I started blogging here at Johnwise.com nearly 13 years ago, but have been living and doing stuff for a lot longer than that. Now that I’m far more comfortable writing and my computer has no problem dealing with processing large images, I felt it was time to start backfilling this blog that chronicles a considerable amount of Caroline’s and my life together. So way back in this blog, more than 350 pages ago, there are some entries that I’ve dated into the 1960s. Those entries were made with photos I scanned in from our archive of memorabilia. About 19 years ago we started shooting digital images at about the same time we were starting to travel quite a bit. The convenience of stepping away from film while gaining date stamps on photos has allowed us to catalog our travel history quite accurately. Because those blog entries may never be seen due to where they reside by date, I’m going to occasionally share some highlights up here on the front of this site in order to bring attention to those posts. Sure, Google will ultimately add them to search results, though I can’t imagine that 18 to 100-year-old photos and writings will be of much interest to the majority of people looking for current information. Here goes, above is, of course, the United States Capitol building in Washington D.C. This image was taken on November 12, 2000, on the 12th day of a 21-day drive across America. We had never driven across the United States together, and following Caroline’s mother’s return to Germany after we spent the better part of October with her in Yellowstone, New Mexico, and Tombstone, we had travel fever and spontaneously decided to venture out to Maine and back. To check out not only some old low-resolution digital photos of that trip but also to read about our impressions, you can start with Day 1 by clicking HERE. All links in this blog entry will point to various dates that I’m referencing from Johnwise.com.
Over the years, my mother-in-law Jutta has played a large role in our travels as she’s visited the United States on ten occasions. We’ve taken her to all four corners of America, from Niagara Falls to Key West and the Pacific Northwest to Los Angeles. Along the way, she learned to smile, laugh, and let go of a bit of her German nature, but just a bit. This photo stems from a short four-day road trip that was part of her 33-day stay in the U.S. when we took her into the southeast corner of Arizona from Saguaro National Park to Tombstone, Bisbee, and the surrender site of Geronimo. Maybe memories were created. Click here to visit this blog entry that started on October 13, 2000.
Fast forward to April 17, 2003, and Jutta once again joined us, this time for a 12-day road trip across the Southern United States to Florida. This particular picture was from Day 6 as we entered the Florida Keys early in the morning. On this vacation, we visited New Orleans, the Everglades, Savannah, Georgia, Smoky Mountains National Park, Graceland, Paris, Texas, and White Sands National Monument. Click the date in the first sentence or “Day 6” to jump to this blog entry.
We don’t only travel with the mother-in-law, and more often than not, it is just Caroline and me out exploring the country. On this road trip that hugged the Mexican-American border, we visited Big Bend National Park and checked out the Rio Grande, along with heading up to pay a visit to Carlsbad Caverns, Bosque del Apache, and the Petrified Forest. Click here to join us on our Christmas 2002 journey that even featured snow.
Just the month before that, we were in the Pacific Northwest for a week over Thanksgiving. We started this adventure by staying at the Little A’LE’INN in Rachel, Nevada, near Area 51, visited Mount St. Helens, Olympic National Park, and our first rain forest (seen above), and still had time to visit the Redwoods and a California ghost town. Learn about the best Thanksgiving ever by clicking here.
The summer of 2002 was a busy one. Not only did we visit Crater Lake in Oregon over the Fourth of July, we also dipped into Yosemite, a small corner of Death Valley that is rarely visited, and Lassen Volcanic National Park. Starting in June, we also visited Death Valley proper and Los Angeles, and then in July, we again stopped in Los Angeles for some Hawaiian dance. Finally, in late summer, we ventured out on a four-day trip to Mount Rushmore in South Dakota.
This photo of Grand Falls in Arizona is part of the Little Colorado River that will empty in the Colorado River deep in the Grand Canyon. We were out in the Four Corners with Jutta during that year 2000 trip that had us visiting Chaco Culture in New Mexico, sleeping in Kokopelli Cave overlooking Shiprock, visiting the Navajo Nation Fair, exploring a slot canyon, and rafting a small section of the Colorado River below Glen Canyon Dam. Click here to follow us on that journey.
Five states in five days was the way we had our first encounter with the Oregon coast in March 2002. Seen here is Multnomah Falls on the Columbia River as we traced its banks coming out of the snow of Idaho. Sometimes, when you live in Arizona, you tend to forget the bad weather other states are experiencing. If you’d like to share with us our first impressions of this state that has drawn us back a dozen times, click here.
On July 14, 2001, after spending the night in a Wigwam in Holbrook, we were driving northwest to the Ute Reservation before stopping on the Zune Reservation to check out some beautiful art. This was a quick two-day-jaunt and is quite typical of many of our travels back in the day. Click here to visit this “oldie but goldie” blog entry.