We now move on with our recent vacation trip through Virginia. I must admit that I have been to this State several times and even to a couple of the sites we visited. But one city I had not been to was Staunton, Virginia. Among other things with was the birthplace of one of my heroes Woodrow Wilson. I’m sure not too many people put Wilson on such a pedestal but I admire him for his wisdom and foresight. Wilson spent the majority of his adult life in New Jersey as president of Princeton University and as Governor. He was … Continue reading Oh Virginia… Here’s To You Woodrow

Keeping in line with a few other of my blogs here is a barn picture taken in Virginia during our recent trip there. There didn’t seem to be as many of these types of barns there as I had anticipated. Continue reading Virginia – April 2011

One of our first stops in Virginia during our recent vacation was at Luray Caverns. I must admit that being deaf I have a fear of caves. If the lights went out I would totally panic for lack of sensory perception. It was neat but I don’t really care to see any more caves.  That is me on the left. The dark area in the middle bottom of the picture is my wife’s thumb :) Continue reading Luray Caverns – Virginia 2011

Why did God go to all the trouble to create the universe? By any standards that was a massive undertaking. I am one who believes in the day age interpretation of the Bible.  In the last century or so God has given us the scientific understanding to know that the creation of the universe took millions if not billions of years to complete. Why did he go through all that trouble? One explanation for God creating the universe and an infinitely small corner of it called the Earth was that he intends it to be a proving ground for what … Continue reading Earth As A Proving Ground???

This post is a continuation on reports of our recent vacation through West Virginia, Maryland, Virginia, and Tennessee. As mentioned a few posts ago Maryland was generally not quite what I expected after reading the book “A Journey Through Hallowed Ground” by David Edwin Lillard. The book centered around a trip down US 15 from Gettysburg to Monticello. From the book’s description I was prepared to see a number of small towns  gushing with history along this Maryland route.By just looking at a larger area map I should have been prepared for what we encountered but I guess the dreamer in my just wanted … Continue reading The Thing About Maryland….

While the governor of Indiana, where I currently reside, is not a Tea Partier he does seem to think along the same line. First of all we were told when he first came into office that the reason that more businesses did not move to Indiana was because they thought we were backwards.  The reason for us being backwards, at least according to him,was that we did not change our clocks two times a year as most other States do.  We quit doing that about twenty-five years ago. It just didn’t make much sense for us ordinary Hoosiers to be … Continue reading Some "Great" Ideas From My Governor….

I couldn’t leave our trip to West Virginia without mentioned on very interesting thing. The State of West Virgina was formed as a result of the Civil War. Considering that Richmond Virginia was the heart of the Confederacy it is surprising that the good folk in the northwestern of that state chose to remain loyal to the Union.  Part of that probably had to do with not many people up there could afford a slave, even if they wanted one, which most evidently didn’t. They were rewarded for their loyalty by becoming a separate State from those who chose otherwise. We didn’t … Continue reading One Last Thought about WV

I tried to find one picture that would sum up my feelings about West Virgina. This is what I came up with. It is somewhat typical of the many small towns we came across during our visits. The franchises were far and few between in most of the areas.  And that is a good thing. Continue reading Summing up West Virginia

Ok here is what is making the news today.  See the full article via the link at the bottom of this post. It seems that some of these Tea Party electees think that not only is healthcare for the poor optional but so is clean air to breath and water to drink for all of us.  They have declared that many of these environmental issues are just too much of a nuisance for our poor business corporations who seem to be struggling to make more than a $billion in profits each month. So the rest of us will just have … Continue reading At State Level, G.O.P. Seeks Big Environmental Cutbacks – NYTimes.com

When we were visiting West Virginia the John Denver song kept creeping into my mind. It is indeed a unique State. Both in its landscape and how it was formed.  The picture above was from the State museum showing what the town looked like in the 1950’s. For those who did not live through that era this was probably a somewhat foreign picture. But I can remember my first visit to a drugstore soda fountain. It was a most enjoyable experience. Continue reading West Virginia… Country Home….

Ok, I admit this is not much of a barn but I’m sure it was a good one in its day. The photo below is somewhat typical of the many WV towns we encountered during our travels through the State. It is indeed a beautiful State. Continue reading West Virgina April 2011

We made it back from our “Journey Through Hallowed Ground” yesterday. As was the case with Dickens there were some joyful times and there were some disappointing times. :) I will spend a couple of posts here describing parts of our visit. Being a U.S. history buff this trip had a lot of meaning for me. Our first stop was in Charleston West Virginia where we, as usual, toured the capital building. We got there on a Saturday and went to enter the building and to our surprise we found no guards or inspection stations.  I think this was the first time … Continue reading We Are Back….

At a time most employees can barely remember their last substantial raise, median CEO pay jumped 27% in 2010 as the executives’ compensation started working its way back to prerecession levels, a USA TODAY analysis of data from GovernanceMetrics International found. Workers in private industry, meanwhile, saw their compensation grow just 2.1% in the 12 months ended December 2010, says the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Source: http://www.usatoday.com/money/companies/management/2011-03-31-ceo-pay-2010.htm Ok, what is going on here?  I thought maybe the big shots learned their lesson from the financial meltdown but I guess not. They are still giving themselves ten times the raise that … Continue reading The Rich Get Richer….