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…

  • Disruptive Civil War Technology

    If you manage any type of business, you likely have heard the term, “disruptive technology.” The term was first defined by Clayton Christensen in a 1995 Harvard Business Review article as having the following qualities.

  • Battles at Bull Run

    Two battles were fought at Manassas. The first in July, 1861, and the second thirteen months later in August of 1862. I spent three days at Bull Run, walking the battlefields, researching the events and talking with park rangers and volunteers. Manassas is about the best curated of all the battlefields I visited. The National…

  • Critical “Race” Theory

    It is Memorial Day Again. Last Memorial Day I was on a boat in Charleston Harbor headed to Fort Sumter for a much-too-short visit. But today I saw a TV blurb about the delayed Indy 500, something I have not thought about for many years. That took me back 65 years to 1959. Memorial Day…

  • The Cute College Girl – A Fairy Tale

    Once upon a time, when I was in college there was this freshman girl, really cute, bubbly, smiling, attractive. She had a personality that drew people to her. Everyone seemed to like her. One Saturday night at a party I had opportunity to talk to her, just the two of us. Boy howdy, I thought,…