Five National Parks in Five Days (Days Three-Four)
Day Three: Black Canyon of the Gunnison Although Wednesday’s drive to Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park was the shortest of all, it would begin the longest stretches of the marathon trip. I checked out early, then cleaned and reorganized SB’s inside so that I could more easily find and access supplies. Beyond the visitors center, there was some limited scenic driving and a steady stream of vehicles taking advantage of it. However, this was a park that had more to offer for the hiker. Fortunately, the weather was sunny and warm enough to wear one of my national park shirts, the one with each park printed on the front that allows me to use a magic marker to check off a park as I visit. I viewed the visitors center exhibit and did my usual purchase of a hiker’s medallion and park-themed refrigerator magnet before taking the scenic…
Five National Parks in Five Days (Day One)
I have been planning to visit the three national parks I hadn’t visited in Colorado since my last trip to the southwestern United States in 2022. Since there are only about 650 miles from Tulsa, Oklahoma, to Great Sand Dunes National Park–the closest I am likely to come in the foreseeable future, I decided that the opportunity should not be passed up. This would, of course, mean adding it and the other two parks in Colorado to my trip. Then, I had the chance to finally get to Isle Royale in Michigan and to Wind Cave national, which I didn’t know existed when I visited Hot Springs, South Dakota, in 2018. The boat trip to Isle Royale had to be scheduled in advance, so I would have to go from Tulsa to Copper Harbor, Michigan (Mapquest mapped that as 2,670 miles) in five days. Could I pull it off? Day…
April and May Travel Update
I’m hoping for a very active travel summer in 2025. This has been made easier by an award I recently received. The Music Library Association (MLA) bestowed its 2025 Vincent H. Duckles Award–given for the best book-length bibliography or other research tool in music–for my second book, Recorded Solo Concert Spirituals, 1916-2022. With their monetary award, I was able to fully prep the Silver Bullet for distance travel, pay for registration and hotel for the upcoming Association for Recorded Sound Collections (ARSC) conference in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and have funds left to register for next year’s MLA conference. The fun is scheduled to begin with a full day in Baltimore consisting of a road tour of the city, my second visit to the National Aquarium, and a dinner cruise that evening. This is contingent on my full recovery from whatever bug I brought back (in addition to the Kong-sized shot glass and…
The Singin’ Tourist in the SW USA (Days 6 and 7)
Before I went to sleep Friday night, I noticed that my edema was pretty bad. Despite my hope, when I awakened, it was much worse. I had no choice but to decide to cut out visiting any of the three Colorado national parks and making a direct route home. Unfortunately, the WiFi access for my GPS was extremely spotty, nor could I get a Mapquest map routing using my smartphone. Below are two maps. The first shows two routes. Route one (the darker blue line) indicates a 24-minute shorter route than number two (lighter blue). However, if I had been able to see both options at the time, I would have taken the second route because it would have placed me on Interstate 25, which would have allowed me to set the Silver Bullet’s cruise control and saved my right leg a lot of painful wear and tear. Instead, I…
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…
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…
Denver Goes to the Spirituals
Missed most of Friday’s conference. Really wanted to catch the afternoon presentations, but events prevented that from happening. C’est la vie… Saturday, though, was stupendous. As usual, waited until the last moment to put together my Powerpoint presentation, even added two slides less than an hour before the session started. Still, gave the presentation on singing dialect twice to enthusiastic audiences. Mainly talked about why dialect should be considered in performance of spiritual art songs and resources–especially recordings–where its use can be studied. The lecture included musical excerpts performed by historical and contemporary singers such as Marian Anderson, Roland Hayes, Robert McFerrin and Jessye Norman. I was even daring enough to compare the incomparable Donnie Ray Albert’s recording of the Hale Smith setting of “I’m Going to Die Easy,” which he sang without dialect, with mine–which is pretty heavily spiced with dialect. For the recital part of my lecture-recital, I…
Greetings from Denver!!
Got into Denver about 9:15 p.m. MDT. Pushed to get in with enough time to get (for me) a full night’s sleep before attending tomorrow’s conference activities. Glad my mother’s flying in to meet me here rather than in Iowa because I made the drive with only one 15-minute stop once I left Des Moines–where the hair stylist did an herculean job of bringing my hair under control–and I wouldn’t have put her through that. The trip included an extremely heavy rain with winds strong enough that even I decided I needed to slow down. Just hope most of that rain took out the fires ravaging Colorado. Speaking of flying, RB and I were pleasantly surprised to see the speed limit from west of Omaha into the Denver suburbs rise to 75 mph. Except for the aforementioned rain and the many construction sites, we made very good time, shaving over…