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THE BROWNS BOARD

The Gipper's Guide to America


The Gipper

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I saw you were at Quoddy Head, and I've been there too its amazing (I think it's the most eastern point in the USA).

It is.

 

Union Bay is the name of a campground ( suppose the nearest city would be Ontonagon, MI). It's also funny to me that the best gnocchi I ever ate was in the U.P. Another cool spot in the U.P. is the ski jump at Copper Head- you can climb to the top and see just how high those ski jumpers take off from, it is amazing.

The one night I stayed in the UP I stayed in Paradise on Whitefish Bay, more toward the Sault.

I only got as far up the Keewenaw as far as Calumet City. For time reasons I couldn't get all the way up.

But that small peninsula once put out over 50% of the world's copper production.

 

So many beautiful things to see in the USA, but not enough time or money I suppose to see it all (mega millions would cure that lol). I really want to see the Columbia River Gorge in Oregon/Washington someday, along with Big Bend National Park.

I have not been to the Columbia River Gorge though I have been in Portland a couple of times.

I took my son to a 3 day trip to Big Bend. Winter is the best time to go there. Temperatures are more tolerable. Summer would be unbearable.

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As far as a sunrise or sunset, they are all pretty much the same.....be it high on a mountain where you might see rise or set a hundered miles away or at sea level where the horizon might be 3 miles away....they are all the same....conditions dictate....the best I have seen all hand some cloud cover. It's a time, moment, and place thing.

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As far as a sunrise or sunset, they are all pretty much the same.....be it high on a mountain where you might see rise or set a hundered miles away or at sea level where the horizon might be 3 miles away....they are all the same....conditions dictate....the best I have seen all hand some cloud cover. It's a time, moment, and place thing.

While that is true, I think the thing that can set them apart is the setting. In my choice it was really all about the setting. I was on the tip of a peninsula, fairly high above cliffs below me, and with an Island with a lighthouse on it just adjacent to where the sun set.

(Cape Flattery, Wash. with Tatoosh Island just offshore)

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While that is true, I think the thing that can set them apart is the setting. In my choice it was really all about the setting. I was on the tip of a peninsula, fairly high above cliffs below me, and with an Island with a lighthouse on it just adjacent to where the sun set.

(Cape Flattery, Wash. with Tatoosh Island just offshore)

Atmospheric conditions as well - you can get some truly spectacular sunsets if the conditions are right like:

06584-Sunset-over-lake-in-Scotland.jpg

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 6 months later...

Here was a line from my original list:

 

Best Small Town: Woodstock, Vermont. (honorable mentions: Chatham, Mass. Seaside Fla)

 

I spent my 30th anniversary trip with my wife in Vermont this summer....and we stayed not too far from Woodstock...and I can confirm my original vote whole heartedly that this is my choice for best small town in America.

 

Top 5 in that category are: Woodstock VT, Chagrin Falls, OH, Seaside Fla., Wellsboro PA, Cooperstown NY. (Chatham falls off, I was there fairly recently and it didn't have that "it" for me that the others did.

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French and Indian War Battlefields I have visited:

 

Braddock Expedition, Wester PA

Fort Necessity

Fort Carillon/Fort Ticonderoga (Carillon was the French name for the same fort)

Ft. William Henry

Lake George Battlefield

Louisbourg (Nova Scotia)

The Plains of Abraham (Quebec)

 

I have since been to Fort Niagra at the mouth of the Niagra River, and saw a reenactment of the siege of that fort by the British that was being held by the French.

Also, I have been to Ogdensburg NY, site of either a French/Indian battle, or War of 1812, perhaps the latter.

 

Mexican-American War Battlefields I have visited:

 

Palo Alto (outside Brownsville TX)

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Revolutionary War Battlefields I have visited:

 

Lexington and Concord

Ft. Stanwix/Oriskany

Brandywine

Saratoga

Kings Mountain

The Cowpens

Guilford Courthouse

The Siege of 96

Germantown (Philadelphia)

Yorktown

Valley Forge (not strictly a battle)

 

Also have been to the Battle of Bennington site. Plus Morristown

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Civil War Battlefields I have visited:

 

Ft. Sumter

Bull Run/Manassas I and II

Wilson Creek

Ft. Donelson

Yorktown (yes, a Civil War battle was fought at Yorktown)

Shiloh

Ft. Pulaski

Corinth

Murfreesboro/Stone's River

Harper's Ferry

Antietem/Sharpsburg

Arkansas Post

Chancellorsville

Fredericksburg

Vicksburg

Gettysburg

Morgan's Surrender/Salineville

Charleston Harbor

The Wilderness

Spotsylvania

Brice Crossroad's

Tupelo

Monocacy

Siege of Columbia SC.

 

I am going to be visiting Richmond/Petersburg/Appamattox/Cedar Creek in June

When I was a little kid I may have visited Chattanooga, but I was so young I barely remember it, so I don't count it.

 

Now add the Chickamauga/Chattanooga Battlefield, plus Kennesaw Mountain

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In checking I see that I still have quite a number of "battlefield" or at least "war related" National Parks units which I have not been to. Here is a list of some I would like to visit at some point:

 

Revolutionary War related sites: Boston NHP (Bunker Hill, Old North Church). George Rogers Clark (Indiana)

 

War of 1812: Horseshoe Bend (really a battle with Creek Indians, but 1812 related)

 

Civil War: Pea Ridge, Ark. Andersonville Ga. Ft. Scott Kan., Peco, New Mex.

 

Indian Wars: Fort Smith Ark. Sand Creek Massacre, Colo. Fort Larned, Kan., Big Hole Battlefield, Mont., Washita Battlefield, Okla., Knife River, North Dak.

