Jump to content
  • Welcome to the TransPulse Forums!

    We offer a safe, inclusive community for transgender and gender non-conforming folks, as well as their loved ones, to find support and information.  Join today!

Travels With Charlize....a trans US journey


Charlize

Recommended Posts

  • Forum Moderator

Well i'm packing for a trip with my wife across the country. We are headed to the Grand Canyon and the four corners region. I'm not at all sure how far we'll make it but at this point it seems we'll leaving tomorrow and heading west on Rt. 70.

If you see a big grey sprinter van crossing through your neighborhood with a wheelchair on the back it's possibly us. We'll be camping but may well have wifi ayr some of the campsites so i'll try to post a bit.

Packing is certainly harder(but more fun) for me than it was a few years ago. Now i need some outfits etc. A pair of clean jeans isn't enough anymore.

I'm glad that today our health is good enough to travel and I hope we get to see the country we've never seen before.

If anyone wants to send me a PM i am hoping to meet some members as we travel.

I must admit to feeling a bit apprehensive. I'm a trans person with a bad heart and my wife is in a wheelchair with MS but we aren't dead yet. Wish us luck.

Hugs,

Charlize

Link to comment
  • Replies 93
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

  • Charlize

    30

  • Carolyn Marie

    5

  • gennee

    4

  • Cyndee

    3

Woooohoooooo.

ROAD TRIP!!!!!<giggle>

Stop and shop at 4 corners.

You have plenty of space in the Sprinter so you can always buy more clothes en-route.

That's another nice thing about road trips.

Enjoy Your Trans Continental Journey. Come home safely.

Huggs, :wub:

Joann

Link to comment
Guest Clair Dufour

If your taking I-70 thru Colorado PM me to get my cell number. Im at one of the turn off's to Four Corners. Keep in mind we have already had snow above 10,000 feet so road reports are important crossing the Rockies. Yes the rocks and desert are great but, wait see the irrigation and farms and orchards it makes possible.

Link to comment
  • Admin

It sounds like a wonderful trip, Charlize. Please watch those weather reports and be safe, and take lots of pictures. I was in Utah recently and its a beautiful state. Watch out for the green chile, though; packs a punch! It doesn't sound like you're going to make it as far west as California, but please let me know if you change plans.

Happy trails to you! Yeeee haaaaa!

HUGS

Carolyn Marie

Link to comment
  • Admin

Back on the road again!! I do hope you make the GC, if I did not have full booking that weekend, I might have found a way to make the 15 hour drive out there. Be safe, I 70 can have some surprises, I have traveled it west to east in late spring in 2001 and had a lot of fun.

Link to comment

Hi Charlize,

I drove across the country twice in 2011. The Southern routes are better if the weather is iffy, but the North routes are nice as long as the weather is okay. Traveling can be an excuse to do some clothes shopping at stops along the way. :)

Good Luck, and have fun!

hugs,

Stephanie

Link to comment

Not sure of your route after I-70 but South on 191 once you are in Utah will take you south past Moab where you have access to Arches and Canyonlands which are really nice this time of year.

Mia

Link to comment

Not sure of your route after I-70 but South on 191 once you are in Utah will take you south past Moab where you have access to Arches and Canyonlands which are really nice this time of year.

Mia

:thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

Link to comment
  • Forum Moderator

Well a great first days trip! We are 5 miles west of California. I couldn't believe the sign. Oh it's California PA next to the West Virginia border. This campsite is run by the local firehouse and the nice fireman who checked us in gave us a pass key to the ladies room, no problem. I think my wife will understand how other folks see me by the end of the trip. The farms we passed were beautiful and with my rose colored sunglasses the beginning of fall colors was even more beautiful. I'm not home sick yet. Our little home is warm and cozy. One of the only thing i lack is a good map. Garmen is great for getting where you want to go but it doesn't tell me where i am. I kinda miss the old folding maps that even tell you where the rivers and towns you are passing are.

