Where we went, when we were there and what we did....
The point of this website is to collect all the information on the trips that Lynn and I have taken over the years, the intent being to make it easier to find the data (mostly easier for me!). But in addition to being a great way for me to find information and reminisce about our travels, I think the site is also a good resource for my friends and family to see what we did during our travels and hopefully get some ideas for their trips.
Early on (say in the 1990s) we did not travel a lot (too many critters and no one to care for them when we were away), and when we did, we did not take a lot of photos and we certainly did not have anything posted on the internet (it was not that advanced then). Some of this was also due to where we went for those trips (several were visiting the folks either at the farm in PA, or back in southern W.Va). We started getting out more by the late 1990s and by the mid-2000s we were on the go several times a year. And the amount of memorabilia that we had from the trips increased dramatically, particularly in terms of photos with the purchase of our first digital camera. It was not long before we were snapping 2000 photos for a week-long trip! Problem now is what to do with all this stuff!
The solution for the photos was Photoshop Elements (PSE) and Photoshop.com (ps.com). PSE gave me away to organize the photos, merge photos into panoramas, create photo albums of the best shots and finally layout and print photobooks of each trip. Adding ps.com let me store photos online and have access to the images, albums and photobooks from anywhere at any time (well, as long as there was internet access). The on-line storage sites have changed over the years (I'm currently using SmugMug.com), but having this access is really important...and very cool! There's more information photo storage as well as camera equipment on the Photos, etc. page.
I also made notes or kept a journal during each trip, recording the day’s activities, the critters we saw and any other details of our travels. Early on the notes were just brief entries in my planner or PDA, but over time the simple notes evolved into detailed logs, as you will see from the evolution of the trip reports I have drafted.
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I started carrying a small notebook so that I could jot down thoughts throughout the day. These log entries are particularly important for the text in the photobooks, the detailed trip reports and reviews. Over time, the detail of the journals expanded to the point that I was ending up with scores of pages of notes from each trip. And as technology improved so did the ease of taking notes as I ditched the pen and paper for the phone and stylus, moving to OneNote to collect my thoughts and observations during each trip
I also added a scanner to the computer equipment so that I could add other information (photos, maps, stickers, etc.) into the photobooks. And of course the internet allows me to pull other information into the mix (logos of the places we visited and maps of our routes, for example).
In 2008 I discovered Trip Advisor, a website with tons of information for planning a trip to anywhere. I’ve become very involved with the travel forums, particularly the Utah forums, but also provide contributions to all the places that we have visited. The contributions include detailed trip reports of each journey and reviews of the places we stayed and ate at along the way, as well as some of the attractions we visited. Of course Trip Advisor also became the source for some of our travels starting in 2010 when we decided to take DannyS up on his open invitation on the Utah forum anyone to meet-up in Bluff to explore the area. These events just got better over the years and are detailed in the journals and photobooks.
So, with all these pieces-parts, it was a bit tedious to try to find things quickly and easily, so I put this site together to have links to all the data in a one convenient location. Each trip has a short description of where we went and what we did along with a list of links to all the available information on the trip (TA trip reports, photo album grid and slideshows and the photobooks). Other links in the descriptions will take you to my reviews for that specific attraction (while these reviews exist on Trip Advisor, I have also duplicated some of them within the website, in order to better incorporate the photos and for the format). I’ve also sprinkled in several of the photos from the trips directly into this site. For a better definition of all the pieces parts, click here.
To the trips....
The Timeline Page provides a summary of the trips that Lynn and I have taken by year since we have been married. These are the "fun" trips; the vacations big and small. There are a couple of business trips also included, but only the ones where we are able to add some personnel time to the trip. While most of the trips were both of us traveling, there are a few listed that were just one of us, or one of us with other folks. A notable exception is that I did not originally list the golf trips or the reenacting events (see Other Events below for more of an introduction on these excursions), although I am now inserting those events into the timeline as well.
National Parks, National Monuments and other Public Lands...
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Other places and events....
Me and Mason; 1st Ky Cav, Co.C, CSA
There were a lot of other places and that Lynn and I have visited over the years that are not included in the big trips timeline or yearly lists. These include golf trips and Civil War Reenactments, which were trips unto themselves, as well as day trips that we have taken over the years (Amish Country, the Cleveland Zoo, Botanical Garden, etc.). There is not a lot of documentation for most of these activities and side trips, but there are some photos and the occasional trip report or photobook. Go to the Other Events page for more details.
Plus, there are always interesting things going on around the ranch....how could there not be with the menagerie of critters roaming around. So at some point I’ll add some photos of the happenings at home.
Plus, there are always interesting things going on around the ranch....how could there not be with the menagerie of critters roaming around. So at some point I’ll add some photos of the happenings at home.
Cornerstone set May, 2011.