From the beginning of the summer, and not by design, it turns out that every month has featured an adventurous trip with friends. This month was a Sunday afternoon ride on the brand new Great Sauk State Trail with my friend Zach. The Great Sauk State Trail is, I think, Wisconsin’s newest Rails-to-Trails installment. It starts in downtown Sauk City.
I graduated from high school in 1969, 50 years ago. That summer, because I had some classroom experience operating 16mm film projectors, I was invited to the Class of 39’s 30-year reunion at a local restaurant, to show home movies of my hometown filmed in 1939. I remember how ancient those scenes looked with the vintage pre-WWII automobiles, etc. Now here it is 50 years later and it seems, in some ways, like I just graduated a few years ago. But, in truth, a half century has passed since we walked the hallowed halls of our high school. It was time for a trip back in time, to our 50-year high school reunion.
The trip began on a beautiful summer day. I took a detour for a first-time visit to Husher Wayside Park, with its beautiful vistas along highway 131 between Wauzeka and Steuben.
Another adventure vacation began with the chance to see one of the biggest steam trains of twentieth century history. The Union Pacific recently restored this behemoth, known as Big Boy and built in 1941, and sent it on tour across the Midwest to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the completion of the Transcontinental Railway.
This adventure reminded me of my childhood home, a block from the tracks in Prairie du Chien. Every year or so we would be visited by a steam engine. You could hear its distinctive whistle miles away. (more…)
This year’s visit by granddaughter Eden wasn’t quite as ambitious as a year ago. We had two places we wanted to visit: a farm and a fair.
Just outside of Madison, the folks at Sassy Cow Creamery offer tours of a real, working, modern, dairy farm.
Danielle got married on July 4 on a farm in Richland County. Danielle became a part of Keith’s family several decades ago, grew up, went out on her own, and eventually came to this place. That’s a story for another day, today is a day to celebrate.
Ever since Sara and Ryan moved to Virginia in 2010 I have wanted to spend a week of vacation enjoying the history and natural beauty of their part of Virginia. Since then there’s been a number of visits but finally this June I was able to spend a whole week and start to get acquainted with Shenandoah.
In my cross-country seven state sojourn on a Saturday in early June, I could only recall seeing two farmers out working in their fields. Listening to Orion Samuelson’s early morning farm show on WGN radio, I heard that farmers are facing a tough summer with rain, flooding, and a tariff-war drying up overseas markets. I did see a lot of standing water in many midwest farm fields. It’s going to be a tough year.
An invitation to join an 8-mile hike gave me a chance to visit two of the gems of the Driftless region in Sauk County.
Been trying to get to Pewit’s Nest, a small natural area west of Baraboo for about a decade, ever since I first learned about it.
After commuting on bike for several months it was finally time for a two-wheel excursion, breakfast with my friends Larry and Jeff in McFarland.
The UW arboretum is always beautiful in the early morning.
Silent Sentinels
I planned my first road trip of 2019 for what turned out to be the weekend of the last snow storm of 2019. The forecasts sounded ominous but it looked like I could avoid the worst of it as I headed north. The snow and rain turned out to be pretty spotty and not all that heavy at all. This photo was taken on highway 56 along a ridge west of Viroqua.
For our third and final day in Jerusalem, we once again made our way in the early morning to the Temple Mount.
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