What’s wrong with this picture

Vacations are broken in the US. This is not news for me or probably you either. I found this interesting article titled “The no-vacation nation”.

Having worked with Europeans and my working time in Ireland showed me first hand how the attitude toward vacation time is different in Europe. I wish our attitude here was more like theirs.

But that’s about all I’m going to say about that (follow that link for more).

There is something else that is very common in vacation pictures missing from that “vacation” picture. That picture was taken in Chicago in front of The Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. The common element found in vacation pictures and missing from that picture is WATER.

Jillsy Girl’s June challenge is “water”. Maybe she will accept this entry. The pictures are older than this month but these words and thoughts are fresh.

There certainly is some quality of water that draws people to it. Maybe because we need it to exist?

I’m not sure if that’s it because we need food and I have not planned any vacations focused on food. Do you agree that vacations and water just go together like peanut butter and jelly (I knew I could work food into this)?

Even if it is not a lake, river, or ocean beach, we often take pictures of water attractions.

Fortunately I have numerous vacation memories but one very special one was my last vacation trip with my Dad. I could go back to that lake cabin but he can’t. Well maybe his spirit could make a visit.  He would do it too, because he got a thrill from scaring people.

That Canadian fishing trip was a blast. It was in the wilderness where the only way to the lake was by floatplane or canoe portage. We were dropped off by the plane.

My dad in boat on the water.

I plan to write more about that trip in the future. Stay tune.

Nice view but no thanks

Maybe you have seen this ad.  I found it in my inbox.

Typically, this type of email just goes directly into the junk mail and I don't even think much about it before clicking the delete button.

While I don't think people would be interested in experiencing the sleeping arrangement that is shown in this scene, I must say the photo did catch my eye. Just a few seconds later, my mind started wondering so here I am posting about it. Yes, my Obsessive Curiosity Disorder kicked in.

You can't beat the great view these climbers have right next to their beds.

But you also can't get me to sleep in that place.   No way could I get any sleep.  They probably don't need to worry about bedbugs but instead might be woken up by an eagle confusing it for a nest.

No campfire or roasting marshmallows for these campers.

I've seen a report on this company on cable.  Interesting company but the closest thing to the scene in that photo for me would be hiking in a National Park.

Weeks ago I found another ad kinda strange (IMHO).  Here's the link.

it’s on the way to nowhere

That would be good way to describe my brother’s place in Missouri. He is almost in Arkansas and if he goes anywhere in his boat he travels into Arkansas.

First I had to get to nowhere from the rural mountain area of North Carolina. So class, name a long narrow state that advertises a “Jerky Outlet” store with easy access to the interstate. (I didn’t have time to stop).

Here’s a useful geographical piece of info - Only three car bridges cross the Mississippi into Tennessee. Two of them are in Memphis. This limits your trip planning. I took the third one. It goes into that little hanging piece of Missouri. (BTW - if you have never crossed the Mississippi you’ll be surprised on the size of that river)

On my way to nowhere, I went through the nice sized town of Kennett MO. It’s about 100 miles from Memphis but I traveled in from the east not from the Memphis direction. Lots of cotton fields along the road. Someone famous comes from there. She recently released a CD titled “100 Miles from Memphis”.

My nowhere visit was in the Ozarks which spans southern Missouri and northern Arkansas. I know I’m getting close when the roadkills are mostly armadillos.

Another feature of the area is the hilly twisting roads. Motorcyclists love the place and I enjoy the roads if I’m not tired and it’s daylight. Here’s one of the hills. You really need to fly down it to enjoy it. I got to this hill by taking a shortcut down “Lightning Springs” road. Not hard to pretend being in the “Dukes of Hazzard” here.

Many residents of Ozark county are proud to tell you that there’s not one McDonalds in the whole county. You can buy a cup of coffee at the local store/post office/gas station/gossip center in Protem for 25 cents. My brother told me times are getting tough because it used to be free refills but now those are 25 cents too.

There are some strangely named towns in that area:

• Kissee Mills
• Yellville
• Flippin

The lake (Bull Shoals) is a major part of life down there. Forgot your boat? No problem you can ride across the lake for free on this ferry (take route 125 out of Protem).

Float your boat or your house.

Plenty of water in their basement.

My next post will be sharing the local police report from the paper.  It's a fun read.

Going nowhere? Been nowhere?

Guess what, being in the middle of nowhere is very enjoyable.

Ken Burns PBS national parks series - last part

I believe photos of Mt. Rainier show up in everyone of the episodes of PBS's series The National Parks: America's Best Idea.

I had seen Mt. Rainier a number of times from the city of Seattle before I ever visited the park.  On a clear day it appears to be floating in the air.  I was surprised by the distance we had to drive before we reached the park.  It looked closer from Seattle.

Our visit was before we had a digital camera (ok because the initial digital cameras weren't that good) so I had to scan these pictures.  

I learned from this Ken Burns series that John Muir had visited Mt. Rainier before it became a national park.  Going to this place on horseback would be a completely different experience.

