If you’re like me, you’ve seen The Wizard of OZ movie many times. But have you ever stopped to wonder how it came to be? It turns out that The Wizard of OZ has quite the backstory and history! I don’t remember now why I decided to read Finding Dorothy. My to-be-read pile is quite…
Chicken Sisters, Chicken Wars, and Harvey Girls… What on earth could these three things have in common? I recently read Chicken Sisters by Kj Dell’antonia. In the prologue to the story, two sisters who had started out as Harvey Girls left the Harvey House restaurant to start their own restaurants, both serving fried chicken. Three…
Appropriately located in a small town in Kansas (Wamego to be exact!) is the Oz Museum. Follow the yellow brick road past movie memorabilia, memories of L. Frank Baum, and more. Full of Oz History The OZ Museum is dedicated to all things Oz, from the very beginning through today – over 100 years of…
Some say it’s haunted – it’s ranked the second most haunted place in Virginia! – but we did not see any ghosts or spirits when we stopped to see the Exchange Hotel Civil War Medical Museum. Maybe because it was a sunny, summer day. Or maybe there were ghosts and we just didn’t see them……
So by now you probably know that I like to go all-in when I’m researching a new idea to write about here. When I read 80 Days to Elsewhere by KC Dyer it reminded me of a podcast I had listened to a year or so ago about two women who were racing around the…
Day 8 of the 20 Days of Me! They say you shouldn’t play favorites but sometimes I just can’t help it. It’s true. I may love all seasons (well, parts of all the seasons anyway 😂) but I do have a favorite. It may even be a cliche favorite but that’s okay because I…
Is life more extraordinary than we might realize at the time? Two friends, Gene Weingarten and Tom Schroder, came up with the idea for this book when Gene asked Tom, “I wonder what happened on May 17, 1957.” And so began the journey that ends with One Day: The Extraordinary Story of an Ordinary 24…
The Marvelous Thing That Came From a Spring: The Accidental Invention of the Toy That Swept the Nation This book, written and illustrated by Gilbert Ford, is a delightful telling of how Richard James was inspired to create the Slinky toy. A mechanical engineer tasked with finding a way to cushion delicate machines aboard…
Have you ever wondered about the first cross-country road trip? Americans have driven millions of miles back and forth across the country over the years but someone had to be first. That someone was Horatio Jackson Nelson. I’ll admit, I hadn’t given it much thought myself despite my own epic road trip history. A…
“Magetsi a mphepo,” he whispered. I will build electric wind. I live a life of comfort in my upper middle class American home. I don’t worry about things like famines or poor sanitation. When I’m hungry I go to the store to buy whatever I want from the thousands of options. I eat,…
In the Mojave Desert, in a small town called Boron, you will find the Twenty Mule Team Museum. It’s not much to look at by big city standards but when you look a little closer you will see the love and dedication of a community that has preserved a bit of history and the way…
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…
