Tim's Travel Page
Many people in the radio hobby, myself
included, combine
their interest in radio with a love of travel
and
geography. One listens to distant radio
stations and is
curious to see and learn about the places
from which they
emanate. On this page, I will summarize my
notes regarding
motels, roads, restaurants, etc., whenever I
am able to
travel. I will also use this space to update
my hobby of
county collecting, a pursuit I began on 1
January 1995 that
counts only those counties I have visited
since that date.
This page will consciously avoid discussion
of radio
matters such as formats, but may contain
discussion of station/tower site
visits.
I conceived this page on
6 May 1998 and will include details of my
travels beginning then, with the most recent
on top.
Racine-Kenosha Day Trip, 3 August
1999
In spite of its
proximity to home, Racine is a place we
seldom visit. It is not an area we pass
through going to Chicago as it was when we
lived in Milwaukee, of course, and so in
recent years visits have been infrequent--so
much so that even our elder son needed
Racine and Kenosha counties. We had a few things in
mind to do there, and a free day, so off we
went, leaving in comfortable sun.
We
took US-12 out of Madison, passing through
radio towns Fort Atkinson and Whitewater
with no radio stops. We did pick up a
couple good
tacos at the Culver's in the former; the
shells resembled the bowl of some taco
salads, and crumbled a bit too easily, but
they were good. In Whitewater we made note
of a KFC Buffet, not always easy to find,
and
found WSUW 91.7 off as we passed their
tower. When US-12 turns south, we continued east on
state highway 20 into Racine county, making
a
point of passing the relatively new 6-tower
array of WTMJ 620--only the second time I'd
seen it.
First stop in Racine was
Wind
Point, and area that juts out into Lake
Michigan. I had never been there and was
attracted by the map's listing of a
lighthouse. I like lighthouses and have a
couple friends who are interested in them,
but I don't dare to start another hobby! So
we see them when we happen upon them, take
pictures, and leave it at that. The one at
Wind Point is pretty, and it's a short walk
to the lakefront, giving Chris a chance to
get out of the car seat for a
while.
Next we headed across town to
Regency Mall, where I hadn't been in many
years. To be honest I remembered it as a
nicer mall than it was, but it should look
good after its renovations are complete,
predicted for November. We like walking
around malls, and they are good
opportunities for feedings and changing
while on the road.
We found some videos on sale, and picked up
two of our favorites: The Blues
Brothers and Fargo. We ordered
the "double lasagna" at A Slice of Italy at
the mall, and they put the two halves in
separate dishes for us. It was quite good
and a substantial portion, better than we
expected for mall food.
Then it was
on
to Kenosha for a visit to the still fairly
new Woodman's grocery store. Two reasons:
Jill works at the Madison (west) Woodman's
and we shop there, and it is reputed to be
the largest store in the country that sells
only groceries. It is a huge store,
certainly the largest grocery store I have
ever seen. We bought some Meister Brau
beer,
an old favorite of mine that is not
available
anywhere we have tried in Madison.
Out
of Kenosha we headed south on 83 to Antioch
IL, and then west on 173, in order to catch
Lake and McHenry counties for the boys. In
Richmond IL we noticed an old-fashioned Dog
'n Suds drive-in and made a note of it for
some possible future visit. We picked up
US-12 again in IL and followed it to the KFC
Buffet in Whitewater for dinner. It was a
treat as always, and we were amazed that
Chris ate the Brussels sprout we gave
him!
COUNTY UPDATE:
none
new for Tim
Chris: 3 new in WI: Walworth,
Racine, Kenosha
1 new in IL: Lake
now
60/72 in WI, 29/102 in IL, total 141
Paul: same
new ones + McHenry co IL
Paul's new
total: 48
Northern Wisconsin Trip, 5-7 July 1999
For years I have been aware of some stations in WI, north of an
Eau Claire-Wausau line, that I have either never been to or have not visited since the 80s. I estimated that we could visit many
of them and have time for other tourism if
we allow three days. Since we had a couple commitments on Thursday of Jill's vacation week, we planned to go on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. That was a mistake.
We left Monday morning while the area was still in the grips of the weekend's hot and humid air. We headed up I-94 to Eau Claire and stopped there at Oakdale Mall. It was a welcome chance to get out of the van, and we changed the boys' diapers and fed a bottle to Paul there. It is a very nice mall, but we did not spend much time looking around. I, of course, noted station addresses from the phone book.
