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…
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.…