This is about my 50+ years of “Traveling America with camera in hand and history in mind”.
I have visited over 40 State Capitals in my travels around the U.S. and this is one of my favorite pictures. It is from the Capital Building of Connecticut in Hartford. I visited there during my recent trip through that … Continue reading EPS – Favorites
Jimmy was a quiet guy. He didn’t stand out like so many of his playmates who were much taller and more vocal than him. He was intelligent but didn’t go around bragging about that. But, He was what was needed … Continue reading About Jimmy Madison…
I don’t do this very often, but I am going to give full endorsement to the hotel I spent two days on my layover in Santa Fe, New Mexico. This is the second time I have spent multi-day visits to … Continue reading On The Road #8 – Day 15 – La Posada
By featuring this book as its own post I think I have made it abundantly clear how it has influenced me during my traveling life. I originally read this book in 1962, soon after it was published and have re-read … Continue reading Travels With Charlie
This post will be about the benefits of traveling. I am now knee-deep in the process of preparing for my first farewell tour, which will be into the South, and Southwest of our great country. When I am starting such … Continue reading About Traveling…
I am a history nut. I have read many more books on the subject than even I can remember. My main interest is U.S. history, but other countries have also been in my purview. From experience, I have learned that … Continue reading Rewriting History…
The realization came to me the other days that for the first time in my life I now have total control of what I do and how I choose to live my life. That is a very exciting thing, but … Continue reading For The First Time…
Just got back from a four-day road trip to Cleveland/Dayton/Cincinnati areas. One of the most memorable places was the American Sign Museum in Cincinnati. Here are a few pictures to entice you to visit. All that neon in one place … Continue reading All That Neon…
The very first blog I opened in 2008 was entitled InSearchOfAmerica or ISOA. It was about my portfolio of pictures I had taken on my travels around the country documenting historical sites. In those days the Internet was in its … Continue reading Seeking US History Buffs
First, let’s finish off the title of this post Beauty Is In The Eye Of The Beholder I am going to spend the coming Sundays showing you what I consider as beauty. I have always been fascinated by Navajo artistry … Continue reading Beauty Is…
I was pleasantly surprised to come across a hidden gem during one of my uRV trips this summer. I have been through Dayton Ohio several times before but never really looked for a place to visit besides the Dayton Air Museum. What I found was the Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historic Site.
Continue reading “A Hidden Gem…”
You never hear very much about the War of 1812 but there was a major battle that took place in Indiana. It was just south of Ft. Wayne. The British along with their Indian allies fought an Ohio militia there. It happened after the Brits took over Forts at Mackinac, Dearborn and Detroit which was part of the Northwest Territory (Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, and Wisconsin. The Americans in that area were in in the process of getting rid of all the Native Americans who didn’t want to voluntarily leave their homeland. William Henry Harrison, otherwise like Andy Jackson, was … Continue reading Mississinewa 1812
I am a dreamer to my core; it is just who I am.That is simultaneously a curse and a blessing.I recognize how things are but imagine them to be better.There is no place better to do that than Mesa VerdeMy first visit there seemed almost spiritual.I could almost see my ancestors living their daily lives.How they got there no one really knows.Why they left is pretty much the same.The stone and adobe walls they built are still there.I touched them and dreamed I was among them.In their isolation they lived in peaceful harmony with nature.But that is kinda the Native … Continue reading Painting with Words – Mesa Verde
I’m pretty sure my roots go back to Great Britain, so maybe that is the reason I have such a kindred relationship with things Canadian. They still have the basic sense of being British engrained in them. 🙂 The quote above is from Martha Atwood who is Canadian and the author of “The Handmaid’s Tale”.
When I heard the quote in the title from her it made me think just how fundamentally different Canadians are from their southern neighbors. That and a photo gallery of my 2011-month-long visit is what this post is about.
Continue reading “I’m Canadian, We Don’t Do “Proud”
No I am not talking about the Los Angeles freeway, I am talking about the GoodGuys Car show in Des Moines Iowa I recently attended. I think you know by now that I am a car guy. The shelves of the study are lined with 1/32 scale models of them. When I’m too lazy to do anything else I am usually watching a car show on the Motor Trend channel. I am a car guy.
