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Org Announcement - the Alaska sub-blog is now "live"!

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( Posted 260608 ) The new (and hopefully current/active)  T&C's 2026 Alaska Trek in the T42  sub-blog is now live! -- 260512 version of this announcement -- Our pathetic inability to keep this blog up to date with our travels has created some interesting organizational challenges.  As we embarked upon our Nevada trip last fall, our dilemma was that we wanted to put new content up while it was still relatively fresh/recent - but also wanted the overall blog to maintain a linear timeline.  We came up with a cumbersome-but-workable solution at the time, but with an additional Arizona trip now also in the rear view mirror that we haven't even begun to document and our new Alaska adventure about to start, the system was clearly going to become untenable. Therefore, we've decided to splinter off into multiple blogs.  This OG blog will continue to be the home of everything up to and including the East of the Rockies Trek (which will eventually get backfilled with t...
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Indiana, Part 4 - Hiking in Turkey Run State Park [240705]

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(Posted 250926) After a rainy first day hiding out in the Nature Center, we finally got full day of hiking in at Turkey Run State Park - and got to see some pretty unique scenery along the way.
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Location: Turkey Run State Park, 8121 Park Rd, Marshall, IN 47859, USA
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Indiana, Part 3 - Rain Day in Turkey Run State Park [240704]

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(Posted 250926) Happy Independence Day!
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Location: Turkey Run State Park, 8121 Park Rd, Marshall, IN 47859, USA
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Illinois, Part 4 - Hanging out at Abe and Mary's Old House [240703]

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For our next activity, we visited a famous historic home in Springfield.  (No, not the Simpsons' house - a different Springfield than that 😜.)
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Location: 413 S 8th St, Springfield, IL 62701, USA
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Facts and Figures from Month 3

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Since we embarked on our Trek on April 3rd, July 2nd marked the end of our third month on the road. States traversed during month three: 5.
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Location: Lincoln, IL 62656, USA
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Traveling from Wisconsin to Illinois [240702]

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Tuesday was mostly a travel day, although we made a number of stops along the way to pick up supplies since we weren't sure what would be open/available along our route on the upcoming 4th of July holiday.  But we took the chance to sample a frozen treat along the way too.
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Location: Lincoln, IL 62656, USA
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Wisconsin, Part 4 - Devil's Lake State Park [240701]

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We spent our final day in Wisconsin exploring Devil's Lake State Park.
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Location: Devil's Lake State Park, S5975 Park Rd, Baraboo, WI 53913, USA
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Wisconsin, Part 3 - Wisconsin Dells [240630]

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What exactly is a "dell"?  Other than the fact that a childhood song told us that it's something that a farmer can apparently be in, we had no idea either.  The dictionary defines a dell as "a secluded hollow or small valley, usually covered with trees or turf."  Wikipedia describes the Wisconsin Dells in particular as "a 5-mile gorge on the Wisconsin River...noted for its scenery, in particular for its Cambrian sandstone rock formations and tributary canyons."
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Location: Wisconsin Dells, WI, USA
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Wisconsin, Part 2 - Cheese and Cranberry Day [240629]

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Saturday was a day of mini-adventures, as we headed east across Wisconsin.
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Location: Warrens, WI 54666, USA
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Minnesota / Wisconsin, Part 2 - Stillwater, and Completing the Laura Ingalls Wilder Trifecta in Pepin [240628]

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Today we finished our journey down the St. Croix river, bouncing back and forth between two states, ending at what was once a Little House in the Big Woods.
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Location: Pepin, WI 54759, USA
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Minnesota / Wisconsin, Part 1 - Interstate State Park [240627]

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For the next couple of days, we'll be traveling along the Minnesota / Wisconsin border, bouncing back and forth between the two states to see various sights on both sides.
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Location: Interstate State Park, 307 Milltown Rd, Taylors Falls, MN 55084, USA
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Minnesota, Part 7 - Voyageurs National Park [240625-26]

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Voyageurs National Park is the second national park that we visited by boat, since most of the really interesting parts of the park are only accessible by water.
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Location: Voyageurs National Park, Minnesota, USA
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Trailer 12 - The T42 Becomes the T43 (Orlando Theme Parks) [250119-25]

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Here's the twelfth in our series of "where we really are now" (or "where we've been more recently") trailers (posted Feb 12).  In late January, our son flew out to join us in the T42 (making it a T43) for a week at the Disney (Animal Kingdom, Hollywood Studios, EPCOT, and Magic Kingdom) and Universal (Studios and Islands of Adventure) theme parks. (P.S. As with the past few trailers, we're working around Blogger's 100 MB file upload limit by linking to a larger video uploaded to YouTube instead.  For the highest quality video viewing experience, you'll probably want to click the little gear icon under the video once it starts playing, and make sure that "Quality" is set to "1080p".)
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Location: Bill Frederick Park, 3401 S Hiawassee Rd, Orlando, FL 32835, USA
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Minnesota, Part 6 - Temperance River State Park [240624]

