H.A. Larson's Blog, page 10

Life Lately in (Unedited) Photos

Life is grand, my friends, and I've made good on a promise to myself to get back out and live life again. You know, like I used to. Recently, I drove out to one of my favorite nature spots: Neale Woods. The weather was ungodly hot and since I'm giving my knee plenty of time to heal, my goal on this day was to just meander around a bit, take a few photos, and soak in the beauty of the Ponca Hills.



Native wildflowers are a hallmark of this place and I never tire of seeing them.



I'm sad to report that the old Nature Center, a.k.a. Carl Jonas' house, has been torn down. All that remains are some ground cover that has grown in and this picnic table. While I understand the reasons behind tearing down the Center - as well as pretty much all the other outbuildings - it still makes me sad. It also makes me a bit nostalgic for when I first started hiking here. All the things that made this place special to me are gone. It's not the same anymore.



The wildflowers, like this beardtongue, made me happy, though.



This little guy was eating some dinner.



The outdoor "school" is still there...for now.



Summer in Omaha just wouldn't be summer without Shakespeare on the Green. For the past 36 years, Nebraska Shakespeare has put on two of William Shakespeare's famous plays, free to the public, on a piece of land between Elmwood Park Golf Course and the University of Nebraska at Omaha. You're allowed to bring in your own food and spirits - can't beat that.



My friend Rebecca and I went to a showing of The Tempest. It was special this year as the role of Prospero was played by famous actor, and Omaha native, John Beasley.









One supremely gorgeous Friday night, I met up with a friend at Soaring Wings Vineyard. It's the only winery around here, that I know of, that allows you to bring your own food in. Often, then, on a Friday night, I'll meet up with a friend or a few for live Friday night music. We'll pack our own food, pay $5 for the band, and share a bottle of wine (or two).







My friend Audrey drove up for a quick weekend visit, so we escaped the Saturday heat by wandering in and out of buildings in Omaha's historic Old Market District. We stopped by my favorite haunt there: the Passageway.



No visit to the Passageway would be complete without a stop to the Garden of the Zodiac, a small art gallery that has a small garden contained within. It's always gorgeous this time of the year.











The actual gallery had a collection of animal art. I thought my daughter would appreciate that, so I snapped some pictures for her.









One evening, I was driving southbound on 60th Street towards Maple when I saw the old Louis sign in the back courtyard of these apartments. I hadn't even thought about Louis' in years since they tore it down. Louis', for those who don't know, was a combination of a small grocery store and a bar that was everyone's favorite watering hole. I'm glad the sign is still standing.



As I mentioned in my previous post, I changed positions at my employer. I moved from an academic department back to a business & finance department. One of my favorite faculty members went to Iceland not long before I left and when she returned, she brought me a chocolate bar from an Icelandic chocolate factory she went to as a goodbye gift. 



I took pictures because the packaging was very cool! Well, and I've never had chocolate from Iceland before.



How cool is that?



Man, it was just as delicious as it looks. I wouldn't hesitate in the least to say this was the best tasting chocolate I've ever had.



Aaaand, back to Soaring Wings for another Friday night of friendship, food, and wine. You can't beat the view either.



The Sun sets on an evening at the winery.


Hope you enjoyed a glimpse into my life as of late. I've been enjoying it, without a doubt. It's Friday again, and I'm going to a different winery with a handful of friends to watch a movie, drink some wine, and have some laughs. Then, I'm off to spend the weekend with my son, who has his own quaint little apartment in Lincoln.
Have a great weekend,
H.A.






 

A Season of Change

"Seasons change and so do we."
Hello old friends. Your weary author is back and change has finally smiled upon me, but first, let's catch up.
The last time you heard from me, I was in the throes of May. I had taken a fun trip during a long weekend to Denver and was busy preparing for a big adventure...



