Bradenton Florida

De Soto National Memorial

For those of you who have been followers of this blog, particularly over the last 6 months, I have some news, its badness or goodness depends upon your perspective. I think that the sharing our 2008 trip to the Pacific Northwest is at an end. For those who have followed each posting with a raptured suspense I am sure you are saddened. No more pictures of Lava, no more musings on how this all came to be, no more comments about life as we know it today. For those of you who were of the opinion “Can’t the fool talk about anything else?” I am sure you are thrilled to find out your agony is at last at an end. (When I was growing up, a standing joke held that nothing was more boring than going over to a neighbor’s house to be treated with a slide show about their latest trip to Aunt Mabel’s. Sometimes, I thought my blog was degenerating to that level.)

Out of a desire to depart from the boring sameness the recounting of our exploits in Oregon might arouse, on occasion, sights from other current happenings in my life broke in. One of the first blogs to depart from our Oregon trip was my posting about Florida’s Manatees. I had so wanted to see them in the wild, I was so thrilled to do so, and I was so saddened by what I saw, I knew I would have to break into my on-gong narrative.

Well, that Manatee posting was from our trip to Florida to spend Thanksgiving with my OLDER sister. So now that we have left Oregon behind, let us move onto the sunny south, Florida, once more (Oh no, another travelogue? Well, maybe, after all that is what this blog is mostly about, traveling through the stations of life.)

One area of Florida that we (A. & me) had never seen was the Bradenton area. One place I particular I wanted to see was the De Soto National Memorial area. Now you must understand, I have enough knowledge of the history of the early Spanish explorers to be dangerous. So I was well aware of the fact that the spot within the city limits of Bradenton Florida designated for the memorial to the landing is just a spot that tradition holds was the place based, in part, on a reading of the extant records of the expedition and interpreting the topographical features in light of what the coast line looks like today.

That is to say, I am aware of the fact that no one is exactly sure at what precise spot, Hernado De Soto and his band of “explorers” splashed ashore in Florida in May of 1839, just as we are not sure at exactly what spot Narvaez landed in 1528, or Ponce De Leon landed in 1513 (though most scholars agree this last landing was on the Atlantic Coast). And, for that matter, there is some debate about where the Englishman Frances Drake put up on the Pacific Coast for repairs in the midst of making his around the world sojourn. I mean, give all these guys a break. They didn’t have GPS. Most of the maps they were carrying with them showed that the area we now know is the continent of North America was “incognito” and in particular the idea that there might be a huge land mass in that vicinity was non-existent. And if there was any land shown for this area, it was just a few islands.

But someone somewhere, in this case a local Tampa Bay Historical group, a unit of the Colonial Dames of America, erected a monument to De Soto’s landing at a spot on Shaw’s Point near Bradenton Florida. To be fair, apparently their decision was based, in part, on the considered opinion of a few historical researchers hired by the Federal Government during the 1930’s. This monument was erected in 1939 just in time to commemorate the 400th Anniversary of the original landing. Nine years after the monument was unveiled the Federal Government designated the area surrounding the monument, comprising in all slightly less that 30 acres, the De Soto National Memorial. (For a more complete description of this process see: http://www.nationalparkstraveler.com/2008/03/park-history-de-soto-national-memorial.)

At any rate, even if we are not sure whether De Soto landed here, or even saw the place, the National Park Service has made an effort to at least give visitors to the monument an idea about who De Soto was, what he did, and did not do, and the overall significance of his 4 year odyssey in the new world. Since this is supposed to be a Memorial to his landing, an attempt has been made to re-create the first “camp” that De Soto and his men made upon landing. The exhibit is called Camp Uzita. During the winter months it is staffed with interpreters, but we were there “out-of-season” and were unfortunate enough to arrive just after a Ranger talk had been given. Thus, we missed the full “treatment of this area.

There is also a “nature walk” through the park area. When De Soto landed (whether or not it was exactly here), most of this coastal area was a Mangrove Swamp. Thus, this was a walk through a Mangrove Swamp. As we walked along the path we had a very interesting walk, albeit it was obviously not anything at all like what De Soto and his men sloshed through. Nevertheless, as we went along we stopped and read the various displays relating to the “natural history” as well as the history of De Soto’s expedition.

