tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-86649854510812966682024-03-18T17:03:06.502-07:00Heart and SoleFeet tread the good earth and the Spirit soars.<br>Step out. Discover your path.PJ Wetzelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09159310088762048964noreply@blogger.comBlogger947125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8664985451081296668.post-91134989960458585822023-12-18T13:20:00.000-08:002023-12-28T14:01:19.797-08:00Nature's holiday ornaments, Blue Ridge of Virginia style<p> Monday, December 18, 2023. <b><span style="color: red;">HAPPY HOLIDAYS</span></b> from the Cloister at Three Creeks!</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2LiOLkfDjVCpd6-y-aEdxlmSSU0HJ09qqEbshV0dhGnGFnNXOJZhE_fMEKpXnLXAjA5xQinqe1jT6yStbCVhWNNJT0ynsh-KAGxmB-oM-OhukSwWsj1TuB8YKGftZHUC0e-DhI0SJFzyV7RbT9UwvpfTjn1wYKG72AenGm_1liq_jLPYlDy00dUAWgbc2/s5184/ba%2024%20IMG_6601%20Dec%2018.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3888" data-original-width="5184" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2LiOLkfDjVCpd6-y-aEdxlmSSU0HJ09qqEbshV0dhGnGFnNXOJZhE_fMEKpXnLXAjA5xQinqe1jT6yStbCVhWNNJT0ynsh-KAGxmB-oM-OhukSwWsj1TuB8YKGftZHUC0e-DhI0SJFzyV7RbT9UwvpfTjn1wYKG72AenGm_1liq_jLPYlDy00dUAWgbc2/s320/ba%2024%20IMG_6601%20Dec%2018.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>American Holly. Not one tree in my area seems to have produced berries this year.</i></td></tr></tbody></table><p>'Tis the season. Holiday fever and last-minute shopping are well underway. As always, I prefer to 'Opt Outside' so my holiday mission on this day was to document Nature's free holiday ornaments. What single plant is most associated with this season? It's gotta be Holly. I started the day on a mission to find an American Holly female tree sporting her bright red berries. Fail. I must have looked at a hundred trees. Has there been some 'conspiracy' among the trees (oaks do this, I know) to withhold production of berries this year? In the end I had to settle for a fine substitute: flowering dogwood berries:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPsrrCNdBIZmu3whGzWxawfTuz66u9eaac0BFCLSm-6_rGSsLSpWG33OK4TkZBEY5kwZ6NAcVWzbKuzoaIYTwxiElABzDIhdUjWVaQyFAjOyNwJEP3-B7eF5LeqO1BxZUZ0c5V-t6Ii1Ub8o10IkG7JAn_BrbewQPV0LKTCyA5XF1L234vSPsg6OCs8JSI/s4225/a%2022%20crop%20flowering%20dogwood%20Dec%2018.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2407" data-original-width="4225" height="182" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPsrrCNdBIZmu3whGzWxawfTuz66u9eaac0BFCLSm-6_rGSsLSpWG33OK4TkZBEY5kwZ6NAcVWzbKuzoaIYTwxiElABzDIhdUjWVaQyFAjOyNwJEP3-B7eF5LeqO1BxZUZ0c5V-t6Ii1Ub8o10IkG7JAn_BrbewQPV0LKTCyA5XF1L234vSPsg6OCs8JSI/s320/a%2022%20crop%20flowering%20dogwood%20Dec%2018.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><p>What else is reminiscent of this season? Remember that old song: "Chestnuts roasting on an open fire ..."</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3qhoK8NQxyeaaU35bE0bJ4SEcDbBvpUB8trOaTFFNdyXjLu6XmCz49b0qolA2r-udjJFz7UxgpUvB3YVTuG7WUZHheEZWH04KB1ppOiKXjrvuUgaxzffSfj6nTMnYdztatbvqXFXaxqIt2t2p1IcEB0KDGL91Ywo-oESxxNagGukmJwuplQlAOSCBBsmb/s1920/a%204%20Chestnut%20and%20red%20maple%20from%20Birthday%20Video%20Oct%2029.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="941" data-original-width="1920" height="157" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3qhoK8NQxyeaaU35bE0bJ4SEcDbBvpUB8trOaTFFNdyXjLu6XmCz49b0qolA2r-udjJFz7UxgpUvB3YVTuG7WUZHheEZWH04KB1ppOiKXjrvuUgaxzffSfj6nTMnYdztatbvqXFXaxqIt2t2p1IcEB0KDGL91Ywo-oESxxNagGukmJwuplQlAOSCBBsmb/s320/a%204%20Chestnut%20and%20red%20maple%20from%20Birthday%20Video%20Oct%2029.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Couldn't find any chestnuts on today's hike, though there are some trees in the area that produced nuts this year. For this post, we'll have to settle for a late October photo of an American Chestnut tree in full fall color, with red maple in the background.</i></td></tr></tbody></table><p>"... Jack Frost nipping at your nose."</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-MLq_lqgOny356fDL4hfP47xc-kb177LJri1hBk-CXEtydirrlQOS4MNhtCS667VQgPtmWoCMELYEJtRhJ3cyqwnperNENP0tobADoInjPk75UOiEgFajUTqUbVUKHNZPrL2MtCaSqfbmCkAKav_lg5J5w46VGAk_-rOUSEYHjySTsZdwlOzkwI1tLg6m/s2443/a%208%20frost%20on%20leaves%2012%20December%20detail_edited.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2053" data-original-width="2443" height="269" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-MLq_lqgOny356fDL4hfP47xc-kb177LJri1hBk-CXEtydirrlQOS4MNhtCS667VQgPtmWoCMELYEJtRhJ3cyqwnperNENP0tobADoInjPk75UOiEgFajUTqUbVUKHNZPrL2MtCaSqfbmCkAKav_lg5J5w46VGAk_-rOUSEYHjySTsZdwlOzkwI1tLg6m/s320/a%208%20frost%20on%20leaves%2012%20December%20detail_edited.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p>Sorry, no folks dressed up like Eskimos today, though. It was in the low 50's. But there were icicle-like ornaments to be found. The male catkins of the American Hazelnut:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQmF_3fM1V3lsFmXZ00jha6zDsyaPnptbko2Nr521YV0e4m4fdBEp6n7EFnBWPqtcX6KDzGqPNYmJBQX3mUfExRL4vtPxhLUsIx6VBSmIDNHExOI7ExPSs8wgPFrCPWs1pdsFm9VW3fBYeMOOlK8x7u_6EdSIf19OrJ_1HN_8yd_8_P4qZNpYRqAknkTwE/s5184/ba%2027%20IMG_6607%20Dec%2018.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3888" data-original-width="5184" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQmF_3fM1V3lsFmXZ00jha6zDsyaPnptbko2Nr521YV0e4m4fdBEp6n7EFnBWPqtcX6KDzGqPNYmJBQX3mUfExRL4vtPxhLUsIx6VBSmIDNHExOI7ExPSs8wgPFrCPWs1pdsFm9VW3fBYeMOOlK8x7u_6EdSIf19OrJ_1HN_8yd_8_P4qZNpYRqAknkTwE/s320/ba%2027%20IMG_6607%20Dec%2018.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p>I even came across one oddball catkin that almost looked like a 'Jingle Bell'.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbItqt5PQvufvKrNAO7_NsuoCSIFBcrLyWcxmZ2wQSaZ68DRRGO59qX7g1O2jd5oh_5cm09rz0IitHjoyTf2H4Ksp_vDPJMd9rQVPkGYmH2W6P-hfSLwPqOFWXotdX7tBJ4aUZYjtezMQPGv5pPAdXdrzij44-RE50xqOKqTcpCxrNm7U4nVbMMaoXX2oT/s3938/a%2028%20crop%20male%20catkin%20deformed%20Dec%2018.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2802" data-original-width="3938" height="228" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbItqt5PQvufvKrNAO7_NsuoCSIFBcrLyWcxmZ2wQSaZ68DRRGO59qX7g1O2jd5oh_5cm09rz0IitHjoyTf2H4Ksp_vDPJMd9rQVPkGYmH2W6P-hfSLwPqOFWXotdX7tBJ4aUZYjtezMQPGv5pPAdXdrzij44-RE50xqOKqTcpCxrNm7U4nVbMMaoXX2oT/s320/a%2028%20crop%20male%20catkin%20deformed%20Dec%2018.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><p>The color's getting a little monotonous, though. Here's a nice splash of color, but it's an invasive: Japanese Barberry</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTygtA95orwGPRMdqBytPAjlm7hmzsw8KzUfEoVZwr6TTSkmEAjyKMoonG5BzhfK4yJMN78FpDQbwDj_WOej9i9Yn7LUcu-0Y664FaIreQw3YF0u6fWnpKZ3-aiuCKI0bGfTvDgtL_FLjZK3_kcouBMI25z5_zTKi9D0X33zLW8jvJfTMdALBUAaXZpsPo/s5184/a%2032%20crop%20not%20Japanese%20Barberry%20Dec%2025.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3888" data-original-width="5184" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTygtA95orwGPRMdqBytPAjlm7hmzsw8KzUfEoVZwr6TTSkmEAjyKMoonG5BzhfK4yJMN78FpDQbwDj_WOej9i9Yn7LUcu-0Y664FaIreQw3YF0u6fWnpKZ3-aiuCKI0bGfTvDgtL_FLjZK3_kcouBMI25z5_zTKi9D0X33zLW8jvJfTMdALBUAaXZpsPo/s320/a%2032%20crop%20not%20Japanese%20Barberry%20Dec%2025.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><p>Going for maximum color, you can't beat this evil invasive: the naturalized offspring of the Bradford Pear - not the fruit this time, but the leaf:</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgefRz_vm221k45nEzClsXgW3PWUfqwSxviCJleKbNAnOqrBYHaZIwAYixjXEYjxu0MoOtJ_Lke-ayNbibkvmMdrl9l_eUdGaKrBG6yh2rbONzoNG-ka2n9O74scDVPEjuGU-0AXPY1u5_Hi1lgPAwkt9rHooq-syAPKKHihOWMyAEX-DefZJ_heoitWpWj/s4274/a%2026%20crop%20Bradford%20Pear%20Dec%2018.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3116" data-original-width="4274" height="233" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgefRz_vm221k45nEzClsXgW3PWUfqwSxviCJleKbNAnOqrBYHaZIwAYixjXEYjxu0MoOtJ_Lke-ayNbibkvmMdrl9l_eUdGaKrBG6yh2rbONzoNG-ka2n9O74scDVPEjuGU-0AXPY1u5_Hi1lgPAwkt9rHooq-syAPKKHihOWMyAEX-DefZJ_heoitWpWj/s320/a%2026%20crop%20Bradford%20Pear%20Dec%2018.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Bradford pear tends to be one of the very last to sport fall color.</i></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p>More color: Here the mini-tomato (size of a marble) that Carolina Horsenettle produces in abundance:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1rl3zZrm3H5p4RbAENtAJ8IGRCRfuNQF4sO_iekOKXIyxdOC6vrFJu02ReJmGBN3EaQ8OAk07X7OirLYSepfdWOvzFWg7YFeSYJss4YWxOJjiINpNRr1eCeN_UnXsRvpsygPC_dGlz4LKBwHduXDnax3AP2EKHNPErtgNfry0aLX7g-sf-7xoXhTj-5Zf/s5184/ba%2018%20IMG_6573%20Dec%2018.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3888" data-original-width="5184" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1rl3zZrm3H5p4RbAENtAJ8IGRCRfuNQF4sO_iekOKXIyxdOC6vrFJu02ReJmGBN3EaQ8OAk07X7OirLYSepfdWOvzFWg7YFeSYJss4YWxOJjiINpNRr1eCeN_UnXsRvpsygPC_dGlz4LKBwHduXDnax3AP2EKHNPErtgNfry0aLX7g-sf-7xoXhTj-5Zf/s320/ba%2018%20IMG_6573%20Dec%2018.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p>Then, of course, not to be outdone for color, here's American Beautyberry:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg50N8YruBU012ocZONp6NiEjh10HWh14OHyMuyZMVrSPmlEdNUQSxHU3wfK35S-B_NIhzmH5Qp9ZXQ_Rf67UiNdfr58tYamihyns22dub1A0ZYlMmUVgOZRNy1yOPou6YHg4XT0im33aPEzzSS8u7GHIdsmm5TBmXDjL51NcEgsyglJiE61VbIPk6wvotm/s3905/a%2020%20crop%20American%20Beautyberry%20Dec%2018.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2210" data-original-width="3905" height="181" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg50N8YruBU012ocZONp6NiEjh10HWh14OHyMuyZMVrSPmlEdNUQSxHU3wfK35S-B_NIhzmH5Qp9ZXQ_Rf67UiNdfr58tYamihyns22dub1A0ZYlMmUVgOZRNy1yOPou6YHg4XT0im33aPEzzSS8u7GHIdsmm5TBmXDjL51NcEgsyglJiE61VbIPk6wvotm/s320/a%2020%20crop%20American%20Beautyberry%20Dec%2018.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p>One splash of winter green with its ornaments of silver-dust blue is the Eastern Redcedar, also known as Virginia Juniper:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixZ5-rD0uSCZZtswwb4Q3Me7XFvUvUmMg9PdLP84PgJVditbkx9spfJNqFqGEc4CeQQn6G3KmJB2PkaJboHmt7rCOViuvvhSfDcZciprKzT92aZRBCkZfA35ONJc3SUqG5uxZZTwijCPZM6ZYln4ts1VfPNE7znZO7-z0mBnbBgVoU8KvuHZCYglPgKYs3/s3353/a%2029%20crop%20Virginia%20Juniper%20Eastern%20Redcedar%20Dec%2018.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2598" data-original-width="3353" height="248" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixZ5-rD0uSCZZtswwb4Q3Me7XFvUvUmMg9PdLP84PgJVditbkx9spfJNqFqGEc4CeQQn6G3KmJB2PkaJboHmt7rCOViuvvhSfDcZciprKzT92aZRBCkZfA35ONJc3SUqG5uxZZTwijCPZM6ZYln4ts1VfPNE7znZO7-z0mBnbBgVoU8KvuHZCYglPgKYs3/s320/a%2029%20crop%20Virginia%20Juniper%20Eastern%20Redcedar%20Dec%2018.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p>And not far down the color spectrum from there, we have the shriveled-up but abundant wild grape:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjv_YiRFcT8xe6_NIUrd0KXq1l_p0g-5w_-OPsU-DXZ5y3zy5MHl2mZaf745b18qp2VsuNHoc8pdHy7ZkOXYH32f51XSz7r7PC804BHQCd7KI7TZid94bTdlnbbEE0oBO7Jh9Rc9GeVl67FS71CuxaUygfq3hqWWE_3tsh7toqK3elay8gGDSJUyfVxduBP/s3452/a%2019%20crop%20wild%20grape%20Dec%2018.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2219" data-original-width="3452" height="206" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjv_YiRFcT8xe6_NIUrd0KXq1l_p0g-5w_-OPsU-DXZ5y3zy5MHl2mZaf745b18qp2VsuNHoc8pdHy7ZkOXYH32f51XSz7r7PC804BHQCd7KI7TZid94bTdlnbbEE0oBO7Jh9Rc9GeVl67FS71CuxaUygfq3hqWWE_3tsh7toqK3elay8gGDSJUyfVxduBP/s320/a%2019%20crop%20wild%20grape%20Dec%2018.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p>We'll go full circle from dark to light, now, with the near-white seed pods of Climbing Milkweed:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvHM0NRII6MKqUH_uMlmGoPwvEGiwpepIzLzo7ZSDsjhzaJu4zMhYck7srbwbXfUjsZ-pDp5L6qvTstad5pJ-W5KBQcOWRyWpTsqELVGT5oPOkGAh8UY6cIl_MP8Q1UmsGhXmzFrNvLOkecucnBxrAls6hGlop3WU3cuncZo41Xuyc5pU84EgFOAjgG3TY/s4089/a%2016%20Climbing%20milkweed%20pods%20on%20the%20vine,%20some%20open,%20some%20not,%20Dec%2016th.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2823" data-original-width="4089" height="221" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvHM0NRII6MKqUH_uMlmGoPwvEGiwpepIzLzo7ZSDsjhzaJu4zMhYck7srbwbXfUjsZ-pDp5L6qvTstad5pJ-W5KBQcOWRyWpTsqELVGT5oPOkGAh8UY6cIl_MP8Q1UmsGhXmzFrNvLOkecucnBxrAls6hGlop3WU3cuncZo41Xuyc5pU84EgFOAjgG3TY/s320/a%2016%20Climbing%20milkweed%20pods%20on%20the%20vine,%20some%20open,%20some%20not,%20Dec%2016th.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div><br /></div>That leads us to an invasive: The translucent seed pods of the Mimosa tree, native of Asia:<div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZbDWJ_QIG3LFKctagnLpSdXu_hPHj6F_J-Wx7tTgboBUZoLBqAahuNsjQw_i9_MV0cHibD5sT1C3rmZN3of7f7GKdDfztKGTWlt6O2wPiNWQ4Fn4oWYl7kmQKJBuamDWv7mvu3IfoPLTv-Z5_-_2dsoIkgrj27dePtV5Btvw3IVPGPQlF_VKYgkjPsVRy/s3132/a%2031%20crop%20IMG_6623%20Dec%2018.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2349" data-original-width="3132" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZbDWJ_QIG3LFKctagnLpSdXu_hPHj6F_J-Wx7tTgboBUZoLBqAahuNsjQw_i9_MV0cHibD5sT1C3rmZN3of7f7GKdDfztKGTWlt6O2wPiNWQ4Fn4oWYl7kmQKJBuamDWv7mvu3IfoPLTv-Z5_-_2dsoIkgrj27dePtV5Btvw3IVPGPQlF_VKYgkjPsVRy/s320/a%2031%20crop%20IMG_6623%20Dec%2018.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><p>And we'll let one Asian invasive lead us to another: Oriental Bittersweet:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgl0Rni0KdtmGR72vwBfR_16zWnjDN2IJT9BXzCQ5EzyZa2EZstKusJCFIiOpw8ye3Ez__3fTECDWBzUnUQZbw7NNQkH8Ht-jwPzK_ClsqhQTz5Iz6QK5XM9Mgpp9a_EtQyvLj5FHAkRb4exxybHf2f3z7y0bqNvYfL3mbDkpznLyoyPn8wQx4iTYOoyQh4/s4131/a%2021%20crop%20oriental%20bittersweet%20Dec%2018.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3182" data-original-width="4131" height="246" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgl0Rni0KdtmGR72vwBfR_16zWnjDN2IJT9BXzCQ5EzyZa2EZstKusJCFIiOpw8ye3Ez__3fTECDWBzUnUQZbw7NNQkH8Ht-jwPzK_ClsqhQTz5Iz6QK5XM9Mgpp9a_EtQyvLj5FHAkRb4exxybHf2f3z7y0bqNvYfL3mbDkpznLyoyPn8wQx4iTYOoyQh4/s320/a%2021%20crop%20oriental%20bittersweet%20Dec%2018.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div><br /></div>Ornaments of a different sort, after a foggy mild morning:</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvJMTAlXBdb1awUn3TkIZ5oM8L86v6_geuTURuvG0jZA-Kgg4835azrF8A408OuXQ3Hzw6QfHW1sFFxX6zPGi3MugcCcxejwbJgTM3GMt02Rex3layBVPAJ-y3Oqn_jVCQCChCClksVbeGCBiHY2sP-vc2qxJqesD_f-kXmRbXDwLSZzH2TRxMfKEqo9x4/s4056/a%2034%20dew%20Dec%2028%202.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2522" data-original-width="4056" height="199" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvJMTAlXBdb1awUn3TkIZ5oM8L86v6_geuTURuvG0jZA-Kgg4835azrF8A408OuXQ3Hzw6QfHW1sFFxX6zPGi3MugcCcxejwbJgTM3GMt02Rex3layBVPAJ-y3Oqn_jVCQCChCClksVbeGCBiHY2sP-vc2qxJqesD_f-kXmRbXDwLSZzH2TRxMfKEqo9x4/s320/a%2034%20dew%20Dec%2028%202.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYKrQuonPo9SSDhOL8-uFbheu_-9ilL-NCqykqE29OcfvTLxGIgIz5Afzr1LoxYkFNXStPRhqfPUzaVM3nkvV9SjvZLBgEBjjUtfPaeqBnnBSJ7dp40QiHROT0R1a5V8F-5q7vtB5OpDLGtzkPYYHpZn_SEN3yEPbOhFjcqZAz4HKPX7EGKRwcKPN8rOgr/s3839/a%2035%20dew%20Dec%2028%204.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1929" data-original-width="3839" height="161" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYKrQuonPo9SSDhOL8-uFbheu_-9ilL-NCqykqE29OcfvTLxGIgIz5Afzr1LoxYkFNXStPRhqfPUzaVM3nkvV9SjvZLBgEBjjUtfPaeqBnnBSJ7dp40QiHROT0R1a5V8F-5q7vtB5OpDLGtzkPYYHpZn_SEN3yEPbOhFjcqZAz4HKPX7EGKRwcKPN8rOgr/s320/a%2035%20dew%20Dec%2028%204.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhILXBTU6BZ05P6L7-UQ4FzByd9iO1TBaCjnyJySR1UxaLj0ZegAhlMSvx43FBd5nwkc32T77FsKLs7G0NHCsTOS3SesQAhXkGjM3nZFD3QUkmbsh_zj1laGGdbVoDtK2tPpNN9b062aOw4IcZNYU54L9ZQhIJQdc7V8kmOOmR1mNHjy1oVoug-Tr2r1g-/s1389/a%2036%20dew%20Dec%2028%208%20upside%20down.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1034" data-original-width="1389" height="238" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhILXBTU6BZ05P6L7-UQ4FzByd9iO1TBaCjnyJySR1UxaLj0ZegAhlMSvx43FBd5nwkc32T77FsKLs7G0NHCsTOS3SesQAhXkGjM3nZFD3QUkmbsh_zj1laGGdbVoDtK2tPpNN9b062aOw4IcZNYU54L9ZQhIJQdc7V8kmOOmR1mNHjy1oVoug-Tr2r1g-/s320/a%2036%20dew%20Dec%2028%208%20upside%20down.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div><br /></div>That last view might seem a bit odd, and that's because it is upside down. Somehow it makes more sense visually that way.<div><p>And now back to the more permanent type of ornament, and back to species that are native to the area, I rounded out my tour with some bigger ornaments. Here's the seed ball of the sycamore. Each little seed is its own parachute, spread by the wind.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhA5IE5PNfkbBVg3nP5vXb00UbNhvrZG4OQtlYcSrSzbJSjoG7vwZxpYqoysqbGbQ3poLRC97ovTV4CFvgNxqajq8dCrAEIcPhw5FTKCnim94bVFtSi71J8j-pn7tdDIt7aI82WlKay4jSsV7kUktYUfgrAbGMsRxKGp8pPw8fNlEGnopYnvzTwG0TnWQTz/s5184/ba%2025%20IMG_6603%20Dec%2018.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3888" data-original-width="5184" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhA5IE5PNfkbBVg3nP5vXb00UbNhvrZG4OQtlYcSrSzbJSjoG7vwZxpYqoysqbGbQ3poLRC97ovTV4CFvgNxqajq8dCrAEIcPhw5FTKCnim94bVFtSi71J8j-pn7tdDIt7aI82WlKay4jSsV7kUktYUfgrAbGMsRxKGp8pPw8fNlEGnopYnvzTwG0TnWQTz/s320/ba%2025%20IMG_6603%20Dec%2018.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><p>Bigger yet are the cones of Virginia Pine. They stay on the tree for many years, and turn white(ish) with age:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj95hxoPyTLl70Kz4ENdHY-3Wly7Uv122kaG6DeXtGWAIrpf1kRfP98JxxA0QkvRI_SR9lAfhT4pIL7ukhzSE2FunigAU3iQYnWiulDOcPFn7Pl-SCt076970gGSMX0ycNHiGhjc4FWJG87zngdnMj_q8rZi2fWnJZX5yQgABlrAlcRy2Ru8M3lfFmVP9U-/s2485/a%2033%20crop%20Virginia%20Pine%20Dec%2025.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1857" data-original-width="2485" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj95hxoPyTLl70Kz4ENdHY-3Wly7Uv122kaG6DeXtGWAIrpf1kRfP98JxxA0QkvRI_SR9lAfhT4pIL7ukhzSE2FunigAU3iQYnWiulDOcPFn7Pl-SCt076970gGSMX0ycNHiGhjc4FWJG87zngdnMj_q8rZi2fWnJZX5yQgABlrAlcRy2Ru8M3lfFmVP9U-/s320/a%2033%20crop%20Virginia%20Pine%20Dec%2025.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><p>Biggest ornaments of all are the 'monkey-balls' - soft-ball-sized fruit of the Osage Orange:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBQO-Y7Kx0lszRNXKhevQIWnNYiyuwUS0om6mfDNyA-Lpua7dtYn-XnXbAaIwz4JbLsLE_RwO6tolx4S5PYJ1a3tKzWvC9Uj3gVJH-lNMPU142spLV7KVtxtkDsbfGF_5Mp66zjIqWdSRrMoX29bfwJ_7uwiIn0plVLd6OTxqZoEly050Ilz4rUWI8yaod/s1782/a%2012%20monkey%20balls,%20Dec%2014%20Detail.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="976" data-original-width="1782" height="175" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBQO-Y7Kx0lszRNXKhevQIWnNYiyuwUS0om6mfDNyA-Lpua7dtYn-XnXbAaIwz4JbLsLE_RwO6tolx4S5PYJ1a3tKzWvC9Uj3gVJH-lNMPU142spLV7KVtxtkDsbfGF_5Mp66zjIqWdSRrMoX29bfwJ_7uwiIn0plVLd6OTxqZoEly050Ilz4rUWI8yaod/s320/a%2012%20monkey%20balls,%20Dec%2014%20Detail.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><p>And wrapping up the seasonal theme - what would the season be without some mistletoe? Here's a big specimen, almost like a big ornament, shown with the snowy Appalachian Trail as a backdrop.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAGeCK7oYVOJ_Oo4VWqJB_syzhj8wLGIgsQknwQ7a6nfdNr4XwghTr5QIg2VE7TmFE8_WgzF8tz3Ij8MVvKpuD5iSyN70hrmjMMCH9OE8ORnoFvlPYWnXNjzd6yporufOgXLGP6UkTWBtrzN-isEfkHe3lnqVFanHR3WA6muyIDJ_ZWniAnE0Ibw410w1u/s5184/a%206%20Mistletoe%20and%20Three%20Ridges%20summit,%20Dec%2012th.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3888" data-original-width="5184" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAGeCK7oYVOJ_Oo4VWqJB_syzhj8wLGIgsQknwQ7a6nfdNr4XwghTr5QIg2VE7TmFE8_WgzF8tz3Ij8MVvKpuD5iSyN70hrmjMMCH9OE8ORnoFvlPYWnXNjzd6yporufOgXLGP6UkTWBtrzN-isEfkHe3lnqVFanHR3WA6muyIDJ_ZWniAnE0Ibw410w1u/s320/a%206%20Mistletoe%20and%20Three%20Ridges%20summit,%20Dec%2012th.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><p>Yes, up there on that ridge is the AT. Look closely and maybe there's a hiker looking back. There's a nice viewpoint at the summit up there.</p><p>I hope your holiday season is relaxed and full of inner warmth and happiness. Don't let the rush and hustle come between you and the peace you deserve. If you find there's too much frenzy, look to nature whenever you can. It's always waiting for you out there, with open welcoming arms.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p></div>PJ Wetzelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09159310088762048964noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8664985451081296668.post-60508121687526176332023-12-17T14:31:00.000-08:002023-12-18T12:20:27.849-08:00How Colonist John Smith changed his name at the age of 147<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgU5NUsFr9rW__q7zWXRARaxcwbVOFgYr472xQYEv9eYpFCQvrPRFsyDzOnIwYaP7eyPHqwYtnjTKXDFcSDwVvJ1rdfm0n_ibkS6VgWyS8LLOr641i1M9gFMhrNmsfxOtOrdCPI8iFEuHB0R0MzftjB68Lp0MhxakbgU3-y4v-WTJim96IMUz65VizaIap2/s500/a%200%200%200%20Captain%20John%20Smith%20founder%20of%20Jamestown,%20Smith-26686.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="313" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgU5NUsFr9rW__q7zWXRARaxcwbVOFgYr472xQYEv9eYpFCQvrPRFsyDzOnIwYaP7eyPHqwYtnjTKXDFcSDwVvJ1rdfm0n_ibkS6VgWyS8LLOr641i1M9gFMhrNmsfxOtOrdCPI8iFEuHB0R0MzftjB68Lp0MhxakbgU3-y4v-WTJim96IMUz65VizaIap2/w250-h400/a%200%200%200%20Captain%20John%20Smith%20founder%20of%20Jamestown,%20Smith-26686.jpg" width="250" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>This is Captain John Smith, one of the founding fathers of Jamestown Colony, Virginia, and my cousin by marriage (to be specific, he is my children's 5th cousin 13 times removed. My kids and Captain John Smith actually share 29 common ancestors based on data retrieved from <a href="https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Wetzel-777" target="_blank">WikiTree</a> on 17 Dec 2023).</i></td></tr></tbody></table><p>This is a family history biography of my great-great-great grandfather John Smith, colonist who left his home country and made a new life in the New World. But it is NOT about the guy in the engraved illustration above. And it is not about Jamestown Colony, Virginia. It's not even about a man named John Smith—a least not until he was 147 years old. And lastly, it's not about founding a colony in the New World, but about leaving one in the Old.</p><p>Interest piqued? Here's the rest of the story:</p><p><br /></p><b><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Biography of </b><b>Johann Schmidt and Louise Behnke</b></div></b><br />
Johann Schmidt was born on 15 June 1808 in Schmilowo, Kreis Flatow, Province of West Prussia, Germany. now called Śmiłowo, two miles east of Vandsburg, which is now called Więcbork, Poland. He was the third of nine children of Daniel Schmidt and Maria nee Tesmer.
