travel blog

Bob was deployed (out at sea on the aircraft carrier) quite a bit in 1962. In January and February, he was on the Essex in the North Atlantic, and I was in Baltimore. Unless it was raining or snowing, the baby took her naps outside on the porch in the winter, even when it was cold. She slept...

The first part of the 1962 Christmas letter went as follows "The first 6 months of the year were filled with excursions and "incursions": Bob went to sea from 2 to 4 weeks and RosalieAnn would come home: Dad and Dee after church in the spring Note: [My dad was christened Johann Frans...

My first visit to Bermuda was in 1963, and I was pregnant with my 2nd child. (I left the oldest with my mom.) I was meeting my husband who was then on the U.S.S. Intrepid, an aircraft carrier that was doing operations in the area. I flew in on a propeller plane. Bermuda from air 13 June 1963...

These slides were developed in May 1960 BLue Ridge Parkway RYF on Bridge to Nowhere Chandler NC - Viscose Factory Cherokee NC - Black Bear Trading Post Bridge in Knoxville TN Blount Mansion - built in 1792 this was one of the first frame houses west of the Alleghenies. It was in the...

The Christmas letter this year was written by a third scribe - my mother. (1959 was written by my sister and 1960 by me. After 1961, the Christmas letters were a joint operation, but this year it was primarily my mother) She concentrated on the two events that were of most importance to her -...

Student wives group in New Iberia in front of the plane Bob flew- I am second from the left (in the back). Bob got his wings in November and we drove back to Maryland. Old building/ad on US Route 1 in Maryland Somewhere along the way, I got pregnant. We spent December visiting family Bob's...

The movers packed us up pretty well although I found that they had wrapped my Bibles in several layers of paper, and just grabbed a stack of saucers and wrapped them all together. The place most people think of when they think of Louisiana is New Orleans. Creole cuisine with a blend of French...

In December 1959, my sister was 'pinned' (she got the class pin of a red headed West Point cadet) that she had known since 7th grade. This picture was the two of them the summer of 1958 One important piece of news in the 1960 Christmas letter (written by me this year) was my dad's operation...

My mother had a large group of women friends that she was very close to. She had hosted the first 'dessert bridge' sometime in the late 30s and they had so much fun they evolved into meeting about once a month. Since this was before WWII, it would have been auction bridge. Originally there were...

When Bob and I got back from my graduation from Oberlin College and a side trip to the wedding of Sarah Newcomb (a classmate), we settled in for a few weeks upstairs at my parents house. There was a bedroom and full bathroom up there, separate from the rest of the house. Counting our own...

A lot happened in 1959 and some of it was even travel related. Fortunately, for some of what happened, I have my sister's account that she wrote for our first family Christmas letter She starts out Dear Friends As the only remaining spinster in the family (at the age of 19), I, Barbara have...

In the colonial times in the USA, the privies (or what we called outhouses) euphemistically called "Necessaries". In 1959, when we returned from Oberlin on our honeymoon (after I graduated), we visited Fort Necessity. Bob standing by the Fort sign Fort Memorial Day - May 31, 2004 -...

After we checked into the Hampton Inn, we went out for an early dinner at the Coal Baron restaurant We saw this restaurant as we drove into Uniontown on Route 40. It was about 2 miles from the Hampton Inn. The sign has CoalBaron as all one word. We passed an old helio pad as we walked in from...

We took Ohio 58 south out of Oberlin to Pittsfield and then to Wellington. I didn't like the Ohio Turnpike and didn't want to go back that way. The road is flat, straight, rural and has no traffic this early on Sunday morning. I read information out of the AAA book as we drove through. Although...

We headed toward Morgantown to spend the night. We got off at exit 7 of I-68 (we could see the Bob Evan's restaurant in the shopping center from the road) and got fuel in the car at BFS foods (9.35 gals of diesel at $1.86/gal). We checked into the Super 8 about 1530 (3:30 pm) after a total...

We were going to my 45th Oberlin college reunion in Ohio Thursday May 27, 2004 - Start of Oberlin Trip In order to avoid the rush traffic on Friday, we started off on Thursday May 27th and took two nights to do the 530 mile trip.After we fueled up the car (diesel at $1.78/gal), we drove up...

Student reading a book and riding a bike Oberlin has 'cluster reunions. That is every year three classes to gather together for reunions every five years. The middle class of each cluster celebrates its reunion on the actual five-year interval. For instance, for me, graduating in 1959, on 1969...

My father gave me a camera in November 1957. I spent the fall and winter of 1957-58 and the spring taking photos of campus. Looking down on Tappan Square from a practice room in the Conservatory In February, Bob had a week exchange visit to the US Military Academy at West Point, NY. I went...

My dad apparently went to Cincinnati - probably for a meeting and I don't know whether my mother went with him or not. Probably a photo from his hotel room In the spring of 1957, I was finishing up my sophomore year of college and my sister was a senior in high school. When I came home at...

Granddaddy, Mother Ruth and Great Aunt Helen at my sister's wedding in June 1961 Granddaddy went into the hospital in April 1962 diagnosed with renal carcinoma. But he was stable and the doctors said that they didn’t think he would die anytime soon. So Mother and Daddy brought Impy, their...