Prisoner of Hopes

Category: Hardships

  • Random Stop at the Chandler Museum: Rural Road Trips

    A random stop turns into a profound learning experience as we face history and our current national condition

  • Dove of the Desert: Rural Road Trips

    In the Arizona desert just South of Tucson is the Mission San Xavier del Bac, known as the “White Dove of the Desert. This historic 18th-century Spanish Catholic mission located on the Tohono O’odham Nation reservation was built between 1783-1797. It is the oldest intact European structure in Arizona and a National Historic Landmark. Many…

  • Jerome: Rural Road Trips Arizona

    Jerome is a little city with a big past and tenacious residents. It is built on a steep hillside. Some might call it a mountain. It once was the center of a mining empire. Today it is best known as a ghost town. There are only dozens of people who call it home. I drive…

  • Thor’d: Rural Road Trips

    We bought a brand new Thor motor coach and I am thrilled with the lay out. No one tells you however about the problems that comes when you buy a new rig. So many moving parts that need to be tested and tightened. Our first weekend, we noticed our WiFi booster wasn’t working. Then the…

  • The Canyon Remembered: Rural Road Trip

    We are standing in Palo Duro Canyon. A roadrunner follows us around the parking lot. He assumes an assertive stance on the red dirt hill just off the sidewalk and challenges us to follow along the trail to the river. Of course I tag along. He is cute and I love to hike. It is…

  • On The Road Again: Rural Road Trips

    As we head out on another adventure, I am oddly ambivalent. I don’t feel ill, but I also am not myself. Usually I am giddy with excitement. Today, I could just as easily go back inside and hide under a blanket. But grand adventures aren’t for the timid. So we load up, hook up the…

  • Revolutionary Countess: Travel Goals Ireland

    We visit Lissadell house on a warm summer afternoon. The family home of the Gore-Booths, Lissadell sits outside of Sligo, Ireland. It is now owned and lived in by Irish attorneys who allow tours to offset the upkeep. The estate had a great location with both Ben Bulben and Knocknarea mountains in view as well…

  • Feast or famine

    Inequities. The rich get richer and the poor get the scraps. Until the chasm gets so wide the system collapses. It is a tale as old as time. People get richer and over time they lose sight of the labor and infrastructure that supports them. They want more for themselves and take more from those…

  • Arigna: Travel Goals

    We arrive at the Arigna mine without preconceived ideas. It is something to do while staying in County Leitrim, Ireland. The woman at check in shows us to an area where we see a brief film that explains the history of the mine which was shut down in the 1990’s. We look at photos and…

  • Country Roads: Travel Goals

    Detours are what you make of them. My husband has a no back track rule. He doesn’t like out and back journeys. I don’t know why. In his view, we can go out of our way as long as it leads to somewhere we haven’t already been. I, on the other hand, am paradoxical. I…