Where Have I Been?

My apologies. I have not been keeping y'all up to date very well, have I? So far this trip I've had internet access just one day. It's been kind of nice being "disconnected" from the world for a while. I've been keeping to the "back roads" of America and not eating at 'that' fast-food joint...

Today is a prep day and a day of relaxing. Sorting through 'stuff' to make sure everything that will be needed in the next 17 days is at hand and hoping that what I've decided to take will all fit in the 'dry bag' that will be provided. Tomorrow we head up to Lee's Ferry for the night with departure Wednesday morning. Excitement is in the air!

Below are some pictures of the places I've been in the past week.  More to come later...

Great Sand Dunes National Park northeast of Alamosa, Colorado.

Black Canyon of the Gunnison (Colorado).

And there was more than cows on the road... poor Van Dora was in need of a bath after this stretch of highway...

A Ranger pointing out the petroglyphs on a guided tour at Hovenweep National Monument (in Utah, west of Cortez, Colorado).

Early evening in Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Note: The page Grand Canyon Raft Trip lists all of my posts published about this Grand Adventure!

Published under a Creative Commons License.
Becky Wiseman, "Where Have I Been?," Kinexxions, posted September 15, 2014 (http://kinexxions.blogspot.com/2014/09/where-have-i-been.html)

My Genea-Mecca Sojourn is Coming to an End

After six weeks in Salt Lake City, I'll be leaving Sunday morning. It has been a satisfying and frustrating experience. Although no breakthroughs have been made, more documents have been gathered that add to the understanding of some of the ancestors. Of course, some of those documents have generated more questions - a few which will likely never be answered. But that is the nature of genealogy and family history research, which is a seemingly never-ending obsession.

In addition to research at the library, I've also been working on cleaning up my Legacy database. It is a slow and tedious process but I'm starting to have a good feeling about it. There is still a lot to be done with it but there is light at the end of the tunnel. One of the benefits of this process is that some of the "holes" in my research have been identified and I was able to obtain a few of those missing documents here in Salt Lake City.

One of the highlights of my visit here was being able to spend some time with Denise Levenick, The Family Curator. Denise was here for five days, coming a few days prior to the Utah Genealogical Association's Spring Conference where she was the keynote speaker and gave several presentations. It was a very nice change of pace to have someone to bounce ideas off of and just talk about stuff.

One evening, A.C. Ivory joined us for dinner at The Garden restaurant on the 10th floor of the Joseph Smith Building. Lots of laughing and talking - and we also enjoyed the sunset over the valley!

What's up next?

The coast of California will be my next stop, for about a week of "just relaxing" then I'll be meeting up with some of my Joslin cousins in Missouri in mid-May. After that, I'll be returning to Indiana to "settle down" into a somewhat "normal" life - whatever that is!

G.R.I.P. is on the agenda in July. I'll be attending "Your Immigrant Ancestors’ Stories: Writing a Quality Narrative" with John Philip Colletta and Michael Hait and in August I'll be going to the FGS Conference in Fort Wayne. I'm looking forward to seeing some of genea-peeps again and soaking in some knowledge that will, hopefully, help with the research process.

Published under a Creative Commons License.
Becky Wiseman, "My Genea-Mecca Sojourn is Coming to an End," Kinexxions, posted April 26, 2013 (http://kinexxions.blogspot.com/2013/04/my-genea-mecca-sojourn-is-coming-to-end.html : accessed [access date])

Thoughts on RootsTech

Much has already been written about the RootsTech Conference, which was held last week in Salt Lake City. Randy Seaver has compiled a list of Geneablogger posts in his post RootsTech 2013 Geneabloggers Review. But I thought I'd add my two cents worth...

I managed to arrive on time for the keynote speakers on Thursday morning in spite of having to remove two inches of heavy, wet snow off of Van Dora and then driving in "rush hour" traffic through the valley. That drive stressed me out so much that I decided to forgo the keynote addresses on Friday and Saturday - knowing too that they were being recorded and would be available for viewing later.

I'm not going to give a run-down of the sessions that I attended but will just say that with 6700+ people in attendance, most rooms were crowded. There were several sessions I wanted to attend but couldn't because the room was already at capacity when I arrived 5-10 minutes before they were due to start!