Anyway a few more days just driving before we hit Cortez CO and start to drive around some parks etc. I want to get a pretty Navaho belt and maybe some jewelry as well. A girl can dream.

Hugs,

Charlize

Link to comment

Sounds great. The weather is here in Colorado today so you should be here after it has passed. The south west area of the state is wonderful.

Mia

Link to comment
  • Admin

If you were really 5 miles west of California USA, you would really be in Deep Blue TROUBLE!!! Life is to be enjoyed!! You did just remind me that my AAA membership is due and I gotta pay it soon.

Link to comment

If you were really 5 miles west of California USA, you would really be in Deep Blue TROUBLE!!! ......

Took the words out of my mouth.<giggle>

Don't forget the colorful Navaho blanket. ;)

Safe travels to You.

Huggs, :wub:

Joann

Link to comment
  • Forum Moderator

Well now we are in Kansas, well i means Kansas Illinois. So confusing after an 8 hour drive into rain. Fortunately the rain let up to hook up the electric and sewer. This campground unfortunately doesn't have drinkable water! Glad we had some in our tanks from home to do our teeth with. Picked up a great vegetarian Indian meal at a truck tsp in Indiana. Who would believe south Indian cuisine at a truck stop. I must admit to being exhausted but an looking forward to my trans AA Skype meeting. Amazing how great the confuser has made things.

Hugs,

Charlize

Link to comment
Guest Clair Dufour

There are two places to turn off to Cortez. Glenwood Springs thru Gunnison and Grand Junction the Clifton exit (me). Both take you to Delta, Montrose and South to Cortez. The latter is eazier and faster and just as nice and past Montrose the going is slow. There are other great ways to cross the Rockies but this not the time of year and us older folks don't do so good at over 13,000 feet.The Navaho have some great campgrounds and in case you don't know, you can camp on BLM land for free. 80% of the west is BLM. just ask.

Link to comment
  • Forum Moderator

Today was made great by a visit with one of my sisters from Laura's. Kathyrn Julia and i had lunch together. What a joy to meet and have a chance to hug her. The day was wet and raining until then but the sun showed as we headed into Kansas. We are at a motel tonight getting nice hot showers and a chance to stretch out. My poor long suffering wife. Our first house was an old laundry truck with a pot bellied stove and now i've got her back into a van. Will i ever grow up.

Tomorrow Colorado if everything goes well.

Seeing the plains is lovely. It reminds me so much of the ocean except it is all soybeans and corn. Beautiful

Hugs,

Charlize

Link to comment
  • Forum Moderator

Charlize, So happy to hear that you're having a great time. I bet you and Kathy had a wonderful time together at lunch.

Are you coming back I-70?

Mike

Link to comment

Charlize, So happy to hear that you're having a great time. I bet you and Kathy had a wonderful time together at lunch.

Are you coming back I-70?

Mike

Maybe the more appropriate question would be:

Are you coming back?<giggle>

I'm happy to hear that you are enjoying your travels and meeting more of our Members.

Can't help but feel a bit jealous. :blush:

Huggs, :wub:

Joann

Link to comment
  • Forum Moderator

We made it to Lamar Colorado. Kansas was not at all boring. Morning light on the flint hills was totally beautiful. The rolling hills covered with an even red tinged high grass set against the blue sky....what a way to start your day.

The only part of the drive that i didn't like was the feed lots. I think all meat eaters should come see and smell the hell their dinner is forced to endure. I'm a veggie but we do raise meat on our farm. My animals are happy until the day they are gone. I can't believe my fellow humans can raise livestock in those conditions. Sorry for that rant.

We traveled behind three propellers for windmills. Each had it's own truck that was as long as 3 or 4 normal tractor trailers. They were beautiful and were traveling oblong one lane roads at 75 MPH. Not a car in site. A jersey girl doesn't get bored of open road. I rarely see it at home.

Dodge City was fun remembering Miss Kitty on Gunsmoke and Wyatt Erpe. We ate our lunch looking at a somewhat cheesy reproduction of an old western town at Boot Hill.

