James Buchanan and Me
Saturday, June 27th, 2009
History has not been all that kind to our nation’s 15th President, James Buchanan, who served from 1857-61, for just one desired term. As the chief executive who had preceded Abraham Lincoln, general consensus is that he came to the job reluctantly, sat idly by as the issues of slavery and secession passed him by, and then with relief exited the Presidency – which he had promised that he would do during his inaugural speech – and left the momentous job ahead in the hands of his successor. In nearly all regards, he deserted the sinking ship and is today regarded as one of the worst of U.S. Presidents. Read the rest of this entry »
United States Presidential sites. Graves of Vice Presidents. Hard Rock Cafes. Baseball parks. State Capitol buildings. Hot dogs. Anyone want to venture a guess what all of these have in common? Throw in some signers of the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution, a dose of John Brown, a casino, an unbelievable war veteran, and even a re-visit of Stonewall Jackson and you’ve got the most recent road trip in my repertoire of venturing across America in search of the historic, fun, and unusual. My friend Bob and I began this journey which took us through a total of eight states (with three amply visited, and two touched upon – those being the two which are the subject of this posting) on Friday, June 12, 2009. 
My previous two days in Rome with Chris had been utterly exhausting and we had walked nearly the entire length of the city. My feet were achy and blistered and I could have slept for a day…but I wasn’t about to wimp out. Chris really showed his stamina as he reported to work on Tuesday, May 12, 2009. Fortunately I was spending this day with Sarah…and she was tired too. She had just returned from an exhausting weekend in the Marches of Italy. 
Friday, April 3, 2009, was our last day in Guatemala and there were no scheduled events for this day. Earlier in the week, however, we were given some options of additional trips that could be taken. When I got ahold of the list of available trips, my eyes immediately focused on a trip just over the border into Honduras to visit the Copán Mayan ruins located there. Mostly this was the opportunity to step foot into another country. The price was quite high for Bob and I to do this, but once a good portion of our tour group jumped on the bandwagon, the price came drastically down.