Wednesday, July 31, 2019

Glacier National Park!

Thank you so much to Angele and Diane and John and Erica and Kris for their recent donations to my Hike-a-thon  this August. 

The Pacific Northwest Trail goes from Glacier National Park to Olympic National Park, so I took Ryan to the trail head in Glacier National Park. We took some time to do some hikes together in the park before he started his long distance trail. 



Hidden Lake Trail in Glacier NP
We could not go all the way down to Hidden Lake because of bear activity in the area.

That is Hidden Lake behind me in the distance

Ryan and I with Hidden lake in the background

Mountain Goats right on the trail

LOVE the flower displays
More gorgeous flowers

Ryan filming the goats on the trail


Bear Grass in Glacier NP


The buses in Glacier are the BEST
Ryan's gear explodes all over the hotel room! 

At the trailhead for the PNT

Ryan beginning his hike

I saw massive herds of Buffalo on the way back to Kalispell This photo does not do it justice.

I will be participating in the WTA Hike-a-thon during the entire month of August. Ryan will be hiking the Pacific Northwest Trail from Montana (Glacier National Park) all the way to the Pacific Ocean on the Olympic Peninsula and I will be joining him for a few days and also doing day hikes around Seattle on layovers.

I hope I can count on all of  you guys again this year for support. Any amount from $1 to $100 is welcome.
You can click on this link to go to my WTA fundraiser page

https://give.wta.org/fundraiser/2179299

or you can send me a check (made out to WTA (Washington Trails Association) or just a dollar in the mail would be very welcome. Thanks so much to everyone who has supported this cause in the past and hopefully again this year!

to: Amanda Arkebauer PO Box 16131 Seattle, WA  98116



Monday, July 29, 2019

Postcards 2019: Banff

2019, this year I am going to highlight postcards from places that I have never visited!! I know many of you think that I have traveled all over the world and I have been to many places, but there are places here in the USA and all over the world that are still on my bucket list. So this year, I will be sharing postcards from places that I have not visited yet! But maybe this year will be the year that I visit Banff!! 

Banff







I was actually hoping to get to Banff sometime this summer, but I am not sure if I can in August, maybe September...because I will be participating in the Washington Trails Association Hike-a-thon during the entire month of August. Ryan will be hiking the Pacific Northwest Trail from Montana (Glacier National Park) all the way to the Pacific Ocean on the Olympic Peninsula and I will be joining him for a few days and also doing day hikes around Seattle on layovers.

I hope I can count on all of you this year for support. Any amount from $1 to $100 is welcome.
You can click on this link to go to my WTA fundraiser page

https://give.wta.org/fundraiser/2179299

or you can send me a check (made out to WTA (Washington Trails Association) or just a dollar in the mail would be very welcome. Thanks so much to everyone who has supported this cause in the past and hopefully again this year!

to: Amanda Arkebauer PO Box 16131 Seattle, WA  98116


Saturday, July 27, 2019

On the Way to Glacier NP


So I was sick all last week and miserable, but I dragged myself out of bed today to take Ryan out to Glacier National Park to start his hike of the Pacific Northwest Trail.  We drove out from Seattle and stopped at the Ginkgo Petrified Forest State Park along the way. 



There are Petroglyphs that were saved, they would have been underwater once the Columbia River was dammed, so they removed them and they are now on display at the Gingko Petrified State Forest now. 






I will be participating in the WTA Hike-a-thon during the entire month of August. Ryan will be hiking the Pacific Northwest Trail from Montana (Glacier National Park) all the way to the Pacific Ocean on the Olympic Peninsula and I will be joining him for a few days and also doing day hikes around Seattle on layovers.

I hope I can count on all of  you guys again this year for support. Any amount from $1 to $100 is welcome.
You can click on this link to go to my WTA fundraiser page

https://give.wta.org/fundraiser/2179299

or you can send me a check (made out to WTA (Washington Trails Association) or just a dollar in the mail would be very welcome. Thanks so much to everyone who has supported this cause in the past and hopefully again this year!

to: Amanda Arkebauer PO Box 16131 Seattle, WA  98116

Thursday, July 25, 2019

Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys Super Mysteries Reviews Hollywood Horror and Tour of Danger

More reviews of Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys Super Mysteries, I review these for a Nancy Drew fanzine called The Sleuth, here are two of my first articles about these books.



