How do you view your country’s passport privilege?

“Blessed are the curious, for they shall have adventures.”  (Lovelle Drachman)

My American passport running valid from 2021 – 2031 resonates for me as not only legitimate proof of my identity but also confirms my birthright freedom to travel. For clarity, my passport booklet boldly states on the opposite side of my photo ID  page after the words “We The People”…..secure the blessings of liberty for ourselves” in reference to the  exalted preamble section of  The U.S. Constitution. In leafing further through he document, I notice historic  quotes from individuals lauding the American spirit of how liberty should reign in our country. Notice a couple of these inscriptions below.

“The cause of freedom is no the cause of a race, sect, a party, or a class. It is the cause of humankind  the very  birthright of humanity. “ (Anna Julia Cooper)

“The principle of free government adheres to the American soil.” It is embedded in, immovable, as mountains.” (Daniel Webster)

So, I wonder about the urgency to make best use of the passport as freedom of speech, press, and assembly and other legalized rights Americans enjoy seem confusingly under attack in this country now?  Simply put, I fear out of the ordinary custom checks that might require legal reference to this document that international travelers must hold in their hands. What happens if one makes the wrong impression with an overzealous  border guard? What right would an agent have to forcibly search the contents of traveler emails or social media postings?  Could such an official detain a passenger without need to tell them the charges? So hold on to that passport. It might be the best  protection you own against any such abuses happening. 

I  can make no guarantee that now’s the right time to undertake overseas adventure. But Ruth and I have decided to once again exercise our time tested  freedom to travel abroad by booking a ten day Rhine River cruise in November. In doing so, both of us look forward to adding several more official stamps to our extensive passport collection without unnecessary delay.  For as you can tell in the photo collection below, we’ve obtained plenty of practice worldwide in obtaining passport clearance in the past when needed. 

Source Links:

https://blog.library.in.gov/a-not-so-brief-history-of-the-united-states-passport/

https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/law/passports-united-states

What unexpected images have crossed your mind recently in travel? 

So much of life, it seems to me, is determined by pure randomness.” (Sidney Poitier) 

Sightseeing along the vast land expanses of West Texas typically can be a real challenge for me to deal with. For my concentration often lapses into mindless “autopilot” mode then as I pass by predictably flat and empty prairie along the way. So during a recent road trip route taken along State Road 287 through the state’s northwest corridor from Denton to Amarillo, I found a way to “shake up” being affected by such monotonous boredom during this three hundred mile drive. Very simply, I added the element of wishful chance to my observations. This plan involved stopping at local rest stops and just randomly looking around for “eye catching” artifacts displayed along surrounding grounds and visited interiors. At two particular oases, my mindful inspections thus unexpectedly “brought to light” several  topics of interest that seemed to market well with a “true Texan” state of mind.

Take a look then at this collection of fourteen stimulating images in the photo set below. Do any of them surprise you about what you think living in Texas is like? Do these opinions add to or detract from your interest in the Texas travel experience?  Please feel free to share. 

What sights/sounds of spring season most excite you?

“Spring adds new life and new joy to all that is.” (Jessica Harrelson)

During the last week of our  road trip going eastward, we’d decided to change our intended route back to Florida.So heading further eastward with great interest, I observed a diverse natural landscape of hillside valleys covered with dense forest cover along Interstate 80 straddling Pennsylvania’s Allegheny Mountain region. Stopping over in the tiny town of White Haven as a suitable lodging base to see an upcoming local concert nearby, we’d fortuitously chosen a site  to feel the full brunt of spectacular springtime conditions in the Pocono Mountains. Knowing very little beforehand about where to go during our two night stay, we opted for a morning visit to Hickory Run State Park. 

