African American Trail Riding Clubs have their roots in the Creole culture formed in South Louisiana in the eighteenth century. Today trail rides are an opportunity for generations of people to gather, celebrate, and ride horseback. The riders form a distinctive yet little-known sub-culture in Southwest Louisiana. In addition to sharing an important aspect of Louisiana's cultural heritage, Ariaz's photographs assert a counter-narrative to historic representations of the cowboy and prevailing images of difference and despair in Black America.

In its fourth edition, this exhaustive guide to roller coasters in the United States and Canada also provides a history of coaster evolution (from the 16th century) and a look into the future of coaster technology and design. The book lists by state or province more than 700 coasters at more than 160 amusement and theme parks. Each entry includes contact information along with summaries of each coaster's origins, features and history. There are six appendices: famous coaster designers, the longest wood and steel coasters in North America, a coaster census by state or province, a chronology of wooden roller coasters still in operation, interesting amusement park and coaster facts, and a guide to the alpine coasters at winter resorts in the U.S. and Canada.

"A million facts that range from merely interesting to absolutely vital." -- Louisiana Life " Having [Louisiana Almanac] . . . is like having all the answers to what is happening in the State of Louisiana." -- The Louisiana Weekly "An invaluable tool to people looking to move into the area." -- The Slidell Sentry-News Known for its politics, its natural resources, and its colorful history, the Pelican State is one of the most interesting in America. For more than fifty years, Louisiana Almanac has been the authoritative guide to a million facts about Louisiana, and this painstakingly updated seventeenth edition consists of 720 useful pages of information for ready reference. The wealth of maps, charts, tables, and graphs makes the data and statistics easily accessible as well. No Louisiana business, classroom, or library should be without a current copy of the Louisiana Almanac.

Born and raised in Southern California she attended Canyon High School, in Canyon Country, California, pregnant at 17 years old she became a single mother at 18. After a bad first marriage she attended Casa Loma College a nursing college, graduated and received her Licensed Vocational Nursing degree all while raising her young boy. In 1987, she married her present husband and continued her career in nursing. She worked as a pediatric nurse and eventually moved on as a Cosmetic Surgical nurse. In 1994, while assisting in surgery, the surgeon asked her to cut some sutures, she was unable to clearly see where the surgeon wanted her to cut. She immediately was seen by her Ophthalmologist and they found she had Starguardts, a retina disease. One day she was perfectly seeing the next day she was legally blind, her sight began to decline through the 90’s, now she is at the end of her retina disease and now classified blind. She reunited with her second stepfather Richard Robinson in late 1990’s who she always called dad. He was an Author from Alaska; he wrote several books about Alaska; his most popular book was “Light all Night”. During this time, she had long conversations with her dad about his writing and became interested in expressing her thoughts in writing. She is a first-time author, and this is her first attempt at writing a book. She attended the local college to learn how to use the computer as a legally blind person. She started back to the college again when her eyesight got so bad a keyboard is almost out of the question, she used several computer enhancement devices to finish this book.