Upside Ann

  Wisconsin Dells originally made my list thanks to the Duck Tours of the dells - WW2 amphibious vehicles that would drive a while then drive into the water and boat a while.  I thought Zupe would REALLY like that.  Unfortunately, the Canadian smoke was really bad and we thought it prudent to spend less time breathing it.  The good news - there was still the Museum of Root Beer! As you might expect, displays about the history of root beer - it is VERY old - as they say - "Older than Coke".  Root Beers were made by the founders of our country.  Mr. Hires and Mr. Barq.  OK.  Not them. The other ones. Lots of root beer cans. Recipes for root beer. Root beer ads.  Root beer as it appears in popular culture.  Remember, it was a favorite of the flying ace fighting the Red Baron.  At the end you get a (one, 1!!, only 1!!!!) small 5oz sample of one of the flavors they have on tap.  Kevin tried something a bit exotic - I think it was mi...

I guess I didn't really take to heart that mathematical truth that the shortest distance between to points is a straight line.  I think our final distance was something like 5,300 miles.  I understand that is greater than a round trip between here and Los Angeles (2,178 miles).  See that?  I fact checked myself.  (Now, I'm wondering if fact check should be hyphonated and, while I'm at it, is round trip a compound word?  Sigh.  The work of Google is never ending.)  The trip is composed of three parts: To camp, While camp is camping, From camp. As She-Who-Plans-The -Road-Trips, it was on me to plan the road trip.  Ready? TO CAMP Indiana Dunes National Park Chicago - Field Museum Chicago - Great Wolf Lodge Wisconsin Dells - Duck Tour and Museum of Root Beer (but the tour got canned due to Canadian smoke) Austin, MN - Spam Museum Blue Earth, MN - Jolly Green Giant Pipestone National Monument, MN Sioux Falls, SD Marshall, SD:  Corn Palace Cha...

Elements of our touring group are big, big Pokémon players.  As a consequence, and because it was also Mr. Level-40's birthday, we included the Field Museum of Chicago where a Pokémon "fossil" exhibit was taking place.  While there are (probably) tons of cool stuff at the Field Museum, given Zupe's attention challenges, we focused on three areas. 1. Pokémon exhibit  2. Egyptian exhibit - I was hoping that June's series of Rick Riordan graphic novels of the Kane Chronicles and rewatching the Marvel Moon Knight series would instill a fascination for pyramids, mummies, ushabti.  Well, I thought it was fascinating though I had to view it all on fast forward. 3. Fossils -dinosaurs and other extinct creatures (which were never residents of a pokeball).  The absolute best element of this area was the poet in residence- who, if you tell him something you know about dinosaurs, will write you a poem.  Right then and there.  Despite Zupe's impatience, I got...

 I figure when your framing/cropping is off to begin with and there IS no way to make it perfect, make the skew extreme.   So, here you have it! Me, Paul Bunyun with his hotdog, and a bag from the gift shop with a miniature version of said giant inside.  Trust me.  He's there. Athens, Illinois  2026

 Here, I worship the jackalope of the variety chainsawious.   Wall, SD  2026

  Chicago, 2026 Zupe with Canadian smoke What do I like about this photograph? The way his long legs mirror the skyscrapers around him.

 as was the smoke from the Canadian wildfires.

  Monument Rocks was SO MUCH FUN.  It is on private property in Western Kansas and requires driving on dirt roads with a boatload of dirt and dust trailing you and covering everything about and in your car.  But the roads are easily traversed even with a little Ford Fusion.  We got there early in the morning and had the place to ourselves. 2025

 Monument Rocks, July 2025  My shoes were new.  Didn't really look that way after.

  Last summer I dragged Kevin to multiple dinosaur related sites in Colorado and Utah including Dinosaur, Colorado (the town), Dinosaur National Monument, Fruita Dinosaur Journey Museum, Dinosaur Ridge (but we didn't get to actually SEE the exhibit- They were having technical problems with the bus and Zupe was not patient.)  Even the Indianapolis Children's Museum had a banger of a dinosaur exhibit.  I don't have any reasonable fossil photos to share.  Haven't figured out how to capture something of that size- especially when there is so much competing and uninteresting stuff around the skeleton.   Photos 1.  Crossroad in Dinosaur.  You cannot read the full name of both streets, but I think the silhouette atop the street signs will help you put together the missing letters.  (Unless you were woefully deprived of dinosaur education as a child.) 2.  Welcome to Utah!  Life Elevated.  Not sure I see how that describes the image.......

  More photos than are required - but Arches is an amazing spot.  Hot, though.  I believe it was 113F.  We spent most of the time enjoying views from the scenic drive and only once evening was descending did we venture on a couple of short walks.  Here in this collection you will see my obsession with panoramic photos and photos of pathways.  

  2025 Canyonlands National Park Hot.  It was Hot.  July.  Hot. What I'm liking about my photographs.   Photo 4.  I don't know who those people are on the near cliff edge upper left.  I typically try to avoid capturing other visitors- particularly those I don't know.  And, yet, sometimes they add something I end up loving.  Here, I think the addition gives additional perspective on the scale of this canyon.  They are tiny, tiny, tiny and the canyon, not so much.   This is also the only photo  that includes the way the ground seems to split on the floor of the canyons.  I wonder what it is like up close.  From the vantage of the scenic look outs, it is much like dried mud that is splitting.  Obviously, I did not attend any ranger talks. Photo 3.  I love the road that winds down the ledge, into the canyon and beyond.  Snaking along until it vanishes in the distance. Photo 2.  The textures....

