Twelve Mile Circle – An Appreciation of Unusual Places

Category: Water

  • Thumb Drive, Day 1

    My older son had to get back to Michigan State University for the start of the new semester and it was my turn to drive. It takes about nine hours to get there under ordinary circumstances so it involves an overnight stay in East Lansing. Then, I figured, I might as well stay a little…

  • Bogue Banks Bound, Part 5 (Critters)

    I’ve covered some pretty comprehensive topics in the last several installments. So let’s get a little more lighthearted with the content and shift gears. Everybody loves animals, right? I sure do, and we saw a bunch of them on Bogue Banks. Whether captive or in the wild there was something here for everyone. North Carolina…

  • Bogue Banks Bound, Part 3 (Ferries)

    Now we’re getting to the good stuff! I didn’t just sit along the shoreline and watch the sun and the waves all day. Sure I did plenty of that but I had other adventures too. Plus I got a chance to add another video to the world’s lamest YouTube channel. I hope you like ferries.…

  • Niagara Weekend, Part 2 (Falls Redux)

    I started Twelve Mile Circle back in 2007. Sometimes I wish I could return to those earliest pages and rewrite them though. They didn’t have nearly the thoughtfulness that I applied to later efforts. Even before that though I posted a number of travel topics including a visit to Niagara Falls in 2003. Eventually I…

  • Ohio River, Part 11 (Marietta)

    We spent our final overnight in Marietta, Ohio, arriving late in the afternoon after a grueling drive. So we didn’t have a ton of time to explore its historical significance. In retrospect, I might want to return someday and delve into it further. Marietta served as the initial capital of the Northwest Territory from 1788…

  • Ohio River, Part 10 (Heading Back Upstream)

    All good things must come to an end. So, after spending a week in Louisville, we needed to begin the long journey back home. As before, this unfolded over two days of driving. The penultimate day would be the most arduous day of the trip by design. It was a highly technical route, too complicated…

  • Ohio River, Part 8 (Ark Loop)

    After a warmup loop the day before, we set our sites on something more ambitious. This took us on a course extending northeast of Louisville to the outskirts of Cincinnati. From there we crossed into Indiana and followed the Ohio River. This combined one very specific destination along with some less structured county counting. I…

  • Ohio River, Part 6 (The Big Four)

    Many people suggested the Big Four Bridge when I asked for Louisville suggestions. This spans a half-mile across the Ohio River, connecting the city on the Kentucky side to Jeffersonville, Indiana (map). However, there’s a catch. Only pedestrians can use it. Has my bridge mania finally gone too far? Can I really focus an entire…

  • Ohio River, Part 2 (Portsmouth)

    We began our journey with an easy drive along Interstate highways. I worried a bit about I-81 and its abundant truck traffic on the Friday before a 3-day weekend. Nonetheless we made it through and shot across West Virginia on I-64 unscathed. From there we only had to cut away at Huntington and follow the…

  • Ohio River, Part 1 (Orientation)

    The COVID pandemic began to wane as summer approached. Sure, we’d taken pseudo-vacations since its arrival. We went to a couple of lakes and the beach, and experienced an almost normal trip to the South Carolina Lowcountry. Basically we went to places where we could hide for awhile and stay away from other people. So…