Lifestyle Archives | Golden Country Cowgirl

Asian Elephants at The Preserve

When I travel, I’m always looking for “experiences.” Even when I go wine tasting I’m always hoping for something extra, like a tour or a food pairing. When I learned about The Preserve and the opportunity to meet their magnificent Asian elephants, I knew I needed to check out this unique experience. The Asian Elephant Experience at The Preserve The Asian elephant experience is, first and foremost, meant to be educational. The elephants are ambassadors, raising awareness for the plight of this endangered species in the wild. The Preserve mission states, “Contact cultivates caring, which encourages conservation.” The facility gates open 30 minutes before the program start time. This gives you an opportunity to check out the elephant artwork in the gift shop. I was…

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Fall RV Trip Update — The Art of Resiliency and Flexibility

Is it just me or have we had to be super resilient and flexible for the past couple of years? Barely a month ago I wrote a blog post about my fall RV trip plans which included a conference in El Paso, Texas. Due to changes, some beyond my control, I have had to make several modifications and update my fall RV trip plans. Conference Update I debated with myself for weeks about whether or not to attend this conference. It wasn’t a concern about illness. I felt the conference would not live up to the one I had attended in the past due to the restrictions and safety measures in place. The purpose of the conference is to showcase the El Paso food scene.…

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How Important are your Feet?

As a horsewoman, I am familiar with the saying “no hoof, no horse.” While I sat getting a pedicure last week, I started thinking about how that applies to the human foot. If you think the condition of your feet doesn’t have anything to do with travel, read on! How important are your feet? Would it surprise you to know that the average human walks about 100,000 miles in their lifetime? Just like with a horse, your feet are your foundation. They are vital for mobility. Yet, we don’t take care of them like we do the rest of our body. We often take them for granted until they cause us pain. Once a foot or leg becomes painful, it can be totally debilitating, even…

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Electric Bike and the Solo Senior Female Traveler Saga

Electric bike with text overlay: Electric Bike and the Solo Senior Female Traveler Does the saga have a happy ending?

Back in 2019, when I was planning my RV trip, I saw lots of YouTube videos about electric bikes. One brand in particular, Lectric eBikes, caught my attention. Lots of nomads that I follow reviewed their bikes and just raved about them. I thought an electric bike would be a really fun way to get around campgrounds and other places I stayed on my trip. Lectric eBikes was selling their bikes through a Kickstarter at an amazing price so I decided to jump on it. Electric Bike Purchase in 2019 I had to wait several months for the bike to be shipped. It finally arrived, just in time for my trip. Unboxing it was exciting and relatively easy! You can see from the video that…

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Fall Travel Plans – A Conference and an RV Trip

Oh, my gosh. It has been so long since I wrote a blog post I’m not sure I remember how! I just couldn’t muster up the motivation to “find” things to write about when I couldn’t travel or even go out to most restaurants. However, I have some exciting news that has gotten me extremely motivated. You may have already seen some of the news on my social media channels or in my newsletter, but I want to share with you in more detail my fall travel plans. My cats and I will be hitting the trail in October as soon as I return from the International Food Blogger Conference! Sadly, they have to stay home with a pet sitter while I attend the conference.…

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Birthday Musings of a Stay-at-Home Travel Blogger

It’s that time again. It’s my birthday and I’m sitting here reflecting on past birthdays and wondering what the next year will bring. Based on what has transpired so far, it certainly looks like it will be a lot different than any year in the past. Here are some of my random musings as a currently stay-at-home travel blogger. Two years ago, I was sitting in my living room in northern California looking at my new-to-me travel trailer wondering what I was doing. I was throwing away and giving away so much stuff! I was downsizing in preparation for a journey that was sure to change my life. The year before that, I was dining solo on my birthday and really contemplating what it means…

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Home from Work and Can’t Travel? What to do with your Downtime

travel trailer and tow vehicle with text overlay: Home from work and can't travel? Things to do in your downtime.

I had an amazing RV trip planned for April-June. I was going to see Texas bluebells for the first time, attend a couple of festivals, see the emergence of the largest bat colony in the world, ride a steam train, and taste more awesome Texas wine. There were even more things on the list to research. But now, just like everyone else, all my travel is on hold. With people home from work and even ordered to stay at home, it is so important to keep a positive attitude. What are your plans for your downtime from work and travel? Here are some of the things I plan to do to occupy my downtime. What I Plan to do in My Downtime from Work and…

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Nikon P900 Superzoom Camera – Great All-Purpose Camera

With so many things closing down and a tremendous decrease in traffic to travel websites, I’ve been at a bit of a loss for what to do. Since I recently purchased new camera equipment, I decided to take some of this down time to really learn how to use it all. I chose to start with my Nikon P900 superzoom camera since I’ve had it the longest. Even though I don’t know how to use it to its fullest potential yet, I already love it. For years, my go to camera has been a Nikon D90 DSLR. This has been a more than adequate camera for the blog. However, for quite a while now I’ve been wishing for a longer telephoto lens for better bird…

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Baking in an RV Oven — Do you do it?

Why There’s no Baking in my RV Oven I have now been on two 6-week RV trips and not once during either trip did I fire up my RV oven for baking. Since I eat low carb, I don’t bake things like bread, cookies or cakes, but I do like to use my oven to finish off meat I’ve seared on the stove top. Also, I like to use the broiler once in a while for things like frittatas. So, what did I do on those trips? Well, I have a grill pan I used for things like steak if I didn’t cook outside on the barbecue and I just had to forego frittatas. Are you wondering why I didn’t bake in my RV oven?…

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Even when Life is Long, it is too Short!

It has taken me a while to write this post, but I needed to do it so I can start to move on. You know the old saying, life can turn on a dime? Well, it happened to me a couple of weeks ago. Early in July, I wrote a post about why I haven’t been RVing and what I’ve been doing instead. That “instead” was spending time with my dad and I’m so very glad I did. He passed away suddenly and unexpectedly on August 4th. It was so unexpected because he was a healthy, active and mentally sharp 97-year-old. He still drove and did his own shopping. He watered the yard and did some of the light yard work. Keeping fit was important…

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