Back to Boone, And the Arboretum (Sort of), Too

Sorry, but my transitioning back to the East Coast has caused me to fall behind with my posting here. This is the first of three posts that will have to serve as placeholders until I can find time to catch up. Only this one will be published in the meantime with references to all three …

Trekking in Riverside, Iowa-Another Quickie Trip

Did I mention that I’m a Trekker (okay, Trekkie, whatever)? I first started watching the original series in syndication in the early 1970s. In the early 1990s, I attended my first Star Trek convention in Tallahassee, Florida, while I was a grad student at Florida State University. While my personal collection of Trek mostly consists …

Iowa Weekend Quickie–Saturday

I am a North Carolinian, born and raised, but I have now spent nearly a third of my life in Iowa. I decided I wanted to take in some parts of my adopted home that I haven’t visited before I hie myself back to the East Coast. As usual when I plan a trip like …

Coming Together and Another Quickie Iowa Weekend

When I first started sharing stories and pictures about my travels, I had set up the blogs on WordPress, taking advantage of their free service. However, I’ve noticed that the free service has been adding more and more advertising to the pages, whereas this blog–which uses WordPress to create the posts but is hosted on …

A Three-Day Tour… of National Parks

I’ve been back from my three-day tour of Theodore Roosevelt National Park and Voyageurs National Park for two days at the point I created this post, and both parks are still on my mind. What an impression each made on me in such a short time! Folks crowd onto Yellowstone, Yosemite and other big parks–and …

Changing of the Guard

On my birthday (Thursday, September 17th), I took my usual day off. I decided to do some car shopping while I awaited the final steps before the insurance company claimed RB. My research had led me to decide on the Kia Soul for my next car. The closest dealership is in Des Moines, so I …

Tiptoe through the Tulips

Unfortunately, the forecast of cold, rainy and windy weather for most of Saturday was absolutely correct.  Since Sunday’s forecast was for more of the same, and I really had no interest in dealing with the anticipated crowds of the following weekend’s Tulip Time festival, I decided to just go and hope for the best. Pella, …

See the Tulips at Last?

I’ve lived in Iowa for nearly 12 years and only visited Pella twice, neither time when the town’s famous tulips were in bloom.  A library colleague has reminded me that this is tulip season there, and she found on her visit there yesterday, they are, indeed, in glorious bloom. So, I’ve decided to further delay …