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Osage

Joined Atlas Obscura in 2018

The trip that bit me with the travel bug: I did my first real traveling when I went on my first cross-country road trip in the summer of 1961 at the age of six in a brand-new red Pontiac Catalina convertible with my brother & parents. We began in Columbus Ohio and traveled to see my grandparents in Santa Barbara California, by way of Yosemite, & the Painted Desert, traveling a lot on old Route 66. While passing through Yuma Arizona we were caught in a flash hailstorm that came out of the blue and only lasted 20-30 seconds yet left 1.5 inches of hail just a bit smaller than a golf ball in a layer all over the road. Being in a convertible, my dad had to do some quick thinking and swerved into a gas station that had a 'wing' triangular-shaped roof canopy supported by steel poles over the gasoline pumps. Only my father's quick thinking and the fact that there was an open space at one of the pumps, saved the convertible top, the front and rear windows and our vacation trip. Other cars around us were not so lucky - I saw many that had cracked or broken windshields as Dad pulled back out onto the road. Still today, I clearly hear in my mind, the loud popping sounds of the hailstones breaking under the tires as he pulled out. It was not long before the clouds disappeared entirely, the sun came out in full fury and the hailstones were history; small rivulets of clear water headed for the sides of the road. Within minutes there was no sign of them, including no moisture left on the pavement! While in California we saw the redwoods and visited relatives in Bakersfield and Shell Beach. In New Mexico we stayed one night in an air-conditioned concrete[!] tipi at a small motel. I recall my uncle Raymond who was the sheriff of Santa Barbara County at the time [or at least that's what he told us kids], taking my brother and me on a ride in his police car while on duty and he even pulled over someone with lights & siren! I have a few B&W photos from that CA trip that have survived all these years. Funny, the ride home was not as memorable, maybe because we were all tired and grouchy and I just wanted to be home again sleeping in my own bed! Hey, I was six years old! I've loved to travel, especially to wild and natural places, all of my life.

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Places Edited by Osage

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282

Places edited

Places this traveler has helped edit.

Early Television Museum

Hilliard, Ohio

Early Television Museum

A retro walk through the history of the tube.

The memorial

Bainbridge Island, Washington

Japanese American Exclusion Memorial

This monument remembers the first Japanese Americans forcibly relocated during World War II.

Tracked Levitated Research Vehicle.

Pueblo, Colorado

Forgotten Grumman TLRV

A futuristic hovertrain is parked unceremoniously alongside a nondescript road.

Great Channels of Virginia.

Saltville, Virginia

Great Channels of Virginia

This maze-like slot canyon is a unique gem within an already fascinating geological area.

Atlantis Books.

Thira, Greece

Atlantis Books

A quirky bookstore hidden beneath a sea of whitewashed Greek villas.

Abandoned aircraft between leaves, Bali

Kuta, Indonesia

Bali's (Other) Abandoned Plane

The wing of this deserted Boeing 737 almost touches the Dunkin' Donuts next door.

The original Air Force One.

Dayton, Ohio

SAM 26000

You can walk through the first Boeing Air Force One, which famously carried JFK's casket from Dallas back to D.C.

Dinosaur footprint at Valley of the Dinosaurs

Sousa, Brazil

Valley of the Dinosaurs

One of the few places in the world where visitors can walk alongside fossilized tracks from 80 different dinosaur species.

The view from Pahiyangala cave.

Gavaragiriya, Sri Lanka

Fa-Hien Lena (Pahiyangala Cave)

The remains of a 37,000-year-old prehistoric society were discovered in this mammoth cave, one of the largest in Asia.

The circular structure of houses.

Alaior, Spain

Torre d'en Galmes

This remarkable prehistoric town is full of watchtowers and houses that have withstood thousands of years.

The birds are rarely well behaved.

Herndon, Virginia

Kidwell Farm

Where pardoned turkeys once spent their all-too-brief final days.

Tucson Mineral and Gem World.

Tucson, Arizona

Tucson Mineral and Gem World

A natural history wunderkammer in the middle of the desert.

Lost Gypsy Gallery.

Papatowai, New Zealand

The Lost Gypsy Gallery

This quirky collection is an interactive exhibit crammed with creative contraptions and tinkered-with toys.

A relief of surgical instruments.

Nagoa Ash Shatb, Egypt

Temple of Kom Ombo

One of its engravings is believed to be among the first representations of medical and surgical instruments.

The hospital tower.

Bethesda, Maryland

Walter Reed National Military Medical Center

FDR's Art Deco hospital tower was hopelessly inefficient.

The Cribs in winter.

Duluth, Minnesota

Uncle Harvey's Mausoleum

The watery grave of an impractical idea.

Oranki Art.

Pello, Finland

Oranki Art

A little-known sculpture park of contemporary environmental art in a Lapland forest.

Museum of Unheard-of Things

Berlin, Germany

Museum of Unheard-of Things

A wunderkammer of mysterious objects and stories.

‘Monument to the Unknown Artist’

London, England

‘Monument to the Unknown Artist’

The London statue that imitates passersby.

Tons of items

North St Paul, Minnesota

Studio Payne Oddities Shop

Admire the art and then buy a raccoon skull cleaned by flesh-eating beetles.

Driftwood Beach

Jekyll Island, Georgia

Driftwood Beach

Constant erosion has created a surreal landscape of bleached and preserved fallen trees.

Anne Frank by Jimmy C, next to an ape holding a phone and a camera

Berlin, Germany

Haus Schwarzenberg Street Art Alley

A narrow passage next to a cafe leads to a courtyard exploding with murals, tags, and paste-ups.

The Madonna in Bethesda

Bethesda, Maryland

Madonna of the Trail

She stares out across six lanes of traffic, clutching a musket and infant with determination.

Hammering Man close-up

Seattle, Washington

Hammering Man

This working class sculpture pounds his hammer all the livelong day.

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