Tuesday June 19 – When reports of predicted 6-10 inches of rain, high winds, and power outages in central Wisconsin arrived last weekend, we decided to break off our planned stop in Chippewa Falls, WI and head back to Stevens…
Day 48 Badlands-Fort Thompson SD
Monday June 18 – Badlands National Park in South Dakota is about a 60-mile-long arc stretching west to east while only 3-4 miles across in many areas. Most of the park experience is done along the 25-mile “Badlands Loop Road”…
Day 47 Mt Rushmore
Sunday June 17 – Visiting Mount Rushmore and some of our nation’s founding fathers on Father’s Day seemed appropriate. When Earl and Ethel visited Rushmore in July ’37 only George Washington and Thomas Jefferson were complete. Washington was dedicated July…
Week 6 Yellowstone NP
June 12-16 After two full days to cross the remainder of Oregon and then Idaho we reached West Yellowstone, Montana. We took advantage of our late afternoon arrival to enter Yellowstone Park at the West Entrance to hunt for bison.…
Day 41 Historic Columbia River Highway
Monday June 11 – We started our day on Portland’s east side near the western beginning of the Historic Columbia River Highway. Earl and Ethel took two pictures along the historic highway, one from Vista House and the second at…
Day 40 The Odds Were Against Us
Sunday June 10 – Dorothea Petersen was born in Drammen Norway in 1828. She and husband Andreas emigrated to the U.S. with their eight children in 1871. Another child, Martin, was born in 1873 when Dorothea was 43. The family…
Day 39 Newport OR
June 9 – We spent our weekend in Newport, OR as guests of old friends from Stevens Point, Kris and Al Beshire. They chose Newport to retire to and send a heartfelt “Hello” to all their many friends and acquaintances…
Day 38 Pacific Ocean
June 8 – In 2016 at the start of this adventure, identifying where Earl and Ethel’s “Pacific Ocean” picture was taken was a challenge. We were not familiar with the Pacific coast and there was potentially over 900 miles of…
Day 37 Douglas Bridge
June 7 – In late December 1964 a massive rain system rolled off the ocean into Oregon and northern California and continued to drop rain for 20 days. When it was done the floods had killed nearly 20 people, severely…
Days 35 -36 Redwoods
June 5-6, Until we drove US 101 in northern California we had no idea if Earl and Ethel visited the Redwoods? There were no pictures of these tallest trees in the world in their album. Historical and current maps show…
Day 34 Wine Country
Mon. June 4 – Traveling north from San Francisco Earl and Ethel would have traveled through California’s wine country, although “future wine country” would be a more appropriate description. Grape growers and vintners were present in the 1930’s, but on…
Day 33 San Francisco
June 3 – Earl and Ethel arrived in San Francisco roughly six weeks after the Golden Gate Bridge first opened on May 28, 1937. They took the following photo of the new bridge. Did they ride the cable cars, go…
Days 30-32 Sequoia NP & Another Mystery Picture!
May 31-June 2 – Earl and Ethel’s photo album had three pictures tied to Sequoia National Park. Two were separate photos of each of them standing in front of large Sequoias. Some time earlier we confirmed that Ethel’s photo was…
Week 4 Yosemite NP
Week 4 Days 27-29 We know we wrote about Grand Canyon being the “granddaddy” of them all, but, after three days in Yosemite we want to temper that a bit. This being both Lynn and my first trip to Yosemite,…