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At Temperance River State Park, we learned that "potholes" aren't just in roads.
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Location: Temperance River State Park, 7620 West MN-61, Schroeder, MN 55613, USA
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Minnesota, Part 5 - Grand Portage [240623]

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We spent Sunday exploring some of the sites around the Grand Portage area.
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Location: Grand Portage National Monument, 170 Mile Creek Rd, Grand Portage, MN 55605, USA
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Minnesota, Part 4 - Moose-less in Isle Royale National Park [240622]

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Today we'd be making what is probably our shortest visit to a National Park ever:  a trip to Isle Royale National Park.  As the name implies, Isle Royale is an island out in Lake Superior just south of the Canadian border and can only be reached by boat.  The only non-overnight boat available only provides 3.5 hours on the island (with a 3 hour round trip to get there and back) so we didn't have time to do very much while there.
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Location: Windigo, MI, USA
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Minnesota, Part 3 - Tettegouche State Park [240621]

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We continued our Minnesota adventures with a visit to Tettegouche State Park, on the shores of Lake Superior.
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Location: Tettegouche State Park, 5702 MN-61, Silver Bay, MN 55614, USA
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Minnesota, Part 2 - Gooseberry Falls State Park [240620]

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Thursday was a pretty full day, with almost four hours of driving to get to our next stopping place and shopping and sight seeing planned on the way.
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Location: Gooseberry Falls State Park, 3206 MN-61, Two Harbors, MN 55616, USA
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Wisconsin, Part 1 - Copper Falls State Park [240619]

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Our first, quick foray into Wisconsin was for a visit to Copper Falls State Park.
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Location: Copper Falls State Park, 36764 Copper Falls Rd, Mellen, WI 54546, USA
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Michigan, Part 11 - Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park [240618]

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Our last "stop" on our way out of Michigan was at Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park, to do some hiking and waterfall-peeping.
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Location: Porcupine Mountains, Carp Lake Township, MI 49953, USA
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Michigan, Part 10 - Munising, Part 2 [240617]

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We had to do a little vehicle maintenance on the T42 before continuing on with our sightseeing in Munising.
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Location: Munising, MI 49862, USA
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Trailer 11 - Great Smoky Mountains National Park [241118-24]

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Here's the eleventh in our series of "where we really are now" (or "where we've been more recently") trailers (posted Dec 9). (P.S. As with the past few trailers, we're working around Blogger's 100 MB file upload limit by linking to a larger video uploaded to YouTube instead.  For the highest quality video viewing experience, you'll probably want to click the little gear icon under the video once it starts playing, and make sure that "Quality" is set to "1080p".)
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Location: Great Smoky Mountains National Park, United States
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Michigan, Part 9 - Munising, Part 1 (Pictured Rocks Cruise) [240616b]

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This blog post continues the story of our (very full) first day in the Pictured Rocks National Seashore area.
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Location: Munising, MI 49862, USA
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Trailer 10 - Shenandoah National Park [241028-1102]

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Here's the tenth in our series of "where we really are now" (or "where we've been more recently") trailers (posted Nov 30). (P.S. As with the past few trailers, we're working around Blogger's 100 MB file upload limit by linking to a larger video uploaded to YouTube instead.  For the highest quality video viewing experience, you'll probably want to click the little gear icon under the video once it starts playing, and make sure that "Quality" is set to "1080p".)
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Location: Shenandoah National Park, Virginia, USA
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Michigan, Part 8 - Sable Falls / Au Sable Light Station [240616a]

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Our travels would have us spending a couple of days in and around the Pictured Rocks National Seashore.  Our first day there was pretty full, so we'll be dividing it up into two separate blog posts - with this first one covering our time in the Grand Sable area.
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Location: Burt Township, MI, USA
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Special Edition 1 - It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like... [241116-21]

Well, it seems we've fallen behind on even putting out the "where we really are now" trailers in a timely fashion.  But recent events have inspired us to at least push out a "Special Edition" update today, Nov. 23, from the camp store in Great Smoky Mountains National Park (which happens to be one of two places in the park with WiFi).  Enjoy!
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Location: Cades Cove, Tennessee 37882, USA
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Trailer 9 - Cunningham Falls [241021-24]

Here's the ninth in our series of "where we really are now" (or "where we've been more recently") trailers (posted Nov 16).
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Location: Cunningham Falls, Maryland 21783, USA
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Michigan, Part 7 - Tahquamenon Falls [240615]