...to the Appalachian Trail! Fulfilling a lifelong dream and a goal that my BFF Amy and I shared for the arrival of our 50th year, we flew to Roanoke, Virginia, on June 4th to spend a week backpack camping and hiking the AT. The first two days were great - tough, but great - until fate had other plans for me.
On the third morning, I woke up with a terrible cold/flu that derailed our plans, our trip, and my health for the next three and a half weeks. While it sucked for me, it sucked more for Amy who was healthy and had trained so hard for the reality of the AT. My sickness sidelined us both and I felt bad, both physically and mentally. Still, I do have pictures and stories from my time there, so I will make a post about it sometime soon.
I started to feel better right before the 4th of July weekend, only to be struck down with the flu on July 5th where I spent a solid week and a half either sick or weak. Fortunately, I fully recovered from my illnesses - you don't realize how much something affects you until you feel better. It's an understatement to say how great I feel.

Now, for the changes...



I've finally walked to the long, hard road home.
Two years ago, I was working my ass off, trying to get out of a crappy marriage, paying off a mountain of debt, and finding a new happy home for my daughter and myself. Through my hard work, I accomplished all of it in April of last year and even bought myself a brand new car in July of last year so I could resume my life of adventure. It should have been a wonderful new beginning, right? Well, it wasn't.
See, right around the same time, I was dealing with two awful realities. First, the job that I had loved going to every day had become a place I hated. Secondly, my daughter was suffering greatly from a mental health crisis. While I'm not going to delve into the details of either, it's safe to say that my new life was on hold because of these two things. 
Things have finally turned a corner. After a lot of hard work, my daughter is doing well, and...I moved on to a new position with the local University I work for. In fact, I went back to the first department I worked in, a place where I loved all my coworkers dearly - just not the job itself. This time, I've moved into a different position there and it feels great to be back in a place where I love the people and I'm happy. It's been a few weeks now and as if life wanted to sweeten the deal, my old lunch buddy showed up yesterday to have lunch with me. 
Life is good again. Life is where it should be, and I finally feel like I can begin the new chapter that I so desperately longed for a few years ago.
I have arrived, and I am ready.




It's not just a new day, but a new life I spy on the horizon and I couldn't be more happy or content than I am right now. Well, that's probably not true, but it sure feels like it.
In honor of it all, I have some fun stuff planned for the rest of this amazing year. I have a new return trip to the West coast (finally!) to visit my bestie; I have a weekend planned with another bestie to go to my beloved Kansas City Renaissance Festival in October (the best month of the year), and I'm finally going to work on my new Nebraska Wine Passport - even if it won't be with quite the zeal of last year's. 
I've also been earnestly writing again, something I will talk about in another post.
Lots of things are happening, so stay tuned!


Until then, have a great rest of your week, and I'll be posting soon.
-H.A.




 
 

A Weekend in the Mile High City

Back in October of 2021, I was supposed to attend a concert in Denver with a friend of mine. Earlier in the year, I had hesitated to buy a plane ticket because...well, you know...Covid. Every concert I had even thought about attending was ultimately canceled. Finally, in June of last year, Southwest Airlines was having a killer sale so I purchased a round-trip ticket for ridiculously cheap and booked a couple of nights' stay at a hotel using some of my rewards points (thank you, credit card churning!). 
I swear, not even a week later the concert was canceled! Throwing my hands up in the air and audibly groaning, I canceled my hotel room, secured a refund for my concert ticket, and canceled my flight with Southwest. Of course, Southwest wasn't about to give me a refund so, instead, they gave me a voucher to use against a future flight...provided I booked said flight within one year's time.
This year, I have a couple of trips coming up and had hoped I could use my Southwest voucher against one of those flights. Unfortunately, Southwest didn't fly to one of the destinations, and the other would cover so little of the flight as to be laughable. Realizing I had to use it or lose it, I thought, "What the hell?" and decided to go ahead and fly out to Denver some random weekend. 
I found a flight one weekend in May - flying out on a Friday and flying back in on Monday - that the voucher almost completely covered the cost of and booked it. I looked for a hotel room (using reward points again, but this time for a different hotel chain) and was able to cover two nights out of my three-night stay. I have a friend that I grew up with who lives in Denver so I figured we could hang out and catch up while I was in town. I messaged her to see if she would like to hang out over the weekend and possibly host me the first night. She generously offered for me to stay with her the whole weekend as she had bought a house with a guest bedroom and even volunteered to pick me up at the airport. I gratefully accepted!
I flew in and the next day, after a leisurely coffee morning, we headed to Red Rocks, the infamous amphitheater in the mountains that has hosted the likes of U2, The Eagles, the Grateful Dead, and Jimi Hendrix - to name but a few. In addition to the amphitheater, there's also a decent 1.5-mile hiking loop and a small rock museum, mainly dedicated to John Denver.


