Five National Parks in Five Days (Day Five)
Isle Royale National Park is an island on Lake Superior about 20 miles from the Canadian Border. It’s only accessible by airplane or boat. I drove all night from South Dakota aware that I was not only working against distance–approximately 1050 miles to Copper Harbor, Michigan, but time since I would lose two hours going from Mountain Daylight to Eastern Daylight Time in Michigan. The boat was scheduled to launch from Copper Harbor at 8 a.m. My one advantage was that 400 miles of the drive was on I-90 with a speed limit of 80-miles-per-hour. I reached the boat at 7:56 a.m.!! There were basically two groups of passengers on board–those who would stay on the island at least one night and those (including me) who were there for the day. The trip took approximately 3.5 hours each way with about 2.5 hours at the park’s visitor area. The 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…
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 Two)
Got an early start from Princeton. There was lots of construction along I-80. Illinois has definitely taken advantage of federal stimulus money. If I-80 looks and drives as well when it is finished as I-74 now does–talk about a nasty ride before the construction, it’d be worth the cost and current inconvenience. Speaking of driving, I’d love someone to explain why drivers who–at best–are driving speed limit settle into the left lane and won’t move out of the way. I was taught that slower drivers should be in the right lane or at least should move over and allow the faster driver to pass. After being stuck behind slow drivers more times than I can count, I find it rather frustrating. My pet peeve, I suppose. On a much better note, I reached the University of Michigan this afternoon. After a brief visit to the school’s music library–where I found…