Blogs from Kansas, United States, North America - page 9

So this entry is going to be a little bit eclectic, and have very little correlation in time, but we thought it might be worth writing about a few of the experiences we have had in addition to our travels. We think there'll probably be a bit more of this as travelling won't be as easy for us with the schooling commitments the boys have, but hopefully it means we get out and do a bit of crazy stuff in the local area. AOK Party So the first event worth blogging about is the annual 'AOK', or Australia, Orange (Dutch), and Kiwi party that is hosted on or around Australia Day each year at Fort Leavenworth. It is mostly organised by the international students of said countries who are attending the US Command and General Staff ... read more

Our second foray to the United States began on the 18 December as we boarded our United Airlines flight for San Francisco. This time things would be a little different – we would have Patrick (5) and Nicholas (3) in tow. Paddy would start school, so there would be no taking random days off and travelling on a whim. Also, we weren’t destined for sunny Florida, but the small town of Leavenworth in the Midwest of the US…..corn country, and Fiona has a weird phobia of cornfields. Fort Leavenworth would be our home for the next two years. The whole family was pretty keen to head to the US after a challenging year which was dominated by the drudgery of Command and Staff College. However, the upside was the making of new friends who helped see ... read more

AUGUST 23, 2014 This will be a day of rest. Long days in the vehicle sometimes bring on a wee touch of sciatica. This morning was rung in bright and shiny as a new penny. I drove over to Cimarron. My friend Jim Monacle was raised in that little town and still has family thereabouts. Cimmaron is 16 miles west of Dodge City and is famous as the site of the Gray County Court House War. Folks in Cimarron are a friendly and pleasant sort. They were having a farmer’s market on the shady side of the sidewalk and one of the locals pointed out the original courthouse where the gun battle occurred. He said it was converted over to an apartment building and there were still bullet holes in the ceiling. Fella also mentioned that ... read more

ROUTINE OR RHETORIC? We are making our way home on a northwesterly course and the homecoming experience is always bittersweet. While part of me wants to get home and go through a ritualistic regrounding, most of me wants to stay out here in my world on the bike and continue exploring more of the vastly different areas that we have ridden through to date, and see if Elvis really still lives and venture into N'Awlins and all the other places we've bypassed due to the lack of time. We chose to ride scenic route 7 out of Hot Springs National Park through Arkansas, and the onset was a welcome change. Cool temperatures hovering around 24, green trees drying off after last night's horrendous thunderstorm, winding and gently curved roads traversing the Osarks and Ouachita mountains, burping ... read more

Today's itinerary was simple, but cry important for me personally: we simply toured the Eisenhower Museum, Library, and boyhood home in Abilene KS and then returned home. As a student of World War II, and particularly the European Theater of Operations, I have long held Eisenhower as a hero. I am not sure that anyone else could have done the job he did in keeping together the alliance that defeated Nazi Germany. It should be remembered that alliance forces are rarely fully successful, mostly because the alliance are generally fragile and the egos and agendas of the individual participant nations usually rule the day. Ike never let that happen while Supreme Commander of SHAEF. It has been said that his knowledge of military tactics was lacking, and I will leave that discussion to those who know ... read more