traveler

More Southern Exposure–Shenandoah and Carter Presidential Library

Posted on December 16, 2024March 1, 2025 by traveler

This was my second visit to Shenandoah National Park. On my first trip in February 2024, I drove to the park’s southernmost entry and headed north on Skyline Drive. This time, I entered from the northernmost point at Point Royal and took the drive south. It was October 29th, late in the fall foliage season…

Seein’ the DMV: Air and Space Museum

Posted on December 7, 2024December 7, 2024 by traveler

The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum is the DMV’s most popular tourist site, so I waited until the summer ended to visit in the hope that the museum would be less crowded. Plus, October 28th was a Monday, which I hoped would further reduce the number of folks there. I ordered a free admision…

36 Hours in Ohio

Posted on December 7, 2024March 1, 2025 by traveler

This was another short trip. I planned to revisit Cuyahoga Valley National Park, this time to actually see more of the park than I did when I visited for the total solar eclipse last April. The game plan was to arrive in that part of Ohio early enough to take advantage of the Tuesday-only senior…

Seein’ the DMV: Birthday Concertizing–September 2024

Posted on December 5, 2024December 7, 2024 by traveler

As I debated the title for this blog post, I realized that this was the first time in a while that birthday concertizing did not mean I was the performer. I miss performing, but the time had come, as it does for all, sooner or later. Anyway, I originally had lots of activity planned for…

Seein’ the DMV: African American Museum Redux 081324

Posted on August 14, 2024March 1, 2025 by traveler

So my “Seein’ the DMV” selection for August was a visit to the National Museum of African American History and Culture. As I mentioned in my earlier blog post, I’ve visited the museum twice previously in the eight years since it opened. The Metro subway system took me to within 4/10 of a mile of…

Short Trip to the Iowa Border: DeSoto Preserve-080419

Posted on August 9, 2024August 11, 2024 by traveler

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…

Two Trips to the African American History Museum

Posted on August 9, 2024August 14, 2024 by traveler

I can’t believe that I chronicled neither my 2016 nor my 2019 visit to the National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC)! ** Sigh ** Anyway, since I’m hoping to return to the museum during this month (August, 2024), I at least want to leave a blog post marking the earlier visits. December…

Motorin’ to Michigan-September 2019

Posted on August 8, 2024August 15, 2024 by traveler

I was invited to participate in the Reflecting on the Past…Reaching toward the Future conference at the University of Michigan. The conference happened to be held a few days before my birthday, so I contacted my niece who lived in the Detroit area to see if she would be able to get together. She showed…

Finding Harriet Tubman Museum-123119

Posted on August 8, 2024August 15, 2024 by traveler

This post demonstrates the disadvantage of uploading photos without immediately writing the blog. Sooner or later, something is going to fall through the cracks. In this case, I managed to forget to write the blogs for pictures I loaded from four different trips in 2019, to DeSoto Preserve (Iowa) in August, to a workshop at…

Thoughts about My Latest Long Stretch and Upcoming Plans

Posted on August 3, 2024March 1, 2025 by traveler

So, I finally got that bucket list entry, Glacier National Park, taken care of! After so many aborted attempts, I just wasn’t letting my hopes get too high until I actually steered the Silver Bullet through the park entrance. Anyway, it was definitely a visit that didn’t disappoint, even with the winter storm that cut…