A sad day for the Flying W Ranch

http://www.flyingw.com/

I recall my first family trip back in the 60s.  I'm talking all three of us piled into the car, along with a tiny porta-potty for yours truly, and ventured Westward across this great country.  I remember stopping for a Dairy Queen in Kansas, visiting the Bug Museum, Cave of the Winds, Santa's North Pole Workshop near Pike's Peak, Pike's Peak itself (via the nifty tramway), and eventually Disneyland.  I was three years old and still have fond memories of that long-ago trip (even the part when I accidentally left my crayons on the back window and they melted there, decorating my Dad's car with dots of rainbow - and giving my Skipper doll's hair some unwanted highlights and lowlights).  In fact, I recall these places in vivid sense memory.  And that's really saying something, especially since many trips made in more recent years don't have that hold on my heart - and aforementioned senses.

But if you asked me to recall one place we visited most clearly, in small details of sound, smell and (Ooh Lordy!) taste, it would be the Flying W Ranch Chuckwagon Show and Dinner.  The musical cowboys took the stage under an outdoor, open air structure.  They played songs like "Happy Trails" and the eerie "Ghost Riders in the Sky" (evocative both back then and now of whispy, transparent-gray cowpokes and their phantom horses).  We sat at a long, wooden table with throngs of other happy vacationers and were treated to a tasty cowboy supper of a BBQ beef brisket sandwich, baked beans (best ever, ever), buttery corn bread and tangy-sweet lemonade.  I can still remember plunking down my empty tin cup after draining it of the lemonade, wiping my mouth clean with the back of my sleeve, satisfied and full.  What more do you need while listening to cowboy crooners while a gentle, evening breeze licked up against your shins?

It's with the deepest sadness that I must report this wonderful tourist attraction is no more.  I visited Santa's North Pole Workshop's Facebook page this morning and learned that Flying W Ranch fell vicitm to the tremendously savage fires that are menacing Colorado as I write this.  I'm constructing this blog post in order to inform my readers to please pray for the families affected by this tragedy, and the business owners who've lost their beloved Ranch, which charmed folks for the past 60 years.  And, in addition, I'm urging everyone to keep prayers of protection going for Santa's North Pole Workshop, for nearby towns like Manitou Springs, for the glorious forests, and Garden of the Gods.

While writing this, I can't keep my eyes from tearing up for those ghostriders, now a sweet, disntant memory ...

Selling the book, the Facebook page, and some wonderful friends

So, yesterday was the big splash for the book, but really it was only the first part of the splash.  Like navigating through a waterpark.  Consider yesterday's splash like, oh, maybe taking your inner tube and coasting down the Lazy Rapids (or whatever else one might call that slow-moving river-like part of a typical waterpark).  What's left?  Oh, the rest of the Really Big Waterpark!  Like contacting everyone I have ever received an email from, everyone I have an email for who is connected to a park, all my agents and clients from my voice-over world, connecting with small bookstores in the region, and eventually, reminding all the PR folks from all the parks that the book actually exists and is ready to wield its magic.

Then there's setting up book signings.  I have some irons in the fire on that avenue.  Small bookstores, libraries, even the Oak Park Arms, where my Dad lives.  They've all expressed interest in one form or another.  And every stone must be turned in order to get the Cotton Candy message out to the masses.

But back to yesterday.  I splashed Facebook, launched my book's Facebook page:

(https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Cotton-Candy-Roadtrip/204002577720)

... and told every person I know there, over 600 friends, about the page and to hopefully get it "liked".  Additionally, I took out a Facebook ad with a small budget, and am starting to get folks from all over the world interested in my project!  But the sweetest thing ...

was the outpouring of enthusiasm and love from my Facebook buddies. Their generosity of spirit moved me again and again throughout the day.  One friend purchased a copy of the book so quickly it made me dizzy, then went on to share the book's page link with her other friends.  A number of friends did that as well, shared the Facebook page link.  I blushed time after time at their words of encouragement, how they plugged the book sight unseen, just knowing it's a labor of love, that I poured my whole self into it.

Thank you friends.  Such generosity will be graciously returned.