College GameDay - Northwestern University

This week ESPN's College GameDay is in Evanston, Illinois, at Northwestern University. This week GameDay is featuring the matchup between The Northwestern University and the visiting Ohio State University. Go Wildcats!

The photo is a screen capture from College GameDay. Recognize anyone?

Another "Where's Waldo? John?" after the jump.

S2L77: Mount Ararat, Turkey

Van, Turkey
April 10, 1977
A Turkish man helped us communicate with a waiter. Later he sent a bottle of wine to our table and paid for desserts and ice cream. A good welcome to Turkey.

Source: Personal travel notes.

From 1977 04 08 Turkey

I love Turkey. Perhaps it had something to do with that warm welcome in eastern Turkey. Eastern Turkey is rural, poor, and scenic. Mount Ararat, the mythical resting place of Noah's Ark, is in eastern Turkey. We didn't search for the ark. The Turkish people turned out to be the real attraction of eastern Turkey. I wish I had a photo.

More scenic photos of eastern Turkey after the jump.

Say Goodbye to Spring Creek Farm

Imagine finding a peaceful farm with rolling green grounds, beautiful horses, animals, and a museum in the middle of busy Richardson, Texas. This lovely spot is Owens® Spring Creek Farm and it's available to you and your family. Source: Bob Evans.

Or rather, it *was* available. Owens Spring Creek Farm is closing. Owens Spring Creek Farm, a Richardson institution for over 80 years, was increasingly an anachronism in the city. The land on which it sat is too valuable to sustain hay rides and pumpkin patches, so Owens Spring Creek Farm is soon to disappear forever, to be replaced by... that is the question.

After the jump, some speculation.

OTBR: Kunnati Bay, Saarema Island, Estonia

Latitude: N 58° 22.944
Longitude: E 022° 57.546

A child on a road trip with his family asks, "Where are we?" and the father answers, "Let's check the map. We're off the blue roads [the Interstate Highways marked in blue on the road atlas]. We're off the red roads [the US and state highways]. We're off the black roads [the county highways]. I think we're off the map altogether." It was always my dream to be off the map altogether.

After the jump, a few of the random places (and I mean random literally) that I visited vicariously last month that are "off the blue roads".

Welcome Back, The Dallas Morning News

October 1. The government shut down. Obamacare exchanges opened for business. And The Dallas Morning News removed its paywall. "Its news content will once again be free to all web visitors." Once again I can read the bad news, the good news, all the news, in the News.

Long ago, I gave up my print subscription to The Dallas Morning News. And when the online product was locked behind a paywall, I largely gave up reading The Dallas Morning News online as well. I quit clicking on links to The Dallas Morning News stories because most of the time, I'd get the first paragraph, then a paywall notice telling me that the rest of the article was for paying customers only.

Now I can go back to clicking on links to The Dallas Morning News. That's good, right? After the jump, the downside of free.