Travel

By Renée S. Gordon “The berths are allotted according to the way bill, the first on the list having his first choice, and in changing boats the old passengers have the preference.” T. Woodcock 1836 New York State is divided into 10 travel regions outside of New York City. Each of these districts is unique…

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ABOVE PHOTO:  Battleship New Jersey By Renée S. Gordon “Do anything, but let it produce joy.” Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass Europeans first occupied the territory that is now New Jersey around 1623 when the Dutch established Fort Nassau as part of their New Netherlands colony. Forty-one years later, the Dutch ceded the land to…

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By Renée S. Gordon “To remain in touch with the past requires a constant imaginative effort.”      –Gaston Bachelard Archeological evidence of human habitation in the area that is now Indianapolis points to Native American presence circa 9500 BC.  Documentary evidence of tribal groups begins with journals kept during LaSalle’s 1679 explorations. At that…

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ABOVE PHOTO:  Discovery Park of America   By Renée S. Gordon “Be a misfit. Many of the world’s great accomplishments were made by misfits. Not to fit is okay.”  –Robert Kirkland Jackson, like most of West Tennessee, was part of Chickasaw territory until a treaty opened the area for settlement in 1818. The city, originally…

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ABOVE PHOTO: Alex Haley home   By Renée S. Gordon “My music had roots which I’d dug up from my own childhood, musical roots buried in the darkest soil.” –Ray Charles Haywood County lies at the heart of West Tennessee’s Delta and the earliest inhabitants were Native American. Settlers from Virginia and the Carolinas followed after…

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By Renée S. Gordon “Put on my blue suede shoes and I boarded the plane, Touched down in the land of the Delta Blues In the middle of the pouring rain” –Walking in Memphis by Marc Cohn As the world celebrates the Diamond Anniversary of Rock ‘n’ Roll, West Tennessee is now, as it was…

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ABOVE PHOTO:  Houdini Plaza   By Renée S. Gordon “My brain is the key that sets my mind free.”  –Harry Houdini Wisconsin’s geography has determined its destiny from the time it was first inhabited by American Indians 10,000-years ago. Archeological evidence notes that the indigenous people traded as far as both coasts and navigated the…

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By Renée S. Gordon  “ Something is lacking in our hearts now- even in this supreme hour.”  –Joshua L. Chamberlain 1865 President Abraham Lincoln traveled to Philadelphia a total of four times. His fourth “visit” was to the third of 11 cities to hold an official open-casket viewing and funeral ceremony. The 1,654-mile train journey bearing…

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ABOVE PHOTO:  The Obamas in wax.   By Renée S. Gordon “Now you’re in New York! These streets will make you feel brand new,  Big lights will inspire you, Hear it for New York, New York, New York!” –Alicia Keys, Empire State of Mind Over the years I have visited New York City hundreds of…

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ABOVE PHOTO:  Confederate Cabins at Morven Park.   “No one was there who could bend the bow of Ulysses.” –John S. Mosby on the death of J.E.B. Stuart By Renée S. Gordon Leesburg, Loudoun’s county seat, is situated in Northern Virginia in close proximity to Harper’s Ferry, Washington, D.C., the Potomac River, Catoctin Mountain and…

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