IL, NM, LA, Can

This fall has been exceptionally busy for me. Over the summer I was busy printing, matting and framing for a large solo exhibit as well as trying to plan THREE trips! Therefore, I haven’t had the opportunity to share our adventures. And since it is now Holiday season with lots of year-end Christmas letters I might as well add to the fodder. J

My last travel email was about our Febr/March journey to Big Bend, White Sands, Joshua Tree, and Death Valley. Plus there was the Solar Eclipse in April that we went to in southern Illinois.

This email thus starts in May, with a return trip to the southern tip of Illinois. For the eclipse journey, Sue had found several places to explore down there but we wanted to wait until warmer weather for hiking and biking. All we can say is “who knew?”

As they say, “a picture is worth a thousand words.” So, I hope you enjoy this “50,000 word” email. LOL

slot canyons in IL! Who knew?

cypress swamps in IL! Who knew?

sandstone cliffs in IL! Who knew?

katydids buzzing in IL! Who knew... that we would be in the right spot at the right time for this historic event? Creepy spooky “Twilight Zone” like buzzing chirping sounds.

Huge, unexplained cave in IL! Who knew?

Neat sculpture garden in a small southern IL town

Most of my summer was busy with Summerfest, darkroom work and trip planning. We did very little bike riding (compared to other years).

September we drove to eastern Canada. As much as we love Toronto, we skipped it this time as we have been there a couple times before. We wanted to see other stuff. So we made a b-line to Montreal, via a stop in Detroit for the Henry Ford Museum of Innovation.

This museum was huge and showed the evolution of technology. For example, they had several block-size city power generators from different time-periods and technologies, evolution of car racing, evolution of trains, evolution of tractors, evolution of… You get the point. Very cool. This place got my engineering geek going!

I kind of like this front-back position instead of side-by side seating. Here, the “back seat driver” is the driver! I have never seen a car like this. And belt driven.

Once we got into Canada, we stopped in St Jacobs for their farmers market. It is the largest we have ever seen. Thousands of shoppers and several hundred vendors.

St Lawrence Seaway locks in downtown Ottawa.

Ottawa

Montreal

Strange art installation throughout Old Montreal

Biking in Montreal and Quebec City was actually very enjoyable. By far easier and safer than driving. Nearly every street has a bike lane and the cars are courteous to bikers!

Trois-Rivieres. Neat old fur and fishing town. Also had one of the first paper mills in CN.

They almost got our name correct. LOL

Old Quebec City

Old Quebec City

We rode our bikes 12 miles from QBC to Montmorency Falls. It is 98 feet taller than Niagara! Note the wooden steps climbing up as well as the suspension bridge. Trust me, after a bike ride those stairs completed a good work out - as well as the steps going back down and then the 12m bike ride back.

Further north and east of QBC we stopped for some hiking to the St Lawrence Seaway. Rugged landscape and rugged trails. Very pretty.

Took a ferry across Riviere Saguenay (900 ft deep) to Tadoussac Quebec.

Quaint harbor of Toudassac

Looking down into the harbor as well as out to the St Lawrence.

As I mentioned, during the month of October I had a rather large solo photo exhibit. 36 images of old tombstones – sculptures of angels, children, Jesus, etc. All in celebration of Halloween. I also had 1 image (of a tree) in a group show down in Whitewater and now, that same image is currently up in West Bend.

Also in Oct, Sue and I went to Whitnall Park for the China Lights exhibit. Pretty impressive.

I had a closing reception for my exhibit, appropriately on Halloween, Oct 31. Afterwards, I packed up and went home. The next morning, Nov 1, I left in my truck for New Mexico. I spent a week alone in the Bisti badlands area (near-ish Four-Corners) – hiking 12 miles a day (with 30lbs of camera gear), camping in remote areas (no facilities, no cell, mostly dirt roads), to take photos. I ended up taking 70 B&W 4x5 inch (film) negatives. Late Nov I spent time developing the negatives and last week I finally had time to start making prints. The b&w pics below are cell phone shots somewhat of what these will look like.

typical dirt-road ruts after some snow (this is in color!)

These rocks are called “Dinosaur Eggs”. Rather eerie walking thru them.

Chaco Canyon Nat’l Historical Park. It snowed 3 inches each morning for 3 days.

Happy Camper regardless of the weather. J

When I got home, it took me 5 hours to wash the clay off.

Early December Sue and I drove down to Louisiana. We haven’t been there in 30 years! A lot has changed due to time as well as due to several major hurricanes (Katrina, Ida, Helene). But this time, instead of just New Orleans, we saw a little more of the state.

Sculpture park in NOLA

WW2 Nat’l Museum in NOLA. HUGE! IMPRESSUVE!

Did some hiking in Jean LaFitte Nat’l Historic Park & Preserve. *There is an equal number (1M each) of wild gators in LA and FL (though LA also has 1M farm gators). We did not see any this time compared to what we saw in FL last year.

In Morgan City LA there is an off-shore oil rig museum. It is now in 30 ft of water. This was also the first off-shore oil rig. It was decommissioned in 1984 and it shows it due to all the rust. Still pretty cool to walk inside and top side.

FYI – my grandfather was a DDS surgeon but died working on an oil rig, on land, in TX.

Tabasco factory tour. FYI – Tabasco is cooked in a mash, aged in oak barrels and filled in glass bottle. Just like bourbon.

Went to an Arcadian village museum.

They had a working rope-pull ferry. I pulled while Sue filmed me. LOL

In Lafayette they have the last Bordon Ice Cream Shop. Lots of flavors!

Also in Lafayette there was a 40 Rodin sculpture exhibit.

In Baton Rouge, the Old State Capital is gorgeous! It is a cross between a church and a castle. The “new” Capital is a 1930s Art Deco tower. One of nine without a dome, one of 4 that are skyscraper in style, and is the tallest in the nation with 34 flours. Who knew?

We saw several plantations (only from the outside), but this one we went inside. LOL.

This was built and finished a few months before the outbreak of the Civil War. Sadly, the Master died at 34 and a few weeks after it was completed, leaving behind his wife and 6 children. The house survived the Civil War. But 5 years later, a guest accidently started a fire with his cigar and now all that remains are the columns and some balcony iron work. These were the largest Corinthian columns in LA. It was 17,000 Sq Ft. on 3 floors.

Yes, down south they have some pretty wild food. Yes, we buy Smithfield pork, but tenderloin – not pork tails, stomachs or ears. Eeks!

Houmas LA was a very cute small town (we went thru many!) with a great Christmas decoration in the City Hall Square.

We hope you had as wonderful 2024 as we did. Merry Christmas to all! And may you find Peace in 2025!

Additional images coming soon