Travel The World

For those who've been reading this blog over the years, my apologies for not having made any entries for so long.  I had thought I'd have more time to do so after retiring three years ago, but that hasn't been the case.  I have traveled some, though, since my last entry (another trip to Colombia) and even taken a summer course at my alma mater, Notre Dame.  I intend to post more in the coming days about those two events.  Thanks for reading and talk to you soon!  

Ever since I bought my WV property back in November '21, I've been wanting to explore the less accessible tracts of it.  Five acres of the property is where the house is located and with the majority being relatively flat.  The other five acres is more 'remote' and a challenge to walk through, especially during the summer months when all the foliage has grown out.  Well, today I finally decided to explore it all and followed what I believe to be the approximate property line.  The pictures below were only the beginning of my journey.  More coming tomorrow.   

Back in '06, my employer sent me to Presov, Slovakia for five months to work with the Slovak Air Force.  During that time, I took many trips within the country and met many wonderful people.  Last year, I posted some pictures of Betliar Manor, a residence of past nobility in the southern part of the country.  I thought I'd posted all of those but recently discovered a CD containing some pictures of the same trip, pictures that were taken by the family that hosted me that day.  They're mostly of the area around the manor with some including me and my friends.  Take special note, though, of the picture with the elderly woman sitting at a table.  She was the grandmother of one of my friends and we had stopped off in her village to visit her during our touring that day.  At some point in our discussion, she told us she'd been a young woman during WWII and then started sharing some of her experiences from that time.  One especially interesting topic wa...

I visited the small town of Sutton, West Virginia back in December but was so traumatized by the visit that I'm just now posting the photos.  Sutton is the county seat of Braxton County and is at the exact geographical center of WV.  It has two museums, one being the Flatwoods Monster Museum (the reason for my trauma) and the other being the West Virginia Bigfoot Museum.  Unfortunately, the latter was closed on the day I was there, but I'll be sure to return to see it.  Anyway, enjoy the pictures!