Saturday, October 29, 2016

Florida at Last

Hi All,

We are in Florida with one more travel day to Barberville Pioneer Settlement.

We are camped at Three Rivers State Park with this beautiful view of the Lake Seminole sunset from our site.


Today is also National Cat Day. Here Ginger is celebrating by doing what she does best!
Love,

Sandy & Carl 
Living & Traveling in our Motorhome
Volunteering across America
617-435-8502
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Tuesday, October 25, 2016

Keller and Rosenbaum Houses

Hi All,
While our coach was being worked on we visited two interesting houses with fascinating stories.

In Tuscumbia, AL we visited the birthplace of Helen Keller. If the name does not sound familiar, rent or stream "The Miracle Worker" to learn about this extraordinary woman who learned to communicate though blind and deaf, graduated from Radcliffe (cum laude no less) and went on to be an author and political activist.

The family home built by her grandfather in 1820.

Helen lost her sight and hearing at age 19 months, probably from scarlet fever. At age six, the family hired a recent graduate of Perkins School for the Blind in Boston. Anne Sullivan moved to Alabama and became Helen's teacher. This is the bedroom that Anne and Helen shared.

Helen age 8 with Anne.

Anne was so successful teaching Helen to communicate that Helen  got accepted to Radcliffe. 

Imagine Anne attending all of Helen's lectures with her to sign into her hand then reading almost all of the assignments and signing all of the text into Helen's hand. Very few Braille texts existed in the early 1900's. Here is Helen's graduation picture.

This image reflects how Braille takes a lot of space. Helen is reading a book from her bible. The rest of her bible is stacked behind her!

About six miles from the Keller home is the home of the Rosenbaum family. Mr. Rosenbaum was an English professor at Northern Alabama University. In 1940 he commissioned Frank Lloyd Wright to design and build a home on a bluff overlooking the Tennessee River.


The house has a fascinating organic design with rich woods, clerestory windows and miles of book shelves. No interior photos are allowed. This is a photo of a photo from the Visitor Center. Wright designed the furniture as well.
Mr. Rosenbaum died in the 60's, the four sons moved away and the City of Florence, AL restored the house to a museum on the passing of Mrs. Rosenbaum in 1998.

In the Visitor Center we learned a lot about Frank Lloyd Wright, his life and the evolution of his architectural concepts.

Back in Red Bay most but not all of the repairs were done. Hopefully, we will be finished tomorrow.

Love,

Sandy & Carl 
Living & Traveling in our Motorhome
Volunteering across America
617-435-8502
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Monday, October 24, 2016

Nashville Part 2

Hi All,

Friday morning we toured the Belle Meade Plantation, one of the premiere producers of thoroughbred race horses in the country at the end of the 19th century.


They had large cow herds as well and sold dairy products throughout the region.

Prior to the Civil War the plantation had 136 slaves living in buildings like this.

After the Plantation and some afternoon retail therapy we attended the Grand Ole Opry. Here's the huge theatre filling up. A great show and we have since downloaded albums from two of the acts.

Saturday we were back downtown at another bar on Broadway. Two hours of one band

then another hour with another group. 

Back at the campground the turkeys came to visit. Every time the little boy reached out to wave to the turkeys, they ran to him expecting to be fed!
Sunday we drove to Red Bay where will hopefully get all our needed repairs done in a week.

Love,

Sandy & Carl 
Living & Traveling in our Motorhome
Volunteering across America
617-435-8502
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Thursday, October 20, 2016

Nashville

Hi All,


We are in Nashville for a few days to take in the sights and country music. There's a lot of music in the "Music City" but there' also a lot of city!

Downtown Broadway is lined with bars featuring almost continuous live music. The bands play for tips and they are remarkable. Here's the seven piece "Slingshots".

We never got this young woman's name but sure enjoyed her show. One of the older patrons took a liking to her and bought the whole band two rounds of drinks!

The Country Music Hall of Fame has exhibits covering the whole history and scope of country music. This wall displayed over 400 gold records.

OK, so they look purple but you all know what these are and who did not want you to step on them.

A fascinating exhibit covered the time Bob Dylan spent n Nashville and his relationship with Johnny Cash. Of course, that was before Dylan was a Nobel Laureate.

The rotunda displays bronze plaques for each of the Hall of Fame inductees from Minnie Pearl to Charlie Daniels.

Stay tuned for more museums, music and the Grand Ole Oprey.

Love,

Sandy & Carl 
Living & Traveling in our Motorhome
Volunteering across America
617-435-8502
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Monday, October 17, 2016

Sandhill Cranes

Hi All,

In the spring we have seen thousands of sandhill cranes migrating north through Nebraska at the Platte River. It turns out they take a different route south in the fall. One spot where they rest and feed is in NW Indiana at the Jasper-Pulaski Wildlife Area.

We were up well before dawn to get there at sunrise.


