"Gypsy Piper Girl" LadyXoc's Profile
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.
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
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
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.
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
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
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?
Explore the World
LadyXoc
“The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.~ St Augustine”
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- Member Rank:
- 0 3 7 9 4
- Real Name
- Melinda Carlson
- Location
- Illinois, United States of America
- Member Since
- May 21, 2006
- Website
- www.gypsypipergirl.com/
- 50 Reviews
- 308 Photos
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Badges & Stats
- 50 Reviews
- 308 Photos
- 19,989PageViews
- 6 Countries
- 27 Cities
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- See All Badges (4)
Latest Activity
- Commented on LadyXoc's profile page
- updated a Alaska Travel Page "Alaska and the Artic Circle"
- Uploaded a Video to Alaska
- LadyXoc and giampiero6 are now friends.
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updated their Profile Page "Gypsy Piper Girl"
- Uploaded a Photo to "Granite Tors Trail"
- Wrote a Review Segway tour in Fairbanks in Fairbanks Things to Do
- Posted in Travel Dublin Forum "Re: 1.5 day drive in ireland"
Photos
See All Photos (308)Top 10 Pages
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Fairbanks
Intro, 6 reviews, 17 photos
-
Fortuna
Intro, 4 reviews, 14 photos
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Bray
Intro, 3 reviews, 13 photos
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Ireland
Intro, 2 reviews, 13 photos
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Isla Mujeres
Intro, 3 reviews, 11 photos
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Top 5 Page for this destination
Bisbee
Intro, 2 reviews, 11 photos
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Flagstaff
Intro, 2 reviews, 10 photos
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Dublin
Intro, 1 review, 8 photos
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Chattanooga
Intro, 1 review, 8 photos
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Parque Natural Barranca del Cobre
Intro, 1 review, 6 photos
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Backpacking
Road Trip
Diving and Snorkeling
Comments (15)
Happy birthday Melinda :)
Thank you! Hope you had a super weekend :D
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.
There she is...she has a head and a smile! :)
Haha thanks for pointing out my decapitation
Hope your birthday will be a good one and lead to a year filled with more travel and success.
A warm happy birthday greeting from Malaysia.
Hey Melinda, "Happy Birthday", with all my best wishes .... :)
A Merry Christmas to everybody! A happy New Year to all the world!
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
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
Happy birthday! Hope you had a wonderful day..keep up the travels. Kaisa