A Busy Fall and Winter 2026-27 Planned
It’s Been 50 Years?!? October looks like the beginning of getting back on the road for the fall of 2026 and winter of 2027. It begins the first weekend of October when I’m scheduled to return home for my 50th high school class reunion. I really haven’t kept in contact with any of my classmates, so I’m not looking forward to the coming event with high enthusiasm. Still, one only has one chance to celebrate one’s 50th, so I’m going there. Time (and gas prices) permitting, I’m seriously thinking about visiting the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama. The museum had not opened when I visited the state in 2016, so this would be a great opportunity at a time of year when the weather would hopefully be warm and not roasting hot. Talking Paul Robeson at Princeton U. then Acadia NP I don’t have a lot…
California-Oregon National Parks Trip: Afterthoughts
I could think of no better way to feature the scope of my trip to the California and Oregon national parks than to use the GPS map generated by Piwigo of the photos I uploaded to the app. All of those photos are accessible at https://singin1.click/piwigo/index.php?/category/10. I try to learn from each trip, the things that go really well–sometimes despite me, I admit–and the things that don’t go well. Some of this is to set into writing for my own recollection, and some is for those of you who share in my adventures. Let’s get the not-so-good stuff done first. On One Hand,… I had purchased the Amtrak USA Rail Pass, honestly, to save money using a mode of transportation I usually enjoy using. I used my pass for the Washington to Chicago and the entire Portland to Washington trips (see the blue-marked routes on the map to the right).…
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…