While it was getting warm by the time we got there, the skies were gorgeous and the scenery was one-of-a-kind.






We walked through what felt like an endless landscape of red rock set against the brightest blue sky filled with big, white, fluffy clouds. It was truly a wonderful contrast.



For only being 1.5 miles long, the trail was definitely a bit more challenging than one would think.



Completely worth it, though.



After we made it back to the Visitor's Center, I stopped right outside to snap a photo of this statue of John Denver.



As I mentioned before, the center's museum is largely dedicated to John Denver - no surprise considering how much he loved the Rocky Mountains. To learn more about Red Rocks, click on this link. 



The next day we drove up to Lookout Mountain. Not technically a mountain, but rather a foothill, it sits on the eastern flank of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains. While you can hike various trails around here, it was Mother's Day, so my friend Cassie and I just leisurely explored the grounds.



The lookout affords expansive views of the mountains and the town of Golden, which sits at its base.









Even though it's 12 miles away, we could clearly see downtown Denver from our vantage spot.



An interesting point of interest at Lookout Mountain is that it's the final resting place of Buffalo Bill Cody. We took a tour through a small museum dedicated to the showman. 



Considering I visited Buffalo Bill's Ranch last year during a trip out to Western Nebraska, it was cool to bring it all full circle at his grave.



A plaque marks Buffalo Bill's final resting place.


I had a wonderful weekend in Denver. It was relaxing, I got to see a few neat things, and I had so much fun catching up with Cassie, reminiscing about our childhoods and all the shenanigans we got into when we were younger. It also marked the first time in a couple of years that I actually got farther away from Omaha than a few hours away or got away by myself. I truly needed it.

Have a wonderful, long weekend, my friends!



 

The Long Road Home

A handful of weekends ago, I was relaxing at home when I realized that for the first time in a long time, I felt that the huge weight I had been carrying on my shoulders was lifted. Even better, I felt happiness and a sense of peace. I went to bed that night in good spirits but concerned that these feelings would be gone by morning. Much to my delight, they were still with me the next morning and continue to be.
To shed my burdens and be filled with life again cannot be understated. The past four years of my life have been, without a doubt, a tremendous challenge. I dealt with unbelievable pain, anguish, sadness, loss, helplessness, fear, and insecurity. The maelstrom of feelings buried me in a hole so deep, that I feared ever being able to climb out of it.
But, little by little, life started to slowly turn around. I have walked the long road to get where I belong and, in the process, have created a new life for myself. Sure, some things are the same but so much feels different now. I'm taking better care of myself, I'm getting out and traveling again, and I'm looking forward to the future. Combine that with covid being endemic, and that future looks bright.
To that end, I have been incredibly busy. Work has been insanely busy with lots of paperwork between the Spring and Summer semesters and, on top of that, my whole department is being temporarily relocated while work happens in our building. The moving process has been a nightmare so I'll be happy (and less stressed) when it's over.
Life at home has also been busy for the past few months. I've been preparing for a big trip coming up in June while also taking a quick trip to my Dad's for a family event and a trip a few weekends ago to Denver (post forthcoming!). Last weekend I had company in the form of my bestie from Portland coming to stay 24 hours while visiting family, my son was home for a few days, and we enjoyed an afternoon at the Nebraska Ren Faire (a favorite of mine). 
This weekend, I am backpack camping in preparation for my big trip in June. Next weekend is Memorial Day weekend and I'm so glad it's a three-day weekend for me because it's the last weekend before the BIG TRIP and I will need the extra day to prepare.
I'm still here and, yes, I still have posts that need to go up. But, with life returning to a new normal, I won't be posting any more than I have...at least for now. We'll see what the future holds, shall we?

Enjoy your weekend, friends.




