2022 Hawaii: Big Island-Maui-Oahu - Florida - Golf Tennessee - Civil War West Virginia - Ford Presidential Museum - Toronto Blue Jays - Intl Serra Conference - Montreal/Quebec - Katahdin Woods & Waters - Blackstone River Valley - Governors Island - Stonewall - Maryland/DC - First State - Gettysburg - Perryville - - NGAUS Columbus OH - Chicago White Sox - KY Bourbon Trai - Perryville, KYl
2022
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| The protocols are less stringent today then they were 8 months ago |
The State of Hawaii welcomes all vaccinated international travelers and is aligned with the CDC
federal
international requirements. Non
US-citizens traveling directly to Hawaii must present both a vaccination record
an d negative COVID-19 test result (NAAT or antigen) within one-day of boarding
a flight to the US.
U.S. citizens flying directly to Hawaii from an international destination have two options: 1) fully vaccinated U.S. citizens must provide proof of vaccination AND a negative COVID 19 test result within one day of boarding a flight to Hawaii OR 2) if not vaccinated, a negative COVID 19 test result within one day of boarding a flight to Hawaii.
Domestic travelers must follow all Safe Travels Hawaii protocols. To avoid mandatory quarantine, prior to departure, upload proof of vaccination or have a negative result from a Trusted Testing Partner. All vaccines approved or authorized by the U.S. FDA, and vaccines listed for emergency use by the WHO will be accepted.
SATURDAY February 5, 2022
WEATHER: 1 degree above zero at 0300; 82 in Kailua-Kona, HA Sunrise: Milwaukee Sunset: Kona 1818
TRAVEL: Fly United Airlines - Milwaukee-Chicago-Kailua-Kona, Hawaii - Paul and Sarah are accompanying me as guests. The flight out of MKE to ORD was late by about 45 minutes; the connecting flight in ORD-HNL was also delayed 45 minutes. Seats were comfortable enough, did not read – watched a special an outstanding Jethro Tull special filmed in 1999 in Holland and a Steve Miller Band concert filmed in 1977 and the Eternals.
Arrived in Kailua-Kona on time at 1420. A gain of 4 hours. After a shuttle from the airport to Budget Car Rental there was a wait of 45 minutes just to get to the counter. Rented a white Impala. Drove to Safeway for groceries, dinner at Roberto's Macaroni Grill in Waikola Village then checked into Kingsland, Hilton Grand Vacations
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| Hilton Waikoloa Village - resorts and hotels and golf and shopping - all in one place |
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| Kingsland view of building from golf course side |
- Located on the Kohala Coast, Kings Land by Hilton Grand Vacations Club boasts an on-site restaurant, 4 outdoor swimming pools and a hot tub. . We have a 2 BR condo facing the golf course. One BR with a KING, the second with 2 QUEENS, 2 baths, full kitchen, living room and balcony lanai on the second floor of Bldg 5. Large gas grills located adjacent to the buIlding.
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| Kingsland pool |
WIFI Works! – amazing – much faster than anyplace in Orlando – almost like staying at a Hilton Hotel
Dinner at Roberto’s Macaroni Grill located in Queens Market
SUNDAY February 6, 2022
WEATHER: 66 at 0700, clouds in the mountains Sunrise: Kona 0619 Sunset: Kona 1819
TRAVEL: Kingsland – Ascension Mission Catholic Church – Pu’ukohol Heiau NHS – Kingsland – Kailua- Kona - Kingsland
Kingsland Hilton Grand Vacations - - nice – a Serenity Pool – Kid’s Pool – Adult Pool – Hot tub – Cold Pool. This is a very large complex – several Hilton Resorts on one property King’s Land HGVC – Waikoloa Beach and Kings Golf Course – Kohala Suites HGVC – The Bay Club HGVC – Ocean Tower HGVC. Additionally, two medium sized shopping centers Queen’s Marketplace and King’s Shop, not to mention the beach on Anaeho’omalu Bay.
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| Kingsland map |
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| Ascension Mission Church - mass in the yard |
10 am mass at Ascension Mission Catholic Church, 69-1789 Puako Beach Dr, Puako - a 15 minute drive north – the church was full - we were asked to sit in charrs set up in an adjoining yard under shade trees – the Mass was streams to a large screen TV that was set up – about 45 people sat outside – pleasant – however I really couldn’t understand a thing the priest said.
PARK ALERTS
· Reopening Museum and Store Outlet and Providing Scheduled Ranger Talks
Date Posted: 11/14/2020 Beginning November 15, Pu'ukoholā Heiau National Historic Site will reopen access to indoor museum: 7:30 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. daily *Interpretive talks: Call to schedule group 10 people or less *Bookstore: 7:30 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. daily COVID-19 Mask Requirement
Date Posted: 7/28/2021Consistent with CDC guidance regarding areas of substantial or high transmission, visitors to Pu'ukohola Heiau, regardless of vaccination status, are required to wear a mask inside all park buildings.
Long before the time of King Kamehameha I, a socio-political hierarchy, deeply rooted in spiritual beliefs developed in Hawai'i. This rigidly ordered class system gave power to a small number of ali'i nui (high chiefs) who controlled different parts of an island, a whole island, or several islands. Alliances through bloodlines and marriage further complicated and enhanced the relationships among rival chiefs.
To maintain law and order, a kapu (taboo) system based on religious and practical beliefs was imposed by the sovereign ali'I on all of the population. The kapu system was extremely restrictive and rigid, with severe, penalties for those who broke a kapu. The kapu system was in effect for many centuries before it was officially overthrown in 1819, after the death of Kamehameha.
Within
this social and religious structure, the political rise of Kamehameha I
and the construction of Pu'ukohola Heiau occurred around 1790. Heiau
(temples) took on many forms from simple stone markers such as
those used as fishing shrines, to massive stone platforms associated with human
sacrificial temples. Large heiau
such as Pu'ukohola could only be accessed by the priests and
chiefly classes.
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| Pu'ukohala Heiau |
A
different explanation for his rise to power is based on the political conflict
on Hawai'i in the
1780s. It focuses on his uncles as the force pushing Kamehameha
I to the forefront in order to protect their own interests.
In
the 1780s, the Hawaiian Islands were in civil unrest as warring chiefs fought
for control. The island of Hawai'i had its own internal struggle when one of
the ali'i nui Kalani'opu'u,
died. He passed his title to his son Kiwala'o and named his nephew, Kamehameha,
keeper of the family war god, Kuka'ilimoku. Kiwala'o, the new ali‘i then bestowed gift
lands to his uncle Keawemauhili, but left his own half-brother, Keoua
Ku'ahu‘ula, with nothing.
Meanwhile,
Kamehameha felt he should have of a greater political role. Kiwala'o was
killed in battle, setting off a power struggle between Keoua, Keawemauhili, and
Kamehameha.
Kapoukahi,
a powerful kahuna from
Kauaii, prophesized that war would end if Kamehameha constructed a heiau dedicated to the war
god Ku at Pu'ukohola. In 1791, Keoua, Kamehameha’s cousin, was slain at Pu'ukohola,
an event that according to prophesy, led to the conquest and consolidation of
the islands under the rule of Kamehameha I.
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| Pu'ukohola Heiau |
explorers. With their trade ships, warships, cannon, and military experience, the foreigners were considered assets by the warring chiefs.
Kamehameha was particularly astute on this point and took captive two
young seamen, John Young and Isaac Davis. Young and Davis proved their
courage and loyalty in battle and became close, trusted lieutenants to Kamehameha,
aiding in his rise to power. Their
relationship lasted far beyond the battlefield and into civilian life, with Young
eventually becoming governor on the Island of Hawai'i, and Davis on the
island of O'ahu.
John Young, the stranded British sailor who became advisor to King
Kamehameha, also handled the king’s business affairs with foreign traders.
As a trusted advisor held in high esteem, the king granted him land at
Kawaihae, adjoining Pu'ukohola, for a home.
Young first built a small home near the beach below the heiau. Later, he built a larger compound just north of the heiau. His plaster-covered stone house was the first Western style structure in Hawai'i. John Young’s homestead is a part of Pu'ukohola Heiau National Historic Site and is being protected and preserved for future generations.
The
multifaceted overthrow of the kapu
system in 1819 ended the formal worship of gods and ritual use of
the large heiau. They were abandoned and many were destroyed
or dismantled, with only their stone platforms remaining. Their surrounding
lands were used for agriculture, ranching, or settlement.
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| Sunset - Kailua-Kona view from Gertrude's Jazz Bar |
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| When there are not many choices it doesn't take much to be the best. Like Fred's . . . . |
on the beach (seawall) in Kailua-Kona; this second-floor venue is one
of the few places that offer entertainment in Kona. Beverages seemed expensive like Disney prices. The entertainment was a elderly ‘piano bar lady’ she played piano and sang – not bad but entertaining.
MONDAY February 7, 2022
WEATHER:68 at 0700 a clouds in the mountains,high 82 Sunrise: Kona 0656 Sunset: Kona 1819
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| Kingsland interior of our 2BR unit |
Lookout- S on 250 to Waimea Waipi’o Valley Lookout – Hilo Brewing Co - SE and S on 19 to Akaka Falls State Park – to Hilo – W on 200 (Saddle Raod) between Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea – N on 180 – NW on Waikoloa Rd – Kingsland
Original King Kamehameha Statue Just beyond the lovely town of Hawi in North Kohala is the small town of Kapaau. in front of the North Kohala Civic Center stands the original King Kamehameha I Statue, erected not far from where Hawaii's greatest king was born.
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| Kohalo Coast |
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| Polulu Valley |
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| Polulu Valley - steps leading down to the beach |
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| Polulu Valley Lookout |
KAMAKANI TREE- never found it in Waimea supposedly the only tree in the area to survive a wind storm
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| Waipi'o Valley |
Hamkau Heritage Corridor, the sacred Waipi’o Valley was the boyhood home of King Kamehamea I, and an important center for political and religious life in Hawaii. This is called the “Valley of the King". A fertile valley one mile across and about 5 miles across. Once the home to thousands, now less than 100 residents live here among the waterfalls and rivers of the valley. Hailawe Falls cascades down 1,300 feet in the back of Waipio – didn’t walk down to the valley floor.
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| Akaka Falls |
of $10 for a car. There is a pleasant self-guided walk through lush tropical vegetation to scenic vista points overlooking the cascading Kahuna Falls and the free-falling ‘Akaka Falls, which plunges 442 feet into a stream-eroded gorge. The 0.4-mile loop footpath requires some physical exertion, a 100 ft increase in elevation (stairs). This is a good family walk. Allow 1/2 hour for the full loop. The trailhead is located just off the parking lot. The paved route, which includes multiple steps in places (not wheelchair accessible), makes an easy to follow loop offering stunning viewpoints of the two waterfalls. To view ‘Akaka Falls only, take the path to the left (south) from the first junction. The waterfall view is just a short walk down the path.
Hilo Brewing Co - closed on Mondays – had a can of Humpback last night, it was flat and tasteless – probably nothing lost by not stopping here.
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| Rainbow Falls in Wailuku River State Park - another Maui Legend |
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| Rainbow Falls |
RAINBOW FALLS is a cascade 80 ft over a lava cave that, according to legend, is home to the Hawaiian goddess Hina, the goddess of the moon. Compared to its significantly higher (422 ft) neighbor Akaka Falls, Rainbow Falls wins out for accessibility and how close you can get to see the waterfall. No entrance fee. Viewpoints of geologic and scenic interest along Wailuku River. There are two separate park areas. Boiling Pots is a succession of big pools connected by underground flow or cascades and whose waters roll and bubble as if boiling. The exposed hexagonal columns that line the pools were formed by the slow cooling of basalt lava. The 80-foot Rainbow Falls is renowned for the rainbow formed from its mist many mornings. Legends say that the cave beneath the waterfall was the home of Hina, mother of the demigod Maui.
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| Onizuka Center for International Astronomy - internet photo |
ONIZUKA CENTER FOR INTERNATIONAL
ASTORNOMY – We were low on gas and time so we did not stop here. The drive up was in the fog and rain. Low of 55 degrees. It would have been an interesting visit. Mauna Kea is celebrated as the dwelling place of the goddess Poli’ahu. It is also associated with the Hawaiian deities Lilinge and Waiau. The summit was considered the realm of the gods and in ancient times was kapu (forbidden) to all but the highest chiefs and priests. Occasionally Hawaiian ail’I (royalty) would make the long trek to the top, the last royal. The Visitor Center is located at 9,300 ft. The facility was renamed for the Hawaiʻi-born astronaut Ellison Onizuka, who died in the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster in 1986. Today Mauna Kea is home to 13 international observatories.
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| Poliahu - Pele's sister |
According to Hawaiian legends, Poliahu was known to be the beautiful goddess of snow, who lived on the Big Island
Dinner
at Tommy Bahama’s 68-1330 Mauna Lani Dr
Kamuela, HI 96743 – a 15% HGVC discount on food.
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| Kingsland view of golf course from balcony |
SARAH’S BIRTHDAY -
WEATHER: 66 at 7 am clouds in the mountains, high of 82
TRAVEL: Kingsland – Kaloko-Honokohau NHP – Pu’uhonua O Honakaunau NHP- Kealakekua - Kingsland
Kingsland Hilton Grand Vacations – a short visit to the Pro Shop on the golf course, an hour by the pool in the morning -upon return from the afternoon trip – sat on the ocean front of the Waikola Village Hotel complex – watched whales at a distance.
262 KALOKO-HONOKOHAU NATIONAL HISTORIC PARK – My last visit here was Monday January 11, 2016.
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| Kaloko-Honokohau NHP entrance - the VC is in the background |
261 PU’UHONUA O HONAUNAU NATIONAL HISTORIC PARK –My 3rd visit to this site. My first was in 1980, my last was January 10, 2016.
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| Pu'uhonua O Honaunau NHP entrance |
Open Every Day:
·
Entrance station and fee collection activities
·
Visitor center parking lot (8:15 am - sunset)
·
Visitors services at the visitor center (8:30 am - 4:30 pm)
·
All hiking trails
·
For daytime exercise and outdoor recreational experience
·
Beach and shoreline areas
·
For hiking, ocean recreation and fishing (following state
regulations). With the exception of Keoneʻele cove at Hōnaunau which is closed
to protect natural and cultural resources
·
Restroom facilities
·
Royal Grounds & Puʻuhonua
·
Picnic Area
· Commercial Use Authorization (CUA) owners can resume operations if safety conditions are met.
Closed:
·
Amphitheater
Suspended:
·
All programs, interpretive talks, and walks
There was a $20 entrance fee per vehicle – after spending
all that money to travel to Hawaii
there are some who still will park outside
the gate on the road. Extending along
the lava flats of the Kona Coast, Puʻuhonua o Hōnaunau National Historical
Park is home to some of the most significant traditional Hawaiian sites in
the Hawaiian archipelago. One of the most prominent features of the park is the
puʻuhonua or place of refuge
which is enclosed by the Great Wall, a massive 965 foot long masonry
wall. Serving as a sanctuary in ancient times for defeated warriors, noncombatants,
and those who violated the kapu
(sacred laws), the Puʻuhonua
o Hōnaunau remains
a most sacred place to those who step foot on its grounds. The protected waters
of Hōnaunau Bay combined with the availability of water from brackish
springs provided the ideal location for the aliʻi
- Hawaiian royalty - who established important residential and
ceremonial sites nearby, an area known today as the Royal Grounds.
For several centuries, the puʻuhonua,
the Royal Grounds and adjacent areas formed one of the primary religious and
political centers within the traditional district of Kona.
Encompassing approximately 420 acres of land that extends
through three ahupuaʻa (traditional
Hawaiian land divisions), the park contains many other important sites which
reflect over four hundred years of Hawaiian history. Such sites include the historic 1871 Trail, a 1-mile
segment of a trail that traverses the park coastline, as well as the remains of
an abandoned farming and fishing village known as Kiʻilae Village. Other
prominent features within the park landscape include the presence of
three hōlua slides.
Reserved for only aliʻi class,
the dangerous but thrilling sport of hōlua
consisted of racing down a steeply sloped course using a narrow
toboggan-like sled known as a papahōlua. These are just a few of the many sacred sites
that are found within the park lands.
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| Two Step Beach - photo taken from Pu'uhonua o Honaunau NHP - literally next door |
TWO STEP BEACH – adjacent to Puʻuhonua o Hōnaunau National Historical Park, I’ve looked to this place twice but didn’t know it had a name. Supposedly the best snokeling on the Big Island.
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| Painted Church altar frescoes, vaulted ceiling |
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| Painted Church entrance |
Hawaii Island. From the outside, the quaint hillside structure, surrounded by tropical gardens, seems a perfect fit for the area: Were it not for its steepled bell tower and pointed-arch windows, the boxy church could easily be mistaken for an outsized plantation house, a style popular in the surrounding countryside. Simple white walls meet in a gable under a green roof, and wood lattice—the variety many Hawaii homes still use to conceal under-the-house storage—bookend either side of the open-air front entrance. The church is little changed since it was blessed in 1902.
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| Painted Church painting |
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| Painted Church interior banister |
But the outside belies the cathedral inside. Banisters, ringed in faded red and white, look like barbershop poles but are actually tree trunks. They bear, in Hawaiian language, St. Benedict’s Prayer of Exorcism, and the weight of the vaulted ceiling painted with their palm frond tops. Six frescoes line the long wooden walls between the windows—the images on the left side represent the “good life,” while darker scenes on the right side are themed “understanding death.” Behind the altar, paint creates the illusion of space. Lofty cloisters and vaulted hallways continue beyond like a hall of mirrors. Geometric domes appear to bridge into nothingness where they meet the church’s more modest wood ceiling, painted like a sky at dusk and dotted with hand-cut metal stars. The effect is that of a cathedral melding with heaven.
MONKEY BALLS - 79-7411 Mamalahoa Hwy,Kainaliu, HI 96750 Tue-Fri: noon-4 PM you
gotta stop here – just because – Monkey Balls – Goat Balls and Chicken Balls. Monkey Balls are macadamia nuts wrapped in chocolate; Goat Balls are small pieces of fruit wrapped in chocolate flavors; really can’t remember what was the main ingredient of the Chicken Balls – looked like small droppings.
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| Monkey Balls store entrance if you blink you will miss it |
LITTLE GRASS SHACK - Mamalahoa Hwy. (Hwy 11), at Konawaena Junction, Kealakekua, Big Island, HI I checked at Monkey Balls and this place has been closed for at least 25 years. My first and only visit here was in 1980. No wonder I couldn’t find it in my last two visits . . . . too bad nostalgia.
"My Little Grass Shack in Kealakekua,
Hawaiʻi", written by Tommy Harrison, Bill Cogswell, and Johnny Noble in Hawaii in 1933. It’s been
recorded many times.
I
want to go back to my little grass shack in Kealakekua, Hawaii.
I
want to be with all the kanes and wahines that I knew long ago
I
can hear old guitars a playing, on the beach at Hoonaunau
I
can hear the Hawaiians saying "Komomai no kaua ika hale welakahao"
It
won't be long 'til my ship will be sailing back to Kona
A
grand old place that's always fair to see
I'm
just a little Hawaiian and a homeside Island boy
I
want to go back to my fish and poi
I
want to go back to my little grass shack in Kealakekua, Hawaii
Where
the Humuhumu, Nukunuku a puaa goes swimming by
Where
the Humuhumu, Nukunuku a puaa goes swimming by
I
want to go back to my little grass shack in Kealakekua, Hawaii
I
want to be with all the kanes and wahines that I knew long ago
I
can hear old guitars a playing, on the beach at Hoonaunau
I
can hear the Hawaiians saying "Komomai no kaua ika hale welakahao"
It
won't be long 'til my ship will be sailing back to Kona
A
grand old place that's always fair to see
I'm
just a little Hawaiian and a homeside Island boy
I
want to go back to my fish and poi
I
want to go back to my little grass shack in Kealakekua, Hawaii
Where
the Humuhumu, Nukunuku a puaa goes swimming by
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| Captain Cooks Monument stock photo |
WEDNESDAY February 9, 2022
WEATHER 63 at 0600 sunny and clear – clouds in the mountains – cool, damp and in the 50’s when we reached Kiluaea Sunrise: Kona 0655 Sunset: Volcanoes NP 1818
TRAVEL: Kingsland - Big Island Harley Davidson - Green Sand Beach – Black Sand Beach –- Volcanoes National Park - Kilauea Military Camp
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| I had visited here in 2016 - an older part of Mauna Loa lava flows - the NPS Contact Station was under a tent. Lots of trails to walk. CLOSED so we didn't stop. |
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| Papakolea - Greeen Sand Beach |
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| Papakolea - Greeen Sand Beach |
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| Papakolea - Green Sand Beach |
in a lifetime” places to visit on the Big Island. Its actual name is “Papakōlea beach” and it is one of two green sand beaches in the United States (the other is on Maui) It was recommended by some of Paul & Sarah’s friends that they met when they were in Carlisle, PA and Paul was attending the Army War College. I’ve never visited here before. I always was a bit off the beaten track.
Papakolea Beach is not easy to reach. First there is the drive to the southern most tip
of the US, then you need to hike 2.7 miles (one way) from the parking lot to the beach.
The beach itself is carved in a 49,000 year old cinder cone belonging to the Maunit a Loa volcano that contains green crystals (olivine) that give the beach it’s; name. We walked in it took us about 1 hour and 20 minutes – an interesting walk. I did not walk down to the beach – its not that hard. I decided to take a vehicle back – it took about 30 minutes to negotiate the rutted and worn roads back to where we parked the car.
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| Punalu'u Black Sand Beach |
Sand (Punaluʻu) Beach is a beach between Pāhala and Nāʻālehu on the Big Island of Hawaii. I’ve been here 3 times in the past. The beach has black sand made of basalt and created by lava flowing into the ocean which explodes as it reaches the ocean and cools. Lots of sea turtles in the water nearby.In the Hawaiian language punulu’u means ‘spring (water) diver for’. Unique to Punalu’u within its aqueous environment is large amount of underground fresh water that flows into the bay. Legend has it that in times of drought, the ancient Hawaiians would free dive in Punalu’u’s ocean waters with gourd vessels to collect fresh water.
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| Punalu'u Black Sand Beach |
260 VOLCANOES NATIONAL PARK – My 4th visit here. Last visited January 7-10, 2016. I’ve visited all its units and hiked most of the park’s trails.
PARK ALERTS
health authorities, Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park continues to take measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19. All areas of the park previously closed due to the pandemic are now open, but visitor services are limited. The following areas remain closed for your safety:
- Kīlauea
Visitor Center exhibits and theater are closed. The park bookstore, lānai,
and restrooms are open.
- The
Kahuku Unit is closed Monday through Wednesday, and is open Thursday
through Sunday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
- Businesses
in the park that meet local and federal public health requirements are
open with limited or modified services, including Volcano House, Kilauea Military
Camp, Volcano Art Center Gallery and the park’s
non-profit partner, Hawai‘i Pacific Parks Association. Contact the businesses
directly for details.
Park rangers are
available to answer your questions on the lānai of Kīlauea Visitor Center and
via phone at 808-985-6011.“Services are limited, and visitors should
bring everything they might need for a safe visit including water, meals, and
hand sanitizer. Above all, visitors should pack their patience, avoid crowds,
and have alternate destinations planned should parking lots be full,”
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| Mauna Loa & Kilauea - Volcanoes National Park |
Kilauea Military Camp – My 3rd stay at KMC. We’re in a 2 BR Cottage – a disappointment and my error, I thought I had reserved a 2 BR Cottage with Kitchen. Well, no kitchen and of course it’s a little smaller.
WIFI works. KMC has its advantages General Store, 10 Pin Grill/Recreation Lodge/Bowling Alley, Post Office, Fitness Center, Laundry Facilities, Lava Lounge (bar), Crater Rim Café (breakfast daily-dinner on weekends), basketball and tennis courts, baseball field, gas station. It also has a tour and transportation office to include airport shuttles
KMC is open to all Active & Retired military and other uniformed services, as well as; current & retired DOD employees.
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| Kiluea Military Camp Map |
THURSDAY February 10, 2022
WEATHER: clear and sunny at
7 am 62 degrees, sunny most of the day, 84 down along the coast, clouded up and
in the 60’s as we drove back up to 4,000 ft, rain around 7pm, foggy, clear and
58 at 8pm Sunrise:
Volcanoes NP 0652 Sunset: Volcanoes NP
1818
TRAVEL: KMC-VC-Volcano House-Desolation Trail-
260 VOLCANOES NATIONAL PARK
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| Kilauea Military Camp - front view |
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| KMC 2 BR Cottage |
The Visitor Center was run by the Hawaii Pacific Parks Association and Volunteers. Except at the gate, collecting entrance fees, I don’t think I saw a ranger during my entire stay. The Book Store had a limit of 10 people at a time. Waited to get a park passport stamp. Volcano House was across the street, unable to make a reservation online, and the only time we could have dinner was a late 8:30 pm.
Devastation Trail from Crater Rim Road to a view point about 1 mile form Halema’uma’u Crater. This is the closest I’ve been able to get the to crater and it was erupting. Not majestic spurts or a large lava lake, but still the closest I was ever able to get here in 4 visits. It was a little more than a 2 mile round trip mostly on a paved road.
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| Halema'uma'u Crater |
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| Halema'uma'u Crater - there is a small red lava flow visible right center |
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| Halema,uma'u Crater is in the background |
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| Lava Slide in an area of lava flows that resembled the crust of a brownie |
We drove down Chain of Craters Road to the end of the road – a change in elevation ofalmost 4,000 ft and a significant increase in temperature. The drive is beautiful and we did not stop at all the craters from which the road gets its name.
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| This lava flow looked like the crust of a brownie |
We drove past the Kilauea Iki trailhead. Kilauea Iki is a 4 mile loop that descends 400 feet through forest and across a hardened lave lake that it still steaming from the 1959 eruption. From the parking area it’s actually a 5 mile hike total. We did not stop at the Thurston Lava Tube.
My initial intent was to hike the 2.5 mile Mauna Una Trail but I missed the turnoff on the way down and there was not enough time on the way up.
At the end of the road we did not walk to Holei Sea Arch, formed by wave erosion, the same process will eventually cause its collapse. Been there twice – done that.
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| Petroglyph Trail |
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| Petroglyphs |
The Pu’u Loa Petroglyph Trail was a 1.5 mile hike – a little more than an hour.
Somehow, I had forgot to make a reservation at the Volcano House for dinner. They were full until 8:30 pm so we ate at the Crater Rim Café. We’ve eaten here before, a short drive out of the park. Service was as best as could be expected i.e. 2 waitresses – could have used 4 or 5. Food was good.
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| Petrogyph Trail Lava - like Pele's hair |
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| Sulphur Banks |
Paul and Sarah went to the Sulphur Banks and Steam Vents – two short walks
After dinner we drove down to the Volcanoes Observatory and the ‘glow’ from Halema’uma’u Crater was outstanding. Best I’ve ever seen possibly helped by reflection off the low clouds. However, it was windy and 58 degrees.
Paul and Sarah decided they were going to go view Halema’uma’u Crater at the viewing point on Devastation Trail – where we were in the morning. Their photos and videos tell me it was worth the hike in the dark.
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|
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| Halema'uma'u Crater lave flow at night photo from about the same place as the photo to the left was taken |
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| Halema'uma'u Crater "glow" from the vicinity of the Volcano Observatory |
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| The Hawaiian goddess Pele |
FRIDAY
February 11, 2022
WEATHER 51 at 0600 at KMC Sunrise: Volcanoes NP 0651 Sunset: Kihei, Maui 1821
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| "da plane, da plane" |
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| Akaka Falls |
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| Mauna Kea from the air |
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| Waiipo Valley from the air there is a road/path that leads down to the valley from the left |
I let Paul rent the car here and drive. We left the airport too late to get the Healeakala Visitor Center Bookstore by 2 pm. So we went to Safeway to buy groceries.
