Aug 04

Leaf Peepers

“The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.” St. Augustine

My husband, Roger, and I enjoy seeing natures’ beauty whenever we can. We decided to see the fall foliage in the six New England states where I heard it is magnificent.

During the first week of October a few years ago, we traveled to New York and the six New England states during one fall foliage season. People who invade these states at that time are called “leaf peepers” by the locals.

The hardwood trees in northernmost Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont start to change in early to mid-September. Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island begin to change soon afterward. The peak leaf peeper season usually happens during the first two weeks of October. Our timing of this adventure was perfect. The millions of beautiful red, orange, gold, yellow, and purple leaves among the evergreen trees didn’t disappoint us.

We previously traveled to Vermont and New Hampshire together, but this time we wanted to visit these states on the same trip. What better time than during the lush fall foliage season?

We left Michigan taking the bridge into Canada and spent the night in Ontario near Thousand Islands. We had a full breakfast at a restaurant overlooking the St Lawrence River. Refreshed, we continued to our scheduled stop in Vermont where Roger has family members. We took pictures of the colorful hillsides, rustic barns, crossed one of the few remaining old-fashioned covered wood bridges, and picked fruit at an apple orchard. His sister baked a scrumptious pie for us using the fresh raspberries we picked at a raspberry farm. We also ate decadent maple syrup ice cream at Roger’s favorite Vermont ice cream stand.

Our four star-filled nights in Vermont were followed by a short stay in New Hampshire where Roger has family. We played on a beautiful leaf-covered golf course and lost a number of golf balls under piles of colorful leaves. We made several stops to take pictures of the awesome pallet of natures’ colors. After eating dinner with his family and spending the night, we headed for Maine. 

After a long drive over winding roads, past colorful hillsides, we parked at a tourist spot south of Kennebunkport, Maine. Before shopping for souvenirs, we decided to walk on the beautiful sandy beach right into the Atlantic Ocean and I immediately jumped back out. The waters off the shores of Maine were way too cold for me to take a real dip in the waters. At least I could say I got in the Atlantic Ocean for the first time. Our souvenir shopping included t-shirts and postcards for our grandchildren and a magnet of the state of Maine for ourselves.

Following a lunch of fresh seafood, we drove through Massachusetts enjoying the lovely foliage on our way to Providence, Rhode Island for an overnight stay. From there we stopped in Connecticut for lunch. After driving around New London, we headed up through Hartford, Connecticut to Springfield, Massachusetts where we turned west onto I-90 which took us through Albany, New York on our way to Niagara Falls just north of Buffalo. We saw Niagara Falls from both the American and Canadian sides. Colorful lighting enhanced the American view of the awesome cascading waters. We stayed one night in Niagara Falls before heading back home by way of Canada.

Once we left Vermont, we covered the remaining New England states and New York in four days. New England is not an expansive area. This trip helped us fill our magnetic map of the United States.

How many states have you visited?

Jul 20

Office Nerd #7

Jul 05

Upcoming Games of Interest 2019

As much as I love the many video games I currently own, I also love hearing of new games in development with stories or gameplay elements that pique my interest. This year’s annual game press release conference, E3, was no exception.

This first peek at titles in development allowed me a glimpse at several that intrigued me and which I may consider purchasing in the months to come. I am also including some titles that have been seen at past E3 conferences but haven’t been released yet.

Below is my list of six video games in development I look forward to playing.

1) Death Stranding – A title that was first announced at E3 2017, Death Stranding is a game heavily shrouded in mystery. Not much has been revealed about the plot and what little has been seen in the trailers is open to interpretation. What I do know is that Death Stranding takes place on either a post-apocalyptic Earth or an alien world, where mankind struggles to survive against giant malevolent entities. The game also features actor Norman Reedus (from the TV show Walking Dead), whose likeness has been replicated through facial and motion capture technology, as the main character. I look forward to discovering more about the game as its release date gets closer, but I like what I’ve seen so far.

2) Cyberpunk 2077 – An upcoming sci-fi title that centers around a courier with a cybernetic implant, Cyberpunk 2077 tells the story of a man on the run after his clients turned on him. While all that’s been seen so far is the game’s opening cinematics, I find the premise interesting. Even better, one of the central characters is being portrayed by actor Keanu Reeves. Granted, I’ve seen films that have a similar plot, but I look forward to experiencing such a story firsthand.

