This week, I had the pleasure to be company for my friend Luke down in Orlando, Florida, and while there, we took part in an exclusive “technical rehearsal” for Universal’s new theme park called “Epic Universe”. This is an experience reserved for staff and direct friends of staff there until the park officially opens on May 22nd, and we went on only the 3rd day since Universal started allowing anyone to take pictures and videos there!

The new park contains themed areas such as Celestial Park, Dark Universe, How to Train Your Dragon — Isle of Berk, Super Nintendo World, and The Wizarding World of Harry Potter — Ministry of Magic.

As seen in this video, I was most fascinated after going up a tall escalator and entering the all-mechanical and brightly-painted area in Super Nintendo World where you looked like you were actually in one of the worlds in Super Mario Bros. They really paid close attention to detail!

Stardust Racers was one of their top-end rollercoasters that Luke and I both went on. It goes about 65 MPH, and at times has a double-helix where two separate coasters interweave with one another. You can watch a first-person view of this ride here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmQKULmjH5Y. Certainly a fun and memorable experience!

Luke and I also dined at many of Epic’s restaurants, visited Orlando’s Old Town, and went over to the “dark side” and visited Disney Springs.

To top it all off, the weather might not have been ideal yesterday, but my riding friends and I got several good sessions in at the Jordan Supercross track after Motokazie switched up the track layout. Thanks for the fantastic time guys!

We all only get one life, so let’s all live it to the max! As I told Luke, we live in a world where we can enter a transporter room (airplane), appear in a completely different place in 3 hours, with a completely different climate, and go right back to where we were 3 hours later. What a magnificent time in history we live in!

Bethany and I had a super sick time down in Florida, with perfect weather, and the opportunity to catch 3 SpaceX Falcon 9 launches, with 2 of those being on the same day! Our friend Luke guided us through Universal Studios during their Mardi Gras festival, and the Daytona Pro Supercross and Bike Week was going on in Daytona. A super eventful but relaxing week!

I wondered to myself: could this farm still exist today?

I turn to the Internet. Yes, a post was submitted on social media to a Sac City community forum, but actually, I turned to the “old” Internet. The one that still exists jam packed with archival newspapers, land plats, photographs, and stories, if you know where to look!

A 1920 plat map being sold on eBay had Samuel (S.S.) Rodgers owning land in Jackson Township in Sac County, just west of Sac City, between sections 17 and 20, near what appears to be Little Indian Creek. An earlier 1910 Census had the entire family in Jackson Township in Sac County as well. There were no other Rodgers families listed in the county owning land at that time, so I figured, this must be the spot!

For a half century, a company called Vintage Aerial flew around taking photographs of farms in the rural midwest, going door-to-door sometimes to sell them. If you live in the country, you may even have one! Their website allows you to search by location and then fine-tune that search with a map drawn of the plane’s flight route.

Sure enough, Vintage Aerial had pictures of a farm at that exact location in 1971, with a house having the same familiar dormer feature in the second story as my photograph. The porch looked to have been removed at some point and the roof altered to suit. All the other structures seemed to be long gone.

Google Maps gives both an overhead satellite and street view of most locations now, and even this rural location were accessible and included. There it was! A picture taken by Google In November 2024 seemed to verify what I had been hoping. If you were to stand on the road and take a picture of the house today, it would have been from the same distance away as the heirloom photograph. Even the telephone pole seemed to match!

The picture had been hanging in the house of my mom’s grandparents, and it had always been part of my parents’ homes. It’s now part of my home, and given what it represents, it’s a gift I shall cherish forever. This summer, I hope to take my Mom to see this loving home and farm in person.

Most people my age understand that Alf travelled from Melmac to Los Angeles back in 1986, but did you know after the Melmacians “beamed” Alf back aboard their spaceship, he escaped and crash landed again in Southern Minnesota?

It was at that point, he made it his mission to travel around the world, meet new people and new places, and see what life beyond Los Angeles is really like.

OK, OK, I made that up. The reality is that I had this little Alf pencil topper since the late 80s, and in April of 2005, I decided to place it in a plastic container down in Two Rivers Park in Faribault, hidden from normal view, between a couple of trees. I put only a single post on Geocaching.com with its latitude and longitude, and figured the adventure for Alf was just beginning.

And it was a grand adventure for Alf! Just a week later, he was found and was taken 805 miles into Maryland. After several other stops in Maryland, he visited Virginia in early May. For some reason, it just wasn’t the area for him, and he backtracked to Maryland where he lived until July. For some unknown reason, maybe over some homesickness over his longtime Tanner family companions, he made the 2,373 mile trek back to California, where he stayed until at least September.

After he was found in a photo posing near a cat, where I can only assume his new owner’s had had enough, he showed up without note in Arlington, Texas.

East to Tennessee, through Kentucky, down to Alabama, back to California, through the Deserts of Nevada, back west to California, into the highlands of Colorado. Even after 6 years, Alf’s grand adventure was not over. Utah, Arizona, Nevada, California, and one last 2,000 mile trek back east to Tennessee.

