magazine ROM, Erik Sandberg-Diment as reported by the New York Times in 1985.

And today people are using portable computer devices at the beach and on a train to while away hours, many of whom are checking on sports scores and the stock market.

3) "There's no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share. No chance." – Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft.

Obviously, not everyone agreed with Steve Jobs' vision about the device that has become a cultural icon in a few short years.

4) "We don't like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out." – Decca Recording Co., rejecting the Beatles in 1962. And Dick Rowe, the Decca recording executive who made that fateful prediction, went on to say, "The Beatles have no future in show business."

And as they say, the rest is history! The Beatles went on to release nineteen albums in seven years and sold approximately 140 million copies and I don't even want to guess how many singles. To give Dick Rowe credit for learning from his mistakes, he did sign the Rolling Stones and Van Morrison.

5) "TV will never be a serious competitor for radio because people must sit and keep their eyes glued on a screen; the average American family hasn't time for it." – author unknown, quoted in The New York Times in 1939.

It's very easy to take cheap shots at television, especially with some of the truly low-brow programming that's out there. We've been told television rots our brains and turns our children on to sex and violence. But to consider it a fad that will fade away? And to add another television prediction: "I will believe in the 500-channel world only when I see it." – Viacom and CBS Chairman Sumner Redstone in a 1994 speech to the National Press Club.

6) "The wireless music box has no imaginable commercial value. Who would pay for a message sent to nobody in particular?" – RCA response to David Sarnoff's pitch for investment in radio.

RCA rebuffed Sarnoff's vision in the 1920s, and he went on to found NBC and became one of the most influential executives in radio and television in a career that spanned fifty years. After a few years, RCA did finally get it and jumped on the band wagon.

7) "The abdomen, the chest, and the brain will forever be shut from the intrusion of the wise and humane surgeon." – Sir John Eric Ericksen, British surgeon, appointed Surgeon-Extraordinary to Queen Victoria in 1873.

We've come a long way, baby. Today heart surgery, organ transplant, and neurosurgery are common occurrences.

8) "Printed books will never be the equivalent of handwritten codices, especially since printed books are often deficient in spelling and appearance." – 15th century monk, Trithemius, wrote in his treatise "In Praise Of Copying"

And aren't we all glad his prediction fell flat? Printed books, and now eReaders (see item #2) are certainly an integral part of our world.


Have any of you come across any predictions that totally and completely bombed?

Ten Things We Can't Do Without

I recently saw two lists, each claiming to be the top ten things we can't do without. While the two lists had several items in common, they weren't identical. That got me thinking. There are some things that are very obvious and others that are so much a part of our day-to-day activity that we don't think about them as being essential to our daily lives. Of course, when that item is suddenly not available, its impact becomes glaringly important.

Almost in no particular order here are ten items (without the first item most everything else becomes a non-issue) that we feel we can't do without.

1) Electricity: From that almost all else flows. Without that wall plug-in receptacle that we totally take for granted, all our gadgets would be useless. They would simply sit there collecting dust. What's that you say? Your laptop computer runs on battery? Your cell phone runs on battery? You have a battery operated television? Well, unless they run on solar power, those rechargeable batteries need to be recharged on a regular basis. Do you remember the last time a major storm knocked out all power for days? I do. And since I have an all electric kitchen, I couldn't even boil water for instant coffee. That was a rude shock! And, of course, the refrigerator and freezer were no longer functional.

2) Plumbing/Flush Toilets: No explanation necessary here. :)

And now that the two primary candidates are out of the way, let's talk about specifics.

3) Air Conditioning (and heating): Office buildings, hotels, restaurants, stores, private residences, even our vehicles…we can't imagine them without air conditioning and heating so we can be comfortable in all seasons.

4) Computers: Needless to say, our computers are an integral part of life. Whether you're always on the go with your laptop or stay at home with your desktop, computers are a major factor in our lives. And not only our personal computers. Look around you…everywhere you go and almost everything you do is somehow computer controlled or computer generated…even the monthly bill for the electricity.

5) High Speed Internet: Closely aligned with number four is the need to be able to access and use the internet as quickly as possible. Waiting for a large download that seems to be moving at a snail's pace is way too frustrating.

6) Cell Phone: I am not addicted to my cell phone. I don't need to have it in my hand at all times, require hands free operation for my car because I'm not capable of driving to the grocery store without checking for text messages, tweets, or updates during the ten minutes it takes me to drive there. However, even on the most basic level a cell phone has become a necessity. The pay phone seems to be something rapidly disappearing from the American landscape. Even at airports where you used to be able to find a long row of pay phones as soon as you got off a plane, that's no longer the reality. Maybe a couple of pay phones, but even those usually require phone cards rather than actual money.  We no longer need to make sure we always have coins for a phone call if we have an emergency.

7) Television: Yep, whether we use it for entertainment or news and other informational areas, we all have them and can't seem to do without them. There's something both sad and funny about surfing through fifty channels and complaining that there's nothing on. And if the cable goes out…well, enough said.

