New adventures and a blog revived.

Giving thanks for family, friends, good health and the continuing opportunities to bring Theodore Roosevelt to life for appreciative audiences throughout the country.

I give thanks for my wife and business partner, Jenny, whose consistent help and reminders are such a vital part of the Teddy Roosevelt Show.  Jenny and I have been an item for nearly thirty years now, and it just keeps getting better.  Many of my customers have enjoyed Jenny's assistance, follow up, attention to details, and her ability to help get me from point A to point C via point Z.

As we've moved our home and headquarters from our beloved Sewanee, Tennessee, to a cozy beach community nearby San Diego, California, Jenny and I are bringing a new, leaner and more vigorous business and web operation into existence, just at the same time that I work on bringing a leaner and more vigorous TR to the stage and screen.  It's going well.

Along the way, this blog has suffered from benign neglect, defunct email addresses and forgotten passwords leaving this Luddite dead in the water technologically.  Well, just at the point where I was ready to cross over to Wordpress and start fresh, Jenny was able to resurrect an old password that gave a good clue and poof, here we are, back live on the original blog.  New password written down. Fun Teddy Roosevelt and TR Joe adventures ahead.  I look forward to sharing with you some wonderful stories of the inspiring people I meet on my travels, mixed in with some tremendous history and more.

It's good to be back.

Two Teddies in Medora, ND

In September 1883, Theodore Roosevelt came to the Badlands of North Dakota, shot a bison bull, and invested $14,000 in cattle and cowboys, the money inherited from his father’s death nearly five years before.  He returned to New York City, celebrating his twenty-fifth birthday in October and his November re-election to a third one year term in the New York General Assembly.  On February 14, 1884, Theodore Roosevelt watched his mother die from typhoid fever and his wife die of Bright’s disease.

By the summer of 1884, TR was back in the region of Medora in the Dakota Territory, a cattle rancher operating the Chimney Butte/Maltese Cross south of the young village.  The Elkhorn Ranch downstream would soon follow, and TR’s investments eventually ballooned to some $80,000.  That was significant money in 1883-1887.

To know Theodore Roosevelt, you do need to know of his experience in the Badlands.  His response to loss and tragedy was to seek hard work, adventure, strenuous living.  He did that here along the scenic Little Missouri River, hunting the game and birds for the table.  Of course, TR healed, married Edith Carow, and, together, they reared six children. 

 

It is so very fitting that Medora is the gateway to the Southern Unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park.  Today, the park teems with bison, elk, wild horses, prairie dogs, and big horn sheep. The Theodore Roosevelt Medora Foundation, started by the late North Dakota businessman Harold Schafer and his family and friends, provides in Medora a family centered environment for exploring and celebrating the history and culture of the region.  The Medora Musical, singing and dancing cowboys and cowgirls and more, is just one of many wonderful activities here.

This is my second summer performing in Medora.  I bring TR to life in a daily matinee at the historic Old Town Hall Theatre.  This summer has been quite special for me, as family and friends have visited.  This story is about one of those friends. 

For a year or more, Larry Marple and I have been Facebook friends, Larry having found one of my TR videos on Youtube.  Larry is a veteran elementary school teacher in Springfield, Ohio.  He’s also a fellow TR reprisor. It gets better.  His wife, Julia, portrays Edith Roosevelt, Teddy’s wife.  They married at a Civil War re-enactment in period clothes.  Great, bully stuff.

When I first started doing TR with earnestness and planned our fifty state TR Tour for 2008, I realized that there were other fellows out there across the country who brought  TR to life, each with his own talents, each with his own interpretation.  Some very good ones have passed away.  James Whitmore, no longer reprising his award-winning role in Bully, died in 2009.

I asked my father, who has been a professional comedian since 1971, what he thought about all these other TR’s out there.  He said, “Son, work on your own material and your own craft.  Don’t worry about what the other guy’s gigs are or what his interpretation is like.  Be the best TR Joe you can be and have fun.”  He’s a hippie, but he says a lot of smart things.

I consider all my fellow TR reprisors to be my colleagues, not my competitors.  America needs lots of TRs, visiting schools and libraries, performing in town parks and historic places.  There are hundreds of Abraham Lincolns, and rightly so.  TR himself revered Lincoln.  Should we not have as many Rough Riders as we have Rail Splitters? 

I met Larry Marple for the first time on Wednesday morning at the Dickinson, North Dakota Airport – pretty sure it’s named after Theodore Roosevelt.  Soon we were at the Painted Canyon Visitor Center, an overlook of the most stupendous view of the Badlands to the east, west and north on the north side of Interstate 94, just two miles east of Medora.  Larry was in awe of the scenery, and though I have seen it over a hundred times, I was in awe again, too.  These are not the desolate grey Badlands of South Dakota.  These Badlands are full of geological and biological color.  Especially in what has been a wet and cool year, the grasses, sage, scrub oak, and cotton wood are green and verdant.  It is a take-your-breath-away view, and just a portion of what can be seen in the park, around Medora, and at the Bully Pulpit golf course.

In four fun packed days, Larry toured the park at 5AM with outdoor photographer Bill Kingsbury, hiked on the very grounds of TR’s remote Elk Horn Ranch site, hiked a butte, and most especially, performed in character and in costume as Theodore Roosevelt.  It was a great pleasure to have Larry here, and yes, it was a little surreal, too.  For Larry is a very good TR, full of interesting and accurate information.  He has the right look, too.  It was a doppleganger moment.

My father always lived and demonstrated the kind of collegiality one might hope existed in more areas of competitive enterprise.  Anytime a comedian was in my father’s audience, my father would invite the friend and colleague up for a guest set, a chance to say hello to the room.  I was determined to make a guest set happen for my friend, Larry. 

Larry and I had great fun when, for the first time, to our knowledge, in the long history of the universe, two Teddy Roosevelts appeared and performed on stage at the same time.  As an homage to the many people who make Medora work, we surprised nearly every one of the 150 or so audience members who attended a post Medora  Musical comedy show at the Old Town Hall Theatre.  The show starred comedian Kermet Opio and host/magician Bill Sorenson.  Let’s just say at the beginning of the show, a magic trick went bad and poof, there were TWO Teddy Roosevelts on stage.  Larry and I had fun, and everyone was blown away.  Today, I performed my regular matinee, and found a way to have Larry come on stage as TR and tell the audience all about the war in Cuba and the run for the Governorship of New York.  Larry was a big hit, I finished the show, and the audience saw something, again, that nobody has ever seen before. 

Well, Larry Marple is headed back to the classroom in Springfield, I think renewed in both his vigor for the school months ahead and for the many opportunities that he and Julia have to bring TR and Edith to life all across the country and here in Medora.

We are colleagues, and now true and real friends.

If you know someone who brings TR to life or someone who would like to learn more about doing so, have them get a hold of me, for we would like them to come to Medora and catch a bit of the Bully Spirit!

American Legion Boys State & Girls State

Every summer, high school juniors from around the state of North Dakota, gather for a week of civics known as North Dakota Boys State and North Dakota Flickertail Girls State.  Indeed, students gather in every state, half the students assigned to one political party and half to a second party, usually Nationalists and Federalists.  Students set up and elect city, county and state governments via conventions and elections.  Two United States Senators are chosen from each Boys State and each Girls State to attend Boys Nation and Girls Nation in Washington, D.C.  It is terrific fun, and America owes a great debt to the American Legion and the American Legion Auxiliary, which have been running these Americanism and Youth programs since the 1930’s.  Former North Dakota Boys Staters include Coach Phil Jackson and North Dakota Governor Ed Schafer, now Chairman of the Theodore Roosevelt Medora Foundation.  Many a leader had his or her start as a Boys Stater or Girls Stater.