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| Maui Bay Villas Club House |
The staff here was very accommodating. The room was not ready. They asked if we had bought groceries and offered to put them in a large refrigerator. We had bought groceries, so we did. They also offered a large cabana with TV for the Super Bowl on Sunday. Paul & Sarah bought in – it was free. This place is so new – there is no bar – no restaurant – bring your own drinks to the pool. Actually, this place did just open in October, 2020.
The room is outstanding. The best Hilton I’ve been at so far.
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| Cubano Sandwich at Nula's |
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| Nalu's |
A wonderful lunch at Nula’s and a brief visit to Maui Brewery. The room was ready at 4 pm and we checked in at 5:15. The groceries were already delivered to the room and put in the refrigerator.
SATURDAY
February 12, 2022
WEATHER 63 degrees at 6 am - 50's on Haleakala summit - high of 80 in the lowlands Sunrise: Kihei, Maui 0656 Sunset: Kihei, Maui 1822
TRAVEL: Maui Bay Villas – Haleakala National Park – Summit VC Bookstore – Kilului Ale House - Maui Bay Villas
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| Island of Maui |
Summit District:
Headquarters Visitor Center –temporarily closed it was closed when I was here in 2016 Located above the park entrance at 7000 ft. (2134 m). Haleakalā Visitor Center–Open 7 days/week 9:00-2:00pm for park store operation only. Located on the edge of the Haleakalā crater at 9,740ft (2969m).
Kīpahulu District:
Kīpahulu
Visitor Center–temporarily closed this was open in 2016, will visit on
Saturday February 12 - Located at the coastal Kīpahulu District.
Māui
Snaring the Sun The Māui myths are known to many cultures throughout
the pacific. His most famous deeds include fishing up islands, obtaining fire,
and snaring the sun. The version told
here in Hawaiʻi of Māui capturing and slowing ka
lā (the sun) involves Hale-a-ka-lā, the house-of-the-sun. The natural phenomena of the sun’s movement
across the sky is explained in the Hawaiian mo‘olelo of Māui snaring the sun.
Long ago the sun ran quickly across the sky. There was hardly any time to prepare and cook food, and even a prayer to the gods could not be finished before darkness fell. Māui’s mother Hina had trouble drying her kapa, the bark-cloth that was the only source of clothing and bedding in Hawaiʻi. Kapa is created from the bark of the wauke plant, beaten and processed. Before it can be worn it must be dried in the sun, and the sun passed over so quickly that by the time Hina had laid it all out, it was dark and she had to gather them back up again.
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| Haleakala Crater |
Māui decided to make the sun go slower, so he climbed to the top of the ridges of Iao valley to track the path of the sun. He saw that the sun came up the eastern side of Haleakalā, and crossing the plain and climbing the mountain he watched the sun come up from Koʻolau, and passed over the top of the mountain. After figuring out the path of the sun Māui returned to his mother Hina and told her of his plan to slow down the sun. She gave him fifteen strong cords and told him to find the place where a large wiliwili tree grows on Haleakalā, that is where his grandmother lives, and the sun stops there to eat bananas cooked by his grandmother. He must wait until the rooster crows three times, and when his grandmother comes out to prepare the bananas, he must steal them.
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| Haleakala - road to the summit |
Māui climbed back up Haleakalā to Kaupō and found the wiliwili tree. After the rooster crowed he saw his grandmother come out with a bunch of bananas. She laid them down as she went about her preparations, and Māui stole the bananas easily, as his grandmother was blind. When she reached for them and found them gone she cried out, and though blind she sniffed around and scented a man, asking who was there. Māui replied that he was the son of Hina, and he’d come to kill the sun for going too fast that the kapa Hina made did not have time to dry out.
His grandmother gave him another cord, and a stone for an adze, and gave him instructions for how to capture the sun. Māui hid by the wiliwili tree to wait for the sun to arrive. As the sun’s legs came into view Maui snared them one by one. When the sun realized what was happening it tried to go back down the mountain into the sea, but Māui tied the cords to the wiliwili tree and hauled the sun back up. Māui struck the sun with the adze until the sun begged for it’s life, promising to go slower.
A drive to the top of Haleaka and back down. A road that goes above the clouds. There is an entrance fee to get into Haleakal National Park.
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| Haleakala view from the road |
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| Haleakala Crater |
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| Haleakala Crater from the Visitor Center |
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| Haleakala Summit Observation Building 10,023 feet 'rare air' |
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| Nene - NPS photo |
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| Twin Falls - kids are jumping from the ledge on the right into the pool |
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| Twin Falls path - bamboo |
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| Red Sand Beach - the hike down is deemed 'dangerous' internet photo |
BAMBOO FOREST HIKE – 8310 Hana Highway, Haiku, HA
PUA’A KA’A ROAD SIDE PARK & WATERFALL – Hana Highway, Haiku HA
WAI’ANPANAPA STATE PARK
KAHALULU RED SAND BEACH – Hana, HA
WAILUA FALLS – Hana Highway
264 HALEAKALA NATIONAL PARK –KIPAHULA VISITOR CENTER
Pipiwahi Trail
Waimuku Falls
Lunch at the Ale House in Kilului.
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| Maui Bay Villas entertainment |
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| Maui Bay Villas she danced while the musicians played |
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| Maui Bay Villas - a whale of a tail Yes, that is a humpback whale diving - view from the beach |
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| Maui Bay Villas that is a sea turtle in the center resting on the rocks near the beach |
SUNDAY February 13, 2022
WEATHER 66 degrees at 0600 , clear & sunny, high of 80 Sunrise: Kihei, Maui 0655 Sunset: Kihei, Maui 1822
TRAVEL: Maui Bay Villas – St. Therese Catholic Church - Safeway – USPS - Maui Bay Villas
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| St. Therese Church - Kihei, Maui Hawaii |
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| Maui Bay Villas Super Bowl Cabana |
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| Maui Bay Villas Super Bowl Cabana - with refrigerator BYOB |
- around the pool. 55” TV, refrigerator, they served complementary water and juices as the game began and ice cream at halftime.
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| Maui Bay Villas pool |
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| Maui Bay Villas sunset on beach |
MONDAY February 14, 2022
VALENTINE’S
DAY
WEATHER
63 at 0700 – high of 79 sunny with
scattered clouds. Sunrise:
Kihei, Maui 0655 Sunset:
Honolulu, Oahu 1829
TRAVEL: Maui Bay Villas – Lahaina – Kilului (OGG) – Honolulu (HNL) on Hawaiian Airlines – taxi to Grand Waikikian HGVC – Hale Koa – Grand Wakikian
Maui Bay Villas – WIFI Works! This is the best Hilton property I’ve ever stayed at even though it is not completely finished. This is serene, in five years I’m sure it will be hectic and people everywhere – so I decided to chance an ‘owners update’. Hopefully the staff will respect my time and only take an hour of it for a $150 VISA Gift Card.
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| Maui Bay Villas - from the clubhouse our building (#8) is to the right. Buildings under construction are to the left and center |
HGVC Owner’s Update – I took the bait for a one-hours ‘update’ presentation. I must admit this was the only ‘update’ I had ever been to where the sales person respected my time and knew that I was really not interested. However, Maui Bay Villas, will no doubt, be a very desirable property and will probably more difficult to book in the future. It wasn't easy to get here this time - just lucky. The deal to buy in only gave you first choice and a guaranteed reservation here during your time period. As an example there is only a 10 week Gold, May, September and the first 2 weeks of October. The rest of the year is considered Platinum (high end & demand). The deal was every other year- Gold (6300 points) – for approximately $29,990 (pre-construction price) plus closing costs of $822. Down payment of $3821; Leaving a balance of $26,991 less a $1,500 owner discount plus an annual maintenance club dues fee of about $2,362 per year. Started at 0900 done at 1000. I did take the $150 in VISA gift cards.
Thanks to a respectful sales person, we were able to visit Lahaina – could have easily spent several hours there – shopping and eating.
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| Lahaina - Front St you can easily spend several hours walking this street - shopping |
Lele was an ancient name of Lahaina. The Hawaiian language name Lā hainā means "cruel sun", describing the sunny dry climate. Lahaina's historic district averages only 13 inches of rain per year, much of which occurs from December to February.
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| Lahaina - Missionaries |
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| Lahaina - Banyon Court Park |
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| Lahaina - Molokai is in the distance |
Lahaina was the capital of the from 1820 to 1845, when the capital was moved back to Honolulu. In the 19th century, Lahaina was the center of the global whaling industry, with many sailing ships anchoring at its waterfront.
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| Honolulu Airport |
Flew on a real jet from Kilului (OGG)to Honolulu (HNL) (Hawaiian Airlines).
Grand Waikikian HGVC located within the Hilton Hawaiian Village Complex and next to the Hale Koa Resort. A 2 BR condo, this is a high rise structure, near Waikiki Beach but not an ocean front building. WIFI Works! Self-parking is available for $55 plus tax per day. The room was on the 17th floor with a partial view of the water. The placement of the room was better than expected. The interior, as expected was standard for a Hilton 2 BR property.
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| Hilton Hawaiian Village |
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| Hilton Hawaiian Village - map We stayed at the Grand Waikikian 17th floor - 39 floors total. Huge complex - Hale Koa much more intimate and it is still big |
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| Barefoot Bar |
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| Hale Koa Barefoot Bar Valentines Day |
was 1635. We just
missed Happy Hour at Biba's– ended at 1630 and seating for dinner did not begin until 1700 – walked to the Barefoot Bar. This was the least crowded that I have ever seen the place. No seating at the bar and self-service. Easily got a table and ordered food from Hale Koa’s Poolside Grill. Another sunset on the beach. Later stopped by the Exchange.
Groceries were ordered on line from Safeway and delivered to the bellman at the Grand Waikikian – because alcohol was ordered Paul went down to the bell stand to show an ID. The bellman delivered the groceries to our room.
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| Sunset - Waikiki Barefoot Bar |
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| Sunset - Waikiki Barefoot Bar |
TUESDAY
February 15, 2022
WEATHER
68 degrees at 0600 forecast high of 79, of course it was
sunny with scattered clouds, but then short intermittent showers came and went
all morning – more pleasant in the afternoon Sunrise:
Honolulu, Oahu 0701 Sunset:
1829
TRAVEL: Grand Waikikian HGVC – walked to grocery store – Grand Waikikian Village
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| Hilton Hawaiian Village Hau Tree Bar on the beach |
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| Hilton Hawaiian Village Complex Grand Waikikian is to the right |
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| Hilton Hawaiian Village Sunset |
WEDNESDAY February 16, 2022
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| Grand Waikikian Balcony 17th Floor Unfortunately, the 'Rainbow Tower' blocks the sunset at this time of year |
coming from the north Sunrise: Honolulu, Oahu 0701 Sunset: 1830
TRAVEL: Paul & Sarah left at 0700 - rented a car for a day and drove to Kualoa Ranch. I stayed near the hotel. After the tours I was picked up and he drove to Hickham Air Force Base for dinner with a couple they met while they were at the War College in Pennsylvania.
Grand Waikikian HGVC – WIFI Works! I think I’ve figured out why the pool is so small – it’s almost always in the shadow of the surrounding buildings – an architectural planned design – gets people on the beach – there is more sun on my 17th floor balcony during the day. Spent the mroning updating the blog and editing pictures.
KUALOA RANCH
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| Kualoa Ranch |
Kualoa Ranch Jurassic Tour - Our deluxe 2.5-hour Kualoa Jurasic Adventure Tour takes guests to famous film sites in all three valleys of Kualoa Ranch (Kualoa, Hakipu’u & Ka’a’awa Valleys). This jungle adventure Tour is approximately 2 1/2 hours long. This Kualoa Ranch guided tour visits film sets from Jurassic World, Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom, and even a visit to the iconic field from the original Jurassic Park movie. Kualoa Jurassic Valley Tour includes transportation on a 16-passenger custom, open-air, Jurasic exploring vehicle. Enjoy breathtaking views of Kualoa's own Jurassic Valley and relive the authentic Jurasic Park experience!
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| Kualoa Ranch - site of some scenes in the Jurassic Park films - but not the original |
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| Kualoa Ranch |
We had dinner at the home of the Commander of the 402nd Army Field Sustainment Brigade, a War College classmate of Paul''s. His HQ is lcoated at Fort Shafter with units in Okinawa, Guam, Alaska and California. As a matter of coincidence his wife was in Paul's OCS class at Fort Benning, she retired as a Major. Fort Shafter is the home base of the United States Army Pacific Command, the Major Command of US Army Forces for the Pacific Region, and the Army Corps of Engineers Pacific Ocean Division. Hickham is home to the 15th Wing (15 WG) and 67 partner units including Headquarters of Pacific Air Forces (PACAF), Hawaii Air National Guard and the 154th Wing (154 WG) of the Hawaii Air National Guard. The Air Mobility Command's 515th Air Mobility Operations Wing (515 AMOW) provides tactical and strategic airlift within the Pacific region.
 |
| Low Country Boil Internet photo |
pretty good. The recipe is below:
4 lbs of small potatoes
- Fill a 7-gallon stockpot halfway with water (or use 2 large pots and divide the ingredients between them). Add the seasoning and bring to a rolling boil. Add the whole potatoes to the pot. Allow the water to return to a boil and cook 5 minutes. Add the onions and sausage. Bring the water back to a boil and cook 15 minutes. Add the corn, bring the water back to a boil and cook 10 minutes, or until the potatoes are done. Add the shrimp, bring the water back to a boil and cook until the shrimp turn pink, about 3 minutes. Drain through a colander; discard the liquid. Serve on newspaper or a platter
THURSDAY February 17, 2022
WEATHER 68 at 0700 highof 80 sunny and clear Sunrise: Honolulu, Oahu 0700 Sunset: 1830
TRAVEL: another car rental day – HUI you rent the vehicle on line, by the hour, pick it up at a nearby garage, you access the car from yur phone, includes a gas card which allows use to use once a day, return the car to the space in the garage with at least 1/4 tank of gas . Grand Waikikian – World War II Valor in the Pacific National Monument – Disney Alulani Resort – Grand Waikikian
Grand Waikikian HGVC – between 9am and 2pm both the hot and cold water and AC was shut off for a maintenance upgrade. This is perhaps not the friendlisest place in the islands. Kingsland on the Big Island of Hawaii and Maui Bay Villas on Maui were less high-rise. Staff here is very friendly and courteous but like some ball park stadiums - this is located downtown.
 |
| Pearl Harbor Historic Sites include the USS Arizona,, USS Bowfin, exhibits and a museum |
PARK ALERTS
Masks Required at Pearl Harbor National Memorial &
Visitor Center
Consistent with CDC guidance regarding areas of substantial
or high transmission, all visitors, regardless of vaccination status, are
required to wear a mask inside all park buildings and on park grounds.
The Pearl Harbor Visitor Center is open seven days a week from 7:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. The visitor center, two museums, and USS Arizona Memorial program are free for all visitors.
 |
| USS Arizona Memorial - NPS Photo |
you wish to visit you must make a reservation on-line
Please plan to arrive on site 1-hour before your program time and check into the theaters 10-minutes before your reserved program time. U.S. Navy vessels leave on time, any unused seats may be offered to those waiting for standby availability. Programs to the USS Arizona Memorial run about 45 minutes, and include:
·
A boat ride to the memorial
·
Fifteen minutes at the memorial
·
A boat ride back to the Pearl Harbor Visitor Center
267 HONOULIULI NATIONAL MONUMENT – still not open to the public, Honouliuli was announced as a National Monument on February 19, 2015 by President Barack Obama. I did not find a passport stamp at the Pearl Harbor stamp desk, I believe I did in 2016.
According to the current National Park Service website “…Honouliuli National Monument will be closed to the public for several years while the National Park Service works in partnership with community stakeholders to plan the site.’
 |
| Honouliuli's Internment Compound - NPS Photo |
Honouliuli National Historic Site is located on land that, during World War II, served as the largest and longest-used confinement site in the Hawaiian Islands for US citizens and residents of Japanese and European ancestry arbitrarily suspected of disloyalty following the attacks on Pearl Harbor.
Run by the U.S. Army and opened in March 1943, Honouliuli was both a civilian internment camp and a prisoner of war camp with a population of approximately 400 internees and 4,000 prisoners of war over the course of its use. The 160 acre internment camp contained 175 buildings, 14 guard towers, and over 400 tents. Internees referred to Honouliuli as Jigoku-Dani ("Hell Valley") because its secluded location in a deep gulch trapped heat and moisture and reinforced the internees' sense of isolation and unjust imprisonment.
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| An aqueduct separated prisoners of war from internees at Honouliuli Internment Camp. The aqueduct provided water for both internment and prisoners of war camps - NPS Photo |
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| Honoouliuli's Civilian Mess Site - NPS Photo |
The majority of Honouliuli's civilian internees
were American citizens—predominantly Japanese Americans who were citizens by birth—suspected of disloyalty. They included community, business, and religious leaders. The remaining group comprised predominantly German Americans, though there were also Americans and aliens of Italian, Irish, Russian, and Scandinavian descent.
 |
| Stitch |
 |
| Lilo & Stitch |
AULULANI – A Disney Resort A visit here was my idea I just had to visit the store to see if I could get any Lilo and Stich items that weren't available at other Disney outlets.
Aulani Resort opened in August 2011. A major expansion project was completed in fall 2013, offering families even more to enjoy! A Disney Vacation Club, available through RCI.
 |
| Aulani Resort - also a Disney Vacation Club - I think I would like to stay here through an RCI exchange but those are hard to get. This is much more laid back and quiet compared to Waikiki. |
Lunch across the street at the Monkey Pod Kitchen was delicious. A singer/guitarist provided luncheon entertainment.
Hale Koa Luau - this is my 3rd luau here
FIRST COURSE
 |
| Hale Koa Garden Luau - stock photo |
Mesclun Salad with Papaya Seed Dressing
Poi
Fresh Pineapple
MAIN COURSE (Adult and Youth)
Kalua PorkPanko Ginger Mahimahi
Soy Sauce Chicken
Teriyaki Steak
Rice
Sweet Potato with Toasted Coconut
Roasted Summer Squash
DESSERT
Haupia Guava Cake
BEVERAGE
Coffee or Tea
 |
| Hale Koa Luau - Paul & self |
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| Hale Koa Luau - front row table Tahiti costumes& dance |
FRIDAY
February 18, 2022
PAUL’S
BIRTHDAY
WEATHER another day in paradise Sunrise: Honolulu, Oahu 0659 Sunset: 1831
TRAVEL Paul and Sarah went on the Circle Island Tour - 0750 pick up at the hotel, Grand Waikikian - Waikiki Brewing Company - Fort DeRussy - Hale Koa Exchange - Barefoot Bar
 |
| Waikiki Brewing Co between Grand Waikikian & the Hale Koa Hotel |
Grand Waikikian HGVC - the Hilton Hawaiian Village complex has innumerable shops - found a very small Harley-Davidson Oahu store (boutique size) that had few items in Large or Medium. I later found the same items at the Hale Koa Exchange in sizes that weren't 2X plus. Also found a US Post Office in the Xerox Business Center.
 |
| Fort DeRussy History |
MAJESTIC CIRCLE ISLAND TOUR #11 – I’ve been on this tour in the past. I suggested to Paul and Sarah that this is the best way to see this island. Reservation was made on Monday when we arrived. Yesterday I reconsidered, and thought that I would go along but it was full - so I hung around the hotel - beach - pool.
This
tour is different from all others, specifically redesigned to spend the most
time “off the bus,” at each stop so that together we can discover all of
the things that make our island magical.
This tour using uses an air conditioned mini-bus to ensure that group
sizes are kept small enough to enjoy each stop with your group and guide.
Itinerary:
(Official stops)
 |
| Battle of Nu'uanau |
 |
| Nu'ulanu Lookout |
historic places in all of Oahu. How King Kamehameha united all of the Hawaiian Islands under one monarchy at the very spot where a famous battle took place. This was on my tour.
 |
| Byodo-in Temple |
2.
Byodo-In
Temple – As we drive along the Ko’olau mountain range we
stop to discover a hidden gem tucked away from the main road. Byodo-In Temple was
featured by National
Geographic in “20 of the world’s most beautiful Buddhist temples,”
noting its architectural details and awe inspiring surroundings. – Not sure
this was on my tour – but the blow hole and ‘From Here to Eternity’ beach were.
– might be considered ‘bonus stops’
3.
Tropical
Farms – Famously known as “The Little Country Store On Your Way to
the North Shore” Steve and Chrissy Paty started this as a roadside operation in
1987 and now, three decades later it’s a great place to try different local
snacks and learn how to crack open some macadamia nuts as the chickens stand by
watching hungrily hoping you drop a nut or two.
 |
| Just had a surfing championship competition last week - while we were on the Big Island |
 |
| North Shore these waves are very small compared to what they could be this time of year |
4.
North
Shore Lunch Stop – Your driver will update you on the daily menu and determine
a great place for everyone to enjoy a delicious lunch before driving alongside
the world famous North
Shore O’ahu coastline on our way to the next adventure. We ate at
a Country Club.
 |
| Waimea Falls |
 |
| Waimea Falls |
 |
| Eucalyptus tree a rainbow the closest we came to seeing rainbow |
 |
| Oahu |
 |
| Dole Plantation |
 |
| Waimea Falls |
7. *
BONUS STOP(S) – “E Noa” means freedom. In addition to the stops listed
above, our tour guides are known to prepare something unique and special for
every adventure.
SATURDAY-SUNDAY February 19-20, 2022
Sunrise: Honolulu, Oahu 0659 Sunset: 1831
Sunrise: Denver, CO 0647 Sunset: Milwaukee, WI 1726
TRAVEL: Grand Waikikian - Fly United Arilines Honolulu (LV 2105) – Denver (AR 0630 LV 1000) – Milwaukee (AR 1305)
Grand Waikikian HGVC – I stayed an extra day so we could have a place to hang-out. The plane does not leave Honolulu until 2105 - check out was 1000 if I had not decided on the extra day – place to hand out and hower. Spent the afternoon on the beach..
 |
| "Toes in the water, ass in the sand not a care in the world, cold beer in my hand Life is good today, Life is good" |
 |
| First time - rented a beach umbrella and chair |
ALOHA
SATURDAY
March 5, 2022
WEATHER: Sunrise: Milwaukee 0659 Sunset: Fort Myers, FL1830
TRAVEL: Delta Airlines MKE-ATL-RSW Shadow Wood Preserve a gated community between Estero Bay Nature Preserve and Mullock Creek. Includes 293 home sites including single family residences, coach homes and condos which surround the Shadow Wood Country Club’s Preserve golf course.
Picked up by a relative at the Southwest Florida’s International Airport at Fort Myers, FL.
Mass at Church of the Resurrection of Our Lord at 3:30 pm. I’ve been here several times in the past – still serviced by Irish priests. A large church for snowbirds and local residents – probably 300 in attendance.
Rusty’s Oyster Bar and Grill
 |
| Rusty's Oyster Bar & Grill |
Nino’s Pizzeria & Restaurant – pizza & beer
SUNDAY
March 6, 2022
WEATHER: 64 at 0600 high of 86 – mostly sunny Sunrise: 0646 Sunset: 1831
TRAVEL: Fort Myers area.
 |
| Shadow Wood Preserve |
done in 3 hours and 40 minutes. I shot a
54 on the front nine (21 putts and 1 in the sand) and 50 on the back nine (18
putts 3 lost balls and 3 in the sand) for a total of 104. Par is 72.
We played from the V tees:
Total Yardage of 5,537 Course
Rating/Slope 67.7/135
USGA Course Rating is an evaluation of the difficulty of a golf course for scratch golfers. (More specifically, the number is an estimate of the average scores of the best 50-percent of rounds played by scratch golfers at the course being rated.)
Course rating is very easy to understand because it is
expressed in strokes. A par-72 course that is
easy might have a course rating of 68.9; one that is difficult might have a
course rating of 74.5. That means that a scratch golfer should be expected to
average 68.9 strokes in his better rounds at the easier course; and 74.5 at the
more difficult one.
Slope rating (a term trademarked by the United States
Golf Association) is a measurement of the difficulty of a golf course for bogey golfers relative to the course rating.
Course rating tells scratch golfers how
difficult the golf course will be; slope rating tells bogey golfers how difficult it will be.
 |
| Lansdowne Street |
The minimum slope rating
is 55 and the maximum is 155 (slope does not relate specifically to strokes
played as course rating). The higher the slope,
the more difficult the course is. When the slope rating system was first put into effect, the USGA set the
slope for an "average" golf course at 113; however, not many
18-hole golf courses have slope ratings that low. Some do, but the
real-world average is higher than 113. (However, a slope of 113 is still used
in certain calculations within the handicap system.)
 |
| Nauti Parrot Oasis |
Lansdowne Street – a sports bar with a Boston Red Sox baseball theme
Nauti Parrot Oasis - been here before – a long time ago for dinner - the place was jammed at 3 pm – there was a bluegrass festival going on
Rusty’s Oyster Bar & Grill - been here before - even when it was a places called "Larry's - always crowded
Texas Roadhouse - dinner
MONDAY March 7, 2022
WEATHER: 68 at 0600 clear – started clouding up about noon - high of 84 - a short shower about 3:30 pm – occasional showers until 5 pm Sunrise: 0645 Sunset: 1832
TRAVEL: Fort Myer’s area.
 |
| The British Open - bar |
Ford’s Garage – lunch – burgers and beer – I had mac& cheese
Rusty's
British Open
TUESDAY March 8, 2022
WEATHER foggy and 67 at 0600 – high of 86 mostly sunny Sunrise: Fort Myers 0644 Sunset: Naples 1833
TRAVEL: Fort Myers – Everglades NP – Big Cypress NPres - Naples
Haney’s Café for breakfast.
Rented a Buick Encore from Budget Southwest Florida International Airport for 3 days. Drove to Naples. Not a bad car – comfortable small SUV – but I’m sure it has a 4 cylinder engine – no guts when you step on the gas
162 EVERGLADES NATIONAL PARK – Miami, FL Not my first visit – spent several days at the park’s three Visitor Centers in 2015.
Everglades National Park is my favorite National Park east of the Mississippi River. Obviously, not my first visit and winter is the best time to visit – otherwise – fight the mosquitoes – heat and humidity. The majority of the park is accessed from the Atlantic Coast south of Miami. Spend time in the park – it’s worth the visit, as are stops at Big Cypress and Shark Valley.
 |
| Everglades National Park - a big place |
 |
| Manatee - NPS photo |
National Preserve - not my fist visit – spent several days in this area in January of 2015. In the 1960s, plans for the world’s largest Jetport, to be constructed in the heart of the Greater Everglades of south Florida, were unveiled. This project, and the anticipated development that would follow, spurred the incentive to protect the wilds of the vast Big Cypress Swamp. To prevent development of the Jetport, local conservationists, sportsmen, environmentalists, Seminoles, Miccosukees, and many others set political and personal differences aside. The efforts of countless individuals and government officials prevailed when, On October 11, 1974, Big Cypress National Preserve was established as the nation’s first national preserve.
The concept of a national preserve was born from an exercise in compromise. Everyone saw the importance of protecting the swamp, but many did not want this region merely added to nearby Everglades National Park that was created in the 1940s. Many felt that national parks were managed in a restrictive manner and access to the swamp would be lost. The resulting compromise created a new land management concept – a national preserve. An area that would be protected, but would also allow for specific Big Cypress National Preserve.
 |
| Big Cypress Swamp |
Established October 11, 1974, Big Cypress is America’s first national preserve. Big Cypress is 729,000 acres. That’s roughly the size of Rhode Island. • Approximately one million visitors visit the Preserve each year. To date, there are roughly 135 Florida panthers remaining in the state. Of which, 30-35 call Big Cypress home. The Preserve has one of the largest fire management programs in the National Park System, burning roughly 60,000 acres each year. activities that were described by Congress within the legislation that created the Preserve.
 |
| Big Cypress National Preserve |
 |
| The Midnight Tavern |
Dinner at the Midnight Tavern 2800, Davis Blvd, Naples with friends renting a 2 BR
condo/apartment
in a place called Kings Way for 3 months in the winter.