Then it was up to Ladysmith and WLDY for our first radio stop. We got there to find it closed, with no cars in the lot. We got a photo and saw the tower, but it was a disappointment to come all that way to a locked door. It soon became clear that July 5 had become a holiday; I won't start commenting on that. And that was the story of our first day. In Rice Lake, I needed a map, and found the library and chamber of commerce both closed. WJMC was closed (and the building was being renovated), but a doorbell yielded human contact at WAQE. I was allowed in and talked to a friendly person about the stations. WWLC Balsam Lake used to be in that building, but moved about a year ago. WAQE-FM will remain on 97.7, and the new station in Barron, WKFX, will be on 99.1--contrary to what I had thought. The target date for 99.1 is "60 days," or roughly Labor Day, with format not announced.
I had no information on the location of WWLC's studio, but we did drive past its tower, and then headed to Amery to visit WXCE 1260. It too was closed, and a person who came to the door would not talk to me. But it was motel time, so we stayed in Amery, at the Forrest Inn Motel. It was very nice, though a bit expensive. In the lobby I got some copies of the new 1999 WI state highway map--the first I had seen. Not long after we arrived, a pretty good thunderstorm hit; there was a watch in progress, and we were glad we finished unloading in time. Jill went and got supper from A&W while I stayed with the boys; luckily the rain had let up substantially when she went out. TV there was interesting; some of the Twin Cities stations were in very well--9 and 45, especially--while others were quite weak.
In the morning, the weather was glorious. The humidity was gone, and it was sunny and very comfortable. We stopped at WXCE first, of course, and had a good visit. From southern WI, this is an elusive DX catch, and thus it was especially interesting to see the station and its four towers in a row. From there we headed north to look for the tower of new station WBEP 105.7 Siren, which was not yet on. We found an existing tower near the location given at radiostation.com, and presume the FM will be on this tower, unless a new one has yet to be erected. Then it was on to Shell Lake, where we stopped at the library/city hall for a map. The city hall was locked up for lunch, and I got a map photocopy from the phone book at the library (where the copier does not take coins, but you pay at the desk). WCSW was closed for lunch too, but we needed to do diapers and bottle anyway, so we got those things done while waiting in the station's parking lot. The station was friendly and gave me coverage maps, something I am getting more in the habit of requesting.
From there we headed to the interesting WOJB 88.9 Reserve, a Native-American station. It was not too easy to find, but we did with the help of a kind fellow we asked. The station was uncommonly friendly, with staff both Native American and European. I met an interesting man who is interested in DX and airchecks, and we had a good talk. From there we went to Hayward, where the Chamber of Commerce still had the same mediocre map that I had from before. We visited WRLS on the northwest side and talked with the announcer, and then headed southwest out of town to the WHLS studio and tower, where the staff was glad to answer my questions.
Years ago Jill and I, on a trip to Ashland, tried to find the WHSA 89.9 Brule tower. I asked people in that small town, and they said they did not know that Brule had a radio station. Well, now we have radiostation.com, so we knew where to look; we found the tower easily. At one spot we stopped so I could get out and take a good look at the tower, and there was a snake on the ground just outside Jill's door! She opted to remain inside. Out of Brule we began our search for WNXR Iron River, which did not yet exist last time we were there. After some searching we found the tower, but never did find a road with which to access it. Northern WI is, of course, heavily forested, and towers are often hard to see because good horizons can be scarce. It was late, and the studio, right on US-2 on the east side of town, was closed. We took a picture, and headed to Ashland for the night.
We had been to Ashland a couple other times, mainly because some of Jill's ancestors lived there, and she is interested in her family history. First, we got a room at the Super 8 with a nice view of the bay, then we ordered our Little Caesar's pizzas, then we did some unloading at the motel, then we picked up the pizzas, and headed back to the motel. It, too, was very nice and a bit expensive. Jill used the pool while I stayed with the boys. I tried like the Dickens to tape a couple needed legal IDs, but apparently the stations IDed early, as I kept getting nothing. Sunset over the bay was gorgeous, and we enjoyed our stay.
In the morning there things to do in Ashland. The weather was gorgeous again. We visited the ancestors' graves, visited the impressive Visitors' Center just west of town (which opened 14 months ago, and has beautiful exhibits about the area), walked out on the pier, and drove by the house once occupied by the ancestors. Oh, and of course we visited WATW. There are supposed to be two FMs on the 1400 tower now, but there is still just the one set of 8 bays, from which I presume both stations emanate.
