Happy Monday! Last year, we were back east traveling and didn’t have the opportunity to see the fall colors in our own neck of the woods. Friends and family told us we were really missing out! So this year, we made it a point to take a drive up the canyon to do a little leaf-peeping. The leaves were beautiful! I love living where there are four distinct seasons. There’s always a NEW season, right around the corner.
I hope you have a great day and get to learn or do something NEW today!
Happy Monday! We recently traveled through South Dakota, so, of course, we visited Badlands National Park and Wind Cave National Park. And we couldn’t leave without visiting Mount Rushmore. I’ve updated my National Parks bucket list and my movie location list.
Here are a couple of interesting NEW tidbits I learned while in South Dakota:
The soft rock in Badlands National Park is eroding at about one inch per year. So all of the formations could disappear in about 500,000 years.
Wind Cave holds about 95% of all known boxwork on Earth. Boxwork is a rare, honeycomb-like network of thin mineral blades that stick out from cave walls and ceilings. Local explorers and geologists used the term “boxwork” simply because the intersecting blades of calcite resembled a maze of old post office boxes.
The name Mount Rushmore initially started as a joke. Mount Rushmore is named after Charles E. Rushmore, a New York City lawyer who visited the Black Hills of South Dakota in 1885 on mining business. While inspecting tin mining claims, Rushmore asked a local guide or companion what the unnamed granite peak was called. A member of the group joked that they would name it after him, and the name stuck. Before it was named after Charles E. Rushmore, the mountain was known to the Lakota people as Tȟuŋkášila Šákpe, or the “Six Grandfathers,” holding deep spiritual significance.
We’re slowly checking off the national parks from our list. We’re at 41 out of 63. It’s always fun to travel somewhere NEW and learn NEW things! I hope you have a great day and get to do or learn something NEW today too!
In May, I enjoyed going through all the photos on my phone, picking out 26 and creating an A-Z-style compilation (HERE is the link to the previous post). So, I’m doing that again. Most of these things are extremely random. That’s why I want to do a post – to remember the randomness of them all! Here goes:
A is for Apostle Islands, Wisconsin (main photo above). There aren’t many places that we put on our “must return” list, but this is one place that is on the list! We didn’t get a chance to kayak through these cliffs and caves, and we think that would be awesome. So, we’re coming back…eventually!
B is for Bridge. This is the Mackinac Bridge in Michigan (and I’ll include the Fun Facts sheet about the bridge that I found in our campground’s laundry room). And, in case you didn’t know: you pronounce Mackinac and Mackinaw the same, whichever way it’s spelled. Mackinac is the French spelling, but both are pronounced MACK-in-awe.
C is for Commandments. I snapped this photo at the bottom of Horseshoe Falls, in Munising, Michigan.
D is for Dented by a Deer! Thanks to a deer, we now have new dents in our truck. Hubby temporarily “fixed” the part that was so bent we couldn’t open the door…with duct tape! That Dear Deer couldn’t just dent one panel of the truck…he had to dent the front panel, the driver’s side door, AND the driver’s side cab door. Ugh!
E is for Eagle. Yep, that’s an eagle. Really, truly! Clearly, I need a more powerful camera lens! :o)
F is for Fish Boil. We had heard that one of the “must” things to do in Door County, Wisconsin, was to go to a Fish Boil. So, of course, we did. When the cook throws kerosene on the fire, it’s not only for the show, but the fish oil and scum boils over, and the fish is ready to eat!
G is for Grandfather Clock…the largest in the world!
H is for Houses… birdhouses. When hunting for Dambo Trolls, if you see any birdhouses similar to these, that means you’re getting close!
I is for Island. There are a lot of little islands in Rainy Lake, in Voyageurs National Park. If any bit of land has a tree on it, it’s considered an island!
J is for Jack Pine Lumberjack Show. It was fun cheering for “our” lumberjack, Ian, and booing for the other team’s lumberjack (I can’t remember his name). :o)
K is for Kitchen…and trying my best to stay out of the kitchen during our various pickleball games!
L is for, of course, Lenore! My hubby saw this street sign near Astoria, Oregon, and on the way back from wherever we were going, we pulled over to get a shot. Cuz, why not?!? :o)
M is for Monarch…as in butterflies! So cute. I snapped these little guys at the Green Bay Botanical Garden.
N is for National Lakeshore. Our boat tour of Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore was beautiful, and we’re SO happy we chose to sit inside (many people weren’t so happy sitting on the top deck when it started to rain!).
O is for Oregon Shakespeare Festival. We attended A Midsummer Night’s Dream. It was very good!
P is for Pasties (pronounced PASS-tee for singular or PASS-teez for plural). It’s a portable meat hand pie, originally brought to the area by Cornish miners. We had to try one (while in Michigan!), they were… just OK. :o)
Q is for Quacking! These ducks all make a beeline when they see people on the pier. Dinnertime!