This summer, the Theodore Roosevelt Medora Foundation was delighted to send Theodore Roosevelt to Boys State in Wahpeton and Girls State in Grand Forks to entertain and inspire the nearly 300 delegates, counselors and volunteers involved in the two programs.  In his own youth, our Theodore Roosevelt reprisor, Joe Wiegand, was elected Governor of Illinois Premiere Boys State and President of the American Legion Boys Nation program.  “The American Legion gave me scholarships for college,” says Wiegand, “and I have always wanted to give back and help the Boys State and Girls State programs grow.  Besides, there may have been a real future Governor, Senator or President among those young men and women.  It was truly an honor.”  Wiegand says citizens can contact their local American Legion Post for ways to support the programs.

Medora’s Theodore Roosevelt with the officers of North Dakota Boys State, held at North Dakota State College of Science at Wahpeton. Left to Right – Neil Litton, Director (Fargo); Christian Anheluk, Disaster Emergency Manager (Belfield); Jordan Beattie, the Senate Pro Tem (Pembina); Deane Bjornson, State Auditor (Cavalier); Andrew Brummond, Superintendent of Public Instruction (Park River); Benjamin Trenne, Attorney General (Grand Forks); Ray Salata, Governor (Grand Forks); Col. Theodore Roosevelt; Erik Hanson, Lieutenant Governor (Grand Forks); Brandt Vernon, Secretary of State (Hazen); Trenton McCloud, State Treasurer (Rolla); Ryan Nelson, Public Service Commissioner (Casselton); Trevor Boehm, Agriculture Commissioner (McClusky).  Mr Salata and Mr. Anheluk were elected to represent North Dakota as it two United States Senators at the American Legion Boys Nation program held July 19-26 in Washington, D.C.

After a visit from Medora’s Theodore Roosevelt, the Flickertail Girls Staters held their elections on the campus of the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks.  The results: Governor Hayley Lund – Crosby; Lt. Governor Morgan Mathison – Walhalla; Secretary of State Bethany Brumbaugh – Cavalier; Auditor Hannah Colemer – Forman; Treasurer Hannah Krauter - West Fargo; Attorney General Katelyn Osland – Fargo; Commissioner of Insurance Kendal Hendrickson – Cando; Commissioner of Agriculture Abby Braaten – Wyndmere; Tax Commissioner Kara Smith – Buffalo; Public Service Commissioner Anne Hefta – Hazen; Public Service Commissioner Anna Rand - Park River; Public Service Commissioner Kady Rath – McClusky; Supreme Court Chief Justice Sarah Strube – Dickingson; Supreme Court Justice Kaytlin Werth – McClusky; Supreme Court Justice Julia Hartz – Cavalier; Supreme Court Justice Raechelle Salzer – Ashley; Supreme Court Justice Jessica Mastel – Wahpeton; Superintendent of Instruction Tyrza Hoines – Bismarck.  North Dakota’s United States Senators headed to Girls Nation are Hayley Lund of Crosby and Hershita Gaba of Fargo.  Girls Nation will also be held in Washington, D.C. from July 20-27.

While Joe Wiegand continues to tour the state and the nation performing as Theodore Roosevelt and as a Goodwill Ambassador for the Theodore Roosevelt Medora Foundation, you can still find him in Medora, every Monday through Saturday, in a one man show, “A TR Salute to Medora,” at 3:30 P.M. Mountain in the air-conditioned Old Town Hall Theatre in downtown Medora through September 6.  On Saturdays in July, from 1:00 to 2:30 P.M., Wiegand will also be performing and signing copies of Theodore Roosevelt’s 1913 Autobiography at Medora’s Western Edge Book Store, 425 Fourth Street in Medora. On Saturday's in August, from 9:00 to 10:30AM, Wiegand will greet visitors at the South Unit and Painted Canyon National Park Visitor Centers.

American Heroes

“No man needs sympathy because he has to work, because he has a burden to carry. Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.” 

Theodore Roosevelt 

 

I'd just considered adding a ten dollar bill to my outstretched hitchhiking thumb, when the North American moving van honked from behind me.  I grabbed my computer bag and my backpack and ran for the ride that waited fifty yards down the shoulder of Florida Highway 331, headed south from I-10 and DeFuniak Springs towards the beaches of the Gulf Coast a half hour away.

I tossed my bags up to the helping hands of the two man crew in the cab.  The driver is Michael Underhill, IV, of Beaverton, Pennsylvania.  Somewhere in those productive years known as one’s thirties, Mike owns his truck and was in recent years named National Driver of the Year for North American Van Lines.  A friendly and talkative fellow, Mike is third generation in the moving business and third or fourth generation military.  There was a strength and confidence about Mike, and I wasn’t surprised to hear that he had spent three and a half years in the United States Marines.

Chris was a young fellow, the son of family friends who were also in the moving business.  Mike was taking Chris on board his operation, giving Chris a chance to learn the business from another point of view.  Chris’ own dad had been Driver of the Year just prior to Mike.

I was happy to know that Mike wasn’t just headed to the coast, but he, too, was then going west on Florida 98. His destination was the house of a Navy man and his family, transferred from San Diego to Pensacola very nearby to the Ft. Walton Beach Greyhound station where an early evening bus would be my way to Beaumont, Texas. 

Mike would make me a deal.  If I would help him and Chris unload the items for the Navy man, he and Chris would then take me right to the door of the Greyhound Station.  Bully.  A Square Deal.  Rotary’s Four Way Test.  Neighborliness.  The Good Samaritan, for sure.  But it gets better.

I shared with Mike and Chris the interesting sometimes crazy nature of my itinerary, especially the events that led me to thumb a ride on this fine day.  I was a highlight entertainment at the Florida Chautauqua in DeFuniak Springs on Friday afternoon and again on Saturday evening.  In between, I drove 700 miles to Beaumont, Texas, arriving at 1AM Saturday, ready to deliver a keynote address to the North American Rotary Large Club Conference at 11:30AM.  After the speech, I drove my car to the Greyhound station in Vidor, Texas, and my customer arranged for a colleague to fly me back to DeFuniak Springs in his Beechcraft airplane, just in time for my Saturday 6PM performance.  Worked like a dream.  Now, I had to get back to my car in Texas for the drive home to Sewanee. 

I explained to Mike and Chris that my Uncle George Prager, after a tour in Vietnam, hitchhiked from San Diego back to the Midwest.  I had grown up with this lore, and, as a result, spent much of my college years hitchhiking across the country, sometimes for romance, sometimes as just the best way to get across the country for $10.  I said that when people asked me if I was scared of the crazies or frightened on the open road, I said no, and that I wasn’t going to be a part of letting the crazies win on this point of people helping people. 

I related that once, after several hours in the dark and cold winter on the side of Interstate 70 in the middle of nowhere Ohio, I had promised the Good Lord that if He just sent me a ride, an angel of any type, I would promise to pick up hitchhikers when I had the chance.  I didn’t even own a car, so it was an easy promise to make.  The ride eventually came, as it always did.  Ninety-nine folks out of one hundred were just delightful, some plain, but most evidencing the wonderful variety of personality and character that is all about us.  The one or two scrapes weren’t really that bad.  Only once did I have to quickly say, “You can let me out right here.”

I confessed to Mike and Chris that I had broken that promise to God.  I will occasionally pick up a hitch hiker, especially if it is one of those obvious situations of a break down or someone who has run out of gas.  When I’m travelling alone, the typical hitchhiker is likely to get a ride, if my passenger seat isn’t packed full of books, maps and computer bags.  But these days, my passenger seat is always packed full, and whether it’s because I’m going too fast in the far left lane or because the hitchhiker just looks a little too desperate, a little too dirty, I’m just not likely to offer a ride, my first and most important job being to make it home safely to wife and daughter.  I had earlier told Mike that I was surprised he picked me up, as so many trucking firms, frightened by the liability implications, have forbidden drivers to be the angels of the road that American lore might lead us to believe they are.  (Non sequitur: My sister Joy’s favorite karaoke song is Janis Joplin’s “Me and Bobby McGee” where “Bobby thumbs an old diesel down.”)

