My Flight to the East on July 22, 2008

Flying above the central portion of the United States and the Mid-west seems like endless miles of crops, outlined by roads, creating a checkerboard of squares. Every so often a town will appear but they are sparsely scattered.

It’s amazing to me how inhabited this region is, as it contrasts with the miles of forests and deserts in the West. Flying over Oregon, Idaho and Utah give you a sense of nothingness as no signs of civilization appear for minutes, if not hours by plane.

Here in the Mid-west, even though towns are scattered, the mark of the human hand can be seen from above in the never-ending squares.

Where are we? I may not know what state we’re flying over at the moment but I’m sure we are over the Mid-west. Gone are the acres of wilderness and uninhabited land. Throughout Utah and our journey east, I was able to follow the interstate headed east. It seemed our flight plan followed the same direction as the road below.

Now, I see a myriad of roads, both paved and not. They intersect at towns, boarder farms and indicate important places.

Thunderheads tower massively above the cloud layer, as fluffy cottonball clouds float below. I wonder what it looks like fro below, as the land lay dark in its shadow. Is the thunder booming or lightning flashing below? Our captain tells us of several storms over Baltimore, which may cause a bumpy ride.

Now I see hills and treed areas which makes me wonder if we’re near the Appalachians, nearing the east coast. From my previous flights to St. Louis, I can only remember the miles of squares. This hilly landscape is new to me. From the air, this region reminds me of a multitude of golf courses, all lined up; grasslands framed by trees. Roads carve through treed areas and rivers are lined with industry. An interstate appears brightly white, contrasting with its green surroundings. The signs and marks of civilization are still clear.

Yet it makes me happy to see the wind turbines lined up on the hill below. I’m glad to see us harnessing the free and natural power of the wind.

As we begin our initial approach to Baltimore, I see a river curve with S-shapes through the trees. The hills shape waves of trees and slope down, as cities encroach up their sides. Now more cities and suburbs can be seen, with interstates and roads. Baltimore is just ahead and we’ll be on the ground in 15 minutes.

This week I am off to Wyoming and Utah for my wild west adventure and press trip. I already have a line-up for upcoming articles and I'm sure once I'm there, my list will only expand. Be sure to check back and look for my new articles at Suite101.com. I am also looking at some other publications for publishing my stories.

I have been enjoying my experience of becoming a travel writer. I love writing and I love to travel, so what could be better than being a travel writer! Sometimes I do struggle finding the time and energy for writing, because my job at the hospital has been so busy lately. But coming home and being able to be creative helps me thrive.

One thing I struggle with is remembering to write about the other states in my Travel Section at Suite101.com. The states included in my section are Alaska, Oregon, Idaho, Washington, Montana and Wyoming. I think it's just that Oregon has so much to offer and I live here, so it's much easier to see something and want to write about it. Yet, I am traveling to Utah, Wyoming and Colorado in August, so I will definitely have some things to write about for those states.

It would be my dream to just be a travel writer full-time or make enough money to just be a writer but it's not logical right now. It's nice to dream though.

I am excited about traveling to the East Coast next week, arriving in Baltimore and traveling through Pennsylvania. I will definitely create some articles from my travel. These articles may not be in my section but I can post them in the other travel sections. I'm sure I will enjoy researching and writing them, even if they aren't about NW U.S./ Alaska travel.

If you have any ideas for travel in my section, please let me know.

I wanted to announce that I won the Editor's Choice for one of my latest Oregon Travel articles. Here is the link:
Jackson-Frazier Wetland Park

If you have a chance to visit the Willamette Valley or Corvallis, be sure to visit this amazing park hidden within the city limits. It is peaceful and interesting to hear the birds or the frogs, and be surrounded by nothing but nature.

I am still looking to expand my writing skills and experience. I've been trying to write more articles on travel, going so far as to launch a website/ blog devoted to NW Travel.