We hiked over to a waterfall and this bridge made from one of the massive trees was part of the trail.  Coming from Illinois, these trees were bigger than anything I had ever seen.  I know there are even bigger ones in California.
It's great place with wildlife, wild flowers, waterfalls, refreshing alpine air, and a year-round snow capped mountain.

The national parks and monuments are not the only thing covered in this documentary.  Maybe more interesting is the stories of the people involved with the various parks and monuments.


(note for others using blogger and the new editor - I've been having problem with the spacing between paragraphs - anyone notice this too?)

Ken Burns PBS parks series #3

Well I've kept at it now for 3 posts in a row.  The third episode of the PBS series The National Parks: America's Best Idea by Ken Burns continues the national park story following the death of the early advocate of preservation John Muir.

The above picture is related to the next advocate to step up to the challenge, Stephen Mather.  Unlike John Muir, I had never heard of him.  The borax product in the above picture made him a millionaire.  He was both an industrialist and a conservationist which was a great combination to have in one person.

His influence landed him the job of creating what became the National Park Service.  He used his marketing background and own money to promote the national parks.

 

The next two pictures are from our visit to Santa Fe, New Mexico.  It was a trip with minimal pre-planning.  Vacation approaches vary as much as people.  I like less structured trips that allow for some surprises, but I do like to know at least a day in advance the sleeping arrangement.

This national historical park is called Pecos.  I expected to see pueblo ruins and some nice scenery.  Well that's there, but I was completely surprised to find the Civil War was there too.

We arrived just in time to hop on a park van for the tour of this Civil War battle (tour was included in the admission price).  We had an enthusiastic tour guide that took us back to the middle of the Battle of Glorieta.  How many of you would expect to find a Civil War battle in the middle of New Mexico?

Briefly -- the Confederates had a plan to get to the gold fields of Colorado and maybe even reach California (plan big right?).  They were stopped at this place by union forces from Colorado and New Mexico.



Of course reading about it doesn't compare to walking around the place and listening to a guide describe and point out the various positions of troops and sharpshooters.


He told us an interesting story related to this battle that occurred just in the last decade or so.  He pointed to a house down the road and told us about a surprise the home owner had back in 1987.  While excavation for a house foundation he found bodies.  He called the authorities who eventually turned up a mass grave, 31 bodies!

He initially worried he discovered some mass murder's stash.  Turned out they were Confederate soldiers from the battle.  Three were identified and their descendants notified.  But the other remains started up the feud between New Mexico and Texas (another bit of history I learned) over where to bury the soldiers.  I believe it went to court.  Now you can find them in a VA cemetery in Santa Fe. 


As the national park series points out, there's always a conflict of land usage with the parks.  Here at the Battle of Glorieta site, there's a major highway going right through it.  Of course the battle was in a pass and it makes sense that later it would become a road.


Well at least they figured out where to put the bodies!

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Ken Burns national parks day2

Here's a couple more pictures from a national park we were able to visit.  This one is on the island of Maui.  It's called Haleakala. 

This is my second post inspired by the PBS series The National Parks: America's Best Idea by Ken Burns.

This second night of the series did NOT jump to this Maui park, but I couldn't quickly get my finger on pictures from places they did cover.  Two places they covered in the second episode were Mt. Rainier  and the Grand Canyon.  We visited those places  before I used a digital camera.  I need to scan those pictures which involves digging them out and setting up the scanner.  I'm a little lazy at times.

Also, I'm not a morning person.  When my wife strongly (no option type of idea) suggested that we sign-up for the bike ride down the volcano, I thought cool, do they have an afternoon run?  Well I failed to catch-on that watching sunrise was part of the big deal.  (sunrise gets my mind thinking of tequila sunrise and well you where that goes)

I tried to convince her that sunset and sunrise are basically the same you just look in the opposite direction.  Didn't work.

Two things on the downside of this idea:

1. it starts in the middle of night - a van picks you up at the hotel (our pickup was 2 or 3 am)
2. it's cold on top of a volcano at 5 in the morning (wife still teases me about not dressing properly)

One great thing about this idea:

1. really cool, exciting, fun, all downhill - just a blast
   

The bottom picture is also from this same park but on a different day and very different location.  The park goes all the way to the ocean where the beautiful seven sacred pools can be seen.  We hiked up to see the waterfalls.  It was very very muddy that day but the views were worth the effort.

Back to the PBS program -
In the second episode the continuing story shows how conflicting views and political influence make national parks controversial at times.  You also learn about the difference between a national park vs. a national monument.  The big difference - our President can declare a place a national monument without any say from congress.  The Grand Canyon started as a national monument.

I'm enjoying the series.  It certainly devotes much of the time explaining the history behind the parks.  If you were JUST looking for scenes from the parks then you might be disappointed.

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another Ken Burns treat

Well did you watch it last night?
The PBS series The National Parks: America's Best Idea by Ken Burns started last night.  It was excellent.

I took the above picture while enjoying Glacier National Park in Montana.  What I will try doing this week is post a picture of mine from a national park each day.   I have been to a few but there are so many more to see.  Please join me with sharing pictures.  Write in the comments and I'll link to your picture.

Back to last night's show.