At the visitor center, I then studied up some to learn that this now government “ protected” habitat of over 15,000 acres had been once ravaged over centuries by massive wildfire spread and devastating flood conditions. It’s quite striking as well to know that more recently a period of forest logging destruction centered upon a local tannery nearly wiped out the existing Hickory tree population in this region and caused waste filled pollution whereby local rivers reportedly “ran black.” It thus made good sense to me why I’d walked along the park’s main hiking path aptly named the “Shades of Death Trail.” For this label served for me as a reminder of the heavy price paid to keep this beautiful landscape intact.

On a larger scale,  I thus reach out to my global minded readers to cherish those glimpses of springtime blooms and again free flowing rivers and streams with warmer weather happening locally or in travel as a suitable reminder of how fragile our “Mother Earth”  remains for us to enjoy as we wish. Enjoy the Pocono photos and and attached short video link below.

https://youtube.com/shorts/lHtxDIvGghU?si=aYldC6KS7k0iGMjK

How do your friends best spread messages of love?

“Love is shown more in deeds than in words.” (St. Ignatius)

Ruth and I look forward to renewing three close friendships in California at least once a year as part of our cross country road trip regimen in the United States. In doing so we typically cover most of the state’s Pacific coast region along the State Highway 101 corridor with several  preplanned stopovers along the way. To clarify further, our itineraries run south to north beginning with a three day stay with our old, Florida neighborhood friends, Tommy and Jenny, in the hills of Thousand Oaks. We’re always treated like royalty by them in their spacious house and enjoy elaborate homemade meals along with their total respect for our need for privacy each day. They also share with us their dog pet dog “Archie”, who roams around the living room and outdoor patio to play with us throughout the day.  Moving north several hundred miles up the coast to the busy Pacific Heights region of downtown San Francisco, we next enjoy leisurely  visits with our urban sophisticate buddy, Dan, who likes to inform us about interesting articles concerning current issues of the day. Dan also offers his services as a tour guide around his community as we accompany him along the city streets each visit to window shop for a couple of hours. 

Moving on to the more “laidback”atmosphere of the Santa Cruz vicinity, seventy five miles southwest of San Francisco, our interests in music, travel, spirituality and sports bring us together annually with a longtime companion couple, Bobbi and John each year. Over the years, this popular tourist region has become increasingly more difficult to visit with heavily congested highways, exorbitant lodging  prices, and difficult mountainous  

terrain to cross. But Bobbi makes it very easy for us to settle down quietly for a few days there by offering us free stay in her guest bungalow in the back of her primary residence. While the house location and structural features are nothing special, there’s a magical landscaping/artistic touch she’s created there which provides a genuine atmosphere of inner peace/loving care whenever we choose  to stay there. Meanwhile, John her friend lives conveniently in his townhouse a mile way from Bobbi with other common interests in mind. On a given day, he might thus share with us interesting facts about his extensive record collection in the rock n’ roll era, review road conditions along our intended roadtrip route or offer us his couch to watch popular professional teams – Giants, A’s, Sharks, and Warriors on his big screen television .   

So I’m making a reasonable prediction then that such mutual affection existing with our highly regarded friends in California will inspire us to slow down some from “bopping” around the country so much in the future. Instead we’ll likely focus on much longer stays in both of these familiar coastal vicinities. Thus it seems appropriate to end here by recognizing some tokens of loving care received by our California friends in the following photo set, courtesy of Bobbi’s homemade artistic talents.

How might the idea of living in the woods interest you or not? 

“Our life is frittered away by detail. “Simplify, simplify!” (Henry David Thoreau)

The timing seemed to be right to fantasize a new lifestyle for me as I had just finished Henry David Thoreau’s mid 19th century novel,”Walden” describing his simple cabin life along the shore of a New England pond. Thus his two years  of quiet seclusion  came to mind during our early May road trip excursion at Muir Woods National Monument. For as I walked leisurely along  the giant Redwood tree forest along the coastal ridge  north of San Francisco Bay, my imagination ran wild then plotting ideas about how I might similarly live like Thoreau once did at Walden in such a special place. 