Tomorrow we are hoping to stay in Durango. A friend said it was a great town.

Folks have been all nice. I talk to all the women but the men leave me alone. All well and good for me.

Hugs,

Charlize

Link to comment

:thumbsup::D:thumbsup:

:ThanxSmiley: for your continued up-dates on Your Journey, Charlize.

Those meat "factories" certainly have much to be desired.

I'm happy to hear that you are having a wonderful trip.

Huggs, :wub:

Joann

Link to comment

Hi Charlize

I so miss visiting Colorado and traveling up into the mountains to fish for trout. Visiting old gold mining towns. We had a favorite lake that in the spring you wake up to the mountains shining on the lake and it was beautiful to sit. wrapped up in a blanket with a hot cup of coffee. And just enjoy the view. The leaves on the Aspen should be turning to a beautiful fall colors in Colorado about now. Especially in the mountains.

Safe travels Charlize and tell your wife that I enjoyed meeting her. Kathy

Link to comment
  • Forum Moderator

WiFi in the Steaming Bean Coffee house in Durango. Tha mountain passes at 10,000+ ft were awesome. Kathyrn you were right the aspen were bright yellow on the mountains against the green firs. It was hard to keep my eyes on the road but very necessary as the curves and switchbacks were demanding driving combined with snow squalls and high winds. I have no regrets about heading west. For an eastern girl i am awed at the vastness and emptiness of this country. I had a cell call or 3 from Clair as we crossed the high plains before the San Juan mountains. My wife looked it up and indeed it is the least populated part of the continent. Hard to believe you can drive on a two lane highway at 75 MPH for 10 to 15 minutes before passing someone else going the other direction at 75. Major traffic jam to see another person. Even the cows were miles apart. Needless to say our cell phone contacts were broken by distance and the mountains we were approaching.

Sorry i couldn't post last night the campsite WiFi was terrible but at least the ladies room was warm on a frosty night. Being myself on the road is just so rewarding. I feel so much just me now that gender issues are way in the background until guys start acting weird and women are so friendly.

Hugs to all,

Charlize

Link to comment

Glad to hear you have made it to Durango.

Welcome to Colorado's really wonderful areas. Did you come over the infamous Wolf Creek Pass? They have improved it a lot from the C.W. McCall days.

Mia

Link to comment
  • Forum Moderator

Yes Mia we did the Wolf Creek pass in our 24' sprinter van. Snow, wind, and then sunshine. The views were spectacular but my knuckles got very white. I'm glad we have the power transmission shifter that Dodge added to the Mercedes. The climb is nothing compared to the decent. it was good practice for todays climb into Mesa Verde National Park. So beautiful. We had a great time seeing the ruins even though neither of us in in condition to do the climbs in and out of some of the sites. A ranger made us go back before getting too far down one climb. She was afraid my wife's power chair wouldn't make it back up. No problem we loved the views. Many of the people there were so kind to us then and later in the park. One gentleman asked me(don't tell my wife) if she was my mother. I think two women together makes folks wonder especially as after 43 years we are almost one in odd ways.

Don't know where we will head to next. Probably north to Canyon Lands. Tonight a good sleep in a motel after a long hot shower. Life is good.

Hugs,

Charlize

Link to comment

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Who's Online   9 Members, 0 Anonymous, 102 Guests (See full list)

    • Mealaini
    • SamC
    • Abigail Genevieve
    • MirandaB
    • MaeBe
    • VickySGV
    • Ivy
    • April Marie
    • MaybeRob
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.