After a short distance, we reached a point of land jutting out into Tampa Bay. I am sure at the time of De Soto’s landing, this point looked out on a shoreline of more mangrove swamps. But obviously today it looks out on Bradenton Florida. Who needs a mangrove swamp when you can have a boat dock or a beach (unless, of course, you are concerned about protecting the eco-system from damages during a hurricane)?

As we returned from our “swamp walk” we passed the monument again. As we did, we took time to notice the immense tree growing near-by. It is a “Gumbo-Limbo” tree, a tree native to Florida and much of the Caribbean area. It is also called “The Tourist Tree” by many native Floridians because (and here I quote from the above noted web-site else my family think this is just some more of my own brand of “corn”): “In South Florida, gumbo-limbo has been called the tourist tree because of its red, flaking skin.”

All in all, I think we all appreciated the chance we had to visit the De Soto National Memorial, whether it is, or is not, the actual spot where De Soto landed. They have appeared to have done a good job with what they had, and at least helped us to see the importance of this period of our history for us today.

Milwaukee Wisconsin

Journey to a Land of Water Wind and Fire

Epilogue 3: Milwaukee

A “Hot Time” in the “Old Town” That Night

Well, after our magnificent sunset in the Columbia River Gorge, I was in hopes that the weather would hold for our eastbound trip on The Empire Builder. Alas, it was not to be. After a promising start the next morning, promising, but not as pretty as it was on the trip I made Eastbound on the Empire Builder in 2004, the weather steadily deteriorated.

However, we arrived on time the next morning in the Twin Cities. Unfortunately, we were there on Monday September1, 2008, just as the 2008 Republican Convention was getting started. Anyway, the Republicans (warning, the site may load slowly, due to political philosophy no doubt), you remember them, the ones with all those big Amtrak supporters such as John McCain and all that (oh, I’m sorry, I forgot, I thought this was a site devoted to fiction), . . . well, anyway, there were so many private rail cars in the yards that our train could not leave using the normal route. We had to back out of the station and take an alternate. The end result of this maneuver was that we lost 30 minutes. We spent another 30 minutes just east of Winona MN waiting on a drawbridge across the Mississippi to be lowered.

Thus, we pulled into Milwaukee 1 hour late (still not bad considering the distance we had traveled since Portland OR). I had scheduled a stop-over in Milwaukee because I knew that there was not much time between the Empire Builder’s arrival time in Chicago and the Cardinal’s departure. So rather then run the risk and worry about “Will I make it or not?” all across the upper mid-West (and also maybe hold up fellow passengers on the Cardinal), I had intentionally scheduled a stop-over in Milwaukee and had tickets for one of the Hiawatha runs for the next day.

Besides, even though I had been through Milwaukee now several times, I had never stopped there. Even more specifically, I had never spent time in Wisconsin before, just ridden through on the train.

The first item of business upon our arrival was dinner. I had wanted a good German meal (I remembered that Milwaukee had a good German heritage) and a fellow passenger on the Empire Builder absolutely insisted the only restaurant to even consider for German Food in Milwaukee is Mader’s. Well, obviously in one night we couldn’t sample them all, but I must say Mader’s was a fine restaurant and yes, I would like to go there again (but no, I am not including pictures of my meal, recipes etc., those of you, all 1 or 2, who regularly read this space know that this is not that type of blog).

After our meal we walked through a little bit of the city, and were awed with what we saw. Those of you with long memories will remember, we had started off on this trip with an architectural tour of Chicago, some old buildings such as Marshall Fields for sure, but mostly new ones with curves, spikes, angles, glass reflections and all. Well, here in Milwaukee we did sort of a mini-tour. And what we saw amazed us.

I had seen a building in the Second Empire style of architecture on the short cab ride from the station to our hotel. This amazed me. I had not seen a structure like this since the Philadelphia (PA) City Hall or the Executive Office Building west of the White House in DC. So, not surprisingly, on our walk we took a closer look at this French Empire Building, and at its neighbor, a fine specimen of the Richardson Romanesque design. Both of them were not “public” buildings, but had been built as office buildings. We assumed they were still fulfilling this function in elegant fashion.

