Beyond Vanilla Fun Park is a progressive sim that encompasses the passion of one woman named Karlee Heartsong and her varied lifestyle. She is a Vet who served in the US Army from 1978 to 1992. Karlee is also a hunter and biker with a sweet baby girl submissive side. You will find her background and embedded throughout the sim. Beyond Vanilla is constantly changing and improving to provide interactive activities for all guests. Besides a music club, BV has a riding track for motorcycles, vehicles, and even horses. Anyone can come and explore the fun interactive surprises seeded around the track for adults with various tastes. Karlee and the Beyond Vanilla team also hosts fundraising events and tournaments. Most recently with the Hand and Foot Tournament with cash prizes! We met up with Karlee and her team,
DavisDeLong Resident and Amythe Moonlight to learn more about Beyond Vanilla Fun Park, its recent renovations, and what’s to come.
Interview with Karlee Heartsong
SLE: Hi Karlee, First and foremost, thank you for your service. It’s great to meet up with you to talk about all the new and exciting things happening at Beyond Vanilla Fun Park. Before we get into the new sim renovations I’d love for our readers to learn a little bit about you and your background.
Karlee: I grew up, mostly, in rural America. I was born into a very large family. Six(6) older sisters, one older brother, and two(2) younger brothers. My time was spent running the hills and woods in the Appalachian Mountains. I hunted, fished, and camped out with my dad and brothers. My older brother (exactly 23 years older as I was born on his birthday), was in the Korean War. I always wanted to follow in his footsteps as he was my hero. I joined the Army when I was 22 and loved every single minute of my 14 years. I wanted to retire but my body could no longer take the strain of all physical activities involved.
Many of my family members were in the biker lifestyle. I wanted to ride so bad that when I was eleven years old one of my cousins tried to teach me. I still have scars on the left side of my body where I rode alongside a barbed wire fence for over a half mile! After that, I rode bitch. Now I am living my dream and riding here in SL. Don't tell anyone but I am actually still learning.
SLE: Many from around the world come to Second Life for a variety of reasons. Where are you from and how did you discover Second Life?
Karlee: I currently live in Colorado, USA. I have been playing MMORPG's since 1999. I wanted more interaction with people. A friend told me about Second Life. I checked it out and found that I could be whomever I wanted to be in this virtual world. I am so comfortable in my own skin in real life that after playing around for a year or so, I decided that is who I would be here, myself.
SLE: The most successful sims in Second Life have a strong team. Can you tell us about your team members and what they do?
Karlee: There are three of us, right now. I built the sim and am renovating it. I don't have the creative mind to build the items that I wish to use on my sim but there are a great many people in Second Life with that ability, so I buy what they make. I have a great General Manager, Davis Delong. He handles all the day-to-day running of the sim. He is the human resource manager too. Our club manager is Amythe Moonlight who is fantastic and has complete control of how it is run. She is a wonderfully kind and creative soul. Everything concerning music is her area of concern. Plus she comes up with great ideas to make the sim better. The three of us have become a pretty cohesive team.
SLE: While exploring I noticed that Beyond Vanilla Fun Park is not just another sim with a club. You made some recent changes to the sim, can you tell us what inspired you to create BV?
Karlee: Beyond Vanilla Fun Park has had many facelifts. I was going to make a medieval village, a BDSM sim, a male dominant/female sub sim but none of them had any meaning to me. I needed to find something that I could truly get behind. I decided to build parts of my real life here in my second life. I choose my favorites: my military life, my love of the motorcycle world, and my submissiveness. When you visit Beyond Vanilla Fun Park you will find that I honor the military and veterans of the United States through the flags, the memorials, and the charity events we host. My love of motorcycles shows up in my riding tracks. I started to have them just as motorcycle tracks but have expanded them to include cars and horses. I have not yet built the part of the sim that will honor my submissiveness.
SLE: Can you tell me what guests can come to expect when they visit Beyond Vanilla Fun Park?
Karlee: There is so much to do here. When you first arrive you will be at the club then you can walk or teleport to our many attractions. We have a Mississippi-style riverboat where there is a formal dance area, card games such as hand n foot, greedy, Texas hold ‘em, and a very comfortable cuddles area on the top floor. We have a separate Games area too. There our guests can find arcade games, bowling, and even an escaped room. We have a public dungeon that is set on its own parcel for privacy, a tactical situation area that includes archery, a hostage situation game, and a 3 level Zombie hunt area to name a few.
SLE: You recently had a Hand and Foot tournament where winners took home some cool cash prizes. Your next event is the USO Charity Show & Silent Auction from May 22 to May 30th. Can you tell our readers about that event?
Karlee: Oh yes, one of my loves. The USO Charity Show & Silent Auction is all about the Wounded Warrior Project. I want to give back to veterans, like me, that suffer or have suffered from physical and mental disabilities due to our service to our country. The silent auction will be a week-long auction leading up to the USO Charity Show. Businesses across Second Life have and are donating items to be auctioned off to the highest bidder. The auction is from May 22 through May 30, 2021. The prizes will be awarded on May 31 and June 1, 2021. We have coupons for motorcycles, motorcycle tracks, military bears, clothing, and much more.
The USO Show is based on the shows that Bob Hope and his contemporaries did in World War II and Vietnam. There will be a variety of live singers, acoustic guitarists, dance troupes, magicians, and DJ's, many of whom have donated their time.
SLE: I see you are a proud supporter of the Wounded Warriors Project. Charities are a great way to do your part to help veterans and other fundraisers you are passionate about. What other tournaments and events do you host?
Karlee: I am passionate about anything to do with the military and its veterans. We have a kiosk for Homes For Our Troops (HFOT), more charity events are in the planning stage for First Responders throughout the world, Military Caregivers, service dogs for veterans and women vets. I am planning on three or four charity events each year. We also plan some cool fun events too. These include an archery tournament, zombie hunting tournament, demolition derby contests and as we add more to the sim, more tournaments and events will be held.
SLE: What makes Beyond Vanilla different from other sim experiences in Second Life?
Karlee: We are not just another music club, we have a wide variety of interactive things to do that appeals to just about any adult in second life. Beyond Vanilla Fun Park will not become a static sim. I will always be renovating some area or another. Like I am doing with the riding tracks. A road captain came through and we went for a ride. She had some great suggestions and I am incorporating some of them. When all is said and done that area will be vastly improved.
SLE: Is there anything else you would like to share with our readers?
Karlee: Beyond Vanilla Fun Park will be a constantly changing sim. As people lose interest in a venue, I will replace it with something different. I am always open for suggestions and I want people to know that when they find something not working the way it should to let me know so I can fix it. http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Beyond%20Vanilla/205/145/21
SLURL: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Beyond%20Vanilla/205/145/21
Group: secondlife:///app/group/885f2e7a-6642-6932-7681-004f69279e69/about
Event Calendar: https://calendar.google.com/calendar/u/0/r?tab=mc&pli=1
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/karlee.heartsong.5/
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