Detour to Paradise (ePub)

River Ames spent the first eighteen years of her life in Southern California. Here is a partial list of some of the cities in which she lived: Pasadena, South Pasadena, Duarte, El Monte, Arcadia La Puente, Lomita, West Covina, Pacifica, Santa Monica, Palm Dale, and Hacienda Heights.
In some of those cities, she lived at six different addresses.

In the city of La Puente, River’s family lived in four different houses on the same street.

The non-glamorous reason for all the moves was habitual eviction necessitated for non-payment of rent.

It was an interesting way to grow up.

River attended twenty-six different elementary schools, two different junior high schools and four different high schools. In one elementary school, she was a student for only three days.

Perhaps, because she was so frequently identified as the “new girl,” the pattern of River being an observer instead of a participant in the interactions going on around her seemed a logical fit for her personality.

When she was thirteen, River read “Gone with the Wind.” She skipped three days of school in order to finish the book in one sitting. Disappointed in Rhett for “not giving a damn,” River wrote her own sequel—in long hand, on three-hole punch, notebook paper. The opening line? “Tomorrow dawned bright and fair.” In less than fifty pages, Scarlett had been transformed into Jane Eyre and Rhett had fallen in love with her all over again.

After Southern California, River has spent the next part of her life living in the semi-rural town of Idaho Falls, Idaho. She is a graduate of Idaho State University, majoring in Health Education Sciences and Addiction Counseling. She’s worked the past ten years at a Behavioral Health Center where she assisted children, teenagers, and adults committed in a 24/7 secured facility because of mental health challenges they are experiencing.

River’s books celebrate the good-natured humor that lays at the heart of most of our human predicaments. The