Greetings and salutations,

It was six years and one day ago today when I published my first blog post dedicated to travel and photography. That same day (November 13, 2015) terrorists attacked a night club, a stadium, and an area with crowded cafes in Paris, killing 130 people and injuring over 400 of which 100 were critical. The next day, I published my second post about my 2013 trip to France with The Youngest. Click here if you are curious about what I said in that blog.

Since those two days six years ago, 316 articles, including this one, have appeared on this site every single Sunday at 4:00 PM Central Time. As I’ve said many times in the past, this is the longest I’ve stuck with one thing in my life, that is with the exception of my formal commitment to my Traveling Partner of 49 years and counting! My mind wanders a lot and my attention span is short but for some reason I kept at this task for six years with no plans to stop! I must admit there have been few times when I ran short on materials, both words and photos. But I persisted and have enjoyed every minute devoted to writing and researching these articles. I found it helps to have a large archive of photographs to draw on, I’ve used nearly 9000 photos with some appearing several times.

For me, the drive to write is like a pebble in my shoe that I can’t get rid of. That pebble reminds me every week to create these stories using prose and pictures then share them with you all. Since the pandemic began, in addition to writing this blog, I’ve also delved into memoir writing about my experiences growing up on a farm on the plains of western North DakotaI and about my time in the Army during the Vietnam era. I appreciate your indulgence with my writing and photographic ability. I hope I’m getting a little better at both! I also appreciate your comments and suggestions, you’ve been very kind and I’m grateful for your courtesy and feedback. I know your readership is voluntary, that’s why I pay WordPress extra to keep ads from popping up on this site. So from the bottom of my heart, thanks to all of you.

Let’s take a look at some of my favorite posts from the last year. I’ll start with the one where I wrote about some of our Thanksgiving celebrations over the years. Here’s a link to that story and a few photos.

I couldn’t help myself, these fellows were tired, waiting for their plane in Denver. We were on our way to Reno for Thanksgiving with my Traveling Partner’s sister and family.

We stopped by a vocational agriculture program in Carson City, Nevada. They had harvested turkeys for the Thanksgiving table.

This photo is from our Thanksgiving in Boone, North Carolina with our Son-in-law’s family. There was so much food, we needed all those forks!

Thanksgiving 2017 took us to St. Simons Island on the Georgia/Florida line. One day during our week-long stay we visited Castillo de San Marcos National Monument in Ft. Augustine. This is my favorite photo from that stop.

The sunrise over the Atlantic and beach at St. Simons Island.

In 2018 we had Thanksgiving with family in North Dakota. During our stay we drove through the Theodore Roosevelt National Park. It’s one of my favorite places in the world.
One of my favorites is a piece posted on December 6, 2020 about the Holodomor (to kill by starvation) that occurred in Ukraine in 1932-33 instigated by Joseph Stalin. Here’s a link to the full story and a few photos to stimulate your interest.

The pandemic had an affect on my ability to travel and take photographs for my blog. Until we were eligible for vaccination in March, we didn’t venture far from home. I relied on my archives and wrote stories from different perspectives with more depth. After the insurrection at the U. S. Capitol on January 6, I crafted a  piece on our 2019 trip to Washington, DC. Click here to read the full story.

In May when the pandemic looked like it was fading away, my Traveling Partner and I traveled to State College, Pennsylvania to visit The Eldest and the Son-in-law. We hadn’t seen them in person since Christmas 2019. This trip was not without incident. In a construction zone on I-80 in eastern Indiana, the water pump on the Red Rover gave out. Read all about our experience by clicking here. While the breakdown was nerve-racking, the kindness of strangers helped to renew faith in our fellow human at time when we needed it the most.

When the summer weather arrived, we hitched up the Minnie for several camping adventures. We are fortunate here in Wisconsin to have hundreds of state parks, forests, and recreational areas, many with campgrounds. Check out the Wisconsin DNR website to find a place to commune with nature and recharge your batteries. I can almost guarantee you won’t be alone, this year the DNR expects about 20 million visits to these sites around the state!

We camped at Potawatomi State Park (x 2), Willow River State Park, Mirror Lake State Park, and just a few weeks ago at Kettle Moraine State Forest. We served as volunteer campground hosts at Potawatomi State Park during the month of July. I detailed our experience in a post early in our stay. To read more about it, click here. We had so little time to explore scenic Door County that we returned for another five-day visit in mid-September.

This gives you a bit of a look-see at what I wrote about the past year. I did several reminisce articles when I didn’t have fresh material. I recall each and everyone of those times and experiences with fondness and gratitude. The thing about having another birthday every year, one looks back on their life and wonders where the time went and did I do anything meaningful with that time? Then we look to the future and try to do something to make the world we live in a better place for those who will come after us. It’s my hope that one or two of these stories will offer inspiration for others to tell others, at least family and friends, their own stories. You’ll be glad you did and so will they!

Until next week, happy travels!

Tom

PS: By the time you read this post, I’ll be in Death Valley, CA for photography workshop. Stay tuned for a bunch of new material when I return!