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Sunday April 30, 2023 – Dallas, TX

We caught a shuttle to the airport this morning. Our flight was once again cancelled. They made a special flight Monday for us. We planned to take our chances again tomorrow and spend another day in Dallas.

We went to see The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza. The landmark here is the location where Lee Harvey Oswald shot JFK. We did the tour at the museum although we didn’t have enough time to see everything. It was an eye opening experience for the defining moment of our parents’ generation. For us the moment would have been 911.

We saw the window where Oswald was sitting when he fired the fatal bullet. We saw photos of the motorcade. They had a replica of the rifle he used, which was a 6.5×52mm Carcano Model 38. A lot of background for Kennedy’s life and presidency was documented in the museum. We went outside to see the grassy knoll where people thought a second shooter may have been. The street was marked with an X where each of the bullets hit JFK.

We left to see a couple more attractions. One was the Cattle Drive sculptures by Robert Summers. The cattle were crossing a stream in the park where they were located. I bought a Popsicle from a vendor here. We followed the line of cattle up a hill. On top we saw a sculpture of a cowboy on a horse. Words inscribed in a rock indicated that the cowboy was the trail boss responsible for leading the cattle. I got a kick out of this because one of the smokeless powders I use for reduced loads and revolver loads is actually called Trail Boss. The powder was intended for cowboy action shooting.

We left to see the Giant Eyeball. While we were downtown we saw a lot of people going by on dirt bikes and 4x4s making lots of noise. I can only assume that’s a Texas thing. They also had some sort of community non-police security patrolling downtown. I believe they have a similar team in San Francisco.

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Saturday April 29, 2023 – Dallas, TX

Linda and I have plans to fly through DFW on our way to Roatan this week. We’re staying at CoCo View Resort. The resort is on a reef. Linda always get motion sick. So I wanted to take her scuba diving somewhere that we could walk right into the ocean and dive from shore. CoCo View is supposed to be the best place to do it.

Well, we flew into DFW on Friday and stayed over night at a hotel for our Saturday flight. On Saturday we never made it out. Turns out that there is a fire in Honduras on the mainland. They were burning sugar cane. The smoke prevented the plane from making a landing.

We decided to book another night at our hotel. We took a ride share into Dallas to see the Dallas Museum of Art. The museum is free aside from a couple paid exhibits. We didn’t see these however. We walked around taking in the rest of the artwork. I was really hoping to see if they had any Picaso pieces. On our way through the European exhibit I saw a painting and said “That looks like a Monet”. I had enjoyed his work at the Beyond Monet exhibit in Milwaukee. I was correct. They did have some Picaso work.

Back in Madison they have a Picaso but it’s just the start of a drawing that was never finished. While the DMA had several pieces, a few were in a similar state. After the art museum, we went to see the Nasher Sculpture Garden nearby. I was most interested in the sculpture garden outside. They also had work inside as well as a band. We caught a couple songs before heading out.

Klyde Warren Park is right there. They had a bunch of food trucks. We stopped there to split some sliders and cuban rolls. After that we caught another Lyft to Fort Worth. Our plan for the night was to see our first rodeo. Beforehand we saw a train turntable. We weren’t sure what it was at first. Once I realized it I got a kick out of it. Collecting Lionel trains in my youth, my younger self would have been proud to finally have seen one in person.

We saw a cattle drive. There were less than a dozen cows. They had a few people on horses to lead the cattle. The whole thing was very touristy. The Fort Worth Stockyards was definitely a tourist trap. It was still pretty cool to see, seems like something that’s very “Texas”. We ate dinner at the H3 Ranch which was a pretty nice restaurant attached to a hotel. We split burnt ends and a full rack of ribs. The food was delicious, and definitely seemed like what we should be eating in that environment.

The rodeo was fun but a little painful to see the animals get tied. That day they were doing rookie of the year. So all the top rookies were competing for the best spot. Our favorite act was probably when the women riding the horse would rope a steer but not drop it. A guy at the end of the night was hurt pretty bad by a bull. That was hard to watch too.

