October 1992 marked our first autumn living in Vermont. Up to that point, the farthest east I had been is Washington, D.C., and no farther north than Cooks Forest State Park in western Pennsylvania. But as the leaves began to change in late September and peak in early October, we…
My wife’s work as an Administrative Assistant for the Reformed Baptist Network requires her to attend the annual General Assembly. This year it was held in Riverside, California. Aw, shucks! Now, we couldn’t fly all the way to California and spend just the three days required for the conference, now,…
I wouldn’t necessarily call it a favorite path, but the Hennepin Feeder Canal Trail is frequently used and enjoyed. We access it about a quarter mile from our house, hence the frequent use. The trail is nice because it’s flat and straight—in other words, easy! From the trailhead near our…
As 1992 dawned, I was certain I had descended to one of the darkest times of my life to that point. For a variety of reasons, I could no longer continue serving the church I had pastored for the previous 4 years, and December 31, 1991, was my last day…
I live in river country. A few blocks from our house flows the Rock River, coming down from the north and emptying into the Mississippi River about 40 miles away. My wife and I frequently walk a path that looks over the Rock. If we head the other direction, the…
I can’t recall becoming seriously interested in backpacking, but 7 or 8 years ago, I got it in my head that I’d like to hike the Long Trail in Vermont—a 273-mile trail up the spine of Vermont, through the Green Mountains, bordered by the Massachusetts state line in the south…
On Halloween in 1938, one of the most famous hoaxes was not intended to be a hoax. On the CBS Radio Network’s radio series, The Mercury Theatre on the Air, Orson Welles directed and narrated a radio-adapted script of H.G. Wells’ novel The War of the Worlds. Welles intended to…
As one might deduce from the name, Mississippi Palisades—a wonderful state park about an hour from our home—lies on the Illinois shore of the Mississippi River. It’s aptly named “Palisades” on account of several cliffs rising high above the river. We first discovered the park nearly two decades ago and…
Like many people this time of year, I got to looking at the calendar and compared how much time is left in the year with how much “vacation time” I have available. More than I’ll use, it seems, but thought I should make a stab at it! I did feel…
One afternoon last month, while I was working on some mindless routine tasks, a song came on the internet radio station quietly playing in the background. I’d heard it before, a rather pretty, though somewhat melancholy, tune. I couldn’t make out all the lyrics—wasn’t trying to, either—but the repeated phrase,…
