Category: Journal
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Journal Entry – This is murder; bring those troops back
This phrase was spoken by General William Tecumseh Sherman at the battle of Vicksburg, and this phrase speaks volumes on the human character. It is this type of phrase that people have a hart time understanding. Why would rational troops go blindly against a fortification knowing that they were going to died? During the Gettysburg…
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Journal Entry – Merry Christmas
Over 2,000 years ago last night, the Christ Child was born, and today we celebrate his birth. It is a time of new beginnings. As with any child, they start out an infants and grow into young adults. The caring and nurturing a child into an adult is never easy and the same can be…
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Journal Entry – Christmas Eve
One thing that I remember about Christmas Eve is returning to Wisconsin from Iowa. I would work on Christmas Eve and then I would travel back late in the afternoon extended into the evenings. Usually, by the time that I got to Wisconsin, it would be dark. All of the houses lite up by the…
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Journal Entry – Snowbird – Highway Bridges
Today, I drove from the southeast side of New Orleans to Grand Isle, Louisiana, and I swear that fifty percent of the highway was on bridges. That might be an over exaggeration, but it felt like during my trip was 125 miles. In New Orleans, a significant number of interstate miles are elevated above the…
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Journal Entry – Snowbird – Erosion
Considering my career with the Iowa Department of Transportation, it seems like one way or the other I was always working on erosion projects either in the field or under development. After each flood, I was the first engineer in many areas looking at erosion. During our major floods, this would require examining a highway,…
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Journal Entry – World War II Museum
Today I visited the World War II Museum here in New Orleans. One might think that there are just going to visit a great museum on a world wide war. Although this is true, the start of the museum is a stark reminder of the number of people that was killed during this war, so…
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Journal Entry – Snowbird – Twentieth Day
Today I played bridge engineer. I know it is kind of my passion. But to start with, my trailer is in Baton Rouge being serviced. I feel that these RV service centers must have a racket going on. I took the trailer in with a few concerns, but then they have to tell me that…
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Journal Entry – Snowbird – Day Eighteen
The silence is deafening. This is how I felt at about 3:00 today setting in my truck in the packing lot of Melrose National Historical Park. As the handout states, “a cotton kingdom estate.” Just imagine a 132-acre plantation with a labor force of 28 people. (The owners, the McMurrens, had five plantation with 1,000…
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Journal Entry – Snowbird – Happy Thanksgiving
I am still next to Lake Bruin, and I can sit at the table in the trailer and look across the lake through the cypress trees with moss hanging from their branches. This has been a nice site to spend a few days. I guess that I am here at the correct time. I spent…
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Journal Entry – Snowbird – Fourteenth Day
Today was a frustrating day. I first go to the Vicksburg Visitors Center, and I find that it is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays. I am finding that the videos in visitor center really sent the mood for the tour in these parks and they are educational giving everyone something to look for in the…
