The Singin’ Trekker on the Road!
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I did a re-assessment of the trip and decided to delay departure until Tuesday and reverse the direction of my route. This would mean missing Trekfest, but with a four-day convention on the schedule and the possibility of attending another year, I could work with this idea. So,... I spent a relaxed 3-day weekend in Grinnell. RB's mileage hit 137K over the weekend, so she will hopefully make it to 140K before this excursion is over. Beyond doing a reshuffling of what I'd prepped for the trip, I didn't do anything but catch the newly released I4 movie at the local theater. After a couple of false starts, got out of Grinnell just after 11 a.m. Tuesday morning. RB's starting odometer reading was 136,037 miles. Since my goal was to get to Nashville, minimally a 10-hour drive away, I didn't plan many stops along the way. The one I did plan was Snake Alley in Burlington, Iowa. It claims to rival San Francisco's Lombard Street for twists and turns, so I wanted to see it. Who am I kidding? I wanted to take RB on it.I set the dash cam, but it's new, and I didn't anticipate that extended use would result in the recording of the actual descent being overlain. Fortunately, I did take a few stills that are below:
[gallery size="large" type="slideshow" ids="93,101,100,99,98,97,96,95,94" orderby="rand"] The drive was pretty steady until I reached the outskirts of St. Louis and realized their evening rush hour was underway. Rather than get caught in it, I stopped for dinner. When I finally reached town, I was treated to this wonderful view of the Arch. I visited it a few years ago, so I'm settling with this view before I continued south.: //singin1.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/IMG_0021-e1467177827127-225x300.jpg" alt="IMG_0021" width="476" height="635" />
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Other than a wild--or incredibly long--delay on I-64, the drive was uneventful. Stopped for the night about an hour outside Nashville with a busy day planned for Wednesday. Started my playlist from the beginning. Lots of A's and started the B's just before I stopped for the evening. For me, the steady driving, accompanied by great music, really does make me relax.: 2px; text-indent: 20px; width: auto; padding: 0px 4px 0px 0px; text-align: center; font: bold 11px/20px 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,sans-serif; color: #ffffff; background: #bd081c no-repeat scroll 3px 50% / 14px 14px; position: absolute; opacity: 1; z-index: 8675309; display: none; cursor: pointer; top: 920px; left: 835px;">Save
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Nashville!! And Other Pre-Departure Random Thoughts
: //singin1.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Map6-274x300.jpg" alt="Map6" width="425" height="465" />I looked at the detailed route--a 122-page TripTik, btw--for my scheduled trip and noticed that the return takes me through Nashville, Tennessee. I'd visited Memphis in the past--both as a conference attendee and as a tourist, but I've never entered Country music's center.
So, with a quick check of Tripadvisor, I discovered that the : //www.musicianshalloffame.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum is located there.
And, of course, Nashville is the home of : //www.fisk.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Fisk University. I definitely want to visit, and if I can work things out so I arrive on Friday, perhaps I can get some research done. Also, if time permits, I might try for one of the music tours. All depends on when I arrive and how much time I have left to get home.
(I'm determined that I am not going to repeat that : //singin1.wordpress.com/2014/06/11/day-16-back-to-the-old-homestead/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">over 1,000-mile one-day marathon drive home I did in 2014, which ended with me getting only three hours sleep before going to work.)
Anyway, suggestions for a good place to eat or some other site I MUST see in Nashville are appreciated.: //singin1.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/RiversideIASign-300x255.jpg" alt="RiversideIASign" width="352" height="299" />Also, the organizers of Trekfest have posted the schedule for their 2016 weekend festival. Based on past experience, I'd like to get there about an hour early so I can get a good seat for the parade.
