Tag: Travel

Posted in Local or Hometown Travel, Texas Hill Country Travel, Travel

Traveling the Texas Hill Country to New Braunfels: Animal World and Snake Farm Zoo

Posted on by Rhonda Wiley-Jones

KEEPING UP WITH OLD FRIENDS – NOT THE SNAKE

Do we keep up with old friends? Do we take time to see them? Do we wait sometimes until it’s too late? Often I’m not good at staying in touch; my husband is. Mayo Clinic states “friendships enrich your life and improve your health.” So, NOW, is the best time to visit old friends.

Maryann lost her husband Larry, and my husband’s long-time friend, suddenly last year. She invited us to come see her and provided her community’s guest apartment for our convenience.

So Lynn and I left town to explore more of the Texas Hill Country and visit Maryann for 3 days and nights. We traveled to New Braunfels with Murphy, our Shih Tzu. She lives in an over-55 community with her two Lasa Apsos, Cassidy and Sundance.

LOCAL FLORA AND FAUNA

As I walked Murphy when we arrived, I noticed a bird’s nest. In fact, I discovered over the three days a row of seven elm trees, three of which had nesting mourning doves. They must be used to lots of commotion, because they are tending their eggs just feet from the pool and walking path.

Two things I love about this bird: 1) the cooing sound, which is mournful but relaxing to me; and 2) the birds mate for life, devoted to the end. This dove observed me with a black eye hiding behind a leaf. Look for the head and beak at “9:00 to 10:00” in the photo.

THE ANIMAL WORLD AND SNAKE FARM ZOO

After my online research, I knew what I wanted to experience first. The Animal World and Snake Farm Zoo. Admission fee was $16-$20/person. Extra for the petting zoo feed pellets (goats, lama, free-range chickens and peacocks/peafowl) and another charge for lettuce to feed the camels.

THE PETTING ZOO

I dusted the walking path with pellets. Chicken, peacocks, and birds followed. When I entered the petting zoo and toured the animal selection I counted about 20 goats, a single buck-toothed lama, a miniature cow and horse. A single worker was filing the hoofs of a goat. She offered no warning.

When I scattered pellet the goats surrounded and pinned my knees and shins in place. If I’d been claustrophobic, I would have panicked. Instead I laughed at my predicament and looked at Maryann. “What am I to do?” “Wait,” she said laughing at me. She enjoyed the show so much, she didn’t think to capture my dilemma on camera.

When they mobbed me, I spilled the rest of the pellets, landing on their backs. They had their faces and mouths to the ground. I tried moving forward the force of the goats that held me in place. Ironically, I found I could back up and finally moved out of that herd of feeding goats. This article on the affection of goats may explain some of this behavior.

A mother entered the petting zoon with a 2 or 3 year old. I gave her the warning, I wish someone would have given me. “Your little boy will be engulfed. It’s scary.” She retreated with her son.

THE SNAKE FARM

I’m fascinated by snakes as long as they are behind glass. These snakes were from all over the world, as well as right here in Texas. Snakes are known for their camouflage abilities. That is apparent in these photos, except for the Green Tree Python, but in its original habitat, I’m sure its bright green works well.


The lizard below was quite the entertainer, dancing his way into everyone’s heart.

FEEDING THE CAMELS

Young girls purchased lettuce to feed the herbivores. The camels proved friendly when offered the leafy morsels, so the girls had an up close encounter petting the dromedaries.

The single-humped, hoofed mammal hails from Arabia. They eat grass, grains, oats and wheat in their desert environment. They store fat in their humps to serve as reserved energy and water when sources are scarce. They can go for a week without water.

NAP TIME
The sun climbed higher and the heat soared. While some animals were retiring for a nap, monkeys cleaned each other, mountain lions paced, pumas – one white, one spotted stood panting, and a male/female pair of magnificent lions napped on a big stone.

We left hot, thirsty, and tired. It was time for my nap with the wildest of animals–my Murphy.

If you like to travel and you’re reading this post, you may enjoy my coming-of-age, travel memoir, At Home in the World: Travel Stories of Growing Up and Growing Away. Or if you are more interested in historical fiction, check out my novel, Song of Herself.
Posted in adventure, Daily travel meditations, Rolf Potts, Travel Writers, Travel Writing

The Vagabond’s Way by Rolf Potts

Posted on by Rhonda Wiley-Jones

I don’t typically review books on my blog, but this is an exception. I studied travel writing with Rolf Potts through the Santa Fe Workshops in San Miguel de Allende in 2017. I learned a lot from him as he shared his vagabonding days and how to find a good story and then how to craft it into a finely honed travel story.

