Spain and Portugal

January 5, 2023 Art

Since our Camino de Santiago walk was planned for mid-September 2022 we decided to bookend it with travel in Portugal and Spain. Leaving Chicago’s O’Hare Airport in September we tried to find Portugal and Spain’s flags in the terminal.

Our first city was Porto, Portugal. Our Airbnb was in the Old Town near the Douro River which allowed us to walk wherever we wanted to go.

Porto, Portugal Rio Douro walkway — The Rio Douro was once docks for the famous Port wine trade in Porto, it’s now a restaurant lined promenade.

Porto, Portugal sunset along the Rio Douro — The Rio Douro was once docks for the famous Port wine trade in Porto, it’s now a restaurant lined promenade.

Of course we crossed the Rio Douro to sample port wine at one of the wineries, we chose Taylor’s Winery.

Barak Obama’s visit to Porto, Portugal is commemorated at the Taylor Winery.

Porto, Portugal, Sao Bento train station — While we didn’t arrive by train, Porto’s Sao Bento Train Station is known for the elaborate tiles that show scenes from Portuguese history.

From Porto we headed to Vigo, Spain where our Camino de Santiago walk would begin. Our first night in Vigo we stayed on the Porta do Sol, right by the El Sireno monument.

Vigo, Portugal El Sireno "manfish" — El Sireno monument, our Airbnb host said it’s locally known as the “manfish”

After the Camino walk we flew from Santiago, Spain back to Portugal, this time to the country’s capitol Lisbon. Two of Lisbon’s attractions are the trolleys and the cobblestone paver sidewalks. The wavy tile pattern in Lisbon’s Rossio Square pavers is meant to invoke water, it also messed with Cindy’s balance a bit as she crossed it.

The people who labor to install the paver sidewalks are commemorated in a statue installation along the Rue 1 de Dezembro (December 1 is Portugal’s Independence Day).

While in Lisbon we did a side trip by train to Sintra, Portugal to tour the Palicio Nacional de Sintra. Sintra is known for the Palacio da Pena which looks like a fairy tale castle although other buildings in Sintra are really ornate.

Sintra, Portugal fairy tale Castle — Although it looks like a fairy tale castle this is actually a municipal office!

An ironic sight in the Palicio Nacional de Sintra is this wall with portraits of quite plain-looking people and a mirror stating “Only the illustrious deserve to be painted”, the 15th century equivalent to Instagram I guess.

Leaving Lisbon, we headed to Evora, Portugal, which a friend recommended we visit because of its well-preserved town center that still has some of its medieval walls and a Roman Temple.

Roman temple in Evora, Portugal — The Tempolo Romana de Evora.

Wandering the lanes in Evora we came across a restaurant advertising Fado music that night. Fado often has mournful tunes and lyrics infused with a sentiment of resignation, fate and melancholy. We appreciated the Fado singers even though we don’t speak Portuguese.

Our next destination was Seville, Spain. When we went to the Evora, Portugal bus terminal we were shocked that there wasn’t a good way to get there. We finally got advice to go to Faro, Portugal first then board another bus to Seville, so we were in for a full day of bus travel. Not at all what we thought would happen.

Arriving finally in Seville (a large town with 1.5 million people in the metro area) we had a couple of musts, one was the Real Alcazar one of the oldest palaces still in use in the world and another was to see Flamenco dancing.

Seville, Spain sign in front of the cathedral — Seville sign in front of the Cathedral of Seville

Elaborate space in the Real Alcazar in Seville

We saw a magnificent Flamenco dance performance in the Museo del Baile Flamenco Sevilla.

seville Giralda Tower city view — Seville view from the 342 foot Giralda Tower which is the bell tower of the Seville Cathedral.

Leaving Seville we made it to Cordoba on a quick 45 minute train ride. We only had two nights in Cordoba so as soon as we checked in the Airbnb, we headed out to see the Mosque-Cathedral of Cordoba (locally called the Mezquita Catedral de Cordoba). The Mosque-Cathedral is a mosque turned into a cathedral, go figure. The mosque part is human sized and inviting, the cathedral part is overwhelming and ostentatious.