Glacier National Park (above) was not part of it because it starts at the beginning and the story of Yosemite and Yellowstone alone is story that can fill a few hours.

An important part of the beginning story centers around John Muir.  I had heard of him before and the woods named to honor him (have not made it there yet).  This episode describes the quirkiness, the tenacity, and vision of John Muir.  One thing I learned was he loved to walk through the wild.

Gretel Ehrlich, author of John Muir: Nature's Visionary, is interviewed for this episode.  She said:

"...I think we're born lost, and we remain lost until we remove the shell of who we think we are, all the preconceptions of who we think we are and to expose ourselves to the great power of the natural world and to let that power reshape us..."

Often referenced as a national embarrassment was Niagara Falls.  Leaders supporting the park would point out that you don't want "another Niagara Falls".  I enjoyed a visit to Niagara Falls with my daughter a few years ago.  It is commercialized and touristy but I gather it was much worst in the 1800's.

I hope to see some the beautiful national parks presented in this series.

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sharp dressed man

As ZZ Top told me long ago,
"...every girl's crazy 'bout a sharp dressed man.."

Well I've been cleaned up a few times in my life, but honestly I prefer T-shirts.

With today's digital picture technology anyone can be a sharp dressed man in a photo anyway.



Ok, so you know when look at those vacation pictures and there's LESS than a sharp dressed tourist in the background. Well now you can fix that.
Remove Tourists from Travel Photos

BUT I DON'T GET IT -
why would you want to modify the picture that much?

I heard a story that some image enhancement shops get requests to fix vacation pictures.

Here's a photo from a trip that I would NOT want to remove the extras.



Hey most of my family fails in just removing the zombie red eyes. So red eye removal, maybe some cropping OK, but completely taking thing out or putting them in the picture?

For me vacation pictures are memories. I don't want fake memories.

So as you may have noticed in this post and others. I like play around with pictures for fun but not to enhance my vacation.

Oh, don't remember that ZZ Top song ?
here's a refresher

summer spin

Another spin cycle - this one is on summer planning.

Summer should be planned spontaneous. Well isn't that the argument at times? Is it better to plan or not plan.

Your balance on that decision is really personal choice. My wife and I traveled to both Central America and Europe with ONLY reservations for the start and end of the trip. The middle part was filled in as we went. Making plans on the fly allows flexibility but sometimes can eat up your time searching for a clean place to rest your head.

So Summer - warm, hot, wet, long days, thunder storms, sandy beaches,

It's a time to get out into nature and enjoy - right?

Sometimes that means sharing with the insects.


Back during my daughter's teen years (boy that can be an exciting/scary time for parents) I became familiar with a YMCA camp in nearby Wisconsin.

She started as a camper but liked it enough that the next year she signed-up as a camp counselor (starts with in-training then progressively advances to more important roles).

This became her summer plan for a few years. She enjoys kids and now she is a teacher.

One trip up to the camp became very memorable, almost in a very bad way.

As a counselor she would have sessions at the camp lasting many weeks straight. When she had a free weekend she would be eager to come back.

So one summer Friday afternoon, I hurried up to the camp. Driving to the camp was enjoyable after getting off the interstate. The two lane country road was hilly, tree lined, and offered views of numerous small lakes.

She was ready to go when I arrived so it wasn't long and we were off for the ride home.

However, we quickly discovered a nasty part of nature was about to arrive too.

High wind is very noticeable in the woods. Watching large trees sway and snap their branches is a scary sight.

As I pulled out from the dirt (now mud) road onto the two lane country road, this summer thunder storm was about to peak. I pulled over on the shoulder for a short while. We were both amazed and shocked to see the debris whipped across our path.

After what seem the worst, I cautiously started down that scenic-turned-scary road.

Then we both saw something frightening.

A car was racing uncontrollably towards us.

I think my daughter screamed but if so I might not of heard her because my whole focus was on avoiding a head-on collision.

The approaching car swerved, went off the road, through a ditch, through a front yard and was quickly stopped by a large tree.

Our eyes were open wider than ever and our hearts racing.

I pulled over again and decided I needed to go back and check. I didn't carry a cellphone back then. When I approached the car I surprised not to see any passengers. They all had taken off.

I went up to a nearby house and got the attention of homeowner. We pieced the puzzle together - mostly likely underage drinkers who survived the crash but probably didn't want to stick around for the police report. We left.

When we finally reached the interstate and stopped at a restaurant we learned we just had been in the path of a tornado.

Nature can be both beautiful and scary in the woods.

=== update ===

I don't often add updates but this may explain the danger of Wisconsin driving.

News from the Wausau Daily Herald:

Pantsless woman arrested

A 29-year-old Plover woman who was talking on a cell phone and driving without pants was charged with drunken driving following a crash in the town of Port Edwards ....
....who was driving her pickup truck east on Highway 54 just before 8:50 a.m. Sunday, had her pants hanging out the window to dry when the vehicle hit the highway shoulder, and Jackson overcorrected, according to the Wood County Sheriff's Department Accident Report. The pickup crossed the centerline, entered the ditch and rolled.