Once upon a time, before Facebook, there was a online community called Gaia…

It was an amazing place to be, where kindred spirits from around the world connected and shared. Originally called Zaadz, Gaia was special for those of us on it. It was definitely a little bit New Agey (for lack of a better adjective) and a place where people worked on personal growth.

We were all quite anonymous and had handles/avatars, etc.

My name was ‘MorningStar’, a name I received from a Native American in Mexico. A very good friend I met there, whom I know in person know, was ‘Budding Spritelet.’

We shared our lives…and stories

In any case, I started sharing stories about travel, with a spiritual twist, and one day, I proposed a few stories, including one about a 12-hour chicken bus ride.

Someone said, “Tell the chickybus story!”

I thought–“Yes, I love that name!”

I told the ‘chicken bus–aka, chickybus’–story, and then, I wrote more stories.

Eventually, I set up the blog and gave it the name: chickybus. 🙂

I then wrote and publish a collection of travel tales, including many of the blog’s stories. Its title: Magic Carpet Seduction (also the title of one of the stories, referring to Turkish carpet touts who will do nearly anything to get you to buy a rug).