Mosque-Cathedral comparison, mosque on the left, cathedral on the right.

Our Airbnb in Cordoba had an alarm clock next-door, the bell tower of a church!

cordoba church bell tower — Our Airbnb in Cordoba had an alarm clock next-door, the bell tower of a church!

Our next stop was Ronda, this small city has the Guadalevín River running through it. The river has carved a steep 300+ foot canyon that separates the town into two parts. After a few collapsed attempts, the town completed the spectacular “New Bridge” to span the canyon in 1793.

Ronda’s a popular tourist destination and with good reason, it has history, welcoming streets, ancient buildings and that spectacular cliff view. But onward we go, our next stop is Granada, Spain and its La Alhambra “the best preserved Medieval Muslim City in the world”.

A couple of train rides got us to Granada in time to drop our bags at the Airbnb and head out to the Moorish quarter where we read there’s a great sunset view of the La Alhambra.

La Alhambra seen from the overlook square.

We had tried to get tickets to La Alhambra a few days prior and found them sold out. Slightly panicked we looked in the guidebook and it mentioned the Granada Pass may get us in. We looked into that and it worked!

La Alhambra’s famous stalactite ceiling decorations

After viewing the many stunning rooms and pools you come across the barrio where ordinary people lived in small one or two room dwellings.

Madrid – our next stop is a really big city with many personalities. When we first arrived we took two self guided walks…

The first walk was of historic Madrid, its Plaza Mayor has plaques commemorating historic events that took place in the square…in this case a Spanish Inquisition torture!
The second walk got us on the Calle Gran Via, a big busy shopping boulevard where we found the Dear Hotel’s rooftop bar to catch sunset.
This Madrid Airbnb is typical of the lodging we had, a converted top floor space in the historic district.

Three Madrid highlights were the Museo de America and its galleries featuring Mesoamerican artifacts, the Royal Palace of Madrid which is still in use by Spain’s royal family and Picasso’s 1937 Guernica at Madrid’s Reina Sofia, seeing the huge painting and reading its horrific war story was very moving. Guernica measures 25 ft 6 in across and 11 ft 5 in tall.

Mesoamerican artifacts at Madrid’s Museo de America

Picasso’s Guernica, painted in response to the April 26, 1937 bombing of Guernica during the Spanish civil war.

While in Madrid we took a day trip to Toledo, home of the 1586 El Greco painting “The Burial of the Count of Orgaz, the 15 x 11 foot painting has been hanging in the church of Santo Tomé since 1587.

“The Burial of the Count of Orgaz”, El Greco at Iglesia de Santo Tomé, Toledo, Spain

Our train to our next to last city Valencia gave us a scare when in the middle of nowhere it reversed course and started going the other way, announcements were made in Spanish that were useless to us, but we somehow arrived in Valencia OK.

Beach day at Platja el Cabana in Valencia, it wasn’t warm enough for us to go in the water but the sun felt great.

During our stay in Spain and Portugal, “Esparto Blanco” asparagus was often on our plate for the vegetable, they’re soft, watery and kind of tasteless, we found them totally unappealing.

After five weeks of traveling we came to our last stop, Barcelona. Barcelona is in the Spanish region of Catalonia which has a fraught relationship with the rest of Spain. In fact in 2017 Catalonia held a referendum and voted to declare the region an independent republic. Barcelona is known for its architectural gift to the world “Modernisme” created by Antoni Gaudí and his contemporaries

An attendee at an independence rally cloaked in the flag of Catalonia.

We closed our Camino de Santiago, Portugal and Spain trip taking home a fantastic recipe for Tinto de Verano…1/2 half Spanish wine like Zinfandel, Pino Noir or Merlot, 1/2 half 7-Up, and a lemon slice or a splash of lemon juice, Cheers!

