Trekking in Riverside, Iowa-Another Quickie Trip
Did I mention that I’m a Trekker (okay, Trekkie, whatever)? I first started watching the original series in syndication in the early 1970s. In the early 1990s, I attended my first Star Trek convention in Tallahassee, Florida, while I was a grad student at Florida State University. While my personal collection of Trek mostly consists of books, my home office has its fair share of Trek memorabilia. Strangely, although it’s less than 80 miles away, I have previously visited Riverside, Iowa, only once before–for the 2009 TrekFest. It was their 25th anniversary celebration of the festival, and their special guests were George Takei, Nichelle Nichols, and Walter Koenig (who is, BTW, a Grinnell College alumnus). Unfortunately, I have no idea where the pictures I took, especially from the parade, are, but here’s more information at this TrekFest page. In case you are wondering how the small Iowa town became known…
Iowa Weekend Quickie-Sunday
The Boone and Scenic Valley Railroad train excursion was not scheduled to begin until 1:30 p.m., but I left home at 10 a.m. to give myself plenty of time to gas the Silver Bullet, get breakfast, and take care of business that I could address on a Sunday morning. Like yesterday, the weather was mostly sunny and moderately warm with the promise to warm considerably as the day progressed. My pleasant surprise as I neared the train depot was to see a sign that indicated the birthplace of Mamie Eisenhower, first lady of President Dwight Eisenhower, was close. I turned off my route long enough to get a few pictures of the house, which had been converted into a museum. The museum was closed, so I continued on towards the depot. The depot was similar to others I’ve seen in smaller towns except the exterior and waiting area were clearly…
Iowa Weekend Quickie–Saturday
I am a North Carolinian, born and raised, but I have now spent nearly a third of my life in Iowa. I decided I wanted to take in some parts of my adopted home that I haven’t visited before I hie myself back to the East Coast. As usual when I plan a trip like this, I added more stops than I could make in the timeframe I had available. This allows me to adjust my plans based on whatever situation I want to or have to address. For Saturday, I had to drop the planned stop in Riverside because the museum was not scheduled to open until noon, and I needed to be in Dyersville in time to make the 3:30 tour at the Field of Dreams Movie Site for which I had purchased a ticket. As it worked out, it was only the first of other adjustments I…
A Quick Trip–Voyageurs NP (Day Three)
Juneteenth morning found me about two hours away from my destination, Voyageurs National Park. Still, I got there, or what I thought was there, around 7 a.m. I took advantage of the time to get online–yes, I had wifi there-slow but there–to get information about the park. I discovered that a boat tour was available and there was one ticket left for the morning tour. Shortly after purchasing the ticket, a gentleman informed me that the park tour was located at another part of Rainy Lake. Fortunately, it wasn’t far away and only a matter of giving Waze a slightly different destination name, Rainy Lake Visitor Center, to get to the correct location. I saw a cute little chipmunk on the log building stoop, but mostly I saw and provided meals for lots of mosquitoes along with dead dragonflies, which I learned later are called mayflies. The ranger I spoke…
A Quick Trip–Theodore Roosevelt NP (Day Two)
Theodore Roosevelt National Park is made up of three “units” in western North Dakota. I reached the town of Medora and the entrance to the Southern unit around 6:45 a.m. Sunday morning. Since the visitors’ center was not scheduled to open until 9:00, I sat in the Silver Bullet and started reading to kill the time. Fortunately, a ranger saw me there, and he kindly gave me a map of the park and suggested I not wait to drive the scenic route (BTW, I had already informed him that I had my senior pass so the entry fee was not an issue). He said that the badlands provided stunning views whether I stayed in the car or hiked the available trails. I’m so glad I took his advice. The early morning was beautiful with clear skies–a concern I had had about the entire trip with the smoke from forest fires…
A Quick Trip–South Dakota (Day One)
Since this was supposed to be a mini-vacation (and I wanted to wait for delivery of a package from Amazon), I didn’t set the alarm for an early wake-up. Still, between awakening early on my own and the early arrival of my package, I was able to begin my journey at 9:30 a.m. As it worked out, this was a good thing because my destination was the famous Wall Drug in Wall, South Dakota. I wanted a cowboy hat and knew they would have a wide selection of the genuine article in stock. The Silver Bullet’s odometer read 33,650 when I started. The Mapquest route indicated an 8.5 hour drive covering some 625 miles. With my departure time, I would only have about an hour to shop, but I tend to be the type of shopper who goes with a goal and a get-in-get-out attitude, so that should be plenty…
A Three-Day Tour… of National Parks
I’ve been back from my three-day tour of Theodore Roosevelt National Park and Voyageurs National Park for two days at the point I created this post, and both parks are still on my mind. What an impression each made on me in such a short time! Folks crowd onto Yellowstone, Yosemite and other big parks–and with good reason. But they miss out on the various wonders of the small- to mid-size parks. Below is the map of the entire 2,235 mile trip: More about each park in separate posts, but I wanted to briefly update the complete list of national parks to include the ones I recently visited. I’ve bolded those that I have visited as of today and added links to the blogs where I’ve described the visits. Acadia Arches Badlands Big Bend Biscayne Black Canyon of the Gunnison Bryce Canyon Canyonlands Capitol Reef Carlsbad Caverns Channel Islands Congaree…
Changing of the Guard
On my birthday (Thursday, September 17th), I took my usual day off. I decided to do some car shopping while I awaited the final steps before the insurance company claimed RB. My research had led me to decide on the Kia Soul for my next car. The closest dealership is in Des Moines, so I drove over just to have a look around. Three hours and a good salesman later, I had a new car. I bid RB a fond farewell after moving everything over to the new car. I got a few pictures of RB and the new car together. Then, a tow truck picked up RB. Don’t worry, I won’t post any of those pictures here. The new car needed a name, one based on how she felt being driven. Her silver body color already influenced potential names, but I couldn’t settle on one because I just couldn’t…