Medical Museums in the United States

Polio cases peaked in the mid-20th century,  with the US recording 57,628 cases in 1952 alone.  And yet within 10 years the disease had nearly been entirely eradicated thanks to the creation of polio vaccines–the first of which was developed by American virologist Dr. Jonas Salk–and subsequent mass vaccination programs.

BBC History Revealed

Issue 91

Medical Museums outside the United States

St. Augustine neighborhood

Salt Springs Campground Recreation Area Site by Site Tour (RV Living Full Time)

Salt Springs Campground, Fl.  A large, rambling park, containing multiple camping conveniences….Swimmers can enjoy the crystal clear waters o a natural spring, and boaters and fishermen can cruise or fish the five-mile spring run which empties into Lake George, the second largest lake in Florida.  The camper can choose from open or shadd, primitive or full hookup campsites.  The park is in the National Forest on Hwy 19 about 16 miles north of Hwy 40.

Guide to Florida Campgrounds

Jim Stachowicz

19 of the most beautiful campsites around the world

Learn. Grow. Connect.  407-835-7323  /  OCLA.INFO/BIGREAD

51 Movie Locations You Can Actually Visit

“We need above all, I think, a certain remoteness from urban confusion, and…Cross Creek offers it with such beauty and grace that once entangled with it, no other place seems possible to us.”  In this way, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings   described the appeal of Cross Creek.  Here she found peace,  And, she would make this remote portion of the state, this bend in a country road and gentle flow of a creek, famous as she lived and wrote here from 1928 until she died in 1953.

Florida Heritage Magazine

Winter 1999

Love of a Creek

LITERARY TOURISM: REAL LANDMARKS MADE FAMOUS BY FICTION

4K London Walk – Paddington Station

Paddington Station contains both a railway station and an Underground one as well (that’s subway to us Americans—-but by rights, given the fact that London had a subway long before us or the rest of Europe shouldn’t they should really  have the right to determine the name for it to be fair.

Paddington by the way is in central London, and is close to Bayswater and Marylebone.   

and there lots of thing to do around the station including partaking of food and coffee—but you silly Americans—yes I’m one of those too but—you almost forgot afternoon tea.

closed in 1999—-this museum use to be in the area:

London Toy & Model Museum 1985

From here you can walk to Little Venice—been there done that, had great fun and saw a part of London town that many visitors miss.  It is a triangular bit of water complete with an island named after Robert Brownng, yeah the poet,  There are tour boats along Regent’s Canal or you can just walk along the towpath and see all the elegant houses and moored barges.

And don’t forget Regent Park,  that was first used as one of Henry VIII’s hunting grounds.  and you can also visit the London Zoo.  

with it’s  12,000 animals, Lord Snowdon’s aviary and Touch Paddock which is great for the kids. From here you can catch a number 27 bus back to Paddington Station.

And if you want to walk 20 min you can visit Baker Street or you can take the underground from Paddington to Baker Street —you can’t miss the station–just look for the guy with the pipe

Here you’ll find  the Sherlock Holmes Museum

You remember the address—it hasn’t changed in forever,

Also in this area  Near Sherlock’s Baker Street is Madame Trussaud’s with the London Planetarium Building

next door..

The complete history of Paddington station

Viking Sites and Ruins

In addition to large cargo ships and warships, Scandinavian waters in the Viking period were teeming with smaller boats, for travel, fishing, and other local purposes.  It was above all such boats that were used in he thousands of boat graves that were made in Viking-Age Scandinavia, especially in Norway and Sweden.  These boats are almost always so badly preserved that only a few rusty rivets survive.  There are however, exceptions.  Boat burials in Uppland in central Sweden have yielded interesting information about the use of these small craft.  By comparing the size of the boats with the scale of the rivers on which the cemeteries stand it has been possible to demonstrate a link between the navigability of rivers and the size o the boats.  This clearly proves that boats were especially built foe use on smaller streams.

The Oxford Illustrated History of the Vikings

1000 AD: A Tour of the Viking World // Vikings Documentary

The Best Beach on Key West – Tour of Fort Zachary Taylor Historic State Park | Florida

Kegger:  During Key West’s Great FIre of 1859,a man named Henry Mulrennon secured a keg of gunpowder from Fort Taylor and used it to blow up his own house to prevent the fire from spreading.  He was heralded as a hero for helping save the town from the blaze.

Key West Hemingway House Museum Tour

The Creepiest Place To Visit In Every State

GHOSTS OF ST. AUGUSTINE (Dave Lapham):  The unique and often turbulent history of America’s oldest city is told in twenty-four-spooky stories that cover four hundred years’ worth of ghosts.

