Portage and Girdwood, Alaska....and Jim Kaiser.

 ...............more and more, I'm leaning towards more of a photo essay rather than mostly text. I hope this works for everyone.......

After leaving  Kenai having put in a couple of weeks helping to build a home with Habitat for Humanity, and enjoying some personal time with the locals, I was now on the road again.

 Seward to the left and Kenai, Soldotna and Homer to the right.  These mountains run north to south, down the center of the peninsula.



My next destination was Anchorage but along the way, as luck would have it, I found surprises.

A friend arranged to meet me in the small ski resort of Girdwood so we could take a tram ride up to the top of their ski mountain.  Fun!

At it's base was a lovely chapel, Our Lady of the Snows, was done in true heavy timber fashion.

                             The alter was a simple  but beautiful piece of art in itself.

                                                        Jim's early studio.
Later, we had an informal dinner at the home of his friend Jim Kaiser, a well known figure in the Alaskan Art World, if not internationally.

Jim works with stained glass and I must say is a super intelligent, often irreverent, humorist. His surroundings are a showplace of his collections of Alaskan Native American art as well as the whimsical-what he calls- "bar art".  (the stuff the guy next to you wants to pawn to pay for his next drink). An 'artist's man cave' of the highest order!!  To his credit, Jim also has quite a history of working through the state teaching and sharing his art with many, many of the remote indigenous villages around Alaska.

Jim's stained glass work immediately caught my eye.  It's as good as it gets and ranges from what I'd call traditional, to stylized, to thought provoking and story related. Below, is 2 of 4 stylized pieces, done on commission.

I could not leave his studio, after seeing it, without buying one of his very artsy and unusual pieces and also commissioning one traditional clear glass piece and a special themed one for a friend.
Jim is "That" good!  I was pleasurable stunned and will be happy displaying his work in my home.

 Jim's full time log cabin studio.

 Bar art, but whimsically perfect, especially in in it's placement and setting.

The next day, I opted for a boat tour to the base of one of the 7 glaciers at Portage.

The surrounding area is beautiful and I wish I had much more time to just hike and explore these undisturbed quiet areas of wilderness.

A bit of a side tour took me through a tunnel into a WW ll sub base military town, through an interesting 2.5 mile tunnel

Later I walked the late evening with my dog, through a well laid out path near my campsite.

Grants Pass, Oregon to Bellingham, Washington

click here for a video of the trip

North to Lake Superior

Fun, relaxing days were had moving north through Indiana and Wisconsin's center.  Stayed on smaller roads when possible.  Drove through farmlands of crops and dairy.  S.W. Wisconsin was really beautiful!
Pete, my rat terrier was often on his toes(well 'feet') when he saw cows or horses.  He just loves them.
The first cow he saw, licked his face and he's been in love ever since.

 Like...uh..."DAD!  CAN I GO PLAY?"  PLEASEEEEE!

In one campground, a number of geese were out training their young alongside a lake.  We motored up slowly for some photos.

My parents took me on a 6 week vacation when I was a kid, in a 15' red and white trailer that looked just like this new retro trailer being sold by Shasta company.  Wow did this bring back wonderful memories.

Kept heading north until I got to the western tip of Lake Superior.

 I had always wanted to get there, but you know how life is.  Anyway, I didn't really see much, just checked it off my bucket list while gazing on it for awhile, then turned west for Oregon.

Vincennes, Indiana

I just love staying off the beaten path.  Good roads, wonderful scenery, relaxed folks in country towns and history all over.

We forget sometimes...or at least I do, how much of our history I have forgotten or never knew well.  Yes, I knew about the Louisiana Purchase and some of what was going on in this central part of the continent before we were a country, but stopping and reading more and more puts things in a better perspective for me.

Vincennes, Indiana was French territory, until the French and Indian wars forced France to cede the lands east of the Mississippi to England.  Then of course England sailed home too after our revolution.

Most of the French citizens stayed on.  The town of Vincennes later on recognized it's history with a spectacular memorial along the river.  Nice what we can do, when congress can get down to simple business!

A cathedral's cemetery beside the memorial holds many of the the early soldiers and citizens but only a few are marked graves.

