Grover Cleveland and Me
Tuesday, July 7th, 2009
If I were to ask the average person to tell me everything they knew about President Grover Cleveland, the most common answer would probably be that he was the guy who was President – twice! Yes, Cleveland served two non-consecutive terms, the first being from 1885-89 (the 22nd President) and then from 1893-97 (the 24th President) – confusing everyone up to and including President Barack Obama as to the actual count of the number of Presidents who have served our country. That’s right…one term wasn’t good enough for this guy. Read the rest of this entry »
Do you have any idea what you might say if you were to meet the very last American survivor of World War 1? Well, I can tell you exactly what I said during my face-to-face encounter with him – and I can tell you that it wasn’t a heck of a lot. Mostly I just sat there and stared in wide-eyed wonderment, basking in the unparalleled honor of meeting Frank Buckles, a 108-year old veteran of the First World War. In the entire world – at this particular time – only five men who had served in this war still survived; and Frank Buckles was the only survivor who served the United States. Mr. Buckles is and will always be the last American doughboy. 
I wasn’t quite as slow to stir on the morning of Wednesday, May 13, 2009, but I still wasn’t breaking any records. I awoke a little before 8am, got on Facebook for a bit, and ate that bag of bacon chips that had been calling my name. Sarah got up not long after, we got ready for the day, and headed out for next day’s walking tour and adventures in Florence just a little before 10am. Fifteen minutes later we were arriving at the Bargello National Museum. Sarah had a student pass that got her into all the museums for free – but for the average tourist the cost was 7 Euros. Florence knew that tourists would basically have to pay whatever they charged.
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.