Sometimes I feel overwhelmed by how much there is out there to discover! I see so many wonderful things to write about just here in my hometown. So, I will take it one step at a time. I have been talking with a few travel writers in my Suite101.com group. I hope they can give me some advice on travel writing.

So, if you have any ideas or suggestions, please leave me a message.
Thank you!

Last week I started a new page on this site called "List of Published Articles", which you can find under the Links menu, the fourth one down. This page contains a list of my articles published by Suite101.com that were published over one year ago.

Suite101.com has electronic rights to my published articles for one year. After that, I own all rights to these published works. So, I have created a list, as an index of all my published articles, published over one year ago. I hope you find the index useful and easy to use. I may publish some kind of book of all my articles in the future. I have added a disclaimer for those wishing to use my work, requiring my permission first.

Since I begun writing over one year ago for Suite101.com, I have learned a lot about internet writing, improving my techniques. You may observe a difference in my writing from the first articles to the most recent. Remember that Internet writing differs from articles you may find in print. Readers find my articles online by searching for keywords or titles unlike magazine and newspaper articles in print. It is important that I include these keywords in my titles and subtitles, and throughout my articles. So, sometimes my use of certain words, and keywords in subtitles may seem like overkill.

On Friday, I celebrated my one year anniversary writing for Suite101.com! I want to thank you all for your support. I hope you enjoy reading everything I've enjoyed researching! I've learned a lot about writing for the Internet. I'm improving each day. My improvements have resulted in increased pageviews and revenue too. So, it's very exciting. Please send me any article ideas you think of.

Here is the link to my Suite101 profile, if you've misplaced it: Aurae's Suite101 Profile

Make sure to check the Suite101.com box on the left-hand side for my most recent articles.
Also, Suite101 has added a Comment feature at the end of every article, so you can leave your feedback and comments on the article. I think this will be a great addition to our website.

Well, it's off to think up new articles!
Thanks again!

I wrote an article for Suite101 last night called "Amtrak National Train Day May 10th". Make sure to check out the special offer for Buy one ticket, get one free on April 4th. Tickets need to be for travel on May 10th only. But if you buy one adult ticket, you get a companion ticket free! That's a pretty good deal. Be sure to check out the routes.

Most of the Amtrak routes have amazing views, which aren't available from the road. Last June, I took Amtrak to San Francisco. Although I was on the train for 10 hours, I saw some beautiful places. The route is called the Coast Starlight, because it leaves the Willamette Valley in the afternoon and reached Sacramento in the morning. It wasn't too bad to try and sleep on the train. The seats recline, and I had headphones with music. The sound of the train will rock you to sleep too!

The train is a fun, affordable way to travel. If you have some flexible time to travel for vacation, make sure to look into Amtrak.

I did it! I wrote my 100th article at Suite101.com today. I was also able to tie my article into being my #100. I searched for 100th anniversaries and celebration and events happening this year, because I thought it would be fun to tie the two together. I wasn't having much luck. I did see that it's Ford's 100th anniversary of producing the model-T but I knew that someone had already written about that at Suite101.

Then I found out that the Tunguska Event happened in 1908. The more I researched it, the more I thought it fit my Meteorology & Climatology topic. I learned some very interesting things.
Make sure to take a look at my article: Siberia's Tunguska Event of 1908

Today I published my 99th article for Suite101.com. I'm looking to write my 100th today or this weekend. I'm so excited to finally reach 100. When writers at S101 hit 100, we get a bonus! This is pretty much my last bonus at Suite101, so I hope it make it extra special. I received a 10% bonus for reaching 50 articles, and a 20% bonus for becoming a Feature Writer. I get the 30% when I reach 100!

Next month is my anniversary at Suite101. I've been plotting my monthly revenue, because I'm a nerd sometimes. It's continually gone up, which is very positive. It's not like I make enough to quit my day job, but it's enough to almost fill up the car with gas! I've heard from other more veteran writers that revenues continue to increase with time, and continued dedication to writing.

So, I will keep at it. I hope to make my 100th article something special. I will post an entry when it's complete.