Potts latest book, The Vagabond’s Way: 366 Meditations on Wanderlust, Discover, and the Art of Travel. He had the pandemic-imposed two years to write this book, while landlocked in Kansas, his home.

The book offers his philosophy on travel, his encouragement to engage the world beyond our own backyard, rather than escape to our fenced or gated communities.

… travel is as much a way of being as it is an act of movement. — Rolf Potts

Potts organizes his book in themes that vaguely follow the hero’s journey: the chance to travel, the decision to take off, the preparation to make one’s way into the world, the experiences of awe and obstacles on the road, overcoming those unexpected obstacles, returning home with a new and extended sense of self.

I haven’t completed the book, of course, because the year has just started, but the sage guidance to encounter the world as we go by being open to our senses, to other people, to ourselves (no demanding advice to do it this way or that way) is his gentle way of sharing his own experience.

What makes our stomach churn with anxiety? What sends gleeful joy pulsing through our bodies? What unexpectedly delights our owns sense of self? These are the questions we should ask ourselves as we sojourn.

But I have started reading for January and already found much to mull, chew on, and consider for future travels. He quotes other writers on each day. Potts pulls from the writing of others to convey his thoughts about travel–from ancients such as Rilke and Seneca to modern-day philosophers such as Ryan Holiday and Maya Angelo. And then he slips in his own mighty perspective of how important travel is to the world and to ourselves.

Indeed, one of the reasons travel can lead to a sense of awakening is that leaving our home habits allows us to see things with eyes undimmed by familiarity. — Rolf Potts

Find a copy of the book to indulge your own need for wanderlust and adventure. When we discover the metaphors of travel and life, we often see they are inseparable. I’m sure you will enjoy Pott’s book.

Let me know what is one of your favorite travel books, recent or ancient.

My Debut Novel, Song of Herself

To read my debut novel, Song of Herself, an epic adventure to India by an Iowa horsewoman, click here.

Please, please, when done with the book, go to Amazon, BookBub, Goodreads, or your favorite reading app to leave a review of the book. I appreciate every assessment of the book for you the reader. It helps know if they are interested in the book. Thanks so very much!!!

Posted in adventure, Travel, Travel Writing

Let Travel Be Your Teacher

Posted on by Rhonda Wiley-Jones

Study abroad experiences stretch college students’ horizons; mission trips help church teens see a world different from their own. We expect young people to learn from travel, but do we anticipate the same from ourselves when we travel?

We often say, “Yes,” but fail to do what it takes to make it happen. We may be a tourist, pilgrim, or adventurer. It doesn’t matter. Anyone can let travel be their teacher by setting an intention before leaving, paying attention to that intention, and seizing surprises along the way. When we capture our experiences in a journal, we can reflect on the insights gained. That’s where the learning takes place.

The only things that interest me are people and ideas. I love going on trips that shock me, where everything I believe in my religion, my politics, my social outlook is immediately challenged with diametrically different viewpoints. (Arthur Frommer)

Objection

A frequent objection is one misses travel experiences, while journaling. Early morning or late evening can offer quiet time to write. Or you can convert hours of transportation to useful writing. Using simple methods that don’t take much time is another answer.

Themes for your travel

A purposeful method of journaling is to choose a theme for the trip. You might select to focus on architecture, then create questions that go beyond the obvious.

  • What are traditional and contemporary construction methods and materials used? Why these?
  • What topographic, geological, or historical factors affected building structure design?
  • How are/were homes different from ours and for what reasons?
Journal when you have down-time.

These inquiries set in motion intentional travel that culminates in paying attention more closely while roaming the world. We experience the trip more deeply, and as a result, discover richer insights.

Choose from simple journaling techniques

  1. Categorize differences between the culture you’re visiting and your own
  2. Write about the most influential part of your day; recall one significant conversation, historical fact, or memorable event – not everything
  3. Create a “3D” table: Date, Destination, Discovery (what you learned in twenty-five words or less)
  4. Identify the 3E’s of daily travel: Event, Emotion, and what to Explore next
  5. Each day draft a short poem about something particular or a haiku (a 17-syllable poem)
  6. Ask others travelers to record memorable moments from their day in your journal
  7. List new foreign vocabulary words and their meaning
  8. Describe trees and plants, birds or animals new to you  

Artistic Journaling

Try artistic approaches. Collect items like tickets, coffee sleeves, or maps to paste into your journal—like a collage. Sketch a scene, a historical building, or unique road sign. Ask children you meet along the way draw or color in your journal. Create a mind map of the day’s activities.

