An update to the previous blog: I am not Mrs. America. I am not even Mrs. Smalltown Wyoming. But I did not trip on the stage even one time due to the wearing of plastic high-heeled stripper shoes! That’s not to say that I didn’t trip on stage at all, because I did. It was not, however, due to the shoes. It was due to my husband stepping on the train of my dress during the Evening Gown segment of the show.

I was not particularly good at being in a pageant, as it turns out. I persisted in leaning forward into the microphone and croaking out my name on stage no matter how many times they instructed me to stand up straight and confidently project my name out into the audience. I declined to wear Commando Silicone Filled Push-Up Pads in the top of my evening gown. I took the stripper shoes off …while on stage …during the pageant, (surreptitiously I thought) underneath my gown where I thought no one would notice. People noticed. What I noticed was the massive blister one toe was sporting after 30 minutes in the shoes. I was hobbling; it wasn’t pretty.

I also managed to inform the current Mrs. America (who was a judge) that my teenage daughter thinks beauty pageants are stupid and are set up for vain women, and that what you look like is not important. I told Mrs. America that. Inadvertently.

Needless to say, I am not even a finalist for Mrs. Smalltown.

I am, however, preparing to leave on The Ultimate Summer Road Trip!! TUSRT cometh! In two short days we will depart, armed with our EZ Guide to Route 66, our maps of Old Coastal Highway 1, an air mattress, and a Tahoe for a 3,833 mile Road Trip extravaganza.

My heart sings  🙂

~Traveling is like flirting with life. It’s like saying, ‘I would stay and love you, but I have to go; this is my station.’

~It is not down in any map; true places never are.

See images below for just a smattering of the many, many places we will explore on our Road Trip…

Santa Fe, New Mexico

Santa Rosa, NM The Blue Hole

New Mexico natural hot springs off Route 66

Hackberry, AZ Route 66

Havasu Falls, AZ

Route 66 Arizona

Route 66 through the Mojave Desert of California

Western terminus of Route 66

Santa Monica Pier at sunset

Old Coastal Highway 1

McWay Falls, Big Sur CA

Long Beach, WA