The Terrible Catsafterme

Thursday, July 5, was the second day of the two-weeklong road trip that Bob and I were taking. It was a good day overall, although just a bit grave-heavy, so please have tolerance. Checking out graves of the famous appeals to me for a few reasons. The first and most obvious is to simply pay my respects to someone whose work I like or admire. If rule number one doesn’t apply to someone who has achieved some other fame or notoriety, see rule number two… which is the checklist/scavenger hunt aspect of it. And finally, I legitimately enjoy the detective work sometimes involved in tracking down a headstone based on various clues that we pick up in advance. So although it is easier to just go to the main office of the cemetery and ask for directions, a lot of times I enjoy it more when we have to scour the cemetery to find it. So while I have no objection to the stereotype of the grave-hunter to be somewhat morbid, I wanted to lay out the facts as I see them. Read the rest of this entry »

As most people involved with the Adams National Historical Park will tell you, the popularity of and interest in our 2nd President John Adams rose exponentially after the popular book John Adams by David McCullough was published and the HBO mini-series that followed was aired. No longer is he regarded as simply an oddball northerner and one-termer who was wedged amongst the other four of the first five Presidents, all of whom hailed from Virginia. Adams served as our nation’s President from 1797-1801, and had previously served as the first Vice President to George Washington from 1789-1797. Read the rest of this entry »

My New England trip now officially holds the record for the longest vacation I have ever taken. Clocking in at 19 days, it was a magnificent trip that saw all sorts of bucket list items and checklists being crossed off of my life pursuit. If you have enjoyed reading about these types of road trips in the past, then this one will be one nice, long doozy for you. I not only enjoyed nearly every minute of it (except for when Don yelled at me), but I will look forward to writing and posting about it – which is about as close as one can get to actually living it over once again. Read the rest of this entry »