A friend of mine who writes and produces reality TV shows just clued me into a new Travel Channel show her production company is working on, called Trip Flip. High Noon Entertainment is looking for people who have typical vacations planned in popular destinations this spring and summer. But they want daring people willing to flip their trips into something more unusual and adventurous: same destinations, more exciting itineraries.

If you already have a vacation planned in Italy, or one of several other destinations, you can ask the Travel Channel to Flip Your Trip.

Since the Trip Flip concept is in keeping with the Girls Trek Too mission, I’m posting the information here in case you or your friends are interested in taking your vacation up a notch - and enjoying your fifteen minutes of fame in the process.

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David drove, and his mother Carmela rode shotgun, stiff-backed and silent - maybe because her son’s CD of thumping, electronic Latin dance music was vibrating the compact car around her.

“This music doesn’t bother your mother?” I asked Patricia, who sat with me in back.

“No, my mom doesn’t mind at all.”

“It would drive mine up the wall,” I said. I didn’t mention that it was doing that to me. It was nice of David to drive, and I thought it would seem ungrateful to complain. I tried to tune out the music.

The Chihuahua desert was as stark as I’ve described it in the novel I’m writing.

Studying the scenery didn’t help. The Chihuahua desert was as stark as I’ve described it in the novel I’m writing: creosote, sand, mesquite, sand, yucca, and sand… miles of prickly drab, topped by cirrostratus-whipped sky. The distant hills struggled to look mountainous, as if the desert wanted to rise to more than it was: a place not to get caught on foot without water.

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