The Camino de Santiago

November 30, 2022 Art

The Camino de Santiago is a network of pilgrim routes leading to the shrine of the apostle Saint James the Great in the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in northwestern Spain. Tradition holds that the remains of the apostle are buried there.

Cindy and I had often talked about doing one of the routes and with some advice from a seasoned traveler we chose the Camino Portuguese, the second most traveled route after the Camino Frances.
The whole Camino Portuguese is 643 km, rather than spend a month on the trail we chose to do an abbreviated version of 100 km which is the minimum distance that allows you to receive recognition in the form of a “Compostela” certificate issued by the Chapter of the Cathedral of Santiago.

We used the trip provider CaminoWays for our night’s lodging and luggage transfers so we could head out each day carrying only what we needed for that day’s walk and knowing we had a place to sleep that night.

Our daily walks varied from 5 miles to 15 miles. Most rural legs had one or two cafes along the way.

The last 100 Km of the Camino Portuguese

Our walk started mid-September in Vigo, Spain an Atlantic Ocean port city with a population of about 250,000. There was a bit of rain, luckily we had rain coats, pants and waterproof shoes. As we walked along the marked path suburban Vigo gave way to woods. This part of the route is high above the Ria De Vigo waterway. Our destination was Redondela, Spain, 9.3 miles from our start point.

Vigo, Spain, the start of our Camino! Follow the yellow arrow.

Before starting the journey we got our Pilgrim’s Passport at the local police station.

Day 2, Redondela to Arcade. Redondela is a small town known locally for the two railroad bridges that hover high over the main part of town.

Cindy’s dinner dessert was Crema Cafe con Espuma de Orujo (coffe mousse with crème foam) it was amazing.

Day 3, Arcade to Pontevedra took us across an old one-lane stone bridge and then through the rolling hills of the town’s outskirts.

Pontevedra one-lane stone bridge on the Camino Portuguese — The path was usually well marked with shell tiles and arrows.

Day 4, Pontevedra to Caldas de Reis led through vineyards and woods.

Day 5, Caldas de Reis to Padron took us past this old church and its above-ground burial vaults topped with crosses.

Day 6, Padron to Teo. A common sight was these old stone pools fed by a running fountain, it wasn’t hot enough to entice us.

Stone pool along the Camino Portuguese — Stone pool.

Day 7, Teo to Santiago. Our endpoint of the walk. The cathedral houses the Tree of Jesse pillar marked with grooves from centuries of hands, the statue of St James and the Tomb of the Saint where thanks are given for all that has been encountered on the journey.

The Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela — We made it to the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela.

Compostela certificates — Our ‘Compostela’ certificates, in Latin no less! “Arturum” and “Cynthiam”

USA travel

Cahokia Mounds

July 26, 2022 Art

We’ve driven past the signs for Cahokia Mounds in Southwestern Illinois lots of times on our travels to and from Tucson, Arizona.

The Cahokia Mounds are BIG! At the top of this one you can see a person.

“The remains of the most sophisticated prehistoric native civilization north of Mexico are preserved at Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site. Within the 2,200-acre tract, located a few miles west of Collinsville, Illinois, lie the archaeological remnants of the central section of the ancient settlement that is today known as Cahokia.“

I’d done some reading about the site and was intrigued but not enough to make a side trip there since I perceived it as just some nondescript hills.
Then in early 2022 I read that they had added an Augmented Reality (AR) Application to enhance a visit to the mounds. That seemed like fun so we made plans to spend time there as a side trip to a few days in St. Louis, MO.

The Cahokia Mounds Augmented Reality app costs $4.99. It’s available for iPhone and Android.

The app lets you see the mounds as they looked 1,000 years ago, including the people, structures and artifacts.
On a windy day in early May, Cindy and I spent a morning “augmenting reality” with the help of my iPhone and some shared earbuds.

Cahokia Mounds Augmented Reality on an iPhone — Scanning a code and then pointing your phone reveals a image of what that area looked like when Cahokia was active.

Cahokia Mounds Augmented Reality scene of stockade and people — The augmented reality scenes are populated with people and sounds.