<br /><br />
Louise Behnke was born to Martin Behnke and Eva Rosine nee Thom sometime between 1819 and 1821, also in West Prussia, probably in Jastrzembke Colonie, 4 miles ENE of Vandsburg.
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TOURIST DETAIL: Jastrzembke Colonie is now an empty field. It can be visited by following directions to “Jastrzebiec k Wiecborka, Poland” about 8km ENE of Więcbork. Also please note that a Google Map Search for Śmiłowo will give you the wrong location – a larger town with the former German name of Schmilau, about 50km to the west. The correct Śmiłowo is also on the map, just two miles due east of Więcbork.</i><div><br /></div><div>These two grew up during a turbulent time in this part of the world. This territory was historically Polish, and only relatively recently had Germans begun to arrive during a period when Poland’s government was weakening and under pressure from all its neighbors. </div><div><br /></div><div>The map below (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drang_nach_Osten" target="_blank">courtesy of Wikipedia</a>) shows the historic migration of Germans eastward in a movement that became known as <i>Drang nach Osten</i>, translated as the “Urge to push to the east” with <i>Drang</i> also connoting a sense of discomfort or stress.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIsIlpZfsZ_mOlTS-rCSNkZDEC-nGHyyJ_-TizpNS4-fwQmyXq55O4w5SEIncVUwSGbNx1f9BSFJiCuob08AzkjKgdEiwuhYXT5PdPC6yKwX-s7VFzuRzegNNCqtOetu7EcYLsXICl53-Ldzhc0u-aKngSdWt68Uw1gueqDTczTjn9RtD4fcldhxBNzlX2/s579/00%20Drive%20to%20the%20east,%20Vandsbg%20Red%20arrow,%20Drang%20nach%20Osten,%20source-%20Wikipedia%20page%20by%20that%20name.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="579" data-original-width="540" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIsIlpZfsZ_mOlTS-rCSNkZDEC-nGHyyJ_-TizpNS4-fwQmyXq55O4w5SEIncVUwSGbNx1f9BSFJiCuob08AzkjKgdEiwuhYXT5PdPC6yKwX-s7VFzuRzegNNCqtOetu7EcYLsXICl53-Ldzhc0u-aKngSdWt68Uw1gueqDTczTjn9RtD4fcldhxBNzlX2/s320/00%20Drive%20to%20the%20east,%20Vandsbg%20Red%20arrow,%20Drang%20nach%20Osten,%20source-%20Wikipedia%20page%20by%20that%20name.jpg" width="298" /></a></div><div><div><br />Vandsburg, marked by the red arrow, was located in what came to be known as the ‘Polish Corridor’ because although Germans populated the areas to the west and east, a Polish majority population persisted in the gray areas. (See also the 1910 census map below). To put complex history in a nutshell, the dispute over the Polish Corridor was the core cause of World War II.<br /><br />The area had been under the control of a weak Polish government until 1772 when the stronger neighboring powers of Prussia, Austria, and Russia forced Poland to cede lands, marked in the lighter shades on the map below (with Vandsburg again marked by a red arrow).<br /></div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgt9GtEn5JfzTBElKa0IAwiCuRRYs57nnpFLy36Ql0m3kBH-S-xkK2ii-fCNB5X-UvYEdLF9LKFn5ywJ1Hj1EoR1Vwh9-Ug9NwqkJV8lh-e5jFO3VHbcSlhwtDRvp8DBGgMFjHZpARhLll8_STVkRqimlT7LBzW-zqIvi4_NZ8bT-A3VtGGOMRNsV5ezowE/s1903/00%20First%20Partition%20of%20Poland%20-%20source-Wikipedia%20article%20by%20that%20name.%20Vandsburg,%20red%20arrow,%20went%20to%20Prussia%201772%20Partition,%20light%20blue..jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1554" data-original-width="1903" height="326" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgt9GtEn5JfzTBElKa0IAwiCuRRYs57nnpFLy36Ql0m3kBH-S-xkK2ii-fCNB5X-UvYEdLF9LKFn5ywJ1Hj1EoR1Vwh9-Ug9NwqkJV8lh-e5jFO3VHbcSlhwtDRvp8DBGgMFjHZpARhLll8_STVkRqimlT7LBzW-zqIvi4_NZ8bT-A3VtGGOMRNsV5ezowE/w400-h326/00%20First%20Partition%20of%20Poland%20-%20source-Wikipedia%20article%20by%20that%20name.%20Vandsburg,%20red%20arrow,%20went%20to%20Prussia%201772%20Partition,%20light%20blue..jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;"><i>Map attribution: <a href="Map attribution: Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Partition_of_Poland" target="_blank">Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Partition_of_Poland</a></i></span></td></tr></tbody></table><div><br /></div><div><div>The Polish corridor thus came under the jurisdiction of the Kingdom of Prussia. It didn’t last. Thanks to the invading French armies of Napoleon, Vandsburg was again officially under Polish rule (Treaty of Tislit, 9 Jul 1807), so Johann was born Polish (or maybe French? I have no idea how formal citizenship was conveyed, if at all). The area was under the control of the short-lived Duchy of Warsaw from 1807 until the defeat of Napoleon in 1815, when Vandsburg again came under Prussian control, so that Louise was born Prussian.<br /><br />Following the defeat of Napoleon, the Prussian Kingdom was on the ascendancy, consolidating power and gaining military superiority, joining the German Confederation in 1815, gaining further superiority as the outcome of the 1866 Austro-Prussian war, which led to the German Empire in 1871, and becoming increasingly militaristic in a century-long build-up to The Great War – World War I. All this while, the Prussian government continued to promote German settlement in the east.<br /><br />Below is a public domain map of Prussia at near its greatest extent in 1905, with Vandsburg again marked with a red arrow.<br /></div></div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_EEk9pAcawBO18OuJZAwtMUYal6R7Q6jkSrZ6XbN92NDi-62oYInWKQOriIbydnk6kdbFAwJdtQmCejHZGbykk_xLmKxq8_6qeuV1-Xaaq4JdE6CLpQO2I8wAOX1EqA1HWZ7LPwS2JPn4uTufyPPujVvujqaejRQnZmePStQwFkoU6iNw9flM1f4hz08q/s4495/00%20Prussia_(political_map_before_1905)%20Public%20Domain,%20Vandsburg%20Red%20arrow.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2580" data-original-width="4495" height="230" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_EEk9pAcawBO18OuJZAwtMUYal6R7Q6jkSrZ6XbN92NDi-62oYInWKQOriIbydnk6kdbFAwJdtQmCejHZGbykk_xLmKxq8_6qeuV1-Xaaq4JdE6CLpQO2I8wAOX1EqA1HWZ7LPwS2JPn4uTufyPPujVvujqaejRQnZmePStQwFkoU6iNw9flM1f4hz08q/w400-h230/00%20Prussia_(political_map_before_1905)%20Public%20Domain,%20Vandsburg%20Red%20arrow.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div><div><div>It was in the midst of this inferno of political change and a local atmosphere of ethnic tension that Johann and Louise grew up, met, and married in the church in Vandsburg on 23 Aug 1835. Louise was no more than sixteen years old at the time of the marriage.<br /><br />Now, here comes the part about Johann being a 'Colonist'. Soon after their marriage, Johann and Louise settled in Zakrzewke Colonie about four miles WNW of Vandsburg. There Louise gave birth to eleven known children between 1837 and 1866.<br /><br />The fact that the place they lived was called a ‘Colony’ speaks directly to the political and ethnic conflict that surrounded them and to the sense that these German settlers were pioneers (intruders), taking root in a hostile land. As seen from the public domain Census map from 1910, shown below, Vandsburg (again marked with a red arrow) stood in the midst of an area of very mixed ethnicity with small enclaves of German settlement in that ‘Polish Corridor’. Census districts that are colored Green are majority Polish districts, where those in orange-red are predominantly German.<br /></div></div></div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCklun8mEatm1yAoG3e7SzJurTOKymAd_pBzPP_vKX5rUt3dBKq7P4CwfXHc2IySdlUCCr4e2wcdtCPYuMBHJtY9oYrvVzasD6JMRPMk00wFJeDVph-VcWen9caDrziVHv2yxsRewN406sXTkYOF47CIjVl3_tc5IZ0PPAh1ymr0lYVfH2vidzLLAktIZe/s2572/00%20PUB%20DOM.%20nationalities_of_eastern_German_Empire,German_census_of_1910_green%20is%20polish%20majority,%20red%20German,%20Vandsburg%20RED%20ARROW.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1955" data-original-width="2572" height="304" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCklun8mEatm1yAoG3e7SzJurTOKymAd_pBzPP_vKX5rUt3dBKq7P4CwfXHc2IySdlUCCr4e2wcdtCPYuMBHJtY9oYrvVzasD6JMRPMk00wFJeDVph-VcWen9caDrziVHv2yxsRewN406sXTkYOF47CIjVl3_tc5IZ0PPAh1ymr0lYVfH2vidzLLAktIZe/w400-h304/00%20PUB%20DOM.%20nationalities_of_eastern_German_Empire,German_census_of_1910_green%20is%20polish%20majority,%20red%20German,%20Vandsburg%20RED%20ARROW.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div><div><div><div><i>TOURIST DETAIL: Zakrzewke Colonie is now abandoned, but there is a historic marker at the former train station. To visit it, follow directions to “Dawna stacja Zakrzewska Kolonia, Zakrzewska Osada 34A, 89-410 Zakrzewska Osada, Poland”. The historic marker is not along a road, but on the abandoned Świecie nad Wisłą – Złotów railway line right-of-way about 7.5km WNW of Więcbork.<br /><br />In an amazing coincidence, a professional quality video of this train station at Zakrzewski Colonie was <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ahue5rrUck0" target="_blank">posted on YouTube</a> just as I began researching this topic in January 2023.<br /></i><br />What caused the Schmidts to emigrate to America is not certain. Many of our ancestors were just seeking opportunity—a better life. Perhaps life in Zakrzewke Colonie was hard and getting harder. But in late June 1876, Johann and Louise and their four youngest children boarded the S.S. Oder in Bremen and sailed for New York by way of Southampton, England. They arrived at Ellis Island, on July 8th 1876, just four days after the Centennial of United States independence.<br /><br />The trip from New York to Milwaukee is not documented, but most travelers used the Erie Canal corridor, traveling either by boat or on the adjacent railroad line, then got on another ship at Buffalo and sailed to Milwaukee.<br /><br />Either in Milwaukee or perhaps in New York Johann and Louise and children were probably met by sons August and or Fritz, who had preceded them in emigrating. Son Fritz was the pioneer in 1869. He left his wife and children in Germany and came to America sailing aboard the Bark Bremen, arriving in July. A year later his wife and four oldest children joined him, traveling by steamship (a much faster transit). Son August followed in 1873, traveling as a young single man alone. Finally, son Carl and his young family joined them in 1885. To date I have no record of the fate of three of the other four children. A daughter Justine died in Germany as a baby in 1853.<br /><br />Johann and Louise settled in rural Waukesha County and farmed near Muskego. (The area is now suburban, and part of the Greater Milwaukee Metropolitan Area.) Johann and Louise eventually retired and moved into a small home or apartment on the farm of daughter Louisa and her husband Herman Schultz. Johann died there on 29 Jul 1895 at the age of 87. Louise passed away on 5 Apr 1901 at the age of 82.<br /><br />They were buried together in the town of Muskego in the old Muskego Center Cemetery. But their story does not end there. This old cemetery had filled up and was falling into neglect. In 1955 the owner of an adjacent amusement park proposed to purchase the cemetery and relocate the graves in order to expand the amusement park. (These clippings courtesy of Whitney Gulbrandson from Waukesha Daily Freeman, 9 Jun and 4 Oct 1955)<br /></div></div></div></div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXIE89oKibFg4NEuUyv0ph0H4GA0zNLgpqoqGzzC31X-8koKDISKzBeauVHgnQg9q0MdqY_W-8V_HZXJs_5fvFV0paNmxmP9CizhNoTiYtNQSjX0cO-Nn01Qw9Jpl5A617GGQBtLxVLcilWzCEh9-z1OyFu0xSFa_B3l0id7G0o8KYx-a-R9Db9-3xZRsi/s2068/a%200%20Auler,%20John%20Smith%20cemetery%20story,%20Waukesa%20Daily%20Freeman,%209%20Jun%20and%204%20Oct%201955.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2068" data-original-width="1220" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXIE89oKibFg4NEuUyv0ph0H4GA0zNLgpqoqGzzC31X-8koKDISKzBeauVHgnQg9q0MdqY_W-8V_HZXJs_5fvFV0paNmxmP9CizhNoTiYtNQSjX0cO-Nn01Qw9Jpl5A617GGQBtLxVLcilWzCEh9-z1OyFu0xSFa_B3l0id7G0o8KYx-a-R9Db9-3xZRsi/w236-h400/a%200%20Auler,%20John%20Smith%20cemetery%20story,%20Waukesa%20Daily%20Freeman,%209%20Jun%20and%204%20Oct%201955.jpg" width="236" /></a></div><br /><div><div><div><div>The property transfer was approved. As result, Johann and Louise’s remains were disinterred and reburied at Vernon United Presbyterian Cemetery, Vernon, Wisconsin, about five miles to the west.<br /></div></div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4GpQkMO5VXTFcZfxXw6hf12Xl2Ukqz3iBAwQIXu_k1q963JeoAavklaSJzFU7y7JBimNpqrO4Ml1p0A_YevYepMmNhP3D8spyHYGEfbixdP7h-2G_5N2fygOPIyBMktgiqaGx7bTL-WSdnx8a_9DGtdD6AyIq85g9GF-0el63n5_IcqTavA-lnFRf1TYb/s640/a%200%20Auler,%20John%20Smith%20and%20wife%20Louise%20Behnke%20current%20grave%20marker.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4GpQkMO5VXTFcZfxXw6hf12Xl2Ukqz3iBAwQIXu_k1q963JeoAavklaSJzFU7y7JBimNpqrO4Ml1p0A_YevYepMmNhP3D8spyHYGEfbixdP7h-2G_5N2fygOPIyBMktgiqaGx7bTL-WSdnx8a_9DGtdD6AyIq85g9GF-0el63n5_IcqTavA-lnFRf1TYb/s320/a%200%20Auler,%20John%20Smith%20and%20wife%20Louise%20Behnke%20current%20grave%20marker.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;"><i>Photo: Whitney Gulbrandson, at <a href="(Photo: Whitney Gulbrandson, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/32635822/john-smith)" target="_blank">Find-a-Grave</a>.</i></span></td></tr></tbody></table><div><div><div><br />The new grave marker names them John and Louise Smith. I do not have any evidence that they changed their names. In the 1880 and 1900 US Census records they are listed as ‘Schmidt’. Even the cemetery records transcribed in the 1955 newspaper article above (lower right) name them as “John Schmidt and ____ Schmidt, his wife.”<br /><br />There is only one member of the family who formally used the name Smith—youngest son Rufus, who died in 1959, and who just happened to live in the town of Vernon. Family oral history says that Rufus’s wife Emma Peffer preferred the name Smith over Schmidt. This couple’s census records, and their grave marker all use the Anglicized version of the name. At the time of the grave relocation, Rufus was the only remaining living child of Johann and Louisa, and he was already well into his 80’s.<br /><br />It appears that Johann and Louise Schmidt’s name change did not take place until they were buried in Vernon in 1955 when Johann was 147 years old.<br /><br />And perhaps that is, at last, the end of the story.<br /><br /><b>CHILDREN:</b><br /><br />1. Wilhelm (1837- ) – no issue (?) </div><div>2. Friedrich “Fritz” (1838-1926) – m. Amelia Fedder, 9 children </div><div>3. Henriette (1842- ) – no issue (?) </div><div>4. Johann Julius (1843- ) – no issue (?) </div><div>5. Carl Ludwig (1847-1933) – m. Johanna Bahr, 10 children </div><div>6. August Julius (1849-1941) – m. Louise Lumpe, 4 children </div><div>7. Justina (1852-1853) – no issue </div><div>8. Edward Gustav (1855-1946) – m. Minnie Witt, no issue </div><div>9. Emilie Mathilde (1858-1946) – m. John Richter, 2 children </div><div>10. Louise Auguste (1862-1938) – m. Herman Schultz, 3 children </div><div>11. Rudolph Gustav (1866-1959) – m. Emma Peffer, no issue<br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div></div></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>PJ Wetzelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09159310088762048964noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8664985451081296668.post-80061694458009253402023-12-13T04:11:00.000-08:002023-12-30T18:46:54.847-08:00Next Hiking Goal - a virtual Around-the-World Hike<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJ2G6POSGj2Si_F6zWKpbqIKCyMbpFMJxTf4piwXFSBg3_BhW8bun_F46FNVXIEDo0sG7VoNhB1SNExaL-8iCv2OUUg486CGoiDQ1iNjD_cZkpbOJiKDwkFbyAMqWjNORd-z4i9oHSDhl-jpDHUEiET0cjBxneoCcpoVRkFe_3toWqtjhEHAjjKkHUAFme/s3250/a%202%20Three%20RIdges%20with%20snow,%20end%20of%20Upper%20Rockfish%20River%20Trail.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1640" data-original-width="3250" height="201" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJ2G6POSGj2Si_F6zWKpbqIKCyMbpFMJxTf4piwXFSBg3_BhW8bun_F46FNVXIEDo0sG7VoNhB1SNExaL-8iCv2OUUg486CGoiDQ1iNjD_cZkpbOJiKDwkFbyAMqWjNORd-z4i9oHSDhl-jpDHUEiET0cjBxneoCcpoVRkFe_3toWqtjhEHAjjKkHUAFme/w400-h201/a%202%20Three%20RIdges%20with%20snow,%20end%20of%20Upper%20Rockfish%20River%20Trail.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Here is where I hiked yesterday—the Blue Ridge of Virginia.</i><i> It's not just about the miles!</i></td></tr></tbody></table><p>The distance around our planet Earth - its circumference - is HUGE - 25,000 miles, more or less.</p><p>The exact distance depends on where you measure it, and for us number geeks, the exact number matters. It is defined by the current accepted standard, called WGS84 (The World Geodetic System, 1984 version), and it is what your GPS uses to tell you exactly where you are. These guys measure this stuff down to an accuracy of 2cm—that's less than an inch. </p><p>The bottom line is that the exact distance around the world ranges from 24,901.461 miles measured around the equator, where the centrifugal force caused by Earth's rotation bulges it out, to 24,859.734 miles measured through the north and south poles. As of this morning, as I write this (13 December 2023), I have a documented total distance hiked of 23,098.916 miles. </p><p>To complete my virtual hike around the equator, I have just over 1800 miles to go. That's the distance between Miami and Minneapolis. It's less than the length of the Appalachian Trail. If I decided to do a NoBo (northbound) thru hike starting at the southern end at Springer Mountain, Georgia, I'd be celebrating completion of my Virtual Hike Around the World here:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifsczCuj0mMKvXF7ia-KHhirdEu8TCMuN9R4xZp17zC54VV-1U9KmKw6_LXGrivuCjAHHJeTr4jgsZ-i365dpAMbDBKOlGmI2oeQz08TclJn3674Ls2W4VBaQ_SMM1ITz3ygxbLagw20M_sLe9t-QviEobeQfNPEykdwbDkkk90mM4wqNKwaO5F0gAHJTU/s5184/a%2017%20Franconia%20Ridge%20June%2016%20IMG_6075.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3888" data-original-width="5184" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifsczCuj0mMKvXF7ia-KHhirdEu8TCMuN9R4xZp17zC54VV-1U9KmKw6_LXGrivuCjAHHJeTr4jgsZ-i365dpAMbDBKOlGmI2oeQz08TclJn3674Ls2W4VBaQ_SMM1ITz3ygxbLagw20M_sLe9t-QviEobeQfNPEykdwbDkkk90mM4wqNKwaO5F0gAHJTU/w400-h300/a%2017%20Franconia%20Ridge%20June%2016%20IMG_6075.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><p>That's Franconia Ridge in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, one of my favorite places on the trail, and a place I just hiked again back in June.</p><p>Since I was born, I've definitely already walked around the world virtually, and I'm on my second circuit. But I'm only counting the miles I've actually documented since the day I got my first hiker's GPS unit, back on June 12, 2010.</p><p>As part of these 23,000 miles, I hiked the Appalachian trail twice in one calendar year and I've hiked to the <a href="https://www.pjwetzel.com/2019/11/reaching-finish-line-last-front-door.html" target="_blank">front door of every place I ever lived</a>—everywhere from Colorado to the beaches of North Carolina. I've connected 28 states (if you count DC as a state) with a continuous string of footsteps:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSMVgt3GsbLv22BPOPNYA2ztpH8zR-t-0VPEDHq2Sbp_LhtQgiDa_30xr-VILFLxVRUVAIc6ojZOWgBXEAYqWe-TA7OwOiDu0UE_P2Px3gm418r6Wmh80pzzo4ONOUkQ4oHP-QfiZc9F3Y9MTX7tBNAq1vKc1zPiN7XbPDXQpI7Njx16q95UX6hGd8dN6E/s2879/a%207%2028%20States,%20Aug%2029%20IMG_6186_edited.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2532" data-original-width="2879" height="281" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSMVgt3GsbLv22BPOPNYA2ztpH8zR-t-0VPEDHq2Sbp_LhtQgiDa_30xr-VILFLxVRUVAIc6ojZOWgBXEAYqWe-TA7OwOiDu0UE_P2Px3gm418r6Wmh80pzzo4ONOUkQ4oHP-QfiZc9F3Y9MTX7tBNAq1vKc1zPiN7XbPDXQpI7Njx16q95UX6hGd8dN6E/s320/a%207%2028%20States,%20Aug%2029%20IMG_6186_edited.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p>I've hiked the <a href="https://www.pjwetzel.com/2016/03/success-end-of-trail.html" target="_blank">Florida Keys</a>, the <a href="https://www.pjwetzel.com/2021/10/the-hermit-in-swiss-alps-avid-hikers.html" target="_blank">Swiss Alps</a>, the tundra of <a href="https://www.pjwetzel.com/2022/10/video-239-hiking-hermit-in-svalbard.html" target="_blank">northern Svalbard</a> less than 600 miles from the North Pole, and as close as 2433 miles to the South Pole at <a href="https://www.pjwetzel.com/2019/06/hiking-patagonia-part-4-of-4-french.html" target="_blank">Ushuaia, Argentina on the southern tip of South America</a>. I've <a href="https://www.pjwetzel.com/2015/05/ojos-del-salado-moving-to-high-camp-at.html" target="_blank">climbed a 20,000-foot mountain in Argentina</a>, summited Pequeno Alpamayo in Bolivia and Huayna Picchu, the jagged peak overlooking <a href="https://www.pjwetzel.com/2013/07/machu-picchu-ultimate-bucket-list.html" target="_blank">Machu Picchu</a> in Peru. I've hiked Sankei-En Gardens in Japan, the Blue Mountains of Australia, and extensively hiked <a href="https://www.pjwetzel.com/2018/11/hiking-easter-island-story-in-pictures.html" target="_blank">Easter Island</a> for 11 days, the <a href="https://www.pjwetzel.com/2018/09/the-shoreline-trail-more-history-more.html">Big Island of Hawaii</a> for two months, and much of the interior of <a href="https://www.pjwetzel.com/2018/10/hiking-moorea-french-polynesia-most.html" target="_blank">Moorea, French Polynesia</a> during a memorable week there.</p><p>Wildlife. I've hiked with <a href="https://www.pjwetzel.com/2022/10/video-239-hiking-hermit-in-svalbard.html" target="_blank">Walrus, musk ox, and reindeer on Svalbard,</a> <a href="https://www.pjwetzel.com/2022/09/up-close-and-personal-with-polar-bears.html" target="_blank">Polar Bears</a> in east Greenland (not recommended - they want to eat you, and they will. We beat a quick retreat back to town, our shotgun toting guide bringing up the rear), met the legendary <a href="https://www.pjwetzel.com/2022/11/around-top-of-world-days-20-and-21.html" target="_blank">Lagarfljót Worm of NE Iceland</a> and one of their famous Trolls. (I'm leaving the Troll story for the end of this post.) I've seen Moose in Maine (including one this past July, which I didn't get a photo of), and in August I hiked literally under a bear in an overhanging tree just ten feet up, directly above the Appalachian Trail:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWzPY0D-7-bD1IyuvUoXhXsG8yBff9Go5z-8-bohwoM2kUMpb8kltC6NxCnvdmdqpjbZpeszAjQvfM9fQ3_HKvI7YSDyTub5z8CCwIiYZBifR4o6o3S5A_JLnIw3o51pm11rYjLvN0jbYBvEOD9YwcGLCOAToFrnSvAqWdhnPoFpCqJQwpfxV3bKWD05sq/s3142/a%204%20bear%20in%20a%20tree,%20ROckfish%20Gap,%20Aug%2010%20IMG_6157_crop.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2636" data-original-width="3142" height="268" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWzPY0D-7-bD1IyuvUoXhXsG8yBff9Go5z-8-bohwoM2kUMpb8kltC6NxCnvdmdqpjbZpeszAjQvfM9fQ3_HKvI7YSDyTub5z8CCwIiYZBifR4o6o3S5A_JLnIw3o51pm11rYjLvN0jbYBvEOD9YwcGLCOAToFrnSvAqWdhnPoFpCqJQwpfxV3bKWD05sq/s320/a%204%20bear%20in%20a%20tree,%20ROckfish%20Gap,%20Aug%2010%20IMG_6157_crop.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p>The day before yesterday I visited with a Great Blue Heron fishing.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='480' height='270' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dzqNsMug-haiAn553XiTGRKnPlJlSHdZdxOVfhyMJ742fhHgudRoXZwg7WgBeLlGMOW2T-laX88BG4AupmMDg' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><p>I could go on. You might say I've been around. But not quite yet. Not all the way around. So that's my current goal.</p><p>Sometime in the new year, I'll cross the finish line. It might even be in Madagascar, where I've booked a trip to visit the Baobab trees. But more likely it will be closer to home. Winter is here. The leaves are all off the trees and yesterday I shot this one, generously dabbed by frost.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjv48Cle9EiWnxK-6FXKUfW73WSFpnF1KB0s_p1LYP0rME_q4bROZkHBY4vxo2wI30htdXTYCFscfLEQQ4m4KtTZc8twRGQl-LUe5bbLt9cBS9P4wgNWLkeh9um_VWBsAjGDDfmOb1-qB5tvF9RT-0skr5QzJK3c0Pevpz1QQUi82O9jelVfhc6GuTVkN2f/s4809/a%209%20Frost%20on%20leaf%20too%20Dec%2012th_edited.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4809" data-original-width="3660" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjv48Cle9EiWnxK-6FXKUfW73WSFpnF1KB0s_p1LYP0rME_q4bROZkHBY4vxo2wI30htdXTYCFscfLEQQ4m4KtTZc8twRGQl-LUe5bbLt9cBS9P4wgNWLkeh9um_VWBsAjGDDfmOb1-qB5tvF9RT-0skr5QzJK3c0Pevpz1QQUi82O9jelVfhc6GuTVkN2f/s320/a%209%20Frost%20on%20leaf%20too%20Dec%2012th_edited.jpg" width="244" /></a></div><p>'Tis the season, as they say, and one of the trails I hike takes me directly beneath a three-foot ball of Mistletoe, perched high in its favorite host tree, a red maple.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxROgowAmin641FwyzuulFmb5MHp_8SozNp4B_JHNBZEkCbzK3lx4EgLVR2ESrH9C2CzWaYbO5n6Tmq2mQgMyIel2XwSKdA9OAnTSnaeam6W_52q-gR5x2x0dvuPT5GnOp-ULfM8BgzDxZSHhFf1PVY4GSU5uZK8SodasWwgCWi9DNaFNTKDCqvk_HjTv_/s4258/a%207%20mistletoe%20Dec%205th_edited.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2869" data-original-width="4258" height="216" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxROgowAmin641FwyzuulFmb5MHp_8SozNp4B_JHNBZEkCbzK3lx4EgLVR2ESrH9C2CzWaYbO5n6Tmq2mQgMyIel2XwSKdA9OAnTSnaeam6W_52q-gR5x2x0dvuPT5GnOp-ULfM8BgzDxZSHhFf1PVY4GSU5uZK8SodasWwgCWi9DNaFNTKDCqvk_HjTv_/s320/a%207%20mistletoe%20Dec%205th_edited.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p>So far, I've only walked here alone. No chance to take advantage of the situation. But be forewarned, ladies, if you get an invitation to take a hike with me! LOL.</p><p>And now the Troll story from Iceland. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Icelandic_Christmas_folklore" target="_blank">It's a seasonal thing too.</a> In the caves at Dimmurborgir, thirteen 'Yule Lads' seem to magically appear around this season. The first appeared just yesterday, on Dec 12th, and the last will arrive on Christmas eve. Each one can be spotted for only thirteen days.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlerr9sZsYdhMKv7VbFY_M6g6IwKrLitz6w0_RIf_ESPpdGpAyaQrH1mhk5YW10lUcmwUIQKMxwpIaUEmTIZM_YVhEefRJClxB6fWlltx1z2aIAIeEIyyQGePWysvhKgMu-r-8LEtz8wFvBoM01PxtOBOeoKg9r65FoGQkFCfC50fwO-i6Ec02mmnU_0f9/s3861/a%2089%20Icelands%2013%20trolls%20of%20Dimmurborgir.