Well, this is my final blog posting on Blogger. Chris has the new website up and all my blolg entries have been transferred over to it. I will now be posting through the website. Sorry about that. But, to make it easy for you, just click on the link and it will take you to the website and presto...the blog continues. Isn't technology amazing? Here is the link. Be sure to sign up for the newsletter.
www.rickwalksamerica.com
Sunday, September 16, 2007
Sunday, September 9, 2007
Dead Presidents Tour II
Well, here it is Sunday night again. As befitting the previous titled DPT from about 6 weeks ago, here is a Presidential trivia question. Who is the only President to be buried in the city of Washington, DC? Another hint: we are still in Virginia. Valda & I went to Staunton (pronounced Stanton) VA this weekend and visited the Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library, Museum and Birthplace. It made the 12th Presidential locale we have been to. It is always fascinating seeing where and how they lived. WW was born in Staunton and only lived there for a year, but his roots are there and so is his Library. It is a pretty unassuming home compared to some we've seen, but it has its place in history, and the town seems to really support that fact.
Later on Saturday, we drove on the Skyline Drive in the Shenandoah NP. Drove about 60 miles or so but was disappointed in the scenery. The air was thick with haze and the views were not up to what we've seen elsewhere. I guess Al Gore might be on to something.
Sunday we got up and went to see James Madison's Montpelier near Orange, VA. For those of you who have been there before, the organization that owns Montpelier started a complete restoration of the home back to the time the JM died there, 1836. They have removed all the additions to the house by the duPont Family (additions that tripled the size of the house that Madison built), and have completely gutted the inside. It wasn't quite what we expected, but the tour was fascinating in its own right. The outside is pretty much complete, but there is a lot of landscaping yet to be done. They expect to be completed in two years. I'll have to go back. He made Presidential locale # 13.
I doubt we'll get up to see Mount Vernon. It's about 250 miles away and we are running out of weekends. Maybe another time. Okay, the answer to the trivia question is Woodrow Wilson, or as his mother knew him, Thomas Wilson. He dropped his first name for some unknown reason when he went to college. He is buried in the National Cathedral, and no, JFK is buried in Arlington Cemetery...in Virginia.
Later on Saturday, we drove on the Skyline Drive in the Shenandoah NP. Drove about 60 miles or so but was disappointed in the scenery. The air was thick with haze and the views were not up to what we've seen elsewhere. I guess Al Gore might be on to something.
Sunday we got up and went to see James Madison's Montpelier near Orange, VA. For those of you who have been there before, the organization that owns Montpelier started a complete restoration of the home back to the time the JM died there, 1836. They have removed all the additions to the house by the duPont Family (additions that tripled the size of the house that Madison built), and have completely gutted the inside. It wasn't quite what we expected, but the tour was fascinating in its own right. The outside is pretty much complete, but there is a lot of landscaping yet to be done. They expect to be completed in two years. I'll have to go back. He made Presidential locale # 13.
I doubt we'll get up to see Mount Vernon. It's about 250 miles away and we are running out of weekends. Maybe another time. Okay, the answer to the trivia question is Woodrow Wilson, or as his mother knew him, Thomas Wilson. He dropped his first name for some unknown reason when he went to college. He is buried in the National Cathedral, and no, JFK is buried in Arlington Cemetery...in Virginia.
Saturday, September 1, 2007
Nowhere to hide...
A coincidence happened a couple of weeks ago and got me to thinking about some things that I've experienced over the years, things that are hard to explain. We met some friends, Pam & JR Rodgers from Meridian, MS about 5 years ago when we were both in the campground in Chattanooga, TN. They were there for an extended period and so were we. Anyway, our paths have separated but have crossed from time to time. We've visited them in Mississippi and email and phone talk once in a while. Pam emailed us recently and said she recognized a name in our blog, Gene & Betty Cusano, whom we met in December 2005 at Walt Disney World. The two couples were a part of a 5 or 6 couple group who spent several weeks in the desert of Quartzite, AZ a few years ago. They sort of fell out of touch and were reunited through my blog. Amazing.
Back in 1995, our son Chris was in the midst of a year long stay in India. He had been there several months, and had gone there from Chicago. He lived with a couple of other Americans guys and they got wind of a party for some newly arriving people from the US, and somehow connived an invitation to that party. At the party, Chris was chatting with a girl he didn't know and the talk got around to where are you from, etc. She informed him that she was from Chicago. A few minutes later, Chris found out that she was the sister of a friend of his from Loyola U., a person that Chris sold some of his furniture to before he left Chicago. It turned out that the TV that Chris sold was in the bedroom of the young lady he was talking to in India. Go figure.
Back in the nineties, before Valda & I left Indiana, I was at a lumber yard in Greenwood, IN. There was an older couple at the counter inquiring about a former manager of the place from fifteen years previous. The sales clerk didn't know anything about the former manager, but I did. He and his wife and Valda & I spent time together before they left for Austin, TX. I told the couple what I knew about the whereabouts of the manager and in doing so, my name got tossed around in the conversation. The man asked me if I had any relatives in Florida, specifically Orlando, FL. I told him I had a brother, Keith who lived just outside of Orlando. It turned out that this man built homes in FL and that my brother did his interior trim work on those houses. Amazing.
There's other stories that I'll touch on later. It just goes to show that it doesn't matter where you are or how far away you go, there could be and often times is a link somewhere to your past. It is interesting to know this, and sometimes a bit unnerving to experience it. But it's fun to talk about.
Back in 1995, our son Chris was in the midst of a year long stay in India. He had been there several months, and had gone there from Chicago. He lived with a couple of other Americans guys and they got wind of a party for some newly arriving people from the US, and somehow connived an invitation to that party. At the party, Chris was chatting with a girl he didn't know and the talk got around to where are you from, etc. She informed him that she was from Chicago. A few minutes later, Chris found out that she was the sister of a friend of his from Loyola U., a person that Chris sold some of his furniture to before he left Chicago. It turned out that the TV that Chris sold was in the bedroom of the young lady he was talking to in India. Go figure.
Back in the nineties, before Valda & I left Indiana, I was at a lumber yard in Greenwood, IN. There was an older couple at the counter inquiring about a former manager of the place from fifteen years previous. The sales clerk didn't know anything about the former manager, but I did. He and his wife and Valda & I spent time together before they left for Austin, TX. I told the couple what I knew about the whereabouts of the manager and in doing so, my name got tossed around in the conversation. The man asked me if I had any relatives in Florida, specifically Orlando, FL. I told him I had a brother, Keith who lived just outside of Orlando. It turned out that this man built homes in FL and that my brother did his interior trim work on those houses. Amazing.
There's other stories that I'll touch on later. It just goes to show that it doesn't matter where you are or how far away you go, there could be and often times is a link somewhere to your past. It is interesting to know this, and sometimes a bit unnerving to experience it. But it's fun to talk about.
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