Photo by Geoff Carter By Geoff Carter We visited the beautiful resort town of Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, not so long ago. Our trip happened to coincide with Dia de Los Muertos, or Day of the Dead. This holiday, celebrated on the evening of November 1st and the day of the 2nd,, is an offshoot of (but …
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Category:Travel
Kickass at Indian Lake
Photo by Bill Stokes By Bill Stokes Photo by Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, noting that under the rubric that everybody gotta be somewhere, reports the keeper and Phyllis in one of Dane County’s more striking beauty spots: Indian Lake County Park off Highway 19. Marking the location where the last glacier gave up …
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Kickass Remembers Captain Tony
The Pen in Hand Blog featuring Bill Stokes
Attribution: Mike, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons; https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Captain_Tony%27s_Saloon_-_Key_West_Florida_2002.jpg
Scratching the Surface: Day Tripping at Meow Wolf
Weldon Kennedy from London, UK, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Geoff Carter Alternate realities existing on an invisible plane is a commonly recurring theme in modern science (and literary) fiction. Everything from Harry Potter to The Matrix to The Butterfly Effect to Pan’s Labyrinth to Everything Everywhere All at Once features parallel universes just beyond the reach of human senses—or sensibilities. This idea, cojoined …
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Spirit World
Artwork by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter Last week, my wife and I traveled down to visit my brother and his wife in Santa Fe, New Mexico. It’s a long drive, but after we get past the rolling hills of Iowa and the endless horizons of Nebraska, we were awed by the sight of the …
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Kickass and Deserted Dells
Jonas Dovydenas , Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons Kickass, the doorstop dog, notes with the keeper that now is the time to visit Wisconsin Dells, which he–the keeper and Phyllis did Sunday. It was largely a drive-through the water park area since the keeper’s idea of water fun is using water to make coffee. Their unobstructed walk …
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Dialogues on the Big Bully Pulpit: Playground Politics
Artwork by Michael DiMilo By Devotee-DeBusherre Featuring the Fabulous Dadbots: Dave S., Mark M., Mark O., Dennis C., Paul C., and Geoff Carter This got wordy, I’ll try and distill it first. Though I don’t like the term for the campaign—bullying—(I think many scoff at it saying…”Well (male, gravel pitched, voice),…it’s a tough world out …
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A Breath of Fresh Air
Artwork by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter Like almost everyone, my wife and I had family come into town come to see us during the holidays. We had a very nice visit, and, on their last day here, we had to decide between going to Milwaukee County Zoo or the Mitchell Park Horticultural Domes. There …
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Kickass and Sanibel
Eeviann, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, comments that there was a period in the keeper’s life when he spent icy chunks of the northern winter in the balmy environs of Sanibel Island and Sarasota Fla., where hurricane Ian destroyed part of the Sanibel-Ft. Meyers causeway. While a hurricane …
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The Big Manzana
The Malecon in Puerto Vallarta Photo by Geoff Carter My wife and I recently visited the city of Puerto Vallarta for about a month. We stayed in Old Vallarta, the extreme south side of town which is relatively far removed from the glitz and glitter of the big hotels, all-inclusive resorts, boozy neon-soaked nightclubs, and …
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A Delicate Balance
Photo by Geoff Carter By Geoff Carter My wife and I recently spent a month living in the beautiful resort town of Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. The city is a virtual paradise, flanked by gorgeous emerald-green mountains to the east and the beautiful Bay of Banderas, dotted with quaint sailboats and fishing craft, to the west. …
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Kickass and Train Wrecks
National Transportation Safety Board, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, warns the keeper not to get carried away in his reassessment of the recent traveling that he and Phyllis experienced: an Amtrak train, like the one they rode, recently derailed, killing and injuring riders; one of the special glacier-mounting …
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