The Singin’ Tourist in the SW USA (Day 2)
I was just a few miles from the entrance to Death Valley National Park. I got a very early start, so I took some pictures of the sun rise. It had felt a little weird to run air conditioning again the night before, but then again, I had used it while in the Irvine/L.A. areas, too. I pulled into a gas station and only put their $7.999/gallon fuel into the Silver Bullet because I had no choice, and I know better than to enter a park with less than half a tank of gas. When the visitor’s center opened at 8 a.m., the temperature was already 74 degrees. Forecast for the day was 98 degrees, but I was hoping to be out of the area well before then. I ALWAYS stop by the national park’s visitor center to get the latest information and scenic route guides from the park rangers…
The Singin’ Tourist in the SW USA (Day 1)
Sunday night after dinner with my friends, I decided to find Newport Beach, where I was scheduled officially to begin the tourist part of my trip. I had purchased a ticket through Tripadvisor to go whale watching early Monday morning. I’m glad I found where things were situated Sunday night when everything was quiet and no traffic. It meant, too, that I went directly to Davey’s Locker and was early enough to position myself to be the first person to board the boat when it arrived. When the first boat docked, I looked at it and had a hard time imagining me and my walker negotiating its deck easily. I was so relieved when I saw that that boat was for the group of folks going sport-fishing who were standing nearby. A second boat arrived, and it was far more accessibility-friendly. (Sorry I didn’t get a picture of that boat,…
Business First–AAASA Conference
Usually when I drive, I am free to take as much “stuff” as I want and leave at my convenience. However, I had scheduled a hair appointment in Des Moines because I wanted it to look its best for my presentation. I somehow managed to get out late yet still arrive only ten minutes late despite the heavy traffic. Amanda did her usual great job, and I asked her not to comb it out in the hope that would help my hair hold up until my scheduled time Saturday morning. Wishful thinking, I know, but I had to give it a shot. Anyway, although the drive from Grinnell to Costa Mesa, California, calls for more than a day to cover the approximately 1741 miles, almost all of the trip is on interstates with speed limits up to 80 miles an hour the further west one drives. Plus, I was travelling…
A Bit of Business, A Bit of Fun
This “how many national parks can I visit in a week” trip has been on my radar for quite a while. I finally have a shot of actually doing it! The trip is now part business and part pleasure. I am scheduled to give a lecture on the development of concert spirituals during the Harlem Renaissance as part of the African American Art Song Alliance conference at University of California, Irvine. I’m also planning to put the word out about the two books that I’ve written in the five years since the last conference and hope I can drum up some interest in them. After the conference, if all goes as planned, the marathon vacation begins. I have reserved a space on a boat to go whale watching in the Pacific and the usual Hollywood tour, plus I’m hoping to catch up with a couple of friends out there. I…
NATS-Tennessee Workshop
It’s always good when I can combine business and a few days of vacation in one trip. Sorry that this posting is being added eight months after the fact, but better late than never, I guess. This was my first journey since the world went on lockdown due to the COVID pandemic. I’d done several virtual events and debated until the last moment whether it was safe for me to go to Tennessee for a face-to-face workshop, even one sponsored by the state chapter of the National Association of Teachers of Singing. Their workshop was scheduled October 22-23, 2021, and was co-sponsored East Tennessee State University, Johnson City. Event information is on their website. Vaccinations and masking protocols were in place by that point, and I felt that with sufficient care, I could minimize the exposure. I had two events scheduled that Saturday. I decided to drive so that I…
Seven National Parks in Ten Days–Can It Be Done?
I’m not sure exactly when I became a fan of national parks, but I am one. I couldn’t wait to be able to get my senior pass, but now I have it I want to put it to good use. I had visited both Rocky Mountain NP and Zion NP with my mother in 2012, but I knew I’d missed four parks in Utah. What I didn’t know was that I’d missed three parks in Colorado, too. My original plan was to visit the Utah parks, the Four Corners Monument, which is on Native territory and had been closed due to COVID until recently, and the Glass Skywalk at the Grand Canyon. However, in the development of the trip, I discovered that the distance to the Skywalk is far greater than I had originally thought. With the current gas prices (average $4.50/gal. as I write this, I have to take…
A New Normal? Prepping to Get Back on the Road
Sorry it’s been so long since I last posted. Real life has been REAL for everyone! I’ve limited most of my interactions to virtual events, but I do owe a post or two about the trip to the NATS workshop in Tennessee in October 2021, so I’ll try to get to it after I finish my latest updates to my second book manuscript. In the meantime, I’m going to make another attempt to return to Utah (see http://singin1.com/utah-ho/). Crossing fingers that I can pull it off. The Four Corners have re-opened to the public, so that’s on the itinerary, too. Two things more. One, gas price are really up there ($4.20/gal here as of this post). I’m hoping they will be lower in the southwest. And, I’ve made updates to my travel playlist, including creating one of my favorite pop tunes that are replayed sometimes for hours or even days.…
Have Card, Will Travel
Now that I had SB and she had proven herself to be road worthy, I wanted to really put her to the test. Also, with my recent last birthday, I could now purchase a senior lifetime national park card, thus ending the annual card fees. The only thing I had to determine was whether there were any parks I hadn’t already visited that I could make happen in a weekend. Then, I remembered that I had not visited the Grand Teton National Park even though it had been just a few miles away from Yellowstone National Park during my northwestern United States in 2014 and didn’t realize how close I was at the time. The drive to Grand Teton was over 900 miles each way, and I was going to drive the round trip in basically two days! Plus, I was considering the possibility of a brief stop at Yellowstone–this…
Changing of the Guard
On my birthday (Thursday, September 17th), I took my usual day off. I decided to do some car shopping while I awaited the final steps before the insurance company claimed RB. My research had led me to decide on the Kia Soul for my next car. The closest dealership is in Des Moines, so I drove over just to have a look around. Three hours and a good salesman later, I had a new car. I bid RB a fond farewell after moving everything over to the new car. I got a few pictures of RB and the new car together. Then, a tow truck picked up RB. Don’t worry, I won’t post any of those pictures here. The new car needed a name, one based on how she felt being driven. Her silver body color already influenced potential names, but I couldn’t settle on one because I just couldn’t…
Some Backtracking–Ann Arbor, Detroit and Motown
(Blogger’s note: the trip mentioned below occurred several months before I finally got around to posting about it. Sorry about that.) In October 2019, I published my first book, So You Want to Sing Spirituals. Just the month before the book was set to be released, I was invited to the University of Michigan to be a panelist during their African American Classical Music History conference in Ann Arbor. The theme was, “Reflecting on the past…Reaching toward the future, II” The four-day conference was a wonderful opportunity to touch bases with colleagues, both those I’d worked with previously and a host of folks who I’d “met” on social media, in the small world of classical music. And the program, led by host Dr. Louise Toppin and Videmus, was jammed-packed with events throughout. This was also close to my XXth birthday, so one of my nieces invited me to stay with…