Scenes From A Roadtrip

While up in Northlandia I thought it must have been a very good summer for mushrooms. I saw them everywhere and not just ordinary ones, huge ones. There was a lot of talk of fairy circles. Now a clump of mushrooms is not a fairy circle. A fairy circle, fairy ring or elf ring is a naturally occurring ring or arc of mushrooms. None of the above fit the description. However, the next couple photographs are.

It is quite a badge of honor to have circular or arcing fungi in your yard. Folklore says that these areas can be either places of danger or good fortune. Damn little pixies can't make up their minds, I guess.

More road side advertising. The spelling is off, the structure is atrocious but the meaning comes through loud and clear.

An nice ornate tombstone found somewhere on the road trip.

Yes, indeed.

Straight west of Alpha a few miles and south of New Windsor in the boondocks is this small roadside stone. It marks the place where a town existed. It was a stage route, and contained a couple general stores, bank brickyard, 3 churches, 3 saloons and a post office. It had around 850 people in 1839. Sadly, the railroad went to Alpha and people moved there, thus the end of Oxford, Illinois.

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As my old professor said in college and I repeat here often: never miss an opportunity to travel.

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Flashback Friday

Class, Or Lack Thereof The Dwight Vice gravestone in Oquawka, Illinois. I bring this old chestnut out every so often just to remind me that class is classless. Dwight Vice was killed in his home near Oquawka in 2001. It was one of those things that can generate crime: two guys thought Dwight had a lot of money stashed at home because of his pot-selling sideline to supplement his fishing job. Not really one of those big drug deals gone-bad things. Marijuana was, according to the trial, about the only stuff Dwight sold. But these two guys barge into the house and killed Dwight and attempted to kill his 11 year old kid, Darryl, before they took off with what money they could find. His son, now 23, was stabbed in the back and left for dead. He survived and is wheelchair bound and has undergone several surgeries to repair his wounds. He will be paralyzed for life. None of this is pleasant. Reading the f...

Florida Air Museum - Part 3

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The Mary Davis Home - Part 2

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