 

Color the Wind Festival

In 2002, avid Clear Lake kiters, Larry and Kay Day, started the Color the Wind Festival. Held on the third Saturday in February each year, this colorful festival of kites has been a tradition for the last twenty years, bringing in people from all over the country, and even from other countries. 
I attended the Festival for the first time this year after my friend Libby brought it up in January. I asked my Dad if he'd like to go, so Libby, my dad, Libby's son Eddie, my daughter Eva, my stepmom, and I all made the journey to visit this family-friendly event. Clear Lake is also infamous for the Day the Music Died and we visited the sites from that tragic event as well, which I posted about last weekend.



With ample parking and shuttles to and from the lake, it's easy to get there in this small Iowa town. While it was nearly 60 degrees F in the surrounding areas, Clear Lake was cold and the lake was frozen solid. We brought our winter gear and changed after we parked. We saw plenty of people wearing nothing but jeans, slip-on shoes, and hoodies. Yikes! We didn't imagine that they probably stayed long. 



If you haven't already guessed, the Color the Wind Festival is a festival of kites. Not just any kites though...we're talking giant, colorful, and festive kites that are held by wire and bolted into the ice. The kites literally color the windy skies, hence the name.



There were so many kites of different shapes. While some were geometrically shaped, most of them were familiar to the eye, like this octopus in the foreground, that pig in the back, and lots of other animals.



This Chinese dragon kite was my favorite while the friendlier dragon in front of it was a favorite of Eddie's.



My dad never goes anywhere without his camera and he was warm and ready for some photography!



Eva and Eddie had fun just playing on the ice, honestly, and Libby and I enjoyed watching them have a good time.



Seeing all the kites was a bit magical.



A stingray and a giant squid against the blue sky made it seem like they were swimming side-by-side in the ocean.



This shot shows exactly how the kites are held in place.



Of course, I had to get a close-up of my favorite kite!

While it was really cool to check out all the kites, there's not a lot to do other than just take it all in. However, the legendary Surf Ballroom is open and offers free admission on the day of the Color the Wind Festival, so I recommend stopping in there to round out your visit. Of course, you can also drive a few miles north of town to check out the crash site that put this town on the map, which I highly suggest if you're a history buff like myself.
All in all, it was a fun day trip to take. Anytime you can get out of your surroundings and explore something or somewhere new is a good day. Whether you travel near or far, nothing enhances life more than discovery.


Have a great weekend, friends!
-H.A.





 

Day Trip Adventure: The Day the Music Died

In January of 1959, some of the biggest stars of Rock 'n Roll set out on a whirlwind 24-day tour called the "Winter Dance Party". The headliners of the show were 22-year-old Buddy Holly, 17-year-old Ritchie Valens, and 24-year-old The Big Bopper (aka J.P. Richardson). 



Ballrooms were THE place for concerts of the day, and the tour, with the exception of a few theaters and one armory, was set to play in them all across the Midwest. It was a cold, brutal winter, and tour buses did not have heat in those days. So, it came to be on one such frigid day on February 2nd, the tour arrived in Clear Lake, Iowa, named for the lake it was built up around. Lakes lend more chill to an area than those without, so Buddy Holly, tired and cold, decided to charter a small plane to take him and two members of his band The Crickets - Waylon Jennings (yes, that Waylon Jennings) and Tommy Allsup - to the next stop on the tour after the Clear Lake gig.
The Big Bopper had the flu so Waylon gave up his seat to him and Tommy flipped a coin with Ritchie Valens for the last seat. Tommy lost and Ritchie reveled in the fact that he wouldn't have to face another freezing night on the bus. 



