How I Spent My Summer Vacation

"Travel only with thy equals or thy betters; if there are none, travel alone". ~ The Dhammapada

Here are some pictures I took on my trip to visit my mother, siblings, kids, and grandkids.



Clouds in the mountains of West Virginia.


My grandchildren Alaina and Aaron, also known as A.J. He turned his head just as snapped the photo, and I didn't take another one, because I didn't know my memory card held over 200 images. I thought I only got about 27, like regular cameras. I thought my exposures were limited. OK. I'm old!

One wall of the Knute Rockne memorial at the Matfield Green, Kansas turnpike rest stop, featuring his famous "Gipper" speech. (You can click for an enlarged picture) Knute Rockne was killed when the airplane he was traveling in crashed on a hill in the nearby Flint Hills. One can see a cross on the top of the hill from the highway.

A shirt in the window of a store in Mission, Kansas, near Kansas City.

The "portal" to Delano, Kansas, which is what west Wichita, Kansas used to be called, in the 1860's. Nineteenth century Wichita, contrary to popular belief, was not the "wild and wooly" town of movie and dime novel fame. It was quite civilized and peaceful. Delano was where all the gunfights, prostitution, gambling, etc took place. You can see the two tallest buildings in Kansas in the background. The one that looks taller is actually the second tallest. it's a matter of perspective. The other is further away.

The "Keeper of the Plains" statue created by Blackbear Bosin, Native American artist from Wichita. It is located at the confluence of the Big Arkansas and Little Arkansas Rivers in Wichita, in front of the Mid-American Indian Center Museum and cultural center.

By the way, in Kansas, these rivers are pronounced "ArkanSAS", not "ArkanSAW" like the rest of the country pronounces them.

The other two of my grandkids, Tristan and Alexia, with my son Anthony, who has no kids but is holding our Pug, Suzie.

Incidentally, both my daughter and my daughter-in-law are pregnant with their third children. I will soon have two more grandkids.

A souvenir shop somewhere in Central Missouri. We got some Wizard of Oz stuff, Betty Boop stuff, and a Barney Fife T-shirt. "Nip it!"


A statue of some guy sniffing his own arm pit in front of the Tamarac Center in West Virginia. And the Tamarac Center. I didn't go in. I had to stay outside and walk the dog.


The Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia.

Whew!