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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 I've been

Places this traveler has marked as been there.

Nancy and Mr. Peaches.

Key West, Florida

Nancy Forrester's Secret Garden

Visitors are welcome to enter this lush Key West sanctuary to entertain its plethora of rescued parrots.

Front gate of the park. (2020)

Bethesda, Maryland

Glen Echo Amusement Park

Once home to seven different roller coasters, Glen Echo has undergone many transformations since its founding in 1891.

Washington City Canal Outfall

Washington, D.C.

Washington City Canal Outfall

A portal into the bricked up canal that runs through the heart of Washington D.C.

President Truman conducted official state business from this Key West location frequently

Key West, Florida

Truman's Little White House

A historic presidential getaway on the continental United States' southernmost island.

The old hanging tree, once outside, now built into the bar.

Key West, Florida

Captain Tony's Saloon

Florida's oldest bar was once a morgue, complete with a hanging tree and gravestones.

Pan Am's First Office

Key West, Florida

Pan Am's First Office

The birthplace of American international flight service has been turned into a celebrity's microbrewery.

US 1 Mile 0 sign.

Key West, Florida

U.S. Route 1 Mile 0 Sign

The highway's southernmost spot is a beloved local attraction.

The museum celebrating a double Pulitzer winner.

Key West, Florida

Tennessee Williams Museum

This small Key West museum is packed with dozens of artifacts that illustrate the life of the iconic playwright.

Ernest Hemingway Home & Museum

Key West, Florida

Ernest Hemingway Home & Museum

The former home of the Nobel Prize-winning American writer is now home to dozens of six-toed cats.

Hemingway's Last Penny

Key West, Florida

Hemingway's Last Penny

An idyllic swimming pool tells the tale of Hemingway's trouble with women.

Rooster Cemetery.

Key West, Florida

Blue Heaven Rooster Cemetery

A small poultry graveyard in the courtyard of a popular Key West watering hole.

Some of the more than 50,000 beloved pets buried at Aspin Hill.

Silver Spring, Maryland

Aspin Hill Pet Cemetery

Dogs, cats, horses, monkeys, frogs, and fish are laid to rest at the second-oldest pet cemetery in the U.S.

Booth One: "The Rumble Seat."

Washington, D.C.

The Presidential Booths at Martin's Tavern

Sit where JFK proposed to Jackie or where Nixon dined on meatloaf at this storied pub.

Graffiti Alley - Ann Arbor

Ann Arbor, Michigan

Graffiti Alley - Ann Arbor

An ever-evolving wall of graffiti art off East Liberty Street.

Part of abandoned historic downtown Cairo, Illinois.

Cairo, Illinois

Abandoned Town of Cairo, Illinois

A once-booming Mississippi River town with a history of racial violence is now eerie and mostly abandoned.

Detail of the Texaco map terrazzo mosaic tile floor of the New York State Pavilion (Tent of Tomorrow), 2009

Queens, New York

Flushing Meadows-Corona Park

The remnants of two World's Fairs are here, complete with a 12-story globe, a mini-Manhattan, and a UFO-shaped pavilion.

Maple syrup bottle.

Hillsburgh, Ontario

Maple Syrup Museum of Ontario

This quaint museum taps into the sweet history of the maple syrup industry.

Misty's taxidermy body at the Museum of Chincoteague.

Chincoteague Island, Virginia

Misty of Chincoteague

The taxidermy remains of the most popular pony in children's literature.

Mason-Dixon survey stone.

Delmar, Maryland

Transpeninsular Midpoint Marker

The stone marker that Mason and Dixon placed at the eastern end of the famous north-south border they surveyed.

Information on the Doors Of Fame

Rehoboth Beach, Delaware

The Doors of Fame

These old doors are covered in the signatures of Rehoboth Beach artists dating back to the 1930s.

Assateague Island

Berlin, Maryland

Assateague Island

The land is home to swimming ponies and a legendary 18th-century treasure.

The hospital tower.

Bethesda, Maryland

Walter Reed National Military Medical Center

FDR's Art Deco hospital tower was hopelessly inefficient.

Fish Ladder Park

Grand Rapids, Michigan

Fish Ladder Park

An angular maze of concrete in Grand Rapids acts both as public art and as a staircase for fish traveling upstream.

One of nine gardens

Wilmette, Illinois

Bahá'í Temple

The only Bahá'í house of worship in North America and one of only a handful worldwide.

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