Tom’s alarm went off at 5:50am on Friday May 13, 2022. When my companions opened the curtains in our room at the Hampton Inn, there was no doubt Friday the 13th had begun with horrible luck. A storm was moving…
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196: ANDREW JOHNSON – FROM RAGS TO RICHES ON ‘HAIL TO THE CHIEF’
Andrew Johnson never attended school a day in his life. Yet through hard work, determination, and an assassin’s bullet, the once upon a time tailor became the 17th President of the United States. Over the past few years, my photographer…
195: THE BUZZARDS WERE CIRCLING DURING THE HIKE FROM HELL
My photographer’s alarm went off at 6:00am on Wednesday May 11, 2022, but I’m not totally sure why he had it set in the first place. After a full plate of Presidential and historic sites the previous day, Tom had…
194: THE ESCAPE OF JOHN WILKES BOOTH COMES TO LIFE ON ‘HAIL TO THE CHIEF’
Have you ever wondered what happened to John Wilkes Booth after he assassinated President Abraham Lincoln on April 14, 1865? Well, wonder no more. On May 15, 2022, my photographer, Bob Moldenhauer, and I spent the entire day following in…
193: THE WAIT’S FINALLY OVER, I WENT INSIDE THE HOUSE OF STOVER
Even though my photographer had his alarm set for 5:50am on Tuesday May 10, 2022, he woke about twenty minutes earlier and never went back to sleep. Perhaps Tom’s premature rise was due to him being extremely anxious to visit…
192: I KISSED THE HISTORIC BRICKS IN INDY – BUT NOT AT THE BRICKYARD
It’s been three long months since I returned home from my Winter Dance Party trip to Wisconsin and I was itching to get back on the road again. During that time span, my photographer had organized a high-octane rigorous 12-day…
191: THE FINAL DAYS OF AMERICA’S GREATEST HERO ON ‘HAIL TO THE CHIEF’
A wise old Scarecrow once said: “With the thoughts that you’ll be thinkin’, you could be another Lincoln, if you only had a brain.” The fact is: There has never been another Abraham Lincoln; at least in Washington D.C. Some…
190: REFLECTIONS OF LINCOLN FEATURED ON ‘HAIL TO THE CHIEF’
After Tom and I presented four ‘Hail to the Chief’ episodes of rather obscure and lackluster Presidents (Taylor, Fillmore, Pierce, and Buchanan), the moment has arrived where we salute the greatest President in American history – Abraham Lincoln. I even…
189: THE BACHELOR PADS OF JAMES BUCHANAN ON HAIL TO THE CHIEF
Although James Buchanan, our 15th President, is considered by most historians to be the worst Commander-In-Chief in American history, my photographer and I were honored to have walked in his footsteps where he lived, worked, and died. Buchanan’s biggest claim…
188: A TOAST TO AMERICA’S SADDEST PRESIDENT – FRANKLIN PIERCE
Our 14th President Franklin Pierce was handsome, dashing, and very debonair. Secretly, however, Pierce was extremely depressed and became afflicted with alcohol consumption – especially after he witnessed his 11-year-old son get killed. Or did his wife drive him to…