Continue reading “Cars, Cars, and More Cars…”
I had the privilege of touring a Great Lakes Freighter a few weeks ago. It is permanently docked at the National Museum of the Great Lakes near Toledo Ohio. I think I saw my first one in the late 1960s. Since that was when steel and autos were king of that region. There were hundreds of them on the Great Lakes bringing ore from Minnesota to the mills on Lake Michigan and Erie. They are still around but just not in the numbers they once were.
Continue reading “In Search Of America – The Great Lakes Freighters”
What could be more American than the small rural county fair? I have had the pleasure of living in one of the smallest population wise counties in Indiana for almost two decades now. While I don’t go to all the … Continue reading The County Fair
I wanted to visit Greenfield Village once more before we close out another year. This visit is a gallery that shows no evidence of the 21st century. That is one thing I truly enjoy about Mackinac Island, no cars allowed). Nantucket is a great place to visit but it is kinda ruined by all the cars that have flooded the island. Anyway, here is my version of Greenfield of the 20th century: Continue reading Greenfield Village Re-visited…
Last Saturday’s “Artsy” post gave you a snapshot of our trip to Cleveland earlier this year. This post will put some flesh on those bones. 🙂 Our first extended visit to Cleveland was in 2013. We were visiting a couple of my high school classmates of fifty years ago. We took in the downtown area and most of the usual tourist places during that trip. The trip this Spring was a two-day pass-through one and I was determined to see a different view of the city. As mentioned Saturday, we stayed at the Aloft Hotel on the Cuyahoga River a … Continue reading Cleveland – A Different View
For the first “Artsy Saturday” post at the reformatted RJsCorner, I chose the Coastal Taco in downtown Cleveland Ohio. The picture was taken just after sunset from our room at the very eclectic Aloft Hotel. As you can see the restaurant was under a very large bridge going across the Cuyahoga River near Lake Erie. The food was pretty good and the inside atmosphere was delicious. 🙂 Continue reading Coastal Taco – Cleveland
Here I am sitting in my uRV. It is only 6am but my body says it is 8 and time to get up. It took me three days to get here but I am finally in the Rocky Mountains and will be heading to the Ft. Bridger Wyoming Rendezvous later this morning. I think I will hold off on the trip here report until I get home again, but I did want to give you a status report. I am in my RV park here in Green River WY for a couple of days and managed to snap a few … Continue reading Heading to the Rendezvous
One of my dreams, you could say one of the few things on my bucket list, is to go to the Ft. Bridger WY Mountain Man Rendezvous and that is just what I am doing starting today. I have packed up my uRV and will soon be on the road for the 1400 mile trek. The rendezvous is this coming weekend. I will be there on Saturday and maybe stay through Sunday. This will be the farthest I have gone with my 120,000-mile custom made camper in quite a while. On the trip back and forth I will be … Continue reading One of My Dreams…
This post is primarily about my recent visit to the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn Michigan. But first, I want to get some things off my mind in relation to Ford’s contributions to America. It is pretty well known that Henry Ford established the middle class here in America, or at least the easiest path to the middle class. He allowed someone with little or no training to earn enough to afford some of the luxuries of life. But to do that required mind-numbing hours on an assembly line doing the same thing thousands of time a day. One of … Continue reading Robots And Henry Ford
This is a post about my first and last venture to a rock concert, or whatever they might call them nowadays. When I got an advance ticket to the Madison Regatta recently it asked me if I also wanted a ticket to the rock concert being promoted by another entity. I have never been to a music fest so, even though I am deaf, I decided “what the heck”. Even though I was a teenager of the 1960s in the Woodstock era, I have never been to a rock concert. I was just too busy trying to pay and graduate … Continue reading Rock Concerts
I took a uRV trip to Madison Indiana for the annual Madison Regatta this past weekend. This is the first time I have been there so it was on my bucket list. I am generally not a powerboat racing fan but it was neat to see these guys go 100+ mph across the water. If you want to see more pics, check out my Flickr Album. Continue reading Madison Regatta
Just a short post to tell you that I just added a Santa Fe album to my Flickr portfolio. Click here to see it. Santa Fe has become my favorite city InSearchOfAmerica. It is flush with history, heritage especially things Native-American and Spanish. Continue reading Santa Fe on Flickr
For this artsy Saturday, I want to show you an “outside the box” art museum. I love things that stretch your imagination, stretch your brain. I don’t think there is another building quite like this one. It is the Milwaukee Museum … Continue reading Outside The Box…
I just downloaded the EAA Airshow album to Flickr. Click HERE to view it. 41 photos in all. Continue reading EAA Airshow 2017 Album on Flickr