8) Automatic garage door opener: One of those many things you take for granted because it's always there. Hmmm…I think we just segued back to electricity. There you are, in your car with the rain pouring down and 60mph winds. You're wearing your best clothes because you've just come from the society event of the decade and now you need to get out of your car to unlock and manually open the garage door. Or, everything is covered in ice and snow and you're thanking the deity of your choice that you made it home safely…but now you need to walk on that ice to get your garage door open.

9) Automobiles: In some places more than others. There are certainly places where one can live without the need for a car because the public transportation is excellent. Some places where owning a car is a disadvantage due to the expense of needing a place to park it. Certainly New York City (or more specifically, Manhattan) comes to mind. But for most of us, an automobile is an absolute necessity in order to get to and from our job, go to the grocery store, and other required chores.

10) I think I'm going to declare this slot as a tie between remote controls and coffee: We definitely have become a society too lazy to get out of the chair to change the channel on the television. And that's only one of many remote controls. Even on our key ring we have the remote door lock/unlock and trunk open for our car. And coffee…it's obviously big business when there are shops whose only product is coffee. I can't speak for anyone else, but I have a small four cup coffee maker in my office so that I don't need to go to the kitchen to make coffee first thing in the morning when I turn on my computer and access my high speed internet while reaching for the remote control to turn on television to watch the morning news…well, as you can see, I'm back at electricity again. :)

Honorable Mention: I felt compelled to include chocolate and wine.  :)

What modern convenience is an absolute must have for you?

Most Unexpected Flight Delays

Anyone who flies, even if it's infrequently, has experienced flight delays for one reason or another. It could be weather related at the airport where you are or perhaps at the airport where your plane is coming from which prevents the aircraft from arriving at your airport. It could be mechanical problems with the plane. Or simply more flights taking off and landing than your airport can handle. Or a myriad of other minor inconveniences that delay your departure.

It's very frustrating when you've arrived at the airport the requisite two hours before departure, waited in the long line to get through security, had a personal possession confiscated by the TSA agent even though it was not on their list of disallowed items. And you finally arrive at your gate only to find that your flight has been delayed. Maybe for half an hour maybe for three hours.

But what about those truly unexpected flight delays? Those strange occurrences so far out of the realm of normal that they defy description. I recently saw a list of ten wackiest—and scariest—flight delays that I'd like to share with you.

10) Bug Bungle: Florida has the reputation for being a state that's home to many different type of creepy, crawly things. An American Airlines flight from Miami to Washington, D.C., in March 2010 was delayed due to a cockroach infestation in the cabin. Specifically on the curtain between first class and the cockpit.

9) Turtle Love: In July 2009, something far less predictable than flight congestion at JFK airport caused a delay. Seventy-eight amorous diamondback terrapins from nearby Jamaica Bay made their way across the runway looking for a place to breed. They were rounded up and trucked by to Jamaica Bay.

8) Toilet Trouble: Some passengers aboard a Biman Bangladesh Airlines flight scheduled from Dhaka to London in August 2009 decided to test the toilet system on the plane by flushing all kinds of things including bottles and cups in the five toilets. The clogged toilets were cleared in two hours, but more than two hundred passengers had to wait an additional eight hours for takeoff due to a night flight ban at London's Heathrow airport.

7) Catfish Conundrum: Catfish, it seems, are able to use their pectoral fins to go for a temporary stroll on land. In August 2008, a Delta Airlines flight was denied landing permission in Florida due to the presence of four walking catfish on the runway, along with two gopher tortoises, a blue indigo snake and an alligator. The plane had to circle until the herd was rounded up and relocated to a nearby pond.

6) Flight Attendants: In February 2010, Two female flight attendants on a Delta Connection flight from Rochester to Atlanta were removed from duty after a fight between them resulted in a flight delay. The passengers had to deplane and take other flights to reach their destination.

5) Over-Ambitious Employee: Bomb threats are a scary reality, but in December 2009 American Airlines received a very unusual phoned bomb threat. A secretary in Miami was concerned that her boss, who was running late, would miss his flight to Honduras. So, rather than booking him on a later flight, she emailed the airport saying a bomb had been planted. While the aircraft and the luggage was being searched, she was traced via her IP address to her office where she was arrested.

4) Rabbits Doing Their Thing: In June 2007, passengers at the airport in Milan, Italy, weren't prepared for the problems caused by an excessive number of mating rabbits. Problems so severe that they halted takeoffs and landings for a few hours until they were rounded up and taken to a wildlife preserve.

3) Forgetful Passenger: At JFK airport in September 2008, an American Airlines flight returned to the gate after it had taxied about forty-five minutes and was just about to take off. It seems that one of the passengers realized he had left his laptop computer in the terminal. He was freaking out, wouldn't listen to the flight attendants, and refused to sit down. He was taken off the plane and the flight was delayed even longer so his luggage could be located and removed from the plane.

