Stargazer heads back out on the road on Saturday, October 1st and will return to Jackson on Saturday, October 15th. Melinda, Otto and I will be heading up the Maine Coast (connecting with Jay Kelly and Susan Malkin along the way), then entering Canada and visiting Melinda’s cousin Jack in Halifax for Canadian Thanksgiving, and subsequently back to Jackson via Baxter State Park in Maine. We have been busy since the Westport Book Fair. I went trekking in Scotland for…
On Sunday Stargazer rolled out of Westport, Massachusetts with a smile and a RV full of great memories. Between Saturday and Sunday, the Westport Monthly Meeting 59th Annual Book Fair generated just under $40,000 in sales and the Book Sale is open until next Sunday. The record is slightly over $50,000. Monies are used to support the Meeting’s operations, as well as local nonprofit organizations. Congratulations to Gretchen Baker-Smith, the Book Fair Clerk, and all the Meeting members, attenders and…
I wrote the following Letter to the Editor to the Conway Sun. Dear Mitch McConnell I have no expectation that you and I will ever see eye to eye on most issues. Abortion. Gun control. Immigration. You get it; the list goes on and on. But the issue where I don’t understand your unwillingness to act is climate change. Believing that climate change is not real is the true “Big Lie”. Forget about stealing an election, you are stealing the…
For many years Melinda and I worked with all our Westport Monthly Meeting Quaker friends on an Annual Book Fair. During our last year, 2019, we raised over $50,000 selling 35,000+ books, CDs, DVDs, albums and puzzles. A significant percentage of the money raised is used to support local non-profit organizations providing critical services to the greater-Westport area. We moved full-time to Jackson in November 2019 and the plan was to finish Book Sale Transition Training in 2020 and then…
Our Stargazer Spring 2022 Trip was a grand success. We had a terrific time visiting friends and family, as well as many memorable US locations. Melinda, Otto and I were so fortunate to be able to spend time exploring and learning. Some specific memories include: the amazing park rangers, their parks, and what they taught us, all the Dollar Stores we passed and the disappearance of so many family businesses, realizing how short a time homo sapiens have been on…
Stargazer is a CHAMP! We arrived home at 2:14 pm today with squeaky brakes, low oil, and limited gas. What an incredible trip. Melinda, Otto and I had a terrific time traveling 8,024 miles, passing through 29 states, visiting 8 national parks, and staying at a host of amazing state parks and campsites. We are happy to be home in Jackson where today the temperatures are in the 60’s. The ride out of the Adirondacks, the ferry across Lake Champlain,…
My life has included numerous exciting paths. Along the way I have met many people and gained new skills and knowledge that have greatly benefited me. One path, lifelong learning, has permeated all my other paths. My lifelong learning path started in high school and included founding the Learning Connection and co-founding the Learning Resources Network (LERN). I am very proud of each enterprise’s success and impact. Today Melinda and I visited the Chautauqua Institute. “Chautauqua” is an Iroquois word…
The ride from Winter Park to Denver was a downhill run, but soon we reached the Colorado prairies and then Nebraska. We passed through Kearney, NE where the westward push of the railroad as the Civil War ended gave new birth to this community. More important Kearney is known as the best place in Nebraska to view the annual spring sandhill crane migration. At the start of our trip, Bill Harley recommended we listen to The Echo Maker by Richard…
After “buttercup” and his driving companion survived Rabbit Ears Pass, they joyfully arrived at Tabernest, the home of good friends Tracy Dunning (Greg met Tracy in 1978) and Eric Sondermann. What a delight to spend two days with Tracy and Eric in the Rocky Mountains near the base of Winter Park Ski Resort and the Devil’s Thumb cross country ski trails. We had not seen each other in over two years, but it felt like only two weeks and we…
Before heading east, we visited a few more dinosaur museums. What incredible work has been done by the archeologists who participated in the digs, as well as the National Park Service staff responsible for displaying the work. We are so fortunate to have our National Parks and their beauty, but also all the knowledge they provide. Our trip east from Utah into Colorado was along Route 40. The road was straight and there were very few cars. Our goal was…