An Occasional Thought or Photo

In 2007, my father-in-law Gene Norton took me to a small cemetery in the middle of a farm about 12 miles northeast of Arkansas City, Kansas to see the grave of his great-grandfather. C. V. Norton (1833-1914) Catherine His Wife (1843-1916) Charles V. Norton first appears in Cowley County , Kansas records in the 1880 Federal Census.   His age of 45 on that census would suggest a birth year of 1834 or 1835. He was a farmer in Liberty Township , so the view from his tombstone in Liberty Cemetery , tucked away on the crest of ridge in open pasture, is probably reminiscent of his original scenery. The census notes Charles was born in Pennsylvania , his father originally from New York and his mother from an unspecified state in the US .   Charles became one of the many settlers pushing westward in the 19 th century.   Previously belonging to the Osage tribe, Cowley Country was opened for settlement on July 15, 1870.   Charles appears to be one of th...

Not too far off the highway between Zurich and Bern is the small town of Bienne or Biel.  It is officially a bi-lingual town, so it has a French name and a German name.  I was in Bienne (feeling French right now) to visit the Swiss regulator of radio frequencies (for work not personal interests).  The regulator as well has a French name, OFCOM, and a German name, BAKOM.  It's almost like visiting two places at once.  Anyway, the town has a very quaint and well preserved old town.  As we arrived a bit early, I was able to do a little exploring.

I spent a weekend in Paris earlier this month.  While the weather was rainy and the bulk of my free time occupied with a sudden onset of Achilles tendinitis, I did manage one evening of exploring the Latin Quarter with camera in hand. I noticed at Notre Dame that the majority of people were not taking photographs of the famous cathedral, but rather of their friends and family with the cathedral in the background.  I refrained from doing the typical MySpace self-photo, complete with extended arm.

It was 3pm on a Thursday afternoon in Bournemouth, England, and we had just concluded our business.  In day two of rain and gale-force winds on southern England's coast, what can one do?  I was in no rush to get back to my efficiency room near Heathrow. Knowing one of my colleagues had not spent much time in England, I suggested a side route, heading through Salisbury to see its cathedral.  We took a quick look around, said hello to the Magna Carta, and continued on to see how much we could squeeze into the late afternoon before venues began to close for the day. Heading backward in time, we were too late to get through the gate at Old Sarum, so we proceeded on to Stonehenge.  Fortunately, Stonehenge is open well into the evening.  The weather was still somewhat misty and cloudy, so it was quite a contrast to the warm, sunny day of my first visit to the site a few years prior. Hands down, the way to see Stonehenge is in dark, dreary weather.  It ads a...

Published in  The News Gazette , page F-6, on Sunday, September 19, 2010, as a reader-submitted travel article. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The summer has been hot; work has been intense; I was ready for a break.  So, I arranged for a few days off, and my wife Shari and I did what I love to do in the summer—head north.  We sought escape from the heat and humidity along Minnesota’s north shore of the Lake Superior.  While Minnesotans too were having an unusually hot summer, the highs were only in the low 80’s with cool nights in the 60’s, and their grass is still green. I was pleased to find plenty of lodging options right on the shore for sub-week stays, even during the high season on short notice.  We selected Cove Point Lodge in Beaver Bay, Minnesota, centrally located about halfway between Duluth and Grand Marais.  The lodge is right on the Lake, has plenty of Adi...

Macon Leary in Anne Tyler's 1985 novel "The Accidental Tourist" writes a series of guidebooks for businessmen who hate to travel.  He teaches how to avoid unwanted human interaction and how to return to the security and safety of home as quickly as possible. I've been traveling on business since Tyler's novel was published and since 1990, most of that business travel has been to other countries, about 30 at last count.  While I keep a list of places I'd like to return to for a real vacation, that rarely seems to happen.  I realized long ago that my chance to experience other places and cultures was in the here and now. So when I travel on business, I am anything but an accidental tourist.  Rather, I am very intentional about making the most of the trip from a personal perspective without sacrificing the business objective at hand.  My intentional side trips can range from 15 minutes in the Louvre to a full day trip on a free Saturday or Sunday. I think t...