Mike then proceeds to give me a brotherly lesson in the wonderfully uplifting dynamic of man’s faith in his fellow man.  You see, Mike says that his experience is that that guy who looks the worst, who needs a shower and a shave, he’s also likely the guy that just needs a chance, a hand up as firm as the hand that helped me up into that cab.

Mike shared story after story of guys he had picked up hitchhiking, who he in turn had given a chance to work on his truck as part of his crew.  It’s rather simple work, as I discovered.  The customer’s items have all been inventoried and stickered.  As items are brought down the truck ramp, an inventory number is told to the customer, who, in turn, checks the number off the inventory sheet and instructs where he would like things stacked.  Mike likes his guys to reassemble any furniture or other items that had to be taken apart to ship.  Ours was a little job.  In half an hour several dozen boxes, plastic bins and Navy duffel bags were unloaded.  A desk and appliances were the biggest items and a dryer panel had to be reattached.  No drops, no errors, and as Mike said, most importantly, nothing missing.

So, Mike says he’s probably picked up somewhere north of a hundred hitchhikers.  There’s nothing out of whack here.  Mike is married with children at home.  Whatever his motivations, Mike is really just giving these guys a chance.  Some turn out bad with problems of drugs or alcohol that can’t be tolerated, though Mike strikes me as the kind of guy that would even try to help a guy find help there.  Some of the guys Mike has helped, some of the guys who looked and smelled the worst and who seemed at wits’ end for what life had given them and for what they’d done themselves, well some of those guys got on their feet, got good jobs, sometimes in the warehouses and freight yards that are such an important part of Mike’s trade.

Mike’s grandfather, Michael P. Murvihill, Jr., a World War II veteran, is still alive.  Grandpa Mike was a member of the 82^nd Airborne Division’s 508^th Paratrooper Regiment.  In an effort to blow up a bridge behind German lines, Mr. Underhill and 49 of his fellow Americans began their mission.  Forty seven men died.  Two were taken prisoner by the Germans.  Mr. Underhill accomplished the mission, blew up the bridge, and by some means was taken in by Italian troops, who changed sides towards the end of the war, eventually making his way back to his regiment.

Mike’s service as a civilian likely lets him enjoy freedom and opportunity a great deal more than his three plus years of order-taking as a Marine.  Freedom and opportunity vouched safe by the sacrifices made by his grandfather, his Vietnam era vet father, and by all who have served.

In his own way, the way he lives his life today, Mike is helping to make this the country we all hope it will be;  where being helped doesn’t necessarily mean enrolling in some government hand out, instead opting for a hand up and a hard day’s work that comes as part of the self-respecting deal.

Good man.  Good ride.  Pass it on.

Travels With Faith

In an hour or two, I’ll finally have the car loaded.  Like Santa, I’ll check my list twice, not to find out who is naughty and who is nice, but rather to make sure I have everything necessary for ten days on the road. In addition to the obvious things like warm clothes, bedding, food, water, maps and more, bringing Teddy Roosevelt to life means tuxedos and top hats, teddy bears and pocket watches, pince nez glasses and a pile of books to rival TR’s own “pig skin library,” a collection of good books that would be well stained with animal blood and gun oil by the end of his African safari.

I travel the country, bringing my interpretation of Theodore Roosevelt to life for audiences of all sorts.  After a career in Illinois politics, I’m having a great deal of fun and providing for my family.  My father is a professional comedian.  Years ago, he quoted another comic.  “They don’t pay us to perform; they pay us to drive.”  I guess being on the road and entertaining is in my blood.  Interestingly, Jenny’s grandfather travelled the Midwest with a theatre troupe many years ago.

In 1976, the year of our nation’s bicentennial celebration, my mom and dad sold our home in Elmhurst, a Chicago suburb.  With boys aged 15, 13, 11 and 1, they packed a Ford Econoline 250 half full of belongings, topped this pile with a mattress and sleeping bags and headed for a new life in Hollywood, California.  Our trip West included the inspiration of Mount Rushmore and the mystery of the Badlands of South Dakota.  Our first night on the Pacific Ocean is frozen in time in a pastel sunset sketched by my mother, the three older boys silhouetted between the rays of the setting sun and the flames of the bonfire on the beach.  Our Hollywood adventures, renovating a burned out house of ill repute into a rooming house for artists, named Whig’s Place, was the stuff of comedy screen plays.  In true hippie fashion, a baby sister would be born in the upstairs apartment the following year.  The doctor and nurse for the planned home delivery were stuck somewhere in LA traffic.  Mom was a pro and “Baby Joy” made her first appearance with a comedian father and an actress tenant as stand ins for the doc and the nurse.

In 1981, I joined Mom and Dad and my two younger siblings in another cross country journey.  The two older brothers, then 20 and 18 and working in the trades, would stay in California.  This trip was different.  Pops had developed a new comedic persona, The Little Guy.  It was a mix of Will Rogers and George Carlin with a common man’s view of political and social issues as its mainstay.  To promote the character, Pops designed a cross country adventure called “Walkin’ Proud, Talkin’ Loud for America.”  The Ford Econoline was returned to duty, this time towing a large, home built trailer, decked out in red, white and blue.  Our plan was to travel from LA to Washington, DC, to celebrate our country, patriotism and citizenship.  We left LA on July 4 and arrived at the White House on September 17, Citizenship Day, the anniversary of the signing of the United States Constitution.  Along the way we collected thousands of postcards, written in their own words, from Americans, young and old, to President Ronald Reagan, newly installed in his first term that January.  You may remember, there was a rebirth of patriotism and optimism during that year.  As we travelled, Reagan recuperated from being shot, Sandra Day O’Conner became our first Supreme Court Associate Justice and two Libyan jets were downed over the Gulf of Sidra.

Our Walkin’ Proud adventure was a great thrill.  At the age of 16, I was given the duties of advance man and public relations agent.  Our twenty-two state, one hundred and sixty city tour included appearances at state fairs, meetings with mayors and governors, lots of newspaper and local television coverage and, the day before our arrival in DC, a live family appearance on the Today Show.  The next day, I circled the White House driving the van and towing the trailer while Dad tried to convince the Secret Service and the White House staff that we really did have an appointment to see President Reagan.  Unfortunately, by the time we got things straightened out, President Reagan had flown to Michigan to dedicate the Gerald Ford Library.  We toured the White House; got to see the Oval Office and Cabinet Room.  President Reagan sent a very nice thank you letter to us in Palatine, Illinois, where we settled with family, licked our wounds and circled the wagons for the next adventure.

For me, the next adventures were at Palatine High School and, eventually, at the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee.  Several times during those college years, I would hitch hike across the country, mostly alone, once with a friend to California and back to Tennessee.  As a cross country runner in college, inspired by the cross Canada run attempted by Terry Fox, I decided to run some ultra-marathons.  “Marathon a Day for the United Way” was a 182 mile, seven day adventure from the Mississippi River at Savannah, Illinois, to Chicago, zig-zagging through the suburbs.  Team-mates joined me in Tennessee for 60 mile one day and 100 mile two day runs for multiple sclerosis.  In many ways, I was expressing my own love for the road, for sleeping beneath the stars and for seeing America up close.

