The Gipper's Guide to America
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Notes on my National Park thing:
Of the 19 I have yet to do in the lower 48, 5 are in Washington State. 1 in Wash. DC , 4 in Calif. 1 in Oregon, 1 in Idaho, 2 in N. Dakota, 1 in S. Dakota, 1 in Nebraska, 1 in Illinois, 2 in Mississippi. Plan is to hit Nebraska one in May, Illinois in July, and maybe 2 of the Calif. ones in August, and the 2 in Miss. next April.
Of the Non-continental ones: 13 are in Alaska, 1 in Hawaii, 1 in Samoa, 1 in Guam, 1 in Puerto Rico, and 3 on St. Croix
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Notes on my National Park thing:
Of the 19 I have yet to do in the lower 48, 5 are in Washington State. 1 in Wash. DC , 4 in Calif. 1 in Oregon, 1 in Idaho, 2 in N. Dakota, 1 in S. Dakota, 1 in Nebraska, 1 in Illinois, 2 in Mississippi. Plan is to hit Nebraska one in May, Illinois in July, and maybe 2 of the Calif. ones in August, and the 2 in Miss. next April.
Of the Non-continental ones: 13 are in Alaska, 1 in Hawaii, 1 in Samoa, 1 in Guam, 1 in Puerto Rico, and 3 on St. Croix
Notes on my National Park thing:
Of the 19 I have yet to do in the lower 48, 5 are in Washington State. 1 in Wash. DC , 4 in Calif. 1 in Oregon, 1 in Idaho, 2 in N. Dakota, 1 in S. Dakota, 1 in Nebraska, 1 in Illinois, 2 in Mississippi. Plan is to hit Nebraska one in May, Illinois in July, and maybe 2 of the Calif. ones in August, and the 2 in Miss. next April.
Of the Non-continental ones: 13 are in Alaska, 1 in Hawaii, 1 in Samoa, 1 in Guam, 1 in Puerto Rico, and 3 on St. Croix
Been to El Morro on the way to the Malpais and back from Zuni where my son was a teacher/coach for two years. Loved those spring waters of El Morro. My son gave me a Zuni ring which I wear and I had a Zuni woman make me a unique ring of pure silver with a design that included the Zuni river flowing through the Lava walls above the main part of Zuni and their sacred flat top mountain in the background with a real 2008 Buffalo 1/10 oz. gold coin in the middle. I furnished the coin and the design I had in mind and she did all the work since she was famous there for her intricate stone work in silver rings. I've gotten dozens of comments on it over the years when I wear it.
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I recently completed a trek out to Nebraska, part of South Dakota and Kansas and beyond. I visited 2 new National Park Units I had not been to before:
Niobrara National Scenic River. This park extends east for 75 miles out of Valentine Nebraska. It is as advertised, a scenic waterway. I did not go the entire way, just made a few selective stops, including a portion of the river that runs through the Fort Niobrara National Wildlife Refuge, and the portion that runs through Smith Falls State Park. (Smith Falls being a very fabulous waterfall the way it tumbles). The best way to probably experience this park would be to do a float trip: tube/canoe/kayak/raft. We did not do that, being early May none of the outfitters were running yet. This river, at least in May was very fast moving...you really would not even have to paddle to move swiftly downriver.
Minuteman Missile National Historic site. This park is in South Dakota, and has a few sites along I-90 between the entrance to the Badlands and Wall SD. And the concept of it may be the scariest of all National Park Units. What you see is a silo in which sits a deactivated thermonuclear Intercontinental Ballistic Missile. Oish!! At the one site we visited you can look down into the silo from above and see the missile sitting there. There was another spot we could not make it to that gave tours of the missile facility. We could not do that because the tours were sold out, but the other place had a nice audio tour you could access with your cell phone.
Other NP Units that I revisited on this trip going and coming included:
Herbert Hoover National Historic Site, West Branch Iowa
Badlands National Park, South Dakota
Agate Fossil Beds National Monument, Harrison Nebraska
Lincoln Home National Historic Site. Springfield, Illinois
My personal count is I have now vistited 386 of the 423 NP Units.
Next up: Pullman National Historic Site in Chicago.
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Smith Falls in Nebraska:
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Here I am, looking the Apocalypse squarely in the face.
This is in fact a Thermonuclear Intercontinental Ballistic Missile. Deactivated fortunately.
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This is not me, but many people said that my Dad bore a strong resemblence to Slim Pickens, and that I resemble my Dad.....so, I guess there could be worse ways to go out:
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