Welcome to RemarkableJourneys.net
A voyage of inspiration and observationsThese are my travel stories. Journeys you might say. Incidents that make travel more than just memorable, remarkable is my word. ~ Bill Ahearn
A POEM: My Heart is Reaching
Along with adventures, life on my journey sometimes has setbacks. Some of you know that my trailer was damaged by a falling tree in Vermont. The outcome of that was the purchase of a new trailer, which of course, I discovered after the fact, my GMC Sonoma had trouble towing and stopping. Hence, a new truck was purchased. (Luciee One by the way has found a good home.) Followed by a lung infection and a record snow fall, all of this has slowed down my blog posting and travel activity. That is about to be remedied. Last month in my...
Happy Christmas, God Bless Us… Every One!
Warmest Wishes to You this Holiday Season. This is the little tree, only 14 inches tall, that graces my trailer. It is small but bursting with Christmas love. Joey made the left Santa, The crochet Teddy Bear is from Maui, the right Santa is from my editor Kate. The Rocking horse is from Boston, the little teddy is from Susan. The Christmas star I made myself from bits of metallic and some hot glue........ It expresses the love I have received from my friends and family over the years, it carries the Christmas message of hope I send...
KANSHA JAPANESE COOKBOOK Real Keys to Japanese Culinary Arts
Elizabeth Andoh was born in New York, but has made Japan her home since 1967. A graduate of the Yanagihara School of Classical Japanese Cuisine, Elizabeth is the author of four books on Japanese cooking, including two International Association Culinary Professionals award winners, AN OCEAN OF FLAVOR and WASHOKU: Recipes from the Japanese home kitchen. She was Gourmet's Japan correspondent for more than three decades and was a regular contributor to the New York Times travel section for many years. Andoh lectures internationally on...
Promise vs. Bureaucrats
I have little patience these days for bureaucrats who incessantly insist on compulsory rules that the next level bureaucrat denies exist. After several visits this month to the Department of Motor Vehicles, I am DMV'd out. But one trip this week did make the journey worthwhile, allowing all to be OK again. I have infinite patience for an innocent smile, a warm flick of the eyes in my direction, a child unafraid to look me in the eye…even while I am bored to distraction at the abominable DMV. Upon receiving my number at the DMV...
The Frog and the Snake
“The biggest frog I ever saw, BIG! A-sittin’ on that flat rock.
Cool, Clear North Carolina Mountain Stream
Saturdays, holidays— sleepy afternoons
Parasurfiing in Hawaii
Watch and learn!
Finding Life's Contentment in the Faith of the Amish
My journey, now beginning its ninth month, has been one of extraordinary discovery, mostly of interesting places and wonderful people I have met—the magic of their stories. There is, however, a deeper purpose, which is to discover what makes people feel happy and fulfilled in their daily lives. Wandering in Pennsylvania eventually will lead most anyone to encounters with Amish people, individuals frequently admired for their tenacity and obedience to a religion that most of us don't understand, a religion and lifestyle that rejects...
Well, I'm a runnin' down the Road In Ickesburg, Pennsylvania…
(To the Eagles: Take It Easy) Well, I'm a runnin' down the Road In Ickesburg, Pennsylvania... And such a fine sight to see It's a Model A Ford—OH MY LORD! A sparklin' '31 two-door Ford with a .030 bored 327 Chebby engine— wrapped in red, bright as can be! Norman Maxton loves his 31 Ford. Norman is a partner in a accounting firm in nearby Bloomfield, PA. He polishes and fusses over every detail. He shows it all around at car shows and has won dozens of awards. But you know, just sittin' up behind that fold-up windshield, runnin down...
Rutland, VT—It’s a village, a town, a city with a fabulous Farmers Market downtown.
Did you know? —That all carrots are not orange? —That despite their color, lilac colored peppers taste like green peppers? —That hand-blown glass beads look like rare jewels? —That oatmeal-raisin cookies can be made thick as a really great hamburger and just as round? —That goat cheese comes in many flavors? —There are more varieties of potatoes than you have aunts and uncles? —That a peach and cheddar cheese Danish is one of the tastiest things on the planet? —There are yarn balls that could serve as planets on Star Trek? —What a...
Is there any place more restorative than a forest with bubbling mountain streams?
Prancing along the stream bank I was all-at-once: Robin Hood of Sherwood Forest on a handsome steed; Alan-a-Dale, Troubadour of Robin's Merry Men, and the Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. The roller coaster trail through the hemlocks: my avenue to glory; my connection with a wonderful world of adventure and honorable conduct with valor. As a galloping ten year old boy in rural Connecticut, my life contained alphabets of imaginary characters gleaned from comic books, the radio and The Book of Knowledge; a farm boy, a...