The True Horror of "Hollywood Horror"



As I settled in to read the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys Super Mystery, Hollywood Horror, it soon became apparent that even though Nancy Drew had top billing on the cover of the book, she was nothing more than a sidekick for Frank and Joe Hardy. The Hardy Boys are famous enough as detectives to be summoned out to Los Angeles to investigate sabotage at H. G. Studios. The film studio also features an amusement park. Nancy Drew and Bess came along for a vacation and "to get in some sight seeing."   Nancy does find a mystery to solve of her own...sort of. The star of a sitcom is being stalked and the local police can't or won't do much, so Nancy volunteers to act as bodyguard and detective. She has to convince everyone that she is up for the job and the local LAPD only is convinced once she gives them the name of the River Heights police chief as a reference. Notice how the Hardy Boys did not need a reference? Their name alone (and famous father) spoke for them. Oddly, no one in Los Angeles has heard of Carson Drew? But Fenton Hardy is a household name. Nancy has to reassure everyone, "I've worked with the police many times."
As the story wore on, it never got any better. At one point, Nancy "tagged along" with Detective Bolita of the LAPD as he conducted an official search. She uses herself as bait and ends up locked in the trunk of a car and then dangling off the edge of a cliff, waiting for Frank and Joe to come rescue her. As disappointed as I was with Nancy's lack of reknown as a detective, at least she was not lovesick. Bess and Joe were the ones in this story who were always sidetracked by their interest in the opposite sex. Bess becomes involved with an actor and Joe flirts with a tour guide at the amusement park. Frank and Nancy both remain professional.
I was horrified that this book, written in 1994, depicted Nancy Drew as someone who just tagged along on the adventures. The boys definitely are the stars of this show and Nancy was lucky to find a mystery to solve on the sidelines. Frank Hardy consults with lawyers and works with the head of the film studio while Nancy has lunch and shops on Rodeo Drive.  I have not read many Supermysteries or other Nancy Drew files books and now I remember why. I was very disappointed.


Super Disappointed in Super Mysteries: Tour of Danger



I was so horrified by reading The Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys Super Mystery, Hollywood Horror. I realized that I had never read these books. So I thought I would read another one and see if it was as bad.  One of the things that bothered me about Hollywood Horror was how Nancy Drew was reduced to sidekick status for the Hardy Boys.   This time I am going to take a look at Tour of Danger.  This book was written in 1992, two years before Hollywood Horror.  It starts out with Nancy and Bess getting ready to go on a vacation to Tokyo.  Nancy makes it known that this is just a vacation and that she is not going to Tokyo to solve a mystery.  Why not? What is so bad about a world class amateur sleuth being prepared to solve a mystery, even on vacation? One of the first things that the girls see when they arrive in Tokyo, a city of nine million people, is Frank and Joe Hardy leaving an office building. This while the girls are stopped at a traffic light. Yeah, but don't think that that is going to be the last crazy coincidence in this book!
Of course, Frank and Joe are here in Tokyo on official business. They are going undercover at an electronics firm to solve the mystery of how counterfeit electronics are being substituted for the real ones at the Amsa Electronics Company.  They have the backing of the owners of the company for their sleuthing. 
Of course, Nancy immediately finds a nice simple mystery to solve. She is trying to figure out how a pearl smuggling ring is using tourists as their mules to smuggle pearls into the United States.  I was annoyed in Hollywood Horror when everyone called Nancy Drew, "Nan" and they do it again in Tour of Danger.  Ugh, every time I read that nickname, it is like nails on a blackboard. 
Both Nancy and the Hardy Boys break some laws to solve their mysteries. Nancy uses a lock picking set to break into hotel linen closets and the Hardy Boys trespass and break into a warehouse.  Nancy is the one who realizes that the electronics case and the pearl smuggling case are related by having the same suspects in the Japanese underworld. 
Action is provided by both groups having their rooms ransacked. Frank and Joe are victims of a car bomb.  It is mentioned that Nancy has trained in karate, although we never see her use any of the skills learned. Frank and the bad guy get into a knife fight.  Nancy does get knocked unconscious and is drugged and it is Frank and Joe who must save her.  Frank breaks his case by his computer hacking skills and he steals a vase to help Nancy solve her mystery. 
Joe and Bess are once again depicted as love sick and ready to fall in love with the first person they see on a case. At least Nancy and Frank are portrayed as all business when it comes to solving mysteries. Nancy has to put off the attentions of an admirer and it is made clear from the beginning that she has Ned Nickerson waiting for her at home. 
The descriptions of Tokyo and all the tourist places that the quartet visit are very interesting. If you are a fan of the travelogue Nancy Drew books, you will enjoy this book for that aspect. However, if you are expecting a strong female heroine, who does not need a man to get her out of a tight spot, the Super Mysteries are sorely lacking.