 

WWII: Tuskeegee Airmen Ala, Port Chicago Cal. Rosie the Riveter Cal., War in the Pacific, Guam.. Minidoka, Idaho (Japanese Internment camp)

 

Cold War: Minuteman Missile NHP, South Dakota.

 

I will be visiting the Big Hole battlefield in a couple of weeks....plus I may make a return trip to The Little Bighorn.

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There's a WWII museum near the Akron-Canton airport.

 

Pretty cool. I wonder how the Air Force Museum in Dayton has changed over

nearly 40 years....

 

There's another military museum in Branson Mo. .... has all the names of WWII lost soldiers on

a long room's three walls. Pretty amazing, albeit sad and somber, display.

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In checking I see that I still have quite a number of "battlefield" or at least "war related" National Parks units which I have not been to. Here is a list of some I would like to visit at some point:

 

Revolutionary War related sites: Boston NHP (Bunker Hill, Old North Church). George Rogers Clark (Indiana)

 

War of 1812: Horseshoe Bend (really a battle with Creek Indians, but 1812 related)

 

Civil War: Pea Ridge, Ark. Andersonville Ga. Ft. Scott Kan., Peco, New Mex.

 

Indian Wars: Fort Smith Ark. Sand Creek Massacre, Colo. Fort Larned, Kan., Big Hole Battlefield, Mont., Washita Battlefield, Okla., Knife River, North Dak.

 

WWII: Tuskeegee Airmen Ala, Port Chicago Cal. Rosie the Riveter Cal., War in the Pacific, Guam.. Minidoka, Idaho (Japanese Internment camp)

 

Cold War: Minuteman Missile NHP, South Dakota.

 

I will be visiting the Big Hole battlefield in a couple of weeks....plus I may make a return trip to The Little Bighorn.

There's an Indian wars battlefield in ohio not far from Toledo. I see the signs for it every now and again when I'm up that way. Been meaning to check it out. Since I'm here I'm fixing to add fort Sumter to my list of civil war battlefields visited over the next few days
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There's a WWII museum near the Akron-Canton airport.

 

Pretty cool. I wonder how the Air Force Museum in Dayton has changed over

nearly 40 years....

 

There's another military museum in Branson Mo. .... has all the names of WWII lost soldiers on

a long room's three walls. Pretty amazing, albeit sad and somber, display.

Are you talking about the MAPS Museum Cal? I thought that was a aviation museum...not strictly limited to WWII....unless we are thinking of something else? The old 356th Fighter Group restaurant is closed up now, no? Always liked that place.

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There's an Indian wars battlefield in ohio not far from Toledo. I see the signs for it every now and again when I'm up that way. Been meaning to check it out. Since I'm here I'm fixing to add fort Sumter to my list of civil war battlefields visited over the next few days

I think you are talking about the Fallen Timbers/Fort Miami sites:

 

http://www.nps.gov/fati/index.htm

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If you ever get round abouts dc again gip check out balls bluff battlefield. It's a small relatively hidden civil war battlefield. What's interesting about it is that it's the only place to date where a u.s. senator has fallen in battle.

I know about it, but have not been there. It is not a National Park Battlefield, perhaps a state park? It is up the Potomac toward Harpers Ferry from DC, no?

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I know about it, but have not been there. It is not a National Park Battlefield, perhaps a state park? It is up the Potomac toward Harpers Ferry from DC, no?

Yeah it is. Took me a while to find it because it's literally at the back culdesac of a housing development. It's a really neat scenic park with the obligatory unknown soldier graveyard and historical markers. Sort of insignificant next to Antietam or Manassas or Gettysburg but definitely worth checking out

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  • 4 weeks later...

.

 

I will be visiting the Big Hole battlefield in a couple of weeks....plus I may make a return trip to The Little Bighorn.

 

Mission accomplished. Last week I went to the Big Hole and The Little Bighorn.

 

Also, FYI, I visited the Missouri Headwaters State Park. There, three rivers, the Jefferson, Madison and Gallatin join to form the Missouri. The area is known as The Trident. And just like in the Game of Thrones, there was a big "Battle of the Trident" right at the site of the confluence of these river. But this battle was between thousands of native warriors on each side in a tribal battle. No "white men" involved.

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QUOTE (ballpeen @ Apr 9 2010, 09:42 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
We agree on quite a few, don't we:

 

Best Sunset: Indian Rocks Beach, Fla....west coast of Fla. right? Its OK, I still prefer a Pacific sunset.

 

 

Gonna have to disagree with both of you tho this is less than 50 miles south of Indian Rocks Beach

314254_10150999927771511_1834744897_n.jp

One of many I've taken in my neck o the woods.. B)

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Gonna have to disagree with both of you tho this is less than 50 miles south of Indian Rocks Beach

One of many I've taken in my neck o the woods.. B)

Meh?

 

Just last week I watched the sunset from Bali over the eastern volcanoes of Java. It looked something like this:

 

taj2-14.jpg?w=500&h=333

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That's pretty. Looks like the contrasts have been played with - no way the water is that blue with the sun that low. But still, pretty.

 

As I said, that as just last week. It's a bit unfair as I get to watch the sunset across London every day now for a couple of months from my desk on the 40th floor in canary wharf.

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That's pretty. Looks like the contrasts have been played with - no way the water is that blue with the sun that low. But still, pretty.

 

As I said, that as just last week. It's a bit unfair as I get to watch the sunset across London every day now for a couple of months from my desk on the 40th floor in canary wharf.

Do they have sunsets in London? I thought all you saw was drizzle? :P

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