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My dad and I had been discussing taking a trip together for some time, and it finally came together in late 2025. We decided on the St. Clair River area of Michigan and Ontario, Canada, where my Dad grew up. I visited two parks during the trip, including my first international POTA activation in Canada. # Algonac State Park ( US-1484 ) My dad had some car troubles, so I had extra time to activate…
Close February 1st was the 12th anniversary of the W0M Summit on the Air association. A few members of the St. Louis QRP Society activated some of the summits in the association’s area, and I took the opportunity to do my first SOTA activation.
Close When looking for a place for a short vacation, our requirements were relatively simple: Somewhere to the south with a hot tub. An Airbnb in Carbondale, Illinois fit the bill and, as a bonus, it included a sauna. Sadly, a winter storm cut our trip short, but that didn’t stop us from visiting a few parks in the area.
Close Saint Louis winters are relatively mild, and Decembers usually get a few days of nice, light jacket weather. We took advantage of one of those days to visit Ste. Genevieve, Missouri, a small town about an hour south of Saint Louis. # Kaskaskia Bell Memorial State Historic Site ( US-12080 ) The history of Kaskaskia is fascinating to me. At one point in the 19th century, it was the capital of…
Close I grew up near Dayton, Ohio and visit my family there a few times a year. My most recent trip was the first one since I started participating in Parks on the Air. # Lincoln Trail State Park ( US-1007 ) The first park of the trip was the Lincoln Trail State Park, just south of Marshall, Illinois, about 2 hours east of St. Louis along Interstate 70. It’s a larger park with a number of…
Close With the fall colors in full swing and only a few remaining weekends of warm weather we planned a trip to a few state parks in Illinois.
The best BBQ in the midwest is arguably at the 17th Street BBQ in Murphysboro, Illinois, about a two hour drive south of St. Louis. An early fall road trip was a great opportunity to visit some parks along the way to see the changing colors and activate a few parks. # Fort Kaskaskia State Historic Site ( US-7259 ) The first park of the day was the Fort Kaskaskia State Historic Site. The park is on…
I woke up a bit early on a Sunday morning without any commitments until the afternoon. The early fall weather was perfect so I headed out to a park I hadn’t activated before, Stemler Cave Woods State Nature Preserve (US-7872) . Stemler Cave Woods is a nature preserve area in Illinois about 20 minutes southeast of St. Louis, just northeast of Columbia, IL. There are three trails, mostly…
I had a few hours on a Saturday morning to activate two parks in northern St. Louis. Both parks were new to me and one park was on the way to the other. # Bellefontaine State Conservation Area ( US-11329 ) A relatively new park, the Bellefontaine State Conservation Area is about 20 minutes north of downtown St. Louis. The park consists of 133 acres of land that is a mix of grasslands and a few…
A vacation to Hermann, Missouri, a small city along the Missouri River about an hour and a half west of St Louis was a great opportunity to activate some parks. Over three days I activated three state parks and added a fourth one on the way home. # Deutschheim State Historic Site ( US-3346 ) The Deutschheim state historic stite is a collection of historic buildings in downtown Hermann. The…
The St. Louis Arch is an iconic landmark, but the park surrounding it is equally impressive. The grounds offer a great view of the horizon over the Mississippi River and contains two ponds, a large grassy area under the Arch and some tree-covered areas throughout the park. There are bathrooms, a museum and of course a ride to the top of the Arch in the visitor center in the middle of the park…
Close The Ulysses S. Grant National Historic Site ( US-0870 ) was the first parks on the air park I activated. The park is located about 10 miles southwest of downtown St Louis, Missouri and is the former home of Ulysses S. Grant, the 18th President of the United States. At 10 acres, it’s a smaller park but it packs a lot of interesting features. The house is open for for tours and…
(This post was copied from a previous blogging platform.) I visited friends and family in early December and got my first (known) case of covid. I had gotten my flu and covid boosters about a month earlier, partially in preparation for the trip. Initial symptoms were a slightly scratchy throat that got worse over a day or so. I picked up an at home test which quickly showed I was positive. Over…
After being on the internet for nearly 30 years I figured it was time to create a personal website. I’m using Hugo to generate the site, hosting it on a Linux VPS and using Apache as the webserver. My little Lightsail instance won’t handle much traffic so I’m fronting all the larger resources (mostly images) with Bunny CDN. Deployment is just done using a little shell script that…