I didn't see any information about Star Trek special guests, but I'm crossing my fingers that someone interesting will be there. Yes, I know I'm going to four days of Trek at the Supercon. So?!?I've started checking the weather forecasts for the area, too. : //en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_Atlantic_hurricane_season" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Hurricane season, you know. Little Rock is expected to have highs of 100+, New Orleans in the low 90s and Gulfport, Mississippi, in the mid-90s. Thankfully, the most serious precipitation predicted is for scattered thunderstorms in Gulfport. I'll start checking Miami Beach before the end of this week.
I hadn't planned to fill up RB's gas tank until departure time, but gas prices just dropped to $1.999/gallon, which I couldn't resist. My hope for this trip is that gas prices will continue to be this low throughout, a pleasant change of pace compared to the prices I found on the West Coast during my last extended trip in 2014. Speaking of gas, RB goes into the shop Monday morning for a pre-trip oil change and check over. (Crossing fingers that nothing expensive-to-fix is wrong with her.)(6/20 Update: Afraid fixing RB won't be cheap, and since it's usually desirable to be able to steer her, we do what we gotta do. Still, I'm determined to make the trip despite the hit.)
: //singin1.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/loudmusic-300x285.jpg" alt="loudmusic" width="331" height="314" />My travel playlist is finally ready. I added several tracks reflecting my wide popular music tastes: Pointer Sisters, Ray Stevens, miscellaneous Rock performers from the 1960s, etc. In a moment of madness, I put together a list of the performers represented on my playlist. The list is over six pages long--if I'd had any idea there were over 900 musicians or music groups, I'd have never done it.
Lastly, today is Father's Day. My father passed away in 2009, but he is very much in my thoughts, especially this week. This week also would have marked my parents' 57th wedding anniversary. I know this is an especially tough day for my mother, and I wish I could be with her just to share a hug. Have a great week, okay? My next post will hopefully be from the road....: 2px; text-indent: 20px; width: auto; padding: 0px 4px 0px 0px; text-align: center; font: bold 11px/20px 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,sans-serif; color: #ffffff; background: #bd081c no-repeat scroll 3px 50% / 14px 14px; position: absolute; opacity: 0.85; z-index: 8675309; display: none; cursor: pointer; top: 1017px; left: 298px;">Save
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A Close Call and a New Site
Howdy, Y’all!! This is my first post under singin1.com, which succeeds both my Singin1 on the Road and Iowa?!? travel blogs. My proposed route for the upcoming Southeastern United States trip almost swung widely to the west when I thought I might finally have a chance to strike The Alamo off my travel bucket list. However, driving to San Antonio is just too wide a swing for this trip, so I’ll have to try another time. Anyway, one of my brothers shamed me into looking for an opportunity to experience the Delta Blues in its birthplace. As a musician, I certainly should avail myself of the opportunity, but I still feel the need to protest Mississippi’s “bathroom” law. So, I settled on adding Helena, Arkansas, with its Delta Cultural Center, to the itinerary. The town also boasts its historic Freedom Park, which was the site of a “Contraband camp”–a term…
Singin1 on the Move
Greetings!! The scheduled date for my next journey is coming soon. I’ve got the opportunity to video record a lot of this trip, which has several scenic routes along the way. I want to be able to share at least some of them on the blog. Unfortunately, my free account on WordPress doesn’t allow me to post sound or video clips without upgrading, plus I’m reaching my limit of photos I can post at this level. So, since I already have space where I can host a domain with WordPress features, I’ve decided to do that, rather than upgrade here. With that in mind, I’ve registered the domain singin1.com, and I will begin posting there as soon as the site is accessible. The blog posts already here will remain for the foreseeable future (or until I figure out how to move them). Thanks to everyone who is following my exploits…
Another Update… Just a Couple of Minor Changes…
