The personal writings and photos of Jonathan Smith.

Several years ago one of of my aunts was moving. While I was helping her move she gave me this old canvas map. I haven’t even unrolled it until recently. It always made me nervous touching it or moving it because pieces would flake off.

She told me it was an old map of Perry County, Pennsylvania. I’ve seen plenty of old maps of Perry County before. But they were always old paper maps. This map is made of canvas. As I unrolled it I finally saw how large this map is. It measures approximately 5′ x 5′. Then after closer inspection I saw the date of the map, 1863. This map dates back to the American Civil War (1861 to 1865)! What an awesome piece of history I have in front of me!

I just don’t know what to do with it though. I love history and this map is very cool, but it’s in very bad shape. I’d like to find a way to preserve it.

You can view more photos of this map on my Flickr set.

Tonight I met with Shannon Wade (neighborhood crime watch president), representative Ron Buxton, some local police, local firemen, and some neighbors to discuss crime and safety. We met at the Madeline Olewine Memorial Library on 3rd street which is less than a block from my house.

The Harrisburg Bureau of Fire has a program where they will come to your house and check the batteries in your smoke detector and will even install smoke detectors in your house for FREE! We heard from the Harrisburg Police about things they see in our community and about their patrols in the area. It was great to hear the citizens and the police both discussing what they see and what they deal with in certain areas.

And to stay on top of crime in my area, I signed up on SpotCrime.com. You can enter your email address and home address and be alerted of crimes that happen within a set distance from your home address. In fact, here is the Harrisburg, Pennsylvania crime map.

A few months ago I met Alisa (MotoAdventureGal) when her and a friend stayed with me as they were traveling from Connecticut to North Carolina where they would start their ride across the United States on the Trans America Trail. Alisa is an inspiration. She quit her day job to live outside the box and get out of the “comfort zone”. Now she gets paid to do what she truly loves, ride motorcycles and write about her experiences.

Alisa is now on her way through Mexico as she heads for South America. She is currently riding for cancer awareness and raising money to try to beat this dreadful disease that strikes so many people we may know. I’d like to ask my readers to follow Alisa on her site as she updates us on her travels. And if you can, please donate to this cause. Every dollar goes straight to research as she is paying for her own travel expenses.