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3528" data-original-width="3861" height="292" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlerr9sZsYdhMKv7VbFY_M6g6IwKrLitz6w0_RIf_ESPpdGpAyaQrH1mhk5YW10lUcmwUIQKMxwpIaUEmTIZM_YVhEefRJClxB6fWlltx1z2aIAIeEIyyQGePWysvhKgMu-r-8LEtz8wFvBoM01PxtOBOeoKg9r65FoGQkFCfC50fwO-i6Ec02mmnU_0f9/s320/a%2089%20Icelands%2013%20trolls%20of%20Dimmurborgir.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p>And, although it was August (2022) when I was there, our group managed to capture one of them on video:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='480' height='270' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dyihlzWkXbvjcayzpe5Pj7IDPfQ5WuLThkipdVsylw2RJPXkosytudLj60JJ2qi3I-xTiLHrQhDrlQD2Ev6TA' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><p>Quite the project - a Virtual Hike Around the World. It's the ultimate circuit hike—the longest way home! It's the kind of huge goal that obviously takes time. I haven't set a deadline, *yet*, to get it done. If I do decide to make it a sprint to the finish, you'll be the first to know. Keep an eye right here on this blog.</p><p>I'm going to try to keep this post updated daily with my progress, then hand off to a new post after a week or so. Please do stay tuned for the LIVE UPDATES (or nearly so):</p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Wednesday, December 13th, 2023: 4.254 miles. After I published this post, I went out and hiked some woods roads around <a href="https://www.pjwetzel.com/2022/01/welcome-to-cloister-at-three-creeks.html" target="_blank">The Cloister at Three Creeks</a>, the destination being 'Half-Volcano Rock', where I once built a seven-stone cairn to top it off. The photo was taken back in October. Total miles: 23,103.170<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizXXKXu8nMYpiIxSmGYPiuj_RRQuDFzUNX4kCT70-7p9v_3bhr0B1M896V6ku5oK9U79yyta6bkKr96LaHKCKIUkJfwWwHgY_Dz6XLtHmyvRvT-htzn9IELoXOrLUC0OMu7lQdE5OHYSbZDJpKIu36mNtp274E9zbsNyHV2dTC76oTUgJKKs7o2YreGb97/s5158/a%2010%20half-volcano%20rock%20with%20cairn,%20Oct%2014_edited.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3280" data-original-width="5158" height="203" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizXXKXu8nMYpiIxSmGYPiuj_RRQuDFzUNX4kCT70-7p9v_3bhr0B1M896V6ku5oK9U79yyta6bkKr96LaHKCKIUkJfwWwHgY_Dz6XLtHmyvRvT-htzn9IELoXOrLUC0OMu7lQdE5OHYSbZDJpKIu36mNtp274E9zbsNyHV2dTC76oTUgJKKs7o2YreGb97/s320/a%2010%20half-volcano%20rock%20with%20cairn,%20Oct%2014_edited.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /></li><li>Thursday, December 14th, 2023: 4.536 miles. Just a two-hour ramble during the best part of the day (11AM to 1PM) on some fairly flat territory, visiting an old homestead site for the first time. This was a two-story house (note the second fireplace halfway up), probably abandoned no more than a century ago. Total miles: 23,107.706<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_Fho7m0Lpmgvrk4lBg2XQ0-o1HA9L89FXyVP6XGFFAF4Ew_JV7xPkB9bgtrq0AfYZxfdyLPJ0OPi_duP5v78-wE5NhrLt1R0QGQlN8bJazjuqdMmpnjggWdmLpzJBV2e_eYwhRxrGfr_rvJ7us6iPLAdxhYsHlwN00SltpWZsnzAdfiwxxjTiy4VA7r6x/s5184/a%2011%20old%20homestead,%20Wintergreen,%20Dec%2014.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3888" data-original-width="5184" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_Fho7m0Lpmgvrk4lBg2XQ0-o1HA9L89FXyVP6XGFFAF4Ew_JV7xPkB9bgtrq0AfYZxfdyLPJ0OPi_duP5v78-wE5NhrLt1R0QGQlN8bJazjuqdMmpnjggWdmLpzJBV2e_eYwhRxrGfr_rvJ7us6iPLAdxhYsHlwN00SltpWZsnzAdfiwxxjTiy4VA7r6x/s320/a%2011%20old%20homestead,%20Wintergreen,%20Dec%2014.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /></li><li>Friday, December 15th, 2023: 3.006 miles. A short ramble through my *infested* little valley. The last weekend of deer hunting is here, so they'll be gone. But bear hunters are the worst. They hunt with packs of dogs wearing GPS collars and drive all over the place tracking them. My peaceful little valley will not be peaceful until bear hunting season ends on January 6th. I can't wait! Meanwhile, here are some Osage Orange fruits under the tree that dropped them. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgU9MN0mWd87rb43oxcjVuPq8GckFgXnROI7Fk_1iz7mqms5hJRzNglEgJ9ZgzJyD6omtzauiC7JCsE-D5M6K1jjzfeBlxuDi7_2DjYtZAtIs0Y_L3mQ7jyfA761n2OGozmFVAkFaSM8zCP4sezySpqrAr0UwqsQnDTeUDYdPysffbExr-5boM8DCQyETPI/s3888/a%2012%20monkey%20balls,%20Dec%2014.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3888" data-original-width="3519" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgU9MN0mWd87rb43oxcjVuPq8GckFgXnROI7Fk_1iz7mqms5hJRzNglEgJ9ZgzJyD6omtzauiC7JCsE-D5M6K1jjzfeBlxuDi7_2DjYtZAtIs0Y_L3mQ7jyfA761n2OGozmFVAkFaSM8zCP4sezySpqrAr0UwqsQnDTeUDYdPysffbExr-5boM8DCQyETPI/s320/a%2012%20monkey%20balls,%20Dec%2014.JPG" width="290" /></a></div>They just sit. They will sit there all winter and slowly rot. No creature eats them. Their wood was prized by our First Peoples as the best wood by far to make bows. Meriwether Lewis reported in 1804 that the people of the Osage Nation "So much ... esteem the wood of this tree for the purpose of making their bows, that they travel many hundreds of miles in quest of it." A good bow made of Osage Orange wood could be traded for a horse and a blanket. Because no living animal consistently touches these huge fruits (the size of a softball), and because their range had become limited to east Texas despite it happily able to grow nearly everywhere in the US, it has been speculated that <a href="https://www.americanforests.org/article/the-trees-that-miss-the-mammoths/" target="_blank">their seeds were once spread by one of North America's extinct megafauna species</a>. <<<That article in the link is a great read. Please take a look. Have pollen studies been done to establish the range of Osage Orange 15,000 years ago and longer? I'd love to pursue this speculation further. Total miles: 23,110.712</li><li>Saturday, December 16th, 2023. 3.643 miles. Just a relaxed early morning ramble in nippy, frosty weather. Started out in the mid-20s F but was warming nicely under the bright sun.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4fuAogHgRLTHvO-gbsHMrUE_5hFc7OgQ7tkSzXUXLSkANI18tzhDL49hfYSUgSE8HGIFiYYxRXZnwv5i-YEE-KmkcbYWlOzXCgP0q533ds1O478FDRVm8ciGERTiK_5FD3ZYRGa42qqyGwwjE5ilav6YZsiR4SocJj8yXxYjP89xjWIF1xDF59C7CV94-/s5055/a%2014%20Frost%20on%20picnic%20table,%20Dec%2016.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2198" data-original-width="5055" height="139" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4fuAogHgRLTHvO-gbsHMrUE_5hFc7OgQ7tkSzXUXLSkANI18tzhDL49hfYSUgSE8HGIFiYYxRXZnwv5i-YEE-KmkcbYWlOzXCgP0q533ds1O478FDRVm8ciGERTiK_5FD3ZYRGa42qqyGwwjE5ilav6YZsiR4SocJj8yXxYjP89xjWIF1xDF59C7CV94-/s320/a%2014%20Frost%20on%20picnic%20table,%20Dec%2016.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>I wanted to get out early to beat the buildup of clouds and enjoy the prettiest part of the day. There's a serious storm currently forming just north of the Yucatán Peninsula (southern Gulf of Mexico) that is going to rake up the whole US east coast bringing heavy rain and strong winds tomorrow and Monday. The highlight of the morning hike was a close inspection of the important Monarch Butterfly attractor, <a href="https://bygl.osu.edu/node/1709" target="_blank">Climbing Milkweed, also called Honeyvine</a> even though it's toxic to humans. The name refers to the fact that it often gets infested with oleander aphids, which do what most aphids do—secrete a lot of sugar-rich 'honeydew' that ants love. Ants then protect and defend the aphids to preserve their food source. The web of nature's interactions is just fascinating. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZigT9F1zQxX6r9GvP7Wg-lz4ZVcWMc_xc9UVqryLjGplz1cYOjegtmXoFKJfAn1ei6kpweJb44o1Xj4QAk2DNfu2ULKtvH7BkrNjGiLiYADv0oys3Ks6urY6TDIbOkewdM3xFSJddIwlwnFwj-mHsd7Nve7XhdDD1rR18SADLiOEWbPavskjelJ-0_PzN/s4089/a%2016%20Climbing%20milkweed%20pods%20on%20the%20vine,%20some%20open,%20some%20not,%20Dec%2016th.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2823" data-original-width="4089" height="221" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZigT9F1zQxX6r9GvP7Wg-lz4ZVcWMc_xc9UVqryLjGplz1cYOjegtmXoFKJfAn1ei6kpweJb44o1Xj4QAk2DNfu2ULKtvH7BkrNjGiLiYADv0oys3Ks6urY6TDIbOkewdM3xFSJddIwlwnFwj-mHsd7Nve7XhdDD1rR18SADLiOEWbPavskjelJ-0_PzN/s320/a%2016%20Climbing%20milkweed%20pods%20on%20the%20vine,%20some%20open,%20some%20not,%20Dec%2016th.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>Here the climbing milkweed's dead winter vine sports its big seed pods under the bright blue sky with a seasonal color scheme. Some pods have opened and released their seed, and others are still closed. Each seed looks like a perfect little medallion. Its fibrous 'parachute' strands seem spring loaded. They spread out instantly once they are freed from the pod. They are so light that they can drift on the wind for miles, and the geometric pattern the seeds create while packed into the pod is truly magical. Total miles: 23,114.355<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKTz2rKhrbhZTl8Fwg-1piGUdEGQ96fhK7t1__wBWRiYXCP6nNpmC8e0K_3LutrQIQndxQ_9FM-boWGQaAmC8qQzdMpBR92aLNKgfS6OABVFjsqJHw0OvPnpb3zDG48odJCxpVxc7yQetW5oU5zrzfy1oCSOIQi4T_ucNHqFMc94P18tobBUteToGndlfl/s3888/a%2015%20Climbing%20milkweed%201%20Dec%2016th_edited%20blur.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3282" data-original-width="3888" height="270" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKTz2rKhrbhZTl8Fwg-1piGUdEGQ96fhK7t1__wBWRiYXCP6nNpmC8e0K_3LutrQIQndxQ_9FM-boWGQaAmC8qQzdMpBR92aLNKgfS6OABVFjsqJHw0OvPnpb3zDG48odJCxpVxc7yQetW5oU5zrzfy1oCSOIQi4T_ucNHqFMc94P18tobBUteToGndlfl/s320/a%2015%20Climbing%20milkweed%201%20Dec%2016th_edited%20blur.jpg" width="320" /></a></div></li><li>Sunday, December 17, 2023. 5.571 miles. Storm looming! I headed out before sunrise and tried to beat the rain. Didn't quite succeed, but only got damp. I hiked under the open sky early on and captured a pretty good photo of a multiple-layer cap cloud. Total miles: 23,119.926<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFX64f0VEmQnVslVdIdJe-ueTcbqbUucHmYcnvPP4EXKGgk7IDGfCFhGEd_sjEGW6bTRsbDquBCrBBk075eh4X2EzjeFoZXQyDMDWaetYSAsZYByY6r5myjSKTTo74WwmeImvC9wHN61fHVGaZ_Qo0PPsq7T4wbhrhgc638wGOEb-38L-oBnOjklyuVUoN/s4853/a%2017%20cap%20cloud%20Dec%2017.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3123" data-original-width="4853" height="206" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFX64f0VEmQnVslVdIdJe-ueTcbqbUucHmYcnvPP4EXKGgk7IDGfCFhGEd_sjEGW6bTRsbDquBCrBBk075eh4X2EzjeFoZXQyDMDWaetYSAsZYByY6r5myjSKTTo74WwmeImvC9wHN61fHVGaZ_Qo0PPsq7T4wbhrhgc638wGOEb-38L-oBnOjklyuVUoN/s320/a%2017%20cap%20cloud%20Dec%2017.jpg" width="320" /></a></div></li><li>Monday, December 18th, 2023. Today I concentrated on a photography mission. It's fully documented in <a href="https://www.pjwetzel.com/2023/12/natures-holiday-ornaments-blue-ridge-of.html" target="_blank">this new post</a>. Just a reminder: I live within a couple miles of the Appalachian Trail, and in a certified Trail Community. Miles hiked today: 3.562. Total miles for this "new" project: 23,123.488<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKkUoeCT_jcAF0DscJvIwAi68LhP1x-z9rtMdaGYIumUl47sNXkHW50IbS0AtH6sZlv06o9Qsb9_sKYCpM379Bp_n83-gr2DMICR0oX9S2Zchd8UNFXOpw7b0f5NYUfoaUj3LQ4aYci-6xWBaDyzt3YjFMGn5cAqe4GZ2lcDuhBURTpbqtYbZSAHjmI55I/s5044/a%2013%20Appalachian%20Trail%20Community.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3668" data-original-width="5044" height="233" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKkUoeCT_jcAF0DscJvIwAi68LhP1x-z9rtMdaGYIumUl47sNXkHW50IbS0AtH6sZlv06o9Qsb9_sKYCpM379Bp_n83-gr2DMICR0oX9S2Zchd8UNFXOpw7b0f5NYUfoaUj3LQ4aYci-6xWBaDyzt3YjFMGn5cAqe4GZ2lcDuhBURTpbqtYbZSAHjmI55I/s320/a%2013%20Appalachian%20Trail%20Community.jpg" width="320" /></a></div></li><li>Tuesday, December 19th, 2023. 2.112 miles, rambling around the Cloister at Three Creeks on a cold day. Total miles: 23,125.600</li></ul><p></p><p><br /></p>PJ Wetzelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09159310088762048964noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8664985451081296668.post-76792621819878484752023-12-01T09:19:00.000-08:002023-12-17T15:39:56.240-08:00Genealogy - Master list of all my known Direct Ancestors<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGbEqo6Zvh-EjvPJsBsPDOPNeo8PtKboWkhoyOqd0UwD41b-Jzv96Yjg1xp6aBHlj9ihd2bK1J378kYwvfrZyYYNAhGu623YKLGtWMIKzrDM-QSEQ1F7BN383xbdj5jHCGOvyvp7T5Y04R9nJ0zxUAVdfSjEU9Uj8JqGUTe3ig5Y2yn8kybNyY8rbumSrC/s1431/a%200%20wetzel,%20my%20direct%20ancestors%20screen%20shot%201%20of%205%2030%20Nov%202023.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1056" data-original-width="1431" height="295" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGbEqo6Zvh-EjvPJsBsPDOPNeo8PtKboWkhoyOqd0UwD41b-Jzv96Yjg1xp6aBHlj9ihd2bK1J378kYwvfrZyYYNAhGu623YKLGtWMIKzrDM-QSEQ1F7BN383xbdj5jHCGOvyvp7T5Y04R9nJ0zxUAVdfSjEU9Uj8JqGUTe3ig5Y2yn8kybNyY8rbumSrC/w400-h295/a%200%20wetzel,%20my%20direct%20ancestors%20screen%20shot%201%20of%205%2030%20Nov%202023.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"></td></tr></tbody></table>Here I have assembled the basic list of the people whose genes contributed directly to mine. No siblings or cousins or aunts and uncles are listed here, just my direct ancestors. Eventually I hope to write family history stories (biographies and historical sketches) of most of these people, perhaps even making an attempt at my own. Wherever a name appears as a hot link, that is the link to their story. Please check them out!<p></p><p>Without further ado, here we go. I list them by generation starting with parents and grandparents, who are shown in the image above, which is a screen shot from my <a href="https://www.ancestry.com/profile/08159df2-0006-0000-0000-000000000000" target="_blank">Wetzel Family Tree on Ancestry</a>.</p><p style="text-align: center;">* * *</p><p style="text-align: center;">VERSION 2.4 (created 23 Dec 2022, last modified 4 Dec 2023)</p><b>
A.</b> ME<br />
<br /><b>
B.</b> PARENTS (2 of 2)<br />
<br />
1. <a href="https://www.pjwetzel.com/2016/07/dads-noble-final-journey-memorial.html" target="_blank">Roland Herman Wetzel (1923-2016)</a> – See 3. and 4.<br />
2. Muriel Evelyn Auler (1923-2019) – See 5. and 6.<br />
<br /><b>
C.</b> GRANDPARENTS (4 of 4)<br />
<br />
3. Georg Willi Julius “William” Wetzel (1886-1971) – See x. and 7.<br />
4. Bertha Anna Augusta “Betty” Uber (1883-1971) – See 8. and 9.<br />
5. <a href="https://www.pjwetzel.com/2022/11/veterans-day-tribute-to-my-grandpa-dutch.html" target="_blank">George Gustav “Dutch” Auler (1899-1976)</a> – See 10. and 11.<br />
6. Erma Ivis Helene Uecke (1903-1992) – See 12. and 13.<br /><br /><div>I am fortunate to have photos of many of my great- and 2nd-great grandparents:</div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaAscZ6mabA5iCjCnHs1rsorhRpDDeW2v89ionhsFJfWW3a6IEdqqOky8iJyibVFGIh2-JIsgH0XookeZtY-ZH8Fd29FEWkUPureQiLrvS4OQEextLg3DJnI3rvLlpOU4XxYC9rX-fLSex3aWcyJRe7T9a6VL90vhTnoviy-VGMzchIN7B_Qatg7FUtD0v/s1051/a%200%20wetzel,%20my%20direct%20ancestors%20screen%20shot%202%20of%205%2030%20Nov%202023.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><i><img border="0" data-original-height="856" data-original-width="1051" height="326" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaAscZ6mabA5iCjCnHs1rsorhRpDDeW2v89ionhsFJfWW3a6IEdqqOky8iJyibVFGIh2-JIsgH0XookeZtY-ZH8Fd29FEWkUPureQiLrvS4OQEextLg3DJnI3rvLlpOU4XxYC9rX-fLSex3aWcyJRe7T9a6VL90vhTnoviy-VGMzchIN7B_Qatg7FUtD0v/w400-h326/a%200%20wetzel,%20my%20direct%20ancestors%20screen%20shot%202%20of%205%2030%20Nov%202023.jpg" width="400" /></i></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>The mother and maternal grandparents of my paternal grandfather Bill Wetzel</i></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIhM6IqXUhgdY1X6Vd6Kg7o_yxKpp8Oqli6fITfmFn9hOMY_Gq1Y_CEoysAOZ8u9NvM-paxZV1tqpX9Beq8LHOXAbdi9ZVvbm22akTEufig-F3YZGl6ixkLKu4YXwblfDUX5mbPNmQdu0lIhnUZurmxu3XComb18fp_U8eJj1UspOG0rp2S_8ehGidBfER/s1305/a%200%20wetzel,%20my%20direct%20ancestors%20screen%20shot%203%20of%205%2030%20Nov%202023.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="981" data-original-width="1305" height="301" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIhM6IqXUhgdY1X6Vd6Kg7o_yxKpp8Oqli6fITfmFn9hOMY_Gq1Y_CEoysAOZ8u9NvM-paxZV1tqpX9Beq8LHOXAbdi9ZVvbm22akTEufig-F3YZGl6ixkLKu4YXwblfDUX5mbPNmQdu0lIhnUZurmxu3XComb18fp_U8eJj1UspOG0rp2S_8ehGidBfER/w400-h301/a%200%20wetzel,%20my%20direct%20ancestors%20screen%20shot%203%20of%205%2030%20Nov%202023.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Parents, grandparents, and one great-grandparent (because I have her photo) of my paternal grandmother Betty Uber Wetzel</i></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjWguqL06mUsA7_Ma05WzEWD6d9oCeC8THwOYv-dS86M9He9Fnplz9RYXhSbVkG17maPWkTVmE2ftaPQcu9npk8IE9EIvWyZ4FZjsIkqTKUWNxOcAd-u_du0AHkOA03yiWuD5wjD8cGWAPX867dMrfkjC6TvA8NfN1Whq7r_QtnT4gC38svY5f2ulLOUG8/s1300/a%200%20wetzel,%20my%20direct%20ancestors%20screen%20shot%204%20of%205%2030%20Nov%202023.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1028" data-original-width="1300" height="316" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjWguqL06mUsA7_Ma05WzEWD6d9oCeC8THwOYv-dS86M9He9Fnplz9RYXhSbVkG17maPWkTVmE2ftaPQcu9npk8IE9EIvWyZ4FZjsIkqTKUWNxOcAd-u_du0AHkOA03yiWuD5wjD8cGWAPX867dMrfkjC6TvA8NfN1Whq7r_QtnT4gC38svY5f2ulLOUG8/w400-h316/a%200%20wetzel,%20my%20direct%20ancestors%20screen%20shot%204%20of%205%2030%20Nov%202023.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Parents and grandparents of my maternal grandfather George "Dutch" Auler</i></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeCGUbu7FfvZQN_2eui77_3GoOBw-kF_2Jx90XE5G7tID2j09KRN1XAPd1nAbH7q5CgSoogOq8-tWUGQJHF54ThWGKUWJXoDOPm9UL_KvrHwyEYpO2krWKhBezjR53h2exAnq-p-vUUt_70NOZsh3TMoSA1dF-MPwC1HSstvRQSRTeVtsv7xxJxinmH6S5/s1241/a%200%20wetzel,%20my%20direct%20ancestors%20screen%20shot%205%20of%205%2030%20Nov%202023.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="985" data-original-width="1241" height="318" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeCGUbu7FfvZQN_2eui77_3GoOBw-kF_2Jx90XE5G7tID2j09KRN1XAPd1nAbH7q5CgSoogOq8-tWUGQJHF54ThWGKUWJXoDOPm9UL_KvrHwyEYpO2krWKhBezjR53h2exAnq-p-vUUt_70NOZsh3TMoSA1dF-MPwC1HSstvRQSRTeVtsv7xxJxinmH6S5/w400-h318/a%200%20wetzel,%20my%20direct%20ancestors%20screen%20shot%205%20of%205%2030%20Nov%202023.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Parents and grandparents of my maternal grandmother, Ivis Uecke Auler</i></td></tr></tbody></table>
<br /><b>
D.</b> GREAT-GRANDPARENTS (7 of 8)<br />
<br />
x. Unknown --------------------------------------------------------------------- ORIGIN: POTSDAM, Brandenburg<br />
7. Anna Marie Wilhelmine Wetzel (1864- ) – See 14. and 15. --------- ORIGIN: GREIFENBERG, Pomerania<br />
8. Oswald Isaac Uber (1848-1930) – See 16. and 17. -------------------- ORIGIN: BOLKENHAIN, Silesia<br />
9. Bertha Charlotte Amalie Butzow (1852-1939) – See 18. and 19. --- ORIGIN: KRITZKOW, Mecklenburg<br />
10. Jacob Auler (1861-1917) – See 20. and 21. --------------------------- ORIGIN: SIMMERN, Rhine-Palatine<br />
11. Anna Emilie Elisabeth Schmidt (1872-1961) – See 22. and 23. --- ORIGIN: KAMNITZ, West Prussia<br />
12. August “Sandy” Uecke (1867-1921) – See 24. and 25. ------------- ORIGIN: ZOLDEKOW, Pomerania<br />
13. Auguste Christiane Baumann (1867-1918) – See 26. and 27. ------ ORIGIN: GRAPEN STIETEN, Mecklenburg<br />
<br /><div>All of my great grandparents except Jacob Auler were born in Germany (and Jacob's parents were born there). Yes, I'm one of those rare Americans who is not a blend of cultures from 'The Melting Pot'. I'm of 100% German ethnicity. Furthermore, all of these German great grandparents except Anna Marie Wetzel left the home country and settled in the vicinity of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. My grandpa Bill Wetzel immigrated from Germany too, and also settled near Milwaukee. So, all my roots are firmly planted in the rich soil of a few counties in southeastern Wisconsin.</div><div><br /></div>
<br /><b>
E.</b> 2nd GREAT-GRANDPARENTS (14 of 16)<br />
<br />
14. Julius Friedrich Wetzel (1840- ) – See 28. and 29.<br />
15. Caroline Wilhelmine Luise Goetsch (1833- ) – See 30. and 31.<br />
16. Christian Ehrenfried “Fritz” Uber (1821-1888) – See 32. and 33.<br />
17. Johanna Juliana Beate Burkhardt (1822-1884) – See 34. and 35.<br />
18. Johann Friedrich Gustav Bützow (1801-1902) – See 36. and 37.<br />
19. Sophia Dorothea Wendt (1812-1893) – See 38. and 39.<br />
20. Mathias Auler (1821-1903)<br />
21. Maria Eva Bauer (1821-1893)<br />
22. Carl Ludwig Schmidt (1848-1933) – See 40. and 41.<br />
23. Johanna Theresa Bahr (1849-1941) – See 42. and 43.<br />
24. Wilhelm Uecke (1834-1909) – See 44. and 45.<br />
25. Caroline Dahms (1835-1916)<br />
26. Christian Joachim Hartwig Baumann (1834-1907) – See 46. and 47.<br />
27. Christina Maria Sophia Lühnburg (1843-1905) – See 48. and 49.<br />
<br /><br /><b>
F.</b> 3rd GREAT-GRANDPARENTS (22 of 32)<br /><br />
28. Georg Samuel Wetzel (1800- ) – See 50.<br />
29. Dorothee Louise Henriette Charlotte Seefeld – See 51.<br />
30. Johann Friedrich Goetsch<br />
31. Christine Sophie nee Goetsch<br />
32. Johann Siegismund Uber, Jr. (1795-1853) – See 52.<br />
33. Marie Anna Rosina Tham (1800-1879) – See 53.<br />
34. Johann Christian Burkhardt (1795-1852) – See 54.<div>35. Johanne Eleonore Manchen (1797-1850)<br />
36. Ludwig Köhn Hans Joachim Bützow (1763-1847) – See 55. and 56.<br />
37. Maria Elisabeth Jalass (1764-1842) – See 57. and 58.<br />
38. Johann Carl Wendt (1785-1854) – Father named only as ‘arbeiter Wendt’.<br />
39. Anna Maria Dorothea Bölckow (1787-1825) – See 59. and 60.<br />
40. <a href="https://www.pjwetzel.com/2023/12/how-colonist-john-smith-changed-his.html" target="_blank">Johann Schmidt (1808-1895)</a> See 61. and 62.<br />
41. <a href="https://www.pjwetzel.com/2023/12/how-colonist-john-smith-changed-his.html" target="_blank">Louise Behnke (1821-1901)</a> See 63. and 64.<br />
42. Friedrich Bahr<br />
43. Carolina Zastrow<br />
44. Johann Uecke<br />
45. Dorothea Wagner<br />
46. Hans Joachim Baumann (1781-1865) – See 65. and 66.<br />
47. Sophia Dorothea Luise Roseland (1789- ) – See 67. and 68.<br />
48. Christoph Adam Lühnburg (1813- ) – See 69. and 70. – two known siblings.<br />
49. Sophia Dorothea Kölzow (1807- ) – See 71. and 72. – four known siblings.<br />
<br /><br /><b>
G.</b> 4th GREAT-GRANDPARENTS (23 of 64)<br />
<br />
50. Johann Wetzel (1772- )<br />
51. Ernst Gottlieb Seefeld (1763-1829)<br />
52. Johann Siegismund Uber, Sr. ( -1804)<br />
53. Johann Friedrich Tham</div><div>54. Johanne Dorothea Binner (1768-1851)<br />
55. Christopher Bützow (1740-1771) – See 73.<br />
56. Elisabeth Anna Gresmann (1735-1816) – See 74.<br />
57. Casten Jacob Jalass (1737-1794) – See 75. and 76.<br />
58. Eva Catharina Wiese (1729-1804) – See 77. and 78.<br />
59. Jacob Bölckow (1751-1821)<br />
60. Sophia Maria Schumacher (1756-1830) – See 79. and 80.<br />61. Daniel Schmidt (abt 1777-1857) <br />
62. Marie Tesmer (1783-1865) – see 81. and 82. <br />
63. Martin Behnke <br />
64. Eva Rosina Tham (not to be confused with 33.) <br />
65. Jochim Heinrich Baumann (1736- ) – See 83. and 84.<br />
66. Catharina Elisabeth Bibau (1749- ) – See 85. and 86.<br />
67. David Christoph Roseland (1772-1834) – See 87. and 88.<br />
68. Eva Liesch Rath (1771- ) – See 89. and 90.<br />
69. Johann Christian Lüneburg (1769- ) – See 91. and 92.<br />
70. Clara Ida Stapelman (1774-1843) – See 93. and 94.<br />
71. Georg Gideon Friedrich Kölzow (1772- )<br />
72. Anna Maria Magdalena Blohm (1777-1836) – See 95. and 96. – two known siblings.<br />
<div>
<br /><b>H.</b> 5th GREAT-GRANDPARENTS (24 of 128)<br />
<br />
73. Jürgen Hinrich Bützow (1706-1783) – See 97. and 98.<br />
74. Christian Gresmann<br />
75. Jochim Jalass (1693- ) – See 99. and 100.<br />
76. Maria Fastenau (1696- )<br />
77. Johann Hinrich Wiese (1676-1757) – See 101. and 102.<br />
78. Eva Catharina Hildebrand (1693-1780) – See 103. and 104.<br />
79. Johann Hinnerich Schumacher (1726-1799)<br />
80. n.n. Schippenhaner (or Schippenhauer)<br />
81. George Tesmer <br />
82. Christina Strehlow <br />
83. Hinrich Bauman – See 105. and 106.<br />
84. Greth Bibou – See 107. <br />
85. Jochim Bibau (1720- ) – See 108. and 100. <br />
86. Greth Baumann (1722- ) – See 110. and 111.<br />
87. Joachim Friedrich Roselandt<br />
88. Agneta Sophia Fohten<br />
89. David Christopher Rath – See 112. and 113.<br />90. Anna Margarethe Meÿer – See 114. and 115.<br />
91. Adam Lüneburg<br />
92. Sophia Christina Vogt<br />
93. Christian Stapelman<br />
94. Ilsch Dorthie Haacker<br />
95. Hartwig Albrecht Blohm (~1740-1800) – See 116. <br />
96. Sophie Elisabeth Wendland (~1745-1803) – See 117. <br />
</div><div>
<br /><b>I.</b> 6th GREAT-GRANDPARENTS (21 of 256)<br />
<br />
97. Hans Jacob Bützow (1678-1723)<br />
98. Ilse Claßin (1685- ) – See 118. and 119.<br />
99. Hanß Jalaß<br />
100. Ilse Groden – See 120.<br />
101. Jochim Wiese<br />
102. Catharina Jeßen (1631-1697)<br />
103. Barthold Hildebrand (1664-1731)<br />
104. Anna Elisabeth Nieman (1678-1755) – See 121.<br />
105. Casten Bauman (also no. 110. – appears twice)<br />
106. Dorothea Platow (1677-1713)<br />
107. Hans Bibou <br />
108. Drefs Bibau<br />
109. Maria Trensen – See 122.<br />
110. Casten Bauman (also no. 105. – appears twice)<br />
111. Gret Rötgers – See 123.<br />
112. Johann Rath<br />
113. Lucie Stapelmann<br />
114. Heinrich Meÿer<br />
115. Fieck Schilling<br />
116. Jochim Hinrich Blohm<br />
117. Christoph Wendland<br />
</div><div>
<br /><b>J.</b> 7th GREAT-GRANDPARENTS (6 of 512)<br />
<br />
118. Lorenz Claßin ( -1684)<br />
119. Maria Groten ( -1721)<br />
120. Jochim Groten<br />
121. Jochim Nieman<br />
122. Jochim Trensen<br />
123. Johann Rötgers<br />
<br /><br /><b>
K.</b> 8th GREAT-GRANDPARENTS (0 of 1024)<br />
<br /><br />