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Wyalusing State Park

We took our family camping at Wyalusing State Park. The park is where the Mississippi River and Wisconsin River meet in the Southwest corner of the state. We camped at site 236 in the Homestead campground. It was a nice site at the end of the cul-de-sac. We also drove through the Wisconsin Ridge campground. Those sites were more exposed generally. Some had steep drop-offs from the campsites. That always makes me a bit nervous due to my fear of heights.

While we there, we saw some CCC era infomration in a small building. There were photos and paragraphs of text describing what the experience was like during that time. We did the interpretive hike on the Sugar Maple Trail. It was a bit strenuous. We should have brought water and snacks for Annabelle. We saw Pictured Rock Cave.

Another hike we did was Sand Cave Trail. There were two caves. The first cave we saw was bigger than the second. The larger one we could walk underneath. The smaller one we viewed from afar from a higher vantage point.

Nearby one of the overlooks in the park is the Bluff Trail. We walked down this trail where there was another cave. I didn’t go all the way to this cave however. There were steep steps and we were concerned that our dog Buster couldn’t make it down. Linda and Annabelle saw this cave. It turned out to be the best one, you could actually crawl inside. Basically what you’d think a cave would look like.

Wyalusing is a Dark Sky Park. They have astronomy talks there. We didn’t get to check it out but it would be fun to do that sometime. We learned a lot about the glacial activity that altered the landscape. The Mississippi River was originally the Wyalusing River. It flowed east until glaciers changed the flow.

We did a short hike to see Indian Mounds on Sentinel Ridge Trail. The mounds had beautiful wild flowers growing on them. Mounds were also marked behind our campsite on the map. We might not have known they were there without an obvious marker though.

Poison Ivy was at the park along with a couple other poisonous plants. We were cautious to avoid them.

The park had a playground area with a concessions stand. We stopped there both Saturday and Sunday. Annabelle got to play with other kids and we treated ourselves to dippin’ dots after hiking both days. We bought ice there too. The store supports the Friends of Wyalusing.

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Ashville, NC and Columbus, OH

Linda, Annabelle and I took a road trip for our friends’ wedding. They got married at the The Omni Grove Park Inn in Ashville, NC. We left Thursday October 4. I drove through the night. AB kept me company while I drove. She got a kick out of Chicago. First she was surprised at all the traffic. She also loved to see the train and the platform for the train. Chicago had a horrible smell to it that Annabelle didn’t like one bit. We stopped at a motel parking lot to sleep about an hour outside Ashville.

We had some time to kill before our check in. So we stopped by the North Carolina Arboretum. They were getting set up for their Christmas lights display while we visited. We saw their bonsai collection. By far these were the most amazing bonsai trees I have ever seen. I suspect it’s attributed to the fact that they are cared for professionally. Because it was fall, the leaves were turning colors in Ashville. The leaves on several of the bonsai trees were also turning colors. I thought that was awesome. While we were at the arboretum, we hiked about five miles. Annabelle was a trooper on the hike. Linda walks a bit slower than I do. At first I would wait for her or try to walk her pace. Eventually I realized that AB would hustle to keep up with me. Some of the trails we walked were flat, while another one went up a ridge. It was a beautiful fall hike.

After our hike, we stopped at Papa’s & Beer Mexican Restaurant. We dined in for lunch. Prices were reasonable and portions were fairly large. When we arrived at Omni I quickly realized this was not the type of hotel we would typically patronize. The hotel had a view of the smokey mountains from it’s backside. There was a lot of history behind it. An older part of the hotel used to have horse drawn carriages come through it. A fair number of guests were dressed very well, fancy dresses and suits. I spent a couple late nights at their piano bar.

On our way home, we took a slight detour to see my sister Kristen in Columbus OH. She lives in a funky neighborhood called German Village. We stayed at the Hampton Inn Columbus-South. In the morning, we took Annabelle to play at Schiller Park. We stopped for some pastries at Fox In The Snow Cafe. Later that day we drove home. It was a nice trip, short but sweet.