This year I decided to attend sessions on topics that I knew very little about. For the most part, that strategy worked out well. However, I had a big issue with the descriptions of some of the sessions and the fact that very few were identified as Intermediate level. The bigger issue, however, is that several sessions identified as Intermediate were definitely not. And, the titles of some sessions were misleading.

One session, billed as "using technology to solve research problems," was very disappointing. In my opinion, it was a basic beginners level overview of how to do your genealogy - the only "technology" mentioned was the use of the internet and genealogy software. In fact, the speaker, after polling the audience to determine our research level, stated that she expected more beginners to attend.

Some of the highlights... learning about the Genographic Project, picking up some ideas from Denise Olson on using Powerpoint (or other presentation software) to tell short family stories with pictures (photo above), and learning that Thomas W. Jones utilizes online family trees in his research process.

On that latter point, the Thomas Jones session "Can a Complex Research Problem Be Solved Solely Online?" was worth being stuffed into the smallest room available. The session was unlike any other I attended - an interactive experience with the audience responding to questions regarding resources that might be used and then learning from 'the master' what was actually used. Can you imagine getting an email from Tom Jones inquiring about the sources  for your online tree?

Will I attend RootsTech next year? Doubtful. But then, that's what I said last year! I think a better option for me is to watch the sessions that are live-streamed and archived for later viewing. Also, if they follow through on their plans to have 600+ locations holding sessions locally at the same time in conjunction with live-streaming - well, that would be awesome.

The downside of attending virtually, of course, is that you miss out on the interaction with other attendees and spending time with friends. But if RootsTech grows in attendance next year like it did this year, the current venue would be impossibly crowded...

Published under a Creative Commons License.
Becky Wiseman, "Thoughts on RootsTech," Kinexxions, posted March 26, 2013 (http://kinexxions.blogspot.com/2013/03/thoughts-on-rootstech.html : accessed [access date])

Out of Texas... into New Mexico... and Beyond

After departing Big Bend National Park on March 3rd, I traveled about 100 miles northwest to Fort Davis, just as I had done three years ago. Once again I stayed at the Davis Mountains State Park for nearly a week. And, once again I did pretty much the same things as then but there were no hikes or even pretty sunsets.

Leaving Fort Davis on March 10th I made it into New Mexico, traveling west through El Paso and north to Alamogordo, stopping for the night at Oliver Lee Memorial State Park. It was extremely cloudy in the north as I drove out of El Paso giving me hopes of seeing a nice sunset. There were several layers of clouds that blanketed the sky when I arrived but within an hour they were gone! It was amazing to me how quickly the clouds disappeared.

My Campsite, looking toward the east.

A fun and rather dramatic shot of Van Dora and the mountains in the background.

 The think layer of clouds that blanketed the area when I arrived gave way to puffy cumulus clouds and blue skies.

 By the time the sun was setting, the clouds in the west had blown away.

The mountains to the east caught the last golden rays of the setting sun.

In the intervening week, I ventured into the north and western parts of New Mexico, primarily because I had never been there before and actually ended up in Colorado briefly. I'll have more photos posted in the next few days.

When I left Indiana, I had planned on eventually spending some time in Salt Lake City again. That time has come... the last three days were primarily spent driving (and driving), and I have arrived in Salt Lake City. I've also registered for RootsTech and hope to see many of my genea-blogging friends this week.

Published under a Creative Commons License.
Becky Wiseman, "Out of Texas... into New Mexico... and Beyond," Kinexxions, posted March 17, 2013 (http://kinexxions.blogspot.com/2013/03/out-of-texas-into-new-mexico-and-beyond.html : accessed [access date])

Poor Van Dora ...

Wednesday, March 7th - - My decision to leave Salt Lake City yesterday morning was made the previous week. I was ready to go after five weeks researching in Genea-Mecca but in hindsight perhaps I should have waited a few more days... I was headed to California but high winds with strong gusts were forecast for all of Nevada (and much of the west) for the next two days. I could take the northern route and get into the snow storm that was predicted and coming towards Salt Lake City. Or I could take the southern route through Las Vegas then west. After checking the weather reports before leaving yesterday morning I decided the safest route would be to go south.

I haven't checked to see what the weather was like along I-80 so I don't know if my chosen route (I-15 south) was the best or safest! But I do know it sure wasn't an easy day of driving! It wasn't too bad until I got about half way to St. George, which is about 300 miles south of Salt Lake City, when the winds really picked up. By the time I got to St. George, it was definitely two-handed white-knuckle driving! Then when I got into Nevada, there were times when visibility was extremely limited due to the blowing sand. There was an amazing amount of tumbleweeds blowing down the highway too, as well as plastic bags and bottles and various other debris.

