Post 19/2025 River Preserve County Park, Elkhart County: We walked in the part of this park that starts in the village of Benton. The linear park of 358 acres follows the Elkhart River, adjacent canal and spillways. I wore my new pair of boots. Did my feet proud. The park includes historic canals, dams and …
Author: John Bender
Hi, my name is John Bender, retired and loving it. I'm writing to help interested people cross bridges to and from the past. Stories from the past can shed light on life in the present and illuminate the future. We've got a lot of living to do. Let's do it!
Stratford Festival: A Journey Beyond the Traffic
Post 18/2025 Goshen, Indiana: What do you do when there's a traffic backup for miles before you get to the Blue Water Bridge crossing from Port Huron, Michigan to Ontario? On the morning of May 21 we came upon such a scene, unlike any we'd seen before. We had a split-second chance to divert to …
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Home again in Indiana
Post 17/2025 Goshen, Indiana: Friends. Friends are worth their weight in gold. Lynne and Noel are storing a few of our things. The evening before we left Carbis Bay, Marilyn and Steve had us over for dinner. Next day, Steve drove us to the St Erth train station for the five and a half hour …
Goodbye
Post 16/2025 Cornwall UK: Goodbye, friends. Goodbye, footpaths. Goodbye, fish and chips (Becks). Goodbye, goodbye, Cornwall. At Coffee Morning at St Anta & All Saints Church on Saturday, one person commented, "When Marty and John come, we know it's Spring." We come in mid-February, considering our stay including parts of winter and spring. At least …
Tintagel Castle and Tintagel Old Post Office
Post 15/2025 Cornwall UK: "Discover the land where history meets legend," invites the welcome flyer for Tintagel Castle. "Legend, history and archaeology all suggest that this rocky headland was a royal settlement and thriving trading port, used by the Cornish kings of Dumnonia between the fifth and the seventh centuries." Further: "In the 12th century, …
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Walk to St Michael’s Mount
Post 14/2025. Cornwall UK. The distance added up. On Wednesday, nine of us walked 12 miles, mostly on St Michael's Way, from Carbis Bay on the Atlantic to St Michael's Mount on the English Channel. Marty stayed home nursing a sore knee. While the eight toured the castle, I spent time in the terraced gardens. …
Celebrating generations
Post 13/2025 Cornwall UK. Extended family connecting in Cornwall started a few days ago. Niece Jan and her husband John and John's daughter and her husband arrived on Thursday. Jan's daughters and their husbands arrived on Friday. Surprise of surprises to Marty and me, and slow to dawn on us, Jessie and Mike walked unnoticed …
Seven days hither and thither
Post 12/20025 Cornwall UK. Sunday, a week ago yesterday, we joined the monthly fellowship walk of St Anta church. We walked around part of Penrose, near Helston and Porthleven. This National Trust property includes woods, farmland, parkland, walled garden, cliffs and beaches. The weather was ideal. The week proved a treasure of going to and …
Travel Mercies: Our Unexpected Path Home During COVID-19
Post 11/2025. Cornwall UK. I recently reposted two blogs from 2020. Here's the third. In March 2020 Marty and I faced a quandary: how do we return to the US from England five weeks early? COVID-19 was shutting down the world. A friend asked, "How will you get home? It took some weeks to answer …
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Inward, outward, onward
Post 10/2025. Cornwall UK. We're enjoying sharing Cornwall with niece Rachel for a short spell. We've covered paths old and new and met friends. Of course, the time has been too short but we've made the most of it, I believe. The longest walk was St Michael's Way. The path goes from St Uny Church …
It's About Now 