By all accounts, the show that night, held at the Surf Ballroom, was electrifying. These were some of the biggest acts in Rock 'n Roll at the time, and the air in the ballroom was palpable. After the show, Holly, Valens, and Richardson hopped on the plane to go to their next stop on the tour, Moorhead, Minnesota. But, it wasn't to be as the wintry, weather conditions and poor visibility made flying difficult and the pilot, a fairly inexperienced 22-year-old, crashed the plane in a farmer's field a mere two minutes after takeoff, right before 1:00 a.m. on February 3, 1959. The four of them were killed instantly upon impact and, as they say, the rest is history. That day will forever be known as "The Day the Music Died", crushing the hearts of rock 'n roll fans all over the world and immortalized in Don Maclean's 1971 song "American Pie".
A little over 63 years after that infamous night, I made the trip to Clear Lake, Iowa, with my folks, my daughter, my best friend, Libby, and her son to attend the annual Color the Wind Festival. I won't get too deep into the festival itself as I will make a separate post for that, but as a big fan of '50s and '60s pop and rock music, I couldn't NOT go to Clear Lake and visit the Surf Ballroom and the crash site of the Day the Music Died.



The Surf Ballroom, according to its website, "got its name (and motif) from the desire of the original owners to create a ballroom that resembled an ocean beach club. The murals on the back walls were hand-painted to depict pounding surf, swaying palm trees, sailboats and lighthouses. The furnishings were bamboo and rattan and the ambiance that of a south sea island. The stage is surrounded by palm trees and the clouds projected overhead make it seem as if you were dancing outside under the stars."



The Surf Ballroom is on the National Register of Historic Places and, to this day, remains lovingly maintained with its ocean motif.



Inside the entry, the walls are covered in pineapple wallpaper.



The dancefloor is polished to a high shine that reflects the floodlights from the ceiling much like the sun on the ocean.



The dance floor is massive, and I can only imagine how crowded it was the night that Buddy Holly took the stage.



High on the ceiling opposite the stage are paintings of the iconic trio that lost its life a mere five miles away from this spot sixty-three years prior.



This stage is locked in time, forever surrounded by fake palm trees.



The booths that flank the dance floor on two sides look the same as they did when the Surf Ballroom was built back in the late 1940s. The painted and embellished ceiling recalls the beach canopies of yesterday. I can see young couples eating at the booths, surrounded by the crashing waves of the wall murals.



The old booths are painted with fish swimming at the bottom of the sea, their air bubbles making their way to the surface at the top of the booth seat.



While the little boxes remain on the booths, they are no longer working, but are there to keep a piece of history alive. These boxes allowed staff to indicate that the booth was reserved and a little walkie-talkie radio of sorts sat where the hole sits empty. This radio allowed patrons to order food from their booth, which they would order over the radio to wherever staff was taking orders.



Beyond the borders of the dance hall, a museum of the Surf's history is showcased. Famous acts and old show posters line the walls.



The biggest showcases in the ballroom's museum are, of course, of Buddy, Ritchie, and J.P. Inside this case is an old guitar of Buddy's plus interesting tidbits about his life - along with photos, of course.



Here's the Big Bopper's.



And Ritchie's.



After the balloon festival, we made the five-mile drive north of town to visit the crash site. You can't miss it as a large replica of Buddy Holly's signature glasses can be seen easily from the gravel road.



A mile walk to the west, through a farmer's field (the family - which has remained the same since 1959 - has allowed visitors here since the crash) takes you to a memorial to the Day the Music Died. The main memorial, on the left, is to the rock 'n roll trio, while the memorial plaque on the right is for the young pilot who crashed the plane, Roger Peterson.



The memorial is a metal guitar plaque with the trios' names and...



...a metal record with the biggest hit each of them had. Buddy Holly's "Peggy Sue", Big Bopper's "Chantilly Lace", and Ritchie Valens' "Donna".

As someone who loves music from that era, I've listened to the music of Buddy, Ritchie, and the Big Bopper many times. Visiting the Surf Ballroom and visiting the crash site of the Day the Music Died wasn't just something to do, it meant something to me. I admit I got a bit misty as my Dad, my bestie Libby, and myself broke out singing Buddy's "That'll Be the Day" on a frigid Saturday afternoon in the middle of a stark, muddy, corn-stalk strewn field. And the Sun shown down bright - much like the memories that began right in this spot. Memories of what was, what could have been, and what will never be forgotten.


