On the Road (Day Three)
Took the Ohio Coastal Trail on the way to Oberlin in the hope I’d get to see something interesting along the way. The only thing that got my attention was the Davis-Besse nuclear power plant. I don’t think I’ve ever been that close to one before. Spent most of the afternoon doing research at the Oberlin Conservatory’s music library. They have a beautiful goldfish pond outside the building, where I ate lunch and enjoyed the fish. Found a number of scores by Margaret Bonds, R. Nathaniel Dett, William Grant Still, Edward Boatner, and Wiliams Arms Fisher that I didn’t have. Got to Erie, Pennsylvania, in the early evening and found the campus identified on the Web as connected with the H. T. Burleigh collection. However, as I suspected, it was too late to find anyone around to ask about it. So, checked into my home for the night. Decided it…
On the Road (Day One)…
Well, I’m on the road to Canada!! Went to work for a few hours this morning. One of my co-workers took this picture just as I was leaving for the trip. Had a pretty good voice lesson at the University of Iowa this afternoon. Final hearing of the four spirituals I’ve prepped for the symposium. At least that part of my presentation is in very good shape. Immediately afterward, started heading East. With only two hours of sleep last night (really this morning), it was no surprise that I only got as far as Princeton, Illinois, before I was too tired to safely continue onward. Princeton, by the way, is proud to say it’s the hometown of President Ronald Reagan. I won’t hold that against them as long as they have a clean place for me to sleep. The route for Day 1: http://mapq.st/nsXTYv Off to a (hopefully) good night…
Readying for the Road (1 Week to Go)
My preparations are well underway. The Red Barron will be serviced on Tuesday, I’m going to clean her trunk out today to lighten the load as much as possible and save some gas. I’m grateful to see the gas prices dropping. As of today, the local price is $3.36/gal, down over 50 cents from its high about a month ago. The last time I went on an extended driving vacation, the prices were near or above $4.00/gal.!! Looking at my gas receipts afterwards, I decided not to total them up because I really didn’t want to cry. Speaking of that July 2008 trip, I put up a Web page about it shortly after it was done. Want to see it? Like the man for whom Grinnell is named, we were Goin’ West. However, we went to see Mount Rushmore–something I’d wanted to do ever since seeing the movie North by…
Readying for the Road (Two Weeks to Go)
Greetings! Still two weeks before I leave, and there seems to be so much to do!! I got my new GPS last Monday and am quickly learning to make it work the way I want it to do. I’ve also gotten both my AAA and AARP memberships up-to-date so that I can take advantage of any travel services the two provide. Last night, I updated my playlists of nearly 8 GBs of R&B, Rock, Jazz and more. That should be enough to keep me musically occupied the entire trip. This week–starting tonight, I need to finally put all of my thoughts about the symposium presentation down on paper and begin gathering any books, scores, equipment and other resources I think I will need to take for that presentation. If I can do this now, perhaps I will have enough time to weed out stuff that isn’t needed and be less…