Category: History

  • Finish Ohio & More, Part 3 (Swipe Down)

    Michigan was fun but now I needed to drive through Ohio for the last bit of unfinished business. Only three counties out of 88 remained unvisited in Ohio, aligned in a single contiguous row heading due south. It felt like bowling pins lined up for an easy spare. So look out Paulding, Van Wert, and…

  • Finish Ohio & More, Part 1 (Swipe Up)

    It’s been a work in progress. Slowly, ever slowly, I chipped away at Ohio counties as my older kid attended school in Michigan. I took a different route through Ohio multiple times, collecting counties and adding them to my list. So this was, I think, the sixth trip involving Ohio, all dutifully recorded on Twelve…

  • Washington Co., Maryland; Day 2

    The pressure was off once I flipped the status of Washington County to “overnight” on my County Counting list. Officially it became Overnight County #205. Now I could concentrate on exploring beyond Hagerstown and further into the countryside. Hancock I’ve always loved driving through Hancock on the western side of Washington County. I’ve mentioned it…

  • Washington Co., Maryland; Day 1

    I felt trapped at home, first because of a previous snowfall that refused to melt and later by a bout of the flu. Mentally I needed a change of scenery just to get away for awhile and reset my attitude. So this seemed like a perfect time to add another new overnight county to my…

  • Borderland, Part 2 (Blue Water Bridge)

    We entered Canada for the second time in the last few months. However, this visit was only a long weekend instead of the several days days we spent there during summer. Also, we drove across the border into Sarnia rather than flying into Toronto. So it was a much different experience, not nearly the same…

  • Lighthouse Adventures

    The 93 Lighthouses I have visited I noticed that I have visited quite a few lighthouse as a result of my journeys, and many have been featured in these travel pages since I began posting them a number of years ago. I didn’t start as a lighthouse collector, it just sort-of happened, but now I…

  • Borderland, Part 1  (Belle Isle)

    We flew up to Michigan for the older kid’s fall break from graduate school and we all wanted to see something new. This encompassed both sides of the international border between Michigan’s lower peninsula and the province of Ontario. Essentially this involved the borderlands along the Detroit River, Lake St. Clair, and the St. Clair…

  • Interior Alaska, Part 4 (Parks Highway)

    Fairbanks is by far the most populated area of Interior Alaska so it made a great base for launching day trips. Our first adventure led southwest on the Parks Highway. I assumed Denali National Park and Preserve and the Denali State Park influenced the highway’s name. However, it actually referred to George Parks, an Alaska…

  • Interior Alaska, Part 3 (Greater Fairbanks)

    Eventually we ventured away from downtown Fairbanks and started venturing towards the edges of town. Now, to be certain, Fairbanks isn’t a huge town so the “edges” were pretty close. However, I didn’t have enough room to cover everything in the last article so I had to draw a line somewhere. For this purpose I…

  • Interior Alaska, Part 2 (Downtown Fairbanks)

    We rented an Airbnb house in the historic part of Fairbanks. However historic doesn’t necessarily mean old because Fairbanks only goes back to the beginning of the 20th Century. So a lot of the earlier structures are 1930’s or 1940’s wood-frame homes. A lot look older than their age. The elements are harsh in Interior…