WEDNESDAY
March 9, 2022
WEATHER: 74 at 600, sunny and clear – high of 86 Sunrise: 0641 Sunset: 1833
TRAVEL: Naples area – Chase – USPS - Barefoot Beach – Delnor-Wiggins Pass State Park – Hogfish Harry’s – Old Naples Pub – Bay House Restaurant
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| Barefoot Beach Preserve entrance |
located 20 feet off Bonita Beach Road on Lely Barefoot Boulevard the access provides an open, peaceful location for sunbathers. Barefoot Beach Preserve Park is located just South of this access point. Just North is Bonita Beach Park, which has public rest rooms, showers and concessions. In addition to the thriving wildlife and sea life that can be observed at this location. Get here early – There are only 96 parking spaces that you can use for $10 per day. I couldn’t find a place to park – didn’t see the beach or the Gulf - so I didn’t stay.
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| Delnor-Wiggins Pass State Park entrance |
Delnor Wiggins Pass State Park – I was welcomed to “
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| Delnor-Wiggins Pass State Park most of the beach was closed looks like installation of a pipeline |
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| Hogfish Harry's |
Hogfish Harry’s Restaurant & Bar – 600 Neapolitan Way, Naples – this restaurant is difficult to find – tucked away in a island oasis - The new full service tropical-inspired seafood restaurant opened in the fall of 2020 and is helmed by Naples’ veteran Chef Everett Fromm.
With a passion for seafood,
utilizing sustainable, fresh, and one-of-a-kind ingredients and making
everything from scratch, Chef Fromm works with fishermen, farmers and artisans
locally, nationally and Europe to source his menu items and provide guests with
unique flavor profiles and food combinations. The fish is flown in whole
overnight from Hawaii and the Yucatan Peninsula, and broken down in-house to
limit exposure to exterior elements. White peaches, French melons and other
specialty items come from France; while certain organic vegetables are
delivered from a farm in Ohio. Microgreens, tomatoes and mushrooms are sourced
from local farmers. In addition, many ingredients such as stocks, sauces,
pastas and desserts, are prepared in-house.
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| Old Naples Pub this is where you get pickled |
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| Bayhouse Restaurant - from the patio bar |
The Bay House Restaurant – 799 Walkerbilt Rd – Naples – this was an outstanding restaurant and an excellent choice for dinner – RESERVATIONS ARE PROBABLY A MUST – service was outstanding – free valet parking – those boys run – the food was Outstanding. I almost thought I might have been underdressed (golf shorts and golf shirt) – there were a lot of women in long dresses and men in pants. This is an elegant restaurant in the outback near the water.
Located directly on the Cocohatchee River in North Naples, the restaurant offers spectacular waterfront dining and unparalleled views of the Cocohatchee wildlife preserve. Come experience gracious hospitality in an intimate setting exuding Old Florida charm. Outdoor seating is available on the waterfront deck and around the fire pit on the front patio. The cuisine ranges from all types of seafood to southern-influenced dishes and regional fare.
THURSDAY March 10, 2022
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| Naples Pier - end of 12th Avenue |
WEATHER: 74 at 0600, mostly cloudy - high of 89 Sunrise: 0640 Sunset: 1834
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| St. Agnes Church - Naples |
TRAVEL: Naples area – Marco Island.
Mass (8:30 am) at St. Agnes Catholic Church, 7775 Vanderbilt Rd, Naples, FL a huge campus – about 125 in church
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| Naples Pier |
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| Naples Pier - Municipal Beach |
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| View from Cj's Bar - Marco Island |
Eagles
Nest-HGVC – 410 S Collier Blvd
Club
Regency-HGVC – 500 S Collier Blvd
Charter
Club-HGVC –
500 S Collier Blvd
Surf
Club-HGVC – 540 S Collier Blvd
CJ’s on the Bay– a little hard to find – located on the water side of a shopping/living complex/mall. Excellent view - on the water. I had a mini-hamburger plate of 2 mini-cheeseburgers that were done to perfection and cole slaw.
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| Snook Inn |
Snooks Inn – a traditional place to visit on Marco Island – I’ve eaten here before always crowded. Met a guy at the bar who lives here year ‘round – this is the ‘season’ busy – when summer comes, the population declines by about 60% - no problem getting a tee time
Sand Bar – a sports bar in a off the beaten path location – no big deal – walked in – sat at the bar – waited - left
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| Internet Photo - Home for sale in Twin Eagles $1,350,000 3BR, 4 bath, 3,062 sq ft |
Dinner at Outback Steakhouse. It was suggested to eat at Jimmy P’s Steakhouse but I wasn’t hungry full a full steak dinner – so I did downsize to a 6 oz sirloin with shrimp, baked potato and salad. Intentions of stopping at Bone Hook Brewery on Immokalee Rd but too tired so I went to bed.
FRIDAY
March 11, 2022
WEATHER: 73 and cloudy at 0600, sunny by 10, high of 88 Sunrise: 0639 Sunset: 1834
TRAVEL: Naples – Seed to Table – Bonita Beach Park –
Big Hickory Island – Lovers Key State Park – Estero Island – Irish Bar - Rockstar HD - Fat Katz - returned
rental to Budget at Southwest Florida International Airport – Shadow Wood - Sports Bar & Grill - Tacos & Tequila - Rusty's
Mass (8:30 am) at St. Agnes Catholic Church, 7775 Vanderbilt Rd, Naples, FL a huge campus – about 150 in church
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| Seed to Table |
farmers market – a butcher shop, fish market, 2 story wine section, full service bakery, several restaurants, ice cream shop, café & juice bar, smoothie bar, wine bar, organic meals, ready-made meals, and a playground for the kids.
Bonita Beach State Park – open to the public since 1922 – parking $2 per hour - again advise go early if you want to go the beaches, traffic was backed up and slow - did not enter just a drive by
Big Hickory Island – approximately 186 acres directly south of Lovers Key State Park. The island is made up of beaches, mangrove swamps and emerging mangrove islands surrounded by an oyster bed.
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| Lovers Key State Park Entrance sign |
donated to the state so that its beaches and mangrove forests can be preserved for all to enjoy. Traffic was backed up to get in so I did not enter. The whole 'key' is a beach.
Estero Island – part of Fort Myers Beach, Estoro Island is located in Lee County Florida on the Gulf coast of Southwest Florida. t is bordered by San Carlos Island to the north and Big Carlos Pass to the south. The Matanzas Pass Bridge is on the northern end of the island and connects Estero Island over Matanzas Pass to San Carlos Island. The Big Carlos Bridge (part of the Bonita Beach Causeway) connects the southern end of the island to Black Island (the northern limit of the city of Bonita Springs)
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| Map - Fort Myers Beach - Estero Island |
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| Beachfront - Seawatch HGVC - Fort Myers Beach |
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| Rockstar Harley-Davidson - Fort Myers |
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| Don't bother visiting this "Irish" bar in Fort Myers Beach - nothing Irish about it |
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| Fat Katz just down from Rockstar Harley-Davidson |
Shamrock Irish Bar- Paddywagon - Fat Katz – Seagrass Sports Bar & Grill - Tacos & Tequila -
Rusty’s
SATURDAY
March 12, 2022
WEATHER: 73 mostly cloudy, windy – clouded up by 10 am – rain about noon – got cooler – windy - forecast calls for a dropdown to 45 this evening Sunrise: 0639 Sunset: 1834
TRAVEL: Fort Myer’s area –
Shadow Wood Preserve Country Club – shot 101; 7 lost balls, finally started playing better the last 3 holes – shot par 3, par 4 and par 5.
The Diner – breakfast
Mass at Church of the Resurrection of Our Lord at 3:30. – probably 300 in attendance.
Rusty’s (crowded – live music – did not stay) – Zino’s (excellent dinner) – Nauti Parrot ( live music - crowded – bar full of people smoking and wearing sunglasses – it was dark outside) – Rusty’s (live music – found 2 seats at the bar)
SUNDAY
March 13, 2022
WEATHER:
46 at 0600 clear – 36 in Atlanta at 1030 – 50 in Burlington by 2 pm
DAYLIGHT
SAVING TIME Sunrise: Fort Myers 0738 Sunset: Milwaukee 1856
TRAVEL: Delta Airlines - RSW – ATL – MKE - - - - DELTA ---- Apologies - Apologies – Apologies the flight out of Fort Myers was 1hr and 25 minutes late- the flight from Atlanta to Milwaukee was late out of the gate and the screens on the plane did not work properly - Still got to MKE about the time I should should have
Glad to be back home – although the weather in southwest Florida is very agreeable. Told Larry I would serve as his butler, cook, maid – in return for golf – perhaps lodging – he didn’t bite.
SUNDAY
– APRIL 17, 2022
WEATHER: 42 at 4 am, 60 in Fairfield Glade at 2 pm
TRAVEL: Burlington, WI to Fairfield Glade, TN about 558 miles in 8 ½ hours, little traffic, usual ‘forever’ construction in Indiana along I-65.
Tennessee Mountain Golf provides golf packages to Fairfield Glade and Crossville. There are six golf courses here. The courses feature designers such as Jack Nicklaus, Joe Lee, Ron Garl, Bobby Greenwood, and Gary Roger Baird. These designers have taken advantage of the natural terrain and scenic beauty of the Cumberland Plateau. Their visions have produced multiple championship layouts throughout Fairfield Glade and Crossville that are as challenging as they are enjoyable.
We stay in 2 bedroom condos located in Fairfield Glade and are fully furnished with Cable TV (most with HD Flat Screens), linens for bed and bath and washer and dryer. The kitchens are fully equipped with microwaves, coffee maker and cooking equipment. WIFI works.
So, something different this year – my brother didn’t want to go down on Monday and golf at Kentucky Dam State Park with the other 7 guys who are coming down to Tennessee. So, we met up with three other guys who come down here early and golf a day or two before the majority of the group shows up
Unit 65 – a 2 bedroom affair, with 2 baths kitchen and living/dining room. WIFI works – probably built in the 70’s – linoleum in the bath was exactly the same as what was in one of the places I lived when first married. Moved to Unit 79 same layout but nicer and a view of the Dorchester GC driving range.
MONDAY
– APRIL 18, 2021
WEATHER: rained heavy last night, 49 at 6 am and cloudy, forecast
not much over 50 for the remainder of the day.
TRAVEL: Heatherhurst Crag – Druid Hills
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| The Crag #1 Tee on Monday April 18 - Cool and Cart Path Only |
strokes, or sand shots.
DRUID HILLS – a replay for nine cost $22. We played the back nine – a very scenic course with a signature waterfall hole. Shot 52 with 2 penalty stokes, and two in the sand.
Lunch of leftover ham from Sunday dinner and salad. Dinner was Mexican at a restaurant called Cancun.
There are 5 courses that we play here. No golf course is easy. But there is a rating system used by USGA. I’ve explained this before:
USGA Course Rating is an evaluation of the difficulty of a golf course for scratch golfers. (More specifically, the number is an estimate of the average scores of the best 50-percent of rounds played by scratch golfers at the course being rated.)
Course rating is very easy to understand because it is
expressed in strokes. A par-72 course that is
easy might have a course rating of 68.9; one that is difficult might have a
course rating of 74.5. That means that a scratch golfer should be expected to
average 68.9 strokes in his better rounds at the easier course; and 74.5 at the
more difficult one.
Slope rating (a term trademarked by the United States
Golf Association) is a measurement of the
difficulty of a golf course for bogey golfers relative
to the course rating.
Course rating tells scratch golfers how
difficult the golf course will be; slope rating tells bogey golfers
how difficult it will be.
To put it another way: USGA Course Rating tells the best golfers how
hard a golf course actually plays; USGA Slope Rating indicates how much harder the course
plays for "regular" (meaning not among the best) golfers.
The minimum slope rating
is 55 and the maximum is 155 (slope does not relate specifically to strokes
played as course rating). The higher the slope,
the more difficult the course is. When the slope rating system was first put into effect, the USGA set the
slope for an "average" golf course at 113; however, not many
18-hole golf courses have slope ratings that low. Some do, but the
real-world average is higher than 113. (However, a slope of 113 is still used
in certain calculations within the handicap system.)
The rating and slope differs depending upon you’re a man or a woman & what tees you play from.
White
Tees Gold Tees
Course Rating/Slope Rating Slope
Heatherhurst
Crag 65.7/114 61.8/106
Dorchester 68.0/125 63.8/117
Heatherhurst
Brae 68.1/121 64.3/103
Stonehenge 70.1/136 66.0/111
Druid
Hills 69.0/121 65.8/105
TUESDAY
– APRIL 19, 2022
WEATHER: 31 at 6 am and
clear and sunny. A high of 54. Cool but
pleasant because of the sun.
TRAVEL: DRUID HILLS
DRUID
HILLS Golf Course - CART PATH ONLY
Druid Hills Golf Club
is an is an immaculately maintained
18-hole course that delivers spectacular vistas. Located on the highest point
in Fairfield Glade, as the name suggest, Druid Hills provides
several scenic views of the surrounding mountains. With rolling, tree-lined
fairways, plenty of water, several doglegs, and undulation bent grass greens, Druid Hills is a true test of golf. Last year I shot 105 with 4 lost balls and 39
putts. The greens were not that
undulating and the scenic views truly are scenic to include views to the
mountains and a ‘signature’ waterfall hole – Par 5 with an elevated green,
waterfall and pond in front of the hole.
Front
Nine – White 3042 yds Gold – 2547 yds
Back
Nine – White 2785 yds Gold - 2484 yds
Total 5827yds 5031 yds
Rating/Slope 69.0/121 65.8/105
Back
Nine – shot from the Gold tees 50 with 1 lost ball and 20 putts
Front
Nine - shot from the Gold tees 53 with 2 lost balls, and 18 putts
Back
Nine – shot from the Gold tees 55 with 2 lost balls and 20 putts
There was no scramble.
Cart path only - tires everyone out.
Dinner of a hamburger and fries at Red’s Ale House.
WEDNESDAY
– APRIL 20, 2022
WEATHER: 35 at 6 am and
partly sunny, forecast high of 65 by 3 pm and cloudy.
TRAVEL: DORCHESTER - CART PATH ONLY
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| Dorchester #13 |
year. We all throw in $100, teams change very day, everyone’s score is adjusted by an average which changes at the end of each day’s round.
Prize money for 1st place team - Front and Back is $32. Prize money for 2nd place team Front and Back is $20. Individual most under average wins $5. There are prizes for the Green Balls on all of the Par 3 holes of $5. There are 4 longest putt prizes of $5 and one longest drive holes. The First place team wins $32 in the nine hole scramble and the second place team wins $28.
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| Dorchester #13 Par 3 127 yds White 113 yds Gold Men's Handicap 14 |
Yesterday, my team won 1st place ($8 each) on the front nine; 2nd place on the back nine ($5 each). There was no scramble. Somehow, we won $2 each for low total but I think that was in error. We’ll see what the awards are tomorrow. So, I won $18 of the $100 I contributed to the pot.
DORCHESTER Golf Course - CART PATH ONLY
Dorchester Golf Club is an 18-hole course, secluded in Fairfield Glade and featuring bent grass tees and greens. The tree lined fairways are narrow, requiring precision shot-making off the tees. Many water hazards and strategically placed bunkers provide a challenge for every level of golfer. Last year I shot 108 on this course with 6 lost balls and 36 putts. This year I shot 110.
Front Nine – White 3044 yds Gold – 2393 yds
Back
Nine – White 2773 yds Gold - 2442 yds
Total 5817yds 4835 yds
Rating/Slope 68.0/125 63.8/113
Front
Nine - shot from the Gold tees 52 with 3 whiffs, 1 in the sand and 20 putts
Back Nine – shot from the Gold tees 58 with 2 lost balls, 1 penalty stroke, 3 whiffs and 1 in the
sand with 21 putts. This back nine has
some interesting holes, they’re killers.
We ate spaghetti as a group for dinner.
THURSDAY
– APRIL 21, 2021
WEATHER: 57 at 6 am forecast high of 71, partly sunny,
it was drizzling when we started and got progressively warmer until around 3
pm, then it got cloudy and cooled down again
TRAVEL: HEATHERHURST BRAE
Too complicated to keep track of winnings – but it was around $28 today - maybe.
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| The Brae - Cart Path Only on Thursday - the course was soggy on many holes - squish - squish |
HEATHERHURST – BRAE Golf Course - CART PATH ONLY
Heatherhurst Golf Club is both challenging and scenic. The
18-hole Brae Course is made up of the original Creek and
Mountain 9-hole tracts. The front nine provides the most challenge. Including
the number 4 hole, which features a double dogleg fairway. Some consider this
hole as the toughest par 5 in Tennessee. The undulating fairways and encroaching
bunkers guarantee a challenging and scenic round. Rated 4 stars by Golf Digest’s Places to Play. Last year I shot 107 with 4
lost balls, and 36 putts. This course
was wet and soggy.
Front Nine – White 2986 yds Gold – 2385 yds
Back
Nine – White 2994 yds Gold - 2633 yds
Total 5980 yds 5018 yds
Rating/Slope 68.1/121 64.3/103
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| The Brae #7 Par 3 Men's Handicap 15 |
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| The Brae #7 |
Front
Nine - shot from the Gold tees 58 with 2 lost balls, 5 whiffs, and 17
putts
Back
Nine – shot from the Gold tees 50 with 1 lost ball, and 16 putts
We ate Cosco lasagna with salad and Italian bread for dinner.
FRIDAY – APRIL 22, 2022
WEATHER: 58 at 6 am mostly sunny and clear, forecast
high of 77 degrees
TRAVEL: HEATHERHURST CRAG
I won $5 today from yesterday.
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| The Crag - 90 Degree Rule here means enter the fairway and stay in the fairway - Do Not drive in the rough |
The completion of nine additional holes in mid-2000 created a
fun and challenging 18-hole course, called the Crag Course at Heatherhurst Golf Club. As with its sister, The Brae Course, it features Bent grass
tees and greens. Its well-maintained, wide fairways are great for the short
hitters but some strategically placed bunkers create a demanding day on the
links. Heatherhurst’s original three nine-hole
courses were all given 4 stars from Golf Digest’s Places to Play. Last year I shot 98 with 1 lost ball and 44
putts.
Front
Nine – White 2745 yds Gold – 2403 yds
Back
Nine – White 2819 yds Gold - 2246 yds
Total 5564yds 4649 yds
Rating/Slope 65.7//114 61.8/106
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| The Crag #12 the home in the background is landscaped beautifully |
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| The Crag #12 Par 3 Men's Handicap 14 |
Back
Nine – shot from the Gold tees 48 with 1 lost ball, 2 whiffs and 19 putts
Dinner at Spike’s – an adequate fish fry – breaded frozen filets – OD bought for all
SATURDAY
– APRIL 23, 2022
WEATHER: high of 81 and sunny
TRAVEL: STONEHENGE
Some how I won $21 yesterday.
STONEHENGE Golf Course – Architect Joe Lee has taken a pristine tract of land in the rolling and wooded Cumberland Plateau and made it his personal canvas for the masterpiece that is Stonehenge. The course gets its name from walls of native stone found throughout the 6,549 yard, par 72 layout. Natural rock outcroppings come into play on several holes, with a 15 foot layered stone retaining wall running along the left proud to feature bent grass tees, greens and fairways for prime playing conditions. During the winter of 2016-17 Stonehenge Golf Course underwent bunker and rear of the signature downhill par 3, 14th hole. Stonehenge Golf Club is renovations. This was accomplished in order to improve drainage and playability for a better golfing experience. Last year it rained hard in the morning – and rain and cold in the afternoon – most of us only played nine holes.
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| Stonehenge #14 Par 3 White 148 yds Gold 138 yds Men's Handicap 10 |
Front
Nine – White 3154 yds Gold – 2607 yds
Back
Nine – White 3048 yds Gold – 2485 yds
Total - White 6202 yds Gold - 5092
yds
Rating/Slope 70.1/136 66.0/111
Front
Nine - shot from the Gold tees 50 with 20 putts, 1 lost ball, and 2 in the
sand
Back
Nine – shot from the Gold tees 56 with 19 putts, 1 lost ball, 4 whiffs,
and 2 in the sand
We ate spaghetti again tonight . . . . and somehow again I won $22.
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| Stonehenge #15 Par 5 White 490 yds Gold 375 Men's Handicap 2 #14 is below this tee to the right |
 |
| You've heard of the Green Jacket Well, the 'pink jacket' is awarded to the golfer most under average for each day Do I resemble that golfer? Go figure. |
SUNDAY – APRIL 24, 2022
WEATHER: perfect in TN, rain
in northern IL and south of Chicago, about 68 and mostly sunny when I got
home. Made good time driving.
TRAVEL: After breakfast in the condo -we left at 6:30 am CDT and I got home at a little after 4 pm CDT.
WEDNESDAY – JUNE 15, 2022
WEATHER: 81 and sunny in
0800; 91 in Charleston, WV
TRAVEL: MKE – ORD – WRV. A delay in the bus pickup and arrival at the Hampton Inn in Elkin’s WV at 10:30 pm. A 2 ½ hour bus ride from Charleston, WV.
CHICAGO CIVIL WAR ROUND TABLE
2022 – 71st Tour: “THE CAMPAIGN in West Virginia 1861”
 |
| Ed Bearss 1923-2020 NPS Chief Historian Emeritus |
The group usually has 40-80 people attending on two busses. The chief guide had been Ed Bearss, Historian Emeritus National Park Service. Ed died September 15, 2020 at the age of 97. Attendance goes up and down depending on the sites the tour visits. Last year the group visited Chancellorsville & Fredericksburg in August. This will be my 12th tour. I missed the ‘Atlanta Campaign’ in 2018 because of a conflict with golf in Tennessee.
This year the guides are: Hunter Lesser – of Elkins, WV, historian and author, on the Board of Directors for the Rich Mountain Battlefield Foundation and Rick Wolfe. There are only 28 people on this tour.
Hampton Inn, 480 Plantation Dr, Elkins, WV - Base Hotel –
THURSDAY
– JUNE 16, 2022
WEATHER: foggy morning and 69 in Elkins, WV – forecast calls for a high of 89 and partly cloudy – hot and humid after lunch Sunrise: 0553 EDT Sunset: 2048 EDT Elkins, WV
TRAVEL: Hampton Inn, Elkins, WV – Philippi Covered Bridge – Talbot’s Hill – Laurel Hill (Camp Garnett – drive by) – Rich Mountain – burgers & dogs lunch at Field of Fire (private Rich Mountain Wayside) – Rich Mountain (Hart Farm) – Corrick’s Ford – Hampton Inn – BBQ dinner at Smoke on the Water.
Hampton Inn, 480 Plantation Dr, Elkins, WV - Base Hotel –
 |
| The First Campaign - 1861 |
Philippi Battlefield, Philippi, WV Barbour County Jun 3, 1861
What
would become the first organized land battle of the Civil War began from a
Union attempt to protect railroads in Western Virginia. MG George B. McClellan, months before he would
become General-in-Chief, was commander of the Department of Ohio. He ordered troops to Western Virginia to
protect the important Baltimore & Ohio Railroad and perhaps to open a path to Richmond.
McClellan ordered 3,000 men under BG Thomas A. Morris to the town of Philippi in Barbour County. They were sent to protect vital river crossings and an important rail junction. In the town of Philippi, Union commanders learned, was a concentration of about 800 newly recruited Confederate soldiers under COL George Porterfield. Most of them were green, and they had not yet been organized into regiments.
 |
| Phillppi - The Federal Battle Plan sketch bottom right is the death of Garnett |
Morris devised a pincer movement on the town. About 1,600 Union troops from Indiana, Ohio, and Western Virginia, under COL Benjamin Kelley, would board trains east, feigning a move towards Harper’s Ferry. They would then disembark at the town of Thornton and march south to the backside of Philippi. At the same time, about 1,400 men under COL Ebenezer Dumont, assisted by COL Frederick W. Lander, one of McClellan’s aides, would march directly south to Philippi. Together they would surround the town; a pistol shot would be the signal to attack.
 |
| Philippi |
After an overnight battle fraught with rain, both contingents arrived at Philippi on the morning of June 3. Southern sympathizer Matilda Humphries saw the Union troops approaching and sent her son to warn Porterfield, but he was caught by Union pickets. During the confrontation between Humphries and the Union soldiers who accosted her son, she fired a pistol. The assembled men took it for the arranged symbol, and thus the attack began prematurely. The Confederates had failed to post pickets, so they were completely surprised when a Union artillery barrage awoke them from their slumber. Some were able to fire at the advancing Yankees but were unable to put up a solid defense. They soon broke and retreated to the south. Kelley’s men arrived on the wrong road and were unable to block their retreat; a chase ensued. Kelley was shot in the pursuit, while Lander performed a daring show of horsemanship, riding down a steep hill through underbrush. The Confederates would retreat all the way to Huttonsville, almost 50 miles to the south. The frantic retreat would cause journalists to dub the battle the “Races at Philippi.”
 |
| The "Races" the daring ride of COL Lander |
Result: Union Victory
Est. Casualties: 30
Union: 4
Confederate: 26
Although casualties were limited, this battle had significant impacts on the war, barely two months old. First, the victory propelled McClellan to the national spotlight; he would become commander of the Army of the Potomac in July. It also would bolster the morale of the Second Wheeling Convention, which would vote to nullify Virginia’s order of secession, leading Western Virginia on the path to statehood.
At Philippi, some of the first battlefield amputations of the war occurred. Confederate James E. Hanger lost a leg in the fighting, but after he returned home, he created an artificial leg out of barrel staves with a hinge at the knee. After the war, he patented the design and founded what is now the Hanger Orthopedic Group, which is currently the United States’ leading prosthetics company.
Laurel Hill Barbour County July 7, 1861
 |
| BG Robert S. Garnett (CSA) |
The Battle of Laurel Hill, also known as the Battle of Laurel Mountain or Belington, began on July 7, 1861. A month earlier, Southern troops had retreated south after their loss at the Battle of Philippi. Confederate commander BG Robert S. Garnett had seized a key mountain pass and set up his defenses at the foot of Laurel Mountain, located in eastern Barbour County. Beginning on July 7, Union troops under BG Thomas Morris attacked Garnett’s men in a series of skirmishes. The two sides fought for the next five days. In the end, the Confederates were overrun.
 |
| BG Thomas Morris (USA) |
The Union Army’s victories at
Laurel Hill, Rich Mountain, and Corrick’s Ford in July
1861 helped place Western Virginia in Northern hands for the rest of the war
and allowed the West Virginia statehood movement to unfold.
 |
| Rich Mountain Camp Garnett - map at right was drawn by Jed Hotchkiss |
Rich Mountain Randolph County, WV Jul 11, 1861
 |
| George Brinton McClellan (USA) |
MG George B. McClellan assumed command of Union forces in western Virginia in June 1861. After their defeat by McClellan at Philippi, Confederate troops under the command of BG Robert S. Garnett had fortified two key mountain passes. The one furthest south, Camp Garnett, consisted of earth and log entrenchments overlooking the Staunton-Parkersburg Turnpike at Rich Mountain, just west of Beverly.