Then we headed east to Hurley/Ironwood, Paul's first visit to MI. We got maps at the border information center, and visited both AM-FM pairs in Ironwood. From there we headed south to catch the 1450 tower, and found it, driving on some tiny gravel roads. Then it was time to head for Park Falls, and we took 182 to the west to pass the big FM-TV tower east of town. In Park Falls, the 980 was off the air, but they said they had the needed parts and would be back on soon. WRJO Eagle River was once in that building, but is now back at the WERL building in Eagle River. Then we went east to Minocqua, where there are two towers outside the studio of WLKD, one for AM and one for FM. The person I spoke with said that "Music of Your Life" is the name of the Jones standards format, which 1570 carries, but I thought I had heard the name on stations that carry other satellite standards services. Driving south to that studio I saw a tourist information center, and stopped when we passed it again heading back north, getting some good new maps.
Time was clearly running out; we had to be home tonight and it was getting late in the afternoon. We headed east to Eagle River where, after a Dairy Queen stop, we visited WERL--only to find it closed (it closes at 4) and an employee just leaving. She was new at the station, and could not answer my questions very easily. I took a good gander at the 950 tower there (94.5 has a new site to the north, which we did not visit), and we did diapers while there.
Next were stops at two Rhinelander-area towers. At the first, on Highway A, there is a taller tower with two FMs (91.7 and 93.7), 10 bays on top and 5 further down, and a shorter one with a side mounted red antenna for channel 34. There were pieces of tower on the ground, too. We drove into Rhinelander on C in order to pass the tall channel 12 tower. In Rhinelander, we stopped at the closed studio of WOBT (93.7 and 100.1 are there too) and then we parked at the Wal-Mart to give Paul a bottle. I went in the store for station addresses--never knew where WHDG 97.5 was located--and while sitting in the car we could see the 1240/100.1 tower ("beautiful scenery," as I put it).
It was now time to head home. We did a dinner stop at our old favorite, Shakey's Buffet in Wausau, and had a good meal. We did diapers and bottle, and drove south to arrive home, beat, soon after midnight.
COUNTY UPDATE:
nothing new for Tim; current total is 384
Chris got 14 new in WI, now 57/72, plus 1 in MI, now 21/83
Chris's new total: 137
Paul got 23 new in WI, now 32/72, plus his first in MI
Paul's new total: 43
Cedar Rapids Trip, 17-18 June 1999
Among the radio markets relatively near to
us, Cedar Rapids has long been the main
"unexplored" one for me. I had not been to
see the radio towers, visit the stations,
etc. So for our first overnight trip of the
season, excluding one that was not really
travel oriented, we headed there when two
free days in a row came along. Both days
were sunny, not humid, and comfortably
warm.
Heading out of Dubuque on US-151
was a change; we have been more in the habit
of going west on US-20, passing Kennedy Mall
and, later, the 97.3 Epworth tower. But 151
takes us straight into Marion in Cedar
Rapids's northeast side, and that is where
the WMT 600 towers are...thus our first stop.
There are three, two taller and one shorter,
not unlike the old WTMJ 620 site on I-94 west
of Milwaukee.
If you know us you know
that we eat at Bishop's Buffet when we can,
and there are two in Cedar Rapids. We ate at
the one at Lindale Mall, not far from the 600
towers, and took some time at the mall too.
The food was good as ever, and the mall isn't
bad at all: one level, attractive
architecture. I found a long needed Sioux
Falls map at B. Dalton there. And the mall
had a printed directory for the file. From
the parking lot--where Paul ate before we
did--one could see an FM tower that,
according to my internet searches, had to be
WMT-FM 96.5 After lunch we headed toward it,
not realizing that it is located at the Old
Marion Rd studio for 600 and 96.5 as well as
channel 2 (in a different door). We got
promo items, took pictures, and headed for
the 1450/48 studio building. Those two
stations are in different offices in the same
building, though 48 told me that they will
move in with 28 this summer. 1450 was
friendly, and said they hope to go to live
standards, ex-Stardust.
Probably my
main observation about Cedar Rapids is that
many streets do not go through very far. Our
next destination was the 1600 site, just
outside town to the southwest, and we had to
get across a good portion of the city to get
there. With Jill's navigation and four or so
turns to stay on a street that doesn't end,
we got there, to see another AM site of a
station that dominates its channel at home.