  You've got to love a city with roads to the sky.  I had no idea that Chicago had these draw-bridgey roads.  Chicago, 2026 I love the way this photo makes me feel unmoored - those buildings are all leaning toward me.  Am I that attractive?

 I have something near a million photos from RMNP.  It is hard to pick which one? eight-hundred twenty-one thousand six hundred seven? to put in my blog. I have a few panographic photos I took with my iPhone.  I don't think I actually understand how to do it correctly so that I don't create a bowl-shape in the near distance.  Maybe it is inevitable? Maybe I should watch that hour-long video on YouTube about how to take them?  Even with that funky element, I really like the feeling of expanse that the approach captures in a landscape.  (Maybe I even like the feeling that the observer is at the center of the world?) There will be more photos from Estes Park to come.  On Tuesdays I'm just going back through time and last summer we only spent part of one day in the park.  The bulk of my photos were taken in 2024.  As time moves forward it is likely that my Tuesday Travel start to move along with it.  I cannot stay here in Chicken-town foreve...

Our last holiday tour without Zupe last summer was the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park.  Maybe it looks a little familiar?  Maybe you feel a little shiver up your spine?  Maybe the phrase "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" is intruding on your thoughts?  It was afternoon when we arrived - just in time for the daily rainstorm - which suited us fine.  We took "The Shining" tour but didn't see anything spooky that we weren't supposed to see.  I took some photos of the bathroom and the ballroom and ... to share with Marianna who I knew would appreciate it as she is a bigger Stephen King fan than even I am.  But they are not anything special to look at.  If you want to see photos of such elements, you can find better ones on the website. Here I include two shots of the exterior of the hotel - with the stormy skies - looking a bit menacing, the parking token- no free parking at the hotel, and a "Shining" related display I enjoyed.  I do not r...

  Kit Carson County Carousel in Kit Carson County (who would have guessed that?) Burlington, Colorado.  Beautiful carved wooden menagerie in full color.  Don't like horses? No problem. Ride a dog or a giraffe or a camel... Inside a barn-like structure with a museum chronicling the history of carousels from the turn of the past, past century next door.  Definitely worth a detour from I-70. Want to learn more? www.kitcarsoncountycarousel.com

  UGLY GLASS & CO. Ringo couldn't make the shoot.

  We were fortunate enough to stumble into a weekend event in the West Bottoms of Kansas City, MO.  It was Saturday.  We were driving home from Colorado and I had found in my combing of Google for unusual things to do off I-70 a store/collection of weird and creepy things.  I don't recall the name - only that it wasn't to be found.  MAYBE it is available to see by appointment....but it hardly mattered because the neighborhood with its stores full of art, antiques, and collectibles was entirely worthy of a visit.  In fact, it was so worthy that if I'm in the neighborhood on the first weekend of any upcoming month, I WILL be stopping in.   The photo at the top- mural.  Sweet birds.  Wholesome. Photo 2- street lamps.   The final 2 photos are from a store that I managed with effort to treat - as Kevin would suggest- as a museum - and, in doing so, I saved a lot of money.  Ugly Glass & Co.  It was full of Halloween-esque de...

  Hot sweaty day.  Unfortunately, the visitor's center was being remodeled so there was no opportunity to duck in for some education and air conditioning.  Zupe was reluctant to climb all the stairs to the to of this highest mound - the Monk's Mound.  Constructed by ancient people between 950 and 1200, it is the largest "prehistoric earthwork in the Western Hemisphere".* What do I like about this photo?  Not really anything - but I did want to include this site in our trip history as it is impressive and it is the site of my favorite album cover photo.  (NEXT) Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site, 2025, August  Pause the video at 1:30 and find the woman climbing the steps up the Monk's Mound to get a idea of just how large this mound is. *This sort of statement is an inside joke between Kevin and me.  All over Australia we would encounter items identified as "the largest" followed bya an impressive list of qualifiers.. "the longest wooden pier on fr...

The past 2 summers we have driven to Colorado via Route 70.  As neither Zupe nor I want to sit in a car for 10 hours a day, I plan the trips with multiple, I-hope-to-be-fun stopping points.  I do consider what Zupe might enjoy, but I am much easier to please.  Therefore, I think many of these stops I enjoyed more than him.  In fact, I really, really liked several.  I'll kiss them with an asterisk, in case you want to be me.  All of these stops will someday get featured in Tripping Tuesdays...at least I hope so.  There is only one stop that made it on both itineraries: Lucas, Kansas.  When I grow up, I want to live there. 2025 Batman Museum - Logansport, Indiana Gemini Giant Wilmington, Illinois (Paul) Bunyan Giant (with hot dog) and more (giants)!  Atlanta, Illinois (note - home of the American Giants Museum - but it was closed when we arrived.) * Start of Lewis and Clark's expedition - Frontier Park -  St. Charles, Missouri Graham State...