On June 27th, McClellan moved his brigades of Ohio and Indiana soldiers from Clarksburg south against LTC John Pegram’s Confederates, reaching the vicinity of Rich Mountain on July 9th. Meanwhile, BG Thomas A. Morris’s Union brigade marched from Philippi to confront Garnett’s command at Laurel Hill.
 |
| William S. Rosecrans (USA) |
the turnpike in Pegram’s rear. A sharp two-hour fight ensued in which the Confederates were split in two. Half escaped to Beverly, but Pegram and the others surrendered on July 13.
 |
| LTC John Pegram (CSA) |
Hearing of Pegram’s defeat, Garnett abandoned Laurel Hill. The Federals pursued, and, during fighting at Corrick’s Ford on July 13, Garnett was killed. On July 22, McClellan was ordered to Washington, and Rosecrans assumed command of Union forces in western Virginia. The Union victory at Rich Mountain was instrumental in propelling McClellan to command of the Army of the Potomac.
Result: Union
Victory
Est. Casualties: 346
Union: 46
Confederate: 300
 |
| Corrick's Ford |
Corricks Ford, Parsons, WV Tucker County Jul 13, 1861
“They have not given me an adequate force. I can do nothing.
They have sent me to my death." Gen. Robert S. Garnett CSA
"I have made a very clean sweep of it." Maj. Gen. George
B. McClellan USA
 |
| Guide Hunter Lessor in white t-shirt left at Corrick's Ford |
Union MG George McClellan won a victory at the Battle of Rich Mountain on July 11, 1861. That night, Confederate BG Robert S. Garnett and 3,500 Confederates abandoned their camp at Laurel Hill and marched south toward Beverly. Fearing a trap, they turned northeast in a daring bid to escape. Union troops pursued the Confederates over Pheasant Mountain in a driving summer rain along muddy roads and rain-swollen river crossings. Garnett's army tossed tents and supplies along the way to lighten the load and block the path of their pursuers. The running battle continued through the night and into the early morning hours of July 13th, when the exhausted armies reached Corrick's Ford, a river crossing on the Shavers Fork of the Cheat River. Garnett and his troops broke off the fight and retreated down river to make a final stand. Sharpshooters of the 23rd Virginia Infantry were positioned behind driftwood along the riverbank in a desperate bid to stall the Yankees. Garnett remained with his troops as bullets hissed across the stream. As he turned to give an order, a ball struck him and he toppled from his horse. Federal skirmishers splashed across the ford and found the general's body among the wildflowers. Garnett became the first general officer to die in the Civil War.
 |
| The death of BG Robert S. Garnett at Corricks Ford |
His troops fled in disarray, escapingover the mountains and along the river. The events in western Virginia during these first campaigns of the Civil War won fame for McClellan and secured Union control of the area, and in June 1863, the new state of West Virginia was born.
Result: Union Victory
Union: 50
Confederate: 620
Dinner at Smoke on Water Restaurant
FRIDAY
– JUNE 17, 2022
WEATHER: 74 at 6 am mostly
cloudy, forecast calls for a high of 80 with scattered thunderstorms, heavy
shower at Camp Allegheny, heavy rain from Camp Bartow back to Elkins, WV Sunrise:
0552 EDT Sunset: 2048 EDT Elkins, WV
TRAVEL: Hampton Inn – Cheat Mountain – Cheat Summit Fort – Durbin/Frank/Bartwo – Old House Picnic Area – Camp Allegheny – Camp Bartow, Hampton Inn – Dinner at the Beverly Heritage Center
Hampton Inn, 480 Plantation Dr, Elkins, WV - Base Hotel
this point. BG Robert S. Garnett was sent to Western Virginia to reorganize these troops and halt the southeast advance of Federal forces.
Here on June 14, he created the 25th and 31st Virginia infantry regiments with
recruits from the surrounding mountain areas. One day later, these troops marched north to
guard key mountain passes at Rich Mountain and Laurel
Hill, General Garnett’s “gates to the northwestern country.”
Many of the officers and men of Company F of the 31st Virginia Regiment came from the nearby Huttonsville Academy, a coeducational school founded in 1854. Federal troops burned the school in 1861.
Most of the Confederate units that fought here in July became known as the Army of the Northwest and spent the winter of 1861 at Camp Allegheny. The following spring, they became a part of Stonewall Jackson’s famous “foot cavalry” during his Shenandoah Valley campaign. As a part of the Army of the Northern Virginia, they served until Appomattox.
Elkwater (Fort Morrow & Washington death site) Trenches made by Federal troops under BG Reynolds, 1861. Nearby were the two Haddan Indian forts, scene of the Stewart and Kinnan massacres.
Col. J. A. Washington. Here, Sept. 13, 1861, COL John Augustine Washington, aide-de-camp to Gen. Robert E. Lee, C. S. A., was killed. He was the last of resident owners of Mt. Vernon, which he had sold in 1859 to become a national shrine.
Cromer Top (combat on Cheat Mountain) Pocahontas, WV Sep 12 - 15, 1861
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| Cheat Mountain |
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| Cheat Mountain |
Davis sent Robert E. Lee to protect vital railroads and regain lost Confederate territory in Western Virginia to halt the statehood movement there. He would support BG William Loring in commanding the Department of Northwestern Virginia. At the same time, Union BG William S. Rosecrans, in charge of the Department of Ohio, ordered BG Joseph J. Reynolds to defend the Staunton and Parkersburg Turnpike in the Cheat Mountain district.
Reynolds had
about 1,800 men. The 14th Indiana, commanded by COL Nathan Kimball, held Fort Milroy (also known as Cheat Summit Fort) on the side of Cheat Mountain. Three other regiments
remained at Camp Elkwater, Reynolds’ headquarters, in the
Tygart River Valley.
 |
| Cheat Mountain - Lee's Plan |
Lee’s plan was for a two-pronged, simultaneous attack on both forts. The three Confederate brigades that attacked Cheat Summit Fort on September 12 had to contend with limited visibility due to poor weather conditions, a defending force that knew the terrain well, and poor coordination between each brigade; during the battle, each brigade acted independently and never made contact with each other. The 14th Indiana, comprised of about 300 men, put up a stubborn defense that was so aggressive that Confederate commanders believed the force was much larger than it was in reality. Daunted by these odds, they withdrew. At the same time, three more Confederate brigades were attacking Camp Elkwater, but the camp’s well-prepared entrenchments allowed for a solid Federal defense. Lee soon called off the entire attack. He maneuvered in the area before withdrawing to Valley Mountain on September 17.
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| Cheat Mountain |
Result: Union Victory
Est. Casualties: 208
Union: 88
Confederate: 120
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| Camp Bartow |
earthworks built by 1,800 Confederate soldiers, has been preserved and will eventually be opened to the public following its recent purchase by the West Virginia Land Trust.
The encampment was built by
soldiers from Georgia, Arkansas and Virginia who occupied the
site for several
months during the opening year of the Civil War, and it was used to fend off an
attack by a much larger Union force during the Oct. 3, 1861, Battle
of Greenbrier River.
The 14-acre tract, bought with assistance from the national Civil War Trust, Pocahontas County Commission, state Division of Highways, Staunton-Parkersburg Turnpike Alliance and First Energy Foundation, overlooks the East Fork of the Greenbrier River and borders a still-used segment of the Staunton-Parkersburg Turnpike, a strategic east-west supply route during the Civil War. After being routed by Union troops at Philippi in June of 1861, defeated again at the Battle of Rich Mountain near Beverly on July 11 and losing their commanding officer, BG Robert Garnett, to enemy fire during the Battle of Corrick's Ford at Parsons three days later, the Confederate Army of the Northwest, retreated eastward to Monterey, Virginia, to rest, regroup and review plans to return.
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| Camp Bartow - Confederate trenches would be at the top of the hill - along with artillery |
Jackson returned to mountainous terrain of what is now West Virginia, marching into Pocahontas County on the Staunton-Parkersburg Turnpike. On Aug. 13, after descending Allegheny Mountain until the East Fork of the Greenbrier came into view, the Confederate force seized Travellers Repose and owner Andrew Yeager’s surrounding grazing land.
In the weeks that followed, the
southerners blocked passage on the turnpike to Union troops and commerce, built
a campground atop a nearby hill and developed a series of trenches, cannon
emplacements and firing pits along the contours of hills overlooking the inn,
river and turnpike. Jackson named the beehive of Confederate activity Camp
Bartow in honor of fellow Georgian Francis Bartow, an officer killed
while rallying his troops during the Battle of Bull Run a few weeks earlier.
Lunch at Old House Run picnic area
Camp Allegheny Pocahontas County Dec 13, 1861
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| Camp Allegheny - the row of trees is the turnpike - looking to the right flank of the camp - defenses along the far hill from the right flank of the camp |
strategy in areas where they could not bring superior numbers of forces to bear against their Union foe. They found it critical to control or at least monitor all possible avenues of approach by Union forces into the Confederate interior. These included the overland routes through the Appalachian Mountains of western Virginia.
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| Camp Allegheny - the stone pile lower center is the site of a confederate hut |
On December 13th, a
Union brigade under BG Robert Milroy
attacked Johnson atop Allegheny Mountain. Fighting continued on
the rough slopes for much of the morning as each side maneuvered to gain the
advantage. Finally, Milroy’s troops were repulsed,
and he retreated to his camps near Cheat Mountain. At year’s end, Johnson remained at Camp Allegheny with five regiments.
After the winter, Johnson abandoned the camp a
moved east to eventually meet up with LTG Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson to defeat
the Union army at the Battle of McDowell.
Result: Inconclusive
Est. Casualties: 283
Union: 137
Confederate: 146
Beverly, WV, to tell the story of the Battle of Rich Mountain and the First Campaign of the Civil War, the pivotal role of Staunton-Parkersburg Turnpike and daily life in a small rural country seat through the 19th century.
SATURDAY
– JUNE 17, 2022
WEATHER: 60 at 6 am cloudy, forecast high of 68, sunny and clear afternoon Sunrise: 0552 EDT Sunset: 2049 EDT Elkins, WV
TRAVEL: Hampton Inn – Camp Elkhart – Site of John Augustine Washington’s death – Droop Mountain – Hampton Inn -
Hampton Inn, 480 Plantation Dr, Elkins, WV - Base Hotel
Camp Elkwater - Federal troops under BG Joseph J. Reynolds built Camp Elkwater during the summer of 1861. The site is located eight miles south of Huttonsville on U. S. Route 219 in Randolph County. Fortifications were dug across the narrow valley floor to block the Huttonsville-Huntersville Turnpike, a wagon road leading over the Alleghenies to the Virginia Central Railroad. Following the Union victory at Rich Mountain on July 11, 1861, Camp Elkwater was key to the defense of upper Tygart Valley.
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| Camp Elkwater Cemetery inside the redoubt that was a Federal artillery position |
Confederates under General Robert E. Lee attacked. Failing in an assault on Cheat Mountain, seven miles east, Lee hoped to seize Camp Elkwater. “When morning broke, I could see the enemy’s tents on Valley River, at the point of the Huttonsville road just below me,” he wrote. “It was a tempting sight.” But the Tennessee troops under Lee’s command were too exhausted from their rugged march to launch an assault.
Site
of John Augustine Washington’s death.
Droop Mountain, Hillsboro, WV Pocahontas Nov 6, 1863
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| Droop Mountain |
From August to December 1863, BG William H. Averill (US) launched a series of three raids into southeastern West Virginia and southwestern Virginia to disrupt important railroads linking Virginia and Tennessee. He led his second raid from Beverly in early November. The plan was a two-pronged movement: Averell and 5,000 cavalry, infantry, and artillery soldiers would move to entrap Confederates near Lewisburg. At the same time, almost a thousand horse soldiers under BG Alfred N. Duffie would destroy military property around Charleston.
Confederate
BG John Echols got word of the plan.
In order to defend Lewisburg, he marched 1,700 men to Droop Mountain, the highest point on
the way to Lewisburg. They occupied the
crest of the hill, fortifying the high ground and blocking the highway with
artillery. On November 6, Averell moved his force to attack Droop Mountain. His plan including
attacking at different points on the line to divert the Confederates’
attention, knowing a frontal attack would be suicide.
.jpg) |
| Droop Mountain |
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| Droop Mountain observation tower looking toward Hillsboro |
artillery was mostly ineffective, as shots were unable to reach the Confederate guns, which were able to inflict significant damage. Six hours of close, hand-to-hand combat along different points in the Confederate lines ensued. Finally, a dismounted cavalry charge on Echols’ left flank at a spot dubbed “the Bloody Angle” broke the Confederate line. A retreat became a rout. Union horsemen chased the fleeing Confederates to Lewisburg, when they called off the pursuit. However, many prisoners and large amounts of arms and ammunition were captured.
Although it was a
victory for Averell, he failed to succeed
in his objective of entrapping Confederates at Lewisburg. Within ten days, the Confederates would
reoccupy the side of Droop Mountain. This battle was the largest battle to occur in
West Virginia and was one of the last major battles there during the war. Averell
led a final raid on the Virginia-Tennessee Railroad that proved successful the
next month. The opening of the Shenandoah Valley Campaign forces in 1864 also drew Confederates out of West Virginia. After Droop Mountain, all Confederate attempts to control West
Virginia were at an end.
Dinner at Graceland Inn on site of Elkins-Morris University, Elkins, WV
SUNDAY – JUNE 19, 2022
WEATHER: 48 degrees at 0600 sunny and clear; warmed up to 70 quickly Sunrise: 0552 EDT Elkins, WV Sunset: 0835 CDT Burlington, WI
TRAVEL: today attendees driving took their own vehicles, we did not return to the hotel - the bus left for the airport immediately after lunch. A departure from the usual format where we have a box lunch at the hotel and then the bus would take those flying to an airport. Flew back on American Airlines Charleston-Charlotte-Milwaukee.
Hampton Inn, 480 Plantation Dr, Elkins, WV - Base Hotel
Battle of Carnifax Ferry, Summersville, WV Nicholas Sep 10, 1861
I’ve visited here on May 26, 2015; along with visits to Gauley River NRA and what was then New River NRA now New River National Park. Arrived around 10 am – short tour by a WV DNR Ranger – and left for Gauley Bridge about 11:40 am.
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| John Buchanan Floyd |
In late summer 1861, Confederates launched counterattacks to reclaim the Kanawha Valley, which Union forces controlled since July, and prevent West Virginia’s separation from Virginia. At Kessler's Cross Lanes, Confederate BG John. B. Floyd defeated and routed a small Union force, after which he retreated to the rim of the Gauley River Canyon, where he established an entrenched encampment with about 2,000 men. The position was based around the Henry Patterson farm, which overlooked Carnifex Ferry.
Union BG William S. Rosecrans , commanding what had formerly been MG George B. McClellan’s Department of Ohio before he was called to Washington to lead the Army of the Potomac, was concerned about Confederate infiltration of the Kanawha. In response, he led about 7,000 men to advance against Floyd’s encampment. They marched south from Summersville.
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| William S. Rosecrans |
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| Gauley Bridge - Kanawha River ahead - Gauley River enters from right - New River behind you |
Although casualties were minimal on both sides, Union victory at Carnifex Ferry and continued control of the Kanawha Valley all but guaranteed the security of the loyal Unionist government at Wheeling, Virginia, a crucial step in the founding of West Virginia.
Lunch at Glen Ferris Inn, Gauley Bridge, WV. The New River and the Gauley River meet at Gauley Bridge to form the Kanawha River. The Glen Ferris Inn is located at the falls on the Kanawha.
MONDAY
– JULY 11, 2022
WEATHER: in the 60’s at 4 am in Burlington – cloudy. 70’s in Muskegon, MI and a high of 77 in
Grand Rapids. Rain for about 30 minutes
around 1:30 pm. Sunrise
0519 CDT Burlington Sunset 2123 EDT Grand
Rapids, MI
TRAVEL: Burlington –
Milwaukee to Muskegon via the Lake
Express Ferry – waves at 1-
3 feet across the lake - it was a rock and roll journey - Grand
Rapids, MI
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| Route of the Lake Express Ferry |
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| Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum |
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| Paperweight Presidential Libraries |
 |
| Front cover of Presidential Libraires Passport |
Herbert Hoover Library and Museum Visited Apr 9, 2014
Franklin D. Roosevelt Library and Museum Visited Aug 3, 2014
Harry S. Truman Library and Museum Visited Aug 26, 2016
Dwight D. Eisenhower Library and Museum Visited Aug 24, 2016
John F. Kennedy Library and Museum Visited Sep 8,2014
Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum Visited Mar 29, 2015
Richard Nixon Library and Museum Visited Nov 10, 2015
Gerald R. Ford Library and Museum Visited Jul 11, 2022
Jimmy Carter Library and Museum Visited Mar 16, 2015
Ronald Reagan Library and Museum Visited Nov 10, 2015
George Bush Library and Museum Visited Aug 30, 2018
William J. Clinton Library and Museum Visited Apr 28, 2015
George W. Bush Library and Museum Visited Aug 31, 2018
Gerald Rudolph Ford Jr. was an American politician
who served as the 38th president of the
United States from 1974 to 1977. He previously served as the leader of the Republican
Party in the House of Representatives, and as the 40th vice president of the United States from 1973
to 1974.
When Gerald R. Ford took the oath of office on August 9, 1974, he declared, “I assume the Presidency under extraordinary circumstances…. This is an hour of history that troubles our minds and hurts our hearts.”
 |
| Spiro Agnew VP resigned Gerald Ford was appointed VP by President Nixon Nixon resigned over Watergate Ford became President |
 |
| Swearing in of Gerald R. Ford President of the Untied States |
It was indeed an unprecedented time. He had been the first Vice President chosen under the terms of the Twenty-fifth Amendment and, in the aftermath of the Watergate scandal, was succeeding the first President ever to resign.
The President acted to curb the trend toward Government intervention and spending as a means of solving the problems of American society and the economy. In the long run, he believed, this shift would bring a better life for all Americans.
The Ford Museum opened to the public
in September 1981 and is part of the Presidential libraires system of the National
Archives and Records Administration, a Federal
agency.
The Ford Museum is in Grand Rapids, Michigan while the Ford Library is in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Despite the separation, the library and museum are a single institution sharing one director. The cost to enter the museum is $13 for Seniors.
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| The tomb of Gerald & Betty Ford |
Hampton
Inn – Grand Rapids, MI
The Michelangelo Sistine Chapel The Exhibition was amazing. So much . . . . . The following pictures are only a part of the experience. It's an amazing work.
 |
| Each of the panels from the paintings in the Sistine Chapel had an explanation and an in color indicator of where it was on the celing painting |
 |
| Creation of the Sun, Moon and Planets |
TUESDAY
– JULY 12, 2022
WEATHER: 66 at 6 am Grand Rapids, MI clear and sunny – the
rest of the day was mostly cloudy to partly sunny – a high of 81 – a shower
around 1:30 pm – arrived at the Sheraton about 2:30 pm Sunrise 0519 EDT Grand Rapids, MI Sunset 2058 EDT Toronto, Canada
TRAVEL: Grand Rapids, MI – cross the US/Canadian Border on the Blue Water Bridge and the Canadian Sarnia Port of Entry, 1555 Venetian Blvd – Sheraton Centre Hotel, 123 Queen St W, Toronto, Ontario
Sarnia Port of Entry - Canada Currently, pre-entry tests for COVID are not required. However, visitors must register and use the Arrive CAN app. It is required to qualify for the fully vaccinated traveler exemption from quarantine and testing. Entry was a non-issue – only asked me for my passport.
Sheraton Centre Hotel, 123 Queen St W, Toronto, Ontario, this hotel is going to be home from today Tuesday until I leave for Montreal on Sunday. Getting here is difficult – in the middle of busy downtown. Parking across the street at $20 per day, valet was $60/68 per day. I assume Canadian dollars - 1US:1.3CA
 |
| Toronto CN Tower |
Toronto, POP 2.7 million, is the capital of the province of Ontario, is a major Canadian city
along Lake Ontario’s northwestern shore. A dynamic metropolis with a core of soaring skyscrapers, all dwarfed by the iconic CN Tower, the tallest free-standing in the western hemisphere. The city an international center of business, finance, arts, and culture. Toronto is definitely, a multicultural and cosmopolitan city. There are a lot of young adults on the streets – all over the downtown. Established as York by the British in 1793, the streets downtown are narrow – watch when your driving.
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
I read
the playscript several years ago. Itwas written by J.K Rowling, Jack Thorne, and John Tiffany. The play was published in 2013. I didn’t remember much of the plot. But this play was one of the things that drew me to Toronto Serra Convention. Attendance at the play was offered as optional evening entertainment when visiting Toronto.
The Mirvish Theatre is a 5 block walk
from the hotel. A large theater – I sat
in the last row center, end seat (W25) on the aisle right side of the
theater. Good choice because it was on
the end, allowing full view of the stage down a wide aisle. Bad choice because it was in the last row
which I believe led to poor sound quality – I had to listen closely in order to
understand the actors who spoke quickly and perhaps with a bit of an
accent. You should have no problem
trying to determine who the characters are grown up even from the last row. Great movement, set design, costumes,
lighting, illusion and ‘magic’
 |
| Hermione, Rose, Ron Unknown character, Albus, Harry, Ginny, Unk character (stock photo) |
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child originally cast a spell over the world as an epic two-part event. Now, the show has been boldly restaged as one singular performance by the award-winning creative team. In 2018 Harry Potter and the Cursed Child received 11 nominations, winning six Tonys overall, including best direction, costume design, lighting design, sound design and scenic design. The staging and sets were again, the best I’ve ever seen – reason alone enough to see the show. However, a long play. Act I is 1 ½ hours long and so is Act II.
 |
| Scorpius and Albus (stock photo) |
19 years after Harry, Ron and Hermione saved the wizarding world, they’re back on a most extraordinary new adventure along with Ginny Weasley-Potter and Draco Malfoy – this time, joined by a brave new generation (Albus Severus Potter, Scorpius Malfoy, Rose-Granger Weasley) and that has only just arrived at the legendary Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
 |
| Scorpius, Moaning Myrtle, Albus Moaning Myrtle stole the show (stock photo) |
The ‘magic’ special effects/staging are the best I’ve ever
seen. Spectacular spells, poly juice
potion, dementors, appearances from a roaring fireplace, transfiguration, dissapearance and appearance from a bookcase, a mind-blowing race through
time with a ‘time turner’, and an epic battle to stop mysterious forces, all
while the future hangs in the balance.
Below from a review by Alexis Soloski
Dec.
7, 2021
 |
| The 'magic' and staging was worth the price of admission |
Rowling and John Tiffany — opened on Broadway at the lavishly remodeled Lyric Theater. Also split in two, the total experience clocked in at more than five hours.
But
now Harry seems to have shrunk. After a pandemic closure (and reported
problems with production costs), “Cursed Child”
has returned, shorter and more streamlined, its two parts collapsed into a
single one and its length reduced by a third. The creators have kept quiet on
the mechanics of this revision; call it “Harry Potter and the Mysterious
Abridgment.” I assume someone pointed a wand at the published script and
shouted, “Brevioso!”
The
new version, which opened on Tuesday,
does feel smaller — its themes starker, its concession to fandom more blatant,
it remains diamond-sharp in its staging and dazzling in its visual imagination,
as magical as any spell or potion.
The essence of the plot hasn’t changed. “Cursed Child”
still opens where the epilogue of “Deathly Hallows” leaves off, 19 years after
the book’s climactic Battle of Hogwarts. On their way to that school of witchcraft and
wizardry are Albus Potter — the second
son of Harry Potter’s and Ginny
Potter — and Rose Granger-Weasley, the
daughter of Hermione Granger (Jenny Jules) and Ron Weasley.
WEDNESDAY – JULY 13, 2022
WEATHER: 63 F or 17
C at 6 am, forecast high of 73 F- sunny morning – cloudy afternoon – a little
drizzle while walking to the Rogers Centre Sunrise
0548 Sunset 2057 EDT Toronto, Canada
TRAVEL: Toronto, Ontario
Sheraton Centre Hotel,123 Queen St W, Toronto, Ontario, M5H2M9, Canada
 |
| St. Michaels Cathedral |
 |
| Breakfast at Eggspectations about a three block walk "grab the eggs by the leg" |
 |
| St. Michael's Cathedral |
TORONTO BLUE JAYS a second reason for coming to the Serra International Convention was a see the Toronto Blue Jays play in the Rogers Centre. A 1.3 km (.8 miles) walk from the hotel. Jays beat the Phillies 8 to 2. The dome was initially closed and it was humid. When the dome opened the humidity disappeared. I was in section 519 Row 4 Seat 10, an aisle seat between Home and First Base. A pleasant walk and evening – clear, calm, temp hovering around 70. Saw ‘real’ people at the ball game. Walked around the ball park level 500, 200 and 100 - the ballpark is not in my top ten - beer vendors lackadaisical. No team set in 2022, no koozies, no pins - did get a shot glass and a free Kevin Gausman bobblehead.
 |
| Rogers Centre from the 200 Level- Opened with the playing of the "Star Spangled Banner" and Canada's "O, Canada" - note both flags on the right and left top of the scoreboard - the dome here is closed |
 |
| Rogers Centre - dome opened - from Sec 519 Row 4 Seat 10 The ball park seemed dark as night came on- the lights had little effect until after sunset |
 |
| CN Tower - no desire to go to the top - did not visit the Space Needle when in Seattle either |
 |
| CN Tower - immediately adjacent and across from the Rogers Centre |
"There's magic in the air, It's called WIFI"
THURSDAY
– JULY 14, 2022
WEATHER: 62 F and sunny at 6 am; forecast high of 77 mostly sunny Sunrise 0549 Sunset 2056 EDT Toronto, Canada
TRAVEL: Toronto, Ontario It appears that downtown parking in Toronto is underground – most restaurants and shopping is also underground – like Houston you can get around underground - a lot of young people walking on the streets – probably mostly students – Universities of Toronto and Ryerson downtown - young professionals – Maybe, Just Maybe, people go from their offices to their cars and/or apartments underground. In Toronto it’s called The PATH – underground shopping malls and food courts. Still plenty of people on the streets.
A short 2 blocks East on Queen Street - past University Avenue and the skyscrapers transition to 3 story buildings – fences on store fronts – Chinatown – seems ‘seedy”. Late afternoon lunch at Beerbistro 18 King St – food good – service adequate.
