Two Penny Travels

"Was a Time When" Available as Printed Book

My book is now available as a printed book at CreateSpace.com or Amazon.com. Now it is on to the book launch business.

sam

Have a Happy 2012 New Year

To all our friends and readers, have a good 2012, even if the news seems it could be somewhat sour. Keep a healthy spirit and go with the flow. Be prepared and keep you fuel and water tanks full, your waste tanks empty.

The price of fuel may rise during the year, but get out and do some exploring while you still can. Maybe we will meet you on the road.

While you are out, visit our booth at the Arizona Market Place in Yuma, or just come by www.prudentrver.com and get your LEDs. Oh yes, also visit www.WasATimeWhen.com to keep up on my new book. The kindle version is available; the paper version will be ready later this month.

Hugs, Sam and Alice and Wolf

"Was a Time When" Published on Kindle, Dec 27, 2011

It's done, or at least the Kindle part is done. I published my new book last night as a Kindle book. It is available at Amazon for $3.98 and ready for immediate download. The paper copy book will be available around mid-January.

I am very interested in getting some professional reviews of the book. If you have a blog where you discuss books or the fate of the world in the next 75 years, let me know your background and how to reach you and I will send you a review copy, either a .pdf or a paper copy (when available), free of charge.

For your information, here is my product description.

This tale began in 2006 as the autobiography of my fictional great-grandson, Sam, yet-to-be-born in 2015. Sam would live through the greatest cultural transition ever experienced by the human race. I encased his memoirs in a short story telling of an expedition of Neu-human archeologists from a thousand years in the future, 3100 A.D., who return to the Pacific Coast searching for their roots. They find Sam's recorded life story and hear a first-hand account of the “Great Collapse” of human society as they had come to call it.

Sam Hardy's life begins at the peak of the tremendous spurt of technology and social advance in the second decade of the 21st century, powered by what many still thought at the time would be an infinite supply of energy and a stable world of commerce and trade. Sam writes the history of humanity's course through the transitions that result from expected natural disasters, resource depletion, climate change, over-population, and economic and cultural failure as his family and tribe struggle to learn to live in a new world of limited resources and crashing dreams.

There are many possible worlds our progeny could face, but in my mind the world described here unfortunately seems to be one of the more probable. My goal is to tell of some of the changes that can be expected as our society searches for its future, and as those technologies and resources on which our civilization depend fall away. This is a tale of retrospection, as seen through the eyes of someone who lives through it and remembers that there Was a Time When things were so different.

And yet, in Sam's final words, there is still hope: “So this is goodbye. Maybe I have been wrong in my pessimism and damnation of humanity, and there really is a future for mankind on this planet. At least I have joined a group that is beginning the steps to future recovery. God willing, I will have the chance to watch that future blossom. I pray this band I join will build the roots of a better civilization than what my peers built for the last one.”

I will be discussing the book and offering ideas on other options and how to cope with the future at www.WasATimeWhen.com. Come by for a visit.

Prudent RVer Back in Yuma at the Arizona Market Place

We finished up our doctor visits in Temecula and headed off to Yuma for Christmas. Nancy has been taking care of our booth at the Arizona Market Place (4th and 32nd in Yuma), and we will be spending Christmas here to help and celebrate. We will be back at Jojoba Hills for the New Year's party.

On the health front, I underwent heart ablation that so far is successful. It knocked my heart back into sinus rhythm like it was supposed to, and I feel better than before. Alice has one good eye from her cataract surgery of four weeks ago, and she is schedule for the next eye on Jan 9. When you reach our age, repair jobs become the standard.

Hugs to everyone,

Sam and Alice and Wolf

Earthquake books -- shades of the past

Ten years ago I was very interested in earthquakes and wrote a couple of novels about what it would be like when the New Madrid once again fractures. I have just put those novels into Kindle format and they are available at kdp.amazon.com. The following is the press release I sent out about this 200th anniversary of the big event in 1811.

 200 Years Ago a Great Earthquake Killed Up to 20% of the Population Around New Madrid, Missouri - What If That Earthquake Happened Today?

