2023 Virtual Hike Recap

Posted on December 29, 2023 by vanbraman

I covered quite a distance on my 2023 Virtual Hike.

Virtual Hike, Lake champlain, fort ticonderoga, revolutionary war, french and Indian war, fortMy first Virtual Hike post of 2023 took me from Lake Placid to Fort Ticonderoga in New York.

Saratoga Battlefield, Virtual Hike, New York, Hudson ValleyI am not going to mention all stops in this recap, but I had destinations at several military sites including the Saratoga Battlefield, West Point,  Harpers Ferry and Gettysburg this year.

Virtual Hike, Sloatsburg, New York, Wall Street, Hudson River, New JerseyI virtually visited many spots that had family connections, like Wall Street.

My route this year went down through the Hudson River Valley into New Jersey and then headed west into Pennsylvania.

northkill creek, pennsylvania, amish, massacre, virtual hike, barnsAn important destination in Pennslvania was the site of the Hochstetler Massacre at Northkill, Pennsylvania.

I followed the southern border of Pennsylvania, dipping down into West Virginia and Maryland, before exiting the state through Washington County.

In Washington County I had destinations related to family history and the beginnings of the Restoration Movement. This was to be repeated later on in Kentucky.

Yoder Cemetery, Tuscarawa County, Ohio, Yoder, AmishAfter quickly crossing West Virginia again I passed through Ohio visiting a lot of sites with family connections. This included a Yoder Cemetery near Sugar Creek, Ohio.

Cane Ridge Church Building, Barton W. Stone, Restoration MovementI then headed south into Kentucky where I spent some time visiting multiple sites with family connections near the Cane Ridge Meeting House in Bourbon County, Kentucky.

The last destination on my virtual hike in 2023 was Danville, Kentucky and I plan on continuing from there into Indiana and then on to Illinois and points to the west.

Since I made short Virtual Hikes in Kentucky I now have a bunch of miles built up from my actual walking to start 2024.

Many of my destinations in early 2024 will have family connections. I have some interesting destinations planned.

The Virtual Hike in 2023 was interesting as it lead to a lot of family history research from New York all the way down to Kentucky.

Where will I virtually end up in 2024?

Steven

p.s. I am also trying to decide whether to make a page chronicling the entire Virtual Hike with links to all the destinations. Would this be of interest?

Images in this post are from Google Maps and Street View

WwRI – Written With Real Intelligence

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Singing Poems

Posted on December 28, 2023 by vanbraman

Tonight I thought I would share a couple poems from one of my Grandma’s scrapbooks.

Here are a couple poems about singing.

singing poems, scrapbook, songs

Here is the first poem transcribed:

Why I Sing

I sing because I love to sing,

Because instinctive fancies move;

Because it hurts no earthly thing,

Because it pleases some I love.

 

Because with peals of happy words

I could exorcise morbid care;

Because a touch of deeper chords

May tune a heart to love and prayer.

 

Because of sounds of human fate

Within my heart an echo find;

Because whate’er is good or great

Lets loose the music of my mind.

Author Unknown

This poem definitely shows some reasons to sing for both yourself and the benefit of others.

The second poem is by Alfred James Waterhouse who published Some Homely Little Songs in 1899. The book contained a collection of poems, but I do not know if this was one of them.

singing poems, scrapbook, songsHere is the second poem transcribed:

The Old, Old Songs

Oh, the old, old songs, and the dear dead songs,

And the songs that we hear no more,

Like a phantom race they haunt the place,

And the scenes that were loved of yore,

And their voice still waits down forgotten trails

Of the camps of the long ago,

Where the miners met when the eve had set

Its dusk on the vales below.

 

 Sweet “Annie Laurie,” one health to her,

Maid of our visions kind,

Forever her face assumes the grace

Of “The Girl I Left Behind.”

Another, another, till dawn paints red

The east ‘neath its starlit dome;

Then a final glass and the dream shall pass

To the shadows in “Home, Sweet Home.”

 

Oh, the old, old songs; I can hear them yet,

When the weary world is asleep

‘Neath its comfort gray, with the stars away

Their ward o’er its dream to keep;

And I see the faces — now worn and gray,

Or touched by the Spectre King —

And the miners sit where the shadows flit,

And the old, old songs they sing.

A. J. Waterhouse

Steven

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