Category Archives: Uncategorized

The 4-H club was an important part of my youth.  Formative, as they say. It led to raising and showing Herefords, which paid for going into photography, and that led to journalism and then my entire career. But in Goshen, Indiana, 4-H is REALLY big, at least as judged by the county fair. It isn’tContinue reading “Five Photos: Elkhart County 4-H Fairgrounds”

Thursday was a travel day for us. Nothing fancy for an extended post, but at least the frequency of posting is improving. We stopped about every 45 minutes to take time to stretch and get in some steps. (Vicki’s FitBit demands 250 steps every hour; my Apple Watch is a bit more laid-back — allContinue reading “Photo stops: Rest areas and rocks”

Visiting the Cahokia Mounds east of St. Louis can be a sobering experience. A millennium ago, the mound-building peoples of Illinois and Missouri had a flourishing culture that dominated the area, and the landscape, with the largest earthen mounds ever built in the Americas and a population that perhaps reached 20,000 people.  What we callContinue reading “Cahokia Mounds: “Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair””

I have a thing for airplanes, especially military airplanes, and especially World War II planes. Vicki accepts this, but she does not share it. So when I wanted to visit the No. 1 British Flying Training School in Terrell, Texas, I enlisted a couple of grandkids.  One surprising lesson for me from this small-town museumContinue reading “No. 1 BFTS: They sleep beyond England’s foam”

A love of history is a big part of why we travel. No, it’s a respect for history, a recognition of how important it is to understanding who we are and what we stand for and what we strive for, as individuals and as a nation. We ignore history, or forget it, or suppress it,Continue reading “Never forget nor fear your history: The Great Hanging”

Thank goodness for libraries. We should appreciate them on so many different levels. As Vicki and I get back to actual travel, we start with Dixon, Missouri, and an attempt to find confirmation that my grandmother was born near there in 1873. I barely knew my mother’s mother, Julia Alice Smith Morris. Granny was muchContinue reading “Of libraries and ancestors”

This week, the last two of our 12 grandkids will finally get their spring visits. We were in Barling a few weeks ago but Vicki was really under the weather, so we chose not to spread our germs. This marks the start of our summer travels, and we are beyond ready to get back onContinue reading “Parting shots: Return to the road”

The war memorial at the Johnson County Courthouse has a name I know, but he’s someone I never met. It lists him with the fallen of World War II, but that isn’t quite right. He survived that war. As I was growing up, I was fascinated by the career and the family stories and photos ofContinue reading “Memorial Day: To a cousin I never knew”

In many ways, campgrounds are a lot like small towns and rural areas. Everyone smiles and waves at everyone else. Whether walking, driving or sitting outside, we give every passing vehicle or person a friendly greeting.  Sometimes you can tell when one of your camping neighbors has friends or family visiting. These are the folksContinue reading “Passing acquaintances in the campground”

I’ll just come out and say it. I side with those who think prairie dogs are cute.  It isn’t that I want to start a range war or anything. For overgrown rodents, they *are* cute. They make funny sounds, live in holes (almost like hobbits) and they come out to play and look around. RanchersContinue reading “Prairie dogs: Cute or cursed?”