Thoughts about My Latest Long Stretch and Upcoming Plans
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 the trip short and the parts of the park I wasn’t able to see. Before I left for that trip, I acquired a set of National Park postcards that also include several memorials and other sites that are part of the US Parks System. I’ve started work on a display of the parks that I have visited in the order I was there, with lots of space for more cards. National Parks Planned and Those So Far Visited It’s already August, but I have several trips planned for the remainder of the year. This includes…
Business and Pleasure–Days Nine and Ten: Change in Plans
I had a very long drive ahead, though thankfully the route was almost entirely on the interstate, specifically I-90, with speed limits up to 80 miles per hour. The GPS indicated that I could stay on I-90 all the way to Maryland. Then, it displayed a message suggesting that I could save 1.5 hours by taking I-35 south. I-35?!? The original route would take me above Iowa, and I was disappointed but tiredly accepting on this ninth day of my trip. Then, with this suggested change, I would not only enter the state, but actually drive through Grinnell after taking I-80 from 35! I knew that on a Friday during summer break, many staff would be off work. Still, I called a friend to see if I could stay overnight, stopped by the Favoli’s in Des Moines since there aren’t any in the DMV (hint, hint), and I bought the…
Business and Pleasure–Day Two: St. Paul and Minneapolis
I arrived in St. Paul, Minnesota, early on Saturday morning for the Association for Recorded Sound Collections (ARSC) conference. After checking into the hotel and getting a short nap, I attended several presentations and ended the day at their awards dinner. I kept my acceptance of their Award for Excellence in Historical Recorded Sound Research pretty brief, admitting my surprise at receiving their 2023 Best Discography in Research on Recorded Blues, Soul, R&B, Gospel, or Hip Hop award category for my book, Recorded Solo Concert Spirituals, 1916-2022, because of the high level of competition. Sorry, no pictures. Anyway, I got a fairly early start on Sunday morning since I had reservation for a tour of nearby Minneapolis. I lived only a four-hour drive away from Minneapolis for nearly two decades, but only now was I going to get to see the city. I chose the Narrated Scenic Trolley Tour that…
King Tut-ing
There are so many exhibits and activities going on that I sometimes feel like I have to use “eenie-meanie-minee-moe” to decide what to see or do. When I saw the ad announcing the exhibit, Tutankhamun: His Tomb and His Treasures, I had to go. The exhibition consisted of reconstructed objects, film, and narration based on the discovery of King Tut’s burial grounds in Egypt in 1922. I found the exhibit fascinating, especially the scale and detail of the objects, from the Rosetta Stone to the artifacts in the tomb. Also, each of the attendees were given a device that allowed us to individually control the audio presentation based on the display. I’m going to let the photos speak for themselves: As usual, click on individual pictures to enlarge. The more than 200 pictures I took are available at https://singin1.pics/piwigo2/index.php?/category/seein-the-dmv-king-tut-ing-050824. Overall, I think I chose a good day to…
Cherry Blossoms Cruisin’
I invited my DC siblings (Debra, Chuck and Gerry) to join me on a lunch cruise to view the flowering cherry blossoms lining the Washington Channel and Potomac River in Washington, DC. The Cherry Blossom Festival connected to the blooming of these trees is a major event held during the Spring. Traffic to and from the area makes reaching activities then a major challenge that I’ve previously avoided. However, this year, I wanted to to experience the beautiful scenery and share it with the sibs. I checked the options and discovered that there were cruises available that were specifically organized to view the trees and was able to get a reservation for a lunch cruise on a Tuesday when I hoped would give us an excellent view without the congestion that would come with any effort to drive there. The day of the cruise was a little cool, but it…
Two National Parks
Since I retired, I am more inclined to indulge my impulses and hop onto the road with little or no advanced planning. This is what happened when I literally woke up one morning and decided to visit the closest national park to the area. I had just gotten a 35 mm digital camera and wanted to give it a test-run at a site where I could find distance and closeup scenery to photograph. Shenandoah National Park I entered Shenandoah National Park from the southern part of Virginia with the idea of working my way north so that drive home would be shorter. Although this was an impulse trip, I still took the time beforehand to check the web and get information about the park so I could be prepared for it. I exited I-64 and entered the southernmost point of Skyline Drive. I do wish that I’d gone by the…
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…
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…