The cranes began arriving just before sunrise.

Goose pasture is where the birds gather before dispersing throughout the area's cornfields to feed during the day.

Once the sun was up, many birds headed off to feed.

The cranes glowed in the early morning light.

At sunrise there were only three other people on the viewing platform. At sunset there were over 50!

This is what the birds look like in our spotting scope.

In the hour around sunset over a thousand birds settled into the pasture. Here are two in silhouette.
Tomorrow we are off to Nashville for some country music.

Love,

Sandy & Carl 
Living & Traveling in our Motorhome
Volunteering across America
617-435-8502
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Saturday, October 15, 2016

Le Claire Iowa

Hi All,

We took a rest day in Rock Island, IL. We decided to visit the little tourist town of Le Claire along the Mississippi River.

Lots of excursion boats do trips along the river.


History Channel viewers may have seen "American Pickers". This is the location of Frank & Mike's shop, Antique Archaeology.

Mike Wolfe is a serious motorcycle collector. How about this six cylinder land speed record BSA motorcycle!
Tomorrow we head to Indiana in search of migrating Sandhills cranes.

Love,

Sandy & Carl 
Living & Traveling in our Motorhome
Volunteering across America
617-435-8502
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Thursday, October 13, 2016

Omaha Zoo

Hi All,
We spent five delightful, though exhausting hours touring the Henry Doorly Zoo today, our final day in Omaha before moving on. We ran out of energy long before we ran out of Zoo.

Let's get the creepy stuff out of the way first. This is a bird eating spider. It is 8-9" long!

The newest exhibit and residents are African elephants. A game reserve in South Africa was suffering a severe drought and was considering euthanizing 18 elephants. Three US zoos worked together to transport the animals to the States and make a series of annual payments to the reserve to continue their rhino conservation work. This is one of the six in Omaha.

The Zoo does a lot of conservation work in Madagascar and has an extensive exhibit dedicated to this giant island off the coast of South Africa. This ring-tailed was one of many lemurs.

This guy looks pretty menacing- even though it is a girl. The males looked more intimidating but were less photogenic. When we got home, Carl read on the BBC News that a gorilla had escaped at the London Zoo!

Lots of Orangutans on exhibit. This 14 year old female sat in front of the glass to pose.

In the cat house we saw this beautiful jaguar

and this stunning white Bengal tiger
There were also three Amur Tiger Cubs born in July-cute but too far away.

And finally, this stunning orange bishop weaver bird flying free in the Desert Dome exhibit.

Love,

Sandy & Carl 
Living & Traveling in our Motorhome
Volunteering across America
617-435-8502
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Tuesday, October 11, 2016

Desoto National Wildlife Refuge

Hi All,

We are spending a few days in the Omaha, NE area for Yom Kippur. 

Today we toured Desoto National Wildlife Refuge. When the Army Corps of Engineers was "channelizing" the lower Missouri River in the '50s they cut off a large oxbow to straighten the river. The resulting lake was incorporated into a refuge in 1958. It is pretty quiet here in October but 100,000 ducks and 500,000 geese spend the winter.

Desoto also has a shipwreck!

On March 18, 1865 the stern-wheel steamboat Bertrand left St Louis, headed upriver to bring passengers and supplies to Montana. On April 1st she hit a snag and sank. She was soon encased in mud and the river meandered away, leaving her in a meadow. Fast forward 102 years when the Bertrand was found and excavated from under 30 feet of mud.


Model of the Bertrand.

A small sample of over 200,000 artifacts recovered.

How about a case of axe heads.

We are now back at the coach for an early supper then off to Kol Nidre services for the start of Yom Kippur.

Love,

Sandy & Carl 
Living & Traveling in our Motorhome
Volunteering across America
617-435-8502
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Thursday, October 6, 2016

Laramie WY Highlights

Hi All,

We toured some local sites of interest today. First stop was the Wyoming Territorial Prison built in 1872 to house "over a thousand evil doers of all classes and kinds". The most famous inmate was Butch Cassidy, before he hooked up the Sundance Kid.


The warden's office reflects the many tasks required of the position.

The three story north cell block was pretty impressive for an 1872 prison.

The seated guy is Butch Cassidy. Not sure about the other guy.

Next stop was the Laramie Plains Museum, housed in the 1893 mansion built by Edward & Jane Ivinson. There "cottage" was only 11,700 square feet!

Every room was trimmed with different woods. The dining room was Spanish Mahogany.

The main stairway is lit by these beautiful stained glass panels.
Our house tour was conducted by docent Kim Viner. His encyclopedic knowledge and engaging delivery brought the house and Ivinson family alive for us.

Still hoping for the best for our family and friends on the east coast as hurricane Matthew continues northward.

Love,

Sandy & Carl 
Living & Traveling in our Motorhome
Volunteering across America
617-435-8502
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