I must admit that Twitter takes some getting used to, especially for a writer – or anyone for that matter – over the age of 25. The 140 character limit is quite off-putting and often exasperating. Of course the mistake is in not realizing that Twitter is not a blog or Facebook. It is quite simply a stream of quick thoughts or useful links to longer streams of consciousness. In short, my early frustration with Twitter grew out of trying to use it wrong. Without it, however; I would likely not have discovered an interesting blog called Road Trips for Readers, which I will tell you more about shortly.

First, those of you who follow my site know, I have increasingly become a big fan of the saga of Sheriff Walt Longmire – first the television series and now the series of books by Wyoming writer Craig Johnson. I have been working my way through the series and have polished off the first three books. As with many series I discover that are well under way, it is with mixed feelings to know I am so far behind. It is bothersome knowing I am behind those who have been reading them for years, but it is joyful to think that there is a stream of several books I have yet to enjoy.

Now back to Road Trips for Readers, after tweeting my latest review of a Longmire book, Kindness Goes Unpunished, and having it favorited on Twitter by Craig Johnson himself, I received a tweet from the Road Trips people to an entry in their blog that takes you behind the scenes of the town Johnson used as the inspiration for fictional Durant, Wyoming… the town of Buffalo. My life, like yours, is quite busy so I put off reading this for several days and was sorry I did. They do an excellent job of showing you around town and taking you into the places any Longmire reader will recognize, like The Busy Bee, the old Carnegie Library and the Owen Wister Hotel — in real life it is the Occidental Hotel, where you can book a room.

I don’t know about most people, but I always enjoy seeing what inspires other people and how they turn it into a finished product consumed by the entire world. Take a look around, it looks like there is plenty to enjoy at this site.