Sharing photos, videos, vintage images I've discovered, and -- occasionally -- commentary and thoughts from retired life and travels.

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Great Falls, Montana

September 9, 2011

September 1st and 2nd, 2007

The music is “Back to Back” by Whitey Morgan and the 78’s, YouTube audioswap.

While we had been here before, in 2001, we had just been passing through on our way to Glacier National Park and had made reservations at a hotel in Great Falls for one night.

In 2007, though, Great Falls was a destination for a family visit.  A brother, his wife and two sons were living there.

While visiting with family, we also saw some of what is left of the falls, went to a farmers’ market, saw an autocross competition, visited Giant Spring State Park, spent a little time at a horse auction and stopped at the Lewis & Clark National Historic Trail Interpretive Center.

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References for Great Falls:

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Nebraska – A Ranch in the Sandhills

August 7, 2011

Just over a quarter of Nebraska is mixed grass prairie on grass-stabilized sand dunes, referred to locally as the sandhills. It is the largest area of sand dunes in the western hemisphere.

In 2007, we visited a relative’s ranch in the sandhills, a place of fond memories for me.  The accompanying video was produced from pictures from that visit.

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Black Belt!

May 14, 2011

Our grandson just finished his testing in karate for first level black belt.

He will be 11 next month and has been in karate for 4 years.

He gets his black belt in an award ceremony tomorrow near where he lives in Wisconsin.  Karen is up there visiting – which was arranged some time ago to coincide with this event.

I wish I could be there with Karen to visit our daughter, son-in-law, granddaughter, and grandson, but I have classes to teach.

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2007 Travel Journal — Madison, Wisconsin, June 10th

March 29, 2011

Note: This “lost” Haw Creek Out ‘n About post was recovered from the Internet Archive WayBack Machine.

2007-00736(Click on any of the thumbnail images for larger versions of the photos)

We got a little bit of a late start on June 10th, a Sunday, when we headed for Madison for a picnic and a hike. It was a beautiful day and I was skeptical that we would be able to find an empty table at a park in the city. We were following our daughter, Jessica, and son-in-law, Shane — the grand-kids were with us. Since we had never been in Madison before, and didn’t have a clue where they were heading, it could have been very interesting. However, Shane drove slow so the “old man” following him — me! — could keep up and we ended up finding a table at Tenny Park, a small park near Lake Mendota on the Madison isthmus.

After the grand-kids were done playing following lunch, we headed out again. I really didn’t have a clue where we were going and, for a while wasn’t sure Shane did either. However, before long, we stopped at a University of Wisconsin gardens.

2007-00737The Allen Centennial Gardens are open daily from dawn to dusk and there is no entrance fee. The gardens serves as a 2.5 acre outdoor classroom for the Department of Horticulture. Allen Centennial Gardens is centered around a beautiful Victorian gothic house known by several names, including “the Agricultural Dean’s Residence.” One of the first buildings on the agricultural campus, the house served as residence for the first four deans. Today it is home for the offices of the Agricultural Research Stations.

Allen Centennial Gardens was dedicated in October 1989. It was designed to compliment the house and existing plantings, including a larch tree planted in 1899. (See more at the Allen Centennial Garden web site.)

2007-007392007-00741From the gardens, we walked past Porter Boathouse to the shore of Lake Mendota and took a pedestrian/bicycle path along the shore over to Memorial Union. Round trip, we walked a little under 2 miles. It was a nice stroll through the woods along the lake. There were a lot of other folks out walking, running, and bicycling.

Memorial Union is one of two buildings that comprise the Wisconsin Union. The other is Union South, located in another area of this very large campus. The Union is the “social, cultural, and recreational center of campus” and “serves as a daily gathering place for students, faculty, staff, community members, and visitors.”

The 19th annual Isthmus Jazz Fest was in it’s last few hours on the Memorial Union Terrace on Lake Mendota when we got there. We stopped inside for some ice cream and then went down by the lake with the grandkids while Professor Les Thimmig was playing the sax.

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Note: This “lost” Haw Creek Out ‘n About post was recovered from the Internet Archive WayBack Machine.

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A long, sad week

March 25, 2011

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While in a meeting on Monday, I received a call on my cell from my niece in Norfolk, Virginia.

My mom had passed away at home just a short while before.

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It’s been a long, sad week.

On the positive side, of course, we were able to spend time with family that we don’t get to see very often.

 

 

A long sad week.

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“Are you Larry?”–more about our accident–and the blogging link.

December 28, 2010

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Our car

(continued from Our accident)

I remember Karen talking to one of the EMTs like she knew him.  It turned out she did – sort of.

I think the encounter went something like this:

Karen immediately recognized one of the EMTs when she saw him through the windshield as they were coming around the front of the car.

As they started checking her over, she asked, “Are you Larry?”

Somewhat surprised, he said that he was.  When Karen told him, “I know your wife, Vivian,” he asked how she knew her.

Karen replied, “Blogging, email, quilting.”

He responded with another question, “Are you C.J. or Karen?”

Karen, C.J., and Vivian had been commenting on each others blogs for quite some time.  Last year, they met for lunch and had arranged to do it again this week – tomorrow, in fact.  Karen recognized Larry because Vivian had just posted a photo of him making Christmas breakfast.

On her blog, Karen says, “– it felt really reassuring to me even though I had never met him.  It was like I knew I was in good hands.”

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Karen is getting around a lot better today.  Her chest still hurts a lot and she has pains all over, kind of like the all over pains you get from the flu, except she doesn’t have the flu.

Yesterday, I went to the wrecker yard and got all of our stuff out of the car.  It’s seven years old and I’d be very surprised if it could be fixed for the approximate $5,000 the car is worth on Kelly Blue Book.  Unfortunately, I don’t have any of the insurance information for the driver of the other car.  It’ll be in the police report, which my insurance company is supposed to obtain.  The other driver was cited by the police officer which establishes fault for the insurance purposes.

This car was the one we towed behind our motor home, so if it’s totaled, we’ll have make sure to get a replacement that can be towed.

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