Ginny Prior

CONTRACOSTATIMES.COM: July 8, 2011 The sign at the bar reads “Recession Special — A beer, dog and moon-pie for 5 bucks.” I put in my order and grab a stool near a neon sign next to a wall of old cowboy boots. It’s lunchtime at Robert’s Western World honkytonk, and the band is just warming [...]

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HILLS NEWSPAPERS: July 24, 2011 The sky was a palate of lilac and gray when we started our road trip last week from Minneapolis to Atlanta — the Tour d’Heartland as I like to call it. My daughter and I were taking my mom’s 98 Contour down to her nursing school in Georgia — with [...]

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HILLS NEWSPAPERS: May 13, 2011 I’m not one to live in the past, but when the phone rang outside an ice-cream parlor at the University of Oregon, I immediately slipped into college mode. I ran to the booth and picked up the receiver. “Hey baby,” said a deep, breathless voice on the other end, “are [...]

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HILLS NEWSPAPERS: April 28, 2011 It’s time for some travel trivia as we head toward summer. What Texas icon is having a big birthday this year? No, it’s not T. Boone Pickens or George W. Bush. Remember the Alamo? This year marks the 175th anniversary of the most famous fight in Texas history — the [...]

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HILLS NEWSPAPERS: April 15, 2011 Everything I’ve ever known about Montana can be summed up in three words — college, cowboys and the Crystal Bar. The Crystal, mind you, is not just any old watering hole. In my days at Montana State University, it was a beer-chugging, chaw-spittin,’ country dive bar where the jukebox blasted [...]

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CONTRACOSTATIMES.COM: April 1, 2011 Showing affection on the dance floor isn’t really my style. I’ve seen couples sway in an ardent embrace as their feet move in sync to the beat. That’s not me. It hasn’t been me for a long time. But on a dark coastal night when the surf seemed to surge through [...]

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HILLS NEWSPAPERS: March 4, 2011 Three little letters are changing the way we travel. Around the world, “apps” are helping tourists navigate the most interesting and exotic locales. Take Berkeley, for instance. Exotic doesn’t begin to describe this unique destination, which now has its own iPhone, iPad and iTouch application, thanks to 30-year resident Lee [...]

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HILLS NEWSPAPERS: February 18, 2011 When I was a young mother, I often wondered what it would be like to raise a large family. I mean a big “Jon and Kate plus eight” kind of family, or a brood akin to the kids living with the old woman in the shoe. After teaching a semester [...]

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HILLS NEWSPAPERS: February 4, 2011 First impressions can be deceiving. Take Long Beach, for instance. Twenty-some years ago I came here with my parents and husband. We toured the Queen Mary and went back to our hotel. We left the next day thinking, “Is that all there is?”

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