As a final stop before going home, Tom and I headed to Big Bone Lick State Park in Kentucky.  This was the final campout of the season arranged by Sandy Shaw and the first that any of us were doing without her.  We arranged with Eric Shaw, and Steve and Amy Winstead, to join them …

Read more

The last national park site we visited on this trip was Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial in Lincoln City, Indiana.  Abraham Lincoln lived on this farm along Pigeon Creek from the time he was 7, in 1816, until 1830 when the family moved to Illinois.  The years at the homestead along Pigeon Creek were instrumental in …

Read more

Tom and I headed for George Rogers Clark National Historical Park in Vincennes, Indiana the day after hitting the Missouri parks along the Mississippi River.  Tom was especially interested in going there because it is a revolutionary war park.  He had also heard that they did living history there and thought it might be a …

Read more

St Genevieve National Historical Park is one of the newer national park sites, established in 2018.  It is located just down the Mississippi River from St. Louis, so Tom and I decided to check it out.  It was not our intention to see it on the same day as Lincoln’s Home, Gateway Arch, and Ulysses …

Read more

After our brief stop at Gateway Arch, Tom and I traveled the ten miles to Ulysses S Grant National Historic Site.  Ulysses Grant was born in Ohio to abolitionist parents, but he fell in love with his best friend’s sister when he was stationed in Missouri.  The National Historic Site preserves the home of his …

Read more

When people complain about places that are designated National Parks and shouldn’t be, one of the top places on their list is Gateway Arch National Park in St. Louis, Missouri.  Gateway Arch is not one of those spectacular natural areas like Grand Canyon.  It is also not a place where history is preserved like Boston …

Read more

The first national park site Tom and I visited in October was Lincoln Home National Historic Site in Springfield, Illinois.  We visited there once before, in 1988 when John was six months old.  Because of his age, we did not take a tour of the house.  All I remember doing is standing outside the house …

Read more

Tom and I drove to Buffalo, New York to Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural National Historic Site, after seeing Harriet Tubman and Women’s Rights National Historical Parks in the morning.  The website for Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural said that the site was only open for tours.  The tours are free and offered every hour all day long every …

Read more

As we crossed New York from Albany to Buffalo, Tom and I had several opportunities to stop along the Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor.  I was able to get the stamp for Erie Canalway at the Women’s Rights National Historical Park.  National Heritage Areas and Corridors are places where historic, cultural, and natural resources combine …

Read more

Women’s Rights National Historical Park is in the next town over from Auburn, so we headed to Seneca Falls for my next stamp.  Even though the two parks are very close together, Harriet Tubman is brand new and Women’s Rights was established in 1980.  Because it has been around longer, it has a very nice …

Read more