State park trail entry point.

Journey Home

Tales from the pilgrimage.

  • A Report from Gettysburg

    Editor’s Note: While researching another post, I found the  National Park Service presented this report filed by Colonel Logan Henry Neal Salyer on July 6, 1863 from Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The Fiftieth Virginia Infantry was comprised mainly of soldiers from Wise County, Virginia. The name Salyer was prominent during my father’s younger years there. “The regiment… Read more

  • Phones in Pockets, Not in Writing

    I am reading Grace Paley’s collection of stories, Later the Same Day and was struck by how she moves the narratives without the types of digital anchors we often see in writing today. There are fewer invoked cultural objects and more force in narrative progression through her writing alone. Shouldn’t we always be interested in… Read more

  • Hiroshima Day in Iowa

    Editor’s Note: This was first posted at Blog for Iowa on Aug. 6, 2011 to note the anniversary of dropping the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan. It is presented without editing. In Colorado last week, we bought a Sunday newspaper at a grocery store. The cashier commented, “I don’t read them anymore, they’re all… Read more

  • Conversation with My Aunt

    My aunt was born on Sept. 9, 1941, 13 years after my father and ten years before me. Because of that, she seems a generation apart from her three brothers. Read more

  • Nuclear Power and the ALARA Principle

    There is a lot of media buzz about nuclear reactors these days. Something essential is at stake and you may not be hearing about it in media. Read more

  • Week 16 — Transition Through Summer

    The heat wave broke on Thursday, and it rained all day Friday. We need the rain. I was so confident of the forecast, I did not water the garden on Thursday. It turned out I was right. I wasn’t ready for peppers, yet here they are. I picked a good number of jalapenos, as well… Read more

  • Bohannan will Address Social Security Shortfall

    I plan to vote for Christina Bohannan for Iowa’s First District congressional seat because of her position on Social Security. In an Oct. 10, 2025, email, she wrote: “It’s the job of our leaders to ensure every American gets the benefits they worked for.” The challenge is clear. In its June 9 report, the Social… Read more

  • Will Republicans Vote for a Democrat?

    It is a commonplace of 2026 Iowa Democratic campaigns that candidates must appeal beyond party lines. Set aside the registration numbers (only 527,675, or 29%, of Iowa’s 1,807,752 active registered voters are Democrats), and winning non-Democratic votes is essential. My question is whether Republicans will vote for a Democrat. It is one thing to attend… Read more

  • July 2026 Wildflowers

    Here is a collection of flower photos taken near my home in Big Grove Township during July. I often forget the diversity of plant life. Read more

  • Journaling in 2026

    I began a personal journal in 1974, although that first one was stolen from me shortly after I arrived in France. The first entry in the next journal is dated Aug. 27, 1974 in Salisbury, England. After University, it seemed part of being an educated person was to keep a journal the way Samuel Pepys… Read more