Photo by Bill Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, joins the keeper and Phyllis in lamenting the undeniable verity that their camping days are in the past, but the memories prevail including those that involved the keeper’s wonderful little Chinook RV with its unique military-type appearance, diesel engine and “Lets go” character. One …
Read
Category:Travel
Kickass and Travel Notes
Attribution: Yinan Chen, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop joins the keeper in offering a few random travel notes on a trip he and Phyllis made to Luca’s Wisconsin Rapids birthday party: *Wisconsin Rapids does have rapids, visible now–with the high water, from the Highway 54 bridge. *Remnants of Wisconsin’s …
Read
Kickass and Vista West Sailing
Attribution: Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that the keeper’s latest winter survival technique is to imagine that the Vista West building that he and Phyllis live in is actually a big cruise ship with an uncertain itinerary; and one of the daily entertainment opportunities is to try to guess …
Read
Time Travels
Photo by Geoff Carter By Geoff Carter My wife and I just returned from a six-week stay in beautiful Mexico. We spent the bulk of that time in Puerto Vallarta, enjoying our time at the public beaches, lounging by the condo pool, soaking up the local culture, and attending the numerous church and Día de …
Read
Food for Thought
Artwork by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter Mexican Street VendorTomascastelazo, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons Fast food is an institution in our culture. McDonalds, Burger King, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Subway, Chick-Fil-A, Arby’s, Domino’s, and Taco Ball franchises are everywhere. You can’t drive down a city street or the main drag of a small town without …
Read
Reason to Believe
Photo by Geoff Carter By Geoff Carter Not so long ago, we lived a completely rational, science-based society. Some of us still think that way. Granted, there have always been crackpots, conspiracy theorists, and cult members (and yes, there seem to be a lot more than there used to be), but there is still a …
Read
Yesterday is Here: Celebrating Dia de Los Muertos
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 …
Read
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 …
Read
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 …
Read
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 …
Read
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 …
Read