The cathedral is ornate.  Old style highly detailed stained glass windows depict the stories of the bible.

The organ area was open, as was all areas of the church for public viewing, including a crypt downstairs, under the altar.  Yes, unique.

The altar had a depiction of the Last Supper, in extraordinary detail, within it.

Angel Mounds, Indiana

Trying to drive on secondary roads affords be the view of America forgotten by most who normally travel via Interstate Highways.
The west side of Ohio and central Indiana continuously caught my attention and had me pulling over for a look see.  This is what I enjoy.

'
Angel Mounds was a large sight along a river that had protected itself with 15-18' wood and mud stockades(walls) for defensive protection.

 The state had a very large and informative museum on site.  This was a wall mural depicting the village.

                                     A replica hut made of local reeds found along the river.

I took an hour to walk the area and relax.  Much better than a stop at MacDonalds for sure.

Natches Trace, Mississippi

After leaving the Panhandle of Florida, I drove north towards Tupelo, Mississippi to pick up the Natches Trace, the oldest road in that part of the country.
Todays road is alongside the old path shown in photos.  Americans moving west, for trade in wagons or folks on foot  between the cities of the east and SW Texas territory made this route famous.
Photos are of a unknown soldiers of the Confederacy, numerous Indian mounds and village sites, and the earliest known white settler homes and inns.

Natches Trace

On a previous trip, I lucked out and found myself driving on the Natchez Trace Parkway, that runs along the original Natches Trace foot and wagon trail from Nashville Tennessee to Nacodoches, Texas.  However on that trip a few years ago, I was driving from Tupelo, Ms. (Elvis birthplace) down towards the South West into Louisiana.

 On this trip, I began in Tupelo and headed North to Nashville, Tn. and took my time.  There are numerous historical stops and for the most part, they were all interesting.

One such site was of 13 graves alongside the wagon trail.  No names on the stones.

A major Civil War battle had occurred only a few miles north of here and it is presumed these soldiers died from their wounds shortly afterwards and buried while their forces were withdrawing south.

On the Road Again!

On the road again from the St. Petersburg Beach, Florida to Alaska.  I hope to be in the wine country of Oregon in late fall.  Photo is Applegate Winery, Grants Pass, Oregon.

January is Produce and Production

This month has been wonderful.  I've enjoyed the pleasure of travel and shopping local tiendas, flea markets, craft shops, antique stores....and some thrift stores too, chowing down in a variety of small local eateries and working physically part of the day as a volunteer for Habitat for Humanity building homes in central Florida.
When I saw the hand painted sign above, outside a small vegetable store in Fellsmere, Florida I smiled at the connection between the production we are doing building structures and the word 'produce' in which those who farm, are building a food supply.

The month began for me in Dade City, a small town N.E. of Tampa, at a great affiliate of Habitat for Humanity.  They have fine tuned their operations using the volunteers for Habitat called Care-A-Vanners.  Mostly retired folks, but not always.... who travel in their RV's or motor homes part time or full time, building homes around the country.  A fun group to work with.

GROUP PHOTO TAKEN ON THE FRONT PORCH-I'm on the far right)

THE SAME HOME, DESIGNED FOR A "SPECIAL NEEDS" FAMILY, JUST COMPLETED 5/15.

Now I'm down a bit further and over close to the east coast town of Vero Beach, but in a small town called Fellsmere.  A very small town with an evenly mixed population of white, black and Hispanic.

The homes HFH are building in Fellsmere and Dade City are really nice 3 bedroom, 2 bath models. The plan changes a little in different towns and states, but usually a basic 2 or 3 bedrooms.

 Not big, but well designed.  I wish a home like this was available for me when I was starting out...but it's great for the mostly young families who are working hard struggling to make it in today's world.

In Dade City, we worked on one special house with 6 bedrooms, 5 baths.  It was for a family that had 6 special needs children.  Six total; a couple of theirs and a few they adopted. 

These small towns have a flavor of their own.  Usually there are a base population that has  been there for generations and then there are the new folks in town.  Always a nice blend of old and new.

This little Spanish tiendita (little store) is typical.  Open 7 days a week, from 10-8, this young woman treats her produce as an art form.  Pride of ownership!