MrRetentive

I love the look of old river towns like Hastings and Red Wing in Minnesota, Hannibal Missouri and Le Claire Iowa.

The old home above, located in Le Claire, was repurposed into a gift shop on the main floor and basement, keeping living quarters upstairs.

We ate lunch the same day at The Crane & Pelican, an Italianate structure  built in 1851, now on the National Historic Registry.

Before being transformed into a restaurant, it was home to the family of Daniel and Sabrina Dawley for over 100 years. The Dawleys raised nine children there, just two blocks above the Mississippi.

I’d like to hear some of the adventures they experienced.

 

 

Lots of full time travelers take pets with them on the road. It’s common to see trailers housing more dogs or cats than people. Both of us love dogs and cats, but they always need you around for food, water and relief, not to mention shelter from heat and cold.

During a recent stop in Escanaba, MI, for the 60th International Airstream Rally, we found the only pets we could travel with if they were a bit smaller.

We spotted this life-size carving, called “Four Little Brown Setter Puppies Peeping Over Their Mother’s Back,” in a museum near the foot of the historic Escanaba lighthouse. Swiss woodcarver John Boniger created it almost 175 years ago. It’s made from a single block of wood. Information posted next to it states the interior is hollow, showing there are no pegs holding the puppies in place.

If you’re a pipe smoker in need of instant camaraderie, great pipes and awesome tobaccos, look no further than The Country Squire in Jackson, MS.

I discovered this treasure listening to Country Squire Radio, a weekly podcast on pipes, tobacco and pipe smoking culture. Tobacconist Jon David Cole was someone I definitely had to meet. I knew his friendly podcast person was the real thing. There was no question we we had to route our travels through Jackson.

I was right!

We actually made our pilgrimage to The Country Squire almost two years ago. I just noticed I forgot to press the “Publish” button.

Since that time, we’ve been back for another visit, Jon David purchased the store and has made it even better, and we’re planning to drop in again sometime this fall to socialize and spend a little more money.

No sign of Willie, Waylon and the boys.

At first glance, it looked like we stumbled upon the town of Bedrock as we were exploring Joshua Tree National Park today.

Alas, neither Fred and Wilma nor Barney and Betty were to be found. Plenty of huge granite boulders, though…

Once, super-heated magma, they pushed up to the surface under a layer of older, harder gneiss. Over eons, rain soaked between cracks in the gneiss, fracturing it until it resembled giant rock piles.

Giant rivers washed away the rocks, uncovering the granite, eroding it into unique shapes.

You have to marvel at God’s creation!