My adventures and education at Sewanee and the beneficence of the Thomas J. Watson, Jr. Foundation gave me another amazing chance to travel and explore.  In 1987 and 1988, I travelled to Costa Rica, South Africa, Italy, the Philippines and South Korea, interviewing members of the national parliaments in each of those countries.  My bride Jenny joined me part way through in Italy after she finished a teaching contract.  She missed the 600 mile hitch hike from Cape Town to Johannesburg, but we were successful in putting our thumbs out for a round trip Rome to Florence.

Settled back in Illinois for graduate school and careers, we did things a little differently.  In the rural countryside of DeKalb County, we purchased an old country church and lived in the building while family joined us in renovations to make it a beautiful home.  Informed by the Whig’s Place adventure and inspired by Dad’s coffee table book “Converted into Houses,” a photographic collection of schools, barns, depots and churches that made lovely homes, we jumped in.  We were young.  We didn’t even ask what it cost to heat the place.  The church had gone broke trying to heat the place one day a week.

The old church in Fairdale was home for nearly twenty years.  Amazingly, five years before we purchased the church, I had stopped next door for a drink of water on my cross Illinois marathon.  My younger brother and sister joined us there to finish high school.  Our daughter Sam spent her first seven years there.  Buying the old commercial property next door and launching an antique mall and a business incubator was the next adventure, and the endless list of maintenance and yard work took its toll physically and financially.

 In 2005 and 2006, I spent thirteen months running the campaign of a Republican aspirant for the Illinois governorship.  The campaign cycle previous to that, I had been a candidate for the Republican nomination to the State House.  Both campaigns were exhausting, competitive and losing efforts.  I bumped through 2007, launching a taxpayer organization that helped defeat a new tax for a new layer of government.  Late in 2007, as a favor to a friend, I took a contract to assemble and lead the Illinois delegation for presidential candidate Mike Huckabee.  Three months with very little sleep for very little pay.  As the presidential primary concluded in Illinois in early February, 2008, my wife and I finished the last of our thrown together plans for a great, new adventure.  With our daughter and our golden retriever, Faith, we would travel the 48 continental states in an RV, celebrating the 150^th birthday of President Theodore Roosevelt and the final centennial year of his historic presidency.  I would research TR along the way, visit the places associated with his life and legacy, and, where possible, engage performance opportunities that might help make ends meet along the way.

Like the experience at Whig’s Place, the Great 2008 TR Tour has all the stuff of a comedy screen play.  Adventures and misadventures abound.  Of course, the trip culminated with a live entertainment in the East Room of the White House for President and Mrs. George W. Bush on TR’s 150^th birthday.  We celebrated in our DC hotel until 4AM.  At 8AM, I was showcasing for the US Forest Service in Northern Virginia.  After the tour, we settled in Sewanee, Tennessee.  We haven’t looked back and the adventures continue.

As a family, we took a test drive of the TR Tour in late 2007, travelling to the Northeast.  Now, with a schedule for 2013 that is already busting at the seams, I begin my fifth straight year of TR touring.  Wife and daughter have real lives now and join me when the schedule allows and when the climate and location offer sufficient enticements. 

Today, as I finish packing for a ten day adventure to the Grand Canyon and back, something is different.  I’m taking Faith, our golden retriever with me, despite the protests of wife and daughter who stay behind for work and school.  My travels with Faith begin.  I’m hoping that having Faith along will remind me to hike some of the trails and swim some of the lakes along the way.  I’m hoping that Faith will help me to see each new day with the enthusiasm and energy that she still shows at the age of nine.  Soon, she’ll leap off the back porch and give chase to that squirrel who knows just how fast to run and climb to survive the charge.  Never discouraged, Faith leaps into the day.  Travels with Faith.

Yes, Travels with Faith is a tribute to Travels with Charlie, John Steinbeck’s late in life travelogue featuring his poodle Charlie.  I’m hoping that Travels with Faith will also provide me with opportunity and discipline to write some stories, from the past and from adventures yet to come.  Thanks for reading through this.  I hope to see you down the trail.

 

 

Happy Birthday, Daniel Boone (b. November 2, 1734)

In Winning of the West, Volume 1, Theodore Roosevelt writes:

“With Boon, hunting and exploration were passions, and the lonely life of the wilderness, with its bold, wild freedom, the only existence for which he really cared. He was a tall, spare, sinewy man, with eyes like an eagle’s, and muscles that never tired; the toil and hardship of his life made no impress on his frame, unhurt by intemperance of any kind, and he lived for eighty-six years, a backwoods hunter to the end of his days.  His thoughtful, quiet, pleasant face, so often portrayed, is familiar to everyone; it was the face of a man who never blustered or bullied, who would neither inflict nor suffer any wrong, and who had a limitless fund of fortitude, endurance, and indomitable resolution upon which to draw when fortune proved adverse.  His self-command and patience, his daring, restless love of adventure, and, in time of danger, his absolute trust in his own powers and resources, all combined to render him peculiarly fitted to follow the career of which he was so fond.”

TR wrote that Boone’s Birthday was August 22^nd, Britannica notes October 22^nd, and my history book and Wikipedia put the date as November 2.  I await a note back from the Boone Society.
In any case, TR named his fair hunting and conservation organization Boone & Crockett, after the two intrepid frontiersman.  It’s a good thing to know more about real American heroes of bygone days.

Pelican Island Wildlife Festival is a very special time for us as a family. When I left a twenty-five year career in public policy behind in my native Illinois, and TR Joe and the Teddy Roosevelt Tour first became a reality, it was mid-February 2008. During the second week of March, my wife Jenny was playing golf in the Florida Women’s Open Tournament. I was her caddy and Sam her loyal fan.

We were rv camping somewhere nearby Tampa in a nice state park. The barred owls and
sandhill cranes abounded, as did the ibis, the egret and the heron along the way. And the pelican.

My research all pointed to Pelican Island as the next stop for the TR Tour. When I called the Wildlife Service office in Vero Beach, I reached Ranger Joanna Webb and she was so nice to
invite my family to come and play a role in the Wildlife Festival planned that very next weekend.

From that first visit on, through the following years, the kindness and hospitality we received at Pelican Island characterizes just the sort of thing we try to pass on to others. At the
Pelican Island Wildlife Festival in Sebastian’s City Park, we celebrate the legacy of Theodore Roosevelt’s first federal bird sanctuary, declared in March of 1903.

The bird and reptile programs, repeated throughout the day, are always informative and entertaining, with the stars kids just love to touch and stare at. Exhibitors sell all sorts of fun
Florida items, many of them organic or nature based. Rehabilitated pelicans are returned to the wild, kayaks are paddled and yummy foods eaten. Music and dancing have been known to occur. Public servants share their conservation message. It's always a great day.

Mostly, the volunteers of the Pelican Island Preservation Society and the rangers and staff of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service get together to spend more than a day of hard work hosting one of the nation’s most wonderful celebrations of Teddy Roosevelt’s conservation legacy.

Bully for PIPS. Hope to see you on Saturday, March 17, 2012, in Sebastian, Florida.

http://firstrefuge.org/events/wildlifefestival/

Happy 100th Birthday, Harold Schafer

Today, February 1, in Medora and throughout the state of North Dakota, folks will gather and celebrate the life and legacy of Harold Schafer.

A graduate of Bismarck High School, Schafer left North Dakota State University to start a career in sales, helping to support his widowed mother and younger sister.

As a young man, Schafer began his own line of Gold Seal floor wax and furniture polish, adding Glass Wax and, eventually, Mr. Bubble, to the line of products. Certainly an American success story of hard work and determination, Schafer took the lead in saving, preserving and restoring first the Rough Rider Hotel and eventually most of the old cowboy town of Medora.

You can see a wonderful, brief profile of Harold Schafer here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6RJKd2_37E&feature=related

Every summer, hundreds of thousands of folks from around the country and around the world visit Medora and the Theodore Roosevelt National Park which is contiguous to the town. I consider it a tremendous honor to bring my interpretative performance as Theodore Roosevelt to life in Medora this summer in conjunction with the Theodore Roosevelt Medora Foundation (TRMF), begun by Mr. Schafer, his family and friends so many years ago.