SERRA
INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION – this is the 79th Serra International Convention but only my 2nd. I was impressed with the conference I
attended last year in Chicago – a mini retreat of sorts. Although, I didn’t really want to go to
Canada the prospects were tantalizing. I
hope this conference is as rewarding as last years.
 |
| St. Michael's Cathedral Thomas Cardinal Collins center |
1730-1830 Opening
Mass, Thomas Cardinal Collins, Celebrant
Concelebrated
by 7 bishops of Canada, one a Cardinal in Quebec
His message – “shepherds according to the HEART of
Christ”
1830-1930 Bus
return to Sheraton Centre Hotel – I walked back and stopped for a
beer at the Jazz Bistro across the street from the Mirvish Theatre
1930-2200 Welcome
Reception – Waterfall Garden - one beer and I was in bed by 8:15, plenty of food but not enough tables, seemed unable to even invite myself into a conversation
 |
| Sheraton Hotel - Serra's Waterfall Garden Reception - a nice venue |
 |
| Jazz Bistro - this guy was solo followed by a group: piano/keyboard, drums, double bass, and and an instrument I cannot name |
FRIDAY
– JULY 15, 2022
WEATHER: 62 at 6 am sunny and clear to partly cloudy, forecast
high of 77 Sunrise
0549 Sunset 2056 EDT Toronto, Canada
TRAVEL: Toronto
 |
| This iconic sign is directly across from the Sheraton Centre Hotel on Queen St in Nathan Phillips Square |
SERRA
INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION
0830-0915 Spiritual Retreat Rev. Martin Dicuangco - Fr. Martin was ordained in 2020, a Canadian of Filipino birth – “the work of prayer leads to vocations” the questions is “What makes our actions, specifically Christin?” - our actions belong to someone else – God is always with us – He’s leading us, even if we don’t know it or accept it – Christian action is about TRUST – giving ourselves to someone else – even if we fail – the crucifixion of Jesus is human failure – He was a convicted criminal and put to death – we are all stewards and have gifts that do not belong to us – we are not self-sufficient – we have to be aware that we are led and God
0915-1000 Adoration
– Civic Ballroom
1015-1045 Coffee
Break
1045-1145 Panel
Discussion: “Vocation Strategy in
Toronto Archdiocese” - A panel of four priests from the St. Augustine Seminary-
how they let young men discern becoming
a priest – “prayers are important” - _”pray to the Lord, that the harvest may
bear fruit” – “quality not quantity”
1200-1315 Serra International Foundation Awards Lunch – Birchwood Ballroom
1330-1430 Thomas Cardinal Collins, Archbishop of Toronto an excellent speaker. His talk could well serve as a program for a Serra meeting - Witnesses of the Word – he started by reading the last page of LUKE and the first page of JOHN – emphasized “READ A CHAPTER A DAY” of the New Testament – prayer – speak Lord, your SERVANT is listening – “ where there is more Eucharistic Adoration there are more priests – “believe what your read and practice what you teach”
 |
| Fr. Joshua Roldham |
 |
| Elephant & Castle 214 King St W |
1430-1530 Rev. Stephan Kappler, President & Chief Psychologist, Southdown Institute
1545-1630 Concurrent
Workshops I attended an ESGR zoom
meeting
Programs Vocations Membership Communications
1700-1800 Mass –
Fr. Joshua Roldanm Director of Catholic Youth, Archdiocese
of Toronto – ordained
in 2013 - concelebrated
by a cardinal, a bishop, and 7 priests – the archdiocese is blessed with an
abundance of great preaching priests – teachers – this guy was worth listening
to – he also spoke about his vocation story – he resisted until he was almost
23 years old and done with college – when his girlfriend said to him “why don’t
you become a priest” – he called it the greatest breakup line ever
1800 Dinner
on your own
Dinner at the Elephant & Castle, 214 King St, W
SATURDAY
– JULY 16, 2022
WEATHER: 66 at 6am clear and sunny, forecast high of 78 Sunrise 0550 Sunset 2055 EDT Toronto, Canada
TRAVEL: Sheraton Centre, Toronto – Harley Davidson – Sheraton Centre, Toronto
SERRA INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION
A new club in Calgary has an average age of 30 – one of the
members spoke – “you have to have buy in from the bishop – the chaplain,
vocations director” – creating an environment where becoming a priest is just
as normal as becoming a carpenter, working in the trades, a teacher or a
business owner -
 |
| Sr. Maria Immaculata |
0830-0930 Sr. Maria Immaculata, Professed Sister of Our Lady Immaculate is best described as a ‘bundle of joy – the order teaches the Catholic faith courageously and correctly
– you are a sister out of LOVE – you can’t say no – provide an environment where we can encourage vocations – her story, in 8th grade her principle said to her “have you ever thought of becoming a sister’ – my thought: sisters today may be as foreign as brothers were to Durandinians
0930-1000 Coffee Break – I met Mother Clare author of
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| Sr. Mary Rowel |
 |
| Cardinal Lacroix |
1200-1330 Lunch on you own
1330-1430 State of
Serra, Michael Bragg, President of Serra International
1430-1530 Serra
Around the World, Council Presentations
1530-1700 Delegates
Meeting
 |
| Closing Mass - Cardinal Lacroix Celebrant concelebrated with Cardinal Collins, a bishop and 5 priests |
I think I got the last Large shirt in the place that had the dealerships name and Ontario on the back. Lunch at Kelsey’s original Roadhouse. The entire trip took all afternoon traffic on the freeway was backed up and slow.
1730-1830 Closing Mass, Gerald Cyprien Cardinal Lacroix concelebrated by Cardinal Collins another Canadian Bishop and 5 priests – his message referenced the gospel and readings – community and meals, Martha & Mary – 1st reading in French the 2nd reading in English
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| Closing banquet |
1930-2200 Closing Banquet – Birchwood Ballroom – dinner with couples from St. Louis, Dennis Walsh from Omaha and Sister Catherine, Community of Franciscan Sisters of Renewal (Bl Solanus Casey Convent, NYC, NY), originally from Waukesha, went to Pius XI (Class of 1998) she was an Olympic speed skater (Pettit Ice Center) same order as Mother Clare; and David from Omaha – a delightful dinner
This was a richly rewarding day – the morning and yesterday was well worth the cost and effort to be here – yes, I got a few ideas but more than anything it was something ‘I needed’ – just like Cardinal Lacroix – he needed this – in spite of all the preparations in anticipation of the Pope’s visit - yes I glad I was here – it was worth it
MONDAY
– JULY 18, 2022
WEATHER: 71 degrees in Montreal, forecast high of 88 in
Quebec City – cloudy in the morning – cleared up and sunny in the afternoon –
clouds returned and rain on the bus trip back Sunrise
0505 Sunset 2045 EDT Montreal, Canada
TRAVEL: Montreal - Quebec City – Montreal - .0740 van pick up at the Doubletree, 0830 boarded a bus at Dorchester Square AR QC approx. 1145 Walking tour of Old Quebec – Quartier du Petit Champlain - back on the bus to Montmorency Falls 1215-1230 – the driver did an excellent job of driving through the Plains of Abraham Park and the shops within the old walled city – from 1320 – 1640 – free time to explore returned back to Montreal at 0800
Doubletree, Montreal – buffet breakfast included with the room at hotel
 |
| Quebec - the lady in black holding the umbrella is the guide |
The guide was shared a lot of stories – interesting Canadian
history – i.e. the story of the 800 women who the French King brought to New
France – he provided them a dowry and land – the land was deeded to the woman
not her husband in order to populate the country. Another, apparently large French-Canadian families
are a result of a church decree requiring women to have children in order to maintain
the French language and Catholic faith in Quebec – this is a reason for some
distrust with the Church. This lady guide
was proud of her French-Canadian heritage and history
Place Royale is where Samuel de Champlain founded the City of Québec in 1608. With buildings that combine French and British influences and the oldest stone church in North America, the square has a charm all its own.
The
Citadel - The
Citadelle of Québec is the largest British fortress in North America. It is an
integral part of the Québec fortifications and is located on Cape Diamond, the
city's highest point. The Citadelle was
recognized as a National Historic Site of Canada in 1980 and is part of the
Historic District of Old Québec, which was placed on UNESCO's World Heritage
List in 1985.
\
 |
| Notre-Dame des Victories also site of the Champlain house |
Petit Champlain - Quartier du Petit Champlain is a small commercial zone in Quebec City,
 |
| Montmorency Falls Park |
Quebec, Canada. It is located in the neighborhood of Vieux-Québec–Cap-Blanc–colline Parlementaire in the borough of La Cité-Limoilou, near Place Royale and its Notre-Dame-des-Victoires Church.
Notre-Dame de Québec Basilica/ Cathedral was built in 1647 and was given the name Notre-Dame de la Paix. It was the first church to be made of stone in the city. In 1664, it became the first parochial church north of Mexico and was dedicated to Notre Dame of the Immaculate Conception. When the Québec City Diocese was constituted in 1674, it became the Cathedral of its first Bishop, Saint François de Laval. Two hundred years later, Pius IX declared it a basilica, that is a church privileged because of the important number of pilgrimages it draws. Almost all of the churches in Quebec are named Notre Dame (Our Lady) due to some vague connection of Champlain and the French foundder of the Templars.
 |
| Plains of Abraham site of the 2022 Quebec City Music festival - among others featuring Jack Johson & Maroon 5 |
 |
| Chateau Frontenac |
Chateau Frontenac – an urban resort with breathtaking views of the St. Lawrence River and the architecture of the Old fortified City, designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site
Plains of Abraham, also called Heights Of Abraham, French Plaines D’abraham, plains in Quebec, southern Quebec province, Canada. The plains lie at the western edge of the old walled city, overlooking the St. Lawrence River. The plateau was the scene of a battle (Sept. 13, 1759) between the French under the Marquis de Montcalm and the British under James Wolfe in which both leaders were killed but which secured Quebec for the British. Named for Abraham Martin, a ship’s pilot who formerly owned part of the land, the plains are now a national historic park and recently site to a music festival. We drove through the park and the site of the festival
 |
| Cannon facing the St. Lawrence River |
Parliament Hill is home to the grand, Louvre-inspired Parliament Building and its surrounding gardens, with the jetted Fontaine de Tourny and bronze statues of Québec figures. The bordering Grande Allée Est is known for its mix of posh restaurants, buzzing nightclubs and chill after-work bars. On the 31st floor of a skyscraper, the Observatoire de la Capitale offers panoramic views of the region.
St. Lawrence River – St. Lawrence Seaway. I do remember the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway – it was a big deal – opening the Great Lakes to ocean going vessels. The European explorers who settled New France, Upper and Lower Canada used the St. Lawrence as an important transportation link. As North America grew and prospered, major development of the St. Lawrence River was required to allow commercial vessels to sail between Montreal and the Great Lakes. During the 1930s and 1950s, development activity included dredging2, digging channels, and the construction of locks. In the 1950s, the decision was taken by Canada and the United States to jointly build the St. Lawrence Seaway. When it opened in 1959, it was considered one of the great engineering feats and examples of international co-operation of the 20th century.
Covering a distance of 306
km, it links Montreal with Port Colborne, Ont.,
on Lake Erie and includes 15 locks – seven of which are located in the St.
Lawrence (five on the Canadian side and two on the American side) – allowing
ships to transit through it despite an elevation gain of 551 feet. From there,
it reaches Lake Superior and Thunder Bay, the gateway to Canada’s grain
producing Prairies, some 600 feet above sea level. The St. Lawrence Seaway is jointly managed by
Canada and the United States, to ensure that it remains safe and well
maintained.
TUESDAY
– JULY 19, 2022
WEATHER: 68 sunny and clear at 6 am – cloudy by 8 am and
continued cloudy through the Appalachians until almost 1 pm, then mostly sunny
and a high of 86 in Millinocket Sunrise
0505 EDT Montreal, Canada Sunset 2017 EDT Millinocket, ME
TRAVEL: Montreal, Quebec – found Carrier Harley-Davidson, Sherbrooke, QC dealer along the way in Quebec Province - Millinocket, ME
BAXTER PARK INN, Millinocket ME WIFI worked
418
KATHADIN WOODS & WATERS National Monument
 |
| Sign Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument |
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| Storefront Contact Center it was manned by a Park Ranger |
Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument is a new national park unit located in northern Maine. Limited services and signage make visiting an adventure.
 |
| Penobscott River |
GEOLOGY: The bedrock of Katahdin Woods and Waters spans over 150 million years of the Paleozoic era, revealing well-intact exposures of Paleozoic rock strata with visible fossils. In the lands west of the Penobscot River's East Branch, volcanic rock from the Devonian period, mostly Katahdin granite and some Traveler rhyolite, is prevalent. The oldest rock in the monument, a light greenish-gray quartzite and slate from the early Cambrian period, which is 500 million years old, can be observed along the riverbank of East Branch at Grand Pitch (a river rapid). This rock is part of the Weeksboro-Lunksoos Lake anticline, a wide upward fold of rocks, evidence of mountain-building techtonics common to this part of the state.
 |
| View of Mount Katahdin located in Baxter State Park the end of the Appalachian Trail |
On August 23, 2016, Elliotsville Plantation and the Quimby Family Foundation donated the land (valued at $60 million), plus $20 million to fund initial operations and a commitment of $20 million in future support, to the federal government. On August 24, 2016, the eve of the National Park Service centennial, President Barack Obama proclaimed 87,563 acres of land as the Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument.
Katahdin Woods & Waters National Monument is adjacent to and east of Baxter State Park – home of Mt. Katahdin and the end of the Appalachian Trail. I visited Baxter State Park on July 26, 2014. Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument had not yet been created.
Katahdin [Ktotonuk] or K’taadn in Passamaquoddy, means “highest land”
“Man is born to die,
his works are short-lived.
Buildings crumble, monuments decay, wealth vanishes.
But Katahdin, in all its glory, forever shall remain the mountain of the
people of Maine.” -Percival
Proctor Baxter
 |
| Mount Katahdin |
 |
| View in Kathdin Woods & Waters |
Operating hours, weather, and location information. Two visitor contact stations in gateway communities are operated from May to October.
Visitor Contact Station
– Millinocket 200 Penobscot Ave, Millinocket, ME
Late
May-early October: Daily 8 AM-4 PM I arrived in Millinocket a little after 4 pm
– the ranger was still here at 4:10 when I found the store front contact
station.
Visitor Contact Station
-Lumberman's
Museum
61 Shin Pond Rd
Patten, ME 04765 July 1st – October 10:
Tuesday – Sunday, 10:00AM – 4:00PM
Admission Fee $10 for Seniors. Even with an hour drive north, a 10 am opening
is to late in the day – I did not visit.
WEDNESDAY – JULY 20, 2022
WEATHER: 60 degrees at 6 am in Millinocket, ME – mostly
sunny – a high of 96 in the Blackstone River Valley - Sunrise 0505 EDT Millinocket, ME Sunset 2019 EDT Milford, MA
TRAVEL: Millinocket, ME – Blackstone River Valley NHP - Milford, MA about a 6-hour drive. I did stop at Central Maine Harley- Davidson and visited 4 sites of the Blackstone River Valley National Historic Park.
Doubletree Milford-Boston-11 Beaver, St., Milford, MA Doubletree’s are top end hotels. Here I not only received a cookie, but 2 bottles of water, a fruit and cheese bowl and a whole bunch of Ritz crackers. I did laundry at this hotel.
419 BLACKSTONE RIVER VALLEY National Historical Park
 |
| Blackstone River Valley NHP this was in Hopedale |
The park grounds are open from sunrise until sunset. Operating hours of the visitor centers vary by season. There are no visitor center’s per se. Three of the sites Hopedale, Whitinsville, and Slatersville are in Libraries. The first two hadn’t bothered to change the date on the passport stamp (and I did not know how), appears library personnel could care less about a National Historic Park. The Kelly House located at Blackstone River State Park & Ashton Historic District was supposed to be open until 5 pm – it was closed. The online information is very good – none of it appeared available in the libraries. Perhaps, I’ll visit the Old Slater Mill National Historic Landmark District tomorrow.
The Blackstone River powered America's entry into the Age of Industry. The success of Samuel Slater's cotton spinning mill in Pawtucket, RI touched off a chain reaction that changed how people worked and where they lived, and continues to reverberate across the nation to this day. This revolution transformed the landscape of the Blackstone Valley and then the United States.
The information below is from the NPS site. Good work done on the brochures, an interesting story, unfortunate that there is little or no interpretation or guidance at the sites. A disappointing visit.
 |
| a library is a convenient place for the NPS to place a Passport Stamp - but it is not a Visitor Center |
How
it began
The story began when Universalist Reverend
Adin Ballou and forty-four followers purchased a 258-acre farm in an area long
known as "the Dale," located on both sides of the Mill River in the
town of Milford. There they established "Fraternal Community No. 1, "
launching what they hoped would be an ever-growing number of Practical
Christian communities that would transform the world.
Boom in Looms
Among this small band of Yankee pioneers was Ebenezer D. Draper,
who ran a machine shop that produced parts for mechanical weaving looms.
Eventually, Draper's business became the main source of support for the
communal association, and in 1856 he and his entrepreneurial brother, George,
purchased the community and assumed all of its debts. George Draper give rise
to a new era in Hopedale. His successful use of technological innovations
resulted in the Draper Company's emergence as the nation's leading manufacturer
of looms for the textile industry.
Combining great wealth with a strong social conscience, the
Draper family maintained complete control over the town for over one hundred
years. They provided jobs, built and maintained award-winning workers' houses,
erected imposing public buildings, and regulated most aspects of public life
within the community. They also left an endowment that continues to be used for
community projects today.
Continued success
George Draper had a passion for finding innovative technology to
make the production of cloth more efficient. He led the company's charge to
become the nation's leading producer of machines for the cloth-making industry.
The more idealistic Ebenezer, who had started the business as a member of the
original Hopedale community, eventually moved to Boston and died in bankruptcy.
At its height of production, the Draper Corporation employed
more than 4,000 workers. But, due largely to the decline of the American
textile industry, the Draper family divested themselves of most of their town
properties in the 1960s, and the corporation was acquired by an outside owner.
By 1978 the plant was closed.
 |
| never found anything of interest in Whitinsville |
Whitinsville 1 Elm Place,
Whitinsville, MA presents a remarkably
complete picture of one
of the distinctive by-products of the Industrial
Revolution in New England: the company town. Maintained and controlled by the
Whitin family for over 100 years, Whitinsville today reveals its evolution from
agrarian settlement to industrial giant, and offers a fascinating glimpse of
the powerful family behind it all.
The
First Mills
Following
the Revolutionary War, Colonel Paul Whitin came from Dedham, Mass., to serve as
an apprentice in an iron forge in the budding community then known as South
Northbridge. James Fletcher owned the forge, along with most of the land that
now comprises Whitinsville. Eventually, Paul Whitin married Fletcher’s
daughter, Betsy, with whom he had five sons and a daughter. The Whitin-Fletcher
alliance was further solidified in 1809 with the establishment of the
Northbridge Cotton Mill.
Beginnings of the Whitin
Machine Works
In 1826, Whitin went into
partnership with his sons Paul, Jr., and John C., forming Paul Whitin and Sons.
Both sons were astute businessmen, but it was John’s inventiveness and
marketing acumen that led to the development of Whitin Machine Works, which would
overshadow the family cotton mills and become the world’s largest textile
machine shop.
The Growth of a Machine
Empire
Eventually over 5,600 people worked for the Machine Shop, and the Whitin's built nearly 1,000 worker dwellings between the mid-1820s and mid-1920s. In addition, the Whitin's built or subsidized the town’s schools, churches, town hall, library, and recreational facilities. Like lords of the manor, the Whitin's erected grand homes from which they dictated many aspects of the town’s political and social life. They perpetuated a system of benevolent paternalism, providing job security and an orderly environment in exchange for worker loyalty.
By the late 1940s, worker
loyalty was tempered by a tide of labor unrest. When employees voted to unionize,
company president E. Kent Swift—the last of six generations of Whitin's to run
the company— resigned. The Whitin's sold their interests in Whitin Machine Works
along with their town properties.
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| Ashton Mills across the river from the Kelly House |
 |
| Kelly House not open at 4:15 on Wed |
Kelly House Museum of Transportation and
Ashton Village1075 Lower River Road, Lincoln, RI 02865 The Captain Wilbur Kelly Museum of
Transportation is open Wednesday - Sunday from 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM.
 |
| Wilbur Kelly |
THURSDAY
– JULY 21, 2022
WEATHER: 72 at 6 am – 91 when I reached Fort Montgomery,
NY (West Point) at 3 pm Sunrise
05027EDT Milford, MA Sunset 1840
EDT West Point, NY
TRAVEL: Milford, MA – Pawtucket Rhode Island - West Point, NY
News today Bibbity-Bobbity-Boutique at Disney it now the Fairy Godmother’s Apprentice – no explanation.
419 BLACKSTONE RIVER VALLEY National Historical Park
 |
| Old Slater Mill |
 |
| Locations of sites in Blackstone River Valley National Historic Park |
How it began
In 1803, John Slater, younger brother of Samuel Slater,
came to America from England.
Samuel Slater assigned him the task of finding a
site for a new textile mill. After searching throughout the region, he chose
Buffum's Mills, a small settlement along the Branch River where a sawmill,
gristmill, and blacksmith's shop were already in operation.
 |
| Taking the cotton and making it into thread |
In 1805, the Slaters' partners William Almy and Obadiah Brown began buying the land and water rights, and on July 4, 1807, the new stone mill opened. Unlike the Slater Mill in Pawtucket, this mill required a village to house the workers. The success of Slatersville proved that it was feasible to build mills outside of population centers, thus opening up the entire Blackstone Valley for industrialization.
Henry
Kendall Takes Over
The Slater family continued to own Slatersville
until 1900 when they sold it to James R. Hooper, who used the mill to bleach
and dye cloth. In 1915, Hooper sold the village to Henry P. Kendall.
Like the Slaters before him, Kendall took a personal interest in the village
and initiated many improvement projects. He renovated many of the homes, made
sure that the houses were maintained, lawns and shrubbery were planted, and he
forbade the removal of any tree without his approval. Much of the traditional
New England character of Slatersville is attributable to the efforts of
Mr. Kendall.
Slatersville
Today
The current residents still exhibit the sense of pride instilled
by the Slaters and Henry Kendall.
While the surrounding areas have been developed, the village core has
been preserved and Main Street looks much as it did in the 1920's after
Kendall's renovations. Thus, modern Slatersville is not only a mill
village entering its third century, but the end result of a preservation
project that has been lovingly carried out on a community level for one hundred
years.
Holiday Inn Express & Suites, 1106 Route 9W, Fort Montgomery, NY
 |
| Southgate Tavern |
I’ve spent 7 days in May, 2014 at Round Pond – West Point with my trailer visited the Academy, PX, Golf Course, Chapel and museum but did not see much of the town. It was a jump point for NYC and New Jersey.
West Point Military Academy - I stooped at the South Street Tavern, an Irish Bar, they had HARP – then drove through West Point – last did that in 2014 – I was here just before graduation – the Black Knights were rehearsing their parachute drops on the parade ground – less crowded today – no students.
FRIDAY
– JULY 22, 2022
WEATHER: 72 at 6 am in West Point high of 93 Sunrise
0550 Sunset 1840 EDT West Point, NY
TRAVEL: West Point, NY – drove to Garrison Station - NYC via train and subway
 |
| United States Military Academy and the Hudson River from Garrison Station |
Metro North Railroad – from Garrison Station to Grand Central Station.
I had the subway travel planned but it went wrong from the
very beginning. First of all I got on
the subway and started travelling North – wrong direction – had to turn around
get on the right track and after 1 ½ hours I finally made it to Bowling
Green Station.
There was a ranger at Castle Clinton, but I had to ask him for the stamps. Everything is closed until the weekend. Therefore, I did get Governor’s
Island stamp but like 2014, nothing was open - so like my two or was it three visits to Delaware
First State (where I didn’t get the stamp after 2
visits) here I did get the stamp but decided it was not worth the effort to
ferry to Governor’s Island just to
see a building that I could see from Battery Park. I did try to take
the subway to Stonewall – I go to a station and
walked about 8 blocks to Stonewall. Finally got back to Grand
Central Station.
Caught the 1:43 pm Metro North Railroad– from Grand Central Station to Garrison.
There is a toll and to get across the Hudson River (now EZ PAss) and a
fee to park your car at Garrison Station
420 GOVERNOR’S ISLAND National Monument
located in New York City on 22 acres of Governors Island, a 172-acre island located off the southern tip of Manhattan Island at the confluence of the Hudson and East Rivers in New York Harbor. I attempted to visit this site in 2013 but it did not open until Memorial Day.
Governors Island National Monument, was created by Presidential Proclamations signed in 2001 and 2003.
From 1794 to 1966, the U.S. Army on Governors Island was part of the social, political, and economic tapestry of New York City. Today, the island is a vibrant summer seasonal venue of art, culture, and performance against the backdrop of two centuries of military heritage and the skyline of one of the great cities of the world.
Consistent with CDC guidance regarding areas of substantial or high transmission, visitors to Governors Island National Monument, regardless of vaccination status, are required to wear a mask inside all park buildings.
 |
| Governor's Island from Battery Park - Castle Williams on the right |
Castle Williams is a circular defensive work of red sandstone on the west point of Governors Island in New York Harbor. It was designed and erected between 1807 and 1811, designed by the Chief Engineer of the US Army Corps of Engineers, Lt. Col. Jonathan Williams, for whom the fort is named, and considered a prototype for new forms of coastal fortification. The castle was one component of a larger defensive system for the inner harbor that included Fort Jay and the South Battery on Governors Island, Castle Clinton at the tip of Manhattan, Fort Gibson at Ellis Island (then Oyster Island), and Fort Wood, which is now the base of Liberty Enlightening the World at Liberty Island (then Bedloe's Island). This system of forts came to be known as the Second American System of coastal defense and existed to protect harbors like the one in New York from British interference with American shipping.
Its usefulness as a fort began to end in the 1830s, so Castle Williams subsequently served as barracks for the island's garrison and new and transient troops. Thereafter, the castle was remodeled by the US Army for use as a prison in various forms during the Civil War and through the first half of the 20th century.
In 1901, Secretary of War Elihu Root, who worked hard to modernize the Army, also made a commitment to preserve the castle and overruled army leaders who wanted to demolish both it and Fort Jay. By 1903, the castle was fitted up as a model, state-of-the-art prison facility. In 1947, extensive renovations were carried out with the wooden catwalks replaced by concrete enclosed walkways, hiding the beautiful stone arches on the third level and resulting in the industrial appearance of the courtyard today. Castle Williams ceased operations as a military prison in 1965 just before the U.S. Army left Governors Island.
The castle again faced a demolition challenge as Coast Guard officials in Washington, DC, who took control of Governors Island in 1966, wanted to demolish it. Instead, the castle was remodeled as a youth community center with a nursery, meeting rooms for Scouts and clubs, a woodworking shop, art studios, a photography laboratory, and a museum. By the late 1970s the community center moved to another location and the fort the grounds-keeping shop for the Coast Guard base.
Over time, the roof failed, and broken windows allowed serious water damage to occur inside the castle. In the mid-1990s, the roof was replaced, and new windows stopped further water damage to the structure. The National Park Service stabilized and restored the castle and, when possible, provides access to the roof, allowing the public to admire the harbor and the modern skyline of the great city this fortress once protected.
Fort Jay is located on Governors Island in New York Harbor, one half-mile from the southern tip of Manhattan. No defensive works are known to have been erected on the island during its early history. Defensive earthen works were first erected on the highest point of Governors Island by Continental troops in 1775-76. The island and its fort were occupied by the British during the American Revolution until 1783, when it was surrendered, along with several buildings, to the Governor of New York. More than 10 years passed before renewed tensions with Great Britain resulted in funding from both the New York Legislature and the United States Congress in 1794 to reconstruct the works on Governors Island. This was part of a larger national effort to fortify ports that later became known as the First American System of coastyal fortifications.
Design
of the New York Harbor defenses was assigned to French engineer Charles
Vincent. The works on Governors Island had been completed by 1796, described
in January of that year by the Secretary of War as "a fort made of earth,
and two batteries under its protection, partly lined with brick masonry, two
air furnaces, a large powder magazine, and a barrack for the garrison." Fears of a French invasion in 1797 resulted in
a second- phase effort funded by additional appropriations to complete and
enhance the coastal fortifications, including those on Governors Island. The
fort is said to have acquired the name "Fort Jay" in
1798 for John Jay, then Governor of New York State. Governors Island and
its fort were conveyed to the federal government two years later, in 1800, by
an Act of the New York State Legislature. A plan of the fort as it existed that year
shows it as a four- bastioned form surrounded by a ditch with a parapet having
51 embrasures, a gate and bridge on the east side, and a large magazine in the
northeast bastion. The fort was still
incomplete and incapable of defense in 1802, according to a written report,
although it was then equipped with a "handsome Gateway with a Corps de Garde," or guardhouse,
that survives today.