</div><div>And that is it. Unlike my children, whose ancestry I can trace through their mother <a href="https://www.pjwetzel.com/p/genealogy-beginning-to-end.html" target="_blank">back to Kings of England and pre-medieval times</a>, the German common people, who were my ancestors, maintained no systematic records until the churches in every town and hamlet were ordered by the government to start keeping records in the early 1600's in most places.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div></div>PJ Wetzelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09159310088762048964noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8664985451081296668.post-84246455355897567942023-11-28T17:06:00.000-08:002023-11-28T17:56:45.762-08:00Harvard Physics Professor shatters Women's speed record running across America<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKnRSog8ciVsgYGLH1ZUkQ0KSMdN3MIQYJRWSARHOcHnch2f5ZzATSTgbhiXOt1jvu6RhUOlzYnOStKAr0sSXdkRH4f1_QUbpAhDt47nltMmaRnxYy4nyZ6E1N1D0nx68F8_pdGCzY_7V-OdPSl-4KeaxhFkmXLpBEtUdiOK2Mxmc9asyQ_CeCjewacVjV/s1529/0%20Jenny%20Hoffman%20Outside%20Magazine%20Article.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1308" data-original-width="1529" height="343" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKnRSog8ciVsgYGLH1ZUkQ0KSMdN3MIQYJRWSARHOcHnch2f5ZzATSTgbhiXOt1jvu6RhUOlzYnOStKAr0sSXdkRH4f1_QUbpAhDt47nltMmaRnxYy4nyZ6E1N1D0nx68F8_pdGCzY_7V-OdPSl-4KeaxhFkmXLpBEtUdiOK2Mxmc9asyQ_CeCjewacVjV/w400-h343/0%20Jenny%20Hoffman%20Outside%20Magazine%20Article.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Screen shot of the <a href="https://www.outsideonline.com/running/news/people/jenny-hoffman-san-francisco-new-york-fastest-known-time?scope=anon" target="_blank">Outside Magazine article</a> published Nov. 21, 2023.</td></tr></tbody></table> <p></p><p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jenny_Hoffman" target="_blank">Jenny Hoffman</a> is an over-achiever. She's both a record setting ultra-marathon runner and an award-winning PhD professor of Physics at Harvard. She <a href="https://hoffman.physics.harvard.edu/runjennyrun/" target="_blank">just completed</a> a certified <a href="https://fastestknowntime.com/fkt/jenny-hoffman-trans-america-run-usa-2023-11-02" target="_blank">Fastest Known Time transit of the US</a> via the same route that <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pete_Kostelnick" target="_blank">Pete Kostelnick</a> ran in 2016. Here's a <a href="https://www.outsideonline.com/running/brief-history-run-across-america/" target="_blank">link to the Outside Magazine article covering Pete's record, written by the same author as above (Martin Fritz Huber)</a>.</p><p>Jenny has unwittingly managed to combine two of my core interests—quantum physics and traveling continuous long distances on foot, and this post is as much about her accomplishment as it is about her reaction to it vis-a-vis her Physics career. In an <a href="https://pubs.aip.org/physicstoday/online/42906" target="_blank">online Physics Today article</a> covering the achievement, she offers the following quote:</p><blockquote><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><b>“Running is a good balance for physics,” says Hoffman, who got into running in seventh grade and into ultrarunning—covering distances longer than marathons—when she was a graduate student at the University of California, Berkeley. In physics, she explains, luck plays a large role in success and failure: “Does your cryostat leak?” for example. In running, she says, <span style="background-color: #fcff01;">“there is more correlation between hard work and success.</span> The numbers are what they are. You finish in a certain time. And there is no anonymous peer reviewer who will undermine that. It’s good for my mental health to have a pursuit that is <span style="background-color: #fcff01;">more clearly merit based and fact based</span>.”</b></span><br /></p></blockquote><p>This floored me, and it bears repeating: Traveling on foot is more Merit-based and Fact-based than the study of Physics.</p><p>The scientific process that establishes 'facts' is indeed a pretty tortuous one. I know this first-hand from my own 25-year <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=peter+j.+wetzel+nasa" target="_blank">career at NASA</a> writing and publishing peer-reviewed papers for scientific journals. Traveling on foot is just simple, pure, raw, and easy to prove. The FKT certification of Jenny's run required her to provide a GPS track, some photos and other documentation, but the GPS track is by far the most important. Anything can be faked, but, as Jenny says in the Outside Magazine article:</p><blockquote><p><b style="font-family: georgia; font-size: x-large;">“</b><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><b>FKT.com just asks for the specific GPX files and, frankly, I think that’s the strongest evidence you can have. Guinness imposes these additional requirements, like written witness statements. I got them all, but that would be really easy to fake. Just make up some names. Guinness also requires ten minutes of video every day. Again, that’s easy to fake: I could video myself leaving the RV, get ten minutes of video, and then sleep in the RV all day. So I don’t think that those additional requirements actually add anything to the evidence.”</b></span></p></blockquote><p>GPS tracks can be faked, too. But it's a helluva lot of work to fake GPS-tagged photos if they are regularly taken and also contain visual cues about the location, and personal daily accounts posted in real time. I have <a href="https://fastestknowntime.com/fkt/peter-wetzel-appalachian-trail-2012-11-03" target="_blank">my own certified FKT record</a> for my double thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail, which combined GPS tracks and tagged photos with daily posts on this blog. Jenny went the extra mile and also carried a live tracking device and is jumping through all those hoops that are required to establish her feat as a Guinness World Record. </p><p>Peer review in the world of Science goes far beyond what Guinness requires for a world record. Yes, the system can be flawed, and fake science results sometimes get published. But over the long term, such frauds are almost always caught. The review process is the best method humanity has come up with to establish what we call 'facts' or 'truth'. ***And yet ... </p><p>Here on this blog, I have been discussing Physics topics at great length, many in the same field (the bizarre world of quantum mechanics) that Jenny works in, and I try to take pains to identify what I believe can be tested through experiment and ultimately peer reviewed and published. ***But ... the amazing thing about Quantum Physics and the frontiers of modern science and mathematics these days is that <b>there is a fundamental blur at the end of the scientific and logical process.</b> Facts and Truth, it turns out, do not stand on a firm foundation that we can call 'Reality'. Rather, our own experience plays a critical role. Even Einstein, late in his life (in an article he wrote for the April 1950 issue of Scientific American [Vol. 182, no. 4, page 17]) has confirmed this:</p><blockquote><b style="font-family: georgia; font-size: x-large;">“</b><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><b>Experience alone can decide on truth.</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia; font-size: x-large;">”</b></blockquote><p>This utterly fascinates me, and I've spent a lot of time exploring this. I do not go those further steps to do the proposed experiments or to submit papers for peer review. I'm simply having fun in my retirement years with the <i>Philosophy</i> of the <a href="https://www.pjwetzel.com/p/fit-wilderness.html" target="_blank">origins of or universe</a> and of <a href="https://www.pjwetzel.com/2013/11/of-paradox-huxleys-islet.html" target="_blank">reality in general</a>.</p><p>So ... I'm posting this remarkable news about Jenny breaking the women's record by more than a week over the previous record-holder's time as much because I dream of achieving such epic feats myself, but because her life resonates with me in a much bigger-picture sense. I wonder if she ever dabbles in Genealogy. She has three children, and obviously a remarkable genome. What I can attempt to prove (the free <a href="https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Wetzel-777" target="_blank">WikiTree web site</a> is especially good for this) is whether there is a provable connection between Jenny and me, and if so, how many degrees of separation. I bet there is. We are, in the end, all related.</p><p>Genealogy requires no specialized degree or peer review, but there's plenty of rigorous research, even science, at the root of good quality Genealogical work. Because of its intrinsic factual basis, yet also because it touches on the origins of reality itself (the origin of life), Genealogy is the third of my recent trifecta (or Triathlon) of active interests.</p><p>Ultimately this post is to serve notice that nearly all blog posts coming from me from now on are likely to focus on one of these three topics: The philosophy-science interface, Family roots and the origin of life, and long-distance travel on foot. All three are worthwhile journeys and I envision each of them as a heroic quest. I hope you'll follow along.</p>PJ Wetzelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09159310088762048964noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8664985451081296668.post-64812743257654500342023-11-18T07:07:00.000-08:002023-11-22T11:53:37.086-08:00Fall 2023 in pictures and videos<p> </p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicMf_jKl5anjL6Qv_XeWbc2GMF3d2UuoY1ALynabV7lbdv8cqdxwCXOiwe4yo5XoOz7r4pc6rdNWK8Ha05rMEP8xgAqm50xnMe-HA3OfIOt9f4R_V90uc-mItNorfnkuVIMCg_o1I0XRnKjqYtNLmyx6HOcsanZzypLwyPgagnN23l4kEHN0NVEtW6z3h2/s1918/a%201%20Sunrise%20Nov%208th%20IMG_6320_edited.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1199" data-original-width="1918" height="250" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicMf_jKl5anjL6Qv_XeWbc2GMF3d2UuoY1ALynabV7lbdv8cqdxwCXOiwe4yo5XoOz7r4pc6rdNWK8Ha05rMEP8xgAqm50xnMe-HA3OfIOt9f4R_V90uc-mItNorfnkuVIMCg_o1I0XRnKjqYtNLmyx6HOcsanZzypLwyPgagnN23l4kEHN0NVEtW6z3h2/w400-h250/a%201%20Sunrise%20Nov%208th%20IMG_6320_edited.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>The most bizarre sunrise of my life, complete with sunspot (look in the upper part of the haze band, right of center).</i></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">My 75th birthday has come and gone. 2023 has been an eventful year. As I've posted, I published my long-delayed AT memoir in April, and then my long-standing mega-novel in August. Between those two projects I traveled to New England, where I spent a month and a half hiking, including touching base with the New England National Scenic Trail and extending my personal continuous footpath to the state of Rhode Island (connecting my 27th of the 50 US continental 'states' [counting DC]).</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhj96CfxH-8CqLeJLWMl7xmStUEYkKn4Bwj3cVRjsf2eqhP6SFVdclBrwQl80z29iVFIbdOcBslE6_1uqBKh1yVdnv0J5sIPA2Xpui5Ii-zW5Lk5Jr5BzgSoDkbS5Z9wnt3wHg9ClWMcY05LDq7CkSYqNh89NjlaZ-6lrR2uZUWuPpOuLwh4A_dSEQ6PBJU/s5184/a%2092%20Me%20in%20R.I.%20Tricorner%20Trail.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3888" data-original-width="5184" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhj96CfxH-8CqLeJLWMl7xmStUEYkKn4Bwj3cVRjsf2eqhP6SFVdclBrwQl80z29iVFIbdOcBslE6_1uqBKh1yVdnv0J5sIPA2Xpui5Ii-zW5Lk5Jr5BzgSoDkbS5Z9wnt3wHg9ClWMcY05LDq7CkSYqNh89NjlaZ-6lrR2uZUWuPpOuLwh4A_dSEQ6PBJU/s320/a%2092%20Me%20in%20R.I.%20Tricorner%20Trail.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p>I also had the distinct privilege of helping the Dartmouth Outing Club maintainers repaint the summit sign on top of Mount Moosilauke.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxS5JILX4qBVy5-PRt-WkLLquVBqPJZybDpyIvf7D3Xoc-S3ittMntTNKl9rZVQ5CzNanf1g3jbXQskCFXchoNA-_nP8idSBQlhbafdry6PTZq9ef5ogjEiYYxAXycNXh8kVrw9DKIzQizkLIPjOl1Lc89o8y0OoMGCWGkD5h1MawH8ZgU2jpH6HDIPCPs/s3888/a%2015%20ORNG%20Man%20does%20his%20job%20IMG_5996%20Cropped.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2460" data-original-width="3888" height="202" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxS5JILX4qBVy5-PRt-WkLLquVBqPJZybDpyIvf7D3Xoc-S3ittMntTNKl9rZVQ5CzNanf1g3jbXQskCFXchoNA-_nP8idSBQlhbafdry6PTZq9ef5ogjEiYYxAXycNXh8kVrw9DKIzQizkLIPjOl1Lc89o8y0OoMGCWGkD5h1MawH8ZgU2jpH6HDIPCPs/s320/a%2015%20ORNG%20Man%20does%20his%20job%20IMG_5996%20Cropped.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><p>I even got a stripe of orange paint on my hiking stick as a 'souvenir'. Here's the video I posted at the time:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/L1lCzAeLTx4" width="470" youtube-src-id="L1lCzAeLTx4"></iframe></div><p style="text-align: justify;">Since July, I've mostly been sticking close to home enjoying the sunrises and fall color. The bizarre sunrise shown in the headline photo ought to be made into a video. I took a couple dozen photos as it evolved. It happened on November 8th, and not only provided an amazing distortion, caused by multiple stable layers in the atmosphere, but it was also the first time I've 'seen' a sunspot (with the aid of my 40x Canon Power Shot point and shoot camera). Here's a look at a later image, with the sunspot very apparent, having moved above the haze layer:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_oE5crZoM914OROjSIZeehOttgS7WZ5Iy-UV4xR5BuhyphenhyphenH0Kg60hv2IHIKIv7cOeGkeYuCPgJQekOFEod9-9ijRefg9IyGYZw7bCNgiY5NcdAVwqFwPTt7_3G0ltzyZqmJ53odcpNmpW9nGnDudx2Ss87LFkbPLrib2CsHe3Si1B2PynoEnmDpbX-SvvNu/s1723/a%202%20Sunspot%20area%20no.%203477%20Nov%208th%20IMG_6329_edited.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1723" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_oE5crZoM914OROjSIZeehOttgS7WZ5Iy-UV4xR5BuhyphenhyphenH0Kg60hv2IHIKIv7cOeGkeYuCPgJQekOFEod9-9ijRefg9IyGYZw7bCNgiY5NcdAVwqFwPTt7_3G0ltzyZqmJ53odcpNmpW9nGnDudx2Ss87LFkbPLrib2CsHe3Si1B2PynoEnmDpbX-SvvNu/s320/a%202%20Sunspot%20area%20no.%203477%20Nov%208th%20IMG_6329_edited.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The sunspot was a big one, at least twice the size of our whole planet Earth. When I noticed the spot on the images, I went to the internet to check. Real time sunspot data comes from <a href="https://soho.nascom.nasa.gov/sunspots/" target="_blank">NASA's SOHO (Solar and Heliospheric Observatory) satellite</a>. At that site, you can customize a video of this huge sunspot moving left to right - at least until the Nov 8-9, 2023 data are taken off the site and archived. Here's the procedure:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><ol><li>Go to the <a href="https://soho.nascom.nasa.gov/data/Theater/" target="_blank">SOHO Movie Theater link</a>.</li><li>In the 'Image' menu box, select "hmiigr"</li><li>'Resolution' 512 or 1024, take your pick.</li><li>Click on 'Dates' and a drop-down calendar appears. Click first on November 8, 2023, then click again on November 9, 2023. That fills the form with the start and end dates.</li><li>Click 'Generate' and the first of the images in the sequence appears.</li><li>Beneath the image click the 'Play' button and the animation scrolls repeatedly. Customize as you wish.</li></ol></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The 'authorities' give each sunspot a number. This one was number 3477, and here's SpaceWeatherLive.com's image with each sunspot annotated with its number. I've rotated the image to appear as the sun appeared in my photos taken at about 40 degrees north latitude (i.e., with the north pole at the 10:20 o'clock position.)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzZG36zArjdIfTWNIOwvJUAndhzUBFeVq5K7hXVZmfij-JzGTCjBweEQ-hDfCRTJ_T-kUH_eJCopmh0yaZEdIbZmeTw-EWU2y7Cg8trxiEB2t7elW_sRLDl2XgI0HnYFPYvkL3s1C1kYJe4tkuh4wn1-eTAdh88mk3gc5bec7SaARV262D9Se0CkRjHBp3/s620/a%202%20Sunspot%20image%20from%20NASA%20Nov%208th%20at%208AM%20SDO_HMIIF_512%20with%20borders_rotated.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="618" data-original-width="620" height="319" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzZG36zArjdIfTWNIOwvJUAndhzUBFeVq5K7hXVZmfij-JzGTCjBweEQ-hDfCRTJ_T-kUH_eJCopmh0yaZEdIbZmeTw-EWU2y7Cg8trxiEB2t7elW_sRLDl2XgI0HnYFPYvkL3s1C1kYJe4tkuh4wn1-eTAdh88mk3gc5bec7SaARV262D9Se0CkRjHBp3/s320/a%202%20Sunspot%20image%20from%20NASA%20Nov%208th%20at%208AM%20SDO_HMIIF_512%20with%20borders_rotated.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The venue where I witnessed this exotic sunrise is the same one where, on the exact date of my birthday, I was treated to this spectacular display--one of the most outstanding sunrises of my life:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgD0qV7if2EeDk7iIvGxxGKy7ZE1dOZtRZxRlSce2fF0_MAatyIp7USEtUF0l7bJRuQ36_1bjvpJlgrHFRRLdIScZiZSOSaaE-cYvHj61dmm4mwj1WCEgwJIAZA7y2T0npu8jJd97ouJeHoI-AteRIenHfVKKjYjTtNhBVNsTum4fn-QNeJZh5p4DzoPjuZ/s5184/a%203%20Birthday%20SUnrise%20Oct%2029th%20IMG_6231_edited.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3888" data-original-width="5184" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgD0qV7if2EeDk7iIvGxxGKy7ZE1dOZtRZxRlSce2fF0_MAatyIp7USEtUF0l7bJRuQ36_1bjvpJlgrHFRRLdIScZiZSOSaaE-cYvHj61dmm4mwj1WCEgwJIAZA7y2T0npu8jJd97ouJeHoI-AteRIenHfVKKjYjTtNhBVNsTum4fn-QNeJZh5p4DzoPjuZ/w400-h300/a%203%20Birthday%20SUnrise%20Oct%2029th%20IMG_6231_edited.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div>It truly was a special day. Here are the two videos I took this day, no editing, just raw:</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/_jdYNOW4AfA" width="470" youtube-src-id="_jdYNOW4AfA"></iframe></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/RSsm9KnyGoU" width="470" youtube-src-id="RSsm9KnyGoU"></iframe></div><br /><div>And as reported in the second video, I had just learned a few days earlier that I was going to be a grandpa for the first time (assuming I live until June 2024.)</div><div><br /></div><div>At my age, I make no such assumptions. Just look at this:</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjeT6LeRkW8elB2GyAM2jRblFxKBx60J4k7_PSO2cqHIjtBQNzsq2YeTiUYR0fj9XwLf8lk-xBo1k_6KKAGuD-51F5AK-7D7VnTtIWyu2DKSvgQQaSkMEYKnmzncFTH2y4_oRPp2FeQ31do3dIopJSz1IXSOF5kiUlZpSlyAQRXaQa74CONLp16IgvGrmg/s2552/a%209%20black%20eye%20Nov%2013%20IMG_6395_edited.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2552" data-original-width="2268" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjeT6LeRkW8elB2GyAM2jRblFxKBx60J4k7_PSO2cqHIjtBQNzsq2YeTiUYR0fj9XwLf8lk-xBo1k_6KKAGuD-51F5AK-7D7VnTtIWyu2DKSvgQQaSkMEYKnmzncFTH2y4_oRPp2FeQ31do3dIopJSz1IXSOF5kiUlZpSlyAQRXaQa74CONLp16IgvGrmg/s320/a%209%20black%20eye%20Nov%2013%20IMG_6395_edited.jpg" width="284" /></a></div><br /><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Falling (tripping, stumbling, losing my balance, etc.) has become an increasing part of my 'repertoire'. This recent fall with face-plant on the ground gave me the honor of the first full black eye I've ever had. It looks a lot worse than it feels. But I've always said, with the miles of hiking I do on rugged rocky trails, and especially this time of year with the new-fallen leaves obscuring treacherous 'holes' and obstacles, that the way I will eventually die is by falling and cracking my head open on a rock.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The new <a href="https://www.ssa.gov/oact/STATS/table4c6.html" target="_blank">Social Security Actuarial Life Tables</a> tell the story. We 75-year-old men are a dying breed. And it is getting worse. Covid has accelerated the process. I thought I'd compose a little 'doomsday' message to myself, compiled from the stats on that site, just for fun:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0kZGwSvj_U7XtLib5KQdmlgxb2y9pkykBeGsJo4B4srKK5quZYw_AR5vhhcsug7rGBonbZmoHD7Y41LvnDxaCXgtnzvm9y0VllGlVmFiYTpPUY2qw_YX92fc4E0g4zKXtEjCHfDV3hMChPxnX2rJ39D6CNbGJR9xfo8pntqbLG-vybea5GvjfMnxF6LXR/s1055/a%2015%20We%20are%20a%20dying%20breed..jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="565" data-original-width="1055" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0kZGwSvj_U7XtLib5KQdmlgxb2y9pkykBeGsJo4B4srKK5quZYw_AR5vhhcsug7rGBonbZmoHD7Y41LvnDxaCXgtnzvm9y0VllGlVmFiYTpPUY2qw_YX92fc4E0g4zKXtEjCHfDV3hMChPxnX2rJ39D6CNbGJR9xfo8pntqbLG-vybea5GvjfMnxF6LXR/w400-h214/a%2015%20We%20are%20a%20dying%20breed..jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But on a happier note, speaking of the new-fallen leaves. The display here on the Blue Ridge of Virginia did not disappoint, as can be seen in the videos. Color is all but gone now, as of the date of this post (which is the first day of firearms deer-hunting season). Yesterday I went out and cherry-picked some of the last of the best:</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdJt9TNtqwE8xhmW2T5jRKyNB6bejP1mFX-C-pLc9pZz59nE3x2gM0aom9iW2VhoGqRsxlBaBpH5EuBvVrA2YkYBraVlHG9O1yjHvwCfEYYQfneOU2yVz0i1g2pMFJQaJyS3US7qGVEFFg77gF1TbGi8r62cUu0imnt1wj-0fKaev_2hGudXG2syiqaaDC/s5184/a%2011%20last%20of%20the%20leaf%20color,%20Nov%2017th.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3888" data-original-width="5184" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdJt9TNtqwE8xhmW2T5jRKyNB6bejP1mFX-C-pLc9pZz59nE3x2gM0aom9iW2VhoGqRsxlBaBpH5EuBvVrA2YkYBraVlHG9O1yjHvwCfEYYQfneOU2yVz0i1g2pMFJQaJyS3US7qGVEFFg77gF1TbGi8r62cUu0imnt1wj-0fKaev_2hGudXG2syiqaaDC/s320/a%2011%20last%20of%20the%20leaf%20color,%20Nov%2017th.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5-Ga_mNMpl6DAeHwZ9zn8hbXZo3gb2xO4jdYIUkxFnAgA1mtkpTZsS7AWinGj8qgCdNySXU3JqczJQ90rmaeYE0AB6VrzQCGvJ6A_I9nJFfbMIJc_DmO2lnRCyv8keiDa1QmSx1fhKftUdu1PQslSJlEEqaun_gIeirskk_ID9_I6GHy2Hb4JISlEQ686/s3132/a%2012%20aster,%20acorn%20shell%20and%20red%20maple%20leaf,%20Nov%2017th_edited.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2710" data-original-width="3132" height="277" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5-Ga_mNMpl6DAeHwZ9zn8hbXZo3gb2xO4jdYIUkxFnAgA1mtkpTZsS7AWinGj8qgCdNySXU3JqczJQ90rmaeYE0AB6VrzQCGvJ6A_I9nJFfbMIJc_DmO2lnRCyv8keiDa1QmSx1fhKftUdu1PQslSJlEEqaun_gIeirskk_ID9_I6GHy2Hb4JISlEQ686/s320/a%2012%20aster,%20acorn%20shell%20and%20red%20maple%20leaf,%20Nov%2017th_edited.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Still life with purple wood aster and acorn shell on red maple leaf</i></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">And finally, I did do one walk that didn't feature autumn leaves or rocky trail. It was a walk on water; and <a href="https://www.pjwetzel.com/2016/12/walking-on-water-chesapeake-bay-bridge.html" target="_blank">I've done it once before.</a> </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyYbwHoDLKU1-wbp0SvSoaFoEgRU3xtpNVAM3sh4V1ftR7OQh3q8wgF7mMwZ-VHbyyJ4Sd_oM1VhGsqZkQYgefmK0T3GS-p-gChQvNKhab4-VB6Odboy4N2vbLUBi5TPVknAomh05bXq4DW1yI5xW-B5Pt2d9q8t0Rghg-XOicSKgFvFFbZX6bpYkB0SUV/s5184/a%206%20bay%20bridge%20run%20Nov%2012%20IMG_6352.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3888" data-original-width="5184" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyYbwHoDLKU1-wbp0SvSoaFoEgRU3xtpNVAM3sh4V1ftR7OQh3q8wgF7mMwZ-VHbyyJ4Sd_oM1VhGsqZkQYgefmK0T3GS-p-gChQvNKhab4-VB6Odboy4N2vbLUBi5TPVknAomh05bXq4DW1yI5xW-B5Pt2d9q8t0Rghg-XOicSKgFvFFbZX6bpYkB0SUV/s320/a%206%20bay%20bridge%20run%20Nov%2012%20IMG_6352.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgF_BfwbUK-dVJWwQ3qrsHEs5HvsiQ7bg1e2mCR1CnVPehgHmVbn493qRcnFoEMg0pmWp0N5YLykZjKyqXbYg4yQCFbMVFdesjle1QB2bMdSmlca-g4MxPWTvFpCw7Ab9Sc7gAX9NrzLr_5IAG5TxtbjodL6T65KGxjSqqsPH63pmdFzkqkO-scsd-zyX7o/s5184/IMG_6344.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3888" data-original-width="5184" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgF_BfwbUK-dVJWwQ3qrsHEs5HvsiQ7bg1e2mCR1CnVPehgHmVbn493qRcnFoEMg0pmWp0N5YLykZjKyqXbYg4yQCFbMVFdesjle1QB2bMdSmlca-g4MxPWTvFpCw7Ab9Sc7gAX9NrzLr_5IAG5TxtbjodL6T65KGxjSqqsPH63pmdFzkqkO-scsd-zyX7o/s320/IMG_6344.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Love that Chesapeake <a href="https://www.thebaybridgerun.com/" target="_blank">Bay Bridge 10K run</a>. It's the one day of the year when the American Discovery Trail can be walked between Annapolis, MD and Maryland's Eastern Shore. In my new 75-79 age group, I finished 20th. And there were 15,503 finishers (in all age groups combined). It was a chilly day, and the hassle of waiting in line for transportation to the start and from the finish diminishes the experience. But I will probably come back next year and try to beat my time. Or maybe I'll be walking it with my new grandchild. Never too soon to start the hiking life!</div><div><br /><p><br /></p></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br />PJ Wetzelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09159310088762048964noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8664985451081296668.post-37649816667701540832023-09-13T08:13:00.004-07:002023-09-20T04:13:20.893-07:00The story behind Eden's Womb novel, just released on Amazon.<iframe frameborder="0" height="270" src="https://youtube.com/embed/VcjenKcFFO4?si=egZgo9CC5ypalFOu" width="480"></iframe><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Edens-Womb-P-J-Wetzel-ebook/dp/B0CGWY4WX3">Amazon.com: Eden's Womb eBook : Wetzel, P.J.: Kindle Store</a></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>
There are many ways to tell a story. Oral traditions are the oldest and still the best--with the listener an integral part of the experience, and acting as the 'recording device'. Modern story telling has taken full advantage of advances in technology, to the point of Virtual Reality and the interactive experiences of Video games, particularly the role-playing ones where the player participates in creating the story. The leap to the real world, and the stories we tell ourselves and others is not a big one. Think of politicians and religious leaders as your 'Dungeon Masters' vying for your confidence in their ability to define and oversee your reality to greater or lesser degree.