2) Gold Fever: In Canada, hockey is a very serious endeavor. During the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, passengers were watching Canada and the U.S. play for the gold medal on airport televisions. They ignored repeated announcements and pleas from gate agents to board their flight t Montreal thus causing a flight delay.

1) MIA Baby Pythons: It sounds like something from a horror movie. In April 2009, a Quantas airplane missed two scheduled flights after it was discovered that four baby pythons were unaccounted for following a flight from Alice Springs to Melbourne. The plane was fumigated and returned to service, but that didn't necessarily ease the minds of many passengers since the snakes were never found.

What's the longest you've ever been stuck on a delayed flight? I was on an American Airlines flight scheduled to depart at 6:30am from Burbank, California, for Dallas where I had a connection departing Dallas at 12:30 that afternoon. We sat on the tarmac at Burbank more than four hours due to mechanical problems which caused me to miss my connection in Dallas and also the next available connection in Dallas three hours later (missed that one by five minutes) and then the last connection of the day was grounded in Dallas because of fog at my destination so I had to stay overnight in Dallas and catch the first flight at 9:30 the next morning. Not a fun travel day.

America's Greatest Train Rides

Train travel in Europe is very commonplace. Whenever I travel to the UK, I always buy a Brit Rail pass before I go and use it for traveling all over Britain—day trips out of London and longer trips such as to Scotland and Wales.

And here in the U.S., with more and more restrictions and inconveniences put on airplane passengers and airlines constantly adding fees and surcharges on top of the ticket price, train travel has had quite a resurgence. Warren Buffett recently made a $44 billion investment in a railroad company. And with gasoline prices on the rise again (just in time for summer vacation), not surprisingly, the last two years have been the best in Amtrak's history. With the increased amount of time you need to arrive at the airport prior to departure, the reduced number of flights which creates longer wait time when you need to change planes for a connection, even a short flight takes a lot longer than it used to.

The Travel Channel on cable television has a couple of episodes about scenic train travel in America.  One show is about a luxury train tour of several of our National Parks.

One of the nation's best rides is Amtrak's Southwest Chief that goes from Chicago to Los Angeles and gives the traveler a way to relive America's expansion west from the 1800s. The train trip lasts a little over forty hours, traveling through Illinois, Missouri, Kansas and the famous wild west town of Dodge City. From there it continues into Colorado and New Mexico. Then across northern Arizona with the availability of a side trip to the Grand Canyon. And finally into downtown Los Angeles' Union Station.

With only a few exceptions, this ride is on the same tracks that were once the Santa Fe Railway which was built along the old Santa Fe wagon train trail, a route that also inspired the famous highway of the days before Interstates criss-crossed the country—Route 66.

Here are five more great rail journeys.  Many of the stops along the route offer the availability of getting off the train to check out local tourist attractions.

The West Coast's Coast Starlight is considered by most travelers to be Amtrak's most scenic route. It runs along the Pacific Ocean between Los Angeles, California, and Seattle, Washington, traveling through some truly spectacular scenery.

From California, the classic route east is the California Zephyr, following the path of the first transcontinental railway between San Francisco to Chicago. It visits such places as Sacramento, Reno, Salt Lake City, across the Rockies to Denver, through Nebraska and Iowa to Chicago.

By taking the Southwest Chief in one direction and returning on the California Zephyr, you are traveling what the Gilded Age tourists in the 1880s and 1890s called the Grand Tour of America.

If you want a ride that goes through the heart of the country, try the Texas Eagle starting in Chicago. It crosses the Mississippi River at St. Louis, travels down through the Ozarks, across Arkansas into eastern Texas, and continues through Dallas, Fort Worth, Austin, and to San Antonio where it connects with the Sunset Limited to Los Angeles.

Because of daily commuter traffic, the East Coast relies much more on rail service than the rest of the country, especially the heavily used tracks between Boston and Washington, D.C.

One of the country's first scenic rail routes is the Empire Service from New York City up through the Hudson River Valley where Washington Irving's Ichabod Crane encountered the Headless Horseman of Sleepy Hallow.

And if you're on the East Coast and are heading to Florida, you can take the Auto Train where your car travels with you. Passengers board just south of Washington, D.C. and their vehicles are loaded on the train. The trip terminates just outside Orlando, Florida.

But maybe you're not planning a vacation by train, but would like the train experience. There are lots of day trips and even two or three hour tours in various parts of the country, including vintage steam and narrow gauge railroads. My personal favorite is the Napa Valley Wine Train in California, which includes winery stops. And Alaska Railway's White Pass & Yukon Route offers a three hour tour through some truly dramatic scenery.

Have any of you taken a train vacation? A day trip train tour?

Over the last few decades, train travel in the United States went into serious decline while air travel increased its dominance.  But with the dramatic resurgence of train travel in the last two years, you might want to check with your travel agency or on the internet and see what type of vacation railroad travel packages are available.

Next Sunday, May 23, is one week before Memorial Day weekend which is the traditional start of the summer vacation season. That will be my last post in this series of Getting Ready For Summer Vacation blogs. I'll be talking about flying.