What started all this? Do you love history? Do you like challenges and adventure? Do you enjoy meeting people and helping others? Do you enjoy seeing new things in our country? How about road trips have you taken one lately? I will answer those questions for myself here, but I hope you too can be inspired do things you want to do and perhaps meet and help me help others along the way.

What started all this: Anyone who knows the Captain for more than five minutes, knows I’m passionate about history. All history, but American history can not be ignored if we are to be a healthy country. My personal feeling is the less we look back and appreciate where we came from, the further we get off course. If we don’t learn from the past, see and appreciate the good, the bad and the ugly from where we came. Then how can we improve the future and move forward with confidence?

So history is what inspired my desire to make this trip. It is through this trip that I will satisfy and answer those qustions for myself and maybe inspire you to do the same. My passion is defined, but you could substitute your own interests and passions to do the same if you stop and take time to think about it.

So who was Horatio Nelson Jackson? Well, I will tell you. He was an inspiration to many in our country. He was a man of adventure who liked a good challenge. He enjoyed helping others as he was once a physician. He certainly liked road trips. He was a man of history and in fact made history. This is how the Captain came to meet him long after he passed away in 1955. Yes, through history, the Captain met Dr. Nelson without meeting him in person.

Horatio Nelson Jackson was born in Toronto, Canada in 1872. He and his family immgrated to the United States where he earned an MD degree from the University of Vermont. He later practiced as a physician and lived in Burlington, Vermont. In 1899, Nelson married Bertha Richarson Wells, the daughter of William Wells, a Medal of Honor recipient and one of the wealthiest men in Vermont. Dr. Jackson later served in the US Army during WW1 and was highly decorated for his service under fire. After the war he became a Colonel and was one of the founding fathers of the American Legion one of the largest veteran’s organizations today. More about his family and service later, as they too inspired him. You see, inspiration comes from many people and experiences.