Category: History

  • Great Allegheny Passage, Day 3 (Ohiopyle to Meyersdale)

    We pushed deeper into the trip, halfway done as we pedaled out of Ohiopyle on the morning of the third day. We intended to cover the same distance as the previous day, a little more than forty miles, although we’d gain a thousand feet of elevation while reaching the town with the highest altitude along…

  • Great Allegheny Passage, Day 2 (West Newton to Ohiopyle)

    The second day of biking on the Great Allegheny Passage may have been my favorite. The rain lifted overnight and conditions improved with lightly cloudy skies, neither too hot nor too cool. Scenery changed from rust belt chic to thick forest hugging a scenic whitewater river. It was our first complete day of biking without…

  • Great Allegheny Passage, Day 1 (Pittsburgh to West Newton)

    I fretted about my upcoming bicycle trek along the Great Allegheny Passage trail. My attitude got stuck somewhere between nervousness and fear. I’d never attempted anything like it before, a 150 mile (240 kilometre) rails-to-trails ride between Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and Cumberland, Maryland. Confronting My Fears Every time I conquered a fear I created a new…

  • Avoiding the Temptation

    It sat there in front of me, so tempting, so wanting to be bestowed with a clickbait title on this 12MC article. I could have called it Sex Folk or maybe Folk Sex. Certainly that would have attracted some undeserved attention and a few extra eyeballs. However, for what purpose? People who come to the…

  • Ouse

    I came across the oddly named River Great Ouse as I researched Pathway to Bedford. The river ran through Bedford, the County Town of Bedfordshire. It amused me even further to discover that locals pronounce it somewhat akin to “Ooze”. A body of water likened to a great ooze seemed awful to me. Hopefully it…

  • Pathway to Bedford

    One of the more obscure examples provided in New Difference involved New Bedford Inlet in Antarctica. The chilly inlet derived its name from New Bedford in Massachusetts. So that in turn derived from Bedford, the County Town of Bedfordshire, England. I encountered several other places named Bedford or New Bedford as I examined that original…

  • Hawaii on the Mainland

    Reader Joel expressed mild surprise at a Hawaiian-inspired spot in Utah that I’d referenced. I’m mentioned the town of Loa named by a former resident of Hawaii honoring the towering mountain Mauna Loa. He wondered about “names out of place” in general while I continued to fixate on Hawaii. I complemented his comment with Diamondhead,…

  • Savages

    I continue to make progress with the logistics supporting my recently-revealed 2015 Travel Plans. First on the docket will be a 150 mile (240 kilometre) bicycle adventure along the Great Allegheny Passage trail. That one runs between Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and Cumberland, Maryland. I’ve been scoping the route and noticed a peculiarly-named town on the Maryland…

  • Shortest Town + State Combo

    I wondered what town and state had the fewest letters in its collective name. For example, my hometown of Arlington, Virginia had 17 letters. That wasn’t very short. Why would anyone care? I don’t know. Maybe someone had a job where they had to write down their town and state repeatedly to the point where…

  • Nestling Newark

    It began as a simple enough proposition once I noticed Newark, Ohio on a map. Was it related somehow to the Newark in New Jersey, and what about the Newark in Delaware? Did they all intertwine in a way? It sounded like a mystery that I needed to solve. Newark, New Jersey I noticed Newark,…