Fort Jay had fallen into ruinous condition by 1806 when a second national campaign to strengthen the coastal defenses of the country, now known as the Second American System of fortifications, was implemented. This effort differed from the first by employing American engineers and using more durable masonry construction. The engineer chosen to design and oversee the defenses of New York Harbor was Colonel Jonathan Williams, Chief Engineer of the Corps of Engineers and first Superintendent of the Military Academy at West Point. Reconstruction of Fort Jay, renamed Fort Columbus about this time, began in July 1806 and was completed by December 1809. The only components of the old fort judged worth saving were "the walled Counterscarp, the Gate, the Magazine, and the Barracks," according to Colonel Williams in a report dated November 1808. The completed fort was described in a later report to Congress as "an enclosed pentagonal work, with four bastions of masonry, calculated for one hundred guns, fifty- five mounted, with brick barracks for two hundred and thirty men, including officers. [And] a stone and brick magazine…." Also constructed at this time was Castle Williams, a circular defensive work made of red sandstone that was erected on the west point of the island between 1807 and 1811. The earliest known plan of the completed fort is a plan by Joseph Mangin drawn in 1813.
The first significant repairs and alterations were made to Fort Columbus in the 1830s, resulting in the overall appearance of the fort as it exists today. The stone retaining walls were extensively rebuilt at this time, including the scarp that was faced with granite and topped with a new brickwork parapet. The old magazine in the northeast bastion was demolished and replaced by four new magazines erected in the north ravelin. Finally, the four existing brick barracks were replaced by four new barracks with flanking triangular structures and outdoor courtyards. Later changes have been made to the barracks by the U.S. Army over the years, including interior remodeling and replacement of the flat roofs with hipped roofs in 1855- 57, incorporation of five of the triangular buildings as additions in the 1860s and 1898- 99, and reconfiguration of the buildings as officers' apartments in 1921- 22 and again in the 1930s. Paint was stripped from the exterior brick buildings in the 1930s, the sodded glacis of the fort was converted to recreational use as a golf course by 1940, and the flagstaff was moved from the northwest bastion to the north ravelin by 1953.
Jurisdiction of Governors Island passed from the U.S. Army to the U.S. Coast Guard in 1966. Improvements made by the Coast Guard to Fort Jay, whose name was officially reinstated in 1904, included expansion of the golf course; remodeling of the barracks with new kitchens, bathrooms, heating and electrical systems, and storm windows and doors; and erection of chain- link fencing on the glacis. Fort Jay has sat vacant with minimal upkeep since closure of the Coast Guard base in 1997.
421
STONEWALL National Monument
 |
| Stonewall Inn on the left - Future VC on the right |
neighborhood of Greenwich Village in Lower Manhattan, New York City. Stonewall is the site of the 1969 uprisings in Greenwich Village is recognized as a National Historic Landmark (NHL) by the National Park Service and is considered significant under Criterion 1 because of its association with events that represent the struggle for civil rights in America. On June 23, 2015, President Obama created the Stonewall National Monument to commemorate an LGBT movement.
 |
| Sculpture in Christopher Park |
The events of Stonewall, as the uprising is most commonly
referred to, marked a major change in the struggle for "homophile
rights" in the U.S., with lesbian women, gay men, bisexual and transgender
people beginning to vocally and assertively demand their civil rights. Stonewall is regarded by many as the
single most important catalyst for the dramatic expansion of the LGBT civil
rights movement. The riots inspired
LGBT people throughout the country to organize and within two years of Stonewall,
LGBT rights groups had been started in nearly every major city in the U.S.
Stonewall was, as historian Lillian Faderman wrote, "the shot heard round
the world...crucial because it sounded the rally for the movement.”
Much was happening in 1968 - definitely a turning point in US history - the US was 'losing' the Vietnam War - the "Tet Offensive" - race riots throughout the country - the 747's first flight - the USS Pueblo was captured by the Republic of North Korea - Apollo 8 orbited the moon - Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy were assassinated - - - - - Stonewall? an event not even on my radar never even heard of it until Obama made the Stonewall site a National Monument.
THIS CONCLUDES MY QUEST OF VISITING ALL THE SITES RUN BY THE NATIONAL PARK SERVICE. WHEN I STARTED IN 2014. THERE WERE 399 SITES RUN BY THE NATIONAL PARK SERVICE THEN. PRESIDENT OBAMA CREATED CLOSE to 20 NEW NPS SITES MOSTLY COMMEMORATING CIVIL RIGHTS. PRESIDENT TRUMP ALSO CREATED SEVERAL DEALING WITH AMERICAN HISTORY. THE TOTAL OF SITES IS NOW AT 423.
 |
| The National Park Travelers Club sent me a "Lower 48 Achievment Award" for completing visits to all of the National Park Service sites in the Lower 48States |
 |
| Aniachak National Monument & Preserve aerial view stock photo - a trip to Alaska on the chance that I may be able to fly over this place . . . well maybe if I win the lottery - I did try 3 days when I was in King Salmon, Alaska |
422 & 423 ANIACHAK National Monument & Preserve
IN JUNE 2017 I SPENT FOUR WEEKS VISITING NATIONAL PARK SARVICE SITES IN ALASKA. I ATTEMPTED SEVERAL TIMES TO FLY TO ANIAKCHAK NATIONAL MONUMENT & PRESERVE BUT WAS UNSUCCESFFUL BECAUSE ‘BUSH PILOTS’ WOULD NOT FLY THERE DUE TO WEATHER CONDITIONS.
I DID OBTAIN THE ANIAKCHAK NATIONAL MONUMENT & PRESERVE PASSPORT STAMP AT THE KING SALMON VISITOR CENTER IN KING SALMON, AK ON JUNE 29, 2017. IT’S DONE - NUMBER 422 AND 423. I have visited or obtained all the Passport Stamps for all but one of the 423 sites run by National Park Service. There is no Passport Stamp or access to Hohokam Pima National Monument. Also on two visits to Hawaii, I have the passport stamp but there is still no access to Honu'lu'lui National Historic Site.
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| Additionally, I got a certificate for visiting all 423 sites run by the National Park Service. Some of these require a week or more to visit others, like Kosciusko's apartment in Philadelphia required about 2 hours. When I started the quest there were 399 Sites from by the NPS. Obama created a whole lot of sites mostly to remember minorities; Trump a few. So far, Biden seems content just to have open borders. |
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| I sat down at the bar next to this guy with huge legs & arms - all the guys at the bar were huge - the West Point football team out drinking, & smoking /vaping on Friday night Yes that is them out in front of Benny Havens |
The song that has perpetuated Benny's fame was originally composed by Lieutenant O'Brien of the Eighth Infantry. He had been an assistant surgeon in the army, but had just been commissioned in the infantry when, in 1838, he visited his friend Ripley A. Arnold of the First Class. Together they made many visits to Benny's where O’Brien composed the first few stanzas of the song and sang them to the tune of "The Wearing of the Green"
To singing sentimentally we're going for to go;
In the army there's sobriety, promoting's very slow,
So we'll sing our reminiscences of Benny Havens, OH!
Chorus:
Oh! Benny Havens, oh! Oh! Benny Havens, oh!
We'll sing our reminiscences of Benny Havens, oh!
SATURDAY – JULY 23, 2022
WEATHER: 72 at 7 am high of 93 in Rock Hall, MD mostly sunny – extremely humid Sunrise 0551 EDT West Point,
NY Sunset 2019 EDT Rock Hall, MD
TRAVEL: West Point, NY – Rock Hall, MD
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| Ellendale - the front door |
wasn’t working – frustrating but my error – waiting for the key code – finally was able to contact Dan & Kris via e-mail and asked him to call the owner for the code. The owner was able to open the door lock remotely. Two families arrived by 1730. Dinner at Waterman’s Crab Shack. Same place I spent two hours this afternoon waiting for the owner to contact me via phone – I thought the cell service was non-existent – again, my error. I reset my phone and it worked again.
ELLENDALE is located on Chesapeake Bay- six bedrooms (three up – three down), three baths,
laundry and kitchens up and down a pool, large screened in porch. This should be a great place to spend a
vacation
SUNDAY – JULY 24, 2022
WEATHER: 74 at 7 am – forecast high of 93, extremely humid, mostly sunny Sunrise 0557 Sunset 2023 EDT, Rock Hall, MD
TRAVEL: Rock Hall, MD
ELLENDALE 4080, Ellendale, Farm, Dr, Rock Hall, MD
Ten o’clock mass at Sacred Heart Catholic Church – a short 5 minute drive to Rock Hall - However Sacred Heart is in Chestertown - 30 minutes away - the mass in Rock Hall was at St. John's 8 am
.jpg) |
| Ellendale - House, porch, pool, pool house |
MONDAY
– JULY 25, 2022
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| Ellendale - front entry |
Sunrise
0558 Sunset 2022 EDT, Rock Hall, MD
High
Tide 0505 Low Tide 1215
High
Tide 1647 Low Tide 2210
TRAVEL: Rock Hall, MD – (Washington DC) - Chestertown - Rock Hall
ELLENDALE 4080, Ellendale, Farm, Dr, Rock Hall, MD
 |
| National Zoo - pandas - stock photo |
April 16, 2022, marks the 50th anniversary of the
arrival of giant pandas Ling-Ling and Hsing-Hsing at the Smithsonian's
National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute — the start of a
decades-long giant panda program. Join us in looking back at 50 years of giant
panda joy and conservation and imagining what the next 50 years may bring.
The other family went to the National Aquarium in Baltimore, MD -
I stayed at Ellendale, read, got a little sun, used the pool and explored Rock Hall and Chestertown.
Per the website “The National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC is temporarily
closed through fall 2022.”
Per the website “The Bureau of Engraving and Printing is currently CLOSED to visitors due
to the pandemic. Tour reservations are not being accepted at this time, and a
date has not been determined for when tours might resume. Congressional offices
will be notified and this website will be updated in advance of a change in
status.”
TUESDAY – JULY 26, 2022
WEATHER: 70 degrees at 6 am – cloudy – forecast high of
78
Sunrise
0559 Sunset 2021 EDT, Rock Hall, MD
High
Tide 0547 Low Tide 1254
High
Tide 1740 Low Tide 2258
TRAVEL: Rock Hall, MD
ELLENDALE 4080, Ellendale, Farm, Dr, Rock Hall, MD
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| Ellendale - aerial view |
A birthday today.
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| Sacred Heart Church - Chestertown a small chapel is in the rear |
The families went to the Eastern Neck National Wildlife Refuge - Bayview Butterfly Trail and the beach at Ferry Park.
WEDNESDAY
– JULY 27, 2022
WEATHER: 71 degrees at 6 am
Sunrise
0600 Sunset 2020 EDT, Rock Hall, MD
High
Tide 0626 Low Tide 1329
High
Tide 1828 Low Tide 2346
TRAVEL: Rock Hall – Largo Town Center – Federal Triangle – Largo Town Center – Rock Hall
ELLENDALE 4080, Ellendale, Farm, Dr, Rock Hall, MD
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| National Mall - map |
Another family stayed near Rock Hall and visited another portion of the Eastern Neck National Wildlife Refuge taking a short hike and seeing a lot of jellyfish near a pier.
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| National Museum of African-American History and Culture in the background |
We arrived at 1 pm and stayed until 4:30. This can be an all day visit. Entry is timed and even weeks ago, I could not get a reservation. However, active or retired military could gain entry with a guest without a reservation.
 |
| Interesting that the African-American Museum would have a quote from a 19th century Swedish philosopher |
The upper levels above ground were devoted to African American Culture, Community, Art, Literature, Sports, Food, Song, Dance, etc.
THURSDAY – JULY 28, 2022
WEATHER: 77 at 7 am, mostly cloudy, forecast high of 88,
rain about 8:30 pm
Sunrise
0601 Sunset 2019 EDT, Rock Hall, MD
High
Tide 0731 Low Tide 1400
High
Tide 1912
TRAVEL: Rock Hall, MD – Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad NHP – Rock Hall, MD
ELLENDALE 4080, Ellendale, Farm, Dr, Rock Hall, MD
Another birthday today.
I did it again – I travelled to Chestertown for 8:30 mass only to find out that it was at St. John’s Church in Rock Hall.
Two families stayed at Ellendale – one of them made a short visit to Chestertown.
HISTORICAL PARK. I originally visited this site on October 12, 2015. The Visitor Center had not been constructed yet.
The Underground Railroad
The Underground Railroad refers to the movement of self-emancipation of enslaved people of African descent to escape bondage and gain freedom, and the network of people and places who aided their escapes. While self-emancipation, escape, and resistance have existed everywhere that there has been human slavery, the Underground Railroad generally refers to a period in the early to mid-19th century United States--particularly after the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act--with organized methods and people who actively assisted escapes. While most freedom seekers self-emancipated without assistance, organized activity to assist escapes increased every decade that slavery was legal in the United States.
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| New Castle Court House - First State it always appeared closed even when open finally learned they lock the doors for 45 minutes between tours |
Harriet Tubman did extraordinary work with abolitionist causes and as the Underground Railroad's most famous conductor. Her heroic efforts in personally leading people out of slavery to freedom in the North defined her as the "Moses of her People.”
FRIDAY
– JULY 29, 2022
WEATHER: 73 degrees at 6 am, mostly sunny,
forecast high of 72 with showers this afternoon, rain in the evening
Sunrise
0602 Sunset 2018 EDT, Rock Hall, MD
Low
Tide 0032 High Tide 0736
Low
Tide 1430 High Tide 1953
TRAVEL: Rock Hall, MD
ELLENDALE 4080, Ellendale, Farm, Dr, Rock Hall, MD
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Traveled to Chestertown for 8:30 mass at Sacred Heart only to find out that the priest cancelled mass because of an emergency. There must be a message here -someone suggested “it’s OK to miss mass when you’re on vacation.”
One family left to visit a cousin in Pennsylvania. Our last full day at Ellendale on Chesapeake Bay. We just hung out here all day. One family went to the Wildlife Refuge another to Chestertown.
SATURDAY
– JULY 30, 2022
WEATHER: 74 degrees sunny at 7 am, high of 86 and mostly sunny
Sunrise
0603 EDT, Rock Hall, MD Sunset 2024
Gettysburg, PA
TRAVEL: Ellendale – First State NHP – Gettysburg National Military Park – Hampton Inn
ELLENDALE 4080, Ellendale, Farm, Dr, Rock Hall, MD. It was a good week with Paul, Sarah, Casen, Kaden, Kristin, Dan, Kaleb, Josie, Amy, Jon and Annabelle. Missed Chad & Sara’s family.
119 FIRST STATE NATIONAL HISTORICAL PARK
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| New Castle Court House This has been closed on my previous visits I went up to the door and it was locked Apparently the door is only open for 5-10 minutes between hourly tours |
New Castle Court House 211 Delaware St, New Castle, DE. This is my third visit to this site and never have I found a Visitor Center open. It appears NPS has collaborated with several other sites in Delaware. I only stopped here to obtain a NPS Passport stamp that I’ve not been able to obtain on my previous two visits.
Fort Christiana, 15411 Abbotts Ond, Rd, Milford, DE
Old Swedes Historic Site 606 N Church St, Wilmington,
DE
John Dickenson Plantation, 340 Kitts Hummock Road, Dover, DE
Kalmar Nickle tall ship – 1 Delaware St, New Castle, DE
Famous as the First State to ratify the Constitution, Delaware was born out of a conflict among three world powers for dominance of the Delaware Valley. From this beginning, the region developed a distinct character that tolerated diversity in religion and national origin and valued independence.
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| This is the Arsenal converted into a Visitor Center I watched a short video |
Many people do not know Delaware played a critical role in our nation’s early history. Delaware was the first state to ratify the Constitution; the first state in which Swedes and Finns came ashore to America 375 years ago; the place where William Penn first landed in America; and the place where the Dutch built an ill-fated settlement nearly 400 years ago. Delaware Senator Tom Carper long believed these are important stories in our nation’s history and they should be told within the National Park System. For more than a decade, Senator Carper has worked with the Delaware delegation, federal officials, state officials, and community leaders to identify a theme and a park concept that fits well within our federal budget and is worthy of designation as a national park. In January 2009, the Bush Administration finalized a National Park Service Special Resource Study concluding that a national park should be placed in Delaware and every year since Senator Carper has introduced legislation authorizing a national park. Since 2009, there have been over a dozen public meetings on the national park effort – including legislative hearings in both chambers of Congress – which have shown overwhelming support for the national park idea.
In December 2014, Congress approved the First State National Historical Park Act of 2013 as part of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2015, creating the first and only national park in Delaware. The legislation that passed authorized the sites included in the First State National Monument in Delaware to become the First State National Historical Park and expanded the monument's sites to include additional park sites in all three counties of Delaware. Similar to the national monument, the First State National Historical Park celebrates early American Dutch, Swedish and English settlements throughout Delaware, and Delaware’s role in the events leading up to the founding of our nation. Estimates of construction, operation and maintenance of Delaware’s park – puts First State National Historical Park as one of the least expensive parks in the National Park System.
17 GETTYSBURG NATIONAL MILITARY PARK haven’t been here since October 2021 – and I thought it was going to be my last visit – not so - I’ve spent well over 100 days on this battlefield – stopped counting the days a long time ago - always something new to see or relearn . . . . and it looks like the Chicago Civil War Roundtable’s 2024 tour is scheduled for Gettysburg.
 |
| Garryowen Irish Pub |
The first stop was the Visitor Center. Two books of interest – almost bought Harry Pfanz’s “Gettysburg the Second Day” – the bookstore has been rearranged since my last visit - looks better - only bought 2 post cards.
I had to visit Garryowen for a glass of Harp. Visited a ‘new’ used print shop – didn’t find anything that interested me.
 |
| St. Francis Xavier |
4:00 pm mass at St. Francis Xavier, 25 W High St, Gettysburg. The priest was long winded – the homily could have ended in the first five minutes . . . . the readings - I remember Ecclesiastes ‘vanity of vanities’ – maybe just a hard topic to talk about.
Visited the King James Gallery – there were a few things there that interested me like a John Paul Strain winter scene, but no purchase. Dinner at Ernie’s Texas Lunch - nothing exotic but very reasonable in price..
Hilton Garden Inn
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| Little Round Top on the left - Big Round Top on the right Chambersburg Pike just past and along the fence line |
Drove the battlefield – the First Shot House (Marcellus Jones, Co. E, 8th Illinois Cavalry) on the Chambersburg Pike is still not completed as a Contact Station. Little Round Top is closed to all traffic; under renovation, I understand NPS is trying to make some sense out of the markers below Little Round Top with some new trails. Few people on the battlefield, of course, the ‘ghost tours’ were doing a huge business.
SUNDAY
– JULY 31, 2022
WEATHER: 63 degrees and partly cloudy at 6 am, cloudy in the moutnains, rain from 12 to 1:30 - hard rain in Charleston, WV
Ge
ttysburg, PA Sunrise 0606 Danville, KY Sunset 2048
TRAVEL: Gettysburg, PA – Perryville Battlefield - Danville, KY Cloudy when I got into the mountains of western MAyrland, started to rain about noon in West Virginia, a downpour around 1 pm – intermittent rain until I got to Lexington, KY – no rain at all in Perryville.
The Confederates left the field and their dead.
This cemetery contains the remains
of approximately 200 confederate soldiers,
mostly unknowns, buried after the battle by
Henry Bottom, a famer who owned most of
the land on which the battle was fought
PERRYVILLE
BATTLEFIELD
- Boyle County, KY Oct
8, 1862 On October 7, 1862, MG Don
Carlos Buell's Army of the
Ohio,
in pursuit of GEN Braxton Bragg’s
Army of Mississippi,
approached the crossroads town of Perryville,
Kentucky. Union forces skirmished with
Confederates on the Springfield Pike before heavy fighting began on Peters Hill. The
next day, fighting continued as a Union division advanced up the pike. After
noon, a Confederate division struck the Union left flank and forced it to fall
back. When more Confederates joined the fray, the Union line made a stubborn
stand, counterattacked, but finally retreated. Reinforced on their left, Union troops
stabilized their line and the Confederate attack sputtered to a halt. Later, three Confederate regiments assaulted a
Union division on the Springfield Pike but were repulsed and fell
back into Perryville. Bragg,
short of men and supplies, withdrew during the night. The battle was a Confederate tactical victory,
but Bragg’s retreat effectively ended the campaign.
This cemetery contains the remains
of approximately 200 confederate soldiers,
mostly unknowns, buried after the battle by
Henry Bottom, a famer who owned most of
the land on which the battle was fought
I first visited this battlefield in April of 2002 after a visit to Shiloh – and it may be my favorite battlefield. Fairly easy to understand and not cluttered with modernity or statues or markers. I stopped counting, but I’ve spent at least a dozen days walking the battlefield. I may return in September just to meet up with Chris Kolakowski who’s leading a tour on behalf of the Kenosha Civil War Museum. My interest is the artillery. I’ve always thought that a study of the artillery at Perryville would be a topic for a book or at least a pamphlet or a short piece for publication.
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| Battle of Perryville - October 8, 1862 - Opening Attack this battle was over-shawdowed by the Battle of Sharpsburg (Antietam) fought on September 17, 1862 where there were over 25,000 American casualties I've walked this entire battlefield many times |
Bought two books – Decisions At Perryville by Larry Peterson – Maney’s Confederate Brigade ath the Battle of Perryvile by Stuart W. Sanders – was going to stay another day but after a 40 minute walk – I stirred up too many ticks and it was sunny – I don not have insect repellent or a hat or my walking stick – think I’ll head home tomorrow.
Hampton Inn, Danville, KY – might be the best hotel I stayed at since I started traveling 3 weeks ago – you know, something just impresses you - well see how breakfast is. Maybe I need to get back in shape for walking . . . . really haven’t exercised regularly since last Fall. Danville has grown since my first visit. Strip malls along the “by-pass” – even a Holiday Inn Express and Buffalo Wild Wings next to the Hampton Inn since my last visit.
MONDAY
– AUGUST 1, 2022
WEATHER: 73 at 6 am forecast high of 83 in Perryville, rained overnight cloudy
Sunrise 0643 EDT Danville, KY Sunset 2013 CDT Burlington, WI
TRAVEL: Danville, KY – Burlington, WI
The end of a 21 day 3,633 mile journey with stops in at the Ford Presidential Museum (Grand Rapids, MI), Toronto (Serra International Convention and the Blue Jays), Montreal, Quebec, Katahdin Woods & Waters National Monument (Millinocket, ME), Blackstone River Valley National Historic Park (Connecticut & Rhode Island), West Point New York (train to NYC Stonewall & Governor's Island National Monuments), a week on Chesapeake Bay with family, the African American National Museum of History & Culture, (Washington, DC), First State National Historical Park (Delaware), Gettysburg and Perryville battlefields.
Bourbon does not have to made in Kentucky, but to be designated a "Kentucky bourbon," the spirit has to be both distilled and aged in Kentucky.
Bourbon is a type of American whiskey, a barrel-aged, distilled liquor made primarily from corn. The name derives from the French Bourbon dynasty, although the precise inspiration is uncertain; contenders include Bourbon County in Kentucky and Bourbon Street in New Orleans, both of which are named after the dynasty.
If you're not someone who drinks a lot of brown liquor, the difference between bourbon and whiskey might not seem all that apparent. After all, both bourbon and whiskey are brown liquids—they look about the same. And to add to the possible confusion, if you just refer to bourbon as whiskey, you wouldn't be wrong. Bourbon is a type of whiskey, much the way that champagne is a type of wine. So, all bourbon is whiskey, but not all whiskey is bourbon.
What makes bourbon distinct from other whiskeys is the way it is manufactured and aged. All whiskey is spirit made from fermented grain and then aged in barrels. But the kind of grain and the kind of barrels determines the variety of whiskey. According to the American Bourbon Association, in order to be classified as bourbon, a whiskey needs to be distilled from a mixture of grains, or mash, that's at least 51% corn. That corn gives bourbon its distinctive sweet flavor.
Additionally, bourbon also must be aged in new charred oak barrels and cannot include any additives or colorings. Other whiskeys can be aged in barrels previously used to age other spirits, and they don't necessarily need to be whiskey barrels—port, sherry, and rum casks are used in the aging process for non-bourbon whiskeys. To be designated "straight bourbon whiskey," bourbon has to have been aged in new charred oak barrels for a minimum of two years.
In 2015 I visited the Maker’s Mark Distillery in Loretto, KY. The visit got me hooked on the Kentucky Bourbon Trail passport program. Then there were 9 distilleries in the passport program. I have visited, Maker’s Mark (Jun 4, 2015), Wild Turkey (Oct, 6, 2016), Four Roses (Oct 6, 2016), Jim Beam (Sep 9, 2017), Evan Williams (Sep 10, 2017), Woodford Reserve and Town Branch ( Nov 25, 2019 ). I needed Bulleit (Louisville and Heaven Hill (Bardstown) to complete the Trail. However, today there are 18 “Signature Distilleries” and 19 “Craft” Distilleries on the Trail. Not sure I’ll ever finish the trail. But I thought I’d at least finish the 2 on the original trail and maybe follow up with additional 9 “Signature” Distilleries.
Bulleit Bourbon Experience, 3484 Benson Pike, Shelbyville, KY
Heaven Hill, 1311 Gilkey St, Bardstown, KY
Bardstown Bourbon Company, 1600 Parkway Dr, Bardstown, KY
Lux Row, 1 Lux, Row, Bardstown, KY
Wilderness Trail, 405 Lebanon Rd, Danville, KY
Angel’s Envy, 500 E Main St, Louisville, KY
Michter’s 801 W. Main St, Louisville, KY
Old Forester, 119 W. Mian St, Louisville, KY
Rabbit Hole, 711 E Jefferson St, Louisville, KY
Stetzel-Weller, 3600 Fitzgerald Rd, Louisville, KY
Warehouse & Bottling Facility, 624 Lotus Rd, Cox’s Creek, KY
Green River, 10 Distillery, Rd, Owensboro, KY
FRIDAY–
AUGUST 26, 2022
WEATHER: sunny and pleasant Sunrise 0611 CDT Burlington Sunset 1853 EDT Columbus, OH
TRAVEL: Burlington, WI – 0715 Goerkes Corners, Waukesha – USA Coachlines - Madison - 1800 Columbus, OH a non-eventful (except for the slow downs in Chicago and Indianapolis) ten hour ride – a lot more comfortable than a C-141 from Seattle to Korea
DRURY HOTEL
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| In front of the Drury Inn Nationwide Insurance Building Convention Center to the right |
especially friendly . . . snacks and beverages for guests between 1730-1900 daily
 |
| Ballpark sprinklers on the infield |
National Guard Association of the United State (NGAUS} 144th Conference & Exhibition
The ‘usual’ company grade mixer was an all inclusive affair – though separated by the company grade/field grade/warrant officers . . . . cash bar - held at the local minor league ballpark – within 4 blocks of the hotel
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| The Friday Night Mixer was held at Huntington Park Home of the Minor League Columbus Clippers Company grades in the Outfield Field Grades on the equivalent 300 level Who knows where the Warrants went |
SATURDAY - SUNDAY – AUGUST 27, 28 & 29, 2022
DRURY
INN – breakfast is included – again very
friendly staff
10:00 am Opening of the Exhibit Hall
FIRST BUSINESS SESION
12:30 pm Call to Order Maj. Gen. Janson D. Boyles,
Mississippi NGAUS Chairman of the Board Posting
of the Colors
•Pledge of Allegiance
•National Anthem
•Service Songs
•Invocation
12:45 pm Ohio Welcome – Wisconsin has 42 years of continuous 100%
membership in the National Guard Association we get our seats up front – center
– the entertainment sponsored the state hosting the conference is almost always
a class act. Interesting that just under
50% of WINGA/NGAUS is company grade officers.
That makes sense . . . since
company grades (LTS & CPTS) are a far larger percentage of the officer
corps than field grades and above.
However, over 300 of Wisconsin’s NGAUS membership is represented by
Retired Life Members. I ask where are
all the field grades? Likewise, Wisconsin
has 45 members attending, including 1 State Representative, 14 (31%) are
retired, 12 (27%) are company grade on orders, 4 General Officers (9%). Only 3 COLs and 3 LTCs – a handful of MAJs – where is the leadership? Wisconsin used to have a delegation of over
60 members plus spouses/guests. OH – IO –
did not impress me. ALOHA always works.
