Mark Twain is one of several famous authors and thinkers who believed that the plays and sonnets of “Shakespeare” were not written by the same-named man from Stratford. Twain wrote a 24,000-word essay arguing that that authorship was a hoax.
Stratford Hall is a historic house museum in Westmoreland County, Virginia. It was the boyhood home of two signers of the Declaration of Independence, Richard Henry Lee and Francis Lightfoot Lee, and it was the birthplace of Robert E. Lee. The estate was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1960, under the care of the National Park Service.
The Memorial to the 56 Signers of the Declaration of Independence in Washington DC depicts the signatures of the original 56 signatories in the Constitution Gardens on the National Mall. It was authorized by Public Law 95, passed by Congress in 1978 and was dedicated on July 2, 1984, exactly 208 years after the Congress voted to approve the Declaration of Independence.
The Declaration of Independence was displayed for many years, unguarded and in a simple glass frame, in the library of the U.S. State Department. Much of the fading of the document is thought to have been from this period. It is now housed in a high-tech, climate-controlled, UV-impermeable case (and vault, after hours) at the National Archives.
The two youngest signers of the Declaration of Independence were both from South Carolina: Thomas Lynch, Jr. and Edward Rutledge were both born in 1749 and were only 26 when they signed the Declaration. The oldest signer of the Declaration was Benjamin Franklin, who was born in 1706 and thus was 70 at the time of the Declaration. The only signer of the Declaration of Independence to survive beyond the 50th anniversary of the signing was Charles Carroll of Maryland. Carroll died in 1832 when he was 95 years old.
USS Independence (LCS-2) is the lead ship of the Independence-class littoral combat ship. Development of the innovative modular trimaran ran more than 200% over budget projections. She is the sixth ship of the United States Navy to be named for the concept of independence.
Independence CA USA, population 669, is the county seat of Inyo County.
The main cities, driving south on US-395 from Bishop CA, are (and, repeat this mantra): Bishop, Big Pine, Independence, Lone Pine)
The Battle of Lone Pine was fought between Australian and Turkish/Ottoman forces during the Gallipoli Campaign of the First World War, in August 1915. The tree for which the battle was named was obliterated during the 4 days of fighting; however, pine cones that had remained attached to the cut branches over the trenches were retrieved by various Australian and New Zealand soldiers, brought home and their seeds were planted. Today, there are many trees in Australia and two in New Zealand that can be authenticated as direct descendants from the Gallipoli pine.
The Mothman was a legendary apparition that was reported through the year 1967, and was associated with the collapse of the US-35 bridge across the Ohio River, connecting Point Pleasant WV and Gallipolis OH. The series of incidents later became the plot of then film “Mothman”.
Point Pleasant WV lies at the confluence of the Ohio and Kanawha Rivers. The Kanawha River, about 100 miles lomg, is the largest inland waterway in West Virginia.
Point State Park (locally known as The Point) is a Pennsylvania state park on 36 acres in Downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA, at the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers, forming the Ohio River. The location is also known as the Forks of the Ohio. The remains of Fort Pitt and Fort Duquesne, built there because of the strategic importance of the site in the 1700s, are both in the park.
Confluence Point State Park, more formally named Edward “Ted” and Pat Jones-Confluence Point State Park, is located where the Missouri River ends and empties into the Mississippi River near St. Louis. It is about 20 miles north of downtown. There is a pole in the park marking the high water mark of the Great Flood of 1993, or The Great Mississippi and Missouri Rivers Flood of 1993. In that flood, record cresting on each river were only days apart, and the pole in the park is almost 40 feet tall (it is 38.2’).
Comment: It is quite humbling, standing next to that pole while looking out onto the two great rivers.
With the death of Edward Moore “Ted” Kennedy on August 25, 2009, Jean Ann Kennedy Smith became the last surviving child of Joseph and Rose Kennedy.
The small town of Kennedy Meadows in Tuolumne County, CA lies along highway CA-108, the Sonora Pass Road. At 9,624’ elevation, Sonora Pass is second only to Tioga Pass’s 9,943’ as the highest highway pass in California and in the Sierra Nevada.
Comment: Both passes are dramatic, and beautiful. Welcome to California — we got mountains too!
To add: Kennedy Meadows is 55 miles NE of Sonora, and 25 miles W of the USMC MWTC, the Mountain Warfare Training Center.
The Free and Sovereign State of Sonora is one of 32 federal entities of the United Mexican States. Located in the extreme northwest of Mexico, its capital city is Hermosillo. Its northern border is also the border between Mexico and the United States, which it shares with the states of Arizona and New Mexico.
Las Barrancas del Cobre in the Mexican state of Chihuahua is a group of six canyons in northwestern Mexico. The canyons were formed by six rivers that drain the western side of the Sierra Tarahumara (a part of the Sierra Madre Occidental). All six rivers merge into the Rio Fuerte and empty into the Gulf of California.
Barrancas del Cobre, Chihuahua: in English, Copper Canyon. The walls of the canyon are a copper/green color, which is where the name originates.
It’s not that far away! “Only” 1,500 miles from San Francisco:
✜ San Francisco CA USA: starting point
✜ 950 miles to Nogales AZ USA
✜ 180 miles to Hermosillo, Sonora MEX
✜ 360 miles to Hotel Divisadero Barrancas, Chihuahua MEX
Road trip!!
Las Barrancas del Cobre in the Mexican state of Chihuahua is a group of six canyons in northwestern Mexico. The canyons were formed by six rivers that drain the western side of the Sierra Tarahumara (a part of the Sierra Madre Occidental). All six rivers merge into the Rio Fuerte and empty into the Gulf of California.
Barrancas del Cobre, Chihuahua: in English, Copper Canyon. The walls of the canyon are a copper/green color, which is where the name originates.
It’s not that far away! “Only” 1,500 miles from San Francisco:
✜ San Francisco CA USA: starting point
✜ 950 miles to Nogales AZ USA
✜ 180 miles to Hermosillo, Sonora MEX
✜ 360 miles to Hotel Divisadero Barrancas, Chihuahua MEX
Road trip!!
Adding: images — https://www.google.com/search?q=Las+Barrancas+del+Cobre&client=safari&hl=en-us&prmd=imvn&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiQ2auZqNbYAhVHdt8KHTSDDqQQ_AUIESgB&biw=768&bih=922 — beautiful!
Despite the general impression that they are desert expanses, the states of Durango and Chihuahua are the most forested states in Mexico.
The Chihuahua is the smallest breed of dog recognized by most kennel clubs. There are two varieties of Chihuahua – the Smooth Coat, or short haired, and the Long Coat, or long haired. Dogs of either coat type may be identified as either “apple head” or “deer head”. Apple heads have rounded heads, close-set eyes, and relatively short ears and legs. Deer heads have flat-topped heads, more widely set eyes, larger ears, and longer, more slender legs.