I have a post coming for the 75th anniversary of the Iwo Jima landings set to come out next month. I also watched the companion movie to Letters (they were made simultaneously) Clint Eastwood made in 2006 – Flags of Our Fathers. So you had 2 movies of Iwo Jima – from the perspectives of both sides.
It is all too easy to lump a wartime enemy into “they” with monolithic stereotypes and behavior.
Filed under Movie Review, Travel
This stretch of Rt 66 to Holbrook, AZ was active from 1926 through 1958. It was the only section of Rt 66 that went through a National Park. (Painted Desert). Today only the old telephone poles remain, with the pavement under the dirt and sagebrush.
Coming back from my latest drive, I had a number of misconceptions cleared. In addition to a few historical misconceptions, from Judge Roy Bean to the Alamo, a highway surprised me.
Coming up through New Mexico I saw a sign for US Route 60.
At the start of my drive, I stopped at a deserted town in California that I had visited years earlier, a town on what was Rt 66 that Interstate 40 had killed.
While walking around, I encountered a biker from British Columbia, and I made the remark that “the best trips are those of which you don’t know where you will end up at the end of the day“.
He smiled knowingly, and said that when he is on the road, he didn’t even take a map.
Roy’s Cafe and Hotel Served as a beacon for weary Rt 66 travelers. Now empty and unused for almost 50 years. Shot during my 2006 visit.
Filed under Travel
My sister moved to the Midwest back in the 70s, and never came back to California. She settled in Minnesota years ago.
The one time I visited her and her children in the winter was an eye-opening experience.
She asked me to get a paper, and I walked out the door and….I thought my ears were going to fall off from the sub-zero cold.
Filed under Travel
Yesterday, for lunch I decided to take the less than 10 mile drive to have a hot dog at the Dinky Diner. Both the short drive and the destination is relaxing – usually. Although I live in Sacramento, the short drive down the river and the Sacramento Delta is a world apart.
Laid back is the term I would use.
Just another 15 miles or so is the town of Locke – the only town in America built by the Chinese for the Chinese. And if you are there, you have to try Al the Wops.
Filed under Life, Small Stuff, Travel
Of all the places I have been over the many years, there’s a lot of images that remain in my mind of beautiful settings.
But I cannot name a place other than Lake Louise that has so much beauty in such a compact area.
The lake is only 2 km long and 1/2 km wide. When the sun is out, the water is turquoise, fed by Victoria Glacier in the back as it grinds rock to a fine powder. .
Filed under Travel
Lake Louise in an October Afternoon
A few days ago at Lake Louise, Banff National Park, we rented a canoe to explore the placid (and cold) waters. The mornings would be cold – usually 22 degrees F, and you could see the water starting to crystallize into ice. By afternoon the outside temp was around freezing.
The water is turquoise from the glacier-fed waters – with the pulverized rock – as the glacier slowly made its way to the water.
Having been there over the decades twice – but in the summer – I believe October is the best time to visit.
The summer hordes are gone, the air is crisp, and the hotels start their off season rates. By winter temps can drop to -40F.
Filed under Books, Outside the Box, Small Stuff, Travel