The Rolling Hills of Northeastern Pennsylvania Are a Patchwork of Cow Pastures, Corn Fields and Huge Farm-Family Lawns
Under azure blue skies white puffy clouds glide along on the wind—this is beautiful farm country, especially if you are fond of barn architecture, well crafted stone walls and foundations—I saw one farm with an old, stone foundation out front, perhaps the first small house on the land. The house is gone but the stone foundation is a beauty, just sittin' there lookin' pretty. Christmas tree farm-rows march like soldiers up and down the hillsides and, much to little Minna's delight, bunnies by the hundreds play and hop away from our...
Inventing a dessert—like writing a fine paragraph—is all about ingredients.
Being a cook or a writer or a photographer equally requires vision: a sense of what flavors result when certain tastes and textures come together, the right ingredients, and the finished dish in your mind’s eye. These combined start the salivary glands humming: alerting all of the senses, inspiring creativity in a tasty recipe, a great paragraph or a memorable photographic image. Of the comments I receive about my blog writing or photography or even my recipes, the one I celebrate most is: “I was there with you, your descriptions...
PROFILE: THE ARTIST/STONE MAN, JEFF WARNER
A Remarkable Journeys' People Profile Approaching the college-town hamlet on SR 64 in North Carolina known as Brevard, my keen photographic eye aided by my natural curiosity, observed to my left a long row of beautifully ingrained, huge, stone slabs placed strategically in the view of passers-by. At the time I was rushing to find new lodging, but my unconscious mind made a mental note: "return to rock slabs soon." My destination: Brevard is in Transylvania County in the Pisgah National Forest where waterfalls and beautiful mountain...
Chicken/Veggie/Tomato Cantata
This is a one pot dish that is excellent for camping especially, if you have a propane camp stove. It can be served in a bowl or a plastic container. There were eight thighs in the store package. I par-boiled all eight and froze in two packages of 4. Par-boil all boneless chicken thighs by pouring boiling water over them (enough to cover meat completely;) then cover the pan and let stand for 15 minutes. This par-boiling method brings the chicken to tender done-ness on the outside but still slightly pink on the inside. When I go...
Earth Day Visit to Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest
In honor of Earth Day I visited the magnificent cove hardwood forest in North Carolina, preserved as a memorial to Joyce Kilmer, the fallen soldier and poet-author of "TREES" who died in battle in France on July 30, 1918. Though a prolific poet whose works celebrated the common beauty of the natural world as well as his religious faith, Kilmer is remembered most for a short poem entitled "Trees" (1913), which was published in the collection Trees and Other Poems in 1914. A visit to this wondrous place in April will find you amongst...
MY KOOLATRON PORTABLE REFRIGERATOR IS A HONEY!
I suppose you could call this a "sidebar". That's newspaper jargon for an interesting little tidbit of information. I don't want to start pitching products on this blog but I think it is worthwhile for people who read my blog and know how dedicated to RemarkableJourneys I am: especially the ones who picnic or camp or attend sports events need to know about a really great product that has made my Journey Remarkable. Sometime back in the late eighties or early nineties, I don't recall exactly when but we were camping a lot, we...
Magical Cascading Waters of Western North Carolina
Away out west in the state of North Carolina there is a magical place where the arrowhead of South Carolina points practically due west. A place where North Carolina borders with Georgia, where Tennessee, Georgia and the Carolinas become intimate neighbors. It is here in the land of cascading waters that breathtaking waterfalls are more common than Mcdonalds and the language of the natives can waggle your ears for understanding. Where the southern drawl has more variations than the dialects of spanish in Central America. A place...
Mystery odor from your trailer bathroom?
Look before you pour...A wasp nest became a perfectly positioned cap for our trailer bathroom vent pipe. After trying gallons of different smell preventers: I tried a practical solution, logical thinking, and a ladder. Carefully I pushed a bent wire down the pipe and...
Johnny Finsher
My Pal, Johnny Finsher is a cancer survivor I met at St. George Island in Florida. Several years ago he was given only months to live. He walks 3-5 miles a day, watches diet: healthy as a horse!
Frank Horton
Frank Horton is retired. He is a woodworker I met in Alabama at Talladaga National Forest. He was asked to create a miniature grand piano to contain the ashes of the personal Pianist of Queen Elizabeth of Great Britain. Frank is some guy.