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The novel, Eden's Womb, is written as a transcription of the 'ultimate' story, told to mankind by the wisest, most ancient and advanced alien beings in our universe. And it's not what you think. This is hard sci-fi, taking advantage of everything we know about physics and extrapolating it into speculative realms that adhere to the rule that they have been shown to be possible (and what is possible HAS happened somewhere at some time).
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At the same time, Eden's Womb is just a fun and rousing tale of an epic quest to save the world. The protagonist, Adam Timberfell, is sent on this quest by a newly arrived 'spirit being' who is no supernatural entity, but the physical embodiment of the universe itself. Adam's travels bring him to discover the nature of this hidden physics and science as he also encounters the unexpected purpose behind his world--our reality. These highly advanced aliens are actually in charge.
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The story is long - 55 to 60 years in the making. Much more on the background and philosophy underlying the story is compiled <a href="https://www.pjwetzel.com/2015/02/edens-womb-notes-and-background.html" target="_blank">at this link</a>. The entire 650,000 words can be purchased as a single fine-print book of 780 pages, or as an eBook, see link above. The <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Edens-Womb-P-J-Wetzel-ebook/dp/B0CGWY4WX3?asin=B0CGWY4WX3&revisionId=d701fc45&format=1&depth=1" target="_blank">'read sample' button</a> on the eBook sales page provides a very generous preview--almost all of Book One! Please have a look.<br /><br />
Each of the seven individual titles can also be purchased separately in larger print. Below are the covers, first the front and back of the full 780-page novel in one volume, then the seven separate titles. Each have links to the Amazon.com (US) sales page.<div><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9i0bpvV7JyVPvJFVoOozHeEtrkzcXBeuza_RnleyiFDAUo7-3prwQ9mrtuoi8WT-WJXzSMDSUpw4-nWdn0ugVTVB7rnSzb8wvesj7ytRDRJeS9OQWRh1CeplqisZ4LGeXn-HU1Cs7YtTcx2ypuReiRWwK2zIne816Q8LqUEUWtZ3WqQDzCHXma2gy30qn/s5544/00000%200%200%200%20000%200%200%200%200%20Front%20Cover%20paperback,%20780%20pages%20CORRECTED.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="5544" data-original-width="3688" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9i0bpvV7JyVPvJFVoOozHeEtrkzcXBeuza_RnleyiFDAUo7-3prwQ9mrtuoi8WT-WJXzSMDSUpw4-nWdn0ugVTVB7rnSzb8wvesj7ytRDRJeS9OQWRh1CeplqisZ4LGeXn-HU1Cs7YtTcx2ypuReiRWwK2zIne816Q8LqUEUWtZ3WqQDzCHXma2gy30qn/w266-h400/00000%200%200%200%20000%200%200%200%200%20Front%20Cover%20paperback,%20780%20pages%20CORRECTED.jpg" width="266" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Edens-Womb-P-J-Wetzel/dp/B0CHKTDZQ5">Eden's Womb: Wetzel, P.J.: 9798860581210: Amazon.com: Books</a></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div><br /></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpkJCYCwoXeiMoCeGgF7B6UiPu_v21KXFq1MCmFx74dZCNnCKIHyL9NsrgI-Q7TYrMHkw9yMGVpz2aO292YNNfdLukSAwCA6Lm5eiM5GdOEoRpaHXAqHJyhdCAMdnG2bJZrZsBE8AcVz3FU5Y26MtGHtdYYLoGQUeSiQFIWIyynLGOWcsqRHnOpvyRXD4C/s5528/00000%200%200%200%20000%200%200%200%200%20BACK%20Cover%20paperback,%20780%20pages%20CORRECTED.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="5528" data-original-width="3678" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpkJCYCwoXeiMoCeGgF7B6UiPu_v21KXFq1MCmFx74dZCNnCKIHyL9NsrgI-Q7TYrMHkw9yMGVpz2aO292YNNfdLukSAwCA6Lm5eiM5GdOEoRpaHXAqHJyhdCAMdnG2bJZrZsBE8AcVz3FU5Y26MtGHtdYYLoGQUeSiQFIWIyynLGOWcsqRHnOpvyRXD4C/w266-h400/00000%200%200%200%20000%200%200%200%200%20BACK%20Cover%20paperback,%20780%20pages%20CORRECTED.jpg" width="266" /></a></div><br /><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3J4t69UJS4D7uE8qmt4PqnJChRYNTIBprqlr4MlTYqk-2jwDh68k5xWOpHV-n8HOtODfaLJel5zHcaK8JAB0k2o3rjEO9pIVd_QZzxSeFUICxSmUpPedpFJLIhINCAeNlpuz8imcQdrEgmF4nqBrt9LFj-nP52-DpD3IYuabwjFyB1VJ20dh8XmJzWeFn/s1080/00000%200%200%200%20Cover%20-%20a%20Book%201%20%20thumb%20for%20back%20cover%20720x1080.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="720" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3J4t69UJS4D7uE8qmt4PqnJChRYNTIBprqlr4MlTYqk-2jwDh68k5xWOpHV-n8HOtODfaLJel5zHcaK8JAB0k2o3rjEO9pIVd_QZzxSeFUICxSmUpPedpFJLIhINCAeNlpuz8imcQdrEgmF4nqBrt9LFj-nP52-DpD3IYuabwjFyB1VJ20dh8XmJzWeFn/s320/00000%200%200%200%20Cover%20-%20a%20Book%201%20%20thumb%20for%20back%20cover%20720x1080.jpg" width="213" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CHL7DB2L">Return of Naja: Eden's Womb, Book I: Wetzel, P.J.: 9798859178520: Amazon.com: Books</a></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJmFv8T9-OFy7slst7p_5jbn7nF8Op7D-bc3cXI8jN7aP7p7Aqc6Nm55SyoNWxHJMqeGMqDHwrmzseUiF-CbjH8fIq03kke-U-2x9p3BL0KoY3l03mLWaVppzowg_gskcORUt_vze5KGHt48HSFS_YVed-RI49LCqRUV_f0TeCyTYccWLZbW_FsIw1A9dK/s1080/00000%200%200%200%20Cover%20-%20a%20Book%202%20%20thumb%20for%20back%20cover%20720x1080.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="720" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJmFv8T9-OFy7slst7p_5jbn7nF8Op7D-bc3cXI8jN7aP7p7Aqc6Nm55SyoNWxHJMqeGMqDHwrmzseUiF-CbjH8fIq03kke-U-2x9p3BL0KoY3l03mLWaVppzowg_gskcORUt_vze5KGHt48HSFS_YVed-RI49LCqRUV_f0TeCyTYccWLZbW_FsIw1A9dK/s320/00000%200%200%200%20Cover%20-%20a%20Book%202%20%20thumb%20for%20back%20cover%20720x1080.jpg" width="213" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CHKZ86D5">Lonely Lessons: Eden's Womb: Book II: Wetzel, P.J.: 9798859362004: Amazon.com: Books</a></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8TBB3An0_zyWd-PMbwJW8MeWx3oeDKI8AQCUPqCoXwDpU8HCd_gBc6tJw-6wu_C597F_mI-IVmO0v8dXuYfCOFY6uZ54V0x5CHhWkACUkCteseFmaaYmuOQK9sxxBTHDqFlTEAN1TIGi2vGlMHR6ZrA08rCR1Ey3ZiFyHtjzzz-njDt6SnWmKXjFSS1ji/s1080/00000%200%200%200%20Cover%20-%20a%20Book%203%20%20thumb%20for%20back%20cover%20720x1080.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="720" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8TBB3An0_zyWd-PMbwJW8MeWx3oeDKI8AQCUPqCoXwDpU8HCd_gBc6tJw-6wu_C597F_mI-IVmO0v8dXuYfCOFY6uZ54V0x5CHhWkACUkCteseFmaaYmuOQK9sxxBTHDqFlTEAN1TIGi2vGlMHR6ZrA08rCR1Ey3ZiFyHtjzzz-njDt6SnWmKXjFSS1ji/s320/00000%200%200%200%20Cover%20-%20a%20Book%203%20%20thumb%20for%20back%20cover%20720x1080.jpg" width="213" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CHL7DB2W">The Copper Curse: Eden's Womb: Book III: Wetzel, P.J.: 9798859391066: Amazon.com: Books</a></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5B-S7OrDM0RjxcXn0ocXg6lnQzZoU_Lyse51eqpFHNw_MQ3NhxGO3YseRR5DfsKQ0-ZCrK60CF5fDp9rGx9KfOV6op_F_qO7_VAHvbG1RgKytYO63BLlcb1hXN_QM1RQ1ZSdrt0FIJSyyMO-aWyOVZSqCmLaDB8MCLmWwkWI7r98GVuqR60Ap9SUdBh__/s1080/00000%200%200%200%20Cover%20-%20a%20Book%204%20%20thumb%20for%20back%20cover%20720x1080.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="720" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5B-S7OrDM0RjxcXn0ocXg6lnQzZoU_Lyse51eqpFHNw_MQ3NhxGO3YseRR5DfsKQ0-ZCrK60CF5fDp9rGx9KfOV6op_F_qO7_VAHvbG1RgKytYO63BLlcb1hXN_QM1RQ1ZSdrt0FIJSyyMO-aWyOVZSqCmLaDB8MCLmWwkWI7r98GVuqR60Ap9SUdBh__/s320/00000%200%200%200%20Cover%20-%20a%20Book%204%20%20thumb%20for%20back%20cover%20720x1080.jpg" width="213" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CHL1FM72">Three Crosses: Eden's Womb: Book IV: Wetzel, P.J.: 9798859396177: Amazon.com: Books</a></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQUS6TEgQ_QFDaTlPSin68DEawgw-21ATMOo_1eqYeyr2OikSDThQim_N3FA1rHVAX0airvGwNlvfYLlEBU_h0nS5DWdcSE9VNUszZ1w_24nP5h2dTWWspcn3nDSvpQjnERJKkNI-2GF3K0NdHgW02WFOEtV0bHVJHBZsvRC8BqJOqgICfy4LVsNtsP6jJ/s1080/00000%200%200%200%20Cover%20-%20a%20Book%205%20%20thumb%20for%20back%20cover%20720x1080.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="720" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQUS6TEgQ_QFDaTlPSin68DEawgw-21ATMOo_1eqYeyr2OikSDThQim_N3FA1rHVAX0airvGwNlvfYLlEBU_h0nS5DWdcSE9VNUszZ1w_24nP5h2dTWWspcn3nDSvpQjnERJKkNI-2GF3K0NdHgW02WFOEtV0bHVJHBZsvRC8BqJOqgICfy4LVsNtsP6jJ/s320/00000%200%200%200%20Cover%20-%20a%20Book%205%20%20thumb%20for%20back%20cover%20720x1080.jpg" width="213" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CHL7DB2Y">The Preserve: Eden's Womb: Book V: Wetzel, P.J.: 9798859401598: Amazon.com: Books</a></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguGlB9P9kOuUOp8Iogceqgzf0n-pQohIC_NZk6-mvpIDwGMD_zIaGHfuG2BZ_e_FQUVxabErccrOfVpPjVixMQKOmXRmQ0iFmpryK_2T3q-PI4rn2MMWa4oFf0qnYxHiZyRY54HYjNeA49QDsq7FgIjPXsQDTniSiYkCprPO-qX1DZmgPggbMOC50tYI9b/s1080/00000%200%200%200%20Cover%20-%20a%20Book%206%20%20thumb%20for%20back%20cover%20720x1080.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="720" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguGlB9P9kOuUOp8Iogceqgzf0n-pQohIC_NZk6-mvpIDwGMD_zIaGHfuG2BZ_e_FQUVxabErccrOfVpPjVixMQKOmXRmQ0iFmpryK_2T3q-PI4rn2MMWa4oFf0qnYxHiZyRY54HYjNeA49QDsq7FgIjPXsQDTniSiYkCprPO-qX1DZmgPggbMOC50tYI9b/s320/00000%200%200%200%20Cover%20-%20a%20Book%206%20%20thumb%20for%20back%20cover%20720x1080.jpg" width="213" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CHL7MBFY">Through Heaven's Gate: Eden's Womb: Book VI: Wetzel, P.J.: 9798859405633: Amazon.com: Books</a></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNS0QuKjbTGJU0sNX7Z17Ng82kegEMdi7W5oW_N-EB2qOhlhc0ZLOGGXfqZJFXAt-jrdqEiLD3soqgjee8Obk5PqfShmzK3-Na7dYDdpqRiPf6qkH1rGbEacRUHn7a8cc3vCcGamT2KKxo8BxY4EywAqzOsK-LoeUaTwCKX0GgVSnDq3eLdM9z_MtHpwUH/s1080/00000%200%200%200%20Cover%20-%20a%20Book%207%20%20thumb%20for%20back%20cover%20720x1080.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="720" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNS0QuKjbTGJU0sNX7Z17Ng82kegEMdi7W5oW_N-EB2qOhlhc0ZLOGGXfqZJFXAt-jrdqEiLD3soqgjee8Obk5PqfShmzK3-Na7dYDdpqRiPf6qkH1rGbEacRUHn7a8cc3vCcGamT2KKxo8BxY4EywAqzOsK-LoeUaTwCKX0GgVSnDq3eLdM9z_MtHpwUH/s320/00000%200%200%200%20Cover%20-%20a%20Book%207%20%20thumb%20for%20back%20cover%20720x1080.jpg" width="213" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CHL9TDB1">The Navel of Time: Eden's Womb: Book VII: Wetzel, P.J.: 9798859415526: Amazon.com: Books</a></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div><br /></div>PJ Wetzelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09159310088762048964noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8664985451081296668.post-62738719983101395192023-04-15T06:15:00.006-07:002023-04-15T06:15:36.438-07:00Appalachian Trail thru-hike memoir - Live! on Amazon<p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C1JDQL85" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="2560" data-original-width="1600" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiucUY-vMHT_exZPQ3iMKOQmcS7Y6kHeLofvmbaXIXJWYvrYcy8X-8v8b42wY5gPKc7RRZq5XzyDH4YjQOu-CBHt6PfF9Q3N74OAABB1Xz9Jr-bf5zv8WiRugB80Jl15XeNq3dgyjj9-UzOYIEFUrSSNkvxBmYAK6XCLuUeu_D36Q-WCoO3xNOqXdgfcw/w250-h400/000%20AT%20Memoir%20cover%20for%20Kindle%202560%20x%201600.jpg" width="250" /></a></span></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C1JDQL85" target="_blank">Front cover</a></i></td></tr></tbody></table><br /> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C1JDQL85" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="2808" data-original-width="1873" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUaOxwfDlIs_p_-tE_xuF-1RK0AFsYJGoIkEqUJDkYsP_Y69C2KnnbrsMkt4RuheQfviYJh3JKQ6ue76mphFOCdJ4BlbTeUfX0xrPX4dAHsUSCd_7X_MRD8gOywk3J8awKBQdLDFzGNO-wtUZOwCeIOs0xposSWMRrKSlOI2jwCiKhF19wBF2h-5ofzA/w266-h400/0%200%20Back%20Cover%20Close%20to%20Final%20with%20FKT.jpg" width="266" /></a></span></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C1JDQL85" target="_blank">Back cover</a></i></td></tr></tbody></table><p><br /></p>
Big news - nearly twelve years in the making. I've finally published the <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C1JDQL85" target="_blank">memoir of my Appalachain Trail thru-hike.</a> The actual hike began January 1, 2012, and I've been promising to publish a book ever since.<br /><br />
I also submitted the documentation of this hike to FastestKnownTime.com and it has been recognized as a <a href="https://fastestknowntime.com/fkt/peter-wetzel-appalachian-trail-2012-11-03" target="_blank">record setting accomplishment--fastest known AT double (yo-yo) thru-hike</a>. I'm very proud of that.<br /><br />
The book is 260 pages ALL in COLOR, with 150+ color photos and maps printed in 'premium color', so it is not cheap, but Amazon is offering it for sale at a pretty good discount as of the time of this post, so it might be a good time to order. <br /><br />If you do order, and like the book, I would very much appreciate if you take the time to post a review at Amazon.<br /><br />
Also please pass the word (share this post) to any hiking friends and colleagues who might be interested. Thanks in advance!<br /><br />PJ Wetzelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09159310088762048964noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8664985451081296668.post-27306444443811544642022-12-31T07:24:00.002-08:002023-09-13T23:26:04.802-07:00Quantum Physics in a nutshell, parts 2 and 3 of 3<iframe frameborder="0" height="270" src="https://youtube.com/embed/wt7wgrDg6zM" width="480"></iframe><div><br /></div><br />
Quantum physics addresses life's most fundamental questions with really simple answers, backed by straightforward scientific experiments and proven results.
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A quick summary of lesson one put a different way than was presented in the video, is that "the mice only play when the cat's away". Physicists like to call it the 'Measurement Problem'. It is not actually a problem (except for Physicists who insist on trying to get something that they themselves have proven they CAN NOT have.)
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Here in the second of three lessons, quantum physics solves the problem of 'God' i.e., the conundrum of "Infinite Regress vs. the Uncaused Cause". They exist together, in superposition. Just like pairs of quarks in a meson, you CAN NOT take them apart. The universe started from nothing because 'nothing' (a vacuum) is a roiling froth that is just brim-full of unrealized 'stuff'.
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Added 13 September 2023: If you've been waiting for part 3, it does not require a video. The third and final lesson can be stated in four words -- "All meaning is emergent". In other words, quantum physics tells us that reality is dependent on the observer, and so the meaning of reality comes not from some absolute or fundamental subjective underlying 'truth' but is only 'made' when an 'observer' takes a 'measurement'. Meaning and purpose are in the eyes of the beholder.
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Thanks for waiting, thanks for reading!<div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrCexZt1wWF5jUM5aX4BCW-n0TZAGYsSZbhkIGFHUxOCfVbRcVlRitQyQfpeoHN-u9mfOodj64aL_wRGriaVUERCuBiAjhS8oYeLdXRmvZuBqxHJKXeauYgM23s7RWBeaR7MKGsqUtn23Q6sgJXMnJA_kJijut5_PUjD-ySStR6MlASc32viQElpWD1_vE/s3872/0000000%20Three%20Lessons%20of%20Quantum%20Physics.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3456" data-original-width="3872" height="358" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrCexZt1wWF5jUM5aX4BCW-n0TZAGYsSZbhkIGFHUxOCfVbRcVlRitQyQfpeoHN-u9mfOodj64aL_wRGriaVUERCuBiAjhS8oYeLdXRmvZuBqxHJKXeauYgM23s7RWBeaR7MKGsqUtn23Q6sgJXMnJA_kJijut5_PUjD-ySStR6MlASc32viQElpWD1_vE/w400-h358/0000000%20Three%20Lessons%20of%20Quantum%20Physics.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /></div>PJ Wetzelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09159310088762048964noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8664985451081296668.post-9356005588417269502022-12-09T07:09:00.005-08:002022-12-31T07:24:35.051-08:00Quantum Physics in a nutshell, part 1 of 3<iframe frameborder="0" height="270" src="https://youtube.com/embed/MC2NemBbZfk" style="background-image: url(https://i.ytimg.com/vi/MC2NemBbZfk/hqdefault.jpg);" width="480"></iframe><div><br /></div><div><div>In the Theory of Quantum Mechanics 'things' have fields that extend everywhere; and 'things' do not even have properties until they interact with other 'things'. It's all about the interactions. Space and time themselves are just manifestations of the web of connectedness between things.</div><div><br /></div><div>'Stuff' like our conscious mind exists only because of this connectedness.</div><div><br /></div><div>The scientist's natural urge to take 'things' apart to find out how they work met its Waterloo when we discovered Quantum Mechanics. A hundred years later the greatest minds still declare that "nobody really understands it" (That's a Richard Feynman quote. See the video linked below).</div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3ZRLllWgHI">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3ZRLllWgHI</a></div><div><br /></div><div>"... Forest for the trees" says the Hiking Hermit.</div></div><div><br /></div><div>Stuff Exists. Things? Not so much.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHxeavyhNWtX5lBidLti6n_tm_9ccY-jV37fURwX0n6LNY4h8ROg6p_pP6lnb8OmDbazMd6HYVxYSiBgiKfNsTcaI4o3_yhJ9E4qeTNAejcmlqvHu9thnvZOyQEaeZm016aukSWWtGplU1MtzJzCwdR3xtT8Iv-21_7GNAwKW9L-_W7desEgqG3z6roA/s4416/a%200%20me%200%20Stuff%20Exists_edited.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2944" data-original-width="4416" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHxeavyhNWtX5lBidLti6n_tm_9ccY-jV37fURwX0n6LNY4h8ROg6p_pP6lnb8OmDbazMd6HYVxYSiBgiKfNsTcaI4o3_yhJ9E4qeTNAejcmlqvHu9thnvZOyQEaeZm016aukSWWtGplU1MtzJzCwdR3xtT8Iv-21_7GNAwKW9L-_W7desEgqG3z6roA/w400-h266/a%200%20me%200%20Stuff%20Exists_edited.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div><br /></div>PJ Wetzelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09159310088762048964noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8664985451081296668.post-60298820860826322062022-11-30T10:46:00.004-08:002022-12-01T16:48:15.397-08:00Whale Watching, Northern Iceland - Top of the World, Days 22 and 23<iframe frameborder="0" height="270" src="https://youtube.com/embed/kGV89r1oKmw" style="background-image: url(https://i.ytimg.com/vi/kGV89r1oKmw/hqdefault.jpg);" width="480"></iframe><div><br /></div><div>A complete report is posted on my sister blog: <a href="https://hikinghermit.com/?p=1581" target="_blank">The Hiking Hermit.</a></div>PJ Wetzelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09159310088762048964noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8664985451081296668.post-15603951340885512212022-11-15T09:08:00.003-08:002023-12-14T04:53:07.918-08:00Around the Top of the World: Days 20 and 21 - Iceland's East Fjords<p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiV_6xBRx5YPjw-JVlPGmblY4RYyK23KAsIOtxtjkeYKMnGxhxYuPQqoo9aQtzZUIbom0LTUDBUo1sVrQGtkXIqYcTfUMo1EdWvhxR-2Ce8bXe6ZIW1KikvXUSx49ofEh2i7No43itwr0N-aRkh-nfhf5ov_2mhFPBhbaFXKBtRzslEftNfrI6WRaEmGA/s3255/0%20Aug%2020%20FEATURE%20a%2084%20Island.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1246" data-original-width="3255" height="153" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiV_6xBRx5YPjw-JVlPGmblY4RYyK23KAsIOtxtjkeYKMnGxhxYuPQqoo9aQtzZUIbom0LTUDBUo1sVrQGtkXIqYcTfUMo1EdWvhxR-2Ce8bXe6ZIW1KikvXUSx49ofEh2i7No43itwr0N-aRkh-nfhf5ov_2mhFPBhbaFXKBtRzslEftNfrI6WRaEmGA/w400-h153/0%20Aug%2020%20FEATURE%20a%2084%20Island.JPG" width="400" /></a></p><p></p><p>Here's another installment in the report of my tour around the North from Svalbard to Alaska's Bering Strait.</p><p>These two days found me continuing my guided Ring Road tour around Iceland. On the morning of Day 20 our first stop was the town of Höfn. It was a clear, calm, misty morning along the east coast. We parked on the end of a peninsula at the start of a trail simply called the "Nature Trail" (Iceland has a habit of severely over-simplifying its place names in general - for example the name of the largest glacier on the whole continent of Europe is simply called 'Water Glacier').</p><p>The "Nature Trail" followed this beautiful coast (where the photo above was shot), but also has appeal if the weather is murky, because arranged along the trail is a miniature correctly-scaled version of our solar system. The Sun is the size of a beach ball,</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZq_d7M9dztMmbbFAQI2gwJJ6R3XtMkdjUaY5_2xauNA-bDREppexMS6m-jhfkCxngUpdTylAJ6HxpQ7PJlEtO9y4qyMn7XRjaP0ZwOWC7nUsaQrrnSJScleamRHkAjPDhe03jBEzMoBlDXWRDbHBuU2jAlDbr_Ek-h0OSMrFoi8UVFyU9xjS_y3BWMA/s4417/0%20Aug%2020%20IMG_3227%20(2).JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2768" data-original-width="4417" height="201" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZq_d7M9dztMmbbFAQI2gwJJ6R3XtMkdjUaY5_2xauNA-bDREppexMS6m-jhfkCxngUpdTylAJ6HxpQ7PJlEtO9y4qyMn7XRjaP0ZwOWC7nUsaQrrnSJScleamRHkAjPDhe03jBEzMoBlDXWRDbHBuU2jAlDbr_Ek-h0OSMrFoi8UVFyU9xjS_y3BWMA/s320/0%20Aug%2020%20IMG_3227%20(2).JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div><br /></div>Mercury is the size of the head of a pin, <div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuVkgRBhNmGXz3CKtKQENwzpA8wfsjOfB8brsF7TUJetW97myuSDeZ6PPJShZn03gjszU_2OpWSuZgXZF7V_MlDKhd74Mc2l5cRNjnUityorvKekBbvrvsCWZe2aWyhjbOGKwwpJEeuQowVN8Vye4dwxcS2FGgoSqaMJNO3wDybiHx2ToltEVy-gA0bA/s5184/IMG_3232.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3888" data-original-width="5184" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuVkgRBhNmGXz3CKtKQENwzpA8wfsjOfB8brsF7TUJetW97myuSDeZ6PPJShZn03gjszU_2OpWSuZgXZF7V_MlDKhd74Mc2l5cRNjnUityorvKekBbvrvsCWZe2aWyhjbOGKwwpJEeuQowVN8Vye4dwxcS2FGgoSqaMJNO3wDybiHx2ToltEVy-gA0bA/s320/IMG_3232.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>and Neptune stands on its pedestal at the other end of the Trail, 2.8 km away. Pluto is there too, but apparently the trail doesn't go to it, since it has been downgraded to a 'minor planet'. The walk is intended to give the visitor the experience of the vastness of our little corner of space. <div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSOlNFuTi3HOTuZ66rObiipr5AUL6Y5ja1x2LiSfpUhJxBnbqJ2yWgxheeT8JgHizxN0PkB78KFqKY67UHzTapa0fnBerNs85IHXjo-rJWlYsaUQ-ZPqgkm5dEIwCjoOYZ0_pDt-rslIwtoQ0pxIEJtjCgSEl8eNkU2nXNgWGp2IffPX9jBti_sWWm3w/s5183/0%20Aug%2020IMG_3235%20(2).JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3319" data-original-width="5183" height="205" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSOlNFuTi3HOTuZ66rObiipr5AUL6Y5ja1x2LiSfpUhJxBnbqJ2yWgxheeT8JgHizxN0PkB78KFqKY67UHzTapa0fnBerNs85IHXjo-rJWlYsaUQ-ZPqgkm5dEIwCjoOYZ0_pDt-rslIwtoQ0pxIEJtjCgSEl8eNkU2nXNgWGp2IffPX9jBti_sWWm3w/s320/0%20Aug%2020IMG_3235%20(2).JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div><br /></div><div>There is a very similar trail in and west of Madison, Wisconsin, that I visited in 2019. In downtown Madison the trek starts with a 'Sun' the size of a two-story building. Most people bike the route, which follows the paved 'Southwest Commuter Trail' and then the Military Ridge State Trail. Pluto is 23 miles away. I only hiked from the sun to somewhere between Saturn and Neptune before my route took me southward.</div><div><br /></div><div>The morning mist on the calm sea made everything seem surreal.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjokkl_tlKhpJCNNFJ89ns91kvJ7exgBChtRQEDUsYk9k0p_4jqx9gfCaZgzk5iIcVNv60YjljAgiNLQzX4E1XpBnCTCn8q-R7PJIbHJBeJtLqodRLdgDzu2r1Q57vfAPWH8DEg4CNc_ssPiHJw57CPpCoFx7U7PCDsWZcHm7TWEweGcfXu3Z5CX5JluQ/s5110/0%20Aug%2020%20IMG_3236%20(2).JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2276" data-original-width="5110" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjokkl_tlKhpJCNNFJ89ns91kvJ7exgBChtRQEDUsYk9k0p_4jqx9gfCaZgzk5iIcVNv60YjljAgiNLQzX4E1XpBnCTCn8q-R7PJIbHJBeJtLqodRLdgDzu2r1Q57vfAPWH8DEg4CNc_ssPiHJw57CPpCoFx7U7PCDsWZcHm7TWEweGcfXu3Z5CX5JluQ/w400-h179/0%20Aug%2020%20IMG_3236%20(2).JPG" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div>But there's almost nowhere along Iceland's rugged coast that isn't pretty stunning to see.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlBb1NKYzv8W_d10tYk1IehRKVDo3Dv9V7YkwrE8RoilcSQ5Y3UnRVcOWkAtbxPSW7wBBeC1fgnoYM5b8BUTu9jWZu8W-V-2l0Uav-jyIf22XEo7l7SMoEabPJUFG4OoAMVfJxFknlCZnuWJtKbgLBueYWNLFi-Gko85E9xpYIclIYeBKztfN9HCxs-Q/s5184/IMG_3242.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3888" data-original-width="5184" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlBb1NKYzv8W_d10tYk1IehRKVDo3Dv9V7YkwrE8RoilcSQ5Y3UnRVcOWkAtbxPSW7wBBeC1fgnoYM5b8BUTu9jWZu8W-V-2l0Uav-jyIf22XEo7l7SMoEabPJUFG4OoAMVfJxFknlCZnuWJtKbgLBueYWNLFi-Gko85E9xpYIclIYeBKztfN9HCxs-Q/s320/IMG_3242.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNyrNZOHzBuy5BapMuTa2ta5v79tkx6luhR5BB3KgQpjAIJ0ajwTrO2Mhburj8uHNXOarrJJDxDWCFlXVSxkwQy0FbNaAIq1cYB-ohOjyq0aNKjGGDm1Em1AP1yVk1gautf70I5PWe3e667Z6YXl92BHKjNYUgTV4Q2EldYeu_HhM3MYk8-Ys75x1vpg/s5184/0%20Aug%2020%20IMG_3238%20(2).JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2967" data-original-width="5184" height="183" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNyrNZOHzBuy5BapMuTa2ta5v79tkx6luhR5BB3KgQpjAIJ0ajwTrO2Mhburj8uHNXOarrJJDxDWCFlXVSxkwQy0FbNaAIq1cYB-ohOjyq0aNKjGGDm1Em1AP1yVk1gautf70I5PWe3e667Z6YXl92BHKjNYUgTV4Q2EldYeu_HhM3MYk8-Ys75x1vpg/s320/0%20Aug%2020%20IMG_3238%20(2).JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div><br /></div><div>We moved on to visit a number of waterfalls, and the crypto-tourism hot-spot of Lagarfljót - a deep, murky, sixteen-mile-long lake where Iceland's version of the Loch Ness Monster lurks. I covered the waterfalls in <a href="https://youtu.be/pGfUH3vnK0M" target="_blank">a YouTube video</a> posted here earlier, and the lake monster is ... well ... look closer at the headline photo:</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFCFjvs_-srIk5I_QAYM6dftss1TNrsvBfNt5AqJkU2vNjOYEKXuqPynTkXYh2Kg3sXwNW32Ul1RcLwEB6MkD8cWHObkN3fbdtLXDn-XFPuZTo73k1SG6311Yt-BKfXl8eXv-kyAmpAfN-ioKeRRu05DPAdm-PLtXTY7seGtzm_Q4T1aSuZ06dQpyeUQOa/s1482/0%20Aug%2020%20FEATURE%20a%2084%20Island%20WITH%20EYE%20detail.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="549" data-original-width="1482" height="149" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFCFjvs_-srIk5I_QAYM6dftss1TNrsvBfNt5AqJkU2vNjOYEKXuqPynTkXYh2Kg3sXwNW32Ul1RcLwEB6MkD8cWHObkN3fbdtLXDn-XFPuZTo73k1SG6311Yt-BKfXl8eXv-kyAmpAfN-ioKeRRu05DPAdm-PLtXTY7seGtzm_Q4T1aSuZ06dQpyeUQOa/w400-h149/0%20Aug%2020%20FEATURE%20a%2084%20Island%20WITH%20EYE%20detail.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div><br /></div>Or maybe not? That isn't even the lake where the 'worm' has been officially declared to exist:</div><div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-oi7dWk9sCyWynYaJ6KGQSpbNPUojleEaIUD0e1A5Vok70E0Ald1CiOGWq6a1LQKBOedJNWRFB42Yp-QXfBro6t96NvSCD0OC1ese-O5f-zW0HoCUKL5-SIMFxddqYvzyDO-slKyVB5V7PwLZ9tTV8lYxBqZvIL36IqBJ818OVjQE2aFUToW_OqOoyga-/s1974/0%20Aug%2020%20IMG_3281%20(2)b%20Reykjavik%20Gv%20article%20with%20screensht%20of%20winner.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1930" data-original-width="1974" height="313" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-oi7dWk9sCyWynYaJ6KGQSpbNPUojleEaIUD0e1A5Vok70E0Ald1CiOGWq6a1LQKBOedJNWRFB42Yp-QXfBro6t96NvSCD0OC1ese-O5f-zW0HoCUKL5-SIMFxddqYvzyDO-slKyVB5V7PwLZ9tTV8lYxBqZvIL36IqBJ818OVjQE2aFUToW_OqOoyga-/s320/0%20Aug%2020%20IMG_3281%20(2)b%20Reykjavik%20Gv%20article%20with%20screensht%20of%20winner.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>But in this post, I'm going in a different direction.