PHOTO PROMPT © Björn Rudberg
XANADU
Who would have believed that Shangri-La would be located in the Black Hills of South Dakota?? Certainly not him, before he began his research. The friends he’d been foolish enough to tell, all laughed at him.
Year by year the threads all came together, directly over this little peak. This was his third summer expedition, and he’d finally found a trail. He remembered all the clues that claimed it could not be found or reached.
Proceeding carefully but confidently, suddenly this thing waddled out…. Was it an animal, a robot, an alien?? Perhaps he wouldn’t reach Shangri-La after all.
***
Go to Rochelle’s Addicted to Purple site and use her Wednesday photo as a prompt to write a complete 100 word story.
Archon's Den 
Love the ambiguous ending here… he might be hallucinating, I think.
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High altitude – low oxygen levels?? Could happen. Glad you stopped by again. 🙂
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Now what thing would that be? Great way you left this to the reader’s imagination to fill in the blanks.
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My readers’ imaginations are usually better than mine. Thanx for applying yours. 🙂
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I guess it depends on your definition of Shangri La. Something so elusive, when found, rarely is what we expect it to be, I’m thinking. 🙂
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For some, the journey is more important than the destination. I’m sure there’s a ‘back door.’ 😉
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Ah…I’m one of those. It’s all about the journey. 😊
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I went with a Shangri-La theme too, different but with equally frustrating results for those pursuing it!
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Searching for Shangri-La is always a frustrating experience. Thanx for visiting. 🙂
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A waddling thing is not how I imagine a resident of Shangri-La but maybe it’s a helpful guide? Good story.
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Whatever it was, it certainly didn’t drag a WELCOME mat out with it. Glad you enjoyed the read. 🙂
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They have the exact same warnings outside Area 51.
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I think this one ambled north for a little skiing. 😛
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Red circles with a line crossing through the image are rarely a good thing.
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All except the time the entitled young idiot stepped out the mall side door, and lit up, right beside the cigarette with the red line through it. I stopped and offered to explain the sign to him. He tossed it away, and followed me all the way to the electronics section of WalMart, to tell me that I had hurt his feelings. Boo-Hoo 😯
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Ooooh, suitably mysterious, considering it WAS the road to Shangri La.
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Of COURSE it was! Pot’s not legal in South Dakota. 😆
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Maybe the THING was all three!
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Like one of these new ‘Hybrid’ cars?? With the same exciting styling, acceleration, and gas mileage. 😛 The new Honda ‘Hallucination.’ 😆
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There are some places we are just not meant to ever find…
Fun one, Archon.
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This tale sounds disturbingly like a couple of my vacation trips. Did you ever read my story about crossing a cow pasture (complete with manure) on a HIGHWAY in Ohio? 😯
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Oh dear… I think I would remember THAT one!
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I actually put parts of that story in two blog posts, here,https://archonsden.wordpress.com/2014/11/16/the-fellowship-of-the-blog-episode-seven/ and here,https://archonsden.wordpress.com/2014/12/16/fellowship-of-the-blog-epilogue/ if you’re interested. 🙂
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Those were great!! I think I’ll have to go back to get the missing episodes to get the whole experience…
Um. Excuse me, Mr. Canadian… but don’t we have litres here and not liters? LOL… oh wait. You drop the ‘u’ too, eh?
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Are there Yetis in South Dakota?
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I don’t think so, nor any Bigfoots (Bigfeet??) either. If Trump finds out about this little one, he’ll start building a wall, and soon they’ll move up here to Canada. 😆
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Loved the ending. Leaves you curious.
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Curious enough to come back, I hope. Thanx for stopping by. 🙂
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good one. talk about synchronicity, I just put up a post yesterday about Shangri-la 🙂
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In a random group of 30 people, there’s a 50% chance that two of them will have the same birthday. How many Fictioneers are there?? Kat Myrman and I wrote about going to the Black Hills of South Dakota. You and I both wrote about Shangri-La. 😳 Thanx for stopping by.
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