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Nelson Dewey State Park

Linda and I took our daughter Annabelle and our golden retriever, Buster, to Nelson Dewey State Park over Labor Day weekend. The park is near Cassville by the Mississippi River. We booked a site for Friday night through Monday afternoon. We worked a full day. Picked up AB from daycare and headed to the park. You take 151 southwest from Madison to get there. Once you get off of 151 there is still a ways to go. I was cautious driving at night through the country. We got there late and set up in the dark.

They have a handful of different trails to hike. We hiked all of them. Each of them are less than a mile long. It was very doable for Annabelle who is four years old. We saw nice views of the Mississippi River. The trails took us through woods and some prairie on top of a ridge. Parts were paved while others were not. While we were on the ridge, we saw a train coming past below us.

On Saturday we went canoeing through Y’Allbee Tubin on the Grant River. We met at Raisebeck Bridge (County U- Beetown).  Linda, Annabelle and Buster waited while Y’Allbee followed me to the end at Udelhoven Bridge (Camel Ridge Rd.)  Then they shuttled me back to the start. It was our first time with Buster in a canoe.  He was nervous.  Buster jumped out of the canoe into the river. He was startled when we went over a rock where the river picked up.  In hindsight we should have introduced Buster to boating in a more controlled environment.

Part of the reason Buster was nervous was because he was in the back of the canoe with me. He is more comfortable around Linda. During the workday he lays by her desk at home. Later he crawled up by Linda and relaxed more.  We stopped so Linda could have a beer on a small island in the river. 

At the first bridge we came to, we got stuck on a rapid.  A guy at the river helped move our canoe from the rock.  Linda and I debated whether we wanted to stop. There was a beach with a bunch of boats and people. We pulled the canoe on shore. I hopped out and found that our car was actually parked there. It was a good thing we stopped when we did.

We caught the tail end of the sunset on Saturday and Sunday night overlooking the Mississippi River. While we were hiking we came across a couple logs full of mushrooms. I sent my friend AJ a picture of them. He said they were golden oysters. I picked a grocery bag full of them before we left.

On Labor Day, we packed up to leave. On our way out, we stopped for lunch at the entrance to the park. We saw under a tree. While we ate, we watched trains come along the tracks. Annabelle liked seeing the trains come through.

A slight detour on the way home took us to the UW Platteville campus, my alma mater. Linda and I walked the campus with Buster while Annabelle rode her bicycle. I was hoping to walk through a couple buildings. Unfortunately this wasn’t possible as they all required IDs to badge into them now. One thing that really struck me was how young the college students seem to me now. I did that math on it though. I am twice as old as they are.

Before we left, we stopped by the Platteville Mound. The mound is also known as the M. There is a large letter M in the side of the hill made out of rocks. It is 241 feet high, 214 feet wide, with legs 25 feet wide. Stairs lead up the side of it. We hiked up the stairs and spent some time enjoying the view from the top before heading home.

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Porkies or Bust!

We took the family to the Porcupine Mountains over Memorial Day weekend. We packed somewhat light, although we had both Annabelle and Buster in tow. Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park is the largest park in Michigan. It’s in the Upper Peninsula.

We planned on camping Friday night through Sunday morning. Our plans changed a bit due to the weather. The forecast was below freezing on Friday. We spent that night at my brother’s cabin in Presque Isle Wisconsin, which was about 45 minutes away. We stayed in site 66 at Union Bay campground. The campground is very open. It’s basically a field with a few trees scattered throughout the campground. The sites aren’t private at all. They did have running water and showers.

At the Porkies you’re able to go back country camping if you want. There are a lot of trails to hike. From what I can tell, you could hike everything from a day hike if you didn’t want to base camp instead. Annabelle is only four. So the hikes we did were generally short, maybe a mile or two. We would pick out an attraction to go see, like a waterfall. Linda had a better bearing on the names of the waterfalls and trails on the map. I wanted to get some notes down before I forget too much. She can always go back and update.