On another topic, I will be participating in the Washington Trails Association Hike-a-thon during the entire month of August. Ryan will be hiking the Pacific Northwest Trail from Montana (Glacier National Park) all the way to the Pacific Ocean on the Olympic Peninsula and I will be joining him for a few days and also doing day hikes around Seattle on layovers.

I hope I can count on all of you this year for support. Any amount from $1 to $100 is welcome.
You can click on this link to go to my WTA fundraiser page

https://give.wta.org/fundraiser/2179299

or you can send me a check (made out to WTA (Washington Trails Association) or just a dollar in the mail would be very welcome. Thanks so much to everyone who has supported this cause in the past and hopefully again this year!

to: Amanda Arkebauer PO Box 16131 Seattle, WA  98116

Monday, July 22, 2019

Postcards 2019: The Maldives

2019, this year I am going to highlight postcards from places that I have never visited!! I know many of you think that I have traveled all over the world and I have been to many places, but there are places here in the USA and all over the world that are still on my bucket list. So this year, I will be sharing postcards from places that I have not visited yet!  One of those ultimate Bucket List places, The Maldives, My parents have been there










I will be participating in the Washington Trails Association Hike-a-thon during the entire month of August. Ryan will be hiking the Pacific Northwest Trail from Montana (Glacier National Park) all the way to the Pacific Ocean on the Olympic Peninsula and I will be joining him for a few days and also doing day hikes around Seattle on layovers.

I hope I can count on all of you this year for support. Any amount from $1 to $100 is welcome.
You can click on this link to go to my WTA fundraiser page

https://give.wta.org/fundraiser/2179299

or you can send me a check (made out to WTA (Washington Trails Association) or just a dollar in the mail would be very welcome. Thanks so much to everyone who has supported this cause in the past and hopefully again this year!

to: Amanda Arkebauer PO Box 16131 Seattle, WA  98116

Saturday, July 20, 2019

The Sierra Gold Mystery


The Dana Girls Books were written and published from 1934 to 1979, the first four books were written by Leslie McFarlane who wrote the Hardy Boys series. Then Mildred Wirt Benson who also wrote the original Nancy Drew books wrote titles 4-16 of the Dana Girls. Harriet Adams is believed to have written the rest of the Dana Girls series.  The Dana Girls are sisters who are orphans and are being raised by their uncle who is a sea captain. He is often away, so they are at boarding school and the first books have lots of mysteries in and around this boarding school setting. The later books are what we call "travelogue" books where the Dana Girls travel to different and often exotic locales to solve their mysteries. 

Recently on social media, the later Dana Girls travelogue books by Harriet Adams (writing as Carolyn Keene) have been much maligned. However, I still have a soft spot in my heart for the Sierra Gold Mystery and I will tell you why.....


I first bought the book in 2000 from Drusilla's Books in Baltimore, Md. This was a fabulous used bookstore that specialized in children's series books and I would bid Baltimore layovers just to go shopping at this store. I had pretty much completed my Nancy Drew collection of books and I was branching out to collect other girls series books. (although as any collector will tell you, you are never really done collecting...here I am 19 years later!)

In February of 2001, a few of the Phantom Friends - a club of Girls Series Collectors (and some other subscribers to the Whispered Watchword fanzine) got together and went to Jackson, CA (In the middle of Gold Rush Country)  to meet with Muriel Thebaut. Ms. Thebaut had met with Harriet way back in 1961 and provided her with all the local information from California Gold Country that she needed to write the Sierra Gold Mystery. 

Lea Fox has questions for Muriel Thebaut
 We visited many of the locations that are mentioned in the book and had a great afternoon learning more about how Harriet Adams came to write the book and we could see the inspiration all around us.
Grinding Rock State Park

Alice Billheimer with Muriel Thebaut

National Hotel In Jackson, CA 

My Sierra Gold Mystery Book signed by Muriel Thebaut

This was really a small impromptu gathering of collectors and not really a convention per se. But it remains in my memory as one of my favorite journeys on my road of collecting Girls Series books.  Getting together with some like-minded friends to learn more about our favorite books.