Monks Mound and sign at Cahokia Mounds — The biggest mound, Monks Mound size was calculated in 1988 as about 100 feet high, 955 feet long including the access ramp at the southern end, and 775 feet wide.

The reading I’ve done suggests that the mounds were a gathering place for the native tribes in the midwest from about 800 to 1400. It took us a couple hours to tour the multiple mounds and fields in the complex.

The Cahokia Mounds entry sign in on Collinsville Road, Collinsville, Illinois, USA

Trailer, USA travel

We had a Sticker Deficit

December 27, 2021 Art

…the USA map on the back of our trailer had a lack of states visited in the northeast part of the US.

The USA map on our trailer was missing some states. — With five years of travel we saw that we neglected the northeast USA

So we planned a trip for mid-September 2021 that’d take us from Chicago to Vermont, Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut and New York also adding the cities of Montreal and Quebec, Canada since we’d be going that way.

Our route included stops in Montreal and Quebec City, Canada

Since Covid 19 is a concern, we had to have a negative Covid 19 test to cross the US/Canada border. We got out tests near home and headed to Port Huron, Michigan to wait for our results. Luckily the results came in a day and we passed through the border without a hitch and traveled the 520 miles to Montreal.

Montreal Canada — Side streets near Montreal’s Place Jacques Cartier are picturesque.

Montreal's Notre-Dame de Bon Secoirs Chapel “the sailors church” — Montreal’s Notre-Dame de Bon Secoirs Chapel “sailors church” has little boats hanging from the ceiling.

Then on to Quebec City…

Mayan exhibit at the Musee de la Civilisation, Quebec City, Canada — Quebec City’s weather wasn’t the best during parts of our September visit, so we spent a rainy day at a Mayan exhibit at the Musee de la Civilisation

Quebec fall color — Some fall color at Parc national des Îles-de-Boucherville.

We left Canada at the Derby Line Port of Entry, Derby Line, Vermont crossing and were back in the USA. Cindy was disappointed that the border guard didn’t extend a “welcome back” greeting!

Our first stops in the US included…

The Flume in Franconia Notch State Park, Franconia, New Hampshire

set-in-the-woods yoga studio Harvest Hosts — We use Harvest Hosts for some stays, this one was a set-in-the-woods yoga studio. While you don’t pay a Harvest Host, you do purchase their goods so we did a 9 am yoga class before breaking camp.

We tour boated on Squam Lake in Holderness, New Hampshire. This is the lake where On Golden Pond was filmed. At one point the guide was showing us an eagles nest and the eagle swooped in right on cue.

Making our way down the coast toward we saw…

the Mayflower II, Plymouth, Massachusetts — We toured the Mayflower II a ship similar to what the Pilgrims came in.

Plymouth Rock and footprints — Plymouth Rock was protected by a guard but there were still footprints in the sand.

Massasoit statue in Plymouth Massachesetts — Massasoit, Great Sachem of the Wampanoags.

While chatting with some other campers we learned about a whale watching boat they were going on. We checked it out and were able to get tickets also. The boat took off from Provincetown which was great because we wanted to visit this town also.

Whale watching off the Provincetown, Massachusetts coast.

Provincetown main street — Provincetown’s main street is lined with quaint shops and restaurants.

Shining Sea Bikeway bike riders — Since we have bikes with us, we like to find places to ride, about 30 miles from Plymouth the Shining Sea Bikeway winds along the Vineyard Sound shorelines.

Making our way to Newport, Rhode Island we set up the trailer at Fisherman’s Memorial State Park. Newport is famous for its Cliff Walk with the Atlantic Ocean on one side and the estates of Guilded Age barons on the other. You can’t see much of the mansions from the walk but several are open for tours, we did the Vanderbilt’s Breakers and The Elms.

This portrait of Elizabeth Drexel Lehr hides a sad story. On her wedding night Elizabeth’s new husband Harry Lehr said “I do not love you, I can never love you. … Your money is your only asset in my eyes.”