While we were there, we saw some interesting wildlife. When we first got to the park, we saw a coyote walking down the road. It was a ways away from us. I think there was a chance we could see a wolf up there. But this K9 was too small to be a wolf. The day before we left, we hiked the interpretive trail nearest the headquarters. While we were on that trail, we saw a fisher. We had a lot of distance between us but the fisher was timid and quick. I snapped a picture of him before we scared him off.

One of the things I wanted to see at the Porcupine Mountains was the ghost town. There is an abandoned mining village with a lot of history behind it. We saw the brick shell remnants from buildings. One of the trails went past a part of the river where they used to have a water wheel. You could see where the rock in in the river was cut for the wheel. We also saw a number of mining shafts, some of which were collapsed.

The park runs alongside Lake Superior. The river flows into the great lake. There is also an inland lake called Lake of the Clouds. We took in a beautiful view of it. It was a short hike. The landscape makes a sort of a bowl, with the Lake of the Clouds at the bottom of it. Tons of beautiful trees surround it.

The day we left, Annabelle had a ton of fun climbing on the rocks alongside Lake Superior right next to the campground. She had a ton of energy. We figured it would be good to let her romp around and get some energy out.

The Porkies has a number of cabins and yurts out in the woods. You can reserve them. So even in the winter, you could hike to them and stay over night. I thought that would be fun to try sometime. Perhaps when Belle is older.

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Travel journal progress

I transcribed a few more journal entries tonight. I’m still working on our honeymoon. I went through the entries from Rome, Italy. As mentioned earlier you can read them at this link:

https://waywardrambling.com/2014/09/

After Rome we also visited Prague in the Czech Republic as well as Munich in Germany. I will get to those other two cities another time.

I’m having a blast transcribing these entries though. I fondly recall some events from our trip as I type out the details on each page. Journaling is a nice way to stretch a little more enjoyment out of a vacation. You can go back and revisit it years down the road.

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Travel Journal Progress

Just wanted to drop a note. I am trying to make progress transcribing our entries from our pen and paper travel journal. A little at a time, I’ll get it done eventually. At the moment I am still working my way through our European honeymoon. Tonight I finished the last two days we spent in Budapest, Hungary. Budapest was our favorite city we visited on that trip. It is a lot of fun typing out these entries onto the weblog. Takes me back. At any rate, I wanted to mention it because I am entering timestamps from the original writings. They won’t show up on the top of the page when I post them. If you want to read these entries, you can find them here:

https://waywardrambling.com/2014/09/

I’ll try to give another update when I make more progress with the old entries.

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Chattanooga, TN – Ritchie Hollow Trail

Kristen came up with a list of hikes for us to do as we left town. I must say that one of my favorite things to do in Atlanta is hike the mountains of Appalachia. On our way home, we stopped in Chattanooga, TN to hike the Ritchie Hollow Trail.

To get to the trail head, we drove on a very small road that ran parallel to the Tennessee River. The road was very narrow. The locals didn’t feel the need to drive the reasonable speeds that we did on our way down that road.

Within the first half mile of the hike, we came across a waterfall. I started to realize it would be common to see them in that part of the country. It isn’t unusual to have a small waterfall as a stream comes down a mountain. The hike itself was very rocky. Some of the rocks made steps. There was one part of the trail where two large trees had fallen. Rather than clean the trees from the trail, they cut steps into them. Annabelle and Buster got a kick out of going over stuff like that.

We were surprised at the amount of hiking AB did that day. We did carry her a little bit on the way home. But she insisted on walking shortly after we put her in the kid carrier. We probably hiked a mile and a half before we turned back. We came to a point in the trail where several switch backs began an aggressive climb up the mountain. Annabelle loved going up them. She would have gone up many more if we let her.

We didn’t want to spend too much time hiking. We wanted to get out of the mountains best we could before we lost daylight. Linda drove up until Illinois. I drove home from there. We made it home about 4 am.