Who doesn’t love the breathtaking beauty of a pretty sunrise or sunset. We sure love them – that’s why our signature photo on this site is a sunset. We’ve shot most of ours in Texas, mainly from our own yard or neighborhood, but we’ve been lucky enough to shoot some in a few other places, too. It’s just about being in the right place at the right time and making ourselves get up early enough to catch the sunrise. All of these are aim and shoot shots, no filters or enhancements were used, and some were taken with our phones. We hope these brighten your day!
Bar Harbor, Maine sunriseWinter sunset from our front yard.Sunrise shot from our streetWe’ve posted this Sedona, Arizona sunset before, but it’s so beautiful we wanted to include it again.West Texas sunrise. Had to sign this one because it’s so pretty.Sunset shot near Amarillo, TexasTaken from the window of a plane, we captured this between-the-clouds sunrise somewhere over Mississippi.Sunset before a storm – our front yard.Fall sunrise taken about a mile from our houseAnother beautiful Texas sunset shot from Decatur, TexasSunrise near Saguache, Colorado
Thank you for viewing our post! We hope you will return again for more WWWTWs, Quick Stops, road trip destinations or a few tips and tricks. Join our family of followers here so you never miss a post! We can also be found on Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter.
Happy hump day, everyone!
Mike and Kellye
As always, we strive to be as accurate with our information as possible. If we made a mistake, it was unintentional. (Hey, we’re only human!) We aren’t paid for our recommendations, and we only recommend our own tried and true vendors and venues. Our suggestions are for places that we’ve heard good things about but haven’t visited personally, and our opinions are our own.
If you follow our posts, you’re already familiar with Quick Stops. Quick Stops are designed to give a nod to locations to which we can’t devote an entire post. The destinations are completely random and totally fun.
Where in the world is it?
Zion Episcopal Church is in Charles Town, West Virginia. The town was settled by Charles Washington, the youngest full brother of George Washington, around 1780. At the time, Charles Town was in Virginia, as West Virginia did not become a state until 1863. Charles Town is the county seat of Jefferson County, West Virginia, and lies in the Shenandoah Valley.
About Zion Episcopal Church
The original building was constructed around 1815, but another larger church was built on the site and was completed in 1848. Tragically, the second church building burned. The third church building was dedicated in 1851 and is the building that exists today, though the steeple wasn’t added until the 1890s. Perhaps most significant is the church cemetery. Approximately 70 of George Washington’s relatives are buried here, many of whom were born at Mount Vernon. Resting beside the Washington family members are other prominent historic figures and townspeople. According to the church history, approximately 85 to 90 Confederate soldiers and two Revolutionary War officers are also buried here.
We were able to walk through the cemetery and read many of the grave markers. Some of them are so old, however, that the words on them have been erased by time.
We identified the markers of quite a few members of the Washington family, and we were surprised by how many were named George
During the Civil War, the church was seized by Union soldiers for use as a barracks and later as a hospital. The soldiers did so much damage to the interior that it had to be completely renovated after the war.
One last view of Zion Episcopal Church surrounded by its cemetery
And now you know.
Until the next trip…
Travel safe, travel smart, and we will see you down the road!
Mike and Kellye
As always, we strive to be as accurate with our information as possible. If we made a mistake, it was unintentional. (Hey, we’re only human!) We aren’t paid for our recommendations, and we only recommend our own tried and true vendors and venues. Our suggestions are for places that we’ve heard good things about but haven’t visited personally, and our opinions are our own.
Today we’re sharing some interesting vehicles that we have come across during our travels. We hope you enjoy seeing them!
USS Cairo gunboat. One of the first ironclad warships built during the civil war, she was sunk by a torpedo (or mine) in the Yazoo River while helping other ships sweep for mines in 1862. Luckily there were no casualties. Having been raised in the 1960s after lying in the silty bottom of the river for over 100 years, she now resides at Vicksburg National Military Park.
Tour bus in Yellowstone National Park. Beginning in the 1920s, these “National Park Buses” carried visitors on various excursions through the park, with some of the buses still running in the 1960s. Eventually all of these classics were all sold. Several of them have now been relocated and refurbished so that today’s visitors to the park can experience what it was like back in the early days – with modern amenities and roads, of course.
USS Constitution. Nicknamed Old Ironsides, she was initially launched in 1797. She is the world’s oldest ship that is still afloat, and she is the oldest commissioned ship in the U.S. Navy, which means she is still served by U. S. Navy officers and crew. Her home is the Charlestown Navy Yard in Charlestown, Massachusetts.
This truck is called a Peacekeeper. They were once used by security officers who patrolled near minuteman missile silos. These armored Dodge trucks were usually outfitted with a machine gun turret on the roof. This one is at the Minuteman Missile National Historic Site in South Dakota.
This is a rail truck at the World Museum of Mining in Butte, Montana. The unusual vehicle was an important part of the Butte, Anaconda & Pacific Railway (BAP) which was the first railroad to convert from steam to electricity. Built in the early 1900s, this truck was used to maintain the overhead wires of the railroad.