In October of 2011, he finally had the right connection to bring him to the place where he’d spend his retirement years. 4,663 miles later, he was in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Eventually, he settled down into Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany, where he lived through February of 2018.

Alf’s second trip to Earth included a total of 18,152 miles across this great planet, and while I’m sure he enjoyed Los Angeles, the desolate solitude of the deserts in our western states, and homemade spaetzle, possibly with a cat appetizer or two, his grand trip was over.

And if you’re really interested, Alf’s grand journal of his travels can be found here: https://www.geocaching.com/track/details.aspx?id=78716

Excerpt from his obituary in 2019: “Robert “Bob” Kemmer was a unique individual as you will ever find in your lifetime. He was a passionate person about food, music, books, and life. His legacy began with his career as a librarian of extraordinary gifts. For more than 35 years at Lincoln Elementary in Faribault he was the personification of what an ideal librarian (not media specialist) should be for children. His knowledge of books and what existed within his library was awe inspiring. If a child showed an interest in some topic or author, Bob would find six or seven books off the top of his head that would appeal to that individual child. His library was not a quiet, sterile place of shushing. It was a colorful oasis of stuffed animals, pictures, knick-knacks, aquarium, Christmas decorations, and music always music. To see him read a book aloud to students was akin to seeing DaVinci painting or sculpting. He was a multiple voice-jumping artist at inspiring youth to become lifelong readers. He also loved going to concerts of all genres from heavy metal to classical; from country to Weird Al Yankovic. He loved his cigars, Old Country Buffet, scotch, and privacy. Before his onset of diabetes, he was a hermit who loved people but on his terms. After his move to Pleasant View Estates he became quite social and even started a Thursday read aloud session. The world will seem a little duller without “Bongo Bob” in it.”

Robert “Bob” Kemmer, December 17, 1948 — April 2, 2019

Here’s a few of the nice things people have said about him, and memories about him, from our “You know you grew up in Faribault when…” Facebook group.

Here are some shared stories and anecdotes from several of Bob’s co-workers from his retirement party in early November 2010. Please excuse the rough transcription as the original recording was not very good, and a combination of AI and best guess was used to fill in the blanks. I hope you’ll still find some touching moments in it.

There is nothing so much quintessentially American as the road trip. Having the freedom to drive long distances, not only for general transport, but also for the love of the road, the wind in your hair, brings to the surface many emotions. Autonomy, exhilaration, anticipation, escape, wonder, contentment, joy, and sometimes even fear.

I have been fortunate to be able to take a drive through some amazing places in my lifetime.

– Haleakala Highway 378 (to Haleakala Summit), Maui, Hawaii – Dodge Dart Sport, March 2015. (Climbing to nearly 10,000 feet, before sunrise, to catch a rare glance of the sun rising from above the clouds…breathtaking..and below freezing wind chill in Hawaii!)

– Mauna Loa Observatory Rd (from Saddle Rd to Mauna Loa Observatory), Big Island, Hawaii – Jeep Cherokee Trailhawk, March 2018 (Very well paved, but single lane stretch of 17 miles across desolate volcanic terrain, climbing from sea level to 11,135 feet).

– “The Back Road to” Hana Highway 360/31 (From Hana [North] to Pukalani [West]), Maui, Hawaii – Chevrolet Camaro, 2019. (Partially paved, partially compacted dirt road around the south side of Mount Haleakala).

– “Road to” Hana Highway 360, twice (From Paia [West] and Makawao [West] to Hana [East]), Maui, Hawaii – Dodge Dart Sport, March 2015 — Chevrolet Camaro, March 2019. (Winding, narrow road with 59 bridges, 46 of them only 1 lane wide.)

– Kahekili Highway 340 (From Waihee-Waiehu [East] to Kapalua [West]), Maui, Hawaii – Chevrolet Camaro, March 2019. (Certainly among the sketchiest and most scenic roads!)

– “Going to the Sun” Road, Glacier National Park, from St. Mary, MT to Coram, MT – Chevrolet Silverado, July 2024. (Winding, 50 mile-long well maintained road through Glacier, with waterfalls, glacial valleys, Logan Pass, and Weeping Wall)

– US Highway 50 “The Loneliest highway in America” from Reno, NV to Milford, UT – Chevrolet Silverado, July 2024. (7 hour drive across absolute unspoiled desert landscape, remote mountain ranges. Solitude to the extreme, pull over to the side of the road to listen to your ears ringing in complete silence.)

– US Highway 163 from Monument Valley, AZ through Forrest Gump Point to Mexican Hat, UT to Valley of the Gods Rd – Chevrolet Silverado, July 2024. (A 17 mile dirt offroad experience with towering sandstone buttes, pinnacles, and mesas.)

What are some of your favorite road trips, or most memorable highways?