  • Forum Statistics

    • Total Topics
      80.7k
    • Total Posts
      769.5k
  • Member Statistics

    • Total Members
      12,067
    • Most Online
      8,356

    autumn hill
    Newest Member
    autumn hill
    Joined
  • Today's Birthdays

    1. Ay-la
      Ay-la
      (51 years old)
    2. Camille
      Camille
      (48 years old)
    3. Dressupdoll
      Dressupdoll
      (57 years old)
    4. iliya
      iliya
      (37 years old)
    5. KaylaH
      KaylaH
      (48 years old)
  • Posts

    • Abigail Genevieve
      @VickySGV    Good point.  There are websites full of porn and fantasies related to cross dressing, trans stories, etc., and people might easily think those are written by TG types and accurately describe TG folk.
    • VickySGV
      No one has mentioned the Adult Entertainment Industry aka the Pornography Industry which for too long was the ONLY source of information about us for the general public.  I actually realized what I was from an XX Rated publication that I snuck behind a comic book at the neighborhood convenience / liquor store.  The person in the article told of her feelings up until and through GCS which I identified with completely, but then went on to the sob story of a marriage crashing when her knowing husband went to a new job and they found out she was Trans on a security check and threatened the husband with legal action unless he divorced her ---  yada yada!!   On that note she decided her  life was ruined. --    Other problems in the Porn Press are of course the "Morality" and it is there that child endangerment stories for actual mental illness types  comes in.  Also in that media they emphasize the Fetishistic Cross Dresser classification which is an actual addiction situation and is a harmful process addiction of sex that is as terrible as Drug and Alcohol Addiction can be.  The pornographic issues and sources of information are readily available in the opening pages of a Google Search while actual Trans information is about page 200 on the engine.   A recent misadventure I had that shows how acceptable I am as my True Self is that a man who claimed to be a church elder (minister??) told me how he had never come up with legitimate information   on Trans People and actual Trans Children and he went on to brag about what he did find that was morally damning by looking for the  information.  He continued to go into detail about other pornographic sources and how nasty they were. I asked him then why HE, a MINISTER kept looking at the Porn.  He replied to me that he kept up with it to warn his congregation of the true evils he had seen so he could minister to them.  Happily for me a friend of mine came along so I could  break away from the guy who was after my soul.  (He did not read me as Trans, whew!!)
    • Ashley0616
      Just like anything else that is new it's always the thing that people fear of. People are typically afraid of change. Even something as simple as new procedure at work or the population growing. Typically just have the mindset of it's not broken then don't fix it type of attitude. The world is progressing and they need to accept that or they will eventually be left behind. A good example after WW II women working in the workforce things didn't go well at all due to a lot of butting heads. There are still even people now that think women are only meant for housework and raising babies. 
    • RaineOnYourParade
      I've actually seen a lot of people who at least tolerate the LGB and not the T. There's also some of the gay/lesbian population that, unfortunately, alienate trans people away from other parts of the community.   To me, the biggest block is probably the lack of formal exposure. If people aren't taught about LGBT they will, just like any other topic, come to misunderstandings and more. Besides, how can most LGBT people figure out that they are such if they don't know it exists? I know that, personally, I didn't realize I was a guy rather than just someone who wanted to be a guy until I was introduced to trans as a concept 
    • Ashley0616
      You're welcome. I wanted to post something new that I haven't posted yet.   
    • Ashley0616
      That's a lot of weight congratulations. I was almost about to become a K9 handler in the Air Force back in 2006 but I found out that once you get promoted to E7 you lose your dog. You can get it at E4 as long as they need them but it is usually E5. If you don't understand military jargon, I'll help you out. I didn't want to join the Marines because I actually like to be treated better. I was Security Forces and performed security, law enforcement and everything you could think of such as convoying, fire fights, search pit just to name some. It also helped that I had family that was Air Force and I went through Air Force Junior Reserves Officer Training Corps so I knew the basics of Air Force already. That's awesome that you have goals in life. I hope you get it. 