Next stop Glastonbury, Connecticut and another Harvest Hosts stay.

One of the best places we stayed was a Harvest Hosts, Rose’s Berry Farm, our campsite was between a pond and a planted hillside.

mystic pizza — On our way to the Berry Farm we stoopped in Mystic, Connecticut for a slice at the Julia Roberts movie-famous Mystic Pizza.

We made our way into New York for a stay near Cooperstown, New York and of course a visit to Cooperstown & Baseball Hall of Fame

As we traveled back west to home we enjoyed stops at…

Letchworth State Park waterfall — Letchworth State Park, “the Grand Canyon of the East” no less, the Genesee River roars through the gorge over three major waterfalls.

Haymarket Brewery Harvest Hosts in Bridgeman, Michigan next to a cemetary — At the Haymarket Brewery Harvest Hosts in Bridgeman, Michigan we had VERY quiet neighbors.

trailer USA map with the northeast states filled in — MISSION ACCOMPLISHED…our USA map with the northeast states filled in.

Trailer, USA travel

Pacific Northwest Excursion

December 27, 2021 Art

After a winter stay in Tucson, Arizona we wanted to visit relatives and places in the Pacific Northwest again. Leaving Tucson in April, 2021, one of our first stops was Quartzite, Arizona. Since it was mid-April Quartzite was pretty quiet, many of the shops were on reduced hours. We found a place in the desert a bit north of town and set up for an overnight there.

Quartzsite freedom camping at sunset — There were few other campers in the area we chose, a bonus…cell phone reception is outstanding, four bars!

We moved on to Palm Springs to explore some of the mid century modern architecture. Both and Modernism Week and Desert X were happening while we were there.

Palm Desert mid century house — Palm Desert is loaded with mid century homes.

A drive of 300 miles got us to Three Rivers, California and the southern access to Sequoia National Park and the Giant Tree Grove, General Sherman tree and the Scenic Highway.

Named after Civil War general William Tecumsah Sherman, General Sherman is thought to be the largest single stem tree by sheer volume. Believed to be between 2,300 and 2,700 years old, it’s 275-feet tall and has a trunk diameter of 25-feet.

Standing in a sequoia tree — Yep, sequoias are big trees.

Friends of ours had a home on Bass Lake, California and they kindly invited us to stay with them and tour Yosemite National Park which is about an hour from Bass Lake.

Travel bikes in Yosemite National Park — Our friends suggested bike riding around Yosemite.

Beautiful mountain reflection — Yosemite is beautiful.

From there we headed to the Pacific Ocean coast north of San Francisco. Originally we had planned on visiting San Francisco, but Covid 19 had us preferring to avoid big cities. Mackerricher State Park was our stopping point, from there we visited Glass Beach which I’ve wanted to do for a long time.

Glass Beach used to be a garbage dump, it was active from 1906 to 1967 at several places in the area. After cleanups all that’s left are small pieces of beach glass.

Mendicino, California flowers — We wandered around historic Mendicino, California.

Traveling north on California Highway 1 and US 101 we stopped at Jessie M. Honeyman Memorial State Park in Florence, Oregon. One of the first things to do once we hit the coast is get a tide pool chart. We visited tide pools at Heceta Head Lighthouse then lunched at Luna Sea Fish House in Yahats.

Heceta Head Lighthouse tide pools — Heceta Head Lighthouse tide poolin’

Newport, Oregon seals on the docks — We had some noisy lunch companions in Newport, Oregon.

Continuing north we made it to Nehalem Bay State Park for another multi-day stop. There’s a lot to do in the area…

Cannon Beach sunset — Iconic Cannon Beach draws watchers and photographers at sunset.

Tillamook Creamery photo oopportunity — Photo opportunity at Tillamook Creamery.

Sleepy Monk Coffee in Cannon Beach, Oregon

Fort Clatsop stockade — Lewis and Clark wintered near Astoria, Oregon at Fort Clatsop

As we turned east, a wonderful stop was Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, several people had advised us to visit there, so we did.