In this regard, I recognized how Redwoods evolved over thousands of years to thrive in this harsh mountainous landscape. For such enhanced sensations of Redwood survival on this mist shrowded day seemed to offer timely questions about how I might best co-exist with such thick forest species  in these largely isolated conditions. Most importantly, how might conditions of light, elevation, and water source  influence where my cabin location would be ? Moreover, what tools would I need handy to climb tall tree limbs, chop solid wood, make a sturdy walking stick or convey heavy logs to survive? Or of what practical value  would a decaying tree trunk, open root cavity, or nearby ground plant cover help me with regard to stockpiling nearby food and other needed indoor supplies? 

With my daily needs of staying warm, safe, and healthy reasonably met, I would then turn my attention to how I might I best combat aloneness in these secluded conditions. Might a particular redwood specimen become a human like  friend to just talk to? Could such an inner conversation inspire an urge for nature drawing and poetry writing?  Or how might self satisfaction be attained by taking time to gather nearby seeds and nurture my own nature garden? What wildlife could I most easily catch sight of along a tree to satisfy my photographic curiosity as well ? With loneliness escalating at times, I might furthermore feel the need to plot a path through the Redwoods and just take a slow walk into town now and then.     

Thus in Redwood land, I’d found a refreshing escape from my oftentimes “autopilot” urban routine to instead energize  myself moment by moment  amid life’s natural beauty  that day.  Check out the following website to evaluate if you desire to be such a Walden person. 

Blog Source:

https://www.wikihow.com/Live-in-the-Woods

How does baseball matter in my life or our family?

“Every strike gives me on step closer to the next home run.” (Babe Ruth)

It’s that time of the year for both teachers and  students in the long school year when something fun to break the routine of daily class schedules seems desperately needed. So I give credit to the city of Durham, North Carolina for allotting time for students of this metropolitan area to enjoy playful free play on “Education Day” at Durham Bulls Baseball Park. Of course the game action today between two minor league teams would test the attention span of these high energy children some with the slow progression of inning by inning play.                                          

So to keep the momentum going more smoothly, how clever it seemed for game organizers to add little feats of competitive student interest inspired by a DJ commentator on the field. With concession food prices somewhat affordable on this day, I can also applaud the venue for letting the kids relax from their busy school cafeteria routine and instead allow them to load up on ballpark food in the company of their friends to their heart’s content. 

As for teachers, some valuable learning lessons also happened on this day of student dedicated baseball. Consider then those eye catching statistics of hitter and pitcher matchups prominently displayed on the scoreboard for example provided realistic lessons for students to apply those basic math concepts they’d been drilled on in class. Given the chance to study up on real professional baseball players in Bulls uniforms from past to present at an adjacent museum this day, I also envisioned some valuable history lessons about  these player accomplishments for these students to learn as well. Or on a  deeper level, I might add that this time allotted for these educators to just relax from pressurized instruction on this sunny day at the park likely  humanized  their personal image in the eyes of their students. 

So our thirty seven day roadtrip across the United States will soon end in an appropriate springtime way. For with warmer weather in the air, I am excited about new road trip opportunities  on our next east coast adventure to exercise our outdoor passions. 

What places do you consider best to be left preserved as is? 

“Nostalgia makes hallowed from mundane places.” (Caroline George)

During this week’s road trip visit to my birthplace home of Cleveland, Ohio, I sense that the downtown shores of Lake Erie remains a living vestige of nostalgic wonder. For fond memories still exist for me of those youthful visits to those pleasant oases of walk friendly, Ohio lake shores whereby people of all ages could gather together in the spirit of sheer fun. So now I read with disgust at a popular proposal to move the Cleveland Browns stadium to a suburban location. I must emphasize in this regard  that the present stadium’s destruction could radically lead to a less desirable landscape shore. 

Perhaps I’m conditioned by my unappealing South Florida experience of watching speculative motel /condo and shopping center spread along the beaches from Palm Beach to Dade County at the expense of open space enjoyment. So in the case of Cleveland, the existing stadium along with the adjacent Science Museum, Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame and nearby Edgewater Park represent major hubs of pedestrian friendly activity in downtown Cleveland. So why mess with this workable formula of this compatible land use strip that entices both tourists and locals to spend much of  their leisure quality time downtown? 