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-f_mPCgopNUhqh9_puSEMi067NnPe0wOB0z8NBW4FhkVtKpqzlcthnuKkkIZKWaXc63hqrUAC59Wi0QfpSLLSNELOYcZElK3Mt1Sw9u-LyUzhHYY0sKkSj20oRgiLLgDRIqGWLSsDPmq0Mlf6T-X6CKeubZSIcvxnsIIpbu7BcGX8BA6VLFOVCwqFTA/s5184/0%20Aug%2020%20IMG_3243%20(2).JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3888" data-original-width="5184" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-f_mPCgopNUhqh9_puSEMi067NnPe0wOB0z8NBW4FhkVtKpqzlcthnuKkkIZKWaXc63hqrUAC59Wi0QfpSLLSNELOYcZElK3Mt1Sw9u-LyUzhHYY0sKkSj20oRgiLLgDRIqGWLSsDPmq0Mlf6T-X6CKeubZSIcvxnsIIpbu7BcGX8BA6VLFOVCwqFTA/s320/0%20Aug%2020%20IMG_3243%20(2).JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div>In fact, the rest of the material is all just 'stopping and smelling the flowers' on a tiny patch of tundra on a knoll near the town of Djúpivogur, where that distinctive glass sculpture stands, and where I had the chance to just sit and enjoy an hour of serenity.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEissRCPDzPLmfvYQTGAeRMkZ95AAjwy7uHTsLqMPga8evfU1fipR2l2nt3xcHIqbwa4ibjRzoZvJX2DV8F5I7P-sN6gvzczckX9HYXF_0lJxcYjTlv1ZysASy_WuM-ctbQr2ShLbZ1fpJbsEn2cK4fwQ_taHMRKNGD4GHlPcA5S65oZZWcaQp2p7R6bng/s4452/0%20Aug%2020%20IMG_3245%20(2).JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2851" data-original-width="4452" height="205" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEissRCPDzPLmfvYQTGAeRMkZ95AAjwy7uHTsLqMPga8evfU1fipR2l2nt3xcHIqbwa4ibjRzoZvJX2DV8F5I7P-sN6gvzczckX9HYXF_0lJxcYjTlv1ZysASy_WuM-ctbQr2ShLbZ1fpJbsEn2cK4fwQ_taHMRKNGD4GHlPcA5S65oZZWcaQp2p7R6bng/s320/0%20Aug%2020%20IMG_3245%20(2).JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgogmWP_rJkthep5YW4o8ETBtO9Nd0iJpzupbnE_1IqHlOFllJ67fG00KK1x-D1j86nIRg2TldFcwz_iuuKZpu_-vwMPk4fLBQZJLQPUdpkiGDBoZFSQ7hBAPAZnvbf_AswauwLKEC1MfBU3ypktyn9np3m8E6aguuDe2Xl4lBVRn9ADmjbJwRRgpgCSw/s3943/0%20Aug%2020%20IMG_3258%20(3).JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2217" data-original-width="3943" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgogmWP_rJkthep5YW4o8ETBtO9Nd0iJpzupbnE_1IqHlOFllJ67fG00KK1x-D1j86nIRg2TldFcwz_iuuKZpu_-vwMPk4fLBQZJLQPUdpkiGDBoZFSQ7hBAPAZnvbf_AswauwLKEC1MfBU3ypktyn9np3m8E6aguuDe2Xl4lBVRn9ADmjbJwRRgpgCSw/s320/0%20Aug%2020%20IMG_3258%20(3).JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5_Yg6gAUUG1thsdazr2YaU41UBARAQAnNqj9m9CXFMX3I_550LkCoDQg_TR1Xq9U6HUjsFmZWK34lA5Gw3YTOZBLcOcfA9DI31kU3IpCDzfZytcYe9enjtgp-tmnMgQbQrIXwVMUj0UmmRx7GODBKRjms4DGY-FzFg43yid_smUh_3yTtuvUndTgwFw/s5184/IMG_3248.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3888" data-original-width="5184" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5_Yg6gAUUG1thsdazr2YaU41UBARAQAnNqj9m9CXFMX3I_550LkCoDQg_TR1Xq9U6HUjsFmZWK34lA5Gw3YTOZBLcOcfA9DI31kU3IpCDzfZytcYe9enjtgp-tmnMgQbQrIXwVMUj0UmmRx7GODBKRjms4DGY-FzFg43yid_smUh_3yTtuvUndTgwFw/s320/IMG_3248.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; 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margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3213" data-original-width="5183" height="198" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyxZcY4AHkCZIdMgmh-0MLW4OEs-shHS9ZvuvoZe668LPhVliF69rvsIOevvxpCwxlGjz05Dg3_WpeJk1arF_spCitL55wNI8vC_JIRSaYPMOlkfZMn8-FER4WW-2EXlLtGMJp7D-CPCkMprNNzxCS99UQLNpB2FtYWRZ3ll2hZdOQAdyDvPCOSYr8Ew/s320/0%20Aug%2020%20IMG_3264%20(2).JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQV0B-Ol6g4TAODoEuNHkZXJ36awwefV9Nxsj59hr-g5NqroVUTkhwX4UP8SHKx60JHrKs7IeaWaplU5uMPcm_68Q5WnhsL9-H1E_XrgTVmvaA71yNN9INaEv1haA4u3oQ9n2Z6edAqqdXAOHFeb-D5S8w9xUpRV4iLEbZ5ln7Bk8CjwPnF0XfM3v-fg/s5184/0%20Aug%2020%20IMG_3269%20(2).JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3888" data-original-width="5184" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQV0B-Ol6g4TAODoEuNHkZXJ36awwefV9Nxsj59hr-g5NqroVUTkhwX4UP8SHKx60JHrKs7IeaWaplU5uMPcm_68Q5WnhsL9-H1E_XrgTVmvaA71yNN9INaEv1haA4u3oQ9n2Z6edAqqdXAOHFeb-D5S8w9xUpRV4iLEbZ5ln7Bk8CjwPnF0XfM3v-fg/s320/0%20Aug%2020%20IMG_3269%20(2).JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQxD4_Tpr5dsUsU997pMMp888s4B5GOuj1j6i2XetGCofKS_fnKp9UnrDYv4eA2Mm81zGWel3c94dbm44zn5slghW9L06zMts08S57tTZPlBO1TO2hoQEP0y8YhLssUBW7FbsS2kbVVex_dAHc19Ud2OjMiEQ5KXNP2EyjZA5PQUIj2nbHcKr2EJUIcg/s2924/a%20115%20Iceland,%20in%20lava%20cinders,%20could%20not%20get%20ID.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1934" data-original-width="2924" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQxD4_Tpr5dsUsU997pMMp888s4B5GOuj1j6i2XetGCofKS_fnKp9UnrDYv4eA2Mm81zGWel3c94dbm44zn5slghW9L06zMts08S57tTZPlBO1TO2hoQEP0y8YhLssUBW7FbsS2kbVVex_dAHc19Ud2OjMiEQ5KXNP2EyjZA5PQUIj2nbHcKr2EJUIcg/s320/a%20115%20Iceland,%20in%20lava%20cinders,%20could%20not%20get%20ID.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div><br /></div><div><p><br /></p><p><br /></p></div></div>PJ Wetzelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09159310088762048964noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8664985451081296668.post-55844511489145607012022-11-11T16:35:00.000-08:002023-12-09T02:16:41.337-08:00Veterans Day tribute to my Grandpa Dutch<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzh6YAxJP-OilCKOS0iU7vjljXR8KjgU-Id5PXr90yqWQVWGtnH22d0RoMD_S5F80-2q5DEjE_HCNtm29N3Mmmn68K5xLPiB_GkXAmtnF1xzJFkMP_iI7s8D2NxoxEHxnME25Ptx9Yn24PHxwN2aVGCN5Q6K8RSl3YBdOf0lWi8h85c1pj5rS3Z9-Z-w/s5184/a%200%20Auler%20Grandpa%20Dutch%20war%20photo%20IMG_4394%20(2).JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="5184" data-original-width="3888" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzh6YAxJP-OilCKOS0iU7vjljXR8KjgU-Id5PXr90yqWQVWGtnH22d0RoMD_S5F80-2q5DEjE_HCNtm29N3Mmmn68K5xLPiB_GkXAmtnF1xzJFkMP_iI7s8D2NxoxEHxnME25Ptx9Yn24PHxwN2aVGCN5Q6K8RSl3YBdOf0lWi8h85c1pj5rS3Z9-Z-w/w300-h400/a%200%20Auler%20Grandpa%20Dutch%20war%20photo%20IMG_4394%20(2).JPG" width="300" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p>George Gustav “Dutch” Auler was born on December 21, 1899. When the US entered the Great War in early 1917, he was only 17 years of age. The war in Europe was the dominant subject of conversation, and Grandpa decided to enlist in the army even before the US formally declared war on Germany on April 6, 1917. Grandpa enlisted on March 3rd, lying about his age to get in. He was 17 years, two months, and thirteen days old. His father, Jacob Auler had just passed away less than a month before, on February 4th. How that affected the young man's decision, we can only speculate, but the drastically new dynamic at home surely must have had some impact.</p><p>At the time the US Army had only 127,151 soldiers in uniform. Compare that with the German army’s 11 million. The US needed lots more bodies in uniform fast. So since not nearly enough people were enlisting fast enough, a new draft was enacted into law on May 18, 1917.</p><p>The draft had a shady history in the US. There had last been conscription in the Civil War, but it had loopholes that allowed rich people to pay somebody to take their place. That’s how my great Grandmother’s brother, Lewis G. Butzow, newly immigrated from Germany, joined the civil war. He wasn’t even a citizen yet. But a kick-start in this new country in the form of $250 cash from some rich man seemed like it was too good for him to pass up. He served honorably. But let’s get back to the current story.</p><p>The US was ramping up its war infrastructure at a frantic pace, opening and expanding boot camps around the country. Grandpa Dutch was called into the army in one of the first waves of call-ups, on June 20th, 1917, and after a short stop at Camp Douglas in Wisconsin he was sent to boot camp at Camp McArthur in Waco, TX. Here, in his own handwriting, is an autobiographical sketch of the events:</p><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgesx3fsBu2-8blN3rKUT9m2qcJ023zh9Jo22V9YnptTG7b0awFN5HROtJt1CSjQpDA-GIPZ8PumX6RtMNJUIsSeXfxdXqYV_CssMtDnk1PqJtT5-6xHBEK7JDalTehS38WKaEL5zJ88bKaADJFG46H8ilFaZD4G-5xSHan0UTByrmdxdlLcVVVxgTfrQ/s3181/a%200%20Auler%20Grandpa%20Dutch%20war%20autobio.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3117" data-original-width="3181" height="314" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgesx3fsBu2-8blN3rKUT9m2qcJ023zh9Jo22V9YnptTG7b0awFN5HROtJt1CSjQpDA-GIPZ8PumX6RtMNJUIsSeXfxdXqYV_CssMtDnk1PqJtT5-6xHBEK7JDalTehS38WKaEL5zJ88bKaADJFG46H8ilFaZD4G-5xSHan0UTByrmdxdlLcVVVxgTfrQ/s320/a%200%20Auler%20Grandpa%20Dutch%20war%20autobio.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div>He left this bio unfinished. We have a photo of Grandpa Dutch and three colleagues/friends taken at Renne right around the 22nd of March 1918. The caption is in his own handwriting.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoNRJZFJX-bVSa7idUZijUhJVmNXCcYpqABXQ5-Ua5-rO7d9hyKMD0FnDab8NdR6ZoergIZK3oFwrUjkAbbihLzMCm3AmzUXllzlrUx62sTHDMgabEVNoWx_ButJMIUf8iReGe2XUSmj37gCkqmtHbkDlKzwZIJPgqwjJzUz7vO0nAtqhRGJSteKsF4Q/s4450/a%200%20Auler%20Grandpa%20Dutch%20war%20photo%20Rennes,%20France.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3444" data-original-width="4450" height="248" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoNRJZFJX-bVSa7idUZijUhJVmNXCcYpqABXQ5-Ua5-rO7d9hyKMD0FnDab8NdR6ZoergIZK3oFwrUjkAbbihLzMCm3AmzUXllzlrUx62sTHDMgabEVNoWx_ButJMIUf8iReGe2XUSmj37gCkqmtHbkDlKzwZIJPgqwjJzUz7vO0nAtqhRGJSteKsF4Q/s320/a%200%20Auler%20Grandpa%20Dutch%20war%20photo%20Rennes,%20France.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div><div>So where was he during the war? Grandpa rarely talked about the war, but he kept photos such as the one above, and was given (and kept) two history books about his unit. It is on the inside front cover of one of these that his incomplete bio above is written. The history books tell us that he was in the midst of the action on the western front–a trench-warfare line that stretched all the way across France. But best of all, we have a few of his letters, sent from the front lines to his sister Marie. And Marie saved them.</div><div><br /></div><div>These letters provide no explicit detail of his activities. The censors did not allow that. But he describes being at 5 different ‘Fronts’. He talks about friends who were wounded, and how his best friend in the army was killed. And he talks explicitly about the conditions he was facing, such as ten-days of hard marching with a hole in one of his boots. I’m including two of the letters here; and I’ll let his own words speak for themselves. One letter was written just two weeks before he was wounded (we don’t know what the wound was), and just five weeks before the end of the war, 104 years ago today. The other letter describes his decorations and plans to return home in May of 1919. I’ve supplied a page-by page transcription, since his handwriting is sometimes a bit tough to read.</div></div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiu696wuM7T0Z_zZS8d85rptAz4Rgk19PWSLG_WjvUeJ-lOE-ZFd9twCXs-NL37cmzFKi57WOXVym5ATgzQJrpz9kSeehpKMig42A8MNxpjh7dvjdnskDP4wc2_Z07dRwqAzdLcL58r63jRgMc_NVPn_CmTWnM9bmMY_hsF42WrdS8r--B-wbWWhPEJuA/s4583/a%200%20Auler%20Grandpa%20Dutch%20war%20letters%20IMG_4361%20(2).JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4583" data-original-width="3026" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiu696wuM7T0Z_zZS8d85rptAz4Rgk19PWSLG_WjvUeJ-lOE-ZFd9twCXs-NL37cmzFKi57WOXVym5ATgzQJrpz9kSeehpKMig42A8MNxpjh7dvjdnskDP4wc2_Z07dRwqAzdLcL58r63jRgMc_NVPn_CmTWnM9bmMY_hsF42WrdS8r--B-wbWWhPEJuA/s320/a%200%20Auler%20Grandpa%20Dutch%20war%20letters%20IMG_4361%20(2).JPG" width="211" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div><div>Oct. 3, 1918</div><div>Somewhere in France.</div><div><br /></div><div>Dear Sis:-</div><div><br /></div><div>Received two letters here lately from you and I was indeed enjoyed with their contents. One of the letters had a couple of pictures enclosed of Gertie and (Walter?) and the other of you and a trio of (Jackties?). They were very good and would like to get more of their kind. Please have Paul and the rest of the family including you line up and have their picture taken in front of the house</div><div><br /></div></div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjL9_u_AhrlHobVgmYOElkeqMxZUXtLfi3QPxG5b9hn_CvMR7hq7uHB9F350KfuGk3U_IJ5_HgLhwIvptyCnd86eRmJDo9GlHfCIIGnL_3q8ddkxizuE6FvM3Dkt-YHejjlyiLX4DtbrOOT8n_gNjSRjD_AzS463-SUkljkDRBalmi32HK0KO3KmJ7jyg/s4837/a%200%20Auler%20Grandpa%20Dutch%20war%20letters%20IMG_4362%20(2).JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4837" data-original-width="3393" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjL9_u_AhrlHobVgmYOElkeqMxZUXtLfi3QPxG5b9hn_CvMR7hq7uHB9F350KfuGk3U_IJ5_HgLhwIvptyCnd86eRmJDo9GlHfCIIGnL_3q8ddkxizuE6FvM3Dkt-YHejjlyiLX4DtbrOOT8n_gNjSRjD_AzS463-SUkljkDRBalmi32HK0KO3KmJ7jyg/s320/a%200%20Auler%20Grandpa%20Dutch%20war%20letters%20IMG_4362%20(2).JPG" width="224" /></a></div><br /><div><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: lato, lato, "helvetica neue", helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;">if possible. Would also like to have some news from some of my relatives.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: lato, lato, "helvetica neue", helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;">Knew about Harry Barnes some time ago. Many things are happening over here and I also see many things but I cannot tell you about. Some of the happenings that I have to hold back would may (make) the people at home very happy and the others would make them very sad.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: lato, lato, "helvetica neue", helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;">Everything is the same with me. We have changed fronts again and this one makes the 5th one we were at. 4 of them</p></div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzjm1rg22PDizAhb7MzxK7VjMJ8KfRikTVvDkq1E9UEZVoH_R1QXIikV-BdcytYY-szY7QIZlxE9y8eLPC3wPW7SGop68KwK-A2icQ9aUDmwvWify0o2sjJXs54jTmdDL8y09gm0F52Ndw606h1AycmGLxOSosxh8CaRd_sdyqDy0NRC5QobZhu3KSAQ/s4444/a%200%20Auler%20Grandpa%20Dutch%20war%20letters%20IMG_4363%20(2).JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4444" data-original-width="2977" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzjm1rg22PDizAhb7MzxK7VjMJ8KfRikTVvDkq1E9UEZVoH_R1QXIikV-BdcytYY-szY7QIZlxE9y8eLPC3wPW7SGop68KwK-A2icQ9aUDmwvWify0o2sjJXs54jTmdDL8y09gm0F52Ndw606h1AycmGLxOSosxh8CaRd_sdyqDy0NRC5QobZhu3KSAQ/s320/a%200%20Auler%20Grandpa%20Dutch%20war%20letters%20IMG_4363%20(2).JPG" width="214" /></a></div><br /><div><div>will stand in History of the world forever. I have now seen much of France and am satisfied. We are pushing the Huns back continually and have them very near their own country. Many prisoners are being taken and by conversing with them and looking them over a fellow can get a pretty good idea of how they are fixed.</div><div><br /></div><div>I am feeling good and working hard. By the way things look the end is very</div></div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdQqNAW_Nvqd585KH2Kjo9UcF2LC-zFyEac-oSlkCzc7EL6AAPTMr-dSETALzBlA19DvoFV0QOXGWDZO25XVf3CFwODweaXjEOBwg2-XQwAa8yAZ-8RmwbxwupefAb352yHz1kB7aF9obiSgGGy8GNH9mqQCzys-Smf1JclXCE7yqyOAn_FbogqRloQg/s4546/a%200%20Auler%20Grandpa%20Dutch%20war%20letters%20IMG_4364%20(2).JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4546" data-original-width="2885" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdQqNAW_Nvqd585KH2Kjo9UcF2LC-zFyEac-oSlkCzc7EL6AAPTMr-dSETALzBlA19DvoFV0QOXGWDZO25XVf3CFwODweaXjEOBwg2-XQwAa8yAZ-8RmwbxwupefAb352yHz1kB7aF9obiSgGGy8GNH9mqQCzys-Smf1JclXCE7yqyOAn_FbogqRloQg/s320/a%200%20Auler%20Grandpa%20Dutch%20war%20letters%20IMG_4364%20(2).JPG" width="203" /></a></div><br /><div><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: lato, lato, "helvetica neue", helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;">near. Don’t forget to write often and send some pictures.</p><p class="has-text-align-right" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: lato, lato, "helvetica neue", helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; text-align: right;">Best regards from</p><p class="has-text-align-right" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: lato, lato, "helvetica neue", helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; text-align: right;">Your Bro</p><p class="has-text-align-right" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: lato, lato, "helvetica neue", helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; text-align: right;">George G. Auler</p><p class="has-text-align-right" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: lato, lato, "helvetica neue", helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; text-align: right;">“Batt A” 121<span style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 12px; line-height: 0; position: relative; top: -0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;">st</span> F.A</p><p class="has-text-align-right" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: lato, lato, "helvetica neue", helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; text-align: right;">A.E.F A.P.O 734</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: lato, lato, "helvetica neue", helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;">Censored By</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: lato, lato, "helvetica neue", helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;">Capt. B.O. Reynolds</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: lato, lato, "helvetica neue", helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;">(N.I.A.?)</p></div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvPtawq99kLG3T_43h2BXhMu62-VFooMBrX7w2KuaYZ7kKidG14jtH3PNrO_8UTGmErQ5zqEWGsEK4b2fPRBsoVVuzK1NPyiXvRpjuETFnb1Wg34LZ61rxKdpEwmKUyzK58827QnUfILZeNKwgGv9nyAjmqjaVR9HQJopUcfBw3zW9bOUJXL6DD5lZlg/s4419/a%200%20Auler%20Grandpa%20Dutch%20war%20letters%20IMG_4365%20(2).JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4419" data-original-width="2888" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvPtawq99kLG3T_43h2BXhMu62-VFooMBrX7w2KuaYZ7kKidG14jtH3PNrO_8UTGmErQ5zqEWGsEK4b2fPRBsoVVuzK1NPyiXvRpjuETFnb1Wg34LZ61rxKdpEwmKUyzK58827QnUfILZeNKwgGv9nyAjmqjaVR9HQJopUcfBw3zW9bOUJXL6DD5lZlg/s320/a%200%20Auler%20Grandpa%20Dutch%20war%20letters%20IMG_4365%20(2).JPG" width="209" /></a></div><br /><div><div>Just as I was about to mail this letter I received two more letters, one from you and the other from Mrs. Nugent & Lily. They writing to me surprised me very much and I am answering their letter immediately. I really thing (think) a lot of my mail is being lost somehow or other for I only receive letters once in a great while. And when the (they) do come they make me very happy.</div><div><br /></div><div>You say a girl friend told you that it had been 2 weeks before her brother changed clothes. Just an idea</div></div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhREc7E-rHNNTq8x7OiTmjzGopJB5mz-oZF-ViXVR0Cuzf4M4O0FFnd8braRznTTH6UqV3lcB0v06hNVXn3gOkF_vbBChL3bUbpKZOwI6VBI9ISFE3jXyaRjVjbbM_1Tms6vsMhUu2wfD-mYYjsjO0emqQAurz-kh3qjsvrg5ZonkYexsga4TQg4oyyVA/s4478/a%200%20Auler%20Grandpa%20Dutch%20war%20letters%20IMG_4366%20(2).JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4478" data-original-width="3093" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhREc7E-rHNNTq8x7OiTmjzGopJB5mz-oZF-ViXVR0Cuzf4M4O0FFnd8braRznTTH6UqV3lcB0v06hNVXn3gOkF_vbBChL3bUbpKZOwI6VBI9ISFE3jXyaRjVjbbM_1Tms6vsMhUu2wfD-mYYjsjO0emqQAurz-kh3qjsvrg5ZonkYexsga4TQg4oyyVA/s320/a%200%20Auler%20Grandpa%20Dutch%20war%20letters%20IMG_4366%20(2).JPG" width="221" /></a></div><br /><div><div>of how I’m fixed. I hate to tell you but just for fun. Remember I belong to a storm division. We’ve been on 5 different fronts in 135 days. I have not changed clothes for about 75 days. Made hikes of 10 days through rain & mud with a hole in one of my shoes. Did not change socks for about 25 days. We sleep any place we can. Shell craters, old trenches & dugouts. Field mice & rats are abundant over here. That’s enough I guess.</div><div><br /></div><div>Best regards to Mr Kenny and Mr O’brien. Am writing to Miss Lily Nugent immediately.</div><div><br /></div><div>(End-of-letter) – Here’s the second one:</div><div><br /></div></div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFP6GMySRuTMFqB_lXTRbcGu5rKPOvhjq61bmEZQMTxDZgQNmhqkC7TdSHm3ryvKkWJ2Yjbdnc0tgrRub55O8Vb9qIJhKiWYuGjNPIKGvokRqABZCA2Yj8sDmXlV_6Fvmkbk9IIRClZrlUYS3LYGV4uM6RsPTtwVJMQYEUSp79iasR3BW1t3ZDR-2y7A/s4604/a%200%20Auler%20Grandpa%20Dutch%20war%20letters%20IMG_4370%20(2).JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4604" data-original-width="3206" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFP6GMySRuTMFqB_lXTRbcGu5rKPOvhjq61bmEZQMTxDZgQNmhqkC7TdSHm3ryvKkWJ2Yjbdnc0tgrRub55O8Vb9qIJhKiWYuGjNPIKGvokRqABZCA2Yj8sDmXlV_6Fvmkbk9IIRClZrlUYS3LYGV4uM6RsPTtwVJMQYEUSp79iasR3BW1t3ZDR-2y7A/s320/a%200%20Auler%20Grandpa%20Dutch%20war%20letters%20IMG_4370%20(2).JPG" width="223" /></a></div><br /><div><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: lato, lato, "helvetica neue", helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;">Gondrecourt, France<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />March 30, 1919</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: lato, lato, "helvetica neue", helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;">Dear Sis:-</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: lato, lato, "helvetica neue", helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;">I received your letter of many questions today. I will answer it immediately or rather the questions.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: lato, lato, "helvetica neue", helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;">We shall sail for America the early part of May and I expect to be home by May 25.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: lato, lato, "helvetica neue", helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;">I sent beaucoupe postals from the place I spent my 7 day furlough. I expect to go on another leave soon. I also sent a Battery picture and Book of A.E.F. cartoons. Let me no (know) when you get them.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: lato, lato, "helvetica neue", helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;">We, the 57 Brigade, which is the 119th, 120th, 121st, and 147th F.A. has not been in Germany and</p></div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzUbw_KklvmMYciBL1xHcM-lNooAGANkUfGO5k0ny38H3CM84P3glh5-SEEfL2X1OeFpbpf9wlRoAv3McgTWLTXCQrXxFoKa6uKiXs6-T-ijFZPj-K9PBL0F_4TZ3qD50FYbwstMObCIrjUl9406LPI-vqEwU_cG5Eqxk5G2_cYJWwLFTNMNNdBjLBUQ/s4762/a%200%20Auler%20Grandpa%20Dutch%20war%20letters%20IMG_4371%20(2).JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4762" data-original-width="3165" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzUbw_KklvmMYciBL1xHcM-lNooAGANkUfGO5k0ny38H3CM84P3glh5-SEEfL2X1OeFpbpf9wlRoAv3McgTWLTXCQrXxFoKa6uKiXs6-T-ijFZPj-K9PBL0F_4TZ3qD50FYbwstMObCIrjUl9406LPI-vqEwU_cG5Eqxk5G2_cYJWwLFTNMNNdBjLBUQ/s320/a%200%20Auler%20Grandpa%20Dutch%20war%20letters%20IMG_4371%20(2).JPG" width="213" /></a></div><br /><div><div>are a very far away from there. We were suppose to go to Coblentz to me (meet?) our 32nd Infantry but that has been changed and they are going to join us at Le Mans and then we shall probably go to Brest.</div><div><br /></div><div>The boat that we came over on was the largest steamship and still is. It was the German ship Vaterland renamed Leviathan. We expect to go back on the same ship.</div><div><br /></div><div>I met Clem Gill in the Hospital. He was not wounded but gassed very badly. He is back with his Regiment. Nearly every fellow that was at the Chateau-Thierry front was gassed a little including Battery A & myself.</div></div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifdd_-wkhcIvffnoSdJMgUxEBBEIrDGxJLouUoujUfMG2sqyDfw70sZ3r_1gFO5uuJmxHSgVs3S2P_r2CfYTHRodclKDfRkw1HJCNwLTBrnTfdoEnmV6taoc6gCynvRoFCRtSkBqPadU7qnToqZebtd3ZLkf7-hNV1R915EaTSdzYc3hnDWiN35XRxBA/s4306/a%200%20Auler%20Grandpa%20Dutch%20war%20letters%20IMG_4372%20(2).JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4306" data-original-width="2981" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifdd_-wkhcIvffnoSdJMgUxEBBEIrDGxJLouUoujUfMG2sqyDfw70sZ3r_1gFO5uuJmxHSgVs3S2P_r2CfYTHRodclKDfRkw1HJCNwLTBrnTfdoEnmV6taoc6gCynvRoFCRtSkBqPadU7qnToqZebtd3ZLkf7-hNV1R915EaTSdzYc3hnDWiN35XRxBA/s320/a%200%20Auler%20Grandpa%20Dutch%20war%20letters%20IMG_4372%20(2).JPG" width="222" /></a></div><br /><div><div>Nick Gill’s Battery has just joined its Regiment and they have never been to the front. They were at an Officers training school. He was over here before I went on leave and visited me. He is billeted about 2 miles away from were (where) I am. We are still in the same rotten Barracks.</div><div><br /></div><div>I never heard anything about Uncle Arthur’s death. I heard something about that American cemetery and probably be able to see his grave before I leave France.</div><div><br /></div><div>I’ll let you no (know) when I leave France by letter. Don’t forget to save some of Schlitz’s beer. The stuff in brown bottles.</div><div><br /></div><div>I wear two gold service</div></div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjW_yv1nWcM3rQZnag3Be_1iVEpSZyMJ3T9OhNSHQJ7kd3teGZvs_uKSrFfG-q6kTmRonWivdlOnrhYMtY1KpntEz_5QJ7HQoaKORPXO4hyHpvuw8wXgu5TxIWm2M8MS5J0_XP3UoZY3PUICUZa6lydu-RQep0UVh_5KKV-z-W9NS2hBVQTlyfjmaDseg/s4740/a%200%20Auler%20Grandpa%20Dutch%20war%20letters%20IMG_4373%20(2).JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4740" data-original-width="3240" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjW_yv1nWcM3rQZnag3Be_1iVEpSZyMJ3T9OhNSHQJ7kd3teGZvs_uKSrFfG-q6kTmRonWivdlOnrhYMtY1KpntEz_5QJ7HQoaKORPXO4hyHpvuw8wXgu5TxIWm2M8MS5J0_XP3UoZY3PUICUZa6lydu-RQep0UVh_5KKV-z-W9NS2hBVQTlyfjmaDseg/s320/a%200%20Auler%20Grandpa%20Dutch%20war%20letters%20IMG_4373%20(2).JPG" width="219" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div><div>stripes on my left arm and one wound stripe on my right arm. I also wear a red arrow with a cross on my left shoulder, the insignia of the 32nd Division. We are supposed to wear a citation cord over a four queue (?) but as yet they were not issued to us. This cord is for being cited at the front, and the 32nd Division was cited 9 times. I am in good health and spirits and hope they are all the same at home.</div><div><br /></div><div>Your Brother</div><div>George G Auler</div><div><br /></div><div>Censored by</div><div>FH Steinpatz (?)</div></div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">* * *</div><div><br /></div><div>After the War, Grandpa returned home and lived with his widowed mother and three siblings for about four years.</div><div><br /></div><div>Sometime around 1920 or 1921, while hanging around the Riverside Roller-Skating Rink watching the girls skate, he met his future wife, Ivis Uecke. She had come with girlfriends, but that day George accompanied her home on the streetcar. Ivis had lost her mother in 1918 and her father passed away in March 1921, and her living situation was difficult, so George 'rescued' her by marrying her. They appear to have eloped, because they were married in Waukegan, Illinois, just across the state line, on March 28, 1922, when Ivis was 19 years old. Their one and only child, Muriel, arrived ten months later.</div><div><br /></div><div>George worked for the Grand Trunk Railway system, and that work took the family to South Bend, Indiana for two years. When they returned to Milwaukee in 1925, George eventually found work at Nash-Kelvinator, which in 1954 became part of American Motors, where he was a foreman up until his retirement.</div><div><br /></div><div><div>Grandpa also played semi-pro baseball for several American Legion sponsored teams, and later in life, he was an avid bowler.</div><div><br /></div></div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjL3G8lz5uJdPZo2t3d4cHm8NIxMl1Y2hwCtjfrjC97B3KIhRFNlNcTLozIWmTzNrIt1BxeQ7HGRK7KcewD5SNZnUP8VRRwKkuLFgkW1Us3kj3LLNs9Jm0WqVoTvCWa3_fyVORp7sYihAgktJm6hndKoJ1CWPxX3jT5xhgdRAuOUWWIBElsowAai2L6I7sZ/s5152/a%200%20Auler%20Grandpa%20Dutch%201925%20semi-pro%20baseball%20team,%20he's%20highest%20one%20in%20back.