California-Oregon NPs-Death Valley-042326
When I visited Death Valley National Park for the first time in October, 2022, I took the route that led past the park’s Charcoal Kilns. I only spent a few hours at the park that visit, but I planned to be more flexible with my time on the second trip. The drive into the park brought me north on CA 178 with numerous sharp turns and a dip or two in the road that were more reminiscent of roller coaster drops. I had ordered a cheap dash camera in the hope that I could get a few moments recorded of scenic drives to add. One of Shaka Guide‘s features is that it can help you find the starting point for the audio tour. The route I chose took me towards Furnace Creek, which is known for holding world records for high temperatures. I recalled how expensive gas was in the area…
California-Oregon NPs-Joshua Tree-042226
I mentioned earlier that I had forgotten several items when I left for this trip, but I also intentionally left several regular items in my car, the Silver Bullet (SB). My game plan was to online order replacements for those items I really wanted to have on hand for pickup from a local Walmart. This included a charger I could plug into the rental, a 40-ounce thermos to hold water (never, NEVER, NEVER enter parks without an independent water source), and food that did not require preparation to eat. I also made sure the gas tank of the rental was filled. While this was normal procedure for me, I was especially concerned for that day because I had reserved a campground space in Joshua Tree National Park for the night. Joshua Tree was one of several parks designated as a Dark Sky site, and I wanted to be ready to…
California-Oregon NPs-Channel Islands-042126
I reached Ventura before sunrise and located the visitor center for the Channel Islands National Park. Since the center wouldn’t open for several hours, I drove to the dock where Island Packers, the official boat transport to the islands, was located. I had scheduled a tour with them to see the islands–I thought. Somehow, the tour I had in mind turned into one that dropped campers/hikers at two points on one of the park’s five islands, Santa Cruz, and would then pick up others from the same two piers before returning to Ventura. My plan to spend the morning on the boat tour, followed by a drive to Irvine–where a colleague was holding an opera performance ticket for me–had to be adjusted because the boat would not return until after 5 p.m., which left insufficient time to make the drive to Irvine before the performance began. As sometimes happens with…
California-Oregon NPs-Gettin’ There-April 17-20, 2026
Departure day finally arrived on Friday, April 17th, but I wasn’t ready. While I had worked on prepping equipment and information for the trip to California, I hadn’t packed anything. This is not much of a problem when I am driving SB for the duration, but when I am reliant upon mass transit (Amtrak in this case), I have to operate under their schedule. I managed to finish laundry and gather things, but I accidentally left four important items: my tablet–which contains several downloaded files about my anticipated stops–and its peripherals, my handicap parking tag, my print 2027 atlas, plus the dash camera I wanted to use to video some of the scenic routes I would drive in my rental car. More about the impacts of these missing items in later posts. My youngest brother got Debra, my eldest sister, and me to Washington Union Station in time to catch…
More Updates for California and Oregon NPs
From the Beginning As I am prepping for the trip to California and Oregon, I’ve tried to remember which national park I visited first. Eventually, I realized that my first park was Rocky Mountain National Park, which I visited with my mother in 2013. We followed that a couple of days later with Zion National Park, then added a tour of Grand Canyon National Park shortly afterwards. We also passed close to Carlsbad Caverns and Guadalupe Mountains NPs. However, visiting the parks as a project wasn’t in my game plan at the time, so we didn’t stop. So much has changed about what I want to experience when I visit parks that I want to revisit them, both Zion and Grand Canyon, later this year. The other parks are also in the plan. In the meantime, prep work continues. Presently, I’m fleshing out non-national park sites I would be interested…
Countdown for California & Oregon, Plus Two DC Productions
The Final Frontier There are a lot of not-so-good things going on as I write this, but one of the few exceptions is the launch of NASA’s Artemis II. As of Day 7 of its mission, it had taken its four crew members around Earth’s moon to a point further than humans have traveled to date. They have generated lots of pictures, but my favorite is this one. As one poster commented, I’m pictured there on Earth, you just can’t see me. Trip Prep My preparations for the train trip and extended drive to California and Oregon are progressing. As much as I am aware that I can’t take a lot of stuff, even if I expect the trip to take a couple of weeks to complete, I know I will have to do at least one weeding before departure time arrives. One significant change in plans. My eldest sister…
Seein’ the DMV: Reaching New Heights-033126
Growing Pains I have been posting to singin1.com for nearly ten years. The site has grown to the point where it is necessary to move to a new site, thus the birth of singin1too.com. There are now several sites covering a range of travel: Singin’ One Too: Posts from today’s blog entry onward Singin’ One: Posts from 2016 to early 2026 Old Singin’ One: Posts from 2008 to 2016 using WordPress.com About Iowa?!?: Various early posts using WordPress.com Goin’ West: The first blog of my travels in 2008 Links to all of the blogs are accessible from the menu at the top of the Singin’ One and Singin’ One Too sites, and the links to the three photo sites are there, too. I’m also adding a search engine (All Search) that accesses all of the sites. Movin’ On I occasionally purchase equipment to enhance my travel experience. A couple of…