Wouldn’t it then make more sense then to make needed physical upgrades to the existing stadium along with improving public mass transit access to such previously noted places of public interest by the lake? Cleveland deserves better!

What random events or visual images have popped into your life recently? 

“So much of life, it seems to me, is determined by pure randomness.” (Sidney Poitier ) 

Sightseeing along the vast prairie expanses of Texas can be a real challenge if one intends to find clear-cut landmarks along the way. So during last week’s road trip leg on State Road 287 through the state’s northwest corridor from Denton to Amarillo, I decided to go completely random in my observations. That meant photographing unusual images that unexpectedly attracted my visual senses as a way to break up the monotony of this over three hundred mile drive.  In doing so , I discovered  some interesting facts about this largely undeveloped region that undoubtedly makes many resident Texans proud. 

What places you’ve visited recently seem to be impacted by tourist overcrowding?  

“I would rather sit on a pumpkin and have it to myself than be crowded on a velvet cushion.” (Henry David Thoreau)

I need to be completely honest about Sedona, Arizona in this blog. Our latest road trip visit last Saturday to this land of mystical red rock landforms noticeably disappointed me. Quite simply, I’ve observed that  this beautiful but pricy locale now struggles with a tourist overpopulation crisis. Know then upon viewing some evidence of this congestion problem, I’m not convinced that enough free spirited hikers will adapt well to a rigid departure/return schedule of a new shuttle bus option that now runs on busy weekends. Nor do I reason that limited parking lot space and those restrictive safety regulations on trail sites about hiker movement will adequately satisfy those pure vortex seeking enthusiasts who expect total silence and energized inner peace during daytime hours on any given day. As we’ve normally chosen to find more inexpensive lodging and other amenities in nearby Oak Creek on previous hiking endeavors to this region, that strategy no longer seems to work. For there’s too many visitors lingering around at restaurant/shopping sites along with a gentrified lodging crisis of escalating redevelopment costs further impairing touristic satisfaction there as well. 

I still believe that it’s worthwhile to visit Sedona if you’re willing to wait and thus exercise patience in enduring the company of others.  But on this unintended “drive in – drive out day” at Sedona, I felt compelled to share a few photos to better illustrate this town’s sightseeing problem. 

Where do you often search for a better future of humankind? 

“I don’t believe that anyone can see the Grand Canyon area for themselves and not know that we have to do everything we can to protect it for future generations.” (Nolan Gould).   

I would like to take a different point of view in this road trip blog from past visits to the Grand Canyon. Instead of “oooing and ahhing” on this most recent visit in the immediate moment at each overlook,  I will instead share some relics of its existence to  improve the quality of life for myself and generations in the future. Being quite selective in this effort, I’ve chosen to walk along a mile or so of the vast South Rim edge to photograph such inspiring icons of its surviving ecosystem existing there on a smaller scale. I also utilized a plant identification app in my efforts to better understand how certain tree species adapt to this harsh arid environment. 

PRESERVE NATURAL PLACES FROM HUMAN CONTACT 

SOME ROCKS TELL US TO SLOW DOWN AND JUST RELAX

CRITTERS MAKE GOOD COMPANY FOR ANIMAL CARING HUMANS

INDIAN MARKINGS ON THIS LAND CARRY THE SPIRIT OF UNITY 

PINE/OAKTREE PRESERVATION PROVIDES A GOOD HABITAT FOR ANIMALS 

SAGEBRUSH STABILIZES  SOIL CONDITIONS AND PREVENTS DAMAGING EROSION

FEEL THE PSYCHIC ENERGY POTENTIAL OF THAT COLLECTOR ROCK

WATCH BUT DO NOT WITH INTERFERE WITH ANIMAL BEHAVIOR IN THE WILD