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3864" data-original-width="5152" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjL3G8lz5uJdPZo2t3d4cHm8NIxMl1Y2hwCtjfrjC97B3KIhRFNlNcTLozIWmTzNrIt1BxeQ7HGRK7KcewD5SNZnUP8VRRwKkuLFgkW1Us3kj3LLNs9Jm0WqVoTvCWa3_fyVORp7sYihAgktJm6hndKoJ1CWPxX3jT5xhgdRAuOUWWIBElsowAai2L6I7sZ/w400-h300/a%200%20Auler%20Grandpa%20Dutch%201925%20semi-pro%20baseball%20team,%20he's%20highest%20one%20in%20back.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>1925 team photo, Alonzo Cudworth Post (#23), Milwaukee. George is in the back, a head above the others. Annotation of names is in his own handwriting.</i></td></tr></tbody></table><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>In 1928 George and Ivis bought and moved into a newly built house at 4485 N. Morris Blvd. in the new suburb of Shorewood on the north side of Milwaukee. They lived there until they retired, some 35 years later. As a child, I remember visiting this home nearly every summer from 1952 through 1965. The street was <a href="https://www.shorpy.com/node/25516" target="_blank">lined with beautiful mature stately elm trees</a>, all of which were killed by Dutch Elm Disease starting right around the time of my last visit in the mid-1960s. The <a href="https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/solutions/2020/02/27/emerald-ash-borer-battle-wisconsin-recalls-dutch-elm-disease-fight/4871434002/" target="_blank">Milwaukee Journal/Sentinel reports</a> that “The number of Milwaukee County elm trees that met the chainsaw soared from 11 in 1956 to 689 in 1960, 6,789 in 1965, and a historic peak of 19,618 in 1968, when the disease was reported in “epidemic proportions.”</div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhHRS3vQb5zuk3MVHgoc3Hj2Ght9vOz3qnFOB9hN9vOrlWGjD9uH8TK5rBozJuYkP4ZJk6BAaKcsLNexi3SFEBqdJUO4EFeWVm12TFnihIGh46HacT7D1LZv8_IGeNuKkiawk3fvds4kUU6GQvaVRDsYjBq3Bmg0RE91oGvqgqssV_MarQSE-cg35wEE3i/s1200/a%200%20Auler%20four%20generations.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="931" data-original-width="1200" height="248" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhHRS3vQb5zuk3MVHgoc3Hj2Ght9vOz3qnFOB9hN9vOrlWGjD9uH8TK5rBozJuYkP4ZJk6BAaKcsLNexi3SFEBqdJUO4EFeWVm12TFnihIGh46HacT7D1LZv8_IGeNuKkiawk3fvds4kUU6GQvaVRDsYjBq3Bmg0RE91oGvqgqssV_MarQSE-cg35wEE3i/s320/a%200%20Auler%20four%20generations.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Four generations. Grandpa Dutch with his mother, daughter, and me at my baptism in late 1948.</i></td></tr></tbody></table><div><br /></div><div>At some point during his working career, George suffered a serious infection in one of his arms, which grew so bad that he almost had to have the whole arm amputated. The hand never fully recovered, and although it remained functional, he said he had almost no feeling in that hand.</div><div><br /></div><div>George and Ivis retired in the early 1960's and bought a lake-front home on Lake Nagawicka, town of Nashotah, in NW Waukesha County, Wisconsin, where they lived until 1972. I well remember the vacations at their lake home, boating and fishing and just hanging out on the pier. This is how I best remember Grandpa Dutch and Grandma Ivis.</div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8aXPmYgfE-h6rg8-QCibnGME5g8cMoxG1iea5Egpem2h2O9Ix3-ccTibr9QqLsarAkg4mp8CY3JJnqlOihvEeEMqK4jPC4xGzXWPI-a-8yOl9UZ2W1rUTW1uwXqigaNZ3QnCuLEJYBkPvGQWtAFs7OVbSRWEPc9vJllbgDZQkOH_UXlSqJwApcVbktsn8/s4416/a%200%20Auler%20grandma%20Ivis%20and%20Grandpa%20Dutch.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2944" data-original-width="4416" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8aXPmYgfE-h6rg8-QCibnGME5g8cMoxG1iea5Egpem2h2O9Ix3-ccTibr9QqLsarAkg4mp8CY3JJnqlOihvEeEMqK4jPC4xGzXWPI-a-8yOl9UZ2W1rUTW1uwXqigaNZ3QnCuLEJYBkPvGQWtAFs7OVbSRWEPc9vJllbgDZQkOH_UXlSqJwApcVbktsn8/w400-h266/a%200%20Auler%20grandma%20Ivis%20and%20Grandpa%20Dutch.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>On the lake-side patio Edgewood Ct., Lake Nagawicka, circa 1964</i></td></tr></tbody></table><div><br /></div><div>In 1972 they sold the lake house and moved into an apartment at 123 E. Chateau Place, Whitefish Bay, WI. There, in 1976, while changing a tire on his car, the spare began to roll away down the driveway, and George chased it, either falling or simply over-exerting. He fell ill and died of kidney failure not long after.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXs2VyHtRHSgRd95zFWmnLUEr3bOCPt8TtlMrDEKJhkpyR61uObRkpfVtu4qxcKp2tUY4k0LPOUaiMvXv1yPiCYamvimTW9DEggP5ZY0QqUUoLnyItUB5xL6j3G4POp4XvfW5hLK1xBWcmlxbv5iBNX8gVb0Yl4qvyLnmod0rLf1a1a8XBEz1EWd01ZA/s2624/a%200%20Auler%20Grandpa%20dutch%20war%20grave%20marker.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1452" data-original-width="2624" height="177" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXs2VyHtRHSgRd95zFWmnLUEr3bOCPt8TtlMrDEKJhkpyR61uObRkpfVtu4qxcKp2tUY4k0LPOUaiMvXv1yPiCYamvimTW9DEggP5ZY0QqUUoLnyItUB5xL6j3G4POp4XvfW5hLK1xBWcmlxbv5iBNX8gVb0Yl4qvyLnmod0rLf1a1a8XBEz1EWd01ZA/s320/a%200%20Auler%20Grandpa%20dutch%20war%20grave%20marker.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtQiIhKMacEVJ425Ekf5An-rCpvX-KTavuiac7iEB7YQI86aFmtbuHnsY4mXu3654-BylW3NrK5p5fC7UQRPaHErmpP8s7V3NL2arev1OJ_ftAll_C2RQ1wECbLbl6EeNqOahyejjJiE55KmLXUUPWLWJUJjZnssQn1EXem2LY1DOD9viuuruy5yoEuHff/s4549/a%200%20Auler%20Grandpa%20Dutch%20recognition%20from%20President%20Ford.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4549" data-original-width="3868" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtQiIhKMacEVJ425Ekf5An-rCpvX-KTavuiac7iEB7YQI86aFmtbuHnsY4mXu3654-BylW3NrK5p5fC7UQRPaHErmpP8s7V3NL2arev1OJ_ftAll_C2RQ1wECbLbl6EeNqOahyejjJiE55KmLXUUPWLWJUJjZnssQn1EXem2LY1DOD9viuuruy5yoEuHff/s320/a%200%20Auler%20Grandpa%20Dutch%20recognition%20from%20President%20Ford.JPG" width="272" /></a></div><br /><div><br /></div><div><br /><div><br /></div></div>PJ Wetzelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09159310088762048964noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8664985451081296668.post-30768548329983301122022-10-28T22:20:00.005-07:002022-10-29T19:38:15.778-07:00Around the top of the World, Day 19: Roaming SE Iceland<iframe frameborder="0" height="270" src="https://youtube.com/embed/ioyxm94-pPM" width="480"></iframe><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>
Iceland's major National Park, containing and named for Vatnajökull, the largest Glacier in Europe, is the subject of this video. It's more than just a lot of ice. There is a special south-facing mountainside where I had an almost magical experience walking a lush forest of stunted European whte birch trees. Then there was Glacier Lagoon and Diamond Beach, where remnants of icebergs from the glaciers glisten like jewels on the deep black sand. Everything shown here happened on the same day - the second of six on my Ring Road tour of the country.<div><br /></div><div>A full report, complete with still photos is to be found at <a href="https://hikinghermit.com/?p=1508" target="_blank">my new WordPress blog</a>. I'm gradually migrating there because WordPress offers more flexibility and features than Blogger. Although I've yet to fully exploit most of those bells and whistles, I'm ever hopeful. Check it out.</div>PJ Wetzelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09159310088762048964noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8664985451081296668.post-5411677132866277232022-10-23T22:01:00.002-07:002022-10-26T19:54:28.299-07:00The Water Features of Iceland<iframe frameborder="0" height="270" src="https://youtube.com/embed/pGfUH3vnK0M" width="480"></iframe><div><br /></div><div>Waterfalls are my favorite thing. Iceland has bunches of them, big, little, intimate and gimongous. Then there are the places where water goes up. </div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEit5yVY5ROQFInYHxXmnZe56886n7n0vp27Cdp5iedsLvCeyvHt8ipQ41fRRavTD2CdVT4Qx5odtXNGFvU1p1nLFq1EJiXBoOiC2PMzUkhe-WQdY0mazMTR5rDd58KGTKGC0Qj6uPZTIpz_kZ7C6YflMxVHfBJSkX-kw0Ljmqrezo6WUzn3d4vA_sZVYg/s2657/0%200%200%20Video%20242%20MVI_3038%20Geysir%20eruption_Still%20shot%20(2).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1549" data-original-width="2657" height="187" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEit5yVY5ROQFInYHxXmnZe56886n7n0vp27Cdp5iedsLvCeyvHt8ipQ41fRRavTD2CdVT4Qx5odtXNGFvU1p1nLFq1EJiXBoOiC2PMzUkhe-WQdY0mazMTR5rDd58KGTKGC0Qj6uPZTIpz_kZ7C6YflMxVHfBJSkX-kw0Ljmqrezo6WUzn3d4vA_sZVYg/s320/0%200%200%20Video%20242%20MVI_3038%20Geysir%20eruption_Still%20shot%20(2).jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>The video presents those highlights of my six-day Ring-Road tour that feature water in motion in some way. At my <a href="https://hikinghermit.com/?p=1489" target="_blank">sister blog site</a>, HikingHermit.com, you can find a full report of the first of the six days, including more still photos.</div>PJ Wetzelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09159310088762048964noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8664985451081296668.post-85377817962175349472022-10-13T22:47:00.001-07:002022-10-21T05:05:43.872-07:00Top of the World travels: Exploring Reykjavik, Iceland<div class="separator"><br /></div><div class="separator"><br /></div><iframe frameborder="0" height="270" src="https://youtube.com/embed/zSy5ZVoE-Cc" width="480"></iframe><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>Here are the highlights of two days exploring Reykjavik on foot, with strong emphasis on the wild, the natural, the peaceful, and the grand. Featured prominently is the iconic Hallgrims Lutheran Church.<div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiERPzvrA_iyW7nb0jeg0SBmd8IyEFQAbkdSNeQTRbZkQZEOULpTF8Z2lYf6ye4pcF0gbj2wYW3nAUJzeEJz6MrcGBXvbvK2NafBYmlVD1zSd1DVgK-1adGHg35GmXHFsTAv6mQTjYf5YZPk0rqm6va0IVdchcZ3TgSvMJDwsGUfE35ThuM3ugjmkdU7w/s5068/a%2070%20church%20in%20evening%204.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3604" data-original-width="5068" height="228" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiERPzvrA_iyW7nb0jeg0SBmd8IyEFQAbkdSNeQTRbZkQZEOULpTF8Z2lYf6ye4pcF0gbj2wYW3nAUJzeEJz6MrcGBXvbvK2NafBYmlVD1zSd1DVgK-1adGHg35GmXHFsTAv6mQTjYf5YZPk0rqm6va0IVdchcZ3TgSvMJDwsGUfE35ThuM3ugjmkdU7w/s320/a%2070%20church%20in%20evening%204.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div><br /></div><div>How could it not be? Basically, it was the only landmark I knew about before coming here.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOeWlEO1qH1eXtVYrPuCoO5idmLPG90CeRRPZrTtt1H5NDNAMzHLUuZ5yuRO2NOr8bUvdGPvfAmldpV6nUfPQQ_01Soon67D0IYGDLvZ-ZkNaHteD8Y7lU3AAPzKClUeGpHaTlqhtvTLLHn1pEJqYTpenBe0qYpJk-L2jLoRXZr9_rZJ4PYqFYdZqi7w/s5184/0%20Aug%2015%20IMG_2947%20(2).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="5184" data-original-width="3888" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOeWlEO1qH1eXtVYrPuCoO5idmLPG90CeRRPZrTtt1H5NDNAMzHLUuZ5yuRO2NOr8bUvdGPvfAmldpV6nUfPQQ_01Soon67D0IYGDLvZ-ZkNaHteD8Y7lU3AAPzKClUeGpHaTlqhtvTLLHn1pEJqYTpenBe0qYpJk-L2jLoRXZr9_rZJ4PYqFYdZqi7w/s320/0%20Aug%2015%20IMG_2947%20(2).JPG" width="240" /></a></div><br /><div><br /></div><div>I spent two days exploring town, then another day holed up in my hotel waiting out a nasty storm, during which I learned about the volcanic eruption that was taking place just twenty miles south of the city. Hiking access to it was closed this day because of the weather. The previous two days, I could have taken the seven-mile round-trip hike, but I didn't know about it. Missing the chance to see this eruption is the biggest regret I have from this two-month journey that took me halfway around the top of the world.</div><div><br /></div><div>A full report of the days in Reykjavik, with more photos and a video clip of the eruption taken from a live web cam appears at my new blog site: <a href="https://hikinghermit.com/?p=1467" target="_blank">The Hiking Hermit.</a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br />PJ Wetzelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09159310088762048964noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8664985451081296668.post-33065819635773365362022-10-10T18:55:00.007-07:002023-01-22T18:27:05.130-08:00The Epic Icebergs of Greenland<iframe frameborder="0" height="270" src="https://youtube.com/embed/QS5lV5i6MOE" style="background-image: url(https://i.ytimg.com/vi/QS5lV5i6MOE/hqdefault.jpg);" width="480"></iframe><div><br /></div><div>Most of these massive floating islands of ice were found in Scoresby Sund on the east coast of Greenland, and Ilulissat on the west.</div><div><br /></div><div>I've published a full report on the Scoresby Sund visit, days 8-13 of the Arctic bucket list adventure on the <a href="https://hikinghermit.com/?p=1444" target="_blank">Hiking Hermit blog</a>. Head there for a look at some of the still shots of the icebergs from the video, plus coverage of the scenery, flora and fauna, and the one community we visited there (the only one within hundreds of miles), called Ittoqqortoormiit - population 350.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwUrUlQ6i4ZGpDNn-Hn7-it76MNvX47525LjV02Dj-XVFNRbYYHd5uPOCF6-yEcWxN6O0PiIGvuWgOMWcQWRKtcPkdYsuzzx5lxmkajANgZSuysUz7ZKJHopaXSCpT4Q8wE8Ffxv1t7v4NqGPSnBJl3371xT2G6zz7dPw6HGlAiVwtIamjeiYc5tJ84A/s3695/0%20Aug%2013%20a%2065%20Ittoqqortoormiit%20in%20morning%20fog.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1906" data-original-width="3695" height="206" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwUrUlQ6i4ZGpDNn-Hn7-it76MNvX47525LjV02Dj-XVFNRbYYHd5uPOCF6-yEcWxN6O0PiIGvuWgOMWcQWRKtcPkdYsuzzx5lxmkajANgZSuysUz7ZKJHopaXSCpT4Q8wE8Ffxv1t7v4NqGPSnBJl3371xT2G6zz7dPw6HGlAiVwtIamjeiYc5tJ84A/w400-h206/0%20Aug%2013%20a%2065%20Ittoqqortoormiit%20in%20morning%20fog.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div><br /></div>PJ Wetzelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09159310088762048964noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8664985451081296668.post-89355378894710495812022-10-09T07:17:00.001-07:002022-10-09T07:18:16.038-07:00Humpback whale flip-flop!<iframe frameborder="0" height="270" src="https://youtube.com/embed/T9FZUBcAXuk" width="480"></iframe><div><br /></div><div><div class="xdj266r x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs x126k92a" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Ever see a Humpback Whale do this?</span></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: inherit;">This was late in Day 7 of my 'Around the Top of the World' adventure, offshore of southern Svalbard.</span></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: inherit;">What's it doing? It repeatedly slapped the surface with one fin. Maybe that is a fishing tactic? Attracting attention? Just playing?</span></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The <span><a style="color: #385898; cursor: pointer;" tabindex="-1"></a></span>video is a heavily zoomed-in edit of the original. Sorry for the fuzziness, but this whale was pretty darn far away from the ship. I first spotted it when it made a spectacular full-body leap out of the water. Sure wish I had that on video!</span></div><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: inherit;">This is just an excerpt from the full <a href="https://hikinghermit.com/?p=1417" target="_blank">'Around the Top of the World, Days 6 and 7' blog post</a>, which I've posted on my new Hiking Hermit blog. Head over there for more video clips and a bunch of still photos.</span></div></div></div><div><br /></div>PJ Wetzelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09159310088762048964noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8664985451081296668.post-18393369443568746442022-10-01T19:30:00.004-07:002023-12-14T05:40:58.248-08:00The Hiking Hermit in Svalbard<iframe frameborder="0" height="270" src="https://youtube.com/embed/LfLX8bRlNg0" width="480"></iframe><div><br /></div><div><span face="Roboto, Noto, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #0d0d0d; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Now back where I have high speed internet, I'm processing a big backlog of material gathered during the Arctic travels. Chronologically, the visit to Svalbard came first. Spent about six days there on the very remote and wild island of Spitzbergen, between 79 and 80 degrees north latitude, just 600 miles from the North Pole. I passed north of 80N on the ship, but my northernmost hike was just a few miles shy of that latitude. The flora and fauna of the island and surrounding waters, along with the glaciers, were the main attractions for me.</span></div><div><span face="Roboto, Noto, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #0d0d0d; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div><span face="Roboto, Noto, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #0d0d0d; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">I had considered migrating my blogging to a new WordPress site at <a href="http://HikingHermit.com">HikingHermit.com</a>, so I posted more extensive reports there. I've changed my mind about paying for that hosting. That blog is going away early in 2024, so here are a few highlights from my hikes in still photos:</span></div><div><span face="Roboto, Noto, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #0d0d0d; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3gOYdkm0B0MEOQbdnboLthuY0-7syU8XpN_MrRAv_8poHtW6x0YXMGy6iN7SQftNGZiavWZjQPSEjouzoctPg7pwf_4M-C0kNF7WxsAb2fGz-8bpBSI8uxNUGC4lk3L33HbqSJpSv1WN4jvVvH8GctvvKTjqd4USODtuwaVycJh3YkPNUGaMZf-X_OoFH/s4351/0%20Aug%204%20IMG_2118%20(2)%20%20HEADLINE.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2555" data-original-width="4351" height="188" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3gOYdkm0B0MEOQbdnboLthuY0-7syU8XpN_MrRAv_8poHtW6x0YXMGy6iN7SQftNGZiavWZjQPSEjouzoctPg7pwf_4M-C0kNF7WxsAb2fGz-8bpBSI8uxNUGC4lk3L33HbqSJpSv1WN4jvVvH8GctvvKTjqd4USODtuwaVycJh3YkPNUGaMZf-X_OoFH/s320/0%20Aug%204%20IMG_2118%20(2)%20%20HEADLINE.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNWa-kPP9llAVHxQ5MqYI4Xqeasad65SGvdL6Hk57a0zBgWhgbe-eRE-aQ6E2OA0gCl4U41z_S4olHwJ5iZSNzaJITda3t_Um44tkcUWK0F7C9cm2G7tjsFzatsQbxgFT4mCrLsAo9qqaliC9DAdl5XKpGjC2ra5xhhMhFWX2hPxi6tP-_zsNFYi6ENczS/s1309/0%20Aug%205%20IMG_2160%20(2).JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="782" data-original-width="1309" height="191" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNWa-kPP9llAVHxQ5MqYI4Xqeasad65SGvdL6Hk57a0zBgWhgbe-eRE-aQ6E2OA0gCl4U41z_S4olHwJ5iZSNzaJITda3t_Um44tkcUWK0F7C9cm2G7tjsFzatsQbxgFT4mCrLsAo9qqaliC9DAdl5XKpGjC2ra5xhhMhFWX2hPxi6tP-_zsNFYi6ENczS/s320/0%20Aug%205%20IMG_2160%20(2).JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjq8rP-lokfi5zKQlowSN2Vqq2GHgJQhmT6XMrMrWDdK8C6wRYrjyx2fUi9FgxehpKTSIiaGlgSmwwOTup-zeHDTjaCxcZOmu_rHxaJenYW1KBkkbLzLvB6w14BZWpFdPHsMBN2dp1rLaIREFYFROGT885707iVt0RW6yKc1O05QrwGca9Rk59dwnVAAXr_/s4151/0%20Aug%207%20a%2018%20reindeer%20youngsters.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2095" data-original-width="4151" height="162" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjq8rP-lokfi5zKQlowSN2Vqq2GHgJQhmT6XMrMrWDdK8C6wRYrjyx2fUi9FgxehpKTSIiaGlgSmwwOTup-zeHDTjaCxcZOmu_rHxaJenYW1KBkkbLzLvB6w14BZWpFdPHsMBN2dp1rLaIREFYFROGT885707iVt0RW6yKc1O05QrwGca9Rk59dwnVAAXr_/s320/0%20Aug%207%20a%2018%20reindeer%20youngsters.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguCe-MzwOGyEnCPtoHNjEeCydXAEqhFTuphXjnf095MjaQF2WUExYrx5I9S80xrkk7NnYxaO1gfTdL4xNh17EGQSEHUFHbeEEf15d_xcmg89937uxgqx5Nigt2OQMOTIH9gjcNc9qSJE3Jta6c6mPINZMbxBFf4FcrAHmizMgwd956ltYaFoC6joweleo6/s3666/a%2091%20Musk%20ox,%20Kangerlussuaq%20Greenland.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1805" data-original-width="3666" height="158" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguCe-MzwOGyEnCPtoHNjEeCydXAEqhFTuphXjnf095MjaQF2WUExYrx5I9S80xrkk7NnYxaO1gfTdL4xNh17EGQSEHUFHbeEEf15d_xcmg89937uxgqx5Nigt2OQMOTIH9gjcNc9qSJE3Jta6c6mPINZMbxBFf4FcrAHmizMgwd956ltYaFoC6joweleo6/s320/a%2091%20Musk%20ox,%20Kangerlussuaq%20Greenland.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgc7Rc0YuHfYrgJI17rzzM9ntddP2aU1lrjUT2VTUxhTX-r6eID_sgf9htcXdg6PAyhVKx0dfKlhxyK2ndnySpr1Zv3ob_c1NOnkqH-Ch4DsyZ-tjXjYy0Wv53TWiwDELoCQ_OMBozQb_BqFieyar9ECVQ2nUjZbGYzoOpV1gDg6wbKMiUgctxuZa5p6qzV/s5184/0%20Aug%206%20a%208%20hermit%20hikes%20Svalbard%20Aug%206.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3888" data-original-width="5184" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgc7Rc0YuHfYrgJI17rzzM9ntddP2aU1lrjUT2VTUxhTX-r6eID_sgf9htcXdg6PAyhVKx0dfKlhxyK2ndnySpr1Zv3ob_c1NOnkqH-Ch4DsyZ-tjXjYy0Wv53TWiwDELoCQ_OMBozQb_BqFieyar9ECVQ2nUjZbGYzoOpV1gDg6wbKMiUgctxuZa5p6qzV/s320/0%20Aug%206%20a%208%20hermit%20hikes%20Svalbard%20Aug%206.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4Y8JsUgrMBuNNlnUtPlVKy905B1UeQ_UH9T1oP8xWJNUcnFzISinwQYIgTaIAEsB7KUYAEX4EO8o-LIGXwnV7-2e_RY8_TZsKQHbvZmuZcCmBbvxxNvNTAmYAI9-xjPPH3OYSCY6w-gvWHt-KsW__uVP18aMv3lwEhSw7UPp-_e2GTcRK1xqX708bjMA5/s5184/0%20Aug%207%20a%2019%20Greetings%20from%20Svalbard.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2625" data-original-width="5184" height="162" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4Y8JsUgrMBuNNlnUtPlVKy905B1UeQ_UH9T1oP8xWJNUcnFzISinwQYIgTaIAEsB7KUYAEX4EO8o-LIGXwnV7-2e_RY8_TZsKQHbvZmuZcCmBbvxxNvNTAmYAI9-xjPPH3OYSCY6w-gvWHt-KsW__uVP18aMv3lwEhSw7UPp-_e2GTcRK1xqX708bjMA5/s320/0%20Aug%207%20a%2019%20Greetings%20from%20Svalbard.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /><span face="Roboto, Noto, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #0d0d0d; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9tOfg8KYg-G6SqIx_KhQyhXjcnr3Wyuv86yrWen11GIURXbu6Xb0h8Y07hh4Wbcd4PgrI8NJdxNoQSVxivqcM0XVzSDetaaGiSwKv0DDR1l70LiZ61ayFG2fTSGl9rlQyblLRQibiCNj4kd45AgDh2gM5Sp8J2AGnSOHWoDZtTz_vkqCrHTKK5GeTECrd/s4403/0%20Aug%207%20a%2022%20yellow%20Saxifrage.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3302" data-original-width="4403" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9tOfg8KYg-G6SqIx_KhQyhXjcnr3Wyuv86yrWen11GIURXbu6Xb0h8Y07hh4Wbcd4PgrI8NJdxNoQSVxivqcM0XVzSDetaaGiSwKv0DDR1l70LiZ61ayFG2fTSGl9rlQyblLRQibiCNj4kd45AgDh2gM5Sp8J2AGnSOHWoDZtTz_vkqCrHTKK5GeTECrd/s320/0%20Aug%207%20a%2022%20yellow%20Saxifrage.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div><span face="Roboto, Noto, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #0d0d0d; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div><span face="Roboto, Noto, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #0d0d0d; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>PJ Wetzelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09159310088762048964noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8664985451081296668.post-29648837828114908012022-09-24T20:00:00.005-07:002022-10-09T07:20:44.098-07:00Up close and personal with Polar Bears<iframe frameborder="0" height="270" src="https://youtube.com/embed/F3R9gDkwe_s" width="480"></iframe><div><br /></div><div>Here is a compilation of the video documentation taken on my long journey around half the world at the fringes of the Arctic Ocean, getting to within 600 miles of the North Pole, visiting Svalbard (Norway), Iceland, Greenland, Arctic Canada, and Alaska.</div><div><br /></div><div>For a collection of the still images I took, and for more commentary, please visit the parallel post on my new Hiking Hermit blog: <a href="https://hikinghermit.com/?p=1345">An up-close visit with polar bears - The Hiking Hermit</a></div>PJ Wetzelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09159310088762048964noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8664985451081296668.post-47487212507311975912022-07-02T05:35:00.001-07:002022-07-02T05:36:17.963-07:00if I gave a TED Talk ...<div><br /></div><iframe frameborder="0" height="270" src="https://youtube.com/embed/xA2RcUNWTeo" width="480"></iframe><div><br /></div><div>... it would start in an auditorium.</div><div><br /></div><div>Of course it would. And you are there, sitting in the audience, right?</div><div><br /></div><div>But the whole point of the talk is to get you out of your seat and out into nature ... walking!</div><div><br /></div><div>Below is a written version of the message--not a transcript but the script, or the intended outline:</div><div><br /></div><div>* * *</div><div><br /></div><div>Good morning, folks. I'm the Hiking Hermit and I'm here to talk about walking.</div><div><br /></div><div>There is NOTHING ... <b>NOTHING</b>!!! ...more natural to us than walking.</div><div><br /></div><div>We exist as a species because we walk, and walk well ...</div><div><br /></div><div>LONG, HARD, All-day Hunter-Gatherer walks.</div><div><br /></div><div>We got <b>smart</b> because we walked out of the jungle on two feet.</div><div><br /></div><div>That freed our hands to use tools.</div><div><br /></div><div>Learning to use tools expanded our brains; and we found we could make better and better tools.</div><div><br /></div><div>Ever-more-clever tools to do our walking for us. To do our thinking for us.</div><div><br /></div><div>And what happened? (This ought to come as no surprise.)</div><div><br /></div><div>WE GOT <b>STUPID</b> !!!!!</div><div><br /></div><div>Our tools have taken over our lives.</div><div><br /></div><div>We have become slaves ... chained to our tools, captive inside the artificial spaces we built for our comfort. They've become voluntary jail cells, keeping us away from our true nature.</div><div><br /></div><div>Look around you at this moment. At least 90 percent of what we see and experience, at least 90 percent of the time, are our own tools.</div><div><br /></div><div>They've swallowed us up! We're drowning in them! GASPING for air!</div><div><br /></div><div>Our tools are destroying the world!</div><div><br /></div><div>STUPID!!!!!!!</div><div><br /></div><div>How on Earth did we fall into this trap? How did we let ourselves get so stupid?</div><div><br /></div><div>The answer is simple. We got away from our true nature.</div><div><br /></div><div>Our true nature IS nature itself. We are good solid products of the natural world, crafted through Billions of years of trial and error. We're made of good stuff. But we're denying it.</div><div><br /></div><div>And as I said at the start. Our TRUE NATURE is walking. Walking is the root characteristic that defines our species.</div><div><br /></div><div>So the best way out of our trap -- the best way to SAVE THE WORLD -- is to GET UP, walk out of your artificial space, walk away from the Tool Monsters, and return to the lifestyle that makes walking the most important part of every day: as Thoreau put it, "The enterprise and Adventure of the day."</div><div><br /></div><div>The GOOD NEWS is that the solution is EASY. It's the most NATURAL thing we could do.</div><div><br /></div><div>Because there is NOTHING ... NOTHING!!! ... that can transform your life more quickly and easily (and at practically no cost--no equipment to buy) than WALKING.</div><div><br /></div><div>So for God's sake ... for your own sake! ... get up! Get out of your chair and come along with me.</div><div><br /></div><div>We're going on a REAL adventure.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>PJ Wetzelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09159310088762048964noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8664985451081296668.post-48829033667796313232022-05-23T19:46:00.000-07:002022-05-23T19:46:27.813-07:00Giving Back - an Announcement<iframe frameborder="0" height="270" src="https://youtube.com/embed/jSjF12pKUFM" width="480"></iframe>
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I would appreciate feedback and will be seeking it. I'm announcing that I intend to develop and offer a comprehensive course on Day Hiking the Appalachian Trail, with application to any long-distance trail, and with emphasis not just on logistics, preparation, and execution, but on getting the most out of the experience--how to find peace of mind and a transformed outlook on life by immersing in the serenity of nature.
