Two Major Backtracks–New York and Porgy and Bess Plus Grotto of the Redemption in Iowa (2012)
While looking for the blog post describing my 2012 trip to New York City to see the musical adaptation of Porgy and Bess before it left Broadway, I discovered that I hadn’t actually written a post. Then, I realized that I was also missing a post for the visit my dearly departed Momma and I made to the Shrine of the Grotto of the Redemption in West Bend, Iowa. At this point–nearly thirteen years later–my recollection is incomplete, but I’ll try as best as I can to explain what led to the pictures I captured. Unfortunately, the camera I used for the photos did not record GPS locations, so I found general GPS locations and added that information so that maps could be generated on my Piwigo pages. The Grotto of the Redemption, June 30 My mother, Cora Jones, flew out to Iowa for her second visit in June of…
Short Trip to the Iowa Border: DeSoto Preserve-080419
Last backtrack (I hope) of 2019 travels. I don’t remember the circumstances under which I made this trip, but I did try to get to know my adopted state of Iowa, and most parts of it were within a one-day round trip. In this case, I made the less than three hour each way drive in early August to the western border with Nebraska. The DeSoto National Wildlife Refuge is part of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and is located along the Missouri River in both Iowa and Nebraska. In addition to the refuge, the site houses a museum with artifacts that survived the sinking of the steamship, Bertrand, in 1865. I will simply quote from the website: On April 1, 1865, the sternwheeler hit a submerged log, twenty-five miles north of Omaha, Nebraska. Bound for the newly discovered goldfields of Montana from St. Louis, Missouri, the Bertrand began…
A Fair (Almost) Day at the Iowa State Fair
I had agreed to volunteer a couple of hours at the state Democratic Party booth at the Iowa State Fair. I hadn’t attended the fair since my first visit with my host daughter in 2009, so this seemed a great excuse to make a final trip before I head back East. Considering that I was Des Moines on Sunday, August 13, at a site that has drawn more than one million visitors during the 11-day annual event, I was lucky my handicap decal got me so close to one of the gates. Still, it’s a big site with lots of walking, and I decided not to spend the $70 to rent a motorized scooter for the day so my progress was slow. Coincidentally, I was close to the building where the famous butter cow was on display with Iowa sports figures Jack Trice, Kurt Warner and Caitlin Clark. I walked…
Trekking in Riverside, Iowa-Another Quickie Trip
Did I mention that I’m a Trekker (okay, Trekkie, whatever)? I first started watching the original series in syndication in the early 1970s. In the early 1990s, I attended my first Star Trek convention in Tallahassee, Florida, while I was a grad student at Florida State University. While my personal collection of Trek mostly consists of books, my home office has its fair share of Trek memorabilia. Strangely, although it’s less than 80 miles away, I have previously visited Riverside, Iowa, only once before–for the 2009 TrekFest. It was their 25th anniversary celebration of the festival, and their special guests were George Takei, Nichelle Nichols, and Walter Koenig (who is, BTW, a Grinnell College alumnus). Unfortunately, I have no idea where the pictures I took, especially from the parade, are, but here’s more information at this TrekFest page. In case you are wondering how the small Iowa town became known…
Iowa Weekend Quickie-Sunday
The Boone and Scenic Valley Railroad train excursion was not scheduled to begin until 1:30 p.m., but I left home at 10 a.m. to give myself plenty of time to gas the Silver Bullet, get breakfast, and take care of business that I could address on a Sunday morning. Like yesterday, the weather was mostly sunny and moderately warm with the promise to warm considerably as the day progressed. My pleasant surprise as I neared the train depot was to see a sign that indicated the birthplace of Mamie Eisenhower, first lady of President Dwight Eisenhower, was close. I turned off my route long enough to get a few pictures of the house, which had been converted into a museum. The museum was closed, so I continued on towards the depot. The depot was similar to others I’ve seen in smaller towns except the exterior and waiting area were clearly…
Iowa Weekend Quickie–Saturday
I am a North Carolinian, born and raised, but I have now spent nearly a third of my life in Iowa. I decided I wanted to take in some parts of my adopted home that I haven’t visited before I hie myself back to the East Coast. As usual when I plan a trip like this, I added more stops than I could make in the timeframe I had available. This allows me to adjust my plans based on whatever situation I want to or have to address. For Saturday, I had to drop the planned stop in Riverside because the museum was not scheduled to open until noon, and I needed to be in Dyersville in time to make the 3:30 tour at the Field of Dreams Movie Site for which I had purchased a ticket. As it worked out, it was only the first of other adjustments I…
Coming Together and Another Quickie Iowa Weekend
When I first started sharing stories and pictures about my travels, I had set up the blogs on WordPress, taking advantage of their free service. However, I’ve noticed that the free service has been adding more and more advertising to the pages, whereas this blog–which uses WordPress to create the posts but is hosted on my own space–has no ads at all. Well, as I was importing the older images from Flickr to this site so I can take advantage of the OSMMap on my Travelogue Pictures page, I’ve also discovered that the posts from both old blogs can be imported to this site. I need time to figure out how to accomplish this successfully, but once done, I’ll let you know they are here. The images coming in are from the 2012 trip Momma and I took to the Shrine of the Grotto of the Redemption in West Bend,…
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…
About Iowa?!?
(From the original blog site at https://iowasites.wordpress.com.) When I told my family and friends I was moving to Iowa in 2005, they all asked, “Iowa?!?” So I’m creating this page to share images taken at sites across the state as I explore and learn about my new home. I first vacationed in Iowa, South Dakota, and Wyoming in 2008. You can find pictures and descriptive stuff online at http://www.randyejones.com/GoinWest/ Starting with taking my mother to the Grotto of the Redemption in June 2012, I’m looking forward to crisscrossing Iowa in my car, the Red Barron (RB) and sharing what I discover with you. A site I will consult regularly is http://www.traveliowa.com/ Please check back often to see what’s new. Randye (the Singin’ One)
A Day at the MET(s)–New York City (Again)
After a quiet Christmas holiday, the family turmoil began slowly to settle. I read that mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves-Montgomery was giving her final Metropolitan Opera performance in Porgy and Bess during the last weekend of January. I decided to take the opportunity to get out-of-town and witness the performance. This would be the second time I’ve traveled to New York to see the opera/musical (depending on the approach of the musical presentation one used)–previously for the 2012 Broadway production with Audra McDonald and Norm Lewis. I also saw the 2019 production via The Met in HD, so I was really looking forward to seeing it live. I took Amtrak to New York because it’s so hard to drive and park in the city safely that I feel like the Silver Bullet is much better off parked at the train station. I’m no longer used to getting up early enough to make…