I’m a professional artist now

Actually, I don’t know if I’ve sold anything yet, but I’ve joined an artist’s co-op/gallery/market in the Fishtown section of Philly. A lot of the artists there use retro graphics or repurpose things like vinyl records into bowls or bottle caps into earrings (oh wait, that’s me).

Be sure to check out my new artist’s webpage: http://piranhabettys.com/marleybice.html and come to Piranha Betty’s Christmas Eve Eve party Wednesday. You can also find me at some of the Sunday afternoon arts and crafts group meetings and free tarot card readings.

Remember, upcycle, recycle, and support your local artists!

Cross Country Chronicles: Part III

Now for the most boring section of my trip.

Day 5: Independence, MO to Dayton, OH
Another night of falling asleep infront of the TV and a crappy continental breakfast and we're on the road again. We got to St. Louis faster than I had expected but unfortunately it was bucketing rain on us, so we just drove around the arch and took pictures.

We then headed across the murky Mississippi and were momentarily on Old Route 66. I think I slept through most of Illinois and Indiana thanks to a yummy lunch at the St. Louis Bread Co. (actually it is a Panera but with a different name... weird) and a new road surface made of old rubber tires. Smooth sailing...

Welcome to Dayton, Ohio, home of weird-smelling hotel rooms and over-priced pizza (but their Wal-Mart did have a good plastic doggy gumball machine).

Day 6: Dayton, OH to Philadelphia, PA
So, guess who woke me up at 4 am to get on the road and beat the beastly traffic on the Pennsylvania Turnpike? That's right. The one and only. But it was my idea that she lie to her husband all day to make him think that we were stuck in traffic in western Pennsyvlania when we were actually already home. Typical shenanagins. "But, honey, I'm looking at the Google traffic map right now and it is all green." "Well, they're not here are they? Maybe I should call and tell them they are wrong." She is such a good liar. Scary.

See there's really not much to tell about the mid-west, but boy were we glad to be back in Philly!

The Cross Country Chronicles: Part II

Day 3: Brigham City, UT to Denver, CO
We woke up to find that the motel we had arrived at in the dark of night, was actually right in the shadow of a huge reddish rock outcrop - a pleasant surprise. After breakfast at a lovely truck stop, we headed south towards the shimmering Great Salt Lake on the horizon. We watched the looming Wassatch Range to the east warily but our highway ended up winding through a low point in the Range. And you know what else was in the low point? A wind farm. We were looking across at enormous wind turbines as we followed Interstate 70 towards Colorado. I couldn't help but feel like Don Quixote as I was hypnotized by the seemingly slow-moving blades.

The distance between the Wassatch Range and Colorado was relatively bare but we were excited (yet dissappointed that we couldn't visit them all) when we saw signs for Moab, UT; the home and/or gateway to the Best Friends Animal Sanctuary, and Arches and Canyonlands National Parks.


As we were reminiscing on past Four Corners vacations, we recognized an upcoming town on the Colorado map; a little town called Fruita. My mom thought she could remember a sandwich shop there that we had eaten at a decade ago (although she couldn't remember if it was any good) - so we took that exit. We think we did find the elusive cafe in a building with a painted cut-out dinosaur welcoming us, although it was closed on Sundays. But other highlights of Fruita include a giant T-Rex eating the Grinch and a giant bicycle.



From there we continued on towards the snow-topped Rockies - a trek my little 110-horsepower hybrid was not too happy about - and she didn't keep her unhappiness quiet either. Despite my worries about never having heard my car work that hard before, she got us safely over the monoliths of Western North America and landed us safely in a sprawling Denver suburb for the night.

We headed out on the town for German food and ended up seeing many more bunny rabbits roaming the streets than we had seen anywhere else in recent memory - go figure.

Day 4: Denver, CO to Independence, MO
Now, you may think this would be the most boring stretch of the entire trip, but I'm pretty sure it was the second most boring. There were two things in particular that made eastern Colorado and Kansas interesting: wind turbines and hawks! We saw a massive wind farm in central Kansas and did an analysis of hawk density per linear mile of I-70. We came up with an average of 2.0 hawks per mile and a maximum of 3.6 hawks per mile. Oh, and the tumble weeds. Counting the number of tumble weeds that hit us (one) or that we hit (two) also kept us from going crazy.

Chronicles to be continued...

The Cross Country Chronicles: Part I

Day 1: Charleston, OR to Trout Lake, WA
I got up early and headed north. But first I had to do the hardest thing, say goodbye to my doggie friend in Oregon. I said goodbye to Lily at my house and Raven at Heather's house and for the first time felt a little choked up. I had to put in the mix CD from Heather and Tyler and get a chai latte with soy milk to make it out of town without losing it.

It poured rain on me almost the entire trip so I am glad I had already seen the I-5 scenery many, many times before. But 84 through the Columbia Gorge was gorgeous despite the rain...yellow cottonwoods, green pine trees, brown rocks, dark water...

Once we were all gathered at the MAC, we were buzzing with well wishes and hugs. After filling out a large stack of paperwork we headed to Hood River for a wine tasting at the Naked Winery and dinner on the River at the Hood River Inn. Back in Trout Lake we had champagne by the fire with dogs at the Trout Lake Inn. A few us headed back to the Commons for a slumber party with When Harry Met Sally.

Day 2: Trout Lake, WA to Brigham City, UT
I woke up the next morning to an inch of snow on my car but with a little help from my friends [hehe] I got out of the MAC and on the road. I took the northern/Washington route to The Dalles and took these great shots of the early morning Gorge.
My drive continued west along the Gorge and past a big wind farm under construction. Along this route I also saw three individual wind turbine blades on trucks. They are each about 150 feet long - quite a sight to see. I made it up and over the Blue Mountains and into Idaho where I picked up my mom in Boise.
Southern Idaho was quite the adventure of the senses. For miles and miles we wondered what smelled so bad when we came upon a quite disgusting cow feedlot. It was a shame that it got so dark so early, I'm sure there was a lot more going for southern Idaho and northern Utah besides the lovely smells.

Chronicles to be continued...