"That'll be the day when I die."
-Buddy Holly











 

Basic Financial Fitness: Everything Costs More

You'd have to be living under a rock not to notice the increase in price on almost everything. Seriously, literally, everything has gone up in price - often by a LOT - since last year. I typically use a tank of gas every two weeks, mainly to travel to work, but also to go visit family, friends, take a day trip here and there, and do a fair share of hiking. Last summer, it costs roughly $50 a month for this, but now the price has gone up drastically. It now costs me around $42 to fill up my gas tank ONCE. It's not just at the gas pump where I see the drain, but also at places like the grocery store and when I open my electric bill. 
Because of this, I've had to adjust the budget of a few of my core bills upwards, but only as much (or as little, in my case) as I dare. I've started keeping my house temperature lower - which was horrible (okay, that's an exaggeration) for both my daughter and me at first, but we've adjusted. There were a lot of road trips I had planned on taking this Spring that have been put on hold for the foreseeable future, and, in fact, I don't drive any more than I have to...period. I also began making a lot of food items from scratch again, like bread and milk. I put my clothes through the sniff test more often than I care to admit and wear them many times over (especially my work clothes) to cut down on how much I have to wash/how often I have to do laundry.
I've even suspended my once or twice a month meal and drinks out with friends. When I stepped into the Dollar Tree the other day, it was the first time since Christmas that I had not only been there but gone into a store to buy something other than necessities. 
On top of all that, my first year in my new apartment is fast approaching and I signed a new lease for another year. Not surprisingly, they've raised the rent a bit.
With all this in mind, I've gone through my bills and shopped around to find better prices on the things that I could. Before I moved into the apartment, I switched my daughter and I's phone plan from Verizon (very expensive) to T-Mobile (less expensive but shitty coverage). I kept hearing about Mint so decided to give them a go. I actually get better service AND coverage than T-Mobile but I only pay $15/month/phone. The $15/month price has to be paid in 3-month chunks, otherwise, it's $20/month. Also, when I signed up I got an extra three months for free, so I paid the same price for 6 months of service that I paid for one month of service with T-Mobile. 
Next on my hit list was my car insurance. I've had Geico for years but felt that my 6-month premium (which I always pay in full as it saves money) was a bit steep. So, I shopped around and got the same coverage through Progressive and saved over $600/year! I also switched my renter's insurance from Geico to Progressive and saved another $40/year. The savings in my insurance was enough to cover the cost of my rent increase plus put an extra $32 into my monthly budget.
What also helps me out is the credit card churning I've been doing for almost two years now. My Fidelity Investments Visa is attached to things like my electric bill, car insurance, internet bill, phone bill, and my lone subscription (to YouTube), while I use the Citi Double Cash card for everything else. My Citi card gives me 1% back on everything I buy, plus an additional 1% back when I pay for said things. Granted, I don't spend a lot because I maintain a strict budget, but every bit extra I can score for myself is a win.
Sure, if I didn't save & invest 33% of my income, I'd have plenty of money for things now...but I would sacrifice the future I have envisioned for my retirement. I'm willing to sacrifice unnecessary things now to thrive later in life. And, to be sure, I don't sacrifice anything that I need as we never go without, but I definitely don't purchase things (with rarer exceptions these days) that are strictly want-items.
Have a great rest of your week, friends.

-H.A. 





 
 

Squirrel Cage Jail

In early January, my friend Rebecca and I took a day trip over to Council Bluffs. We tried to visit the Union Pacific Railroad Museum that day but, as it was a Sunday, the museum was closed. Fortunately for us, the Squirrel Cage Jail Museum is right next to it and it was open. The bad news is that it costs money to get in (unlike the Union Pacific Railroad Museum) but seeing as how I'd always wanted to visit the Jail, I sprung the $6 or $7 it cost to get in.



See, the Jail has a reputation for being haunted, and you all know how much I love a good haunted location. In fact, there is an organization that holds regular night ghost hunts in the Jail. Group ghost hunts with strangers aren't really my thing and cost quite a bit more than just visiting the jail yourself and maybe running an EVP recorder while walking around - which is what I did.



Completed in just five months, it opened in September of 1885 and was as unique as it was interesting. The reason it was called Squirrel Cage Jail was because of the design. The cells are contained in a cylindrical structure inside the main building and that structure can be controlled by one person using a crank. This meant there only needed to be one jailer on duty making security easy and efficient.