I will be participating in the Washington Trails Association Hike-a-thon during the entire month of August. Ryan will be hiking the Pacific Northwest Trail from Montana (Glacier National Park) all the way to the Pacific Ocean on the Olympic Peninsula and I will be joining him for a few days and also doing day hikes around Seattle on layovers.

I hope I can count on all of you this year for support. Any amount from $1 to $100 is welcome.
You can click on this link to go to my WTA fundraiser page

https://give.wta.org/fundraiser/2179299

or you can send me a check (made out to WTA (Washington Trails Association) or just a dollar in the mail would be very welcome. Thanks so much to everyone who has supported this cause in the past and hopefully again this year!

to: Amanda Arkebauer PO Box 16131 Seattle, WA  98116

Monday, July 15, 2019

Postcards 2019: Nepal

2019, this year I am going to highlight postcards from places that I have never visited!! I know many of you think that I have traveled all over the world and I have been to many places, but there are places here in the USA and all over the world that are still on my bucket list. So this year, I will be sharing postcards from places that I have not visited yet!  Nepal would be amazing to visit






And we KNOW there is good hiking in Nepal! LOL
I will be participating in the Washington Trails Association Hike-a-thon during the entire month of August. Ryan will be hiking the Pacific Northwest Trail from Montana (Glacier National Park) all the way to the Pacific Ocean on the Olympic Peninsula and I will be joining him for a few days and also doing day hikes around Seattle on layovers.

I hope I can count on all of you this year for support. Any amount from $1 to $100 is welcome.
You can click on this link to go to my WTA fundraiser page

https://give.wta.org/fundraiser/2179299

or you can send me a check (made out to WTA (Washington Trails Association) or just a dollar in the mail would be very welcome. Thanks so much to everyone who has supported this cause in the past and hopefully again this year!

to: Amanda Arkebauer PO Box 16131 Seattle, WA  98116

Monday, July 08, 2019

Postcards 2019: Moldova

2019, this year I am going to highlight postcards from places that I have never visited!! I know many of you think that I have traveled all over the world and I have been to many places, but there are places here in the USA and all over the world that are still on my bucket list. So this year, I will be sharing postcards from places that I have not visited yet!

Moldova, an Eastern European country and former Soviet republic, has varied terrain including forests, rocky hills and vineyards. Its wine regions include Nistreana, known for reds, and Codru, home to some of the world’s largest cellars. Capital ChiÈ™inău has Soviet-style architecture and the National Museum of History, exhibiting art and ethnographic collections that reflect cultural links with neighboring Romania.



Looks like there could be good hiking in Moldova....
I will be participating in the Washington Trails Association Hike-a-thon during the entire month of August. Ryan will be hiking the Pacific Northwest Trail from Montana (Glacier National Park) all the way to the Pacific Ocean on the Olympic Peninsula and I will be joining him for a few days and also doing day hikes around Seattle on layovers.

I hope I can count on all of you this year for support. Any amount from $1 to $100 is welcome.
You can click on this link to go to my WTA fundraiser page

https://give.wta.org/fundraiser/2179299

or you can send me a check (made out to WTA (Washington Trails Association) or just a dollar in the mail would be very welcome. Thanks so much to everyone who has supported this cause in the past and hopefully again this year!

to: Amanda Arkebauer PO Box 16131 Seattle, WA  98116

Wednesday, July 03, 2019

Hike-a-thon August 2019

It's that time of year again for the Washington Trails Association!




I will be participating in their Hike-a-thon during the entire month of August. Ryan will be hiking the Pacific Northwest Trail from Montana (Glacier National Park) all the way to the Pacific Ocean on the Olympic Peninsula and I will be joining him for a few days and also doing day hikes around Seattle on layovers.

I hope I can count on all of  you guys again this year for support. Any amount from $1 to $100 is welcome.
You can click on this link to go to my WTA fundraiser page

https://give.wta.org/fundraiser/2179299

or you can send me a check (made out to WTA (Washington Trails Association) or just a dollar in the mail would be very welcome. Thanks so much to everyone who has supported this cause in the past and hopefully again this year!

to: Amanda Arkebauer PO Box 16131 Seattle, WA  98116

Monday, July 01, 2019

Postcards 2019: The Ozarks

2019, this year I am going to highlight postcards from places that I have never visited!! I know many of you think that I have traveled all over the world and I have been to many places, but there are places here in the USA and all over the world that are still on my bucket list. So this year, I will be sharing postcards from places that I have not visited yet!