Note: I have already shared some of our activities while we were in Ohio and the trip there from Florida in previous blog posts. Now I will do several posts telling you a bit about our trip home. I have to keep reminding myself, with Terry’s help, that we are no longer working on the […]
Note: Since most of yesterday was taken up with doctor appointments and then a long MRI that started at 6:30 p.m., I’m too tired to write a blog. So here is a repeat of one from 2012 that visitors to the Midwest might enjoy. Tucked away on a back road just two miles north of […]
More than once I have joked that I come from a long line of horse thieves, card sharks, shady ladies, and other assorted riffraff. I’ve always claimed that in jest, but it appears I wasn’t that far off the mark. As I mentioned before, I recently got a subscription to Newspapers.com to do research on […]
First settled in 1788, the rough frontier outpost where the mighty Ohio River and the Licking River come together grew to become a major industrial boomtown and shipping port for riverboats, earning it the nickname the Queen City of the West. Today everybody knows it by its formal name, Cincinnati, Ohio. For most of the […]
Note: This story is from my book Highway History And Back Road Mystery II, available on Amazon. In the charming little town of Point Pleasant, West Virginia, located on the bank of the wide Ohio River, we discovered the story of pioneer heroine Ann Bailey, whose life and adventures have become a part of the […]
When it comes to supplying men who would go on to hold the highest office in the land, only the state of Virginia has been the birthplace of more future presidents than Ohio. Seven men from the Buckeye State would eventually live in the White House. One of the most colorful them was unquestionably Ulysses […]
Ever since I first heard John Denver sing about West Virginia I always wanted to go there and see those beautiful mountains and green valleys he sang about. While I always enjoyed the man’s music, apparently the part of West Virginia that John Denver was familiar with wasn’t along US Highway 52. We’ve covered a […]
We had a great time in the Cincinnati area and came away with several stories to share with you about some of the interesting places you can visit on your next trip to the Queen City in future blog posts. Whether you like historical sites like the Harriet Beecher Stowe House or the William Howard […]
Except for the eight weeks I spent at Fort Knox for basic training when I first joined the Army, way back in 1971, and several visits during our RVing days, I have never lived in Kentucky. Yet I feel a strong affinity for the Bluegrass State for some reason. Maybe it’s because I read so […]
Back when we were teaching at Life on Wheels we spent a lot of time in southern Kentucky since one of our venues was at Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green. So it kind of felt like old home week when we were visiting our friends Tom and Barbara Westerfield just south of there in […]
Just a short blog post today. Terry and I got home last night from an eleven day road trip that took us from our home in Edgewater, Florida to Alabama to visit my son Travis and his wife Geli, and then just north of Nashville to meet up with long time RVing friends. From there […]
Well, I had hoped that by now Steve the computer would be a piece of gutted history collecting dust on a shelf in the garage, or better yet on its way to a recycling place or wherever condemned computers go when they die. But Steve’s going to get a reprieve, at least for a little […]
We discovered history and mystery in Point Pleasant, West Virginia, a charming little community located on the bank of the majestic Ohio River in the foothills of the rugged Appalachian Mountains. The county seat of Mason County, Point Pleasant has been the scene of violent Indian conflicts, was an important riverboat stop, and is even […]
Note: This story is from my book Highway History And Back Road Mystery. Poised high on a hill overlooking the Ohio River in the tiny Indiana town of Troy stands a beautiful testament to love that was conceived during a terrible period of ugliness and hate. The Christ of the Ohio monument towers nineteen feet […]
Note: This story is from the September-October, 2016 issue of the Gypsy Journal. The world of baseball was changed forever thanks to an enterprising German immigrant and his son. J. Frederick Hillerich and his family first settled in Baltimore, Maryland in 1842, and then moved to Louisville, Kentucky a few years later. He started a […]
Note: This story about the youngest Civil War soldier in the Union Army is from my book Highway History And Back Road Mystery II. When President Abraham Lincoln called for 100,000 volunteers to fill the ranks of the Union Army in 1861, long lines of men and boys streamed into recruiting centers across the nation. Local […]
I can always trust my blog readers to set me straight when I make a mistake. Such was the case in yesterday’s blog, when I showed a picture of a Morris Minor pickup truck that I said someone had made from a car. Wayne Shunamon posted a comment saying that Morris Minor did indeed build […]
Note: This is a story from my book Highway History And Back Road Mystery, available in print and e-book format from Amazon. Located on the banks of the Ohio River, Tell City, Indiana is a pleasant little community of wide streets, modest homes with well trimmed lawns, and friendly small businesses. The city’s downtown area […]
Does a mysterious winged creature haunt the hills and valleys along the Ohio River near Point Pleasant, West Virginia, warning people of disasters to come? You may scoff, but many believe the story is true. We learned all about in on an RV trip through the area a few years ago. The strange tale began […]
As I said in yesterday’s blog, we weren’t sure if we would leave Saturday or Sunday to begin our trip south, depending on the weather. There were a couple of systems coming through the region that were going to bring some rain, but none of them looked to be very large. It started raining hard […]