September 27, 2026
by David Ryan
3 Comments

Checking Out the Kentucky Bend or Confession of a Mapaholic

The book, The Gentle Art of Wandering, has many mentions on how maps can help you identify unusual places for a wandering adventure. As a Mapaholic, I am always going through maps looking for places to check out. And for years, I have noticed that there is a very small part of Kentucky that is completely detached from the rest of the state – the Kentucky Bend.

This is a Google Earth view of the Kentucky Bend area. It’s tucked into a loop of the Mississippi River off to the center left

The Kentucky Bend is the result of the Mississippi River’s many looping meanders and the western portion of the Kentucky/Tennessee border being set at 36° 30’ north latitude. Except for Missouri’s bootheel, 36° 30’ is also the southern border of Missouri and the line of the Missouri Compromise of 1820 that set the boundary between slave and free states. When Texas applied for admission to the Union in 1845, it cut off the northern portion of the Texas Panhandle to keep the entire state below the 36° 30’ line so that Texas could be admitted as a slave state. That cutoff portion of Texas is now the Oklahoma Panhandle.

A Rand-McNally Road Map view of the Kentucky Bend area.

Although I have wondered about the Kentucky Bend for years (if not decades), it wasn’t until earlier this month that I found myself on a road trip route that took me right through the area. And when I took a closer look at the map, I saw that there were many other curiosities that I could check out at the same time. (One of the basic tenets of The Gentle Art of Wandering is that, when you get out, you’ll find more than you expected and that one thing will always lead to another.) Continue Reading →

August 4, 2026
by David Ryan
4 Comments

Checking Out Frank Lloyd Wright’s One-and-Only Gas Station

In 2019, The 20th-Century Architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright was added to the List of UNESCO-Designated World Heritage Sites. Although some may question the practicality and maintainability of some of Wright’s designs, no one can question the imaginative artistry of his work.

As for me, I always keep an eye out for Wright’s work while on a road trip and have featured many of his buildings in several different posts within this BLOG (just enter Frank Lloyd Wright in the Search Box). And finally last month, my little dog Sparky and I made it to the one-and-only Wright-designed Gas Station that was ever constructed. It’s in Cloquet, Minnesota (about 25 miles west of Duluth), and needless to say, Cloquet has been on my radar scope since reading about the gas station over ten years ago.

The R.W. Lindholm Service Station opened in 1958, just a year before Wright died in 1959 at the age of 91, and is still in use today. Wright had designed a gas station earlier in his career for an auto-centric decentralized urban community that he envisioned in the 1930s called Broadacre City. Since that project never got off the ground, Wright approached R.W. Lindholm about building a gas station soon after designing his 1952 residence.

Although the gas station is no longer in the Lindholm family hands, it still functions as a full service gas station and was very active when Sparky and I walked around. There were even several other people stopping long enough to get a picture of the station. It definitely is unique!

Continue Reading →

June 5, 2026
by David Ryan
4 Comments

A Step-Street Walk in Paris

After spending most of the month of April walking two different Camino de Santiago routes in Spain and France (see previous Blog Post), I had to make my way to Paris for my flight home. While in Paris I had time to check out the Funicular at Montmartre and to walk some nearby step-streets. I’m sure that there are many step-streets that I missed, but these are the ones I noticed.

I used Google My Maps to make this simple map of the walk.

I took the Paris Metro to the Abbesses stop and headed east towards the Funicular on Rue des Trois Frères. When I reached Rue de Vieuville, there was a stairway (Point 1 on the Map) to the left going uphill. So I climbed the 83 steps to Rue Berte and hung a right.

83 steps up to Rue Berte.

Continue Reading →