avg_rating: 3.96
name: Sunny Lockwood
about: Don't fear growing older. I've learned it is the portal to abundant riches.The potential of youth has been developed or squandered. The rewards or disappointments that accompany adulthood have been recorded on the heart. Lessons learned or ignored. And now, all that background, all that experience and insight can inspire and/or enable you to make postponed dreams come true.My husband and I met late in life, long after college and careers. We both loved reading, weekend travel, socializing with friends, and our creative pursuits. (I'd been a newspaper reporter, editor and columnist. He was a photographer who also designed and built homes).But a texting driver slamming into us at full speed while we sat at a red light, changed our lives. The Don't fear growing older. I've learned it is the portal to abundant riches.The potential of youth has been developed or squandered. The rewards or disappointments that accompany adulthood have been recorded on the heart. Lessons learned or ignored. And now, all that background, all that experience and insight can inspire and/or enable you to make postponed dreams come true.My husband and I met late in life, long after college and careers. We both loved reading, weekend travel, socializing with friends, and our creative pursuits. (I'd been a newspaper reporter, editor and columnist. He was a photographer who also designed and built homes).But a texting driver slamming into us at full speed while we sat at a red light, changed our lives. The wreck woke us up to the fragility of life. And although we'd been busy with all our various involvements, we realized that we'd better stop putting off dreams we hoped to do "some day."Most of our "some day" dreams were travel related. We registered for a Panama Canal cruise. Pre-cruise research revealed the fascinating political high jinks behind the canal, and the heart-breaking number of lives lost in building it.The story mesmerized us, but not as much as the trip itself: traveling through the world's most famous short-cut in exactly the same way the first ship went through.It was all so exciting, we wrote a book about it: Cruising Panama's Canal.And our new adventure -- writing travel memoirs -- was born. Since that first travel memoir (which, by the way, was a National Indie Excellence Award finalist), we've written travel memoirs about cruising the Mediterranean, cruising the Atlantic and exploring Venice, Florence, Rome &amp; Barcelona.This year (2017) we're writing about cruising the Mississippi, exploring river towns along the way and getting a feel for the largest, longest river in the U.S.A.Hopefully, this book will launch in 2018.We write to share our adventures and to encourage others to make their own long-held dreams come true.When we're not traveling, we take classes at the local community college, enjoy the company of friends and family, read a book or two a month (I read nonfiction, Sweetheart Al reads thrillers), and think about our next trip.The years we have accumulated add depth (and often humor) to our adventures. ...more