Cycling Lake Coeur d’Alene on the Trail of the Coeur d'Alenes. — Cycling by Lake Coeur d’Alene on the Trail of the Coeur d’Alenes.

Arriving at Theodore Roosevelt National Park in Medora, North Dakota I was assured by the ranger that we’d see wild life. Well that was an understatement, within five minutes we encountered bison grazing by the side of the road.

Viewing bison right from the car — Like a safari, at Theodore Roosevelt National Park you see the animals right from your car.

Bison wander through the campground — Bison at Theodore Roosevelt National Park wander through the campground.

Almost home, our last night out was a Harvest Hosts, Zymurgy Brewing Co., in Menomonie, Wisconsin. This was out last night out. When we got home to Illinois, we’d covered 5, 167 miles in the five weeks since we started out in Tucson.

Zymurgy Brewing Company in an old gas station — The Harvest Hosts Zymurgy Brewing Company in Menomonie, Wisconsin in an old gas station.

USA travel

Utah Trip

December 8, 2020 Art

We’ve traveled back and forth to Tucson several times with the trailer, we finally added a side trip to southern Utah in October 2020. We’re self-contained when we travel with our trailer, so during Covid-19 we isolate on the road and activities are outside with masks on!

First stop Moab! What a thoroughly delightful town! In addition to its proximity to Arches and Canyonlands National Parks and Dead Horse Canyon State Park the small town itself is lively and eclectic.

Traffic in and out of Arches National Park can be terrible, so we rose early to get to the park with the added benefit of seeing sunrise on the sandstone.

Arches National Park Courthouse Towers at sunrise — We rose early to get to the park with the added benefit of seeing sunrise on the sandstone at Arches National Park.

Arches national Park wedding couple — This couple was having wedding photos taken with an arch as the backdrop.

Moab has a lively restaurant scene. We’d eaten home cooked meals for a week by the time we reached Moab so we jumped at the chance to have someone else cook and serve us at the outside patios.

Moab restaurants on Center Street — The Moab restaurant line-up we visited three nights in a row, hitting each!

Traffic jam on US 191 — Moab traffic jams near Arches National Park are legendary.

Moab street with 4-wheel vehicles — 4-wheel vehicles are abundant on downtown Moab streets

While Moab’s known for mountain biking, we took a bike ride on the Moab Canyon Pathway, 9 miles one way with a 509 ft climb out, then a speedy coast back.

We attended a star viewing at Dead Horse Point State Park, the Milky Way was visible! Photo credit: Bettymaya Foott

About a half hour drive out of Moab, Dead Horse Point State Park is a peninsula of rock atop sheer sandstone cliffs. Legend has it that Dead Horse Point State Park’s name derives from wild horse round ups that penned horses in the canyon. One time, for some unknown reason, horses were left corralled on the waterless point where they died of thirst within view of the Colorado River, 2,000 feet below. (I hope that’s just a legend.)

Canyon Lands National Park is a bit past Dead Horse Point, it’s a huge park of colorful canyons, mesas, buttes, spires and more.

Covid-19 era photos at the Grand View Point Overlook at Canyon Lands National Park.

Our next stop was Capitol Reef National Park, after the vastness and busyness of Arches and Canyonlands, Capitol Reef was a lot less crowded and smaller. We attempted a bike ride up the Scenic Drive but after the third seven degree hill we called it turn around time.

Biking the Scenic Drive at Capitol Reef National Park — Biking the Scenic Drive at Capitol Reef is a hilly challenge, we went about 4 miles before turning back.

Early settlers established the town Fruita along the Fremont River in a beautiful valley inside what’s now Capitol Reef. A few buildings and several producing orchards remain

Historic Fruita in Capitol Reef National Park — The Gifford House store and museum in Fruita sells wonderful personal-size locally-baked pies, we savored them on two days!

Our next park was Bryce Canyon National Park which is really otherworldly. The main hike is the Queen’s Garden Trail which takes you from the top to the bottom of the hoodoos in the Bryce Amphitheater.

