Category: Nature
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Deadly Fog
I was thinking recently about a huge multi-vehicle accident that happened in Virginia a few months ago. That one involved 77 vehicles in thick fog. Of course it was a terrible tragedy that I wouldn’t wish on anybody. It also made me wonder whether it was the worst possible, or whether there were others even…
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I Call Bull Shark
What a glorious day for boating on the tidal Potomac River around Mason Neck, south of Fort Belvior. A friend asked it we’d like to join him and his family for a day on the water and of course I couldn’t turn down such a generous offer. We spent most of the afternoon on the…
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Make a Bee Line
I noticed an historical record that mentioned a late 19th Century railroad, the Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati and Indianapolis Railway. That’s not what interested me though, it was the railroad’s nickname, the “Bee Line” What a wonderful name for a railway. I considered it a nice play on words aligning with the idiom “to make a…
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Kentucky Adventure, Part 6 (And the Rest)
All good things come to an end and before long our Kentucky adventure approached its natural conclusion. It was time to return home. I still had some parting opportunities as I left the state and then again as we steered through West Virginia towards the Mid Atlantic. East Wasn’t East Long ago in the early…
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Kentucky Adventure, Part 4 (Power of Water)
I noticed a common theme intertwined with water as we explored the southern tier of Kentucky, from Lake Cumberland to Mammoth Cave: water as an historical and modern source of power; water as a recreational activity; water as an obstacle and water as a force of nature. The Cumberland River and the Green River, both…
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Kentucky Adventure, Part 3 (Appalachian Heritage)
Geography and history dominate southeastern Kentucky. Those were primary reasons for my selection of this corner of Kentucky when I decided to feature it as my U.S. State of Focus(¹) during the Summer of 2013. Twelve Mile Circle concentrates foremost on geography. However, one never avoids history here completely either. The two went hand-in-hand during…
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Kentucky Adventure, Part 2 (Blazing a Trail)
Every schoolchild in the United States learned about the Cumberland Gap during history class. The Appalachian Mountains formed a natural barrier to western expansion during the colonial era. Even so, the lower section contained a convenient gap. Native Americans knew about it for centuries before Europeans ever arrived. Dr. Thomas Walker, a Virginia physician and…
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Zea Mays Everta
I guess as the current heat wave bakes me, it forces me think about how nice it would be to sit inside an ice-cold movie theater at the moment. Right now I can’t do that. Still it would be splendid. Also, by association, when I think of a theater I think of popcorn. Aren’t vicarious…
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Make My Trip, Again
Twelve Mile Circle picks a different state for its vacation each summer, and concentrates on an aspect of it intensely. Previous examples have included Alaska, Utah, and Oregon. The ultimate purpose of these holidays is to focus on unusual or oft-overlooked sites within the United States while sprinkling-in a few of the more famous sites…
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Dust Bowl Adventure, Part 5 (Epilogue)
It’s good to be back home. However, I will always cherish my brief journey to the Dust Bowl territory of the lower Great Plains. I enjoyed and appreciated the beauty of the emptiness, the towns appearing fifteen miles distant first noticeable by their distinctive grain elevators, dodging and getting caught in clouds of dust, and…