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…
Day 15: RB and the Need for Speed
Interstate 80 runs from San Francisco to Teaneck, New Jersey. This highway will be very prominent in my now two-day dash to get home. The short drive from Carson City to Reno brought me to a casino in town. I’m not a gambler–I hate to lose and can think of fewer, more ridiculous ways to lose money than sticking it into a slot machine. However, in honor of my mother, I walked into Atlantis with a $20 bill and my car keys, figuring it would take me about 30 minutes to lose it in the quarter slots. To say I didn’t know what I was doing would be an understatement. With three presses of a button, my money was gone!! The customer service person explained that the button I was pressing was the max bet, so I was wagering $6.00 on every push! No, I didn’t get more money. As…
Day 14: Yosemite Sa… Randye
While my vacation time was fast drawing to an end, I still made time to visit Yosemite National Park. I chose a route that took us through Modesto and the Napa Valley area. The prominence of vineyards I passed in this famous wine region weren’t surprising to me, but the significant presence of almond tree groves was. There was a museum in Modesto I’d hoped to visit, but just as the unplanned nature of my journey sometimes meant I arrived at a site too late to be able to do more than capture a few shots, it also occasionally caused me to arrive too early. In this case, I felt it was necessary to be at Yosemite by the museum’s scheduled noon opening time. The drive into the Sierra Nevada Mountains had both eye-catching scenery plus attention-demanding twists and turns in the road. Upon reaching Yosemite, I followed my established pattern of…
Arizona, Take off Your Rainbow Shades
After some thought to visiting Death Valley and London Bridge in Nevada, we decided to head East, beginning to work our way back. Over the past week, the journey had taken us into Nebraska, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, and Nevada. Still, a lot to see and a long way to drive, and time is running short. We drove to see Hoover Dam to get a better view of the facilities and Lake Mead than we had on the tourbus yesterday. Unfortunately, we could not find the way to get a picture of the front of the dam, but got several pictures of the lake and the back area. As we go, I continue to find the changes in the terrain fascinating. And the temperatures are far more reminiscent of my Southern roots than the much cooler climes of Iowa. Making it as far as Phoenix, we realized the goal of Roswell,…
Rocky Mountain Rendez-vous
We got off to an early start in the hope of seeing some Utah before leaving the state. Since we were already so close to the Great Salt Lake, we decided to pay it a visit. The gift shop was just opening when we arrived, and the lake area was pretty much occupied only by flying insects–lots of flying insects that made us decide not to get out and explore. It was impossible to tell whether the intense aroma was coming from the water or from nearby industry. The salesperson in the gift shop (the building with the golden domes on top) had time to give us lots of information about the lake since we were her first customers for the day. Time was short since we wanted to be in Las Vegas before very late due a very early start on Wednesday. So, we drove into Salt Lake…