1:15 pm Chairman’s Preview Maj. Gen. Janson D. Boyles,
Mississippi NGAUS Chairman of the Board
1:30 pm Roll Call of States generally a fun event –
each state delegation has 50 seconds to spout its bravado – history – sports
teams – whatever as their name is called in order of joining the union followed
by the territories and DC. Standouts, in
my opinion, this year’s were Wisconsin, Mississippi, and Guam
2:30 pm Presentation of 2022 NGAUS Harry S. Truman
Award Special Address with Q&A Gen. James C. McConville - Chief of Staff of
the Army - HIGHLIGHTS
“we
can’t do what we do without the National Guard”
“the
National Guard has been “Always Ready, Always There”
“moving
from COIN to Large Scale operations” -
we need the ability to operate isolated
the
Field Artillery is making a comeback – division artillery – however, he
specifically mentioned HIMARS – the ability to reach out up to 500 km and
beyond
a
defense and response to unmanned aerial systems is the new IED
“individual
readiness is the key”
In
his Q&A: ‘we will not lower
standards’ – only 23% of Americans are fit to be in the army – recruiting is a
challenge – “Soldiers For Life – we need to inspire and hire” - “inspirational,
engaged leadership will make the difference”
- take the time to do the right
things – don’t be afraid to take the feedback”
3:15 to 3:45 pm Exhibit Hall Break Refreshments Available – supposedly the largest Exhibition ever – yet Oshkosh and United Defense and BAE were not here
3:45 pm Membership Awards Ceremony Maj. Gen. Randall
Simmons, Georgia Membership Committee Chairman
4 pm Special Address with Q&A Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. Chief of Staff of the Air Force - HIGHLIGHTS His remarks were read – standard boiler plate – ‘China is the enemy – Russia is an acute threat’ - Integrated Deterrence - Build Enduring Advantages - he didn’t say much from the heart until he got into Q&A:
Three
recommended reads: Lincoln &
Leadership, Rules and No Rules, Leadership by
Control Leadership by Content
‘You’re
not going to have 6 months to prep – the next war will be like WWII – bring it
all with you’
INTENT
– TRUST – EXECUTE . . . “proceed until
apprehended”
 |
| Center for Science & Industry (COSI) Governor's Reception |
Governor’s Reception –
held at the Center for Science and Industry – a worthy museum
with a
planetarium - two drink tickets but a lot of ‘fruity –
craft beer’ – ran out of staples LITE, STELLA, MODELO, PBR, BUD before 8
o’clock. Food was slow in coming – lines
unbearable - entertainment – I think it was a floor space playing music
Sunday, August 28
SECOND BUSINESS SESION
7 am Religious service was
Christian . . . not a
Protestant/Catholic service.
8 am Call to Order Maj. Gen. Janson D. Boyles,
Mississippi NGAUS Chairman of the Board
Determination/Presentation
of Junior/Senior Minuteman Can be fun –
everybody stands and then sits down based on year of commissioning as an
officer – I don’t believe I’m ever going to be the last one standing as the
oldest commissioned officer. This conference
may be one of my last. I enlisted in
May of 1970 and was commissioned a 2LT in August, 1973.
8:15 a.m Treasurer’s Report Brig. Gen. Kenneth L. Ross
(Ret.), Louisiana
8:20 a.m Committee on Credentials & Rules
Verification Report Maj. Gen. Frank McGinn (Ret.), Massachusetts Committee
Chairman
8:25 a.m. National Guard Executive Directors
Association Report Chief Warrant Officer 5 Jim Simms (Ret.), Kentucky NGEDA
President
8:35 a.m Enlisted Association of the National Guard of
the United States Report
EANGUS President
8:45 a.m Legislative Update Col. Mike Hadley (Ret.) NGAUS
Vice President-Government Affairs
8:55 a.m First Individual Awards Ceremony Maj. Seana
Eason, Arkansas NGAUS Awards Committee
9:15 am Special Address with Q&A Lt. Gen. Laura
A. Potter Deputy Army Chief of Staff-Intelligence
I
didn’t bother with attending the above . . . .
 |
| St. Patrick's |
0900 mass at St. Patrick’s Church – about a 4 block walk from the hotel. Interesting – 6 altar boys - 2 priests hearing confessions prior to and after mass – communion distributed at the altar rail – they accepted your cupped hands or on the tongue – a lot of young families – almost all of the women were in dresses
9:45 to 10:15 am Exhibit Hall Break Refreshments Available
10:15 am Looking Ahead to the 145th General Conference
& Exhibition Maj. Gen. Ondra L. Berry The Adjutant General of Nevada – energetic – “Reno – the
Bi8ggest Little City in the World”
10:25 am National Guard Educational Foundation Report Will
Roulett NGEF Deputy Director
10:45 am TBD I was there and I can’t remember
 |
| General Hokanson |
Chief of the National Guard Bureau
PEOPLE – Healthcare is a priority –
were 20% of the total force – the NG needs healthcare and cannot afford to give
up readiness - it’s a balancing act – there is a pilot for a
drill weekend child care program in 6 states
READINESS – “it’s no longer COIN but back to large scale combat operations” - “mandatory training requirements are being scaled back - ‘cut the crap and get all the mandatory training into one weekend” - “OVICD vaccination is not optional - it’s a requirement of Readiness”
REFORM – ‘integrate senior
officer into the military’ “our partners
know the strength of democracies . . . many still remember Soviet rule”
Q&A quotes “some force structure is
gone, it’s probably gone forever” “the skills we learn to fight are a valuable
resource to our communities”
Noon Recess to
Luncheons & Other Sessions
Retiree Luncheon – I stayed through session with Hokanson, which ran over – of course lunch was all but over when I got to the luncheon
Sunday
Night is generally Hospitality
Night - hosted by a state or group of states –
can’t say much about this – it was a very pleasant evening weatherwise – but
nothing remarkable
 |
| NGAUS display in the convention center |
ARMY SEPARATE SESSION 8:30 to 10:30 am Presiding Officer Maj. Gen. Jimmie Cole, Tennessee Vice Chairman-Army
Speakers
included:
•Lt. Gen. Jon A. Jensen, Minnesota Director of the Army National Guard with his CSM tow themes READINESS and
RECRUITNG & RETENTION - "I’d term these the 3Rs" – so what’s new in 50 years? ":readiness starts with end strength" – ‘know your army' he advocated getting back
to show the people what the army is – what it does – i.e. less commercials
about wounded warriors – the CSM was all ‘mission command’ – I hope the folks
knew what he was talking about
•Maj. Gen. Michael D. Wickman, Minnesota Deputy Commanding General, U.S. Army
Europe – not really impressed - he looked like a general but the only thing of significance I remember is “Ukraine
showed the significance of the State Partnership Program”
•Gen. Andrew P. Poppas Commanding General, Army Forces Command - found out this guy is
from Janesville, WI USMA 1988, a good speaker, played the crowd with mentioning
of the states and unites that have deployed – spoke from the podium, but used
the huge screens facing him in front of the stage as a teleprompter for his prepared remarks. HE was good - it took me awhile to figure that out.
AIR SEPARATE SESSION Union
Station Ballroom 8:30 to 10:30 a.m.
Presiding
Officer
Maj. Gen. Ondra L. Berry, Nevada Vice Chairman-Air
Speakers
include:
•Lt.
Gen. Michael A. Loh, Colorado Director
of the Air National Guard
Agenda
includes presentation of unit awards
Exhibit Hall Break
10:30 to 11:30 a.m.
THIRD BUSINESS SESSION
– this session is usually
boring, I did not attend
11:30 a.m Call to Order
Maj. Gen. Janson D. Boyles, Mississippi
NGAUS Chairman of the Board
11: 30 a.m. Adjutants General
Association of the United States Report Maj. Gen. Daryl L. Bohac, Nebraska AGAUS
President
11:40 a.m Second Individual Awards
Ceremony Maj. Seana Eason, Arkansas NGAUS Awards Committee
Noon Presentation of 2022 NGAUS
Harry S. Truman Award Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards
12:20 p.m Presentation of NGAUS Membership Scholarships Maj.
Gen. Randall Simmons, Georgia Membership Committee Chairman
12:30 p.m Committee on Resolutions Report Col. Michael R. Morgan (Ret.), Vermont Committee
Chairman
12:40 p.m Committee on Nominations and Elections Report
Brig. Gen. Mike Oster (Ret.), South Dakota Committee Chairman
1 p.m Recess to States Dinner
STATES
DINNER - no speaker but usually entertainment following
cocktails and dinner. Traditionally this
has been a formal dress mess/dress blue/black tie affair but its gone the route
of ‘casual” in Austin it was “Texas Formal – cowboy boots, jeans and white
cowboy shirt”; in Nashville its always “Country – cowboy boots, jeans and
western shirt’”; Hawaii – what else but luau wear; here is was a sports theme –
wear you favorite sports team gear. I
chose my “Gapinski #57 Brewers Baseball Jersey – most from Wisconsin wore – Packer’s
gear I would have thought UW. The dinner
was served family style, chicken, beef, au gratin potatoes, bean salad, salad –
no coffee – no wine – no entertainment.
TUESDAY–
AUGUST 30, 2022
WEATHER: rain overnight some drizzle in the morning - cleared as we drove west Sunrise
0630 EDT Columbus, OH Sunset 1930 CDT Burlington
TRAVEL: Columbus, OH – Goerkes Corners, Waukesha – Coach USA - Burlington - the return trip was about 2 hours shorter than the trip to get there – little of no traffic slowdowns in Indianapolis and Chicago
WEDNESDAY – SEPTEMBER 14, 2022
WEATHER: pleasant in the
70’s – mostly sunny
TRAVEL: Burlington – Sturtevant (AMTRAK) 0-CHICAGO – walk to State & Adams – CTA Subway to White SOX – Guaranteed Rate Field and reverse route to Burlington
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| Chicago Skyline from Level 500 of Guaranteed Rate Field |
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| Old Comiskey Park |
on the South Side of Chicago since 1901: South Side Park, Comiskey Park, and Guaranteed Rate Field. The club played a decade at South Side Park, 80 seasons at Comiskey Park and have called Guaranteed Rate Field home since 1991.
My first visit to this ballpark and probably my last. However, except for the fact that it is on a suspect South Side of Chicago, it is a good ballpark.
In the 2003 Season: Comiskey Park was renamed U.S. Cellular Field. July 15, 2003: U.S. Cellular Field hosted the Major League Baseball All-Star game. The 2016 season marks the 25th Anniversary of U.S. Cellular/ New Comiskey Park
 |
| Guaranteed Rate Field White Sox vs Colorado Rockies When you enter you are restricted to the Level your ticket is on My ticket was Level 500 - way up there - decidely the 'cheap seats' The White Sox are in 2nd Place AL Central 3 games behind Cleveland Just over 10,000 in the ballpark |
This may have been my last, most expensive, and shortest time in the park for a ballpark outing, The AMTRAK form Sturtevant to over $80 round trip, the CTA was $5 for a one day ticket; I carried a packable backpack into the park and of course they wouldn’t let me get past security – when I tried to fold it up security said I couldn’t get into the park even if it was folder and put in my picket – So they suggested I could put it back in my car (not feasible my car was in Sturtevant), put it in lost and found, throw it in the trash, or walk to the Souvenir Shop and check it for $10. I checked it for $10. Only stayed 3 innings to catch the 3:15 AMTRAK to Sturtevant.
Now here’s the interesting part – I got by the ticket takers twice with a ticket that was for the evening game on September 21 against the Cleveland Guardians – I think they used to be called the Indians. So much for Security - Hard to find good help these days. Attendance officially was 10,377 – it may not have been that many – of course I wasn’t official.
MONDAY
– SEPTEMBER 26, 2022
WEATHER: 49 degrees in
Burlington at 5 am, clear skies – 69 and sunny in Bardstown, KY.
TRAVEL: Burlington – Bourbon Heritage Center/Heaven Hill Distillery – Bardstown, KY – Civil War Museum of the West – Perryville Battlefield - Hampton Inn, Danville, KY. I made good time through Chicago – Indiana along I-65 is a constant challenge – traffic even stopped at one point along the route – I-65 seems to be under constant construction.
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| Heaven Hill Bourbon Experience |
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| Apologies - I wish this were clearer - it's the initial mixture and charring that makes a difference - some bourbons also distill more than once GRAIN - MIXING/MASHING - FERMENTATION -DISTILLATION-AGING-WHISKEY |
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| Oak Barrel Charring Levels |
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| Bottled in Bond an interesting story |
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| I couldn't resist - the story of Old Fitzgerald and bottled in bond My Grandpa Gapinski used to keep a bottle of Old Fitzgerald on the top shelf of the built in china cabinet at 1410 Mitchell Street - it was definitely 'top shelf' |
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| Heaven Hill faced a fire in the 1991 - everyone was kept on working - the distillery was rebuilt |
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| Civil War Museum of the Western Theater Bardstown, KY |
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| LTG Hal Moore |
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| "We Were Soldiers Once and Young" |
EXCELLENT! An added benefit is the Women’s Museum of the Civil War, the US Military Museum and a special exhibit dedicated to LTG Hal Moore of Ia Drang Valley (We Were Soldiers Once and Young) fame. He was from Danville, KY.
SUNDAY – OCTOBER 2, 2022
WEATHER: 49 degrees at 0700, clear with low fog, 61 by noon partly sunny, breeze in open spaces from the north
TRAVEL: Burlington – Janesville – Milton - Burlington
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| The Ice Age Trail generally follows the line of Recessional Moraines from St. Croix Falls East to Antigo; south to Janesville and the east to the South Kettle Moraine and North Kettle Moraine to Potawatomi State Park |
ICE AGE TRAIL
MAMMOTH HIKE CHALLENGE 2022
Hike, walk, run, or backpack 42 miles on the Ice Age Trail during the month of October 2022 and visit 3 Trail Communities to earn a hiking certificate and a limited-edition patch: NEW THIS YEAR:
Visit an additional Trail Community = 10 bonus miles
Attend a Mammoth Hike Challenge event = 10 bonus miles
The new rules enticed me to take the ‘challenge’ this year’. I walked 40+ miles in October 2020 and did not participate in 2021 – golf was taking a priority – golf still will still be a priority, but the bonus miles will save me time – perhaps a total 3 days on the trail.
Ice Age Trail Facts:
· The Trail is managed by a partnership among the National Park Service, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and the Ice Age Trail Alliance.
· The Ice Age Trail is open for hiking, backpacking and snowshoeing. Many segments support cross-country skiing, too.
· The Trail is not yet complete. More than 600 miles are yellow-blazed Ice Age Trail segments, and more than 500 miles of unmarked connecting routes link the blazed segments. The entire route is about 1,200 miles long.
· The Trail’s western terminus is in Interstate State Park in St. Croix Falls, Polk County. It overlooks the St. Croix River and our neighbors in Minnesota.
· The Trail’s eastern terminus is in Potawatomi State Park in Sturgeon Bay, Door County.
· The Ice Age Trail is built and maintained largely by volunteers.
· Most of the blazed Ice Age Trail Segments fit hikers’ ideas of a traditional, off-road hiking experience. Some segments, however, lead hikers right down the main streets of Wisconsin communities. This is by design – the Ice Age Trail is meant to connect people and communities.
· Thirteen municipalities (with more joining each year) have chosen recognition as an Ice Age Trail Community, underscoring the Trail’s positive economic impact, locally. Together, the Ice Age Trail Alliance and Trail Communities promote the unique qualities that make the Trail, and the community it travels through, a meaningful destination.
· The Trail occasionally coincides with state bike trails – biking is allowed on these sections only. Horseback riding is not permitted. Motorized vehicles are not permitted (with the exception of just a few segments that share state multi-use trails).
· The Ice Age Trail began in the 1950s as the dream of Milwaukeean Ray Zillmer, who had a vision of a long, linear park winding through Wisconsin along the glacier’s terminal moraine.
· The Trail crosses over many ownership types, including private land, city parks, state parks, county forests and national forest.
· The Trail travels through 30 counties.
· One of the goals of the Ice Age Trail Alliance is to permanently protect the route of the Ice Age Trail. Every year, we purchase land with privately donated funds and grants from government partners to get closer to achieving this goal. The State of Wisconsin also acquires land for the Trail through its Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Program.
MAMMOTH HIKE CHALENGE 2022 October 2, 2022
Janesville to Milton Segment
START 0905 Janesville Segment near Walmart (E Rotamer Rd & Tanglewood Dr)
END 1030 Milton Segment (E Vincent & W High Street) 3.6 miles
Return to 1200 Janesville Segment near Walmart 3.6 miles
TOTAL 7.2 miles
Average pace 2.5 mph. Carried black backpack, sandwich, water, 1st aid kit, rain poncho, pepper spray, pullover windbreaker, map of IAT segment, forgot insect repellent. Long pants, t shirt and long sleeve t shirt. Removed long sleeve t-shirt around 1030. I last hiked this segment of the trail on October, 24, 2018.
Starting from E Rotamer Rd & Tanglewood Dr the trail follows a marked concrete path across a footbridge over Highway 26 (Milton Ave) and north along NW Rotamer Rd. This is pitted outwash that the glacier deposited during its retreat from an earlier Johnstown advance. The trail veers off the road along an abandoned right-of-way for the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad. This route along NW Rotamer Rd descends into tunnel channel. The tunnel channel carried a large flow of glacial meltwater from beneath the ice and was the source of much of the sand and gravel beneath the outwash plain that surrounds Janesville today. The walk along the right-of -way is fairly level. However, the elevation from the bottom of the tunnel channel rises from a low of 830 feet just south of Monogue Rd to over 900 feet at the position of the former ice margin. Just like on my return route when I came back to NW Rotamer Rd the water under pressure was flowing uphill in the tunnel channel as it approached the ice edge. When I started, I didn’t realize the walk was downhill until I returned.
THURSDAY – OCTOBER 6, 2022
WEATHER: 51 degrees sunny and clear at 0700; 56 at 8 am; high of 66 and cloudy at 1100 – by noon rain was in the air.
TRAVEL: Burlington – Hwy 12 IAT Trailhead - Whitewater - Whitewater Lake - Burlington
ICE AGE TRAIL
MAMMOTH HIKE CHALLENGE 2022
Whitewater Lake Segment
START 0810 Whitewater Lake Segment STH 12 trailhead
END 1005 Leopold Bench at Whitewater Lake lookout 4.0 miles
Return to 1210 Whitewater Lake Segment STH 12 trailhead 4.0 miles
TOTAL 8.0 miles
Average pace 2.0. mph. With a short stop at the Whitewater Lake lookout for a sandwich and when Bob M gave me a phone call from Philadelphia. Carried black backpack, sandwich, water, 1st aid kit, rain poncho, pullover windbreaker, map of IAT segment, insect repellent. Long pants, t shirt and long sleeve t shirt. Removed long sleeve t-shirt around 0840 – worked up a sweat on the moraine. I last hiked this segment of the trail on June 6, 2018 – most of it was in the rain.
From the STH 12 trailhead , the trail goes west following the Green Bay Lobe edge of the Kettle Moraine. The Kettle Moraine is basically where the Green Bay and Lake Michigan Lobes met. This is high relief hummocky topography (step slopes and deep depressions) a lot of ups and downs - hills. Th low area to the west is the bed of glacial Lake Scuppernong. The trail descends south into high pitted outwash to Easterly Rd. Although the plain is quite flat – it is over 100 feet higher than the flat surface of glacial Lake Scuppernong.
About one-third of a mile west of Easterly Rd the trail again enters high relief hummocky topography and crosses an esker before crossing CTH P. This esker appears to connect to another running down the center of Whitewater Lake. West of CTH P the trail runs into another broad esker. Water in the glacial tunnels in which the eskers formed flowed to the southwest. The depressions that hold Whitewater and Rice Lakes are kettles, but both lakes are held at their present levels by dams built in the mid 20th century. Before the dams, Whitewater Lake was actually two small lakes separated by a wetland. Rice Lake was a wetland.
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| This plaque is in Perryville - on Hwy 150 by the cemetery |
Perryville Battlefield, Perryville, KY - I pretty much drove the route taken by part of MG Don Carlos Buell’s Army of the Ohio Third Corps to Bardstown. All three of his corps (MG McCook I Corps, MG Crittenden II Corps and ‘acting’ MG Gilbert III Corps) met at Bardstown. From there they split and took three separate routes to Perryville. Interestingly, LTG Braxton Bragg’s Confederate Army had been in Bardstown before the Federals. I drove the Springfield Pike (Hwy 150) from Bardstown to Perryville - pretty much the way the Confederates did through Springfield. Perryville was the real reason for the trip down here – didn’t see anything that I have not seen before but it was early evening – the weather was pleasant and I saw much more of the sites than I did when I stopped here back in July.
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| LTG Braxton Bragg's Invasion of Kentucky Along with MG Kirby Smith, who captured Lexington, they installed Governor Richard Hawes as the Confederate Governor of Kentucky in Frankfort on October 7, 1862 The installation distracted Bragg from his real objective MG Don Carlos Buell's Army of the Ohio. In fact the ceremony was interrupted by MG Sill's Division's bombardment on the outskirts of Frankfort. |
 |
| Good eyes may be able to read the plaque above - a synopsis of the Battle of Perryville |
I took 25 pictures in less than an hour and a half on the
battlefield. I knew where I wanted to go
and what I wanted to see. There were
some new sights on the battlefield.
Writing this a few days after the visit – I think I took more pictures
today than I did on the tour. There is
always something more to see – more to learn – relearn or remember. I’ll let the pictures compliment the story of
the battle that begins tomorrow.
Hampton Inn, Danville, KY – I’ve stayed here in the
past. I was not greeted as a Diamond
Club member – the room is large but cold, i.e. looks sparsely furnished – but
comfortable.
Dinner at O Charley’s.
TUESDAY
– SEPTEMBER 27, 2022
WEATHER: 44 and clear
Danville, KY at 6 am, forecast high of 68 degrees
Sunrise: 0731 EDT Sunset: 0738 EDT
TRAVEL: Hampton Inn, Danville, KY – Perryville Battlefield – Hampton Inn, Danville, KY
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| Perryville offering a Fall Welcome |
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| On Loomis Heights Goldenrod is the KY State Flower |
I plan to meet a group from the Kenosha Civil War Museum that is scheduled to be here today. My primary reason for joining the group today is to meet up with historian Chris Kolakowski – a guy I met years ago when he was working for the Perryville Enhancement Project. I hope he can provide some insight. I’ve visited here about 20 times – once with the Chicago Civil War Roundtable tour led by Ed Bearss.
I arrived at 0900, the bus shortly after. I met Doug Damaan, Education Manager for the Kenosha Civil War Museum, and the tour guide Chris Kolakowski, Director Wisconsin Veterans Museum. There were a few other faces that I recognized on the bus.
0900 – 1000
Viewed the CD, visit the museum and gift shop.
STOP 1 – 1015 walked halfway back to the entrance near marker #2 The Opening Attack. BG Daniel S Donelson ‘s(nephew of President Andrew Jackson) Brigade consisted of the 8th, 15th, 16th, 38th and 51st TN INF REGTS and CPT William Carnes TN LT ARTY was one of four brigades in MG Benjamin F Cheatham’s 1st DIV, MG Leonidas Polk’s RIGHT WING, GEN Braxton Bragg’s Army of the Mississippi.
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| Perryville - The Opening Attack - Donelson's Brigade (3 Regiments) |
After arriving at the staging area near the Goodknight House along the river bottomlands, Carnes’ battery and the 8th & 51st TN were detached to assist with the artillery preparatory bombardment several hundred yards to the left. Donelson would lead the main attack around 2 pm on 8 October 1862. The three remaining regiments ran into a murderous crossfire from Parson’s Improvised US Battery and Harris’s 19th IN BTRY.
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| View of Parson's Ridge - The Open Knob |
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| CPT Charles C Parsons |
STOP 2 – 1055 walked back up the paved road past the VC
and cemetery to an opening in the fence leading to the Open Knob.
Confederate BG George Maney’s
Brigade (41 GA, 1st, 6th, 9th
27th TN and
CPT Melachon Smith’s MS BTRY 1LT William Turner) attacked
the union left flank (to the right of Donelson’s Brigade) on the Open Knob. The
rolling terrain initially hid his men from Parson’s Battery. After proceeding several
hundred yards through the woods, Maney’s men
discovered the lethal danger of attacking the ridge and sought shelter behind a
split rail fence.
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| On top of Parsons Ridge - The Open Knob |
The southern officers knew that they had to take the hill – the brigade renewed the charge.
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| View of Starkweather Hill from the Open Knob - The Cornfield is to the left between the ridges (hill) - the cannon of Bush and Simonson's Batteries were on Starkweather Hill |
STOP 3 – 1110 walked up to the top of the Open Knob. The OPEN KNOB – Defense of Parson’s Ridge. Union BG William Terrill had ordered eight cannon to this ridge. As Confederate troops appeared at a split rail fence below the hill he ordered a bayonet charge by the 123rd IL. A poor decision. Outnumbered, they were driven back with heavy casualties. Terrill’s inexperienced brigade (80th IL, 123rd IL, 105 OH, Garrard’s DET and Parson’s Improvised Battery) could not withstand the veteran confederate attackers. Terrill’s men were forced from the hill. Division Commander, BG James S Jackson (Terrill’s BDE, Webster’s BDE) was also on the hill with Terrill. Jackson was struck by two bullets and fell to the ground. KIA. Terrill’s Brigade gave way, Parson’s lost 7 of his 8 guns. The brigade retreated through COL John Starkweather’s Brigade which was placed several hundred yards to the rear on another ridge.
behind Starkweather Hill, however due to, perhaps-a grudge held by Division Commander BG Lowell H Rousseau (Harris’ BDE, Lytle’s BDE, Starkweather’s BDE), it was ordered to occupy the cornfield in a valley between the Open Knob and Starkweather Hill to serve as an ‘ambush’. A bad position. In the army less than a month, many of these new recruits had never even fired their rifles. They waited in the cornfield as Terrill’s panicked retreating soldiers ran through them. They held their ground until Maney’s veteran confederates pushed them back.. They were caught in a death trap – friendly fire to the rear and enemy fire to the front. With the 21st WI driven from the cornfield, Maney’s BDE continued their attack toward Starkweather’s Hill.
STOP 5 – 1140 walk to Starkweather Hill. COL John
Starkweather’s Brigade (24 IL, 79 PA, 1 WI, 21 WI and CPT Asahel K Bush’s 4th BTRY IN LT
ARTY and
CPT David C Stone’s BTRY A KY LT ARTY) stood as the only defense
between the attacking confederates and the Union wagons that carried ammunition
and medical supplies at the Dixville
Crossroads.
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| Dixville Crossroads |
Although nearing exhaustion Maney’s BDE found the strength to attack up another steep slope. They killed and wounded most of the Federal artillerymen and captured the cannon before in the confusion of battle, they mistakenly fell back in retreat.
Regrouping at the road, the Confederates charged two more times and with Stewarts BDE (4th, 5th, 24th, 31st, 33rd TN and CPT T.J.. Stanford’s MS BTRY) attacking across the field drove Starkweather’s soldiers off the ridge.
 |
| The Confederate High Water Mark or Starkweather's Wall |
STOP 6 1155 – we walked to the next ridge the Confederate High Water Mark, Starkweather’s Wall. This was the previous location of a barn/goat farm that has since been razed and added to the park.
At this point the group retraced their steps and returned to the Visitor Center and had a box lunch in the park’s pavilion. I walked down the hill to Whites Road and then to Marker #9 Act of Mercy to Marker #10 Bloodbath at the Crib and to Marker #11 Valley of Death and to the Visitor Center and lunch.