In our meanderings, we walked along the Milwaukee River several times. I knew, from what I had read before starting on our trip, that at one time the river front was a “heavy” industry area (the industry being mostly beer or beer-related concerns of course). But I also knew that most of that industry was gone, and in its place Milwaukee was trying to make over its river front. They even have an citizens organization, Milwaukee Riverkeeper, involved in their efforts.

Well, at least from what we saw they seem to have done a fine job. Of course, we were there on the shank end of the day, and the lighting was great for picture taking!

Our Sleeping Car Attendant on the Empire Builder lived in Milwaukee and he strongly recommended that we get over to the lakefront to check out the Milwaukee Art Museum’s building. He mentioned that it had movable wings (I understand the technical term is “brise soleil”) on it. So, the next morning, we set out to do just that. We knew we didn’t have time to take a look inside, but the building alone promised to make our efforts worthwhile. Indeed it did. As you can see from the picture, during the period of time we were there the wings appeared to be spread. According to the web-site the position of the wings is dictated in part by the winds, obviously a vital concern for a Lake Michigan site. The structure, really only a part of the entire Milwaukee Art Museum, was designed by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava.

We would have liked to have tarried a bit longer, but we had “a train (actually 2) to catch.” So, too soon, our short stay was over. Milwaukee, you were a nice closing to a wonderful trip.

The Columbia River Gorge

Journey to a Land of Water Wind and Fire

Epilogue 2: The Columbia River Gorge

An Evening Cruise

One of the real starting points for this entire trip was when A. suggested we take a cruise on the Columbia River. She showed me the brochures and asked me what I thought. I agreed with her it would be a beautiful trip. However, upon looking at the price they wanted to sail for 8 days in cramped quarters up an inland river, I suggested an equally scenic possibility, taking Amtrak's Empire Builder through the gorge.

Unfortunately, on our way out the weather was not all that great. It wasn't bad, mind you, it just was not as good as it could have been. I knew, I had come through the Gorge on an early morning ride in 2002 that was magnificent.

However, I held out hope. Even when, on our trip back into Portland, the clouds gathered around us once more.

Even as we finished touring the Chinese Garden, it still appeared that we would once more have a cloudy trip. And then, just as we boarded the Empire Builder that evening, the sun broke through. And thus we had a wonderful trip up the gorge away from the setting sun.

The only problem was, it was one of those settings, which is hard to capture on a photo, especially if you are using "point and shoot" equipment from a moving train. So, while the following gives some idea of the beauty that we saw, even now, months later, in my minds eye, I know that what we saw far surpassed our abilities to capture the moment.

But that is the way it often is.

Portland Oregon

Journey to a Land of Water Wind and Fire

Epilogue 1: Portland Oregon

Classically Chinese

Well, we finally did make it down from McKenzie Pass, and completed our circle route by arriving once more in Eugene, over 1000 miles after we started from there 10 days ago. The next morning we caught the 9:00 AM Cascades Train up to Portland. Our train back east didn’t leave until 4:00 P.M. but the way the schedules worked out, it was best to take this early train, plus it left us more time in Portland.


One of the really good features about Amtrak travel is that in most cities, Richmond VA’s Staples Mills Road station being one of the worst exceptions, when you arrive at the station you are in the heart of town already. And if you have a lay-over, as we did, you have options other than sitting in a straight-backed plastic chair attempting to read the latest novel, the newspaper, or even, horrors, papers from your place of business.

Instead you can check your bags (there is a fee per bag), and walk to a nearby “destination” and check it out. And that is what we did.


I had had a layover in Portland on 2 previous occasions (including the layover on the way out on this trip). Each time I/we had considered visiting the Portland Classical Chinese Garden which is within easy walking distance of the station. But for various reasons I/we had not gone. But today would be different. So we checked our bags and off we went.

The Portland Classical Chinese Garden occupies an entire city block (about 40,000 square feet) that used to be a parking lot. The garden is the result of a Sister Cities agreement between Portland Oregon and Suzhou China. Artisans from Suzhou came over and built this garden in downtown Portland, and in return, Portland gave Suzhou a Rose Garden (Portland prides itself on its roses). Ironically, the rocks used in the garden (more on these later) were imported from the area around Suzhou China, but the plants were strictly American-grown descendents of Chinese plants that had been brought over many years ago. This is because of the strict agricultural importation requirements in place today.