Sam Penny's Novels, Memphis 7.9 (Revised), and Broken River

(now available on Kindle) describe what would happen

in a repeat of that same event today.

200 years ago, on December 16, 1811, the first of four in a series of great earthquakes stuck the New Madrid Seismic Zone under the Mississippi River, wrecking havoc over 650,000 square miles in what is now the central United States, shaking the foundations of cities from Toronto, Ontario to Boston, Massachusetts to Charleston, South Carolina.

In 2002 and 2005 Sam Penny published two novels, “Memphis 7.9 (Revised)” and “Broken River,” which described a scenario of the conditions that represented his best estimates of what the world in the affected area would be like should a similar seismic event occur today on the New Madrid Seismic Zone. Both of these books are available through [url:http://amazon.com]Amazon.com[/url]. Penny has just published Kindle versions of the books as well.

Back in 1811 over the next two months another three gigantic earthquakes struck the New Madrid Seismic Zone under what was then the western edge of our country – what now is the center of the United States of America. The first event is estimated to have been a 7.9 magnitude event focused near what is known today as the bottom of the Missouri boot-heel. A second earthquake the same size happened six hours later thirty miles north under New Madrid, Missouri.

The third earthquake on January 23, 1812 was of smaller intensity, but it was followed on February 7, 1812 by the largest event on the thrust zone, again under the shattered village of New Madrid. Aftershocks continued to shake the region for the next five years.

The 1810 census reported the population of the affected region to be about 5,000, plus as many as 20,000 slaves. This covered the cities along the Mississippi and Ohio rivers, including Louisville, New Madrid, and down to Memphis. That census did not even consider the sizable Native American Indian population in the area.

Some estimates suggest that as much as 20% of the total population was killed as a result of the seismic activity and pestilence that followed. It was a small number back then, but today over 32 million people live in the threatened region; 20% would be 6.4 million.

Both of Penny's books received Honorable Mention at the MidSouthCon Science Fiction Fair and are noted for their detailed descriptions of the effects of seismic shaking along the New Madrid Seismic Zone.

Penny says, “My books are based upon analytical studies of what the new world will be like in Memphis and along the Mississippi River when such a seismic event takes place. It is not a matter of IF, but of WHEN.” The USGS estimates that in the next 50 years there is a a 25 to 40 percent chance of a magnitude 6 or larger earthquake, including a 7 to 10 percent chance of another series like that of 1811 and 1812.

The books consider both the immediate dynamic impacts of the strong seismic events that will happen in the region, as well as the effects upon society as the infrastructure of civilization falls apart around the area.

“I am pleased with the response of some who live along the New Madrid Seismic Zone in their preparations for an obvious event in their future,” Penny says, “but I am still concerned with the lack of preparation in the overall region for what could be their fate in the not too distant future.”

Penny's books are available at Amazon.com and at www.prudentrver.com. The Kindle versions of the book are available exclusively at kdp.Amazon.com.

Recent Travels in AZ and CA

We recently returned from a week in Yuma, AZ. We expect to be in Jojoba for the next four weeks.

We joined Nancy in Yuma to get the Arizona Market Place booth up and running. She actually did most of the work as we got things organized for the coming season. The period started with hot weather, but it has turned reasonable.

Before going back to Yuma Alice and I had done a number of doctor appointments during the month of October, including dental work, Alice's colonoscopy, a heart checkup, and Alice's eye checkup. The big thing is that Alice is now scheduled to have cataract surgery next week. She has been diagnosed with some small amount of macular degeneration in both eyes. We hope the surgery will clear things up and the meds suggested by Dr. Philip will control the degeneration.

I have agreed to go in for a heart ablation to try to stop my atrial fibrilation. This is yet to be scheduled.

One of the more pressing matters is that I am in the process of finishing my latest book, "Was a Time When" and it should be going to print by the end of the year. It will be interesting to see well the book goes. I hope it will become a best seller, but who knows.

