Pardon my Civil War tale....
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The Civil War era fascinates me.... note: "era", not just the war.
On my first trip to St. Louis on my motorcycle I had just pulled into Mo. and pulled into a rest stop. I was WAY ahead of schedule and was going to hit St. Louis long before I could check into my room... so from the rest stop I called my son. I was using, (I forget what it was called now), a GPS tracking site that my family could access on the internet and follow me. I asked my son if he could look up the Wilson's Creek Battlefield and see if I was any where near it, (I had no idea where it was). If it was close, say an hour or so, I'd visit before heading on to St. Louis. He got back to me and said, "You're 2 miles from the battlefield".
Was that lucky or what? So I went. Wilson's Creek is little known and gets very few visitors... they were thrilled to see me.
But here's where the story gets amazing. Talking to the Wilson Creek Park employees I mentioned that on my return trip I was going to try to find the actual Glorietta Pass battlefield in New Mexico... which doesn't have a visitor center and almost no place markers. They told me that they knew a lady in New Mexico who had just received funds to put a visitor center at Glorietta Pass, AND... they gave me her number. She was the expert, they told me.
In New Mexico I gave her a call... again, she was thrilled to hear from someone interested in the battle of Glorietta Pass, that even knew about it. To sum this up - she gave me a personal guided tour, in her jeep - (many of the places are inaccessible unless you have a 4X4). It was glorious.
I'll resist telling an almost identical story about the Civil War Battle near Picacho Peak in Arizona.... it's nearly identical to the above story. I'll just say this: I'm one of a handful of people that know the exact spot the Picacho Peak Battle took place... (it's NOT where the marker is, or even where the marker says it is). - JamesJM
On my first trip to St. Louis on my motorcycle I had just pulled into Mo. and pulled into a rest stop. I was WAY ahead of schedule and was going to hit St. Louis long before I could check into my room... so from the rest stop I called my son. I was using, (I forget what it was called now), a GPS tracking site that my family could access on the internet and follow me. I asked my son if he could look up the Wilson's Creek Battlefield and see if I was any where near it, (I had no idea where it was). If it was close, say an hour or so, I'd visit before heading on to St. Louis. He got back to me and said, "You're 2 miles from the battlefield".
Was that lucky or what? So I went. Wilson's Creek is little known and gets very few visitors... they were thrilled to see me. But here's where the story gets amazing. Talking to the Wilson Creek Park employees I mentioned that on my return trip I was going to try to find the actual Glorietta Pass battlefield in New Mexico... which doesn't have a visitor center and almost no place markers. They told me that they knew a lady in New Mexico who had just received funds to put a visitor center at Glorietta Pass, AND... they gave me her number. She was the expert, they told me.
In New Mexico I gave her a call... again, she was thrilled to hear from someone interested in the battle of Glorietta Pass, that even knew about it. To sum this up - she gave me a personal guided tour, in her jeep - (many of the places are inaccessible unless you have a 4X4). It was glorious.
I'll resist telling an almost identical story about the Civil War Battle near Picacho Peak in Arizona.... it's nearly identical to the above story. I'll just say this: I'm one of a handful of people that know the exact spot the Picacho Peak Battle took place... (it's NOT where the marker is, or even where the marker says it is). - JamesJM