There are three levels of cells on the cylinder.



Surrounding the cylinder jail structure were rooms used for many other things. An apartment for the jailer was built on the fourth floor, for instance, while a kitchen that fed everyone inside was built on the first floor, just inside the entrance.



This model shows you exactly how the cells jail looked from the inside.



As we walked around, we could tell the cells were pretty cramped as the circular shape of the structure made every individual cell shaped like a piece of pie.






Access to the cells was only on one side so all the jailer had to do to access a prisoner was rotate the cage, using a crank, around to reach the one he wanted.






There were plenty of signs around letting people know about its haunted history.






This picture display shows many arrest records of the jail.



The whole jail had an interesting vibe - not creepy like during my time at Edinburgh Manor - but rather I felt like I was stepping back in time. 



Jake Bird, the Tacoma Axe Killer, was one of the Jail's most infamous former inmates. He spent time in the Jail during the 1920s. He was a serial killer who actively stalked and killed white women. It was his axe killing of a mother and daughter in Tacoma, WA, that was his downfall. During his trial, he put the "Jake Bird Hex" on anyone associated with his punishment.



Six people associated with the trial allegedly died, giving some credence and a bit of fear about Bird's hex.












Unfortunately, the sewage smells from the basement made their way up the shaft of the cylinder to the fourth-floor Jailer's apartment. As you can imagine, that made life in the apartment a bit stinky so some side cells that were going to house women were turned into the new Jailer's apartment.



A view from the outside of that 2nd-floor apartment.







A room for Trustees. Trustees were prisoners who had good behavior and were rewarded with a bit of freedom in exchange for helping out the Guards...or Jailer in this instance.



Eventually, I made it up to the fourth-floor apartment. 



It contains an Ediphone - an object I've never set eyes on before! 



A blueprint glimpse of how the cells work.



A view of the ceiling where you can see the graffiti of the names of prisoners past - locked in time.



This was a small side bedroom where I spent about 10 minutes doing an EVP session. I swore I heard some faint voice, but when I enhanced it in my audio processor...it was just my breathing.  Figures!  LOL



A view of the topmost part of the cells. You can see the turning spindle in the middle.



At the very end of our visit, we checked out the Solitary Confinement room.



More of a long hallway, it would've prevented anyone from really lying down and/or be comfortable.



A view from the other direction.



This is a painting of what the prison would've looked like in its surroundings back when it first became a jail. Of course, these days it's completely surrounded by the city of Council Bluffs.

I hope you enjoyed the pictures and an abbreviated history of the Squirrel Cage Jail. I realize there are more pictures in this post than any singular past post I've done before, but there were so many more pictures that I had taken so it was hard to choose! I'm a bit bummed that I wasn't able to detect anything paranormal there, but that is so often the case when doing even a full-fledged investigation that I'm not surprised. I have a real ghost hunt planned for sometime soon after the weather warms up more, and you'll definitely get the scoop when it happens.


I released a new book recently called The Urban Prepper: A Succinct Guidebook, so if you're interested in checking it out, click on the link here.






 

The Write Life: Guess I'm a Liar

 

Last month, amidst a long spell of not blogging regularly and not having published a book in four years, I declared that I wasn't much of a writer anymore. Well...I'm a liar. 
Sooo, while I haven't written much in the way of fiction or metal reviews, I have been working on a couple of books of a different variety: prepping and finance. I wrote a succinct guidebook on urban prepping that I recently finished, edited, and published on Amazon. *GASP* I published a book and didn't tell you guys?! Yes, I admit it: I recently published a book. Here's the cover of the book:




The title tells you all you need to know about the contents, and it's short - hence why it's "succinct". Why did I write a book on urban prepping? Well, I think it's no secret - in looking at all my content here on my blog over the years - that I am a prepper at heart. Some of it was learned growing up, some of it was out of necessity living as a poor urban-dweller, and the rest of it because I'm passionate about preparedness. I've weathered many power-grid-down moments in all my years in the city and having a stockpile makes sense for me in more ways than one.
I didn't promote the book or mention it to anyone before today, except one person. And you know what? The book is doing quite well on Amazon - more so than my other books if I'm being honest. Here's a screenshot from Amazon from just this morning:



It's been the #1 New Release in that category for a few days now. I know it's a small victory, but the victory is very sweet for me. It's also put a small spark back in The Write Life for me, and I feel a bit reinvigorated.
So, what's next for H.A. Larson? I'm currently working on a book for how to get your finances together when you're poor. This, as you all know, is something I'm well-versed in.
It's going to be a beautiful Sunday today and I'm definitely going to get out and enjoy it. I hope you do, too! And, if you'd like to check out The Urban Prepper: A Succinct Guidebook...click on this link. 

Day Trip Adventure in Council Bluffs

Not long after the 2021 Holiday Season was over, and life returned to a normal pace, I had a hankering to do a day trip. Around the same time, I was visiting my friend Rebecca one evening and we got to talking about the Black Angel in Council Bluffs. This got me thinking that she and I should take a trip to see it, since I never have, and a Day Trip Adventure was born. 
On a chilly Sunday, we made the brief drive across the river to check out the statue in question, forever known as the Black Angel. Located in Fairview Cemetery, on a bluff overlooking the city, the statue stands tall - a memorial to a mother from her daughters.



We parked on the road where a path leads directly from the street to the statue. The statue is the focal point of the memorial to Ruth Anne Dodge, the wife of railroad magnate Grenville Dodge. The memorial consists of an Angel holding a bowl of water. She stands on a pedestal made to resemble a ship's prow and a reflecting pool that flows with water during the warmer months.



The statue is a translation of a dream Mrs. Dodge told her daughters about in the three days leading up to her death. In her dream, she stood on a rocky shore and, through the mist, she could see a small boat approach. On the front of the boat, a beautiful angel stood who spoke softly, encouraging Mrs. Dodge to take a drink from the bowl she held. On the third night, Mrs. Dodge took a drink and told her daughters that she felt she had transformed into a new and glorious spiritual being. She died soon thereafter.



Over the years, spooky legends have attached themselves to this monument of daughterly love. The most prominent of these is that if you look into the Angel's eyes at midnight, you will meet an early death. It is this macabre interpretation of the statue that keeps visitors coming. 



An inscription on one side of the platform.



Oddly enough, Ruth Anne Dodge is not buried at the memorial site - like one might think - but rather a mile and a half away in the Walnut Hill Cemetery. She forever lies in a crypt with her husband, Grenville Dodge. It seemed only fitting that we go to the actual burial site after seeing her memorial.



Ruth Anne Dodge's husband was Grenville Dodge. Grenville Dodge was a Union Army Officer during the Civil War who became a pioneer in military intelligence. After he resigned from the military, he became an engineer for Union Pacific, becoming a leading figure in the construction of the Transcontinental Railroad. If that wasn't enough, he became a U.S. Congressman in later life. He and his wife both died in 1916 and were interred here.



Not far from where they are buried, their home - the Dodge House - is on the historical register and a museum. It wasn't open the day we were there, but we drove by since we were on a mini-tour of the Dodge family at this point.



Our intention after this was to visit the Union Pacific Museum (the railroad that Grenville Dodge was once an engineer for), but it is closed on Sundays apparently. Fortunately, right next door is the Squirrel Cage Jail - a haunted former jail that I have always wanted to go to. So, we ponied up the $3 entry fee and went inside. I decided not to include the jail in this post as it's more than worthy of its own post - so look for that in the future.



After an interesting visit to the old jail, we wanted to take advantage of what warmth and sunlight we had left in the day, so we drove over to Lake Manawa.



During the summer months, the lake is a haven for people to swim, fish, and take their boats. During the winter, you can fish or recreate on the ice (at your own risk). 



We opted to walk on the trail that runs across from it. We didn't walk for long, I mean it's Winter, but it was nice to be outside for a little while.






On our way out, we spotted these guys so stopped to admire them and get a few photographs. What a bunch of turkeys!  


I hope you're having a good weekend and are looking forward to a great week.
-H.A.