Today, as folks gather in North Dakota, celebrating the life and legacy of Harold Schafer, we can say that his example and the vitality of what he built is alive and well and in good hands. Harold’s wife, Sheila Schafer, is a vibrant dynamo and Medora’s chief cheerleader. The sparkle in her eyes and the joyfulness in her voice surely convey much of the love that Mr. Schafer had for this place and this project. Son Ed Schafer, a former North Dakota Governor and United States Secretary of Agriculture, is just one of many family and community members who continue to ensure the future of these good works. The TRMF benefits from the veteran leadership of Randy Hatzenbuehler. World class programs and exposure come to Medora via the humanities scholar and historical interpretor Clay Jenkinson and his colleagues, especially Sharon Kilzer, at the Theodore Roosevelt Center at Dickinson State University. Superintendent Valerie Naylor and all of the rangers, staff and volunteers at Theodore Roosevelt National Park ensure that a visit to the park is a breathtaking experience of nature, history and wildlife.

So, with so many good people putting their shoulders to the wheel, with the beauty of the Badlands and the unmatched hospitality of the people of Western North Dakota abounding, I think Harold Schafer is looking upon his loved ones and his beloved Medora on this his 100^th birthday with a broad smile and a twinkle in his eye. Happy 100th birthday, Harold Schafer. Bully for you and Medora.

Hoofing it in New York City

I had the most wonderful adventure in New York City this past week. I was invited to Brooklyn, one of New York's five boroughs, by Elliot, Ivan, and Debra Schwartz, partners in StudioEIS (pronounced "ice"), which specializes in bronze sculptures.

The American Museum of Natural History in New York City has commissioned a new statue of Theodore Roosevelt. EIS Studio is producing the work, and I was hired to model for the project. The statue will be of TR the outdoorsman, seated on a bench. With an outfit modeled on TR’s at Yosemite in 1903, we tried variously having a book, field glasses, and a felt cowboy hat as props in my hands and on the bench. Using many photos of the real TR, the artist and museum will use the hundreds of photos and poses that we shot for determining some of the architecture of the statue.

If I have it right, the statue and bench will be located on the first floor of the museum’s Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Hall, the huge public lobby just inside the museum’s West Central Park entrance. The museum staff believes many families and children will want their picture taken with TR on the bench. I look forward to sitting on the bench with TR someday. The museum plans new exhibits of some of the artifacts from TR’s life, including some of his early taxidermy.

The trip to New York gave me a chance to do some exploring and to emulate TR’s strenuous living in the doing of it. I arrived at LaGuardia in Queens late on Saturday afternoon and took the M60 bus to Broadway and 106th on the Upper West Side. Using Gerry Frank’s Where to Find it, Buy it, Eat it in New York, given to me by the fascinatingly eclectic author, I set out for an adventure. I must have stopped to read a couple dozen plaques and monuments, as I made way southeast down Broadway, through Times Square and to the front porch of TR’s Birthplace at 28 East 20^th Street, just a block west of Gramercy Park. The birthplace has been a point of pilgrimage and a place for my TR to perform. Administered by the National Park Service as a National Historic Site, the place is one of my favorites and normally displays an amazing collection of TR material. The birthplace museum is undergoing renovation now.

After a couple hours relaxing on the front steps, reading and enjoying listening to the late Saturday night conversations walking by, I picked up and kept on my walk. I visited Zuccotti Park, site of the famed Occupy Wall Street protests. The park was empty at 2:00 AM on Sunday, a lone bronze statue of a seated businessman at lunch with his open briefcase the last and most permanent occupier. I began an early morning walk around Trinity Wall Street, a visit to the grave of Alexander Hamilton there and a stroll past George Washington at Federal Hall, another NPS historic site, where Washington took the first presidential inaugural oath and where Congress adopted the Bill of Rights.

Gerry Frank writes that one of the quintessential New York experiences is to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge, especially at dawn. My 5:00 AM walk across the bridge was a little too early for sunrise, but my spirits rose in the early hours of the day. The views are spectacular. David McCullough’s Mornings on Horseback and Pathway Between the Seas are very important for me as TR sources. McCullough’s Brooklyn Bridge has been equally important for me in regards to New York history. I stopped to read the name of Robert B. Roosevelt, Teddy’s uncle, listed with the other commissioners who saw the work of John, Johanna and Washington Roebling through to its completion. There seems to be a wonderful local tradition of lovers or loved ones visiting the walkway and then attaching small padlocks, engraved with dates and love messages, memories and anniversaries. The locks are everywhere, testimony to the fact that couples probably regularly occupy the handsome and empty benches I passed along the way.

Once over the bridge, I walked up to Brooklyn Heights, hoping to find some of the history of the Reverend Henry Ward Beecher (think America’s first great mega-preacher and Beecher’s Bibles, the Sharp's rifle used by anti-slavery forces in Kansas). Instead, I found the Theodore Roosevelt Federal Courthouse and some fine statuary of Columbus and Robert F. Kennedy. I kept on my way, eventually arriving at 8:00 AM at the 5^th Avenue and 25^th Street Gothic gates of the Green-Wood Cemetery. Once in the cemetery, I wandered up the Battle Path, and there a bronze Minerva gazes across the harbor at Lady Liberty, the former a purposeful reminder of the war won rights of the Declaration of Independence and the 1776 Battle of Brooklyn, a loss for the Revolutionaries. My quest was the Roosevelt family gravesite, mentioned by McCullough and perhaps by TR biographer Edmund Morris. It was McCullough, I think, who pointed out the irony that TR’s mother-in-law, Martha Stewart Elliott Bulloch, a Georgian and devoted Southernor, was buried among the iconic Yankees and countless abolitionists here, she going to her grave with the sadness of Confederate defeat freshly on her heart.

TR is not buried here, nor is Edith or any of the children. Teddy and Edith are in Oyster Bay among the trees of Young’s Cemetery. Here at Green-Wood lay the remains of TR’s mother and father, Theodore Roosevelt and Martha “Mittie” Bulloch Roosevelt. Teddy’s first wife, Alice Hathaway Lee Roosevelt, is here. Surely you know that TR's mother and wife died on the same day, February 14, 1884, when TR was just 25 years old. The east facing headstones of these three, TR, Sr., Mittie and Alice, taking more weather and sun, are nearly devoid of legible markings, but the death date of the ladies can be made out, as can portions of their respective birth dates. Very little, if anything at all, can be made out on TR’s father’s headstone, and this for a man for whom it was written the entire city of New York was in mourning at his too early departure at the age of 46. TR’s paternal grandparents are here, as is Uncle Robert and his wife and several cousins. There are twenty-two headstones in all. I found the family circle like a needle in a haystack among the 561,000 plus who rest in peace at Green-Wood. The Roosevelts are at the southeast corner of Grape and Locust amongst streets and pathways with arboreal names. I hope to help the family restore some of the headstones. Surely, history should know what was chosen to be written here in the way of verse or memorial. I hope to write with something in the way of good news on this idea sometime down the trail.

I share these two observations, indicative of the kinds of treasured insights which I think await if the others are restored. The first and smallest of the tablets is simply labeled INFANT SON of LAURA D’OREMIEULX and J. WEST ROOSEVELT born Nov. 2, 1895, for an un-named son, loved and mourned. This West Roosevelt is mentioned often as a frequent companion of his cousin, our Theodore. J. West is buried nearby in the circle, b. July 2, 1858 – d. April 10, 1896. Son of Mary West and S. Weir Roosevelt – father’s brother – J. West Roosevelt was born the year TR was born and died at 38. I’m reminded that throughout his lifetime, TR was saying goodbye to loved ones who died way too early, not only by our modern long-lived standards, but even by the standards of the turn of the century when disease and illness fought man on so many fronts.

