Omaha is a city in the U.S. state of Nebraska, on the Missouri River close to the Iowa border. A stop on the Lewis & Clark National Historic Trail, it’s known for its pioneer history, museums and cultural centers. The Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium spearheads conservation work and features a big cat complex as well as indoor jungle, rainforest and desert habitats.
Madison, the capital city of Wisconsin, lies west of Milwaukee. It’s known for the domed Wisconsin State Capitol, which sits on an isthmus between lakes Mendota and Monona. The Wisconsin Historical Museum documents the state’s immigrant and farming history. The city’s paved Capital City State Trail runs past Monona Terrace, a lakefront convention center designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.
YOU’LL BEGIN your 433-mile traverse across the Buckeye State by crossing the Ohio River on a car ferry, heading into the wild Northwest Territory. That’s your first clue that Ohio is nothing like a flat, monotonous cornfield. The route winds through the Hocking Hills, graced with waterfalls and towering hemlocks, and passes through the farms of Amish country rich in buggies, bonnets and butterfat. Such pastoral landscapes contrast to the buzz in the state’s “Three Cs,” the cities of Cincinnati, Columbus and Cleveland.
From the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport rental lot, travel back in time via KY-20 East. Follow signs to the Anderson Ferry. A hair-pinned road leads you down to Kentucky’s Ohio River bank, where for $5 (plus $1 tip) a ferry operating since 1817 will float your car over to Ohio pioneer-style. Head east to downtown Cincinnati on US-50. Enervated vinyl-sided houses and warehouses punctuate the drive, but your destination, Over-the-Rhine, is fizzing. The neighborhood’s 19th-century corniced tenements, originally crammed with German immigrants, form the country’s largest collection of Italianate Revival architecture. Neglected for years, OTR is now coated in creamy paint and optimism, and restocked with bright young things and craft breweries. Busy Washington Park is fun to explore.
Spend the morning exploring the trails around Hocking Hills State Park. The mile-long Rock House loop is a good introduction to the park, or you can follow the rock-hewn steps down to Old Man Cave, J.R.R. Tolkien’s elfish Rivendell come to life. Should it rain, linger over breakfast at the Hocking Hills Diner (hockinghillsdiner.com) or call on Lockhart Ironworks (themakersofhandforgediron.com), a small family firm making high-end artisan cookware forged by cheerful blacksmiths clanging away out back.
Take US-62 East past sweet-smelling meadows, a covered bridge and the occasional horse-drawn Amish tricyclist or buggy to Berlin. Just before town, detour south about 2 miles to Miller’s Bakery for cheese tarts and doughnuts stuffed with in-season fruit jams (4250 Township Road 356; 330-893-3002). Berlin is likely clotted with tourists ogling the rural-themed souvenirs. The real action is further north at the Mt. Hope Auction, where Amish farmers bid and buy livestock. The arena’s competitive excitement is good fun to watch (mthopeauction.com). Cross the road to Mrs. Yoder’s Kitchen for a lunch of fried chicken, egg noodles and green beans served buffet style.
Oklahoma City is the capital of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. It’s known for its cowboy culture and capitol complex, surrounded by working oil wells. The reflecting pool and empty glass and bronze chairs of the Oklahoma City National Memorial recall the victims of the 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. The Survivor Tree, an American elm nearly destroyed in the attack, is also part of the memorial.
Detroit is the largest city in the midwestern state of Michigan. Near Downtown, the neoclassical Detroit Institute of Arts is famed for the Detroit Industry Murals painted by Diego Rivera, and inspired by the city’s ties to the auto industry, giving it the nickname “Motor City.” Detroit is also the birthplace of Motown Records, whose chart-topping history is on display at their original headquarters, Hitsville U.S.A.
Filmed and Edited by: Matt Hollamon
After some serious debate over this film and whether it would happen or if I should add content from 2021 to beef it up, I came to the conclusion that 2020 deserves it own place in my library. I fell in love with the music from the first sample and knew that it was exactly what I wanted, so it was on from there. The pace is slower and much more deliberate compared to my previous offerings, but it is a fantastic pairing with the footage I collected this year.
Chasing storms as a registered nurse during a global pandemic was a challenge to say the least. 2020 forced me to be adaptable. Safety for my family, friends, coworkers and most importantly my patients, turned into my top priority. I scrapped plans for my annual two week plains chase in May and just chased when I could, usually closer to home. That being said, I still managed to chase 24 or so different days, spanning from March to October. I made it to seven different states through all of it. I missed events like Sublette KS and Arnold NE that I normally would have seen with my own eyes, but at that time, I was where I needed to be. For me personally it seemed like 2020 was the year of the LP and the shelf cloud, not always what I’m looking for, but always beautiful to photograph and to time lapse. I saw my first birthday tornado in March when I turned 50 and two others for the year but didn’t have the chance to photograph any of them. Each of those 24 chase days, whether the day was epic or a bust, brought balance into my life and helped me to reset and be the best I could be in my professional life. So while it was not the year any of us were looking for, it’s the year that was, and still deserves its place. I will always be thankful for the experiences and blessings. This is my fourth season recap, and while content dictates quality to some degree, I feel like I am getting better at this as I go. I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed making it, and thank you for taking the time to look.
Chicago, on Lake Michigan in Illinois, is among the largest cities in the U.S. Famed for its bold architecture, it has a skyline punctuated by skyscrapers such as the iconic John Hancock Center, 1,451-ft. Willis Tower (formerly the Sears Tower) and the neo-Gothic Tribune Tower. The city is also renowned for its museums, including the Art Institute of Chicago with its noted Impressionist and Post-Impressionist works.
“Sunday Morning” takes us to the Canadian border, at Minnesota’s Grand Portage State Park. Videographer: Scot Miller.
The Erie Canal is a 363-mile waterway that connects the Great Lakes with the Atlantic Ocean via the Hudson River in upstate New York. The channel, which traverses New York state from Albany to Buffalo on Lake Erie, was considered an engineering marvel when it first opened in 1825.
The Erie Canal provided a direct water route from New York City to the Midwest, triggering large-scale commercial and agricultural development—as well as immigration—to the sparsely populated frontiers of western New York, Ohio, Indiana, Michigan and points farther west. The canal transformed New York City into the young nation’s economic powerhouse, and in 2000 the U.S. Congress designated the Erie Canal a National Heritage Corridor.
The Spring Creek Ranch, owned by the same family for nearly 80 years, is now being offered for sale. Comprised of 10,793± acres of deeded land with predominantly native tallgrasses in the heart of the widely known Kansas Flint Hills, this ranch is a combination cow/calf and stocker cattle operation that was designed to operate at a very efficient level. The ranch has excellent cattle handling facilities and in addition to beef production, the ranch also offers diverse recreational opportunities, some of which can appreciably affect the bottom line. Beautiful Spring Creek runs through the ranch for over seven miles, providing numerous areas of fertile cropland, hay meadows, and stands of hardwood trees in and around the rock-bottom creek with pools of fresh, clear water. There are over 47 ponds and lakes throughout the ranch, including the 70-acre Big Lake and the 14-acre Niles Lake, plus Cabin Lake where the native stone lodge sits on the water’s edge.
Boomers Daily 