3) Final Fantasy VII remake – I only recently started playing the original version of Final Fantasy VII, but I’ve known for some time that there was a remake in development. This year’s E3 presented the first trailer\gameplay footage for the upcoming title—it looks absolutely gorgeous. It’s fantastic to see the much-loved classic of the Final Fantasy series reimagined in high definition with superior graphics. The story will likely remain the same—rumor has it that the remake will be divided into two or more games to account for everything from the original. It will be fascinating to see this small band of freedom fighters battling against an evil corporation in a realistic 3D environment.

4) The Sinking City – An upcoming mystery horror game that takes inspiration from the works of H.P. Lovecraft, The Sinking City looks to be a title in which you must play through the same period of time over and over to avoid getting killed. I don’t know too much at this point what it’s about and I’ve seen conflicting release dates for it—the game will come out either this year or in 2020. But I look forward to it all the same.

5) Elder Scrolls VI – Elder Scrolls is a series that takes place in the large fictional medieval realm of Tamriel, and each title takes place in a different province of the massive world. I didn’t start playing the Elder Scrolls games until the release of the fifth one, Skyrim, in 2011. I have since devoted at least 300 hours total to the franchise. I loved Skyrim so much that I anxiously awaited news of a follow-up. I got my wish last year at E3 2018, though all that was revealed was a brief shot of a mountainous landscape and the game’s title. There is no info yet about where it will take place, what the plot will be, or when it will be released. But if it’s anything like Skyrim, Elder Scrolls VI is a game I would love to dive right into.

6) Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3 – I got hours of enjoyment from the first Ultimate Alliance game that allowed you to build a team from a large roster of Marvel superheroes. While I didn’t really play the 2nd game in the series—largely because I couldn’t figure out what button to press to demolish a statue in the first mission—I still very much love this series. I was ecstatic when I first heard there was a new title in development and that it will feature many characters from the recent Marvel superhero movies—Avengers, Guardians of the Galaxy, X-Men. The one downside—this new game will only be available on the Nintendo Switch, a device I don’t own. But I may consider investing in the Switch for the opportunity to play Ultimate Alliance 3 as well as a number of other titles.

I know there are many more titles in production right now, but I’m very selective about what I find interesting. If you would like to share an upcoming game that you’re anxious to play, please tell about it in the comments below.

Jul 04

“The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.” St. Augustine

My husband, Roger, and I have traveled to some of our fifty states more than once. Because I’m an amateur genealogist, I wanted to use one of our trips to research the little-known paternal side of my family. While Roger golfed, I spent time in Frankfort, Kentucky researching the Kentucky Archives and Libraries for clues to my family’s records. Frankfort is second only to Salt Lake City, Utah in genealogical research opportunities.

Birth, death, and divorce records weren’t consistently maintained during the years key members of my family lived in Kentucky. In the few records I found, my father’s maternal grandmother’s name appeared only once. Using words of dedication written by my daughter, Autumn, I had a memorial brick for my great-grandmother placed on the walkway outside of the library alongside other Kentucky ancestors.

Autumn conducted online genealogy research to try to discover additional information on her and our other ancestors. She discovered that the 1920 census in Horse Cave, Kentucky, town of my father’s birth, recorded 864 residents. Years ago, my father told me that a one-block area there called Henry Town was named for his father, Henry, a popular man in his day. In 2011, Autumn decided that we should take a family trip to Horse Cave. The population there at that time was about 2,311. We were pleasantly surprised to hear a lady at city hall mention Henry Town.

Autumn, her husband Daniel, their eight-year-old daughter, and one-year-old son accompanied Roger and me on our trip. While our husbands and the children enjoyed the Louisville Zoo and the hotel swimming pool, Autumn and I went to the local colored cemetery to see if we could locate the tombstones of our relatives thought to be buried there.

The well-maintained Guthrie Street Municipal Cemetery has 200 to 300 graves. Much to our delight, we found the gravestones of many of our ancestors. Because some tombstones were situated in family groupings, we were able to find additional names for Autumn’s growing poster of our genealogy tree. We happily photographed all the family groupings as well as individual headstones we knew belonged to our ancestors.

Some graves were marked with obviously hand carved rocks rather than the more expensive headstones. The wording on these rocks has worn away over time leaving some graves unmarked. We couldn’t find my great-grandmother’s grave. Because of the estimated time of her death, we’re sure that one of the worn-away stones was hers. Tears of sadness filled our eyes at that sad thought.

Have you tried searching for your ancestral records? Were you successful? Did you have any surprises in your findings? 

Jun 06

Office Nerd #6