"Gypsy Piper Girl" LadyXoc's Profile

Have bagpipe, will travel

They call me "The Gypsy Piper"
2010 adventure- This summer I am planning on backpacking the Chilkoot Trail in Alaska.
In 2012 I plan on living up there for the whole summer!

I would just say that I am just a girl trying to get thru life in the most interesting ways possible. I like sleeping in unusual places and have spent two recent Christmas holidays sleeping in odd places. Christmas 2006 was in a vintage airstream trailer park. Christmas 2007 I slept in the Wig Wam motel (each room really did look like a wig wam) in Holbrook Arizona.
I like to travel, camp, hike, back pack, take pics, cross country ski, play the bagpipe, read, and chat with friends over a glass of wine or a bit of Irish Whiskey (straight). I am not particularly brilliant at any of that but that doesn't matter much to me. Better to try than not bother.

When I can I volunteer in National parks either thru American Hiking society or Passport in Time. Trail work or archaeology...it's all good.
Lately my evil plot is to sell other peoples junk on e-bay and then buy plane tickets for my next adventure. mwa ha ha
As I write this I am plannning a long weekend in Boston for this weekend and my BIG adventure for the summer is to go to Alaska and to the Arctic Circle!!!! (accomplished 7/08)
If only I could make a career out of traveling. I love to explore.
This is one of my favorite pictures. This was taken in Doolin, Ireland right before a storm. Not many trees in Ireland. A tree would have been handy for ducking from the hail that came 60 seconds after this pic.

Adventures

Me at the Summiton the Chilkoot Trail

2006
April Mountain Biking Canyonlands National Park
June Chicago
June Athelstane
July The Spam Museum
December Bisbee
2007
March NYC
May St Louis Missouri
June-July Adventure Diva Roadtrip/backpacking
July Galena Maryland, Ocean City Maryland, & Gettysburg PA
November Isla Mujeres, Quintana Roo, Mexico
December Adventure Diva Roadtrip thru American Southwest
2008
Arctic Circle and Alaska
2009
June Starved Rock State Park, IL
JulyCamping In Maine
July Chattanooga, TN
September Berlin, MA
November County Wicklow, Ireland pics

Holy Cactii

I think I need a bandaid...or two

did mention that I was silly, right?

I love postcards! Please note- New address as of 3/1/10
Send me one if you like!!
Melinda Carlson
2500 N Main St
box 4
Rockford, IL 61103
USA

Potential disaster for The Gypsy Piper

weeeee

Ok well I didn't fall off. But I am a bit of a klutz so that may be a small miracle.
Once I was working on top of a mountain in Utah. I volunteered to dig up non-indigenous plants for the National Park Service. As we were bushwhacking I stepped on something that sounded like a 35mm camera rewinding it's film. I paused. The GPS thingy was kinda new so I thought maybe the Ranger dropped his. Yeah...no. That is when the woman behind me shrieked "YOU"RE STANDING ON A RATTLESNAKE" I jumped, of course. However the Ranger told me that rattlesnakes have to coil to strike and since I was standing on it..... whatever pal.

My new tent

Tent Hammock

This is a Hennessey tent Hammock. I have wanted one ever since the volunteer trip I mentioned above. That trip is not without it's incidents but that is what makes good beer drinking stories. I have L O T S of good beer drinking stories.
So there we are, on this mountain in Utah. A storm is blowing in. The Ranger tells us the road, as in the only way down the mountain, will most likely wash out so we best pack up and git. Ok done. Off we go to another location. An old horse corral dating back to pre-car times for the Rangers. It's dark. My flashlight broke. No biggee. I can put my tent up in the dark. So I do and I spread out my thermarest and try to sleep. I hear scratch scratch scratch from under me. I pound the bottom of the tent. Then from another spot I hear scratch scratch scratch. I pound that spot. I try to sleep. I hear scratch scratch scratch from another spot under me. OK I am just enough of a girl to object to something digging into my tent. Especially if it has teeth. sheesh. No flashlight but I can the the Rangers white truck by the light of the moon. I delicately tip toe to his truck and spread my sleeping bag onto the back seat. I sleep just fine. He, however, almost needed CPR when he opened up the truck door in the morning. ha

How fast does this rental car go????

Here kitty kitty

This makes me giggle. My annual road trip in the Southwest USA ove5 Christmas break. Christyn and I had left the Wigwam Motel and were heading to Utah and saw this dinosaur along the highway. he he

The best part about bagpiping is the camels

Please don't bite me

I am silly. Yes I know that.

The Arctic Circle

Along the HAul Road in the Artic

I have always wanted to go here! My future plan is to live in the Fairbanks area in the summers and work in the tourism industry. I have a friend married to a bush pilot there and just spent two weeks wandering all over. From Chitina in the south to milepost 300 on the Haul Road. That's just 100 miles shy of the top of Alaska and the Arctic Ocean!
This picture is of my camp site near some aufeis
What the heck is aufeis?

Intro Updated Sep 18, 2012
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Comments (15)

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cachaseiro May 11, 2013 at 1:12 AM

Happy birthday Melinda :)
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  LadyXoc May 12, 2013 at 2:49 PM
  
  Thank you! Hope you had a super weekend :D
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grayfo Sep 19, 2012 at 12:07 AM

Thanks for the Birthday Greeting Melinda, hope everything is great your end. If I get to Chicago again I will definitely give you a shout.
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giampiero6 Sep 18, 2012 at 11:15 AM

There she is...she has a head and a smile! :)
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  LadyXoc Sep 18, 2012 at 2:01 PM
  
  Haha thanks for pointing out my decapitation
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uglyscot May 11, 2012 at 11:30 PM

Hope your birthday will be a good one and lead to a year filled with more travel and success.
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DaHongHua May 11, 2012 at 6:45 AM

A warm happy birthday greeting from Malaysia.
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TrendsetterME May 10, 2012 at 9:48 PM

Hey Melinda, "Happy Birthday", with all my best wishes .... :)
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grayfo Dec 25, 2011 at 3:15 AM

A Merry Christmas to everybody! A happy New Year to all the world!
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jumpingnorman Jun 20, 2010 at 10:04 PM

Hi Gypsy Piper Girl! I added your jumping KILT pic in a new album on jumping costumes, hahaha..Thanks: "JUMPING INTO COSTUMES AROUND THE WORLD!" - Temple of Abu Simbel Travelogue by jumpingnorman
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Martin_S. Jun 6, 2009 at 11:50 PM

You stood on a rattlesnake and are here to tell about it, you lead a charmed life for sure.. Enjoy your travels it seems you are a magnet for adventure, large and small. Martin
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KaisaL May 13, 2008 at 2:09 PM

Happy birthday! Hope you had a wonderful day..keep up the travels. Kaisa