A Lewis & Clark Refresher

Readers may have noticed that I've been playing around with a new header format for this blog. Using Picasa, the most user-friendly program for handling digital images I've ever used, I'm creating custom-sized collages of varying numbers of recent images and, again with Picasa, adding some jazzed-up title text. The finished product is a single image which can then be easily inserted into the header position of the blog. So far, I'm liking the look but will probably keep playing around with it to see where this goes.

It was 36f degrees when I woke this morning but there'll be no complaining from this writer. Except for a little problem with allergies, I've been enjoying the Spring during our trek northward this year. We've been able to avoid any run-ins with the usual springtime thunderstorms (or have they been avoiding us??), nature is blooming all around us, and the calendar's promise of warmer temps makes cool mornings like today's easy to take.

Yesterday afternoon Dar and I dropped by the Missouri River Basin Lewis & Clark Center just down the road from our camp and atop the bluffs overlooking the river. It's been two years since our adventure tracing the route of this amazing band of explorers as we ventured toward the Midwest from Oregon and Washington... wow, time flies. Even though we were just a couple miles away we didn't stop at this one at that time, probably a little weary of seeing much the same stuff at so many other similar places along the way. But now, after two years, walking through the exhibits was an enjoyable refresher course in the L&C story. They maintained a series of short trails through the wooded bluff overlooking the river and we enjoyed hoofing it down every one.

Today is "get ready to move again day" and tomorrow we'll make some easterly progress toward our Wisconsin target. I've got my eye on another Corps of Engineers Park not far from Knoxville Iowa and Dar has her eye on more genealogical mining that she can do in the same area.

T