travel
Dog who doesn’t know what’s coming (Drive Day 1 minus 14 years, 45 days)
Wipeout the beautiful and clueless. A 16-year-old Mexican immigrant mutt who rules the sidewalk of C Street, S.W. in Capital (foot)Hill, DC. I bought her from a street-corner vendor in Guadalajara when she fit into the palm of my hand. Now she’s a vet-shaved, cancer survivor with enough strength to chase squirrels but not to climb stairs. We haven’t decided if she can survive the next chapter of her storied life: a road trip down the Pan-American Highway in a vintage truck camper. Is it cruel to uproot her or worse to leave her with friends until we return?
Follow this bonus-material blog and ride along on a one-year road trip that inspired the memoir The Drive: Searching for Lost Memories on the Pan American Highway. On sale June 13th. Pre order through the buy-the-book links at the bottom of the landing page on my teresabrucebooks.com website or here or here. Like The Drive’s Facebook page and tweet back at me @writerteresa.
My scared, brave mom (Drive day 1 minus 44 years, 48 days)
On Mother’s Days past and in earlier memoirs I’ve celebrated Other Mothers but this post is dedicated to Beverly Jean Bruce. Shown here trying not to look at my father’s camera. Not so much shy as overwhelmed; a month into a year-long journey/escape? down the Pan American Highway with two little girls, one of them seven-year-old me.
Not shown here: the bravery it took to pick up the pieces of a family after my little brother John John’s accidental death. I’m still awestruck by her courage. By the courage of all moms who’ve lost and lived to tell the story.
Follow this bonus-material blog and ride along on a one-year road trip that inspired the memoir The Drive: Searching for Lost Memories on the Pan American Highway. On sale June 13th. Pre order through the buy-the-book links at the bottom of the landing page on my teresabrucebooks.com website or here or here. Like The Drive’s Facebook page and tweet back at me @writerteresa.
Share this with friends confused about how to follow a blog — like mine!
First — it’s not always an age thing. Although the media makes it seem like EVERYONE reads blogs and listens to podcasts — lots of smart, well-read, well-traveled people haven’t caught the bug. They think blogs are complicated to follow, are turned off by the word “subscribe” and worry that following will get them on some horrid email marketing list.
Since I’m about to reboot my blog on Mother’s Day with ride-along/read-along bonus material from my upcoming book The Drive: Searching for Lost Memories on the Pan-American highway, this is a primer you can forward or share that demystifies the process:
Step 1: Hop online and type in the blog’s address
Step 2: when the blog pops up, look for the “follow” button on the bottom right of the screen
Step 3: click the follow box
Step 4: it’ll ask for your email adress
Step 5: check your email for a welcome message
Step 6: it’ll want to confirm that you want to subscribe (which is a terrible word since it’s free)
Then you’re in. Each time there’s a new post (which can be pictures and/or a short paragraph) you get that email and can either open it if you have time to read or delete it if you don’t. You can catch up the next time.
Shoot me a comment if you think a primer on leaving comments would be helpful too.
Circle Dance rings in the Laotian New Year
Circle your men, ladies and do the Lam Vong — that’s how you ring in the New Year at the Laotian Embassy in D.C.
We were the lucky guests of our Laotian friends Monirom and Jack, who didn’t dance but did steer us away from the more ambitious delicacies on hand for the annual reception.
The best part was watching the beaming faces of 3rd generation Hmong refugees who flew in from their home in Sheboygan, Wisconsin to demonstrate their folk dances.
Blog re-boot coming Mother’s Day (which will be Drive Day 1 minus 14 years, 44 days)
In 2003 I said goodbye to the corporate world, quit my job and took off on the ultimate road trip: a year down the Pan-American Highway. That life-on-the-road inspired my latest memoir The Drive: Searching for Lost Memories on the Pan-American Highway. To celebrate the publication date from Seal Press, a Hachette Book Group company, I’m rebooting my teresabruce.me blog (some of you might remember it as Right Brain Safari) with a post I hope you read on Mother’s Day. Especially for Other Mothers.
Follow this bonus-material blog and ride along on a one-year road trip that inspired the memoir The Drive: Searching for Lost Memories on the Pan American Highway. On sale June 13th. Pre order through the buy-the-book links at the bottom of the landing page on my teresabrucebooks.com website or here or here. Like The Drive’s Facebook page and tweet back at me @writerteresa.
Sistas snackin’ (Drive Day 1 minus 14 years)
Sneak preview. Can’t wait to see my sister-in-law Lyn when she comes to DC next month.
Follow this bonus-material blog and ride along on a one-year road trip that inspired the memoir The Drive: Searching for Lost Memories on the Pan American Highway. On sale June 13th. Pre order through the buy-the-book links at the bottom of the landing page on my teresabrucebooks.com website or here or here. Like The Drive’s Facebook page and tweet back at me @writerteresa.
Old-school research
DRIVE DAY 1 MINUS 14 YEARS, 68 DAYS
This is what prepping for a massive blog reboot looks like (starting Mother’s Day). And yes, it’s a photo from 2017. I’m just using negative viewing equipment from the 60s. Luckily a friend had this gem in his basement — perfect for scouring through Gary’s negatives for inspiration.
Follow this bonus-material blog and ride along on a one-year road trip that inspired the memoir The Drive: Searching for Lost Memories on the Pan American Highway. On sale June 13th. Pre order through the buy-the-book links at the bottom of the landing page on my teresabrucebooks.com website or here or here. Like The Drive’s Facebook page and tweet back at me @writerteresa.
3D cover of The Drive
Just a quick post to show off the upcoming cover of The Drive: Searching for Lost Memories on the Pan-American Highway (click on the link below) On sale June 13th but you can pre-order now
An Upcoming Series about The Drive
(WASHINGTON, DC) The Drive: today’s date minus 14 years
This is a sample of a blog series I’ll be ramping up starting on Mother’s Day. Each day I’ll post a blog about a photo from the ultimate road trip: the one I took TWICE down the Pan-American highway that became my latest memoir, The Drive: Searching for Lost Memories on the Pan-American Highway. The book goes on sale June 13th — and from May 14th on you can be an armchair traveler, along for the entire year-long drive. Don’t worry, following this blog series won’t ruin the story for you. There will be no spoilers — just bonus material that complements the book. Journal entries, the occasional video, tall tales, ghost stories, crazy close calls, even crazier people we met on the road, maps, B&W photos processed in South America, 44-year-old color slides, and stunning digital images from 13 countries that ended up on the cutting room floor. Like this one, in Guatemala, ten days before Wipeout left us:
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