Index

  • First Motorized Crossing of the US in 1903

    2022-05-31 In 1903, ten years before the idea of the Lincoln Highway came to be, and travel was dominated by horse and buggy, George Adams Wyman accepted a challenge to ride a motorized bicycle across the continent in 40 days, the first attempt by a motorized vehicle. The California Motor Bicycle Company provided the bike…

  • Swedes Across America

    2022-05-31 I stopped at the Lincoln Monument a few miles east of Laramie, and highest point on I-80/US-30. The visitor center there has a lot of information about the Lincoln Highway. It gives all the credit for the Lincoln Highway to Henry Joy, the president of Packard Motor Company and the first president of the…

  • Small Town Iowa

    2022-05-22 I spent time in two small towns, Missouri Valley Iowa and Cozad Nebraska. I stayed in their city park campgrounds and both experiences were great. These city parks are clean, safe and well kept… and inexpensive. One of the reasons I like small towns and their parks is you come across truly interesting people…

  • THE Railroad Town

    2022-05-24 North Platte Nebraska is THE railroad town. It was created by Missouri Pacific, and the railroad still dominates the city. When Grenville Dodge was laying out the route for the first transcontinental railroad, he identified this location in central Nebraska as the ideal location for a routing, service and maintenance facility – the midpoint…

  • The Wall

    2021-02-21 This is a long report, but there is a lot to say. The wall is here. I found it in its many forms. If you drive along US-281, Military Highway, and look south, you will see many the barriers, both old and new. I have been joking about “Biden gates” but they won’t be…

  • Presidential Geek

    Hooverville

  • Geek Etymology

    Maybe “Geek Entomology” is more appropriate. Confused? Find the difference here. “Why have you suffer’d me to be imprison’d,Kept in a dark house, visited by the priest,And made the most notorious geck and gullThat e’er invention play’d on? tell me why”.    Shakespeare in Twelfth Night, V.I

  • Geek, Nerd, Dork or Dweeb?

    This beautiful diagram is best definition I have found those of us who are more complex than ordinary folk. Not entirely complementary, but accurate. If a picture is 1,000 words, then a well-crafted diagram is 10 times that. In November, 2010 BBC Four aired a 6 part series titled “The Beauty of Diagrams”. In the…

  • Teaching

    We in the US are in the unfortunate position of dealing with many years of “dumbing down” of our education system. Efforts to standardize education–while noble in concept–have really just established a standard for conformity and only served to maximize mediocrity. A car race where everyone is required to drive 55 offers little motivation for those who can go…

  • Putt, Putt

    In the mid 70’s there was a series of articles published in Research & Development magazine by Archibald Putt titled “Putt’s Law: The Successful Technocrat”. I was just a young Science Geek at the time, had been doing research on blowing holes in stuff with lasers, but wanted to develop chops as a Business and…