Monday, June 7, 2021 Day twenty-two. It’s another of those gotta get out early days, and this time we’ve actually managed to get out early. It’s not a matter of beating the mid-afternoon heat but of finding parking. This day’s plan includes a stop at Devil’s Tower along the way to Sheridan, and the National …
When we started out, we hadn’t included a ghost tour in our plans. Thing is, when you cover 8000 miles over sixteen states, the diverse American story is bound to offer up a collection of spectres. The ghosts that we encountered weren’t those mischievous, annoying spirits who move the furniture about while you’re out of …
June 4th, 2021. The Black Hills, South Dakota. After an interesting, if somewhat disappointing, stop at Wall Drug, we’re headed to our cabin located somewhere between Hill City and Custer. Our route has taken us through relatively large, Rapid City, slowing us down on a sweltering afternoon when all we want to do is get …
That’s the way it is with vacation trips isn’t it? Seems like eons ago – if you even remember it at all. Seems as if the national park t-shirt with the wolf on it and the Mount Rushmore refrigerator magnet are the only hard evidence that you actually went somewhere. Going back to work dims …
Friday, June 4, 2021 Day eighteen. It’s already sultry at six in the morning at The Raine Motel in Valentine, Nebraska. We’d arrived sometime during mid-afternoon yesterday and The Raine was a lonely place. Just us and one other car parked two rooms down. The Raine is another throwback motor court that we’re staying at …
Friday, May 21, 2021 Day four Mother Nature. Sometimes she can be a real; you know, that “B” word? When she gets to feeling a little fishwifey, she’ll cut loose with an earthquake in the San Francisco Bay Area, where I live. I had a friend in Missouri who used to hunker down when the …
Thursday, May 20, 2021 continued. Next stop, Oatman, Arizona. We enter Arizona, through the town of Mojave Valley. I slow down at the Welcome To Arizona sign and ask Cora if she’d like me to take her picture standing by the sign. She declines. “It’s too hot,” she says. It is that. The thermometer on …
Thursday, May 20, 2021 “Pardon me, you left your tears on the jukebox” That’s George Strait on the radio. It’s day three of a month-long road trip. We’ve travelled down the eastern side of California’s San Joaquin Valley and are now passing through the Mojave Desert on the Southeastern edge of the state. When it …
Warning: Some content rated R. Post-It notes, travel guides, an oversized Rand-McNally Road Atlas, assorted other maps, pens, pencils, a highlighter, notepads and a couple of spiral notebooks; my current life in a nutshell, all of it scattered about, on a little desk, a printer stand, the dining table and, to the wife’s displeasure, the …
It’s been alleged that COVID is in recession in America, and with that news, along with the arrival of summer and increasing vaccinations, Americans are looking to rid themselves of a side effect of the pandemic; let’s call it hometown-itis. Whether they contracted the coronavirus or not, most Americans have exhibited symptoms of hometown-itis; alternating …
“The Earth is a fine place and worth fighting for.” ~ Ernest Hemingway I was a junior in high school when Earth Day was established. A group of us went to one of the local San Mateo County beaches and picked up trash. It was along about that time that an oil spill took place …
My last post was a tribute to autumn and with the season FALLing towards winter here’s a last photographic tribute to this colorful season in the Golden State. Sonoma Valley. Established as a Spanish settlement in 1823, the town of Sonoma is located in the colorful wine country valley of the same name. The valley …
Come the beginning of October we’d reached a disheartening anniversary. A year had passed since Cora and I had taken a trip to anywhere besides Home Depot, the grocery store and a couple of al fresco lunches. October 2019, we spent a few days in Reno, Nevada. Reno isn’t exactly the flower in the garden. …
Reminiscences of San Francisco’s Little Italy, from the beats to the eats to America’s longest running play.
Plans to reopen are in the works but we still need to be vigilant, patient and in the confines of our domestic bunkers. In the meantime here’s another breakout from the outbreak. I went on a safari through my archives to find some photos of our animal kingdom. “Birds were created to record everything. They …
Another breath of viral free air to celebrate the beauty of America with some favorite images of mine (some previously posted in earlier pieces). Maine. Our time in Maine last summer was unfortunately cut short when Cora became seriously ill and we had to fly home. During the few days that we spent in Maine …
This week’s Lens Artists Photo Challenge presented to us by Amy is #79: A Window With A View. Cover photo: Chinatown, San Francisco California. The window of a Chinatown market shows us a view of edible delights and Muni bus in the reflection. Chapel of the Transfiguration – Grand Teton National Park In a small patch …
For the decade’s first Lens-Artists Photo Challenge we’ve been asked to share a special spot. Yellowstone has been a special place for me since I was a child. I’ve been to many places in this big world and for me Yellowstone is clearly special, made more so during a return trip in 2015. We entered …
It’s the thirtieth day of November. We’re on the back side of autumn and moving headlong into winter. I could just as easily have phrased it as being on the home stretch but that assumes something pleasant at the end, a finish line, a goal. Autumn doesn’t captivate me like it does others. I find …
Part of our first day in Montreal was spent strolling up and down the aisles of Marche Jean Talon, a public market located in the city’s Little Italy district. Window shopping; I can take it or leave it. That is unless we’re at a farmer’s market. Then I’m all in, as I was when we …