From the Desk of the How-To Junkie for the "Traveling Junkie": Howdy friend, who wants "to travel for vacation on a budget," Let me guess, you are looking for a getaway. By getaway, I mean vacation. Ah yes, the vacation that you've been dreaming about all year. Well you certainly deserved to! After all, what's the point of living and not enjoying? Traveling offers that much needed relaxation to get away from everything with yourself or with friends and families. It allows you to clear your head and remember why life is so freaking awesome, and revitalize yourself to refocus your perspective on things. But what's the biggest setback stopping our fellow travelers from doing it more often? Work? Time? How about the biggest hurdle of them all - money? Let's face it, vacations don't come cheap. They cost money, but that doesn't mean you have to spend a ton of dough or lose a leg to afford it. You just may not know how to best go about it, know what to do, or are simply overwhelmed. Fret not! On the other hand, perhaps you're one of those lucky folks who get to go on permanent vacation whenever you want and money is not an issue, but still, wouldn't you rather enjoy more savings and travel the smart way? That's why we're focusing on the fastest way to get going on a vacation, regardless of whatever limited-vacation time you may have, and travel on a budget. By being a "Traveling Junkie," you will know: * How to plan a vacation fast even if you don't know where to go. * How to find the cheapest flight deals the smart way step-by-step. * How to book your accommodations to save tons of money. * How to calculate your budget and not go over expenses. * The secret insider tips only experienced savvy trailers know and do. ...and full-satisfied junkie more. So what are you waiting for? Instead of dreaming about sipping coconut under a palm tree, be actually doing it! And send me a postcard while you're at it (even if you don't like coconut staying at some big city instead). Plan your vacation now! Signing off. Your friend, - The How-To Junkie

Dina Bennett’s on the road again—and she can’t stop! Having completed the 7,800-mile Peking to Paris Classic Car Challenge while braving carsickness and patching rocky marital relations, she’s once more in over her head, enduring 100,000 miles of road trips through the world’s out-of-the-way places. Drawn to strange foods and intriguing views into the kaleidoscope of local life, and with a knack for getting into—and out of—awkward situations, Dina gives you the world in all its glory. She’s a born storyteller, uncovering the curious and unusual in the ordinary, bringing you along on vivid experiences in laugh-out-loud style. Neither particularly brave nor wild, she opens her diary of personal triumphs and embarrassments, suspense and discovery, in places most will never get to. Join her as she stands knee-to-knee with a Tajik border guard in his bedroom, hunts down camel pad meat in the street markets of China, and seeks out the source of mare’s milk in Kyrgyzstan. Whether stranded on a sandbar in Myanmar’s Chindwin River or sharing barley beer with an ex-Black Panther in Ethiopia, Dina’s observations are half prying neighbor, half best friend gossiping together on the crooked path to enlightenment. The tales in A Travel Junkie’s Diary plunge the reader right into the midst of exhilarating travel experiences, with all the smells, sounds, sensations and emotions of being right there. They are by turns fascinating and frightening, endearing and bittersweet, humorous, humiliating, and always engrossing.

Chronicles the author's international travels with his wife to Africa, China, Bali, and other places.

An ultimate guide for the outdoor and sports enthusiasts seeking out the world's most fantastic adventures. The book runs the gamut of water, mountain and hiking sports for all skill levels from beginners to experts.

When he married for the second time, Jay Keyser thought he and his wife would settle down on a bucolic little farm where the cows meet the sea. That was before he found out the awful truth: he had married a travel junkie. While he was envisioning walks along quiet beaches, her sights were set on stakeouts beside Tanzani’s Grumeti River watching crocodiles take down baboons. He didn’t want to come within 6,000 miles of a crocodile, let alone 6 feet. But, somehow, he couldn’t let Nancy go it alone. And so, for the past 15 years, Jay Keyser has followed his wife around this treacherous world. This is his chronicle. Our reluctant traveler did his level best to understand the extraordinary people and places he visited as well as his internal conflict. He gradually began to accept profound differences between his wife and himself. Although terrified by them, he has learned from his experiences, most especially from an encounter with an angry female gorilla, who offered key insight into marriage and human nature. Jay Keyser learned to stop and smell the elephant dung.