I have been in Chinese (and Chinese-influenced) gardens before. When I was stationed in Korea back in the late 1960’s I visited several of the palaces in Seoul, and walked through their gardens. However, these visits were all in the winter, and, to be honest, everything in Korea was a bit ragged from a seasonal and an economic point-of-view at that time. Korea in the late 1960’s was just beginning to overcome the ill effects of having your front yard, your back yard, your kitchen etc. in the middle of a war zone with bombs, rockets, bullets, mines, runaway tanks etc. They had not yet produced their economic miracle (though evidences of its emergence were all around us). Accordingly, the palaces I visited, while public recreation areas, were not necessarily being kept up to the standards of a strict oriental garden.

More importantly, when we were in Vancouver BC about 4 years ago, A. and I visited the Sun-Yat-Sen Garden in that city. Thus, we both had some idea of what we would see in this garden. And this helped because often when an American goes to visit a “Garden” one expects to see lots of flowers such as these poinsettias at the Phipps Conservatory in Pittsburgh.


Then again, one often expects to see certain total plant environments replicated, as in this steamy tropical forest at the United States Botanical Garden in DC.

And if the garden is outside, one often expects to see elaborate designs made using the plants as the materials, such as in the maze in the Governor’s Palace gardens in Colonial Williamsburg VA.

But a Chinese Garden is a bit different. It is composed of five elements. The first element is water, both still, as in this shot of Zither Lake in the Garden, and also in waterfalls.

The second, and most obvious component is “flowers” such as this lotus blossom. Flowers in a Chinese garden are chosen to provide the maximum amount of beauty, the maximum amount of the time during the year. Further, they are often chosen with an eye towards whether or not they might be edible.


These two elements, water and flowers, are common in many western gardens. However, they are only the beginning of a Classical Chinese Garden.

The third element of a Classical Chinese Garden is the presence of many rocks. Some of these rocks have been placed upright in this garden. They are called Tai Hu, and are from a particular limestone quarry located at a freshwater lake near Suzhou. They are considered especially auspicious due to their porous nature and their weight distribution. Now I must admit, having spent a lot of time in Greenbrier County WV, I have seen, touched, moved, got mad at, etc. many limestone rocks. I knew that for all their hardness when struck with a pick ax, or a drill bit, they are water soluble. That is to say, when exposed to water they will quickly erode. All of that said, I had never quite seen anything like the limestone rocks I saw standing in this garden.

But not all the rocks are standing up in the garden. Many small river pebbles were laid out in intricate patterns to form the walk-ways that one uses as one strolls through the garden. There are several designs for these stones, only one of which is shown here.


The fourth element of a Chinese Garden is the architecture. A Classical Chinese Garden is noted for having many structures, such as the ones pictured in the first shot up above. This is because a Classical Chinese Garden was not only a place of beauty to visit, it was often considered to be an essential part of the home’s living space.

But it was not only that the Classical Chinese Garden has many structures, many American Gardens of late have been sprouting wooden decks, patios, gazebos and metal equipment buildings. In a Classical Chinese Garden it is important to consider the way in which these buildings were designed.

One of the more prominent features in the buildings is the presence of “Leak Windows” as pictured in this shot. They received this name because they allow the beauty in the garden to leak through the wall into the adjoining space.


But there is more to this type of architecture than just windows. There are stone carvings on the walls, around the eves and even on the roofs. Also there is a generous use of wood, in furniture, and also in many elaborate carvings around the windows and sometimes on the walls.

Finally, and this is the 5th element, in a true Classical Chinese Garden there are literary inscriptions, such as seen on the two banners. These inscriptions are found at several places in the garden both inside the building and outside, on rocks, over the waterfall, and even hidden in amongst the plants. These inscriptions are pieces of Chinese poetry. The poems used are chosen with an eye towards deepening one’s experience of the garden.

All in all, we had a very delightful lay-over in Portland. It sure beat sitting around an airport reading a week-old magazine and eating greasy fast food.