On the opposite side of the circle was GLADYS ROOSEVELT wife of Fairman Rogers Dick, born March 10, 1889 (and) KILLED IN THE HUNTING FIELD NOVEMBER 2, 1926 – A GALLANT LIFE AND A GALLANT DEATH. This one made me wonder at the stock of the Roosevelt women and renews my commitment to get and read the book of the same name (The Roosevelt Women) by Betty Boyd Caroli.

My four miles of wandering through the cemetery made for 20 miles of hiking, backpack on my shoulders and valise in hand since the previous night. My bus ride to my Brooklyn hotel and the subsequent hot bath were a welcome indulgence after a night and morning spent breathing in the stuff of life.

How I hope that 2012 has me hiking in your neck of the woods.

Saluting Theodore Roosevelt in Medora, North Dakota

As 2011 ends, I look back on more than four years of travelling the country, studying TR and bringing him to life for audiences. It has been an experience filled with blessings. I’m thankful for a loving and supportive family that has joined me on much of this adventure.

As 2012, begins, I’m thankful that so many of my friends, colleagues and customers have embraced what I’m doing. In 2012, we will celebrate the centennial of TR’s 1912 effort, first to win the Republican nomination for president and then to win the presidency as the nominee of the Progressive Party.

I’m thankful that the centennial year will find me performing throughout the country, from Maine to Oregon, and a hundred places in between.

The Theodore Roosevelt Medora Foundation has hired me to bring TR to life in a daily matinee, Mondays through Fridays, from June 11 through September 8 in beautiful Medora, North Dakota. To get a feel for this one of a kind community go here: http://medora.com/ TR’s cattle ranch and much of his adventurous life were here in the 1880’s. Today, Medora hosts the southern entrance to Theodore Roosevelt National Park and the North Dakota Badlands are all around.

Weekends and evenings will be my own, allowing me to book entertainments elsewhere in the country. I do already have some June and August bookings in Illinois, Maine and New Hampshire. I’ll take my car out west and fly in and out of Bismarck when necessary. I’ll spend a good deal of the summer swimming in the Little Missouri River, hiking the buttes, riding a horse and golfing at the Bully Pulpit Golf Course.

If you have ever thought to visit the West, I hope to entice you. By automobile, Mt. Rushmore and the Black Hills of South Dakota are four hours south and Yellowstone is seven hours west.

Come join us in Medora, North Dakota!

The TR Tour - Looking Ahead to 2012

Not yet halfway done, it has already been a tremendous summer. My nephew’s wedding in Northern California finally bid me to follow up on opportunities nearby. After great June gigs in Sacramento and Stockton, I return to the West in August for a three performance run from Reno, back to Stockton and on to Muir Woods National Monument. Before then, I’ll drive from the St. Lawrence River of upstate New York, to the lake country of Western New Jersey, through the country of Ohio, Michigan and Indiana and on to salute the Kiwanians of Illinois and Iowa as they gather along the mighty Mississippi River. I’ll be happy for some long days meandering amongst the cornfields and streams of the Midwest.

Travel is such a part of what I do, that I get a bit stir crazy when not travelling. My father, who has travelled and performed for more than forty years, says, “They pay us to drive.” I like driving, and seeing this country along the way. Since the first TR road trip in the fall of 2007, through the 50 state TR Tour in 2008 and up through now, a great deal of the adventure has been along America’s roadways. With the continued success of the TR venture, more and more, the calendar and logistics require me to fly and hopscotch this great land. If time allowed, I would rather continue to travel by car and more by train. Surely, it will continue to be a mix.

Sometimes, when I’m on the road and performing, the pace can get to be quite “Rooseveltian.” It’s nothing out of the ordinary to perform a dozen times across a half dozen communities in the span of three or four days. This fall, the Oregon Historical Society plans a five day TR barnstorm of the state. It’s easier to stay in character when the show schedule reads like a campaign train itinerary.

So, while the schedule for 2011 continues to unfold, the 2012 schedule is already building and the first dates for 2013 are being circled. I do hope that I will be able to embrace all of the requests and opportunities that might be presented, but the business requires me to book ‘em as they come and go where the customers call.

Still, there are places where my TR should be, where the best possible Theodore Roosevelt interpretation should come to life for modern audiences, and I am determined to make those performances happen in 2012 and 2013.

The year 2012 is the centennial of TR’s campaign for the presidency in 1912. He ran first as a Republican, announcing that he was “stripped to the waste and healthy as a bull moose,” adding that “my hat is in the ring.” Of course, TR bolted from the GOP when he and his supporters determined that the nomination of Taft was tainted by dishonest and corrupt methods. The Progressive Party took on its nickname from his early statement, and the Bull Moose campaign enlivened the country. During the campaign, TR survived an assassination attempt and carried the assassin’s bullet in his chest the rest of his days. The press will undoubtedly use TR as a foil for the 2012 presidential elections. His was the most successful third party candidacy in our history and President Obama and his Republican opponent will surely contest who is more fit to wear the TR mantle. Bully. I say bring it on.

We have some big plans for 2012. Firstly, it will be our 25^th wedding anniversary in the summer of 2012. Accordingly, it’s high time that TR Joe and Jenny went to Europe to celebrate TR’s many European connections. More on that later.

With a team of good people, I’ll be assisting to host the 2012 Annual Meeting of the Theodore Roosevelt Association in Chicago, Illinois, on October 25-28, 2012. We’ll headquarter at the Union League Club and celebrate all things TR and Chicago, including both the 1912 Republican and Progressive party Conventions held there. Visit www.chicagobullmoose.org for all the latest there.

Before the European adventure of the summer, between that and the late autumn celebration of TR, and on into the winter days that stand between election and inaugural, I hope to be in places that hum in resonance with the legacy of TR: New York City, Albany and the Adirondacks in New York; Portsmouth, Hampton Roads and Jacksonville and their naval bases; Yellowstone, Yosemite and North Dakota’s Badlands; the hunting grounds in Colorado and Texas where TR’s legend lives. These and so many more places beckon.

Now more than ever, I know that the American people benefit from hearing the words of and relearning the life story of TR. I know that the many months ahead will give me the opportunity to do so in all the right places, the places that need his message of strenuous living, good citizenship and perseverance. On this last day at the River, with Jenny and Sam cheering me on, I’m committed to redoubling my efforts. America deserves a spot on TR, and I’m just the man to deliver. Bully!

Sesquicentennial of Abraham Lincoln's Inaugural

As a young boy growing up in Elmhurst, Illinois in the late 1960's and early 1970's I was quite taken with all things Abe Lincoln. Not only was I born in the Land of Lincoln, I was born on the 100th anniversary of his death. Knowing that slavery was evil and that Lincoln and hundreds of thousands of Union dead were sacrificed for the end of slavery, I grew up revering Lincoln.

Theodore Roosevelt wrote of Lincoln:

"Abraham Lincoln was a genius, who wrote only as one of the world's rare geniuses do write. Washington, though in some ways an even greater man than Lincoln, did not have Lincoln's wonderful gift of expression, that gift which makes certain speeches of the rail-splitter from Illinois read like the inspired utterances of great Hebrew seers and prophets. (Parenthetically, I would say that aside from being prophets, what magnificent poets Ezekiel, Isaiah, and Jeremiah were!) In all history I do not believe there is to be found an orator whose speeches will last as enduringly as certain speeches of Lincoln.