Contains 22 different, flexible road trips of two to three weeks throughout the United States with information on accessible lodging, sites, trails, restaurants and other attractions both on and off the beaten path.

This was my private war. The streets were a battlefield. We were fighting over drugs and risking death. The syringes we used were filthy, we would get infected by diseases, but we didn’t care. I was tired from running, hiding, hustling, and stealing. So I escaped and signed up for the Army. But, the Army gave me orders to Fort Campbell, Kentucky, which was close to Clarksville; I was back to the streets, back to my private hell. The junky, however, was excited, “We are going back to the crib; you are going to have a paycheck twice a month; that’s enough money to go have fun in the hood all over again!” he screamed. I had come full circle; I desperately wanted to get cured but couldn’t get the cure. I was so close to getting better, yet I was so far from the cure.

This book chronicles the author's experience with sobriety and recovery, offering relief and hope to recovering substance abusers and their loved ones. With optimism and humor, the author explores an enduringly human struggle--living with a consciousness addicted to alteration. While documenting the world of active addiction and his recovery from substance abuse, the author guides others on their own journey with sobriety. Chapters provide reminders and meditations to the newly recovering; lists of activities and life experiences to enjoy in sobriety; insights into a world seen through "clear" eyes; etiquette for the refined recoverer; behavioral observations and humorous anecdotes from addicts on the mend. Wrapped in satire and wit, this honest, funny, and personally reflective guidebook will be recognizable and helpful to recovering addicts and to their friends and families.

The beauty and spirit of Maya Angelou’s words live on in this complete collection of poetry, including her inaugural poem “On the Pulse of Morning” Throughout her illustrious career in letters, Maya Angelou gifted, healed, and inspired the world with her words. Now the beauty and spirit of those words live on in this new and complete collection of poetry that reflects and honors the writer’s remarkable life. Every poetic phrase, every poignant verse can be found within the pages of this sure-to-be-treasured volume—from her reflections on African American life and hardship in the compilation Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water ’fore I Diiie (“Though there’s one thing that I cry for / I believe enough to die for / That is every man’s responsibility to man”) to her revolutionary celebrations of womanhood in the poem “Still I Rise” (“Out of the huts of history’s shame / I rise / Up from a past that’s rooted in pain / I rise”) to her “On the Pulse of Morning” tribute at President William Jefferson Clinton’s inauguration (“Lift up your eyes upon / The day breaking for you. / Give birth again / To the dream.”). Maya Angelou: The Complete Poetry also features her final long-form poems, including “A Brave and Startling Truth,” “Amazing Peace,” “His Day Is Done,” and the honest and endearing Mother: “I feared if I let you go You would leave me eternally. You smiled at my fears, saying I could not stay in your lap forever” This collection also includes the never-before-published poem “Amazement Awaits,” commissioned for the 2008 Olympic Games: “We are here at the portal of the world we had wished for At the lintel of the world we most need. We are here roaring and singing. We prove that we can not only make peace, we can bring it with us.” Timeless and prescient, this definitive compendium will warm the hearts of Maya Angelou’s most ardent admirers as it introduces new readers to the legendary poet, activist, and teacher—a phenomenal woman for the ages.

Equal parts Z for Zachariah and Mad Max, Gilpatrick and Lang’s darkly funny debut follows a girl from outer space and an aging scavenger who must learn to trust each other in order to survive. Welcome to the Junkyard, a toxic wasteland where humans, machines, and everything in between fight for survival among the ruins of a long-forgotten war. This is where Diane Three-One-Seven finds herself after the arkship Cradle—the only home she’s ever known—falls out of the sky. When a mysterious scavenger named Virgil stumbles upon Diane’s escape pod, the two strike a deal (if it can be called that). Virgil’s spare mechanical battle suit, nicknamed the “Grave Walker,” can help Diane survive the ruined atmosphere—but it could kill her if it runs out of power. And Diane’s untainted blood, a precious resource in this radioactive hellscape, could keep Virgil alive long enough to finish one last mission—but at what cost? The two will have to wait to work out their differences, however, as a new threat appears on the horizon: a masked man called the Messenger, who hopes to subdue the Junkyard with a mysterious new power. With the help of a ragtag team of misfits, Diane and Virgil may just have a chance to stop him—if they don’t kill each other first.