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In conjunction with this course, I will be releasing my long-delayed hike memoir about my 2012 double Appalachian Trail hike. I am the only person in the world who has hiked the AT twice in one year without camping--that is, by doing all of it in 270 out-and-back day hikes. The first one was on January 1st and I finished on November 3rd. It was a truly transformative experience, and through the following years I have come to deeply appreciate the value of regularly getting out and 'setting down Footprints in the Wilderness'.
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As I develop this course, I will be asking friends and fellow hikers for their input, and as it is actually being offered, I hope to join class graduates as they hike the AT in 2023. More news to come.
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Now, as a bonus for those who visit this blog, here are some other recent Appalachian Trail scenes and recent photos of new blooms seen along the AT and around the Cloister at Three Creeks.
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzLnZH0JlxvYQ5DZT8Vw1P7ZZjnd_jNTFjorzQB3BHHoPzaB3ys1Qug9BK07BdqZGlch1YfPYCsEaztgiN-Zk6KrPDgYd9-YYe-Q2wc7pq5dVRVqKOHtxrVQmYkdZS02r-bPkwnKb3DUXCIUPVc5xEO8yZqEV3ytCMdHtbSZaDLC1XPzj-RmfRmZV1ow/s4030/a%2029%20Solomons%20Seal%20Polygonatum%20pubescens%20May%2023.JPG" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="3765" data-original-width="4030" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzLnZH0JlxvYQ5DZT8Vw1P7ZZjnd_jNTFjorzQB3BHHoPzaB3ys1Qug9BK07BdqZGlch1YfPYCsEaztgiN-Zk6KrPDgYd9-YYe-Q2wc7pq5dVRVqKOHtxrVQmYkdZS02r-bPkwnKb3DUXCIUPVc5xEO8yZqEV3ytCMdHtbSZaDLC1XPzj-RmfRmZV1ow/s320/a%2029%20Solomons%20Seal%20Polygonatum%20pubescens%20May%2023.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Solomon's Seal - loaded with flower buds</td></tr></tbody></table><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgx9tMQibCgXeoBs-YzuzYyhgaRXeYa5nQSnq1CLE5PBAqpqnpe3b1bMznBf8aaBRAOImZB1RDPKKvVyo7gH1cr1uRrtHZaohrLMbxxMzzve78Nhrhqq0AjhGmzHEsMF7sZQAPOytPq4jD_TT1D_0VqP-RHW1eTSxKjmXmBjV7KajvwsycupnnUct2R0g/s4405/a%2015%20Canada%20May-lily,%20Maianthemum%20canadense.JPG" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="3015" data-original-width="4405" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgx9tMQibCgXeoBs-YzuzYyhgaRXeYa5nQSnq1CLE5PBAqpqnpe3b1bMznBf8aaBRAOImZB1RDPKKvVyo7gH1cr1uRrtHZaohrLMbxxMzzve78Nhrhqq0AjhGmzHEsMF7sZQAPOytPq4jD_TT1D_0VqP-RHW1eTSxKjmXmBjV7KajvwsycupnnUct2R0g/s320/a%2015%20Canada%20May-lily,%20Maianthemum%20canadense.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">a very similar, closely related plant, the Canadian May-lily</td></tr></tbody></table><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8Xy6Bnl8AWunZHXWxps7FFLrky5lUFphGukdZFQ4tjQsK733dkhcYYhNDOosoq7RXDjyp2_VDwuai0jIQ3gfNCn_VeqOF7CW58P0pwSZpPTdjwGGnIanxtFolEuKsINsthoZAERkxKdGYOiga88ExkovSAOpywq5uInhabtAwyZcjRPxjeTziV6zVnQ/s3219/a%2017%20Virginia%20Waterleaf,%20Hydrophyllum%20virginianum.JPG" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="2587" data-original-width="3219" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8Xy6Bnl8AWunZHXWxps7FFLrky5lUFphGukdZFQ4tjQsK733dkhcYYhNDOosoq7RXDjyp2_VDwuai0jIQ3gfNCn_VeqOF7CW58P0pwSZpPTdjwGGnIanxtFolEuKsINsthoZAERkxKdGYOiga88ExkovSAOpywq5uInhabtAwyZcjRPxjeTziV6zVnQ/s320/a%2017%20Virginia%20Waterleaf,%20Hydrophyllum%20virginianum.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Virginia waterleaf</td></tr></tbody></table><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgR1V7pjbogD4dj57W4gq2-F5AiLJ1gaiAHBGi5WJZdVKY_XoKHCJ-sDDj8Z_Og0A-9iJRBRmxKrKSG1EF-phc5SFBt9Uxh71YEwuhzbORhlWVuva-qYhJRUqRU7Faagna7gpkmveXt-jTIJKtFqqPWHYXI_HkxO6K2qytRkzyN6yXkGECejVADAbOUzQ/s5156/a%2018%20Hawthorn.JPG" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="3267" data-original-width="5156" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgR1V7pjbogD4dj57W4gq2-F5AiLJ1gaiAHBGi5WJZdVKY_XoKHCJ-sDDj8Z_Og0A-9iJRBRmxKrKSG1EF-phc5SFBt9Uxh71YEwuhzbORhlWVuva-qYhJRUqRU7Faagna7gpkmveXt-jTIJKtFqqPWHYXI_HkxO6K2qytRkzyN6yXkGECejVADAbOUzQ/s320/a%2018%20Hawthorn.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hawthorn</td></tr></tbody></table><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibhi3eaumQFFY-F1gTEvDkVczUwoOD6kjcthEUbdwE4D2YOGgviUybFRG4TTn7m9jIhJOQKu869DM30pPobRosDdPG28SIQNFLpy8Mnkv9QSSBrDnWwAe4CXTClaRv1pfpRH4YWzCKzRSD-3YfP2XNaGM_2d9NQF1NL1RBS8-tvlU1U5lCw5lm0w3xmQ/s3285/a%2020%20IMG_1738%20%284%29.JPG" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="1822" data-original-width="3285" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibhi3eaumQFFY-F1gTEvDkVczUwoOD6kjcthEUbdwE4D2YOGgviUybFRG4TTn7m9jIhJOQKu869DM30pPobRosDdPG28SIQNFLpy8Mnkv9QSSBrDnWwAe4CXTClaRv1pfpRH4YWzCKzRSD-3YfP2XNaGM_2d9NQF1NL1RBS8-tvlU1U5lCw5lm0w3xmQ/s320/a%2020%20IMG_1738%20%284%29.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">a cluster of pink Lady's slippers. Enough for four ladies!</td></tr></tbody></table><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhO0-768u53Zim77GQELpr7QJ2fZGgsuyEMR-opWlrd0jXLhK-mibYSVRyBwiwJRft-qZIBXhMTyJFCJr8XZ6Ub7kDAuAd8q1rDw-7PjzKAzwPRZ_DKMXmGjZ5RqB5aaM6IYBgw5duxjTcsLcOXrPKzMTxAyBdbKXKvqUnNRnaRMlyowiXFk_maqo76JA/s2564/a%2023%20May%2019th.JPG" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="2564" data-original-width="2490" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhO0-768u53Zim77GQELpr7QJ2fZGgsuyEMR-opWlrd0jXLhK-mibYSVRyBwiwJRft-qZIBXhMTyJFCJr8XZ6Ub7kDAuAd8q1rDw-7PjzKAzwPRZ_DKMXmGjZ5RqB5aaM6IYBgw5duxjTcsLcOXrPKzMTxAyBdbKXKvqUnNRnaRMlyowiXFk_maqo76JA/s320/a%2023%20May%2019th.JPG" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Yellow Lady's Slipper</td></tr></tbody></table><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglwxxR_6JwLSOcVtL3gfz2QNIYV09S8QIkyuKZbZxTJAEXOsMInqncczjVDCui-yOM6h6SYiE7WnciSfksPvcfKkH-5CJzQD53wSLureN3gs4GzIUhm8NqZsNKYPnnJpGAOPxRBCLIuXVat7lOEuBeH5OY6CDfrhz6uvLymqs3vuxpE5A8YpuYcJLD7A/s5184/a%2024%20May%2019.JPG" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="3888" data-original-width="5184" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglwxxR_6JwLSOcVtL3gfz2QNIYV09S8QIkyuKZbZxTJAEXOsMInqncczjVDCui-yOM6h6SYiE7WnciSfksPvcfKkH-5CJzQD53wSLureN3gs4GzIUhm8NqZsNKYPnnJpGAOPxRBCLIuXVat7lOEuBeH5OY6CDfrhz6uvLymqs3vuxpE5A8YpuYcJLD7A/s320/a%2024%20May%2019.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">up close and personal</td></tr></tbody></table><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDGCJ75YqwTfFxadGyImW3feD5_G6uuVs1YYbMJ1YRzpkt-t7eZ5EVFCgBwWgWSFJn2ZINGw1o2aR4aBq3OwFYCTQHiwmyfKcSDWLGNuwGWQB_8d9o-Us8aPLsMvOMuLJ68CdqUvRkithkoKsaTsiVUSR_Sc8R9-baeDM_np7C-z1FbwViHRsKXPJniQ/s5183/a%2022x%20May%2017th.JPG" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="3243" data-original-width="5183" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDGCJ75YqwTfFxadGyImW3feD5_G6uuVs1YYbMJ1YRzpkt-t7eZ5EVFCgBwWgWSFJn2ZINGw1o2aR4aBq3OwFYCTQHiwmyfKcSDWLGNuwGWQB_8d9o-Us8aPLsMvOMuLJ68CdqUvRkithkoKsaTsiVUSR_Sc8R9-baeDM_np7C-z1FbwViHRsKXPJniQ/s320/a%2022x%20May%2017th.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Wild azaleas at an AT viewpoint</td></tr></tbody></table><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi63K1l_RDCOgU8RhjTFKIkMM59xrMMMiTVuJYnQgXoUIbnwdRmaGrVtQR1voabcPUnYAH2ONlJ4HtUInMF50np8zQXeYBXWWAl3Mtd1mIhR46qG0QdHQJ8Y1St3u65om4e1UyMDOqa0HRo0Qg1AXttdH2u_X--IKPlfm6thB2iVr4vlGtxMH2fg1x-EA/s2545/a%2024x%20May%2019th.JPG" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="1430" data-original-width="2545" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi63K1l_RDCOgU8RhjTFKIkMM59xrMMMiTVuJYnQgXoUIbnwdRmaGrVtQR1voabcPUnYAH2ONlJ4HtUInMF50np8zQXeYBXWWAl3Mtd1mIhR46qG0QdHQJ8Y1St3u65om4e1UyMDOqa0HRo0Qg1AXttdH2u_X--IKPlfm6thB2iVr4vlGtxMH2fg1x-EA/s320/a%2024x%20May%2019th.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Wild geraniums and Ohio Spiderwort along the AT</td></tr></tbody></table><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEix4HbF3rukNPnEmSSKq-Kr1oyR7BrB0ysbqwEljsrY0QGS-gB7IuHxCDj213wv2uzOQtdgDMKLE-L8VazbWgtPm-UbdBiurREMfH1v7cxtC10QPThEZV0bYRZWWs82iCD1n-65k8-9ZBpF5L3S-HFeAdy1pbQ3CKaR1EgCVyFWSJJhd1jyukTvBkw5ZQ/s4634/a%2025%20May%2020.JPG" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="2807" data-original-width="4634" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEix4HbF3rukNPnEmSSKq-Kr1oyR7BrB0ysbqwEljsrY0QGS-gB7IuHxCDj213wv2uzOQtdgDMKLE-L8VazbWgtPm-UbdBiurREMfH1v7cxtC10QPThEZV0bYRZWWs82iCD1n-65k8-9ZBpF5L3S-HFeAdy1pbQ3CKaR1EgCVyFWSJJhd1jyukTvBkw5ZQ/s320/a%2025%20May%2020.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tulip tree blossom, <i>Liriodendron tulipifera</i></td></tr></tbody></table><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBXLPCmq7rn3T9JeT-0v0ooMeGMr6fyV4snmLxRV5YoXQpViqIOGpmPvogHNS12MHPxgA2YjHDx30YEray4Rz8IW1KzraQonGykrtTzeoABN4wquD1sRjUmgl35u1E2PhPy7Q3iHwdWiEPTaQNkL-aqghHM6wUTR3dh7Cv5jQHPwLfm5Jb7Bbgk_nEpg/s1685/a%2026%20May%2020.JPG" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="1484" data-original-width="1685" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBXLPCmq7rn3T9JeT-0v0ooMeGMr6fyV4snmLxRV5YoXQpViqIOGpmPvogHNS12MHPxgA2YjHDx30YEray4Rz8IW1KzraQonGykrtTzeoABN4wquD1sRjUmgl35u1E2PhPy7Q3iHwdWiEPTaQNkL-aqghHM6wUTR3dh7Cv5jQHPwLfm5Jb7Bbgk_nEpg/s320/a%2026%20May%2020.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">a closer look</td></tr></tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibfo1XRoPdSxB7E53Dcez5U-P_Rtc3kuafXsr6LV2mZpYm0w9gJfFCrGtO9VUIq0MiUvOCDue_FgtLFxs2IYTchKrB4RrwGK0sdtvgO8q4QH9ErfNAOA9iQffrRNgwkbgqGLkHmCE7WDN5JiBMjSF9wCiuAObK7iMeHvJz_-UVH1SfE9GEe7fFHYvNmA/s4700/a%2030%20rare%20five-fingered%20Sassafras,%20May%2023.JPG" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="2827" data-original-width="4700" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibfo1XRoPdSxB7E53Dcez5U-P_Rtc3kuafXsr6LV2mZpYm0w9gJfFCrGtO9VUIq0MiUvOCDue_FgtLFxs2IYTchKrB4RrwGK0sdtvgO8q4QH9ErfNAOA9iQffrRNgwkbgqGLkHmCE7WDN5JiBMjSF9wCiuAObK7iMeHvJz_-UVH1SfE9GEe7fFHYvNmA/s320/a%2030%20rare%20five-fingered%20Sassafras,%20May%2023.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rare and very unusual four- and five-fingered Sassafras leaves</td></tr></tbody></table>
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PJ Wetzelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09159310088762048964noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8664985451081296668.post-82393671606178151822022-05-20T09:42:00.002-07:002022-05-20T09:58:32.027-07:00The Hiking Hermit - After two years in the woods, it's time to come back...<iframe frameborder="0" height="270" src="https://youtube.com/embed/QJGPWjJbKTY" width="480"></iframe>
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Footprints in the Wilderness:
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Over the past twelve years, I've come to understand how transformative hiking in wild places can be.
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There's the pure joy of being in the place, in the moment. There are the well-documented health benefits, both mentally and physically. And there are the connections, to people and to nature, to wild places and what they mean to people, to new and vivid ways of understanding the world and our place in it.
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I began this experience climbing a 20,000 foot moiuntain in South America back in January 2010 after more than two years of whipping myself into shape. That was a bucket list achievement, but it didn't feel like an end.
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I was in top physical form and never felt better. I wasn't going to go back to being a couch potato. In order to retain the clear health benefits I was experiencing, I started hiking trails around a big reservoir near home. The hikes grew in length and in purpose. By fall of 2011 I had decided I was going to try to hike the entire Appalachian Trail both ways in a calendar year. I (finally) have a book coming out about the experience, to be released in a couple months.
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The AT hike was truly transformative for me in a multitude of ways; and I've met and witnessed the transformation of many other fellow hikers who were on the trail with me. Many of them have turned to a hiker oriented life style as a result. Their whole lives have been infused with new and wonderful purpose, finding a way to do what they love for a living, giving back to the trail community what they have gained.
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For me, the transformation sent me on an even greater hiking quest than the AT. I undertook to hike to the doorstep of every one of nearly two dozen places that I've called home throughout my life--making a physical connection to them all on foot. I hiked over 20,000 miles in the process, reaching places like coastal North Carolina, Key West Florida, the upper peninsula of Michigan, and the Rocky Mountains of Colorado--all connected by a continuous trail of footprints. Finally in fall of 2019 I accomplished that goal just in time for the world's sad transformation brought about by Covid.
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In part in response to Covid, and in part simply following my gut, I then chose to walk away from society and the mess that it had become. I settled in the woods, sort of like Thoreau did at Walden Pond, and began another transformation--more of a spiritual one but also a very practical one. I gained an understanding of who I was and how I fit in to the great scheme of nature--from the tiny filaments of fungi helping to feed the roots of trees, to the cosmic filaments sprawled across the universe connecting clusters of galaxies with one another stretching through all known time and space.
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It has taken two years of combined contemplation and decompression, but the transformation now seems complete. I begin to feel that it is time to return to society, acting as an ambassador from the Wilderness, in order to help other people find the kind of deep serenity and purpose that I have found.
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In this video, presented as a rambling discussion as I hiked on a hot day in the woods, I share my thinking about some of the ideas I have that can help people find their own transformation. It's just the germ of the process--the very first stage. I hope to more fully organize and flesh out what I will offer--what I will do--in future talks. Stay tuned.
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PJ Wetzelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09159310088762048964noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8664985451081296668.post-10716116130384195462022-05-18T03:20:00.001-07:002022-05-18T03:20:14.347-07:00May 17th -- Ladies Day<iframe frameborder="0" height="270" src="https://youtube.com/embed/inMTKtN8wzw" width="480"></iframe>
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On a beautiful sunny mid-May day at 3200 feet elevation near the Appalachian Trail and about three miles from the Cloister at Three Creeks, I spent the day on another of my nature quests.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5KojQrqCPr3TBusF8Rf5p_ME4VAPfJls37mxDPQNUswW2OwxEbULxs-WH_jS1JRRxqiIpFZ5vPRMUYumKM_KShwy-_cLK0rHr-mo2_XifYx3dGRpRIYuotXyKCv1WaJod1Maj00KMPAw0XsW88L4TdmhjvnxM7Plv4uq-RXuAHlGgkzwgwxiGNhBKUQ/s2939/a%2019%20Look%20To%20Nature.JPG" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" height="400" data-original-height="2939" data-original-width="2826" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5KojQrqCPr3TBusF8Rf5p_ME4VAPfJls37mxDPQNUswW2OwxEbULxs-WH_jS1JRRxqiIpFZ5vPRMUYumKM_KShwy-_cLK0rHr-mo2_XifYx3dGRpRIYuotXyKCv1WaJod1Maj00KMPAw0XsW88L4TdmhjvnxM7Plv4uq-RXuAHlGgkzwgwxiGNhBKUQ/s400/a%2019%20Look%20To%20Nature.JPG"/></a></div>
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Today I was looking for the hard-to-find wild orchid known as the Lady Slipper. The pink variety, <i>Cypripedium acaule</i> is far more common here, and today I saw several dozens in three separate locations, including the deepest pink variety I've ever seen. It was almost red.
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhe6jo71IPc4lsktYOvMVjaO-00o-X2kDCFCjtm7ImMxbzmFkiFlpybMPtMDRtAxnQlpEGJM33NcBpsBawua0KhVVH_L_4o_BdwYsAp8JeXjTd7zrE3ZFbG59exZkuMXbh_QvNMAiske43_IpXWX09w1yv6Lwd1AspXgbP3REOPhaunb2w6TMcdaHexxQ/s3285/a%2020%20IMG_1738%20%284%29.JPG" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="320" data-original-height="1822" data-original-width="3285" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhe6jo71IPc4lsktYOvMVjaO-00o-X2kDCFCjtm7ImMxbzmFkiFlpybMPtMDRtAxnQlpEGJM33NcBpsBawua0KhVVH_L_4o_BdwYsAp8JeXjTd7zrE3ZFbG59exZkuMXbh_QvNMAiske43_IpXWX09w1yv6Lwd1AspXgbP3REOPhaunb2w6TMcdaHexxQ/s320/a%2020%20IMG_1738%20%284%29.JPG"/></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjs0YGoO_fG5SlUPXx0xBEvCOs5FNWSChpRy3p4ELsVQ-OvR6K0WqqZ8yjGKTiz8XamCl_iOF_gcitUeVh8GrqMDFaFqm_27Sn-DZrgJWOkyX0eg8y2WGvBIComUMQu7ZtHkEv6XFzuZP2FFS3oI5yziQlJgU6IGLHGJPYINObh2MZtLG_1_tdwLGP8Tw/s3356/a%2020%20extra%20red.JPG" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="320" data-original-height="2605" data-original-width="3356" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjs0YGoO_fG5SlUPXx0xBEvCOs5FNWSChpRy3p4ELsVQ-OvR6K0WqqZ8yjGKTiz8XamCl_iOF_gcitUeVh8GrqMDFaFqm_27Sn-DZrgJWOkyX0eg8y2WGvBIComUMQu7ZtHkEv6XFzuZP2FFS3oI5yziQlJgU6IGLHGJPYINObh2MZtLG_1_tdwLGP8Tw/s320/a%2020%20extra%20red.JPG"/></a></div>
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But today's big prize were the rare yellow lady's slippers, <i>Cypripedium parviflorum</i>.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXVXOaR_GGKrI0wKcbgLlklEOUAsjUvQlJXfCAdt56C5dlWNxKAbH8A3tDJaVwnl-DhZsU_6W4_g-Vc__nKm-RtTWYuuSg4DVI3kB0X02mFconQfANUA-Zf3wynoItVwRiVyAPrMvkgYAYYrOZ1jjony1CXBAfDwiPQ6iFhWsJWSRcDzb5bzqD0-7YwQ/s3236/a%2021%20IMG_1747%20%283%29.JPG" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="320" data-original-height="2359" data-original-width="3236" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXVXOaR_GGKrI0wKcbgLlklEOUAsjUvQlJXfCAdt56C5dlWNxKAbH8A3tDJaVwnl-DhZsU_6W4_g-Vc__nKm-RtTWYuuSg4DVI3kB0X02mFconQfANUA-Zf3wynoItVwRiVyAPrMvkgYAYYrOZ1jjony1CXBAfDwiPQ6iFhWsJWSRcDzb5bzqD0-7YwQ/s320/a%2021%20IMG_1747%20%283%29.JPG"/></a></div>
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<br />PJ Wetzelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09159310088762048964noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8664985451081296668.post-91292649031565611832022-05-08T06:02:00.008-07:002022-05-08T06:02:51.703-07:00Catawba Rhododendron blooming, declaring the beginning of summer<iframe frameborder="0" height="270" src="https://youtube.com/embed/z0JPTjPuqBI" width="480"></iframe>
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Yep, summer has arrived at the Cloister at Three Creeks, and its only early May.
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No, don't give me any of your technical gobble-de-gook. Just open your eyes and look around. Listen to the birdsong echoing off the rich, fresh green forest canopy. Take a deep breath. Inhale the scents of the woods come fully alive again on a misty, damp May 6th morning ... and you *know*.
<br /><br />PJ Wetzelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09159310088762048964noreply@blogger.com0