These huge ships are docked in Baltimore and are Military Sealift Command (MSC) ships used to preposition or move supplies, vehicles, and other cargo needed by the military. Interestingly, MSC ships are served by civil service workers who are employed by the Navy and are not active military personnel. We captured this shot in the rain thus the monochromatic image.
Old snow blower train in Skagway, Alaska with a rotary snowplow on the front.
This is President Lyndon Johnson’s Jetstar, nicknamed Air Force 1/2. The runway at his Texas ranch couldn’t accommodate Air Force One, so this smaller plane would carry him from a larger airport (usually in San Antonio or Austin) to the ranch. The plane is on display at the Lyndon B. Johnson National Historical Park (LBJ Ranch) at Stonewall, Texas.
Here is a shot of the Goodyear blimp which we captured on a gorgeous fall afternoon in our own city. Did you know that up until 2005 (with a couple of deviations) Goodyear named its blimps after the American winners of the America’s Cup yacht race? Now the public gets to submit suggestions for naming the blimps.
We’re going to close the post with a shot inside a hot air balloon while it’s deflating – just because we think it’s a cool pic.
We hope you enjoyed our post and will come back again for more exciting road trip destinations, a Quick Stop, some tips and tricks, or another Wish We Were There Wednesday. Better yet, come back for all of our posts, and join our family of followers so you never miss one! We can also be found on Facebook and Twitter.
Happy hump day, everyone!
Mike and Kellye
As always, we strive to be as accurate with our information as possible. If we made a mistake, it was unintentional. (Hey, we’re only human!) We aren’t paid for our recommendations, and we only recommend our own tried and true vendors and venues. Our suggestions are for places that we’ve heard good things about but haven’t visited personally, and our opinions are our own.
Arizona chickens. They were at a national monument. Doesn’t that make them more special than just plain ol’ regular chickens? Yeah, we thought so, too.
As we’ve said before, part of the reason we love to travel is to see wildlife. Now we don’t see wildlife on every hike or even every trip, but we’re always on the lookout. Don’t tell the highway patrol, but we’ve even been known to back up on a highway to see something unusual. Some of the pictures we’re sharing today have been posted before and a some have not. We hope you enjoy our menagerie.
Sup, gurl?
We try to shoot (with our cameras) cardinals every time we see one. Not sure what was so interesting about that wall, though.
Confession: we didn’t see this fox on a trip, we saw him in a cemetery in our own city. Looked like he was thinking about having lunch at the Dairy Queen across the street.
We wanted to take this adorable baby longhorn home with us, but our neighborhood doesn’t allow us to have cattle in our yard. 🙁
Scissor-tailed Flycatcher in Texas. They’re the state bird of Oklahoma. Guess this one heard the flies are bigger in Texas.
Guadalupe Mountains mule deer on a mission. Pretty sure we heard her humming that song “I’m Bringin’ Home a Baby Bumblebee”.
We shot another cardinal. This time in Abilene State Park, Texas. He was trying to pick up a girl cardinal in the next tree over.
Aoudad herd, Davis Mountains, Texas. Not kidding: stood right next to the road to take a picture of the mountains and never saw them until another car pulled up and somebody jumped out with a camera. Never did get a picture of the mountains either.
Dude, she’s just not that into you. All 10’s for the performance, though – just too bad you couldn’t stick the landing.
One of many bull elk we saw at Rocky Mountain National Park. We were there during rutting season and could hear them bugling all over the place. Not sure if they were asking for a fight or yelling at their wives and kids.
Colorado hummingbird. One of our luckiest shots ever, ’cause these little guys are fast!
Yellowstone bison. There was not another bison in sight, so we think maybe he had been shunned by the herd. They do that, you know, shun older males that can’t seem to get a mate. Bison are so rude.
Pouting wet cat in Texas. He/she wouldn’t even look at us when we asked it to say cheese. Like it’s our fault it rained…
Rattler! Got in trouble with a park ranger for stopping in the road to take this picture. Sometimes you just have to do whatever you have to do to get the shot, even if that means disregarding authority. We’re sorry…not really…well, kind of.
Backed up on the highway to get a look at these wild burros near Terlingua, Texas. Yep, we wanted to take a couple of these home with us, too, but the neighborhood…you know… And they were being escorted by a horse!
Again, we backed up on the road to capture this New Mexico yak. Such a weird thing to see when you’re used to seeing plain old beef cattle all the time. We did not want to take this home with us, though he did have some really nice horns. Why do we have these, anyway? Do people eat them? Use them for their fur? (“Nice sweater.” “Oh, thanks, it’s genuine yak.”) We need answers, people!
This coyote in Yellowstone was eating something really gross for breakfast when we stopped to take his picture, along with about 25 other people who were calling it a wolf. Anyway, we’re glad we didn’t get the gross breakfast in the shot.
Disclaimer: the shot of the sleeping animal (could be a hyena or it could be some African wild dog-thing, we can’t remember) at the top of the page was taken by us on a trip. A trip to the Fort Worth Zoo, that is! Our definition of wildlife: any animal that runs/flies/slithers/swims away when it sees you, wants to bite you ’til you die, can rip your face off and/or chew off any limb, or will drag you off to share as a meal with the rest of the pack. So, zoo animals are still considered wildlife, right?
