Here we are fresh into a new year, and I am already having old thoughts, those that bring me back to where I was exactly one year ago. All of which began a few years before that with an ad on Facebook featuring a journal of Minnesota’s then 65 state parks. Although many had been visited over the years, there was neither a file of photographs nor a journal consisting of my thoughts of the individual parks.

Once the book arrived a look at the journaling aspects showed a facing page offering basically an itinerary and planning guide followed by a log of the who, what and whens of the visit on the second page. Not being a list maker, this was way too detailed for my tastes, so, I created my own little manner of journaling that now includes an opening page of photographs followed by my actual journaling. Black ink to the rescue! “Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart,” cautioned William Wordsworth. I can’t do that with a list.

Shortly after receiving the book I pasted my first image … one of my late wife, Sharon Yedo White, sitting on a log at the then new Afton State Park with our two sons along with our then exchange student, Fredrik Croona from Sweden. My own image was reflected in a mirror she was holding. It was taken around 1985 or so. Our first home in Minnesota was about a mile south of the southern border of the park, on a bluff overlooking the confluence of the St. Croix and Kinnickinnic Rivers. That was perhaps our most blissful summer together before the stresses of life snagged us … starting a family along with a corporate business life in magazines and an ad agency.

Ah, yes, the makings of a journal. A photograph plus a facing page containing my written thoughts. I promised to fill the rest of the photographic page with images from the park, which was accomplished this past October.

By November of 2024 some 38 state parks had been visited and journaled, although one of my favorites where we spent so much time camping and fishing both as a couple and later with many foreign exchange students, the Upper Sioux Agency State Park, was decommissioned and the land returned to the Dakota Nation. While that was likely an overdue move by the State, it’s a place that holds many fine memories as well as beautiful camping nooks for escaping the ills of society. Yes, it’s journaled.

Just inside the journal is a state map noting the location of each state park, and by now, some three years after receiving the journal most of the state parks in the southern half of the state, from the tip of the Driftless along the Mississippi River and Iowa Border up to the Canadian Border, have been visited, photographed and journaled. Indeed, last September after our aborted effort to do the Lake Superior Circle Tour, we decided to start at Grand Portage State Park at the Canadian border and visit all of the State Parks along the Superior “coast.” A redemption, if you will. Something to sooth our raw souls (yes, thoughts that were journaled!).

Our first day went well, and the second started wonderfully with a short hike into the falls at Cascade River SP that was breathtakingly beautifully. The park was a “water baby’s” dream offering waves of photographic poetry. Next was Temperance River SP where I choose to take a rock stairwell rather than a paved path and lost my balance on a deeper than expected step. Down I went, crushing my camera and lens beneath my body in a hard fall. Both were ruined, which has since led to quite a technological adventure, and one that is quite challenging for a man my age.

After much thought and concern, the decision was made to continue with my art. I wasn’t ready to quit even as I turned 81. Since my crushed Nikon had been discontinued I have since “graduated” into a whole new realm of technology. My old photo processing software wouldn’t handle the new imagery, and then came the reality that the printer I’d used for the past several years was obsolete. Epson had discontinued producing the specified ink cartridges …. meaning a new printer. More technology, and one I’m still dealing with. My two main software programs still operating on my old iMac desktop were long obsolete although still usable with the older equipment. New camera. New software. New printer. More new technology. New tricks for an old mind.

Yet, there’s the state park journal along with my quest to continue my form of “Impressionistic Prairie Art.” No, I wasn’t ready to quit — not my art nor my journal, not when I only 26 state parks short of completing my goal!

This past year we actually visited 17 parks. This came after a count when I sort of felt like I’d short changed myself. This doesn’t include our home park, Big Stone Lake SP with its distant Bonanza Educational Center. Both that and the Meadowbrook section are visited numerous times each month.

So now I’m where I was a year ago in looking over my journaling and the parks previously visited and scheming forthcoming trips. Minnesota is blessed with some of the most beautiful and interesting state parks in the nation, and hopefully if my health and energy continues we’ll make a dent in the 26. Typically we’ll park the camper at one state park and visit any that are close by, Roberta holds Joe Pye on a leash while I search for imagery, sauntering down a narrow wooded trail or seeking an angle of a beautiful river, all while seeking some photographic “poetry.”