I made an “executive” decision a while back to use Flickr as the residence of my future InsearchOfAmerica photo arrays. Just added a new photo album there. If you ever wondered what the island of Nantucket looks like click here. We were there in 1999. We knew that would be our last year living on the east coast so Yvonne insisted we go to Nantucket so she could buy a lightship basket to add to her collection. The island is not as famous as Martha’s Vineyard but still had its share of multimillionaire’s summer cottages and thousands of small shops. The … Continue reading Nantucket…
For this artsy Saturday, I thought I would give you a pretty unique view of the Heinz Museum in Pittsburgh PA. The museum is in an old factory building. The picture here is looking down an open staircase. Of course, the museum includes the history of Heinz Catsup and such but there is also much more there for your enjoyment. I find this picture fascinating for all the detail it involves. If you want to learn more about the museum, click on the image to the right. Continue reading Heinz Museum – Pittsburgh
One of the first things that most school children are taught about American history is Washington’s crossing of the Deleware River. Since it happened in the dark of night the day after Christmas in 1776 it was a rather dramatic … Continue reading Crossing of the Delaware
Clifty Falls State Park in southern Indiana is one of my favorites. The campgrounds are well laid out and maintained and the hiking trails are manageable for this senior. And of course, the park is a mecca for photographers. As is my … Continue reading On The Road – Clifty Falls State Park
For this Saturday’s artsy post, I want to present to you a picture from one of my favorite States. I am presently writing a detailed post about New Mexico but wanted to give you one of my favorite pictures of Santa Fe. It has been my desktop background for several months now: Continue reading Land Of Enchantment
For this Artsy Saturday, I wanted to give you some pictures that I see as the quintessential Cleveland. I am not a sports nut by any stretch of the imagination so their well-known teams just aren’t “Cleveland” to me. The Cleveland Clinic is a crown jewel for the city but I will talk about that in a future post. When I visited the city a few years ago I discovered that it has a much more diverse population then I imagine. Part of that is ethnic neighborhoods. The restaurant sign below is in the Italian district. The city center includes the Terminal Tower … Continue reading Cleveland Treasures
There is just something about small-town facades that fascinates me. It is probably because of the symmetry and patterns. I am currently working on a photo collection that will soon be available in the “Photo Collections” pages in the header above. This one was taken recently in Rockville Indiana. One thing unusual about this photo is that none of the windows above the store are boarded or bricked up. I imagine all of them are occupied as apartments. Rockville is in the middle of “covered bridge country” and has a huge fall festival around them. Continue reading Facades
On July 20, 1969, when I was working the midnight to noon shift at a local gas station to earn money for my last year in college. The owner had brought in a small black and white TV so I … Continue reading Celebrating the Shuttles
For these “InSearchOfAmerica” pics I want to take you to the “Forty Mile Desert” leading into the Great Salt Lake. The forty mile road was as straight as an arrow and there was absolutely nothing living there. It was an eerie place. Continue reading Nothing Lives..
I want to do an extended post on some of the States I have visited in order to get to know them better. I will start this project out with the State I really know very little about and that is West Virginia. I have been through it a few couple of times but have never spent much time there. My initial source of information about WV is from the old John Denver song, thus the title of the post. Here are some of the lyrics from that song: Almost heaven, West Virginia, Blue Ridge Mountains, Shenandoah River. Life is … Continue reading West Virginia, Mountain Mama..
When I visited the Museum of Appalachia in Norris Tennessee this last fall I was totally unprepared for the fullness of the experience. I came away with a much-expanded understanding of what it might have been like to live in such an isolated area. The way the museum personalized every display which made me almost think that I knew the people themselves who made the things seen. Sometimes I forget that creativity will flourish wherever it is found. With nothing more than a piece of wood and a whittling knife, true pieces of art were created. Here are a few … Continue reading Appalacian Folk Art
I ran across a rather startling picture at the Andrew Johnson Historic site in northern Tennessee this year. Before I talk about that, I was thoroughly amazed at how Johnson’s hometown managed to spin the story of him to make him appear to be a heroic figure which is very contrary to most public opinion. I guess I have not come across too many photos showing how intrinsic slavery was to the southern States. This picture, according to the legend below it, was taken in Atlanta in 1864 just after the Emancipation Proclamation. The “Auction & Negro Sales” store … Continue reading Slavery..
RJ's Corner 