That does it for today. Thanks so much for joining us on our walk on the wild side. We hope you will return to our site again for more sights, scenery, trips, tricks, and tips. Be sure to sign up to be an e-mail follower so you never miss a post, and follow us on Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter. Tell your friends! We want to be friends with them, too.
Happy hump day, everybody!
As always, we strive to be as accurate with our information as possible. If we made a mistake, it was unintentional. (Hey, we’re only human!) We aren’t paid for our recommendations, and we only recommend our own tried and true vendors and venues. Our suggestions are for places that we’ve heard good things about but haven’t visited personally, and our opinions are our own.
Today we’re running away to the mountains! Since our goal is to visit as many national parks as we can, most of our shots are of beautiful park mountains. There are a few that are not in parks because they were too pretty to leave out. Enjoy!
Casa Grande in the rain – Chisos Mountains, Big Bend National Park
Big Sky Country
Bryce Canyon National Park
Guadalupe Mountains National Park
Agathla Peak, Arizona
Zion National Park
Idaho Beauty
Yellowstone National Park
Death Valley National Park
Rocky Mountain National Park
Today’s featured image at the top of the page was taken at Yellowstone National Park.
Thanks so much for joining us on our mountain getaway. We hope you will return to our site again for more sights, scenery, trips, tricks, and tips. Be sure to sign up to be an e-mail follower so you never miss a post, and follow us on Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter. Tell your friends! We want to be friends with them, too.
Happy hump day, everybody!
As always, we strive to be as accurate with our information as possible. If we made a mistake, it was unintentional. (Hey, we’re only human!) We aren’t paid for our recommendations, and we only recommend our own tried and true vendors and venues. Our suggestions are for places that we’ve heard good things about but haven’t visited personally, and our opinions are our own.
Located just outside of Sharpsburg, Maryland, Antietam National Battlefield was one of our favorite destinations on our Mid-Atlantic road trip. During the battle that took place on September 17, 1862 and lasted only about 12 hours, 23,000 men’s lives were changed forever. Ending in a Union victory, it was the bloodiest one day battle of the Civil War.
Maryland Monument
Dunker Church so named because their parishioners were baptized by dunking
Miller Farmhouse
The men who lost their lives here did not in any way die in vain, but when one steps foot on these consecrated grounds it is hard not to think that any war has its own senselessness. We felt something spiritual here that resembled the way we felt at the Oklahoma City Memorial – both being places that were once violently disrupted by turmoil but are now utterly serene. Perhaps the spirits of those who fought and died here walked along with us and somehow soothed our souls.
Mumma Farm, the only structure deliberately destroyed during the battle. Confederate soldiers burned the house and outbuildings so Union troops could not use them. Luckily, the Mumma family had left the house before the battle. They rebuilt the house in 1863. Before this trip, we never knew that families whose properties were damaged or destroyed during the Civil War were compensated by the government in order to rebuild.
Hallowed Ground
Another thing we learned on the trip was that the National Park Service leases some of its land to local farmers for growing crops. We never had seen so many soybeans, and certainly never knew that so many acres of soybeans were grown in the US.
Sunken Road aka Bloody Lane looking north
Bloody Lane looking south
This is the site where the Confederates held off 10,000 Union soldiers during a three hour battle. The casualties were high and the road was lined with bodies. Click here for some additional information and photographs of the aftermath of this battle thanks to the History Channel: https://www.history.com/news/battle-antietam-photography-civil-war . Warning – the photographs are graphic!
Burnside Bridge – probably the most photographed landmark at Antietam. General Burnside’s men captured the bridge from about 500 Confederate soldiers who had held the area for more than three hours. Burnside’s troops crossed Antietam Creek, which drove the Confederates back toward Sharpsburg.
The Antietam National Cemetery is located in Sharpsburg, Maryland, just a few miles from the battlefield. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to go in, but according the the park brochure 4,776 Union soldiers are buried here, along with veterans of other wars. This cemetery did not exist at the time of the Civil War so the dead were buried where they died on the battlefield. Later their remains were reinterred at this cemetery. Confederate soldiers were buried in Hagerstown, MD, Frederick, MD, and Shepherdstown, VA, now WV. Interestingly, in 2009 remains of an unidentified soldier were found in a cornfield, most likely buried where he fell on the battlefield almost 150 years before.
Cemetery Lodge (sometimes called Keepers House) on the grounds of the Antietam National Cemetery
That’s going to do it for our overview of the Antietam National Battlefield. We hope you enjoyed the visit and that you will come back often to see us as we post more trips and tips. Thank you for joining us on the road. Until next time…
Travel safe, travel smart, and we will see you down the road.
Mike and Kellye
As always, we strive to be as accurate with our information as possible. If we made a mistake, it was unintentional. (Hey, we’re only human!) We aren’t paid for our recommendations, and we only recommend our own tried and true vendors and venues. Our suggestions are for places that we’ve heard good things about but haven’t visited personally, and our opinions are our own.
