Travel Thursdays...I went on Vacation

I went to Bristol. Yep. You all know my love of racing and my love of trucks. I got to put the both together.

The photos are of the track and it's small, but it's fun to watch the cars/trucks/modifieds beat and bang on the racing surface. I have to say I got some great ideas while I was there. I did a bunch of research and saw some good racing.

Saw some crappy racing, too. Wrecks are fun, but when they are in a long line, many in a row, then it's not so fun. Tony Stewart tossed a helment after he did a synchronized spin with Matt Kenseth. Danica Patrick hit the wall head on. Ty Dillon ran out of gas and Austin Dillon punted more than a couple of cars to take fourth place.

I want to go again. It's exciting to see the cars and trucks glitter under the lights. It was a blast. But now it's back to writing. Seven days in a RV aren't terrible, but they aren't my idea of a blast. I like my house. But I'm home and writing and spinning yarns for my readers. I hope you enjoy them. :-) Back to the bat cave. Enjoy the pictures.

I Wanna Rock and Roll All Nite....

Okay, so that's sort of a silly title for the post, but it's about where I went this past weekend.

You guessed it. I went to the place rock built. It did. Really. Why? We wouldn't have a Rock Hall without Rock. Okay, so it's a little controversial because it's not all rock. Some of the acts are country and some are hip hop, but who cares? I don't.

I saw Johnny Cash's tour bus, John Lennon's glasses, Jimi Hendrix's couch and Janis Joplin's Porsche. Saw a huge exhibit on the Grateful Dead and a small one on Rick Nelson.

I wanted to watch the induction movies, but DH wanted to 'keep going'. Shrug. I've seen them, but it's still fun.

Want more info? Want to go? Here's the link!!

Travel Thursdays ~ New Feature

It's time for another new feature. I get to go lots of fun places for my writing and I thought I'd share some of them with you. First one is the Mansfield Reformatory. Spooky! Why? I don't know that it's haunted (via personal experience), but it's a creepy looking place. Ever saw The Shawshank Redemption? A lot of it was filmed there.

Looks kinda scary, doesn't it? It's more than a century old and has six floors (backs facing) of cells in two cell blocks. The cells are small and housed two inmates each. Talk about being right on top of each other!

My thoughts? The place is huge. I mean HUGE. It's crumbling, but it should be beings it's over 100 years old and was in disrepair. There are many reminders from the filming of Shawshank there, plus kiosks that tell you history of the different parts of the building. My mind wandered many times as to what the rooms looked like in the glory days and how I could put my ghost explorers in there in the present day. The statuary from the chapel were gorgeous - biblical characters in the style of the roaring twenties. But then once I left the chapel, the stairs led to the fourth floor of cell blocks. I wasn't expecting the steps to be OPEN. You know, those kind that have nothing under them except the metal of the steps themselves? Yeah, those. SCARY. I'm not good with heights, so it was worse. But I got to see the cells and how cramped they were. Solitary is partially underground and creepy. There's a sign that warns visitors not to close the cell doors as they don't have the keys and you could be in there a while. Grin. Below is my favorite photo:

It was fun and required a lot of walking, but very much worth it. Want to know more? Click here!