Abraham Lincoln

For those of you who may be wondering, no, I do not intend to leave my narrative of our trip to the Pacific Northwest stuck out at McKenzie Pass Oregon, as magnificent as that scenery was. I will get us back. But too much else is happening right now. For example:

A. Lincoln in Kentucky

This February 12, 2009, starts a year long celebration of the 200th Birthday of our 16th President, Abraham Lincoln. In honor of this event, I too wish to start where Lincoln did, in Kentucky. While Kentucky has many places that honor the memory of Lincoln and his family, for they were, after all, from Kentucky, three stand out in my mind.

The first, and most obvious place, is the farm where he was born, “Sinking Creek” Farm. Visitors there today will find an immense Neo-Classical Marble structure covering a “symbolic birth cabin.” The reality of the situation was that by the time the nation got around to honoring the nativity of Lincoln, the cabin of his birth had long since rotted away, that being the nature of structures composed of untreated logs erected in a place of dampness such as the vicinity of a sinking creek. And so, those eminent-thinking Victorians who developed the site erected what they considered a fitting memorial, and placed within it the next best thing to his nativity, a cabin they found on a neighboring place.

The second place, and just a few short miles down the road, is the farm where Lincoln and his family moved when he was a young boy, Knob Creek Farm. Here too, the actual cabin where Lincoln lived with his family had disappeared into that moist soft loam that untreated log cabins sink into by the time the restoration folks came around. And so materials from another cabin, again a neighboring cabin this time one of Lincoln’s boyhood friends, was used in a restoration of the Knob Creek Farm Cabin.

The third, and for me the most meaningful, place is the Talbott Tavern in Bardstown KY. This building, still largely the same as it was back in the early 1800’s (despite a fire during the 1990’s) is reputed to be the “oldest stage coach stop in America.” It also became the home for the young Abraham Lincoln and his family when they were evicted from “their” Knob Creek Farm after losing a Land Title dispute (early frontier Kentucky was notorious for Land Title Disputes and many both the famous, Daniel Boone, and otherwise, found themselves thrown off “their land” from time to time).

Lincoln and his mother and sister stayed at Talbott Tavern while his father crossed the Ohio River to enter the newer frontier of Indiana in search of a new non-disputable place for the family to live. Lincoln’s days in this Tavern weren’t too long in time, as time goes in one who lived as eventful a life as Lincoln. But, the fact of the matter was, and is, that during these formative years of his life, for a while, A. Lincoln, later the 16th President of the United States, was, in modern-day terms:

“HOMELESS.”

But after Kentucky there was Indiana, then later Illinois, and still later, the fame of the world.

Happy 200th birthday President Lincoln.

Robert Frost

It snowed all day today. Snow always reminds me of this poem.

Groundhog Day

How Big is Your Shadow?

Well it’s Groundhog Day again, that day of the year when we all wait around for one of nature’s lowliest creatures to tell us what our weather is going to be. Most of the country recognizes Punxsutawney Phil as the chosen prognosticator, and for the record, he is reported to have seen his shadow today. But here in West Virginia, we rely on good old “French Creek Freddy” a renown resident of the French Creek Game Farm. Now Freddy’s “handlers” have been very assiduous about keeping their scientific records about his prognosticating ability. As such they have offered the scientific opinion that he is “usually” correct. As of this moment I have not heard about his report for the year.

However, based upon our situation here, today, I would say that no self-respecting groundhog in our area would even deign to leave the comfort of his hibernation just to offer us his opinion on the weather. No, I suspect this year, as most years, any groundhog in our area will stay buried within his sleep and wound not even consider coming out until the middle of March, or later. And when he does come out, it will be spring.



Concluding Scientific Postscript: Those of you who are avid followers of this site (all 2 or 3 of you) may be wondering how my previous column about the weather is holding. If you will remember, I had offered my “Wooly Worm Forecast” regarding the winter weather. If you will recall, his prediction said we would have a mild winter after a rough start. Now I ask you to remember, my prognosticator lived in eastern Greenbrier County WV, and while we in the Southwestern portion of West Virginia (and Kentucky) have just been through 2 terrible weeks of snow, ice, rain, cold temperatures etc., in Greenbrier County, for the same period all they got was some rain. So, as far as MY Wooly Worm is concerned, his prediction is holding. Now as for the other reports I had from Wooly Worms in the other parts of West Virginia, well, let’s just say their advocates may be following the lead of French Creek Freddy and maintaining that they are “usually” correct (scientifically speaking).