STOP 7 1330 the group got on the bus went the long way to Marker #17 Loomis Heights. I followed in my car and when the bus back into Bottom Lane I drove all the way around, back to the park entrance and then to the Defense of Loomis Heights & Simonson’s Indiana Battery
 |
| This may be my most favorite marker on the Perryville Battlefield From Loomis Heights it identifiies the placement of the Confederate Artillery Batteries from left to right - Lumden's AL Btry Jones Bde 727 yds Carnes TN Btry Donelson's Bde 1,795 yds Stanfords MS Btry Stewarts's Bde 1,614 yds Semples' AL Btry Wood's Bde 1,173 yds Darden's MS Btry - Johnson's Bde 1,054 yds 1st section I've physically been on the site of each of those batteries |
The six guns of CPT Peter Simonson’s 5th BTRY IN LT ARTY anchored the center of the
Union line. Prior to the Confederate
attack Simonsen and CPT Cyrus Loomis engaged in an artillery duel COL Thomas M Jones’ Brigade (27th, 30th, 34 MS and CPT Charles L. Lumsden’s BTRY F, 2nd AL LT ARTY) met a deadly surprise as
the assaulted the heights manned by cannons of Loomis
and Simonson supported by COL William H
Lytle’s Brigade (42nd IN, 88th IL, 15th KY, 3rd,
10th OH).
I may have missed it but Kolakowski gave very little attention to the Bottom House and the attacks of Brown’s, Adam’s and Cleburne’s brigades which eventually forced the Union forces back to the Dixville Crossroads.
STOP 8 1420 we walked to the Cleburne’s Attack marker.
STOP 9 1450 drove past the Russell House to where the park manager’s house used to be, on Whites Road, near the Marker’s for Webster’s Brigade and Harris’s Battery. CPT
Samuel J Harris 19th
BTRY IN LT ARTY supported
COL George Webster’s Brigade (80th IN, 50th, 98th,
121st OH). When
BG Daniel Donelson attacked he faced Harris’s 19th BTRY IN LT ARTY
to his front. Donelson thinking he was
attacking the union flank was actually attacking the Union center.
Confederates led by BG Sterling
A.M. Wood’s Brigade (16th, 33rd AL, 3 Conf Inf, 1st
BN MS SS, 32nd, 45 MS and CPT Henry C Semple’s AL BTRY) eventually overran the battery. The confederates capture four of Harris’s six guns.
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| View of the Russell House location from Harris' Battery position |
After capturing Harris’s BTRY, a confederate brigade led by BG St. John R Liddell (5th,6th,7th,8th AR and Swett’s MS BTRY) moved up to support advancing southern
units. Night was falling as Liddell’s men moved forward, they fired upon by a dark
line of soldiers. Cries of “You are firing
upon friends; For God’s sake stop” were heard. Liddell’s men
ceased fire MG Leonidas Polk rode forward to investigate this possible instance of
friendly fire.
Polk immediately found the Colonel of the
mysterious regiment and asked why he was firing upon friends. The colonel replied “I don’t think they
are friends.” This man was COL Squire Keith of
the 22nd IN. Polk
then realized that he was within enemy lines.
He continued to pretend he was a union officer and rode down the line
shouting to the federal troops to “cease fire”. He quickly turned his horse and headed back
to the confederate line and ordered his men to attack. The casualties for the 22nd IN were horrific, nearly 70%
casualties including COL Keith KIA.
Union reinforcements
commanded by COL Michael Gooding arrived and suffered 33%
casualties. With night falling Polk called off the attack. LTG Bragg
realized that he had won tactically but had only faced one-third of MG Don
Carlos Buell’s Army of the Ohio. Buell
still had 2 fresh corps that he could commit the next day. Bragg
withdrew from the field in silence that night.
 |
| Merchant's Row these are original 1862 structures |
Brigade (21st, 38th IL, 101 OH, 15th WI and 2 sections of the 2nd MN BTRY commanded by LT Richard L Dawley drove the confederates from the edge to Perryville and to the Chaplin River along Merchants Row. The Confederates fought a delaying action to allow the retreat.
I drove to along the Old
Springfield Road to the vicinity of and
the supposed site of the Buell’s HQ – the Dorsey House is no longer there, nor is a state
marker. I also located Peter’s Hill – it
is not inside the park.
The weather was perfect - I could have stayed another day or two.
Dinner at Applebee’s in Danville – must be under the same management as those in Orlando – truly a downward trend for Applebee’s.
WEDNESDAY
– SEPTEMBER 28, 2022
WEATHER: 37 degrees in
Danville, KY at 0700 EDT
HURRICANE IAN (CAT IV) HITS FORT MYERS, FL
TRAVEL: Hampton Inn, Danville, KY – Bulleit Distillery, Shelbyville, KY – Burlington, WI
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| Welcome Center |
This was a little difficult to find – the GPS on my vehicle took me to an address about ¾ mile down the road – I wasn’t the only one who was taken to the wrong address. Using Google Maps on my phone brought me to the right place. It’s in the middle of somewhere.
 |
| Distillery built by Diageo Beverage Co (London) in 2014 |
Thomas decided to open Bulleit Distilling Company to pay
homage to the unique blend of their family recipe. The distillery uses high-quality grains and
pure limestone filtered water; the mash is fermented, distilled, and aged in
new charred oak barrels. Bulleit Bourbon is aged for 6 years. Bulleit Bourbon is a high rye bourbon whiskey that contains 68%
corn, 4% malted barley, and 28% rye. Bourbon needs to aged in charred barrels for
at least two years. The guide indicated
that Bulleit uses Char One in its barrel’s
Apparently, Thomas Bulleit sold to Seagram’s. The Seagram Company Ltd (which traded as Seagram's) was a Canadian multinational Conglomerate formerly headquartered in Montreal Quebec. Originally a distiller based in Waterloo, Onatrio, it was once (in the 1990s) the largest owner of alcoholic beverage lines in the world.
 |
| After Mashing and Fermentation comes Distillation The still at the right is a model of the 3 story still on the other side of the glass |
Toward the end of its independent existence, it also controlled various entertainment and other business ventures. Its purchase of MCA Inc. whose assets included Universal Studios and its theme parks, was financed through the sale of Seagram's 25% holding of chemical company DU Pont , a position it acquired in 1981. Seagram later imploded, with its beverage assets wholesaled off to various industry titans, notably Diageo, Infinium Spirits, and Pernod Ricard. Universal's television holdings were sold to media entrepreneur Barry Diller, and the balance of the Universal entertainment empire and what was Seagram was sold to French conglomerate Vivendiin 2000.
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| Tasting and smelling all to get a "Kentucky Hug" - that warm feeling after you take a shot of bourbon |
The
tour was through the new distillery, viewed from behind glass windows. The tasting consisted of 3 kinds of Bulleit – green
label, orange label (rye) and single barrel.
I almost passed this up, I’m glad I didn’t.
 |
| Finished the 'old' Kentucky Bourbon Trail |
This also completes the original Bourbon Trail passport program. See the detail explained on Monday August 1, 2022 for more information. The original passport, sponsored by the Kentucky Distiller Association asks you to mail the passport to Kentucky Bourbon Trail, 838 High Street, Suite 165, Louisville, KY. They indicate they will mail a souvenir t-shirt and return your passport. I just may try that. And so I did and the passport and was returned as 'undeliverable'..
I thought this was going to end my travels in
2022 but I decided to walk the Mammoth Challenge 2022 for the Ice Age
Trail. Continue to follow
SUNDAY
– OCTOBER 2, 2022
WEATHER: 49 degrees at 0700,
clear with low fog, 61 by noon partly sunny, breeze in open spaces from the
north
TRAVEL: Burlington – Janesville – Milton - Burlington
MAMMOTH HIKE CHALLENGE 2022
Hike, walk, run, or backpack 42 miles on the Ice Age Trail during the month of October 2022 and visit 3 Trail Communities to earn a hiking certificate and a limited-edition patch:
NEW THIS YEAR:
Visit an additional Trail
Community = 10 bonus miles
Attend a Mammoth Hike
Challenge event = 10 bonus miles
The new rules enticed me to take the ‘challenge’ this year’. I walked 40+ miles in October 2020 and did not participate in 2021 – golf was taking a priority – golf still will still be a priority, but the bonus miles will save me time – perhaps a total 3 days on the trail.
Ice Age Trail Facts:
·
The
Trail is managed by a partnership among the National Park Service, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and the Ice Age Trail Alliance.
·
The
Ice Age Trail is open for hiking, backpacking and
snowshoeing. Many segments support cross-country skiing, too.
·
The
Trail is not yet complete. More than 600 miles are
yellow-blazed Ice Age Trail segments, and more than
500 miles of unmarked connecting routes link the blazed segments. The entire
route is about 1,200 miles long.
·
The Trail’s western terminus is in Interstate State Park in St. Croix Falls, Polk County. It overlooks
the St. Croix River and our neighbors in
Minnesota.
·
The
Trail’s eastern terminus is in Potawatomi State Park in Sturgeon Bay, Door
County.
·
The
Ice Age Trail is built and maintained largely by
volunteers.
·
Most
of the blazed Ice Age Trail Segments fit hikers’ ideas of a
traditional, off-road hiking experience. Some segments, however, lead hikers
right down the main streets of Wisconsin communities. This is by design – the Ice Age Trail is meant to connect people and communities.
·
Thirteen
municipalities (with more joining each year) have chosen recognition as an Ice Age Trail Community, underscoring the Trail’s
positive economic impact, locally. Together, the Ice Age Trail Alliance and Trail Communities promote the unique qualities that make the Trail, and the community it travels through, a
meaningful destination.
·
The
Trail occasionally coincides with state bike
trails – biking is allowed on these sections only. Horseback riding is not
permitted. Motorized vehicles are not
permitted (with the exception of just a few segments that share state multi-use
trails).
·
The
Ice Age Trail began in the 1950s as the dream of
Milwaukeean Ray Zillmer, who had a vision of a long, linear park winding
through Wisconsin along the glacier’s terminal moraine.
·
The
Trail crosses over many ownership types, including
private land, city parks, state parks, county forests and national forest.
·
The
Trail travels through 30 counties.
·
One
of the goals of the Ice Age Trail Alliance
is to permanently protect
the route of the Ice Age Trail. Every year, we purchase land with privately
donated funds and grants from government partners to get closer to achieving
this goal. The State of Wisconsin also acquires land for the
Trail through its Knowles-Nelson
Stewardship Program.
MAMMOTH HIKE CHALENGE 2022 October 2, 2022
Janesville to Milton
Segment OUT & BACK
START 0905 Janesville Segment near Walmart (E Rotamer Rd & Tanglewood Dr) END 1030 Milton Segment (E Vincent & W High Street) 3.6 miles Return to 1200 Janesville Segment near Walmart 3.6 miles
TOTAL 7.2 miles
Average pace 2.5 mph. Carried black backpack, sandwich, water, 1st aid kit, rain poncho, pepper spray, pullover windbreaker, map of IAT segment, forgot insect repellent. Long pants, t shirt and long sleeve t shirt. Removed long sleeve t-shirt around 1030. I last hiked this segment of the trail on October, 24, 2018.
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| This indicates where I started and headed north. You Are Here is where the trail begins to follow the old Chicago & Northwestern ROW |
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| This is what the trail looks like following the Chicago & Northwestern Right-of-Way |
a footbridge over Highway 26 (Milton Ave) and north along NW Rotamer Rd. This is pitted outwash that the glacier deposited during its retreat from an earlier Johnstown advance. The trail veers off the road along an abandoned right-of-way for the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad. This route along NW Rotamer Rd descends into tunnel channel. The tunnel channel carried a large flow of glacial meltwater from beneath the ice and was the source of much of the sand and gravel beneath the outwash plain that surrounds Janesville today. The walk along the right-of -way is fairly level. However, the elevation from the bottom of the tunnel channel rises from a low of 830 feet just south of Monogue Rd to over 900 feet at the position of the former ice margin. Just like on my return route when I came back to NW Rotamer Rd the water under pressure was flowing uphill in the tunnel channel as it approached the ice edge. When I started, I didn’t realize the walk was downhill until I returned.
TUNNEL CHANNEL: Deep under glacial ice, rivers shaped the
landscape. Subglacial rivers cut into
the underlying glacial bed, forming tunnel channels that remain today. In Wisconsin, such channels occur only along
the outermost edge of the late Wisconsin advance, where they cut through the
moraines and end in large alluvial fans.
The channel bottoms rise and fall in elevation along their length, indicating
that water carrying the sediment through the tunnels was under considerable
pressure. In many areas, the tunnels are
partly filled with hummocky and gravel and in some places eskers. Are present
along their floors. The hummocky
deposits and eskers formed after the actual channel, when the ice warmed and
the sediment collapsed into the tunnel from above as the overlying debris rich
ice melted.
 |
| This is a Leopold Bench - built by volunteers and placed along the trail as a rest stop There were at least seven of these along the old Chicago & Northwestern ROW They are few and far between in the northern segments of the trail where you can really appreciate a place to rest |
THURSDAY – OCTOBER 6, 2022
WEATHER: 51 degrees sunny
and clear at 0700; 56 at 8 am; high of 66 and cloudy at 1100 – by noon rain was
in the air.
TRAVEL: Burlington – Hwy 12 IAT Trailhead - Whitewater - Whitewater Lake - Burlington
ICE AGE TRAIL
MAMMOTH HIKE CHALLENGE 2022
WHITEWATER LAKE SEGMENT
START 0810 Whitewater Lake Segment STH 12 trailhead
END 1005 Leopold Bench at
Whitewater Lake lookout 4.0 miles
Return to 1210 Whitewater Lake Segment STH 12 trailhead 4.0 miles
TOTAL 8.0 miles
 |
| The trailhead at US 12 is in the upper right hand corner |
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| Whitewater Segment of the Ice Age Trail |
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| Looking north from the IAT to Whitewater - the ancient bed of Glacial Lake Scuppernong |
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| IAT near the Hwy 12 |
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| IAT moraine rocks |
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| Since the IAT follows moraines - much of the trail is R&R 'roots & rocks' lots of places to trip |
From the STH 12 trailhead, the trail goes west following the Green Bay Lobe edge of theKettle Moraine. The Kettle Moraine is basically where the Green Bayand Lake Michigan Lobes met. This is high relief hummocky topography (step slopes and deep depressions) a lot of ups and downs - hills. The low area to the west is the bed of glacial Lake Scuppernong. The trail descends south into high pitted outwash to Easterly Rd. Although the plain is quite flat – it is over 100 feet higher than the flat surface of glacial Lake Scuppernong.
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| This is the flat part of the IAT near Easterly Road where the trail is relatively flat pitted outwash |
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| Occasionally the high relief hummocky topography gives way to a pleasant walk through a pine plantation |
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| This is a view of Whitewater Lake from atop a Leopold Bench |
topography and crosses an esker before crossing CTH P. This esker appears to connect to another running down the center of Whitewater Lake. West of CTH P the trail runs into another broad esker. Water in the glacial tunnels in which the eskers formed flowed to the southwest. The depressions that hold Whitewater and Rice Lakes are kettles, but both lakes are held at their present levels by dams built in the mid 20th century. Before the dams, Whitewater Lake was actually two small lakes separated by a wetland. Rice Lake was a wetland.
MONDAY
– OCTOBER 10, 2022
WEATHER: 49 and sunny at 8
am, 57 and sunny at 11 am
TRAVEL: Burlington –- UW Filed Station parking Waterville – Delafield -Burlington
MAMMOTH HIKE CHALLENGE 2022
Waterville/Lapham Peak Segment
START 0821 Lapham Peak Segment UW
Field Station parking
END 01010 CTH D Waterville
Segment 4.0
miles
Return to Waterville Segment 1121 UW Field Station parking 4.0
miles
TOTAL 8.0 miles
Average pace 2.7. mph. Carried black backpack, water, 1st aid kit, rain poncho, pullover windbreaker, map of IAT segment, insect repellent. Long pants, t shirt and long sleeve t shirt. I last hiked this segment of the trail on May 4, 2018. The long sleeve shirt t-shirt came off at 9 am.
 |
| Waterville Segment |
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| Waterville Segment CTH D |
outwash on Waterville Road. The connector from the Lapham Peak Segment is Waterville Road, which is on pitted outwash and till between the two segments. Unlike much of the trail in this area, the Waterville Segment is west (Green Bay Lobe side) of the Kettle Moraine. The landscape lacks the high relief hummocky topography that is in the Kettle Moraine to the east. Instead, another geologic feature stands out: from Waterville Road, the trail rises across a little pitted outwash, then onto till, to the edge of the Niagara Escarpment. There it follows the crest of more than 100 foot high, steep slope. There are small outcrops of dolomite near the top of the slope. Where the trail approaches CTH D, the escarpment is interrupted by a valley that may be a preglacial valley later reoccupied by a meltwater stream.
THURSDAY – OCTOBER 13, 2022
WEATHER: 43 at 0900 mostly
sunny, wind from the west; 46 at 1130 mostly cloudy, rain clouds starting to appear
TRAVEL: Burlington –- Delafield Park & Ride (I-94 & STH 83) -Burlington
MAMMOTH HIKE CHALLENGE 2022
Delafield Segment
START 0925 Delafield Segment I-94
& STH 83
END 1035 Lapham Peak Segment I-94 & N Cushing Pk Rd 3.5 miles
Return to Delafield Segment 1140 UI94 & STH 83 3.5
miles
TOTAL 7.0 miles
 |
| Cushing Park Road - 1LT Alonzo Cushing, was Commander of Battery A, 4th US Artillery at Gettysburg. He was a graduate of West Point and died defending the Union line against the Picket/Trimble/Pettigrew Charge on July 3, 1863. His family lived in Delafield. |
 |
| Most of this trail follows WEPCO ROW now a bike trail in Waukesha County |
Average pace 3.0 mph. Carried black backpack, water, 1st aid kit, rain poncho, pullover windbreaker, pullover t-shirt, hat. Long pants, t shirt and long sleeve t shirt pullover hooded sweatshirt, cap. I last hiked this segment of the trail on June 8, 2018. The long sleeve t-shirt t-shirt came off at 9:55 am.
The STH 83 terminus of
the IAT is on the floor of an abandoned river
channel. This mostly dry channel was the outlet for a
high level of Pewaukee Lake when ice dammed the east end of the lake. Water flowed to the south through the
channel, which crosses I-94 at the intersection with STH 83. Much of the channel at this location is now occupied by a shopping center. This was called the Ethan Allen Channel. The trail then climbs out of the channel and
crosses a hummocky gravel upland. Numerous shallow kettles are present. This
upland is the Kettle Moraine and it sits right on top of the Niagara Escarpment. Green Bay
lobe drumlins are in the west. Throughout he City of Delafield the trail
crosses outwash that is collapsed in places.
 |
| Here the IAT goes through the Wisconsin Veterans Memorial Riverwalk A very pleasant walk any time of year, explaining our nations wars and the honoring the soldiers who fought in them |
 |
| An easy segment - mostly level - bike trail paved - - only a part of it on Cushing Park Road |
SATURDAY – OCTOBER 15, 2022
WEATHER: a pleasant day
TRAVEL: Burlington – Kenosha - Burlington
On Saturday October 15, 2022 I returned to the Kenosha Civil War Museum for the Great Lakes Civil War Forum. I met many friends and acquaintances from the Milwaukee and Chicago Civil War Roundtables as well as some others.
UPPER MIDWEST EXPERIENCE
The Great Lakes Civil War Forum
Where the Fight Was Thickest:
The Campaigns of the Iron Brigade of the
West
September 14, 1862 - Dr. Brian Matthew Jordan
On Sunday September 14, 1862, the Army of the Potomac notched three hard earned victories in the rugged passes of South Mountain. One of the most inspiring moment of this first major combat of the Antietam Campaign involved a brigade of hearty Midwesterners, who ascending the old National Pike, forced Turner’s Gap.
Brian Jordon – an academic from Texas – good presentation. “A deadly game of Bo-Peep” is a quote from Rufus Dawes, who was LTC of the 6th Wisconsin at South Mountain.
 |
| The Bloody Cornfield by Keith Rocco September 17, 1862 |
Whoever Stood in front of the Corn Field at Antietam Needs no Praise: The Black Hat Brigade at Antietam - Scott D. Hartwig
The Battle of Antietam was not the costliest battle the western brigade of BG John Gibbon fought in the war, but for those who experienced its ferocity it was an unforgettable experience that no one who survived it ever wanted to repeat. Nearly a year later, Rufus Dawes of the 6th Wisconsin, would write that he dreaded the very thought of the Antietam.
Scott Hartwig is a former ranger and historian at Gettysburg Military Park. “Whoever stood in front of the corn field at Antietam needs no praise” is also a quote from Rufus Dawes. He provided a good detailed explanation of the Iron Brigade’s attack and the Texas Brigade counterattack in the cornfield. As well and paying attention to the fact that artillery opened the battle and dominated much of it.
Boys, We Must Hold Our Colors on This
Line of Lie Here Under Them –
Phil Spaugy
The 19th Indiana is probably the least know of the Iron Brigade Regiments. The veterans of the 19th had no authors such as Mickey Sullivan, Rufus Dawes, Jerome Watrous, or George Otis to write their regimental history. But the other men who wore the Black Hats remembered them well. Jerome Watrous of the 6th Wisconsin recalled, “The 19th Indiana Regiment became know as the “Ole Posey County” or “Swamp Hogs No. 19” and “every man of them did not care a goll darn how he was dressed, but all hell for a fight.”
The 19th Indiana brought 339 men to Gettysburg and by the end of July 1 had lost 27 killed, 133 wounded and 50 missing. He ended with some explanation that of the Dan Troiani print “The Black Hat Brigade” and the uncasing of the colors.
 |
| "The Black Hats" - 19th Indiana at Gettysburg July 1, 1863 |
Nineteenth Indiana was on the left with the Twenty-fourth Michigan, Seventh Wisconsin and Second Wisconsin extending the line to the north. The Sixth Wisconsin was detached and posted elsewhere. The Union line was outnumbered and overlapped
By
mid-afternoon, the outnumbered Hoosiers were fighting for their lives, bending
back under a heavy flank fire, and disappearing “like dew before the morning
sun.” The Nineteenth Indiana carried two flags—a blue regimental
presented by the ladies of Indianapolis and a national color requisitioned when
a complementary national flag from 1861 was retired. Sgt. Burlington
Cunningham, already once wounded, was carrying the national banner when hit
a second time. Nearby, Color Corporal Abe Buckles also went down. Lieutenant
Colonel William Dudley grabbed the national flag and was shot in the right
shin—a wound that would cost him his leg. In the noise and smoke, Sgt. Maj.
Asa Blanchard came up to take the flag, saying: “Colonel, you shouldn’t
have done this. That was my duty. I shall never forgive myself for letting you
touch that flag.” Eight Indiana color bearers were now down and half the
regiment killed or wounded.
Under
heavy fire from two advancing Confederate brigades, the Indiana flag—now in the
hands of another man—fell yet again. Before Blanchard could reach it,
however, Color Corporal David Phipps, who was carrying the Indiana
regimental, scooped up the fallen national and was waving it with one hand.
Then Phipps was wounded and fell on both flags. “The flag is down!”
someone shouted and Captain William W. Macy yelled to a nearby private
to “Go and get it!” “Go to hell, I won’t do it,” said the soldier.
Macy, Lieutenant Crockett East, and Color
Corporal Burr Clifford rolled Phipps off the flags. Aware the bright silk
was attracting bullets, East furled the banner and got it into its case
and was trying to wrap the tassels when he was shot and killed. Macy and
Clifford finally got the two flags in the cases only to be confronted by
an angry Blanchard, who demanded the flags. “No, there’s been enough men shot
down with it,” said Macy, but Blanchard appealed to Colonel Samuel J.
Williams and the colonel told Macy to turn over the flags. In a
swirl of bullets, Blanchard stubbornly unfurled the national colors and
tied the case around his waist, calling in a loud voice “Rally boys!” He was
waving it when a bullet severed an artery in his thigh and he fell in a gush of
blood, dying almost immediately. Clifford then picked up the national
color and made a run for the town and safety.
The Iron Brigade line was soon swept away and the surviving Black
Hats made their way through Gettysburg to the Federal rally point on Cemetery
Hill.
The four years of Civil War cast a long shadow over the surviving veterans of the Iron Brigade. At first, they were too busy getting on with their lives and id not to give much thought of their days in uniform. But the years passed and soon they were caught up in an overwhelming need to think of soldier days, seek out old comrades, and reflect on what had been accomplished. They called their reunions “Camp-Fires” and the written accounts comprised much fo what is known today of the Iron Brigade. Writers and researchers delight in finding these accounts, but often use only small segments after making decisions on their historical value. The accounts themselves were often softened to spare readers, yet they hint at the truth of the war experience and provide an important glimpse of hwo the war and its memory affected the veterans and their families.
Lance is an old friend . . . . . after the death of Alan Nolan, Lance is most likely ‘the authority’ on the Iron Brigade. Not an academic, but an editor for Associated Press by trade, I’ve known him since the early 90’s and invited him to speak at events for the 1-126th FA and 57th FA Brigade.
WEDNESDAY
– OCTOBER 19, 2022
WEATHER: 36 degrees at 1045,
41 degrees at 1245, partly cloudy, brisk wind from the northwest
TRAVEL: Burlington – CTH N Eagle Segment of the IAT - Burlington
 |
| This sign is on Hwy 59 |
ICE AGE TRAIL
MAMMOTH HIKE CHALLENGE 2022
Eagle Segment
START 1045 Eagle Segment CTH N parking
END 1145 Brady’s’ Rocks 2.7
miles
Return to 1245 Eagle Segment CTH N parking 2.7 miles
TOTAL 5.4 miles
Average pace 2.7 mph. Carried black backpack, water, 1st aid kit, rain poncho, pullover windbreaker, extra long sleeved t-shirt, map of IAT segment. Wore long pants, t shirt, long sleeve t shirt, hooded sweatshirt and cap. I last hiked this segment of the trail on June 6, 2018 – most of it was in the rain.
 |
| View to the northwest - the bed of glacial Lake Scuppernong |
 |
| Eagle Segment |
This segment of the IAT starts on pitted outwash at
CTH N and going north crosses the lakebed of glacial Lake Scuppernong. Brady’s
Rocks, is an outcrop of the
Silurian Dolomite that was mined in the 1880’s.
There is a significant difference between the angular limestone of the
bedrock and the very rounded erratics left by the glacier. This is right on the edge of the Niagara Escarpment. The Kettle Moraine is to the east sitting on
top of the Niagara Escarpment.
 |
| Brady's Rocks - slabs of dolomite, bedrock - round boulders are glacial erratics |
 |
| IAT Mammoth Challenge 2022 Patch |
MAMMOTH HIKE CHALLENGE 2022
OCT 02 Janesville to Milton Segment 7.2
OCT 08 Whitewater Lake Segment 8.0
OCT 10 Waterville Segment 8.0
OCT 13 Delafield Segment 7.0
OCT 19 Eagle Segment 5.4
IAT Trail Communities:
1 Janesville, 2 Milton, 3 Whitewater 35.6 miles
IAT Trail Community 4
Delafield 10.0
bonus miles
45.6
TOTAL MILES
 |
| Mammoth Challenge 2022 |
MAMMOTH CHALLENGE 2022 - MISSION COMPLETE
This should complete my entries for 2022. I’m tempted to just close the blog. However, next year starts off with a cruise from San Diego along the Mexican Riviera through the Panama Canal and ends in Fort Lauderdale. That should complete any of my cruising ambitions . . . . . Who knows what the rest of 2023 will hold?
.jpg) |
| Christmas 2022 |
posted by David Gapinski @ 9:49 AM
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