R is for Rafters. The Paradise Lodge at Mount Rainier National Park has some cool lanterns hanging from some cool rafters!
S is for Sea Stars. I used to call them star fish, but now that I know better, I do better, haha!(“Sea star” and “starfish” refer to the exact same marine animal, but “sea star” is the term because these creatures are not actually fish.)
T is for Teeny Tiny Camper! This little guy was perched up on some kind of platform, just on the side of the road in Tillamook, Oregon. How do people find the time to create such things!? Did they actually use it at some point? I want the backstory! :o)
U is for Underground. We visited Lava Beds National Monument in Northern California and went underground into some lava tube caves. The monument contains over 800 lava tube caves.
V is for Voyageur (whew! V wasn’t too hard to find this go around!). This giant Voyageur is just outside Ranier, Minnesota, near Voyageurs National Park.
W is for World War II. This tugboat, Tug Ludington, participated in D-Day. Thank you for your service! It now lives in Kewaunee, Wisconsin.
X is for Xercise. We climbed 207 steps but were rewarded with a great view of Lake Huron and this arch on Mackinac Island. We rode our bikes around the island (which is only just over 8 miles). Pro tip: ride clockwise rather than counter-clockwise. We did this, and we avoided the masses of people going the other way. Yay!
Y is for Yellow. Acres and acres of yellow!
Z is for Zoo. We rode our bikes on the Ahnapee Trail in Wisconsin and came across a small town zoo. We had the place to ourselves. There were goats, pheasants, a white fox…and not much else, haha!
That’s it for the random A-Z photos! Certainly not all of them, but I’ll be able to recall at least these 26 bits and pieces from our 2026 summer travels. I hope you have a terrific day and get to do or learn something NEW today!
Happy Monday! Boy, am I behind on updating my various lists! I think I have something NEW for each and every list!
For my Waterfalls list, we visited Wagner Falls, Miners Falls, Horseshoe Falls, Spray Falls, and Bridal Veil Falls – all in Michigan. The main photo above is of Spray Falls on the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore.
Next, for my National Parks list, we recently visited Voyageurs National Park. We have 24 more to go until we have visited them all. Can we make it?! :o)
Then, for my Lighthouse photo collection, I’ve photographed Devil’s Island Lighthouse, Raspberry Island Lighthouse, Round Island Lighthouse, and Cheboygan Crib Rear Lighthouse.
For my Trolls list: We visited all five trolls in the Detroit Lakes, Minnesota, area. They were Ronny Funny Face, Alexa’s Elixir, Barefoot Frida, Jacob Everear, and Long Leif. Then we visited Benny the Beard Fisher in Germfask, Michigan. He was a favorite (photo below). The other photos are on the Troll list page.
And lastly, for my movie location list, we visited Mackinac Island, where Somewhere in Time was filmed. We watched the movie the night before we visited and cracked up at how sort of cheesy and dramatic this 70’s film was. Haha! I had seen the film, but my hubby had not. The Round Island Lighthouse gets put on my Lighthouse list as well as on the movie locations list. A two-fer! :o)
Updates complete. It’s been fun visiting these NEW-to-us places. I hope you all have a terrific day and learn or do something NEW today!
Happy Thursday! As we traveled through North Dakota, we passed several sunflower fields, but we were usually on freeways and couldn’t stop to take photos. We finally found one where we could stop. What a cute, happy-looking scene! I loved it! Here is more of the field:
Have a great day! I hope you get to do, learn, or experience something NEW today!
Happy Monday! I’m updating my National Parks bucket list. We’re at 38 out of 63. We visited Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota recently. Also, North Dakota is a NEW state for us… another state, another sticker on the side of our RV!
We saw wild horses, bison, and prairie dogs. I didn’t even notice this little prairie dog (front and center) until I uploaded this photo.
In other NEWs, we visited the world’s shortest river. The Roe River in Great Falls, Montana, is said to be the world’s shortest river. We were riding our bikes on the River’s Edge trail, and while we were stopped at Giant Springs, we chatted with a gentleman who told us that his brother had to get lawyers involved to have the Roe River designated as the shortest river. Giant Springs flows 201 feet and then joins the Missouri River. That’s pretty short! The Giant Springs State Park is very near the Lewis & Clark Interpretive Center that we also visited (on a different day). It was great to learn NEW things!
Also, I’m updating my waterfalls bucket list. While up visiting Banff, Canada, we hiked the Johnston Canyon trail. It was great! It has an upper falls and a lower falls, but there were a few more unnamed falls along the trail too.
We’ve been keeping our retirement active. Our favorites are playing pickleball, riding our bikes, and hiking to waterfalls. We’re blessed to have our RV to travel to NEW and very beautiful places!
I hope you have a great day and get to learn or do something NEW today! Take care!
