Rebecca M. Douglass, Author

Last month I took a "little" road trip to New Mexico, by way of California. The California part was family business, but once I turned my nose south and east from there, things got fun. For one thing, I spent the first night out in a favorite camping spot, and the weather was perfect. Mono Lake at sunset. The lake and the Sierra Nevada mountains in the morning. I then took some fairly obscure roads south through Nevada. I had to stop a couple of times for the flowers on the roadsides. The next day I stopped at Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona, a place we visited when I was a little kid (I also always have to correct myself when I call it "Petrified National Forest"). I found the locations of a couple of old photos we'd been looking at recently, which was kind of fun. The Visitor's Center area. It was noon, and pretty hot, but the wind was blowing enough to make it bearable to be out for a while. I checked out the short trail and trees by the Visitor...

Today I'm doing mini-reviews of two audiobooks I listened to on my recent vacation (it involved a LOT of driving). Both deal with the contributions of women in the US military during WWII.  The Women with Silver Wings  is about the Women's Air Service Pilots, while  Valiant Women  covers women in all branches of the US military during the war. The common theme, apart from women, is that their service was initially rejected, and the military (and everyone else) did everything they could to forget about it as soon as the war ended.     Title: The Women With Silver Wings: The Inspiring True Story of the Women Airforce Service Pilots of World War II Author : Katerine Sharp Landdeck. Read by Gabra Zackman Publication Info: Random House Audio, 2020, 11 hours. Original hardback by Crown Publishing Group, 2020, 448 pages. Source : Library Publisher's Blurb (Goodreads): The thrilling, as-yet-untold history of the Women Air Force Service Pilots, the daring female a...

I'd hoped to have a sneak preview, at least, of my photos from my most recent trip, but I've been a total scatterbrain, and haven't done much more than upload the lot of them to my computer. So we're back to Patagonia. One day we drove to the very end of the road beyond El Chaltén, to Lago del Desierto, where you can take a ferry up the lake and get off in Chile (or walk a trail; either way you go through immigration at the far end of the lake). We didn't do that--we'd already been in Chile--but we looked at the lake, then hiked to nearby Huemul lake. Huemules are a sort of Patagonian deer. Apparently we started the day with another visit to the sunrise viewpoint. These two are my photos. Dave shooting the sunrise. First light on Fitzroy. Trivia note: Fitzroy was renamed from Chaltén in 1877 by the Argentinian explorer Perito Moreno (see Perito Moreno Glacier ), in honor of the captain of the HMS Beagle (Darwin's ship). Only then did we drive the 15 or 20 mi...

  It's the first Wednesday of the month again already, and time for my IWSG post! I got home last Friday from a 3-week road trip and backpacking adventure, so I've not done a whole lot since last month :)   Purpose: To share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds (and come on, we're all insecure in some way)! Posting: The first Wednesday of every month is officially Insecure Writer’s Support Group day. Post your thoughts on your own blog. Talk about your doubts and the fears you have conquered. Discuss your struggles and triumphs. Offer a word of encouragement for others who are struggling. Visit others in the group and connect with your fellow writers - aim for a dozen new people each time - and return comments. This group is all about connecting! Be sure to link to the ...

I'm not in a position to respond to comments right away, but if you leave one, I'll see it eventually! I've been working my way through our 2020 trip to Patagonia and sharing some of my late husband's photos, with an occasional picture of my own (assume they are his unless I indicate otherwise). Today we'll take a look at the spectacular Lago de los Tres (I don't recall if we ever figured out three whats). The trail was 14.6 miles and nearly 4000' of climbing. I think I was younger then! Glacial river. We definitely made an early start. An intermediate lake with good views.   After climbing up and up forever, you pop over a ridge... ... and there you are! We had some cool cloud stuff going on while up there. Despite our early start, the lake had a lot of people around (some of whom can be seen here if you look carefully). It's a jump-off point for serious climbers, and there's a campsite 3/4 of the way up, so many got there ahead of us.  We saw Andea...

This book is part of my "series" of books about walking.   Title: Wanderers: A History of Women Walking Author: Kerri Andrews Publication info : 2020, Reaktion Books, 288 pages Source: Library Publisher's Blurb (Goodreads): Offering a beguiling view of the history of walking, Wanderers guides us through the different ways of seeing—of being—articulated by ten pathfinding women writers. “A wild portrayal of the passion and spirit of female walkers and the deep sense of ‘knowing’ that they found along the path.”—Raynor Winn, author of The Salt Path   “I opened this book and instantly found that I was part of a conversation I didn't want to leave. A dazzling, inspirational history.”—Helen Mort, author of No Map Could Show Them This is a book about ten women over the past three hundred years who have found walking essential to their sense of themselves, as people and as writers. Wanderers traces their footsteps, from eighteenth-century parson’s daughter Eliz...

I'll be a bit AWOL for a couple of weeks, as I restore my soul with a bit of wilderness. You'll get a photo post somewhere in here, but mostly I'll see you on June 3 for the next IWSG post!    ☕ Buy me a coffee--or buy my ebooks     ©Rebecca M. Douglass, 2026  As always, please ask permission to use any photos or text. Link-backs appreciated. 
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