Colorado Chronicles : 50 Things You Didn't Know (Or Maybe You Did)

Before moving to Maine four years ago, I was living in Colorado. Central City to be exact. 8600 feet above sea level at my house. Lotsa casinos. Old Mining town. You probably didn't know most of things about Central City. Did you know Doc Holliday died in Colorado? Or that Denver once turned down a chance to host the Olympics? Those and 48 other things you may or may not know about The Centennial State are on this list. Amaze your friends and win bar bets with your near-encyclopedic knowledge of  completely useless, but darn cute, trivia about Colorado.

Maine Minuatie : Whales

Whales. Whales? In Maine? You better believe it, Orca Breath. There are about 85 species of whales and at least six of them can be seen in The Pine Tree State on a regular basis. You can do some great whale-watching along the coast of Maine, and there are thousands of miles of coastline in the state, and they are a ton of businesses that offer whale-watching trips. My family and I haven't done it yet, but checking out the largest mammals in the world in the Gulf of Maine this summer is definitely on the Shoemaker Family Summer Tour '10 agenda.

Texas Tidbits : Armadillos : Hillbilly Speed Bumps

Many things come to mind at the mention of the word "Texas"...Cowboys, Longhorns, oil, to mention a few. Another one is the armadillo. The armadillo has immortalized in print, folklore, TV commercials and even song (see "London Homesick Blues"). I know all my friends in Texas have seen an armadillo at one time or another. Most likely as a "hillbilly speed bump", or roadkill, laying on its back, arms out-stretched possibly with a longneck beer bottle in its grasp. There is even a Armadillo World Headquarters  in Austin ! So the next time you see an armadillo (Spanish for "little armored one"), grab a Lone Star Longneck and crank up some "London Homesick Blues" (I wanna go home with the armadillaaaaaaaaa") and salute our little 9-banded friend, the armadillo.