#79 Musings Beyond the Bunker (Monday July 5)
Good morning!
Many of us are obsessed with lists (okay, I confess, I’m in the top decile in making lists…). From time immemorial it seems we have been making lists. Among the earliest was the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. This has given rise to the Seven Wonders of the Modern World and the Seven Wonders of the Natural World and other such things. One of the recent popular “lists” people create are “bucket lists” (as in, “I’d like to do these things before I kick the bucket”). Now that the worst seems to be over, people are starting to look at their travel and adventure lists, trying to choose where they may want to go next.
The other day I was speaking with Georgina Rothenberg about her quest to visit all the presidential libraries. As you may recall from an earlier Musing, I love presidential libraries. They tell the story of an era, through the prism of a presidency, as well as the personal story of the president and First Lady. I have visited a number of them (Hoover, FDR, Kennedy, Johnson, Carter, Reagan) but have a number more to visit, some in non-geographically friendly locations. One library Georgina suggested I visit is the “new” redone Richard Nixon Library. It’s right down the freeway in Yorba Linda. As opposed to the prior version, controlled by the Nixon family, the museum is now a part of the national network of presidential libraries. As such, one now can visit and see (and hear—yes, the tapes!) what the Nixon White House was like.
A lot of us like to plan goals and/or make lists of things to do and then try to satisfy those objectives. The accomplishments of my high school history teacher and wrestling coach, John Dahlem, exhaust me just thinking about them. He’s climbed all the highest peaks and, with his son, became the oldest father-son team to ascend Everest!
Then there is the recent remarkable bicycling journey across the United States by elementary school friend, Parke Skelton. Parke has been posting on Facebook a travelogue with interesting historic and cultural commentary. And the pictures are spectacular.
Another pretty remarkable trip is my son Jake’s conquest of the Colorado Trail. The Colorado Trail (including the Collegiate Peaks loop in the middle) is some 585 miles in length. Jake did much of it with his pal, Riki Parikh. He met and hiked with a few other friends along the way. And he spent some time by himself. He started the trail by walking from Denver to Breckinridge by himself, at a pretty brisk pace. At Breckinridge, he required a doctor’s attention to his feet and a new pair of hiking shoes.
For arguably the best travel book ever, check out A Walk in the Woods, Bill Bryson’s classic on tackling the Appalachian Trail, bit by bit.
Andrea and I joined Jake for three days of the hike—all above 10,000 feet! How he did weeks of this is beyond either of us!
Best, Glenn