50 Scary Places Around The World Where You Cannot Travel Alone

Roberto Clemente working off-season with kids in Carolina, Puerto Rico, 1962. Courtesy of The Clemente Museum.

New Traveling Exhibition Explores the History of Latinos and Baseball

Since I do this blog to try to get you to stay active—-and right now I know that’s hard—I keep trying to find things for you to do—-sometimes especially now it’s only getting your wish list set up and give you places to research and/or make plans on it.   Currently that’s been hard—-but every once in while I get lucky and find some places to go that might give you something new to do.

Today I’s a Baseball exhibition including a traveling exhibit that started in January this year in Saginaw, Michigan and will continue on till 2025.  But let me explain.

Roberto Clemente— the Pittsburg Pirate’s right fielder whose fabled talents and devotion to charity made him of the loved players ever—-I can still remember how sad I was when the announcement came at his death in an airplane crash at 38 years of age.  

He started playing on his home island Puerto Rico in 1952, and by 1955 he was playing in Pittsburg where he remained for 18 years, an inspiration for many including his fellow Latino men and women seeking their fortune on the baseball field.

As I mentioned before there is a new traveling exhibit which was organized by the National Museum of American History and the Smithsonian institution traveling Exhibition Service with federal government funding and administered by the Smithsonian Latino Center with the stories of Latino and Latina ballplayers.

There will be a version of this exhibit opening this summer at the museum of American History in Washington as well.

Smithsonian Announces “Latinos and Baseball” Collecting Initiative

Paynes Prairie Preserve State Park, Micanopy, Florida

Payne’s Prairie State Preserve In Florida is named for a Seminole Chief and is considered a very important site geologically and ecologically.  It was here when work was being done for I-75 to originally go thru this are that ancient fossils of many creatures including horses and saber-tooth tigers were found along with many others.  These were found to be the  earliest  land dwellers on what is today Florida—-deeper and of course earlier historical area there was found only fossils of whales, sharks and other sea animals.

The Town that Time Forgot | Micanopy, Florida | ChadGallivanter

History of Smithfield part one – a new museum

History of Smithfield part two – a history of Smithfield

Smithfield in London has been the site of many things over the years.  Knights use to come here to joust, it was here that the cattle and other meat animals were held and then butchered as need and sold in the markets.

And they were not the only one—there is a location here that is now a charity but in the time of Henry VIII was a monastery, and when Henry dissolved the monasteries and finally got around to this one, but the Abbot refused to surrender he was killed and his hands, raw and bloody ledgend say were placed at the Charterhouse site’s gate—just nailed up and left to rot.    .

So obviously it probably had a few heath issues from the blood and creatures that fed on the left overs—-from those in armor as well as those who wore only their hides.  And we won’t even mention the vengeful and loss spirits that might have (or are still) wandered about

But the death that a lot of you might actually have heard of is that of a Scottish Rebel made famous by Mel Gibson and Hollywood:  William Wallace, who joined many others who died here—guilty or not in a most horrible punishment of being hanged,, cut down, drawn and quartered—those who were lucky died from shock or blood loss—the rest were cut open and removed of private parts and cut open in a cross pattern,  before their head was removed……OMG.

History of Smithfield part three – Smithfield today

London Fun Facts Walking Tour – Clerkenwell & Smithfield

A Full Tour Of Edinburgh Castle In Scotland

“Edinburgh castle:  As you cross the drawbridge you will be scrutinized by two great national heroes of Scotland:  William Wallace and Robert the Bruce.  As far as these two saviours of national freedom are concerned, you can be as cheeky as you like, because they’re statues (worth mentioning, just in case it isn’t obvious).  Much less obvious is the ironic fact that both likenesses of our great defenders…. of Auld Enemy were cast in England in 1929 and that a Californian, Randall Wallace, was so impressed by the statue of his name sake that he researched his story and wrote the film with out which the Scottish Parliament may not have happened–Brave Heart, starring Mel Gibson, an Australian.  The rest is history, or Hollywood.”

Edinburgh’s Historic Mile

Duncan  Priddle

Bruce, Wallace and Scottish Chivalry with Callum Watson

I must apologize for being late with my blog—but I had major computer problems and am only able to finish up today because a friend loaned me theirs……it’s been crazy

The main picture is Leeds Castle—a beautiful place to visit.

Leeds Castle, Kent (England) – Complete Tour Inside [4K Walking Tours UK]

Hopefully I will be back on Tuesday  with my own computer—-we’ll take a little walk about Sanford, Florida then.

Central Florida Roadtrip – Sanford, Florida