He possessed that marvelous gift of expression which enabled him quite unconsciously to choose the very words best fit to commemorate each deed. His Gettysburg speech and his Second Inaugural are two of the half dozen greatest speeches ever made - I am tempted to call them the greatest ever made. They are great in their wisdom and dignity, and earnestness and loftiness of thought and expression. There is nothing in Demosthenes or Cicero which comes up to Lincoln's Gettysburg speech. There is one of his letters which has always appealed to me particularly. It is the one running as follows:

Executive Mansion

Washington, Nov. 21, 1864

To Mrs. Bixby, Boston, Mass.

Dear Madam:

I have been shown in the files in the War Department a statement of the Adjutant General of Massachusetts that you are the mother of five sons who have died gloriously on the field of battle. I feel how weak and fruitless must be any word of mine which should attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming. But I cannot refrain from tendering you the consolation that may be found in the thanks of the republic they died to save. I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the alter of freedom.

Yours very sincerely and respectfully,

A. Lincoln

No president who has ever sat in the White House has borne the burden that Lincoln bore, or been under the ceaseless strain which he endured. It did not let up day or night. Ever he had to consider problems of the widest importance, ever to run the risks of the greatest magnitude. It is a touching thing that the great leader, while thus driven and absorbed, could yet so often turn aside for the moment to do some deed of personal kindness. Nobody but one of the world's geniuses could have met as Lincoln met the awful crisis of the Civil War."

With thanks to Daniel Ruddy - author of Theodore Roosevelt's History of the United States - Smithsonian Books.

The Weeks Act - 100 Years and Counting

The Weeks Act

March 1, 2011 marks the centennial of the Weeks Act, signed by President William Howard Taft on March 1, 1911. Debated by Congress for over a decade and named for its sponsor, Congressman John Wingate Weeks of Massachusetts, a renewed era of federal forest development began with its passage.

The vast majority of federal forests are in the West, created within federal lands purchased from France, Russia and Mexico or won in the Mexican-American War. In Eastern states, there was little in the way of federal land. Florida, purchased from Spain, was an exception, hence TR’s Ocala National Forest and his many federal bird sanctuaries.

The Weeks Act allowed the federal government to purchase eastern forest land to regulate the headwaters of interstate rivers. The Pisgah National Forest of Western North Carolina, founded in 1916, was purchased primarily from the vast holdings of the Vanderbilt family, the first national forest born of the Weeks Act.

While post dating his presidency, the Weeks Act is an important part of the Roosevelt legacy. As president and after, TR championed the effort. His National Conference on the Conservation of Natural Resources in 1908 and his post presidential advocacy were critical to forging the coalition successful in its passage. The Big Burn, the destructive fire that raged in the West in August 1910, provided a final reminder that wise use of water and timber resources might help avert such terrible disasters.

Now, go hike a forest trail!

The Vigorous Life

I had a great hike with my dog, Faith, this morning. At the University of the South, a Perimeter Trail offers some outstanding bluff views above valleys to the north and west. At Green's View, an up and down hike leads through Skake Rag Hollow and a foot bridge to the northeast leads to the Piney Point path which skirts Saint Andrew's-Sewanee School. It was a morning hike where in some places only the deer had traveled since the recent snows. The following excerpt from TR's Autobiography often revisits me when I'm in the midst of a vigorous challenge. I thought you might like it:

"I once made a speech to which I gave the title 'The Strenuous Life.' Afterwards I published a volume of essays with this for a title. There were two translations of it which always especially pleased me. One was by a Japanese officer who knew English well, and who had carried the essay all through the Manchurian campaign, and later translated it for the benefit of his countrymen. The other was by an Italian lady, whose brother, an officer in the Italian army who had died on duty in a foreign land, had also greatly liked the article and carried it round with him. In translating the title the lady rendered it in Italian as Vigor di Vita. I thought this translation a great improvement on the original, and have always wished that I had myself used 'The Vigor of Life' as a heading to indicate what I was trying to preach, instead of the heading I actually did use."

Happy 152nd Birthday TR

Theodore Roosevelt was born on October 27, 1858, in New York City, New York. On October 27, 1880, TR married Alice Lee. On October 27, 2010, I had the pleasure of performing for the United Way in Rockford, Illinois and for students at Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti, Michigan. Happy birthday, TR!

I haven't written here in months. I've had a summer and fall that has been delightfully Rooseveltian in its pace. I've had 65 shows in 18 states in 120 days. I've visited another two dozen sites for research and marketing. Old and new friends have sustained me along the way. Jenny and Sam make it all worth while.

In the weeks ahead, I'll perform in Michigan, Alabama, Illinois, Tennessee, California, Georgia, North Carolina, Virginia and Florida. I'm having a bully time. The credit goes to the man. Happy birthday to that man in the arena, to the man who used the bully pulpit to call us to be our best, to pull our own weight, to be good husbands, fathers and sons, good wives, mothers and daughters. Bringing him to life is a very important thing. I hope to do it better and better every day, and I hope to see you someday soon.

Notes from the Ozarks & Commemorating the Big Burn of 1910

I'm just a little road buzzed after a quick out and back to Branson, Missouri. I had a chance to perform at an intimate fundraiser for Congressman Roy Blunt, the next Republican Senator from Missouri. In the audience was former Attorney General John Ashcroft and his wife. Yakov Smirnoff, the Russian born comedian who reminds us how blessed we are to live in America performed a little earlier in the evening and General Ashcroft and Congressman Blunt both made insightful remarks. I was happy to support a good man in the arena.

I finally banged out a bit of promotional text for a return engagement at Red Rocks Canyon outside of Las Vegas. I thought I'd share it below. As noted, I'll talk about the fires of 1910, subject this year of a great book called Big Burn by Timothy Egan. The fire fighters of the Bureau of Land Management like fire fighters throughout federal, state and local agencies have already begun their hot and dangerous summer fire fighting duties. I once asked a Black Hills forest ranger how long he had been doing his work, and he answered "Thirty-eight fire seasons."

In 1910, two forces of nature swept across the American West. Fresh from his safari in Africa and triumphant tour of Europe, former President Theodore Roosevelt toured the West by train. Meanwhile, in July and August of 1910, tens of thousands of acres of forests burned in hundreds of fires, most started by lightning strikes and others by train sparks. On August 20 and 21, 1910, hurricane force winds combined force with the fires, killing an estimated eighty-seven souls, destroying over three million acres of forests in Idaho, Wyoming and Montana, including several small towns and over one third of Wallace, Idaho. The primary heroes of the fire were the men of the National Forest Service, dozens of whom died fighting the fires. Created just five years before by Theodore Roosevelt and administered by Chief Forestor Gifford Pinchot, the predecessor of the United States Forest Service was the front line of fire fighting in the American forest.

On July 3, 4 and 5, Theodore Roosevelt will come to life at Red Rock Canyon National Recreation Area in the person of Joe Wiegand, an actor who tours the country performing as the great conservation President. As Theodore Roosevelt, during performances at the Red Rock Canyon Visitor Center Wiegand will salute the men and women of the Bureau of Land Management and others who fight fires throughout the nation. Performances are free and open to the public and Wiegand will take questions from the audience in character as TR.

Hour-long performances on July 3 are at 1:00 P.M. and 3:00 P.M. Performances on July 4 and 5 are at 11:00 A.M., 1:00 P.M. and 3:00 P.M. When he’s not performing, Wiegand will greet visitors from noon to 4:00 P.M. on July 3 and 10:00 A.M. until 4:00 P.M. on July 4 & 5.

Wiegand’s performance is sponsored by the Red Rocks Canyon Interpretive Association. For more information, visit the organization’s website at http://www.redrockcanyonlv.org/

Oh, Shenandoah!

It’s 1:00 AM on Wednesday and I’ve just made it back to the cabin in Sewanee, Tennessee. Jenny and Sam are sleeping. The golden retriever, Faith, came out when I arrived and now she’s back to bed too.

