My Blog Posts
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Gateway Arch National Park
Long before European settlers arrived in St. Louis, Mississippian people lived here and built large earthen mounds between 1050-1200 AD. Most of the mounds were platforms for homes and ceremonial sites, while others were...
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109th Indianapolis 500
It’s May and that means only one thing…it is time for the Indianapolis 500. Since 1911, the 500-mile race has been held the Sunday before Memorial Day. This year will mark the fourth time...
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Mammoth Cave National Park
Beneath the sandstone and shale ridges of central Kentucky lies the largest cave system on Earth. Presently, there are 426 miles of surveyed passageways in Mammoth Cave which makes it over twice as long...
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Alabama & Tennessee
U.S. Space & Rocket Center – Huntsville, Alabama In the dying days of World War II in Europe, some of Germany’s leading rocket scientists who had worked on wartime projects for the Nazis were...
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New River Gorge National Park
Established in 2020, New River Gorge National Park in West Virginia is one of the newest national parks. New River Gorge National Park conserves over 70,000 acres of land along the New River between the towns...
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Virginia
Jamestown Settlement Founded in 1607, Jamestown was the first permanent English colony in the New World. The colony was sponsored by the Virginia Company of London, a group of investors who hoped to profit...
Georgia & Carolinas
Savannah, Georgia In February 1733, General James Oglethorpe and a party of 120 British subjects landed on a bluff overlooking the Savannah River. They came to the new world with a charter from England’s...
Florida
St. Augustine Founded in 1565 by Spanish admiral Pedro Menendez de Aviles, St. Augustine has the distinction of being the oldest city in the United States. This historic city on the northeast coast of...
Everglades National Park
Established in 1947 by President Truman, Everglades National Park was created to protect a unique ecosystem is southern Florida. The Native Americans who first inhabited this land understood the importance of this sensitive wetlands,...
Vicksburg National Military Park
In the early days of July 1863, the Union and Confederate armies were engaged in two major battles simultaneously. General Lee had invaded southcentral Pennsylvania and was engaging the Union army at the small...
Hot Springs National Park
Nestled in the Ouachita Mountains about 50 miles southwest of Little Rock, Arkansas is a place where humans have been coming for centuries to experience the healing powers of natural hot springs. Within a...
Carlsbad Caverns National Park
Hidden beneath the surface of the Chihuahuan Desert in New Mexico’s Guadalupe Mountains is one of the natural wonders of the world. Carlsbad Caverns National Park is one of the most extensive cave systems...
White Sands National Park
Located in the Tularosa Basin of southern New Mexico, dazzling white sand dunes cover 275 square miles in the Chihuahuan Desert. These are the largest gypsum dunes in the world and White Sands National...
Saguaro National Park
The saguaro (suh-waa-row) cactus is the enduring symbols of the West with its arms reaching towards the blue sky. Following the capture of Geronimo to the U.S. military in 1886, people began settling in...
Arizona
Lake Pleasant Regional Park My first stop in Arizona was at Lake Pleasant Reginal Park. Located just north of Phoenix, the scenic Lake Pleasant is a key reservoir bringing water from the Lower Colorado...
California Coast
Doheny State Beach My first stop on the California coast was just after Christmas when I visited Doheny State Beach. Located in the Orange County community of Dana Point, this was the first state...
