Starting the Journey

This is my first real blog posting.  I'm doing it in order to learn how to do it so that I can help the kids in my English 10b classes at Sauk Rapids -Rice High School.  This is a real novice experience for me despite the fact that I had a website  www.curmudgeonstwist.net  on which I was going to try and blog about all sorts of things.  Perhaps that was my first mistake, but then there really is no mistake in trying out different things.  Since I like to travel, and I have done a fair bit of that, I thought I would blog a bit about my experiences as I bounced about this fair planet of ours.  I'm not sure that I will be the informative blogger that some are, but that doesn't matter.  Part of doing a blog is for one's own satisfaction.  And so I will travel this blogging road just as I traveled others throughout the world. 

Thomas Edison was supposed to have said after the 5000th failure at inventing the light bulb: "I've eliminated the 5000 things that don't work; now all I need to do is find the one thing that does work."  I don't know if he said such a thing or not, but it makes for a nice thought.  Anyway, Edison is one of my heroes ever since I visited Fort Meyers, Florida and toured his winter home while on vacation.  Below is a picture taken of my wife and myself with the large statue that sits on the grounds.

                                             Picture by Dave DeMars

The large tree that surrounds the statue was given to him by a friend.  If memory serves, it was Harvey Firestone, the founder of Firestone Tire Company.  Firestone did a bit of world traveling and supposedly brought back the species from India as a present to Edison.  Note that I said "tree", not trees.  It is only one tree - a banyan tree and it spreads out.  Most of what looks like seprate trunks or trees are actually supporting limbs that become rooted in the ground.  More can be found on the banyan at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banyan

A visit to Edison's winter home was not the only place we visited while in Florida, nor is it the only exotic place my wife and I have traveled.

While in Florida, we visited the Everglades with our friends, John and Sue Meers.  It was a self guided tour.  We also visited an Eco-farm which was quite an interesting experience.  I had no idea that Florida had a breed of cow/ steer and a wild hog breed that descended from the early Spaniards who settled in Florida.  Apparently, some of the hogs and cattle escaped their confines, and being hogs and cattle, they followed the bidding in the Bible, and "fruitful" and "multiplied".  So today a breed of local cattle known as "crackers" - (I can't explain the name) roam about.

                                 Photos taken by Dave DeMars

Here are a few photos of the breed of cattle and hogs that were part of the original stock the Spaniards brought to America back in 1513 when Ponce de Leon came looking for the Fountain of Youth.  Though there have been some genetic modifications over the centuries, the hogs and cattle are still pretty true to size and form of the stock on board the ships.

As I indicate earlier, Florida is not the only place my wife and I have visited.  We've been to Las Vegas, Phoenix/Mesa, Prescott, AZ, Winnipeg, Canada, Stratford in Canada, Niagara Falls, a long 20 day trip out west as far as Idaho, Missouri, Arkasas, Columbus, Hawaii, and all of the states contiguous to Minnesota.  Our next venture is going to be to Los Cruces, New Mexico.  And if the fates allow, a visit to the Atlantic Provinces of Canada; Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, Labrador, and Prince Edward Island.