Duck Touring Hot Springs
Wednesday continued the run of beautiful, sunny days. Hot, though, but I generally am fairly comfortable in hot weather. Gerry and I decided to take the Duck Tour, which would give us a chance to see parts of the town and sites around nearby Lake Hamilton. Once we got started, I found the “captain” of the boat entertaining and informative. He talked about the houses of the famous and infamous that lined the lake shore and their histories. I’m going to let the pictures below speak for themselves. As usual, the rest of the photos are available on my Flickr page. Since Gerry wanted to leave town very early Thursday morning, we had dinner at the condo and watched the DVD on the music studio in Muscle Shoals. I’m not normally a big fan of biographic documentaries, but this one was surprisingly entertaining. It was interesting to hear back stories…
Last Days in Hot Springs–The National Park
We got an early start Thursday. Gerry was heading back east that morning, so I got up and fixed breakfast so that we could have a final chat before he left. After he left, I cleaned up and got down to work. Or at least that was the plan. I’m under deadline to finish my first published book, and I’ve hit a wall. As the day passed, I had brief moments of typing, but mostly I stared at the computer screen or out of the condo’s patio door at the lake beyond. Well after the sun went down, I finally gave up and packed up my belongings in preparation for departure Friday morning. Writer’s block is a terrible thing to have. And this is a crappy time to have it. Before I’d gone to bed Thursday night, I got an announcement that the area would be under a flash flood…
A Presidential Visit… Sort of
When I visited Little Rock in 2016, I had to settle for a drive-by of the Clinton Presidential Library. So, when Gerry told me he planned to drive to Little Rock to visit the library, I jumped at the opportunity to finally see it. We got an early start on Tuesday morning with the thought of reaching town after its morning rush hour and with the hope that the library wouldn’t be crowded. Our timing was excellent. Other than a busload of seniors, the attendance seemed light. We saw the replica of the Oval Office and the limo on loan from the Secret Service. The library had also just opened an exhibition of American crafts the Clintons had commissioned back in 1993. We also saw a series of displays profiling many of the programs developed or continued by the Clinton administration, celebrities and leaders of the era, the replica of…
Hot Springs,… Finally! And a Special Birthday
Since my 2016 trip to southeastern US, I’ve hoped to visit Hot Springs, Arkansas; however, I simply ran out of time to add it to that trip. My birthday approached, and I wanted to get out of town for a few days. Hot Springs came up again because it was far enough south to get to warmer weather but not so far that I need a whole day to drive it. The celebration had started early when I visited family back East, and they decided to surprise me with the early presentation of a German Chocolate Cake decorated with six candles. Then, my eldest sister informed me that she and my brother-in-law would treat me to a week in their timeshare! Finally, my youngest brother accepted my invitation to spend that week enjoying the facilities and activities along with me!! I left home the Friday before my b-day very concerned…
The Home Stretch
I got the early start I’d hoped for that Sunday morning. There were only two stops in Little Rock: the historic Central High School, site of the first effort by nine African American students to attend the all-white school 59 years ago, and the President William Clinton Library. I still had a ten-hour drive home and had some hope of getting there with enough time to get some sleep before going to work the next day. Little Rock Central High School was situated in a quiet neighborhood that seemed at least predominately African American, quite different than it must have been in 1957. Its size surprised me as the primary building took up the entire block alone. I hadn’t arranged to get a tour of the school in advance, so I had to content myself with pictures of the exterior. I did, however, go across the street to the visitor…
Ghosts of Oak Alley Plantation
During my short drive through Vacherie, Louisiana, on Saturday morning, I wasn’t paying much attention to the green stalks rising from the roadside fields at first because I see so much corn growing in Iowa, I’d assumed this was more of the same. Then I noticed that their appearance was all wrong and guessed that this was, instead, a sugar cane field. If you know for sure from the pictures below, please let me know. Oak Alley Plantation was one of at least three plantations in the area. I chose it because they had advertised their focus on the role of slavery in the life of the Antebellum Era community. I wanted to see how this was exhibited and discover how I reacted to it and what I could learn from it. Even with my studies and museum visits with their historical displays of the American South’s “particular institution,” I…
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…
Summer Plans: A Little Work… And a Lot of Star Trek
Starting to formulate plans for summer vacation. First, RB and I can take a fairly leisurely ride through Arkansas, Mississippi–with potentially a brief stopover in New Orleans, and Alabama, which would finally give me the last three contiguous states I need. Visit some Civil Rights historical sites, add a little research,… and hey, if I can get in a performance and/or lecture, so much the better. Then, into Florida to visit friends in Tallytown and attend the 50th anniversary Star Trek convention in Miami. Final stop on the way back, get in a site I recently missed. Only about 3,700 miles driving distance–2,000 less than RB and I covered in the same time frame in 2014! Sounds like a plan. And a busy two weeks.