A Quick Trip–Voyageurs NP (Day Three)
Juneteenth morning found me about two hours away from my destination, Voyageurs National Park. Still, I got there, or what I thought was there, around 7 a.m. I took advantage of the time to get online–yes, I had wifi there-slow but there–to get information about the park. I discovered that a boat tour was available and there was one ticket left for the morning tour. Shortly after purchasing the ticket, a gentleman informed me that the park tour was located at another part of Rainy Lake. Fortunately, it wasn’t far away and only a matter of giving Waze a slightly different destination name, Rainy Lake Visitor Center, to get to the correct location. I saw a cute little chipmunk on the log building stoop, but mostly I saw and provided meals for lots of mosquitoes along with dead dragonflies, which I learned later are called mayflies. The ranger I spoke…
A Quick Trip–Theodore Roosevelt NP (Day Two)
Theodore Roosevelt National Park is made up of three “units” in western North Dakota. I reached the town of Medora and the entrance to the Southern unit around 6:45 a.m. Sunday morning. Since the visitors’ center was not scheduled to open until 9:00, I sat in the Silver Bullet and started reading to kill the time. Fortunately, a ranger saw me there, and he kindly gave me a map of the park and suggested I not wait to drive the scenic route (BTW, I had already informed him that I had my senior pass so the entry fee was not an issue). He said that the badlands provided stunning views whether I stayed in the car or hiked the available trails. I’m so glad I took his advice. The early morning was beautiful with clear skies–a concern I had had about the entire trip with the smoke from forest fires…
A Quick Trip–South Dakota (Day One)
Since this was supposed to be a mini-vacation (and I wanted to wait for delivery of a package from Amazon), I didn’t set the alarm for an early wake-up. Still, between awakening early on my own and the early arrival of my package, I was able to begin my journey at 9:30 a.m. As it worked out, this was a good thing because my destination was the famous Wall Drug in Wall, South Dakota. I wanted a cowboy hat and knew they would have a wide selection of the genuine article in stock. The Silver Bullet’s odometer read 33,650 when I started. The Mapquest route indicated an 8.5 hour drive covering some 625 miles. With my departure time, I would only have about an hour to shop, but I tend to be the type of shopper who goes with a goal and a get-in-get-out attitude, so that should be plenty…
A Three-Day Tour… of National Parks
I’ve been back from my three-day tour of Theodore Roosevelt National Park and Voyageurs National Park for two days at the point I created this post, and both parks are still on my mind. What an impression each made on me in such a short time! Folks crowd onto Yellowstone, Yosemite and other big parks–and with good reason. But they miss out on the various wonders of the small- to mid-size parks. Below is the map of the entire 2,235 mile trip: More about each park in separate posts, but I wanted to briefly update the complete list of national parks to include the ones I recently visited. I’ve bolded those that I have visited as of today and added links to the blogs where I’ve described the visits. Acadia Arches Badlands Big Bend Biscayne Black Canyon of the Gunnison Bryce Canyon Canyonlands Capitol Reef Carlsbad Caverns Channel Islands Congaree…
An Iowa Quickie
I had new tires placed on the Silver Bullet this past Friday morning and, on impulse, decided I needed a short test drive before putting her on the road for a more extended trip. So I decided to do a quickie trip to Le Claire, Iowa, a 130-mile trip that is almost a straight drive down I-80 East. My destination was for my third trip on the Riverboat Twilight, a 1 1/2-hour excursion up the Mississippi River. I admit that, as my anticipated departure nears, I am looking for last opportunities to see parts of the state that has been home for the last eighteen years. From the Le Claire exit, there’s a good view of the bridge that crosses the Mississippi River connecting Iowa to Illinois. The river isn’t quite so mighty this far north, but there still seems to be something special one can sense about it even…
A Final Crack at Glacier National Park
Glacier National Park is at the top of my NP Bucket List. It suddenly occurred to me that I might have an opportunity this month to make a quick trip there along with at least one other park before I leave Iowa. While Juneteenth is a federal holiday now, it’s not a national holiday. I’m hoping that means the park–one of the most popular ones in the system–will not be at overflow levels that weekend. I have two routes to consider. The first and most likely to be feasible would be to Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota then across to Montana and Glacier. Under the category of wishful thinking is to add another stop to Voyageurs National Park in Minnesota. This would add another day to the trip because the route from Voyageurs is all state roads rather than almost all interstate driving if I don’t go there.…
The DMV and Indiana Dunes NP
As I mentioned in earlier posts, I am in the process of relocating to the DC Metro area, otherwise known as the DMV, so I’m closer to family and away from the winters of Iowa. I had two primary goals for this trip: one, to find a place to stay and two, celebrate the publication of Recorded Solo Concert Spirituals with my family. I think I found an apartment in the area that would be available when I need it, but I won’t know for sure until September. By Friday, I was able to take time to get my hair professionally done (I could almost hear the strands singing “thank you” afterwards) and visit my cousins on my mother’s side of the family. Then, on Saturday, I met colleague and former vocal coach Millicent Scarlett-Smith for lunch to catch up. Somehow, although I hadn’t planned on it, she left lunch…
Pittsburgh–Conference and a Tour
I had packed a lot of activity into the trip that would take me from my current home base in Iowa to Pittsburgh, PA, via Illinois and Ohio. My plans changed from the very beginning when I decided to delay my departure from Sunday morning, May 14th, to Tuesday. This change meant that I had to miss the Renée Fleming/Evgeny Kissin recital in Chicago on Sunday, very much to my disappointment. When I finally did get started on Tuesday morning, I loaded the Silver Bullet with a larger-than-usual suitcase to handle the clothes I thought I’d need for the ARSC conference and my time visiting family in the DC Metro area. I also had eight of the ten copies of my newly published book that its publisher had sent to me. I had already mailed books one and two to my eldest sister, to whom I had dedicated the book,…