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Today we visited Michigan's largest waterfall.  Tahquamenon Falls actually has a distinct Upper and Lower falls, with the Upper being the one with the "largest" designation.  There's technically a 4.5-ish mile path that runs along the Tahquamenon River between the two so you could park at one and walk to the other, but most people opt to skip the 9 mile round-trip hike and drive to each of the falls instead - which is what we decided to do as well.
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Location: Tahquamenon Falls, McMillan Township, MI 49768, USA
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Michigan, Part 6 - Shipwrecks and Endangered Birds [240614]

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We spent our first full day in the Tahquamenon Falls area visiting the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum, and the Seney National Wildlife Refuge next to it.
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Location: Whitefish Point, MI 49768, USA
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Trailer 8 - Great Falls [241020]

Here's the eighth in our series of "where we really are now" trailers (posted Nov. 3 - so these are beginning to become more like "where we were recently" trailers 😉).
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Location: Great Falls, VA, USA
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Michigan, Part 5 - Sault Ste. Marie [240613]

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We continued our journey into the Upper Peninsula of Michigan with a visit to the city of Sault Ste. Marie, on the St. Marys River that connects Lake Huron with Lake Superior.
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Location: Sault Ste. Marie, MI 49783, USA
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Michigan, Part 4 - The Land of Fudge (aka Mackinac Island) [240612]

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To Tom, the words "Mackinac Island" were always followed by the word "Fudge", since his only exposure to the name was from the perennial fudge stand at the Sonoma County Fair in his younger days; he never realized that Mackinac Island was even an actual place, figuring it was akin to "the valley of the Jolly Green Giant" .  (He also has always pronounced it "Mack-i-nack" too.)  Christine, on the other hand, had a father who was from Michigan so knew that Mackinac Island not only existed, but that it was pronounced "Mack-i-naw" and was famous for fudge.  Of course, we had to visit there on our way through Michigan!
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Location: Mackinac Island, MI 49757, USA
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Trailer 7 - "Wild Horses Couldn't Keep Us Away From Assateague Island National Seashore" [241014-15]

Here's the seventh in our series of "where we really are now" trailers (posted Oct. 17).
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Location: Assateague Island, United States
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Michigan, Part 3 - Charlevoix [240611]

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The next stop on our trip was based on a recommendation from Aunt Johanna, who asked if we were planning to see the Mushroom Houses in Charlevoix.  We had never heard of them before, but it turned out that Charlevoix had several points of interest.
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Location: Charlevoix, MI 49720, USA
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Michigan, Part 2 - Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore [240609-10]

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Although we only spent a little over a day at the Sleeping Bear Dunes, we crammed quite a bit into our visit:  a scenic drive, a walk through a historic village, and a dune hike.
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Location: Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, Maple City, MI 49664, USA
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Trailer 6 - Ricketts Glen State Park [241002-05]

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Here's the sixth in our series of "where we really are now" trailers (posted Oct. 5). (P.S. As with the past few trailers, we're working around Blogger's 100 MB file upload limit by linking to a larger video uploaded to YouTube instead.  For the highest quality video viewing experience, you'll probably want to click the little gear icon under the video once it starts playing, and make sure that "Quality" is set to "1080p".)
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Location: Ricketts Glen State Park, 695 PA-487, Benton, PA 17814, USA
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Michigan, Part 1 - Hanging Out with the Martins [240606-09]

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As we left Indiana and headed into Michigan we got brief respite from "life on the road" for a couple of days, getting to spend some time in an actual house without wheels! 
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Location: Mecosta, MI 49332, USA
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Indiana, Part 2 - Bad Flies, Good Flies in Indiana Dunes [240604-05]

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We continued our adventures in Indiana Dunes National Park, spending time on some actual dunes.
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Location: Indiana Dunes National Park, Porter, IN 46304, USA
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Facts and Figures from Month 2

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Since we embarked on our Trek on April 3rd, our time in Indiana crossed over the two month mark.  We thought you might enjoy some facts and figures from our second month on the road. States traversed: 8.5 (we passed through a portion of Montana, but didn't stay the night or do anything there).
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Location: Indiana Dunes National Park, Porter, IN 46304, USA
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Indiana, Part 1 - Houses of the Past and Future in Indiana Dunes National Park [240602-03]

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We spent most of the time on our first pass through Indiana exploring Indiana Dunes National Park.  The park is somewhat different than most we've visited up until now, in that it's not in some secluded out of the way place.  It occupies a discontinuous strip of land on the well-populated south shore of Lake Michigan, and is broken into fragments and odd shaped pieces by both public and private beach communities, as well as the Indiana Dunes State Park (which the national park completely surrounds).  It would take several days to "fully explore", and we did our best to hit the highlights.
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Location: Indiana Dunes National Park, Porter, IN 46304, USA
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Illinois, Part 3 - More Adventures in the Starved Rock Area [240531-0601]

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Continuing our adventures in the Starved Rock State Park area...
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Location: Starved Rock State Park, Oglesby, IL 61348, USA
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Trailer 5 - Acadia National Park [240903-08]

