California (and Oregon), Here I Come?!?
As I contemplated driving to the Southwest national parks this fall, I considered adding the parks I missed in California. However, the extra mileage and physical wear and tear to me and my car, the Silver Bullet (SB), didn’t seem feasible, even to me. Then, Uncle Sam’el came to the rescue. I received a notice on my Amtrak app that the train service was offering a 50% discount on its USA Rail Pass. The pass restrictions that come with the standard $500 price usually turn me off, but the timing of the half-price offer was perfect because it gave me the option to travel from Washington to Los Angeles using only two of the ten segments that come with the pass. Even the restrictions–starting the first segment within four months of purchase–would be workable. Plus, if I don’t use all ten segments within 30 days of beginning the first segment–another…
More Tennis and a Really Big Drive-In-August 2025
I’ve stayed pretty close to home this August due a family situation and a need to be readily available. There have been two little trips, though. The first was an impulse drive to Baltimore County, Maryland. I’d seen something about drive-in movie theaters, and my research yielded information about one there. Popcorn and a Drive-in Movie Bengie’s Drive-In, which advertises itself as “the home of the BIGGEST Movie Theatre Screen in the USA,” is located in Middle River, approximately a half hour’s drive from Baltimore. If I was going to make the drive there, I would need to leave early enough in the day to avoid both DMV and Baltimore rush hour traffic. So, I decided to see if there was a state park nearby and found that Gunpowder Falls State Park-Hammerman Area was close enough to the theater to make it a layover destination for that afternoon. The park…
Unplanned Mini-Trip: Rock And Roll HoF, Cuyahoga Valley NP, Western Maryland Scenic RR
Some trips just happen. This was one of them. I was watching a news story on Monday, June 9th, about the extremely rare Strawberry Moon scheduled to occur on Wednesday and decided I would find an different place where I would see it. Next morning, with minimal preparation, I jumped into the Silver Bullet (SB), texted a family member I was headed out of town, and drove towards Ohio’s Cuyahoga Valley National Park. Now, those of you following this blog know I have been there before. Twice, in fact, in 2024, first to witness the total solar eclipse, then traveling on the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad. On neither visit, however, did I actually see much of the park itself. The downside of unplanned trips is that I WILL forget something. In this case, I forgot that my usual ability to get satisfying photos from the camera on my very dependable…
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…
Seein’ the DMV: A Day in Baltimore and Some More Old Business
First, the Old Business Found another set of pictures with no post to describe them. This time, I traveled to the Living History Farms in Urbandale, a suburb of Des Moines, with my new student host daughter for a rally during President Barack Obama’s 2012 campaign for his second term in office. I wanted my host daughter to experience this great American event as part of her time studying in the United States. The young woman was from China, and I wanted her to observe a part of the election process and to see the president in person. One of the nice things about being in Iowa was that candidates for president, even incumbents, made it their business to visit the state regularly, so this was not the first time I had attended an Obama event. In fact, I was at his first visit to Grinnell College in 2008. Even…
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…
Seein’ the DMV: Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Visitor Center
I woke up unusually early Sunday morning and couldn’t get back to sleep. After watching the sun rise, I realized that I wanted to get out and enjoy what looked to be a sunny–if not particularly warm–day somewhere other than home. After searching on my cellphone for scenic drives in Maryland, I decided to connect with my return to researching spirituals by taking the Harriet Tubman Byway, what was described as “a self-guided driving tour that winds for more than 125 miles through the beautiful landscapes and Maryland’s Eastern Shore,” as well as into Delaware. Mistake number one was not making sure that the full route was downloaded to my phone. As it worked out, Wifi access in that part of the state is spotty at best. Secondly, I underestimated the scope of the trip, thinking I could do most, if not all, in a few hours. It clearly needed…
Seein’ the DMV: Art and Legos and Captain America, Oh My!
As probably seems apparent by now, my interests drift in many directions. When I saw that an exhibit of creations using Lego blocks would be in Washington, I decided I wanted to see it. This is not unlike my 2008 visit to Iowa’s Matchstick Marvels and a desire to see how creativity can be expressed in different ways. I chose a Wednesday afternoon in the hope that attendance would be low and was pleased that I guessed correctly (this time). Called The Art of the Brick: An Exhibition of LEGO® Art, it was the second exhibit offered by Fever I had attended. (The first was their King Tut exhibit a few months ago.) Most of the exhibit consisted of recreations of famous art works and sculptures across human history and cultures. It was amazing how the creators were able to use Legos to assemble works reminiscent of those works. I…
Hawaiian Cruise: Kauai Luau, Return to Oahu then Home (Day 9-Day 11)
I woke up in Nawiliwili on the “Garden Isle” of Kaua’i, the fourth largest Hawaiian island and the last scheduled stop on the cruise. It was Thanksgiving Day, and I was approximately 4,900 miles from home and the traditions celebrated there. Well, most of them. Instead, after a satisfying breakfast at my usual spot, the 50’s theme restaurant on Deck 6, I walked the deck and got several shots, including the panoramic one below: At 12:30, I went to the ship’s theater, where they were live streaming the Dallas Cowboys football game. The Cowboys’ season hadn’t gone as we fans had hoped due to so many injuries to players, but we faithfully watch anyway, and it is a Thanksgiving tradition, so…. The main event of the day was the luau at the Kauai Plantation. It appeared that a lot of the ship’s passengers had been bused there for the…
Hawaiian Cruise: Journey There and Oahu (Day 1-Day 3)
My preparations for the trip to Hawaii were seriously sidetracked when I discovered that someone had broken into the Silver Bullet. The only damage to the car was to the driver’s door, but that damage surprisingly affected many of her functions. I had to drive her to the Kia dealership and make arrangements for the insurance company to appraise the damage and authorize payments for repairs. This was incredibly inconvenient, but I kept reminding myself that SB could have been stolen–a far from unusual event in the DMV–and the repairs would occur while I would be off the mainland, anyway. Still…. My very early flight out of DCA had a layover in Detroit with a nearly 11-hour flight to Honolulu. I was so lucky that I had the adjacent seats to myself on both flights so I could spread out and be as comfortable as possible during the flight. This…