During my first excursion Seein’ the DMV, I accidentally let my phone’s charge get so low, I couldn’t take any pictures of the evening tour sites we visited. It took me nearly two months, but I finally decided the time was right to address this by revisiting the memorials covered by the tour, plus an…
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…
Business and Pleasure–Days Five and Six: More Glacier
The forecast on Tuesday morning was, if anything, more ominous than the one from the night before. But even if I hadn’t been checking the forecast, I could see that darker clouds already beginning to form in the distance. My GPS routed me through a back road rather than the main roads between my hotel…
Business and Pleasure–Days Three and Four: Glacier at Long Last
And thus began two days of marathon driving, over 1100 miles from Minneapolis to the eastern entrance to Glacier National Park. I’ve driven distances like this before, but I was trying to beat a strong winter storm that was forecast to approach from the west by Wednesday. If I met my schedule of arriving by…
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…
Business and Pleasure–Day One: Mammoth Cave National Park
This trip would allow me to combine a little business (receiving recognition for my second book, Recorded Solo Concert Spirituals, 1916-2022) and a lot of vacation. My initial plan was to visit two national parks, including finally getting to Montana’s Glacier National Park. I left home base before midnight on May 16th because I was…
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…
Seein’ the DMV: Touring the City
I was born and raised in North Carolina, spent a decade in the Florida panhandle, and just finished 18 winters in Iowa. Between those periods, however, I have lived in the District of Columbia/Maryland/Virginia (known as the DMV to residents) area. And like most folks who live here, I tended to vacation somewhere else. So,…