    • Davie
      Not sure what category I'd call this—don't care—I like American music. Any American. Thanks, @Ashley0616
    • Ashley0616
      @FelixThePickleManTrust me I know the feeling. I didn't have the guts to come out that young. It wasn't well known back then. I knew I felt completely wrong. I knew for sure my parents weren't going to help me so I hid it all. It hurt a lot to live a lie. I always pretended to be the female that I was dating. I prayed and cried every night. It's not easy because bullying has always been around and the teachers didn't really care about that stuff back then.    You can make it through this. I would like to help you out just like I have with previous members. It's going to be up to you if you would like it. It's not going to happen overnight I can promise you that. For every negative thing or comment it typically needs double the number for positive things to feel better about yourself. You unfortunately are living with your parents which they are getting used to you coming out too. Sometimes coming out you're going to lose a lot of support. I lost over 40 family members but I'm happier than what I was. I still look at the mirror and still have my issues which is typical because we know our own faults and short comings. You have to value yourself. There isn't going to be an easy life. We all face many obstacles and it's harder for the ones that have something else to deal with.   We aren't in the same boat as some people are in yachts, cruise ships, and so on. There are perks and cons to each one. The best thing is to find something that you are great at and focus on that while trying to improve on the little things. Some have rituals everyday such as a new Bible verse that is related to what you are going through or a poem there are many poems for everything. 
    • Mmindy
      G'day @Vivelacors   Welcome to Transgender Pulse Forums, I hope you find this place as informative and helpful as I do.   Best wishes, stay positive, and safe,   Mindy🌈🐛🏳️‍⚧️🦋
    • Mmindy
      Tonight we will split a thick cut ribeye steak grilled outside, along with fresh asparagus shoots, apple sauce, and fresh cucumber salad. The steak has already been seasoned, wrapped in butcher paper resting to room temperature. The cucumber salad is blended and resting in the refrigerator.   Tomorrow's dinner will be Chicken drumsticks (skin on) that are already marinating in Zesty Italian dressing. Tomorrow I will smoke the drumsticks with apple-wood smoke, before crisping them up on the grill. We'll also have grilling beans, and garlic mashed potatoes.   The outside kitchen is now open.   Mindy🌈🐛🏳️‍⚧️🦋
    • missyjo
      red n black cotton n lace top...long flared jeans n 4 inch wedges hugs
    • MaeBe
      Clutching of pearls because people that don’t “align with society” party to excess is part of the problem, not a symptom of one. Cis-het folks are out there airing their sexuality, reveling in their debauchery, and displaying general anti-social behaviors all the time but aren’t reacted to in the same manner.   The most important T in this conversation is Time. As long as there is not a fascist, violent, crackdown on LGBTQ+ people, our exposure to society (at least in Western society) will continue to move it towards our acceptance.
    • Ashley0616
      Chicken drumsticks by the air fryer. 
    • MaeBe
      I have three within a two block walk! You'd think I was in Seattle already! The one I have always gone to is the quintessential "local coffee shop" though; local artist's works on the wall, drinks named after customers and local geography, and it's run down just enough to feel homey. Also, I can bring my 20oz coffee mug in and get it filled for the price of a small! :D
    • MaeBe
      Eczema was my excuse. *high fives!*   It's lovely when you get a nice interaction like that. Yesterday I got a "you're so sweet" from a man who I held the door for, I don't think he saw all of me until after he'd walked past so he only picked up on my outfit and body appearance. I was so paranoid that I used too male of a voice in return, but c'est la vie. I felt really nice after it though.   I tend to try to put in a lot of effort. If I wear make up, it has to be perfect, etc. I put this pressure on myself because I, too, don't have a chance in h-e-double hockey sticks at "passing".  So, I try not to make myself an "easy target".
  • Upcoming Events

Contact TransPulse

TransPulse can be contacted in the following ways:

Email: Click Here.

To report an error on this page.

Legal

Your use of this site is subject to the following rules and policies, whether you have read them or not.

Terms of Use
Privacy Policy
DMCA Policy
Community Rules

Hosting

Upstream hosting for TransPulse provided by QnEZ.

Sponsorship

Special consideration for TransPulse is kindly provided by The Breast Form Store.
×
×
  • Create New...