So, we will keep you informed on what is going on.

sam

Back at Jojoba Hills

Well, our trip is over and we are back in Jojoba Hills. By the time we got here the batteries had given out completely, so I now have four new AGM batteries, 190 AHrs each. Hope these hold for the next 7.5 years like the last ones did.

I did finish the cleanup of my new book Was A Time When and it is going into final review. I hope to have it published sometime next month, at least by the end of the year.

The LED business is limping along, just like the rest of the economy. Nancy is setting up our booth in Yuma again. We will need to go a help by the end of the month.

Sam Penny, the Prudent RVer

Mid-Trip Lake Minden

Well, we made it off on our trip. We left a week ago Wednesday (9/14) and drove to the Palmdale Elks. It was a good place to stop, but there was not much there. Next we drove to the San Luis Obispo Elks. The lodge there was much more convivial and we enjoyed our three night stay. But most of our time was spent with the family gathering up in Cayucos to celebrate the commitment of Sasha and Jessie.

From SLO we headed to Walnut Creek Elks. Everything was sort of nice until we got onto the freeways around the Bay Area. Boy, they are rough on rig and body. Two nights at that location allowed us to visit with our son Mike, Gail, and their son Matthew.

Leaving WC we headed to Sacramento. Now, the cost of crossing the Martinez bridge with my rig is $14 for 5 axles. We made it into Lake Minden TTN in good time and settled in on a site in D Section. The problem was we came at the hot period with three days of 98 degree weather. It is supposed to cool tomorrow.

So now we are continuing to rest at Lake Minden. We will go down to Sacramento to see Deb and Paula later this week.

That's it for now. Sam, the Prudent RVer

Planning Our Next Trip

Looking at my itinerary record, I see that we returned to Jojoba Hills from Palm Desert TTN last spring on March 25. We are finally planning on heading out on a 2+ week trip on September 14. That is almost 6 months! No wonder Alice is saying she is getting "hitch-itch."

We have stayed here to do doctor visits and improve our site. I put in a vegie garden plus some flowers. It has been a very nice stay with some good neighbors. Along the way I had my teeth worked on and my eyes checked. My Afib has continued, but things now seem to be under control. It has been a good rest, but we really need to get out more often.

So, on 9/14 we head north. The weekend of 9/17 we will be near Cayucos on the coast to celebrate the committment of our niece Sasha and her partner Jessie. From there we will go to Walnut Creek and visit son Michael and his family. Then to Sacramento to see Deb and Paula for a few days.

Heading back south we plan to visit the SKP coop at CoarseGold then go by and see my sister Rosemary and her family. Then it is back to Jojoba. I have a radio interview on Saturday 10/1 to talk about preparing for an earthquake and the following week is getting ready for the Jojoba garage sale.

Later in October we plan to go to Yuma to help Nancy get the Arizona Market Place booth going. The LED business is going pretty well, and we need to make it go better. I hope to have several articles out in the next few weeks.

So we are starting to move around a bit more. It just takes a little while longer.

sam, the Prudent RVer

Getting the Truck Ready

We have spent the summer here at Jojoba Hills. It is now getting hotter, and there is family to see back up in northern CA. So it is time to get the truck ready to pull the rig out and travel.

Our first effort this summer was when we had to rebuild the tranny. We had a check engine light that kept us from passing a smog check, and when we took it in to clear the check light, they found the tranny needed a rebuild! It was not what I expected.

The check light is now off. But when we take a trip into town the Air Conditioning blows warm air. So we took the truck in to get the AC working. They found that the O-rings were probably the originals and were flat, so there were leaks that drained the fluid from the compessor. Then when they took the tube off to fix the O-rings, they found three pin-holes that were very near leaking. So it is a matter of replacing the whole tube. We pick the truck up today.

When we get the truck I am taking it up to Maximum Diesel in San Jacinto to get a new set of batteries and wiring harness. Russ said I had the original 10-year-old batteries still in the truck, and they were shrinking from old age. Time to rejuvinate them.

We do expect to have the truck in good working order in time for our departure on 9/13 for our trip north. It will be good to see some of the family again.

In the meantime, I am still working on the website www.prudentrver.com, so go by and see what is new.

sam