… Really, they are! Two scenic drives that add very little to the trip distance overall, but add to the overall variety of the trip as a whole. First, the town of Burlington, Iowa, boasts that its Snake Alley rivals Lombard Street in San Francisco for its twists and turns. We will only need a slight detour leaving Riverside to get there. How can I possibly miss out out on the opportunity to take RB down it? And we’ll be too close to the Everglades National Park in Florida not to visit. There is the Loop Road Scenic Drive, which promises to provide a very good view of the variety of flora and fauna in the Everglades. And all from the comfort of RB! So glad I got the dash cam to capture it all! The great thing, too, is that this doesn’t add much to the total driving distance. …
Just a Little Update
Yes, I’ve made a major change in my upcoming trip route. I’ve been keeping an eye on Mississippi and its “Bathroom law” situation. They made one state-wide step in the right direction when they decided not to fight the federal guidelines defining student use of school locker rooms and bathrooms based on their gender identity. However, the law itself is still on the books, so I’ve removed Jackson, Mississippi, from my route. Gulfport is still there because it’s in about the same situation as Charlotte, North Carolina, as a city trying to be welcoming to the LGBT community despite the backwards-leaning state government. Instead of Jackson, I’ve added Vacherie, Louisiana, site of the Oak Alley Plantation. They offer a tour that focuses on the history of the plantation’s slave population and how they lived during the Antebellum Period. This seems a very fitting addition to the Civil Rights history aspects…
The Trip… It Is a-Changin’
As I suspected, my plans for this trip have changed again. I received an email about The Overseas Highway and realized just how close I’m scheduled to be to it from Miami, so…. Even I recognize, however, that the addition to the trip would cause it to pass the 4,000-mile mark, yet I still have the same number of days to complete it. So, I’m going to take the Cincinnati stop–which would be far easier to schedule the next time I drive east–off the map and add Key West. (Wonder if it’s possible to do a one-day trip to Cuba? Better pack my passport, just in case. 😎) So, this is how things stand with those changes: Two points: this stop looks like it would take me to the southernmost point of the contiguous United States. This will also take me close enough to the Everglades National Park to…
Logistics… A Dirty Word
Have you ever noticed how much planning goes into planning a vacation? Even one as “free-wheeling” as my vacations tend to be requires preparation: what clothes to pack, how much updating needs to be made to the drive time playlist, what electronic and paper documentation to gather, even what munchies should I carry. And, of course, what maintenance does RB need to make her road ready for a long-distance trip. Since my needs had mostly been addressed in previous trips, I’m at least fortunate that I’ve only needed a new hat and some walking shoes–the shoes are ugly as can be, but I got them online at half price. So, I was also able to satisfy a want: a dash cam that will hopefully handle those occasions where I’ve previously wanted to preserve images of the drive itself. I got a chance to test all three yesterday with a quick…
A Little Effigy Goes a Long Way
I rolled over in the hotel bed this morning and muttered a word inappropriate for this PG-13 blog. They say that payback is a b—-, well my body was demanding payback for all the dancing and late night celebration of the night before. After I finally dragged myself to a seated position, I gave very serious thought to taking the straightest route back to Grinnell. It was a close decision, but I opted to head up to Effigy Mounds National Monument in upstate Iowa as originally planned. Since I didn’t get onto the road until after 10 a.m., I did the drive-through breakfast thing and headed back across the Mississippi into Iowa. The river doesn’t look like all that much size-wise this far north, but it still has it majestic moments. I stopped at a scenic view along the road and got these shots: Effigy Mounds is a bit off…
Missing Mississippi?
I read with great disappointment that Mississippi had just passed a law that goes out of its way to discriminate against the LGBTQ community. Added to the state’s ongoing issues with racial discrimination, I can’t see myself giving even tacit approval of this decision by playing tourist there. It might be only a few hundred dollars–not even a drop in the bucket–but I will protest Mississippi’s action even if only in this small way. I will miss the opportunity to experience the food, culture and history of the state, but I can’t support a state that would go out of its way to so disenfranchise its own citizens. With Mississippi’s history, it should know better than that. Since my trip is not scheduled to begin for a bit of time, I will hold off rerouting my trip in the hope that they will have changed this unfortunate law before I…