Bryce Canyon archway on the Queen’s Garden Trail — An archway on the Queen’s Garden Trail at Bryce Canyon.

Our final National Park stop was Zion National Park. Auto access to the Zion Canyon Scenic Drive is restricted, shuttle bus tickets are required to reach trails. Of course we didn’t have tickets, so we biked the drive.

We parked our car in town just outside the park entrance and rode into the park, the Scenic Drive was six-ish medium-ly uphill miles to the end of the road and the famous Narrows. There was a steady stream of people going to and coming from the river start of the Narrows.

The bike back was a sweet downhill with stops at the lodge and Emerald Pools. Exiting the park we were hoping to eat at the first place we hit, the Canyon Brewery but the wait was insane. We came back the next night and were introduced to french fries with Chimichurri Sauce an Argentinian sauce/marinade made with chopped parsley and tangy from vinegar and lime juice.

Zion National Park The Narrows Trail start — Watching the action at the start of the Narrows.

French fries with Chimichurri Sauc — Fries with Chimichurri Sauce were fab!

Just outside of Zion, there’s a ghost town…
Grafton Ghost Town was first settled in 1859. Settlers struggled with devastating floods and native Americans protecting their lands from the intruders. The town was abandoned gradually in the first half of the 20th century. In 1997 a partnership was organized to protect, preserve and restore the Grafton Townsite.

What would have been our final day at Zion found temperatures projected to dropping below freezing and high winds, so we decided to hit the road for the warmth of Arizona before that started. Loved Utah though!

Utah and Kansas added to out travel map — We got to add Utah and Kansas stickers to the back of our trailer.

USA travel

Orphan Train Complex Museum

December 8, 2020 Art

On our way to Utah in the fall of 2020, we added a side trip to the The Orphan Train Complex Museum in Concordia, Kansas.

Cindy had read the book Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline and was intrigued by the story of New York City orphans being loaded on trains west to be adopted. The Kline book wasn’t very complementary about the situation. Between 1854 and 1929 an estimated 250,000 orphaned, abandoned and homeless children were placed in new homes.
Before we toured the complex we learned from a docent that the Kline book wasn’t historically accurate and sensationalized the situation. In real life the orphans were watched over by placement agents who screened prospective adoptee homes and did follow up visits. That’s not to say that the orphans were all happy about the situation. The museum has letters and histories of both successful and not successful placements.

An Orphan Train stopped in a town — An Orphan Train visits a town.

typical Orphan Train rail car — A typical train car as would have been used for an Orphan Train.

The Orphan Train Complex Museum in Concordia, Kansas

Concordia, Kansas Orphan Train statues — Scattered around Concordia, Kansas are statues of the children who rode the orphan train.

Trailer, USA travel

Trailering at Joshua Tree National Park with the Flintstones

August 15, 2019 Art

Back in 2016 we visited Joshua Tree National Park for a day. It’s another world, a prehistoric one and no part of it is more prehistoric-looking than its Jumbo Rocks Campground, you literally expect to see Fred Flintstone emerge from around the rocks. We vowed to someday camp there.

So in spring 2019 we headed there with our trailer with a two-night reservation for the Jumbo Rocks Campground, the thing about this campground is that it has no water or electricity for campers. Our trailer has fresh, grey and black water tanks and a single battery for camping without hookups. We figured we‘d last the two nights.

We climbed the jumbo rocks, sat in our private courtyard for dinner, and hiked to the Wall Street Mill that processed gold beginning in the late 1800s.

The Cholla Gardens look soft and fuzzy but they’re not!

At the end of two days, we didn’t want to leave Joshua Tree so we moved to another campground in the park for another night, adding water and charging the trailer’s battery a bit while we drove there. We knew we were pushing it with the battery, and sure enough we were out of electricity when we woke up after night three. So it was time to leave Joshua Tree. We never did see Fred.

trailer battery indicator reading empty — Battery indicator reading EMPTY after three nights with no plug-in power.