Journaling Supplies

People, who journal, choose supplies to fit their personality and the circumstances of their trip. Do you prefer a ballpoint or gel pen, colored markers or pencils? Do you like a sketchpad, a spiral bound notebook with lines and a pretty cover, or a classic leather-bound journal? Will you be at the beach or in a rain forest? Waterproof paper and pencils are available; otherwise, a Ziploc bag will protect your supplies.

Mindful, intentional journal writing allows travel to serve as guide, mentor, and teacher.

Posted in Travel, Travel Writing, Women traveling

Travel Back in Time

Posted on by Rhonda Wiley-Jones

On vacation last month we traveled to visit friends in Wisconsin we had not seen in many years. As we followed the Wisconsin highway and turned onto a two-lane county road, then to the unpaved road into the forested overhang of our friend’s retreat home on Lake Michigan, we knew we were almost there. As it is with old friends, we fell into old habits of eating, drinking, story telling, reminiscing, filling our glasses again and catching up on the years in between. 

A TRIP DOWN ANOTHER MEMORY LANE

But I must interrupt our current good time to walk the dog, Murphy, who travelled with us. So he and I trekked back up the long driveway to our friend’s house and I was transported to the Scottish Highlands, particularly the Isle of Skye.

I had visited the isle decades ago, where eight other tourists and I missed the last ferry of the day for the mainland. We ended up spending a night at the inconvenience of locals who found lodging for each of us, couples, singles (like myself traveling alone), and singles traveling together.

We spent a riotous dinner together laughing about how we had become so entranced by the island that we simply forgot to catch the ferry. At least I was not alone. 

The road Murphy and I walked that day took me back in time to why I missed the ferry. In wandering the lush undergrowth that was so mysterious then, I decided–just knew in my bones–that elves had to exist on that island.

Did they call them pixies, sprites, fairies, leprechauns (no, that would be Irish)? 

I could not see them, but I just knew (without really knowing) they could see me. They were watching my every move. And here again in this forest near the shores of Lake Michigan in Wisconsin I could feel their presence then and there again. 

I WONDERED 

Were they observing me from the turn of the underside of a fern? 

How small were they and how many were there? 

 

Did they sit and twitter with each other about how funny we look and sound? 

Could they leap from leaf to leaf to get a better view of us? 

 

And did they listen from the creases of a tree?

Could they hide in the center of a flower, seeing us without being seen?

TRAVELING BACK IN TIME

I will never know the answers, but I will remember that unexpected overnight stay on the Isle of Skye. And then how my time in Wisconsin took me back, just as our drive had taken us back in time to visit old friends. What joys!

A TRAVELER’S QUESTION

When you travel what kind of alertness do take with you to explore even the mundane? 

 

 

 

Rhonda's Debut Novel
Posted in fiction, Historical Fiction, Travel, Women's Fiction

Debut Novel Coming Soon

Posted on by Rhonda Wiley-Jones

Book Description: Song of Herself

Fiona Weston, an Iowa horsewoman in trousers, sails to India in 1906 to discover her journey is not the quest for which she had yearned, nor the escape from those who ridicule her unconventional ways.

Her uncle offers Fiona and her brother a chance for adventure, to sell the quarter horses to the British Indian army to breed with their Manipuri for polo. The San Francisco earthquake takes the life of her brother. Jacob, the shipping agent, hired to handle the horses, sale and quarantine, works alongside Fiona. Confined below deck to her quarters by the captain, the adventure of sailing evades her, but an attraction with Jacob smolders.

In India everything she encounters rubs against previous experiences. Her host and mentor, Ameera, introduces her to religions, castes, British Imperialism, and the ways of men and women. Fiona will choose between two men: the engaging shipping agent, and an intellectually intriguing missionary who needs a wife. More importantly, she will choose herself above all others.

In Song of Herself, Fiona experiences a journey fraught with obstacles that creates a sturdy sense of self in which she learns to accept irreconcilable differences and still sing her song of self.   

Pre-Order Info Coming Soon