It was the moment of truth when Tom’s alarm rang at 6:00am on Thursday July 24, 2025 in our hotel room in Dixon, Illinois. My photographer had tweaked his knee the previous evening at Lowell Park, but he figured the…
Month: November 2025
342: FROM DUTCH BOY SHOES TO HIS RAWHIDE BOOTS, REAGAN NEVER FORGOT HIS DIXON ROOTS
During the afternoon of Wednesday July 23, 2025, my companions and I had become completely enthralled with the childhood of Ronald Reagan. We had spent a little over an hour in Tampico, Illinois where we toured Reagan’s birthplace, and then…
341: BABY WHY DON’T WE GO, TO A PLACE CALLED TAMPICO – AND TOUR THE BIRTHPLACE OF RONALD REAGAN
There was nary a cloud in the sky when Tom’s alarm rang at 6:00am on Wednesday July 23, 2025. Although I was anxious to visit the Iowa State Capitol Building during our first stop of the day, I was even…
340: I SANG LIKE NUN OTHER AFTER SURVIVING A NEAR-DEATH EXPERIENCE IN THREE STATES
There wasn’t a ton of excitement in our Holiday Inn Express hotel room when Tom’s alarm went off at 6:00am on Monday July 21, 2025. The reason for the lack of enthusiasm was because my photographer, his wife Vicki, and…
339: I STOOD ON THE SURFACE OF AN ALIEN WORLD – “AND WHAT THE HELL IS THAT SMELL?”
It was the 56th anniversary of the Apollo 11 astronauts landing and walking on the Moon, and there was no better way for me to celebrate that historic event than to stand on a destitute, other-worldly surface as well. That…