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Here's the fifth in our series of "where we really are now" trailers (posted Sept. 19). (P.S. As with the past few trailers, we're working around Blogger's 100 MB file upload limit by linking to a larger video uploaded to YouTube instead.  For the highest quality video viewing experience, you'll probably want to click the little gear icon under the video once it starts playing, and make sure that "Quality" is set to "1080p".)
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Location: Acadia National Park, Maine, USA
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Illinois, Part 2 - Matthiessen State Park [240531]

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Our plans for the Starved Rock area included spending some time in nearby Matthiessen State Park, which was just a few minutes down the road.  We had asked about hikes there at the Starved Rock SP Visitor Center the day before, and the volunteer had drawn us a route on a map that went through a residential area and down a narrow one lane, pothole-filled dirt road that runs along a golf course to a small little dirt lot with limited parking.  We're not exactly sure why she sent us there, since we found out later that the official/main parking lot is much larger and easy to access, with its only apparent possible downside being that the path from it puts you "in middle" of the canyon instead of at one end.
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Location: Matthiessen State Park, 2500 IL-178, Oglesby, IL 61348, USA
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Illinois, Part 1 - Phaser Fire in Starved Rock State Park [240530]

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Starved Rock State Park served as "home base" for our few days in Illinois, as we visited both that park, and nearby Matthiessen State Park as well.
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Location: Starved Rock State Park, Oglesby, IL 61348, USA
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Trailer 4 - Franconia Notch State Park [240827-29]

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Here's the fourth in our series of "where we really are now" trailers (posted Sept. 8). (P.S. As with the past couple of trailers, we're working around Blogger's 100 MB file upload limit by linking to a larger video uploaded to YouTube instead.  For the highest quality video viewing experience, you'll probably want to click the little gear icon under the video once it starts playing, and make sure that "Quality" is set to "1080p".)
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Location: Franconia Notch State Park, Flume Gorge, Daniel Webster Hwy, Lincoln, NH 03251, USA
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Trailer 3 - "Eating Our Way Through Vermont [240818-22]"

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Here's the third in our series of "where we really are now" trailers (posted Sept. 2 - Happy Labor Day!). (P.S. As with Trailer 2, we're working around Blogger's 100 MB file upload limit by linking to a larger video uploaded to YouTube instead.  For the highest quality video viewing experience, you'll probably want to click the little gear icon under the video once it starts playing, and make sure that "Quality" is set to "1080p".)
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Location: Burlington, VT, USA
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Iowa, Part 3 - Maquoketa Caves State Park [240529]

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Who doesn't like a good cave?  We certainly do, so we couldn't pass up the opportunity to explore the Maquoketa Caves while passing through Iowa.  Maquoketa Caves State Park claims to have 13 caves in total, but a number of them are tiny and require crawling or wriggling through; we planned to just explore the ones you can stay relatively upright (and clean 😉) in.
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Location: Maquoketa Caves State Park, 9688 Caves Rd, Maquoketa, IA 52060, USA
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Iowa, Part 2 - Pikes Peak State Park, Effigy Mounds National Monument, a Pink Elephant, and a Lock [240528]

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As we drove toward Pikes Peak State Park yesterday, Tom asked "Haven't we already been to Pikes Peak?  And wasn't it in Colorado ?"  The state park in Iowa is named for the same man, but unlike the much higher peak in Colorado that ol' Zebulon Pike never actually ever made it to the top of (but is named for him anyway), the Iowa site was actually visited by Pike himself in 1805 when he was sent by the government to select a site to build a military fort.  Although Pike selected the site of the current park for the fort, the government chose to build the fort across the river instead.  Your 1805 tax dollars at work!
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Location: Pikes Peak State Park, 32264 Pikes Peak Rd, McGregor, IA 52157, USA
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Trailer 2 - "Other Gorge-ous Falls of New York [240809-15]"

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Here's the second in our series of "where we really are now" trailers (posted August 16). (P.S. We're pretty sure we've found a way around Blogger's 100 MB file upload limit - by linking to a larger video uploaded to YouTube instead.  This trailer is our first attempt at using this mechanism - so it may behave a little differently than the previous videos on our blog.  Let us know if you have problems / issues viewing it.  One tip : for the highest quality video, you'll probably want to click the little gear icon under the video once it starts playing, and make sure that "Quality" is set to 1080p.)
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Location: Taughannock Falls State Park, 1740 Taughannock Blvd, Trumansburg, NY 14886, USA
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Iowa, Part 1 - A Holy Grotto, and Getting Spammed in Minnesota [240526-27]

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For our first day in Iowa, we continued our recent trend of "taking a break from hiking out in nature" to see something rather unique - and unexpected, for Iowa.
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Location: Shrine of the Grotto of the Redemption, 208 1st Ave NW, West Bend, IA 50597, USA
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