Death Valley is the hottest place on earth so definitely not where you would expect to see snow but I’ve been there twice in my life and I’ve seen snow both times. What’s the secret? Visit in the winter! Furnace Creek We checked in at the Furnace Creek visitor center (home to the famous…
I don’t know what it is about windmills, but whenever I see one of the old classic designs out on the prairie, I just want to stop and take a picture. There are a few windmill museums in the world and I’ve been lucky enough to visit one. So many windmills! Who knew…
It’s time for the next installment of 20 Days of Me! Today you will discover the truth about me. Am I a Messy Bessy or a Neat Nellie? If you know me in real life or if you follow me on Instagram (and especially in my Instagram stories) you probably already know the answer. …
Last summer I received a letter that had been carried by the Pony Express. And no, it hadn’t been lost for 158 years. Want to know what happened? Keep reading… The Pony Express is a well-known American mail delivery service of the early 1860s. A relay of young horseback riders rode non-stop at top…
Ali Pasha, the war hero, lived a life of quiet anonymity for 50 years. But in 1968, he was discovered and in 1986, his fame grew even more widespread. The headline read, “A Great War Survivor of Shot and Shell.” Who is Ali Pasha, you may be wondering. Well, to learn Ali’s story, we must…
When I wrote about the Goodbye Christopher Robin movie and the story behind A.A. Milne’s Winnie-the-Pooh books, I found out that the books were inspired by a real bear. Winnipeg was an American black bear who traveled from Canada to England and ended up living in the London Zoo. Recently I found a few books…
Have you heard the legend of the ravens at the Tower of London? If the ravens ever leave, the tower will crumble to dust and great tragedy will befall the people of England. What is a raven? Basically, a raven is a large black bird. They are in the same class as crows (the Corvus…
It’s Saturday morning and I’m piled on the couch with my kids. All of us are in our pajamas and one of us definitely doesn’t want to be up yet. (Hint – it’s not the kids.) Bob Ross is on the television calmly painting a serene landscape and we are all completely engrossed in the…
First, some background… Who was Billy the Kid? Billy the Kid covered a lot of ground in his short 21 years of life. You can find traces of the outlaw and gunfighter all across the country. The man we know as Billy the Kid was born Henry McCarty in New York City in 1859 and…
I’ve always dreamed of being a dancer. I love to watch dance shows on TV such as Dancing With the Stars and So You Think You Can Dance. Baby in Dirty Dancing? I wanted to be her! Alas, I am not coordinated and not built to be a dancer and so my dreams ended in…
Even in this modern age of technology, with information galore readily available at our fingertips, it is not always possible to get a sense of a place before you see it in person. My Big Trip planning process involves varying amounts of research into potential waypoints each year. Some places are more well-known or have…
What would you do if you were home alone all day? This episode of Day in the Life is a little different than the last two (February 2019, November 2018) because it fell on a Saturday rather than a weekday. To make it even more unusual, my family was out of town for the…