The last couple of days have been so fascinating and yet so typical of how friendly people and interesting places continue to reveal themselves along the TR Tour.

On Sunday afternoon, I got in my car for a quick ride to Shippensburg, Pennsylvania. Most of the 650 miles each way were through the Shenandoah Valley on Interstate 81. I’ve taken this route at least a couple dozen times each way over the last several years. To get from Sewanee to the northeast, the quickest route begins by heading southeast on I-24 to Chattanooga, briefly traversing Georgia’s northwestern bump and passing by a too often missed monument to New York men who fought at the Battle of Chickamauga. I-75 runs up through Knoxville and then it’s I-81 all the way.

With the American Legion Keystone Boys State program and Shippensburg University as my destination, I spent most of my travel time listening to news and talk. Public radio and religious programming are my usual choices. During weekday travel, I’ll take a sample of the Beck, Limbaugh and Hannity programs, to balance my NPR tendencies. Chicago’s WGN Radio 720, home to the Cubs and, recently Blackhawks games, is a favorite, especially for its program Extension 720, hosted by Milt Rosenberg each weeknight (games allowing) from 10 PM to Midnight. A University of Chicago psychology professor, Milt has been hosting the most eclectic, yet in-depth, scholarly and serious discussion of art, culture, politics, religion, history, books, food and more for at least a few decades now.

I have been known to leave it on the oldies station for a while and croon along. Anyway, radio helps the travelling pass and safely so. When a rolled over truck left I-81 like a parking lot for two hours in the middle of the night, I switched to one of my current reads, Ruddy's book on TR's views on history. Made Shippensburg in plenty of time to enjoy an afternoon hike in the invigorating summer heat.

The American Legion Boy’s State program was begun by the Legion in 1933 in my home state of Illinois. Legionnaires were responding to the summer camps being sponsored by the Communist Party of the USA, which was attempting to radicalize and recruit the unemployed urban youth in the depths of the Depression. The Legion program spread to all forty-eight and eventually all fifty states. Years later, the American Legion Auxiliary began the Girl’s State Program. Today, American students from overseas participate, too. At Boys State and Girls State, top high school juniors from throughout a state gather to participate in a weeklong residential program dedicated to teaching civics and citizenship in such a way to produce good citizens committed to making positive contributions to their communities and their country. There are two parties, campaigns for office, speeches, laws, trials and sports and plenty of food and speakers.

Performing Monday night for a few hundred of our young leaders was inspiring for me. Their energy and enthusiasm, their good questions and their rowdiness were exhilarating. It brought back great memories. My own experience as a youngster at Boys State and at Boys Nation made a huge impact on my life. The American Legion stands for God and Country. I hope when my ride is through, I can say that I have stood for the same.

After bunking in one of the Ship’s dorm rooms, I woke with the morning light and headed for a makeup with the Carlisle Breakfast Rotary Club. My host, Kevin Colgan, is retired Army, a former computer science faculty member at the Army War College. A majority of the club appear to be retired military. The good spirit and patriotism were palpable and sincere. The program talked about a developing bike path and linear park extending along an old rail bed and right of way from Carlise to Newville. The spokesman was a retired military man who was a picture of fitness. He could have kept up with TR on a point to point hike.

Mr.Colgan allowed me to ride along after breakfast while he picked up two small families, two wives and three daughters newly arrived from Italy and Estonia. Their husbands have just begun a one year program at the Army War College, joined by 38 other international military officers and their families. In August, another 140 Americans join in. Issues of strategic leadership are thoroughly discussed and debated. The Americans are mostly Colonels in the Army, but many are State Department or Department of Defense personnel or officers from other branches. Fascinating really. A brief visit with The Reverend Mark Scheneman at St. John’s Episcopal Church and I was back on the road for points south.

The Woodrow Wilson Birthplace and Presidential Museum in Staunton (pronounced Stan-ton), Virginia is something I had driven by so many times, and finally my schedule had me there at a decent hour and I pulled in. Set along a hill in the beautiful old red brick town, the birthplace and museum are both excellent and the people a charm. Of course, the election of 1912 is the primary lens through which the Wilson and T. Roosevelt relationship is viewed. The literature on Roosevelt and Wilson is rich. I admit to having previously felt some hesitation at visiting the opponent’s camp!

As luck would have it, a small crew were readying Wilson’s 1918 Pierce-Arrow limousine for transport to Kansas City for a brief visit to the World War One Museum there. I think the adults had as much joy as the children hearing the old motor struggle to life and seeing the car roll out of its glass-doored garage and down the old streets of Staunton on the way to the flatbed. After a couple hours of reading, studying and enjoying the docent’s tour of the house, I asked if I might say hello or leave my card for the education or museum department of the museum.

A great gift followed for me when I had a chance to meet officers and staff of the museum and library, some guests from DC and Augusta, GA, and finally to perform, after being invited to do so, for twenty public school teachers in the middle of a three year summer immersion and discussion of history and teaching history. How cool was that? Wish I could have bought half the books in the gift shop. Amazon.com here I come for some good used editions.

Long ride tonight. Thank goodness for coffee.

So, the adventure continues. I get ready to hit the rack with a smile. Hope to see friends and make new ones in Branson, Spearfish, Medora, Dickinson, Las Vegas and Colorado Springs in the days ahead. I’m so glad the girls join me for this road trip.

The Man in the Arena - 100 Years Ago Today

On April 23, 1910, Theodore Roosevelt spoke at the Sorbonne in Paris, France. His speech, titled Citizenship in a Republic, made headlines around the world. A small portion of that speech has become one of the most famous of TR's quotations.

This is for my friends who are men and women in the arena today.

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.

Ohio - Cradle of the American Presidents

New Philadelphia, Ohio, nestled along the swollen Tuscarawas River, enjoyed a sunny and warm afternoon. I had a great audience tonight, a mix of college students, seniors and families. A young girl who sat in the front row went home with a teddy bear.

A week ago, I was performing in Captiva, Florida, a beautiful island betwixt the Gulf of Mexico and Roosevelt Channel, off shore from Ft. Myers. Wife, Jenny and daughter, Sam went along. In late March, 1917, T.R. had his last great hunting adventure on and about Captiva. With his host, J. Russell Coles of Danville, Virginia, T.R. harpooned devil fish, giant manta rays, in the Gulf waters. Weeks later, the United States was entering World War I, and T.R. would be busy in the war effort until the time of his passing, in January 1919.

Sam joined me in Vero Beach and Sebastian, Florida, where we enjoyed the people and the critters at the Pelican Island Wildlife Festival, a fantastic celebration of T.R.’s naming Pelican Island our first federal bird sanctuary in 1903. The United States Fish and Wildlife Service employees, with the support of local volunteers, do a wonderful job in an amazing ecosystem.

Between Sunday noon and Tuesday afternoon, I made the long trip from Vero Beach to Sewanee, Tennessee and on up here to South Central Eastern Ohio. Tomorrow, I’m going to see some of the beautiful countryside hereabout.

The Fells - The John Hay Estate - Lake Sunapee - Newbury, New Hamphire

My second visit to the Fells was fantastic. After performing at Keene State College, I took a morning drive to the beautiful home on Route 103A on the eastern shore of Lake Sunapee. Hay called it a farm.

The home is beautiful, a large white wooden two story structure with beautiful gardens. TR visited during his presidency and planted a maple tree in the field west of the veranda. Today, I rested against the tree while I read from the posthumously published Speeches of John Hay.

The relationship between Hay and Roosevelt dates all the way back to the Civil War, when TR's father lobbied Hay and Lincoln to create the Allotment Commisssion. After the war, Hay was an occassional guest at the Roosevelt home in Manhattan. Imagine young TR listening to his father and mother discussing the issues of the world with Hay during a family dinner.