Category: Fun

Well, we’re off!  Through the next few weeks we will be Easin’ Along through the Heartland of the United States.  As we write this first post we just arrived in St. Louis after a fun night in Clarksville, TN near Ft. Campbell – home of the 101st Airborne. 

Hopefully there will be some time to post updates as we make our way through some beautiful country. We will also post our usual update every Friday.  In addition, please check out the Easin’ Along Facebook page for information as to our whereabouts. Our journey will take us through MN, the Dakotas, WI, IL, and around the shoreline of Michigan up to Mackinaw Island. We’re pumped!  Join us again soon.

You can handle the pace…we’re just Easin’ Along.

 

 

There undoubtedly are many Federal Government programs that have outlived their usefulness, but thankfully our National Parks are not among them.  These precious treasures are gifts we have given to ourselves and hopefully will live on forever.  This August the National Park Service will officially observe its 100^th birthday and Easin’ Along wants to celebrate with them.  

Helen (adorable wife) and I were preparing for our trip to explore America’s Heartland over the next four weeks so; we looked back over our trip from last summer to see what worked and what didn’t.  Without question, our trips through four National Parks were at the top of the list of what worked exceptionally well. Therefore, as we pack to hit the road again in the coming days, we thought we would re-visit those four splendid experiences and share them with Easin’ Along readers during the Park Service birthday party.

The four National Parks we visited were all in the eastern part of the United States.  I have listed them below and have links posted to our visits. During these visits we made use of one of the benefits of growing older…The National Park Senior Pass. The details of this program were also covered in an earlier post and I have posted a link to this one also.  I hope you will share those experiences with us again and sing Happy Birthday to our National Parks as we celebrate with each one of them.

Wright Brothers Memorial – The aviation industry was born here and the story of its birth is a compelling one. We were treated to a presentation of that first flight that had us glued to our seats. For a link to this post, click here.

Cape Henry Lighthouse – The first lighthouse constructed with Federal funds.  This small park is located on the Virginia coast and offered beautiful views of the shoreline.  For a link to this post, click here.

Cape Cod National Seashore – A National Park that features staggering beauty where solitude reigns. Don’t miss this one. Click here for the link.

Franklin Roosevelt Home and Presidential Library – Visit Springwood, and the Presidential Library to experience the life and the accomplishments of a remarkable figure in American history. For a link to this post, click here.

National Park Senior Pass – A great value for us Senior Citizens.  For a link to the details of the program, click here.

I hope you enjoy these tributes to some of our National Parks and that you’ll come back next week and join us in St. Louis as we travel America’s Heartland. We’’ll be Easin’ Along for now…

On Sunday morning a local TV station presented a feature on the sunflower fields at a nature park in our city. When I say fields, I mean fields, as in acres of sunflowers. This looked like a great opportunity for Easin’ Along so, after church, I hitched Midnight (my bicycle) up to Sophie (my truck) and lit out for Ijams Nature Center.

Ijams Nature Center is a 300 acre urban green space that is dedicated to all things nature. It has over twelve miles of hiking trails and a large water-filled quarry for swimming and kayaking. The nature center has been in existence for many years and on most travel and visitor guides for our area it is ranked among the top three “must see” attractions. Nevertheless, until about two months ago, I had never visited.

Our church held an outing there in late spring and since I had never availed myself of the opportunity to see what everyone was talking about, I told Helen (adorable wife) that we should go. Fortunately, I took my camera with me and many of the pictures for this posting were taken on that visit.

On that visit we arrived and joined a small group of fellow church members gathered to walk the River Trail which would lead us along the banks of the Tennessee River.  Our guide was a very pleasant man named Lyn Bales.  This very knowledgeable gentleman would be better described as a Naturalist.  Lyn did an outstanding job of describing the various species of trees and other plant life we encountered along the trail. He answered all of our questions and pointed out trail highlights.

Since I am always curious about what leads someone to do whatever it is that they do, I asked Lyn to tell me how he became a Naturalist at the center. He was glad I asked. Lyn told me that he once had an office job (I can’t remember where) and that he volunteered at the center until one day he was offered the Naturalist position.  He said he leapt at the opportunity and never looked back. He loves what he does and it showed.

The River Trail was a delightful experience and we were in no hurry to move along.  We came across a couple in a boat out for a little fishing, but hopefully we didn’t disturb them.  After we came away from the river, we walked to Meade’s Quarry where visitors are able to swim or kayak in the large spring fed lake.  Kayaks are available for rent at the shop adjacent to the Quarry.

Meade’s Quarry

 

The trail took us to the ropes course where visitors can test their rappelling skills or try their hand at the zipline that had recently been constructed.  We watched as a couple of eager young rope enthusiasts made their way safely along the zipline.  Our tour along the trail soon concluded and we thanked Lyn for his excellent presentation and he left in search of another group to tutor. The world needs more folks like Lyn.

Having made one trip to Ijams, I was looking forward to a return trip, and so were a lot of others…

The sunflower fields are actually not a part of the nature center, but are within walking distance of the parking lot at Meade’s Quarry.  The flowers were planted by the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency (TWRA) as a means of giving food and shelter to the wildlife in the area. The sunflowers were planted to attract birds, bees, and butterflies as well as deer and other animals. They attract people too!

I was fortunate to find a parking place as a family was pulling out of the lot when I arrived…better to be lucky than good I always say. I pulled Sophie into the space and unhitched Midnight for a ride along the trail with my camera in the saddlebag (uh, basket—got a little carried away there). Slowly, I worked my way around the walkers and made it to a huge field of sunflowers. The flowers were planted in thick rows and some were now about six feet tall. These big flowers were stunning and I wanted to get the best picture of them as possible so I waded into the rows with my camera strapped to my shoulder.  The blossoms were as big as dinner plates and the bees were busily working them over. They looked to be at or near their peak blooming period. Please enjoy them with me.

Bee on Sunflower

 

 

Midnight and I made it back to Sophie and left, but this was a huge treat. Hope you enjoyed it.

I’ll be Easin’ Along.