EastbounHistoric Route 66, Amboy, CA. — Eastbound from Joshua Tree put us on Historic Route 66, this stretch is in Amboy, CA.

Vietnam & Cambodia

Angkor Wat and the Temple Zone in Cambodia

December 5, 2018 Art

After leaving Vietnam Cindy and I, along with sister Janet and friend Mary Ann spent four days in Siem Reap, Cambodia touring the UNESCO World Heritage site of Angkor Wat and the other Angkor monuments. We signed up for a REI Extension that explored Angkor Wat, the fortified city of Angkor Thom and the town of Siem Reap.

The crowds show up for sunrise at Angkor Wat.

It’s a steep climb to the top of Angkor Wat.

The remarkable Bayon Temple, adorned by over 200 smiling stone faces created in the likeness of a Khmer King.

Here and there in the temples our guide pointed out areas where the builders had not completed carvings, according to him, once a king died work ceased on his temple and the new king wanted his own temple started.

He Ta Prohm Temple or “old Brahma” temple is squeezed by the roots of enormous trees and gigantic creepers.

Tourists line up to get a photo at the doorway used in the Tomb Raider movie.

On our last day in Siem Reap, we visited the Artesians Angkor workshop and market in Siem Reap. They train Cambodians in traditional Khmer crafts of stone and wood carving, painting on statues and on silk, lacquering, and silver plating.

Vietnam & Cambodia

Fifteen Days in Vietnam with the Sierra Club

November 16, 2018 Art

Nearly fifty years after his death, Hồ Chí Minh is a still a strong presence in Vietnam.

Cindy’s wanted to do the “Hike, Bike, and Kayak in Vietnam” Sierra Club trip since she heard about it four years ago. It’s fifteen days in northern Vietnam from the big city of Hanoi, to the mountains of Sa Pa and the water of Ha Long Bay.

We arrived in Hanoi on October 19, On the way to our hotel, we had our first taste of Hanoi traffic.

Cars ride the center lane, every other inch of space is used by the beeping mopeds.

Hanoi is over a thousand years old, and has an estimated 7.7 million people in the municipal area, with about 3.5 million in the metro area, it’s dense with people, shops and mopeds!
We stayed in the Old Quarter whose narrow streets are lined with small stores, each street traditionally sold one type of merchandise, if you want banners there’s a street for that, if you need housewares, that’s on another street.

Old Quarter shop specializing in banners.

Another old Quarter shop specializes in housewares.

The power and communications wires are an engineer’s nightmare.

Architectural remnants of the French occupation of Vietnam are everywhere in Hanoi.

From Hanoi we traveled to Sa Pa, a resort town in the mountains. The highlight was a bike ride starting at top of the highest pass in Viet Nam, Tram Tom Pass. It was a down hill coast for ten miles! Then a ride through the countryside to the small working-class town of Tam Duong where we were the only Westerners.

Getting ready for our ten-mile high-speed downhill coast.

We visited the local market in Tam Duong to get stuff for our dinner

Cindy got a chance to meet the kids at a school that was on our bike route.

Everywhere on our route, rice was put out in the sun to dry.

Most of our travel was by chartered bus, but one night we took the overnight train back to Hanoi, our sleeper berths had four bunks each. The tour leader later asked if we’d have been open to having two overnight trains on the trip, we all agreed that once was enough.

We then traveled to the Halong Bay area. Halong Bay, is a UNESCO World Heritage site. The bay, part of the Gulf of Tonkin, is filled with limestone karsts, giving an otherworldly look to the bay.

We did a lot of kayaking in the Halong bays.

We stayed on this classic Halong Bay yacht a couple nights.

To wrap things up we returned to Hanoi for a final night before the group either headed home or on to other places. Cindy and I, along with my sister Janet and friend Mary Ann who toured Vietnam with the Sierra Club group, went to Siem Reap Cambodia to tour the temples at Angkor Wat. (I’ll write about that later.)