My “plan” had been to stop at Valley of Fire State Park for the night, which is about 40 miles north of Las Vegas. But there was so much sand and dirt and gravel being blown about that I decided to continue on south. I stopped just north of Las Vegas for gas and had a really rough time trying to stand in one spot to pump the gas.

I made it through Las Vegas before the rush hour and drove the 50 miles or so west to Pahrump where I wimped out and spent the night at a motel. At around five o'clock or so we had a little rain added to the wind and I was glad that I was inside, safe and dry. I learned later on the news that the wind had been steady at about 30 mph most of the day with gusts up to 75 mph – no wonder my right arm and shoulder was sore!

Poor Van Dora. She needs a bath! This is what happens when you drive in blowing sand then a little rain comes along... I didn't really think the van was all that dirty when I got out at the motel. After the rain, all of the other cars in the parking lot were in this same condition, which means that as the rain fell it must have picked up some of the sand and dust in the air. I think it was basically raining mud, at least for a short time.

Van Dora looks worse now than she did traveling on the dirt roads in Alaska!

Zion National Park :: Revisited

Tuesday, November 29th - - Since there was quite a bit of snow at Bryce Canyon, I left there in early afternoon and drove the relatively short distance to Zion National Park. They had recently closed all of the campgrounds in the park except for one loop, which is normally for RVs only and has electrical hookups. There weren't a lot of campers when I arrived but by evening the loop was filling up.

Wednesday, November 30th - - As it turned out, I really didn't need heat during the night but it was nice to have it in the morning to take the chill out of the air. The road through Zion Canyon is normally closed to traffic during the summer season but I took advantage of the opportunity to drive through since the road was open.

Of course I had to get a photo of Angel's Landing. I still find it hard to believe that I actually made it to the top!

It was a short visit but very pleasant nevertheless. Though not much I've done could compare to my visit there last year.

A Brief Visit to Bryce Canyon

Monday morning I left Salt Lake City and took the “scenic route” south out of Utah – US 89. I ended up spending the night at a little campground in the Escalante National Monument. It was a cool day and got even cooler overnight – frost covered the front and rear windows in the morning and the temperature was a brisk 26 degrees! It didn't take long to get ready and get on down the road that morning!

Tuesday, November 29th - - It was a pleasant drive to Bryce Canyon National Park and I was able to spend about four hours there. I drove through the park stopping at many of the viewpoints along the way. There were very few people around and traffic wasn't a problem at all – unlike in the summer time. There was some snow on the ground but the sun was shining and the 50 degree temperature felt much warmer.

This and the next three photos were taken at Sunset Point. Elevation 8,000 feet.

Taken from Bryce Point. A 1.3 mile trail winds its way through the canyon.

Another view of the trail into the canyon. It would have been neat to go down amongst the towering hoodoos, but I just wasn't up to that kind of challenge at that time.

Taken from Rainbow Point, elevation 9,115 feet.

Another shot from Rainbow Point.

Brilliant Orange Colored Poppies

By a consensus of opinion of my readers, it has been determined that these are a variety of Poppies! As are these and these. Thanks to everyone for their input... and that's all of the flowers!! No more, at least until the next time ;-)

The "pod" after the bloom is done.

The dappled coloring comes from the bright mid-day sun. A cloudy day would have been much better for taking these pictures. In reality, they were the darker orange color all over, as in the first photo. Temple Square Gardens – Tuesday, June 7th.

Hodge Podge

Pink Peony.

Yellow ?

Mauve Rose.

Petunias.

Temple Square Gardens – Tuesday, June 7th

Coral Colored Thingys

Updated June 14th at 7:30 pm: My readers have informed me that these are Poppies! Thank you all.

Temple Square Gardens – Tuesday, June 7th

What are they?

Updated June 14th at 7:30 pm: My readers have informed me that these are a variety of Poppies! Thank you all.

Whatever they are, they are simply gorgeous and they come in a variety of stunning colors. More to come... I know, I'm way out of control with the flowers... Taken in the Temple Square Gardens on Tuesday, June 7th.

Breathtaking White Peonies

Temple Square Gardens – Tuesday, June 7th