family

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.

__________

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.

Sand Hills – Wikipedia
The Nebraska Sandhills
The Sandhills – U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service
Valentine National Wildlife Refuge
Sandhills Journey Scenic Byway
The Nebraska Sandhills – Lincoln City Library: “The Nebraska Sandhills are the largest area of sand dunes in the western hemisphere. Over 50,000 square kilometers, or close to 20,000 square miles in extent (not counting some outliers), the Sandhills are fragile grasslands that are wild, sparsely settled, desolate, and beautiful in unexpected ways.”

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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.

The 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.)

2007-00741 From 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.

2007-00738

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

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.

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

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.”

———-

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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Our accident

December 26, 2010

“The coast ain’t clear, __-___”

This isn’t our car and it’s not even the same model year, but the front end of our car looks something like this.

If I had just a moment and could turn back the clock, that’s what I’d tell the person that waved the kid through.

It’s what I would tell the kid, too.

We had just seen “True Grit” at a new theater that just opened about an hour’s drive from home. On the way home, we decided to go ten miles out of the way to go out to eat.

When it happened, we were driving on a road that is two lanes in each direction with a center turning lane.

We had just gone through a traffic light as it turned yellow. The next light had just turned green and the cars stopped there had started to move. We were in the southbound lane next to the turning lane and there were fewer cars ahead of us than there were in the other southbound lane.

Just after we made it through the light that had turned yellow, a car that I hadn’t seen darted through a gap in the other lane of traffic.

They had been waved through by a driver in that lane.

“The coast ain’t clear, __-___s”

We were about three blocks from the restaurant we had decided to go to.

I hit the brakes and thought that we just might make it – but realized, just before impact, that we weren’t going to.

We hit hard, but not so hard that the air bags deployed. The impact moved us a little sideways, so that the front, driver side tire was over the yellow line of the turning lane.

Shortly after the impact, the kid backed his car back into the drive of the convenience store, clearing one lane of traffic. The __-___ driver that had waved the kid through didn’t even stop to see if anyone was hurt. The accident happened right in front of their vehicle, but they just drove off.

Our car wasn’t going any place under it’s own power.

“My chest hurts.”

Karen still had her seatbelt on.
_____________

Karen’s brother brought us home after she was released from the Emergency Room.

Karen is still hurting, but nothing is broken – according to the x-rays – and her heart is fine. She got a shot for pain at the Emergency Room and got a prescription for the same medication – something that doesn’t cause nausea.

I’m fine – no pains that I can attribute to the accident. Tomorrow may be a different story.

The car is 6 years old with quite a lot of mileage on it. It’s probably totaled. The cost of repair will probably be more than the value of the car.

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Holiday Cheer.

December 25, 2010

Well Christmas has come, and soon will be gone.

It’s cold here and, while we had some flurries this morning, it’s not a white Christmas. The winter storm that hit the southeast US missed us.

Our youngest daughter, her hubby and kids are traveling from the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee on their way home. Part of their travel was to be through some areas with snow, but, hopefully, it wasn’t too bad. Living in the north, they are familiar with winter weather.

We had an abbreviated visit with our older daughter – shorter than planned. Her husband had a bad cold and stayed home. She had a short visit with her mother-in-law and then came up the hill for a middle of the day meal with us and a few hours with us before leaving with enough time to get home before dark.

I hope that the rest of the holiday season – and next year – is great for everyone.

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Traveling in Tennessee, Virginia and Wednesday Weigh In

May 7, 2009

2009 05 04 039small

There are more images at Out ‘n About

We are currently camped near Staunton, Virginia. Tomorrow we will be camping in a small campground in Virginia Beach and will be visiting my Mom in Norfolk.

This hasn’t been the greatest week for a traveling and camping trip. When we are camping, we like to take hikes and we only got a couple in. It’s been raining every day and every night — not continuously, but heavy at times and often enough to make things a little difficult.

When we’re traveling, we stop every couple of hours or so and find some place to walk.

Sometimes, we are able to walk at rest areas. When we are able to do that, we make from a couple of “laps” on the walkways to several if the walkways are limited. It helps loosen us up and makes the trip go better. Today we were able to walk at three rest areas. One of them had a “pet trail” that turned into a half mile loop trail into the woods and we had already done the generous rest area walkways.

Off the interstate highways, rest areas are few and far between. We’ve found other places that work well for walks. Shopping malls, of course, are good. However, we’ll often stop at a “big box store” like Walmart, Lowes, or Home Depot, and make several laps around the inside of the store.

We also walk at campgrounds. Walking the entire campground that we were at in Great Smoky Mountain National Park was probably about a mile, which we did 3 evenings, I think. The campground we are at now is at least that, but also has a rather generous uphill section.

We did get several short walks in that on a couple of days when we were able to dodge the storms. Yesterday afternoon when we the campground, the rain had stopped, so we decided to do one of the closest trails, a 2.6 mile round-trip hike to Laurel Falls. It was nice. I’ll post pictures later.

So far as food, I generally don’t overeat too much when we are traveling. We’ve eaten out twice, McDonald’s and Subway. We’ve been eating sandwiches mostly for lunch and regular food for supper. I’ve been eating less snacks, I think.

See other participants’ results at Blog to Fit – Wednesday Weigh-In.

Wednesday Weigh-In – May 7, 2009, exit78.com

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Recycled Tip – Think About The Audience That Reads Your Blog

February 8, 2009

posted on flickr by jot.punkt

Note: This post was originally published August 4th, 2007. With it’s publication, Exit78 saw its first “spike” of comments — all 10 of them plus several link backs. Check the end of this post to see how many of them are still active on the blogs they linked from.

I was a sailor. Spent nearly nine years in the US Navy – fifteen full months under water.

Have you ever heard the phrase, curse like a sailor?

Even though I spent what seemed like a lifetime around other guys that did, I don’t curse like a sailor. On a few occasions when I did use a choice expression, I can recall a few raised eyebrows.

The reason I don’t often swear is that I considered who my audience would be if I slipped up and let my bad nature show. I really didn’t want to be sitting down for Christmas dinner with the family only to blurt out something in front of my Mom that would embarrass both of us and others.

It was a conscious decision to take into consideration possible audiences and change bad habits that were already developing before they became very difficult to alter. It’s worked.

I believe the same concept goes for blogging, whether it’s for blogging for money or blogging for fun. Will your blogging voice, your blogging personae attract your audience or will it drive your audience away? There are some internet income related blogs that I have tried and then left because of what I perceived to be the attitude of the authors.

For me, it comes down to:

Be yourself,
Be nice, and
Be family friendly.

In the last few months, I have decided to really be myself.

I’ve stopped being anonymous online. I use my name when I blog and when I comment. My family, friends, and former co-workers are welcome here, though they may not agree with some of the opinions expressed here.

While I’m not a blogging expert nor an expert about making money online, this tip is just good old fashioned common sense. You are a part of what you are trying to sell online.

The comments and link-backs for the original post provide an interesting indicator of the life-cycle of blogs. Below, I’ve shown the most recent post date or status for the link-backs and commenters to the original post:

8/21/2007
blog no longer exists
blog no longer exists
current — but confusing
current — but confusing
closed “in light of recent events.”
current — but confusing
February 7, 2009
Dec 10, 2008
February 2nd, 2009
February 8th, 2009
January 20, 2008
blog no longer exists

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