Then we headed for the motel, with a stop at
the 1360 and 98.1 towers along the way, just
south of US-30.
There are two Super 8
motels in Cedar Rapids, and they are located
just blocks from one another, just west of
I-380 at 33rd. We stayed at the easternmost,
and it was fine. We ate at the Happy Chef
nearby, basically a Denny's/Perkin's sort of
large-menu family restaurant. The food was
fine too; we took it out to eat in the motel.
I taped most of the radio market during the
evening and the next morning. Star Trek on
Sci-Fi was on a half hour later than it is at
home (10:30 vs. 10:00), which seemed odd, and
I fell asleep early in the show.
We
started the second day with a visit to 102.9,
located quite near the motel. They called
themselves adult CHR. Then we headed west to
the other main mall in town, Westdale Mall,
where we fed Paul and (you guessed it) we had
lunch at Bishop's. It was another great
meal; they had those memorable Swiss Steaks
that I remembered from past times. Neither
location had directories. We took a little
while looking around the mall, which is bi-level and very nice, and then
headed south on I-380 to pick up Johnson
county. (We did not make any attempt to
cover Iowa City on this trip.) A stop at a
rest area yielded the 1999-2000 state highway
map. Then we went downtown, our only time
spent there, to visit KCRG. They were
friendly, and we were glad to get a parking
meter since some areas looked to be parked
fairly solidly. On from there, we followed
the west side of the Cedar River to where the
1450 tower was supposed to be, and found it.
And then, for our final stop in the immediate
area, we went north on I-380 to find the
102.9 and 104.5 tower. It has two 12-bay
antennas at markedly different
heights.
Our final plan was to stop at
some of the tall FM-TV towers to the north
and northwest that serve both Cedar Rapids
and Waterloo. We had been to some in the
past, and aimed to catch the rest, getting
accurate marks on the map. And the map was
the first problem, since I didn't have one
for Benton county. So we headed into Vinton
to get one. I did at the court house, and
we fed Paul there. I listened to the local
LW beacon, and driving out of town on 150 we
noted it on 1200 while passing the airport!
We found the two towers in northeast Benton
county, channels 2 and 48, and caught one in
Buchanan county nearby.
Now it was
time to head home, and we soon passed through
Quasqueton and got gas (1.059). We learned
that it is pronounced KWA ske ten (Es are
schwas). We then picked up US-20, passed the
usual 97.3 tower, and got some supper at Long
John Silver's in Dubuque. I had a pretty
good fish sandwich. We got home just after
9, having covered 449
miles.
COUNTY UPDATE:
1 new
(Johnson co IA); IA now 42/99
new total:
384
CHRIS'S COUNTY UPDATE:
2 new in IA:
Johnson, Benton
IA now 14/99
new total:
122
Paul now has 18 counties in 3
states.
Anniversary Trip, 16 July
1998
This was the day of our
tenth wedding anniversary. Jill was able to
get the day off, so we seized the opportunity
for a day trip. The weather of late had been
warm and muggy, but a frontal passage cleared
out the high humidity, and it was now
considerably more comfortable. This was also
the first trip in our new Plymouth Voyager
minivan.
Our first main destination
was Effigy Mounds National Monument, the
nearest National Parks site to home for us,
but one we had never visitied. (On the way
there we made brief visits to WDMP Dodgeville
and WPRE Prairie du Chien, and found both
stations very friendly.) The monument is
located in SE Alamakee county, Iowa, just
east of Hwy 76. It consists of a region
replete with ancient Native American burial
mounds. Some of the mounds are in the shape
of animals. The walking tour to see them is
substantial; though we were told that Chris's
stroller would have no problem, we found the
walkway too rough for easy travel. Much of
it is uphill, and the mosquitoes were thick.
So we did not go too far on it, but did see
the first mounds that one encounters on the
path. Of course, we added new cancellation
stamps to our National Parks Passport
books.
The remainder of the day was
devoted to Jill's interest in genealogy. She
has numerous ancestors in Richland county,
and we did some cemetery searches in the
northwest part of the county. We also drove
into Richland Center to look some things up
at the Court House where, of course, public
records of births, marriages, and deaths may
be viewed. While Jill worked, Chris and I
walked around downtown, and I obtained some
good maps and travel guides at the Chamber of
Commerce. Before leaving town, we stopped at
WRCO, another friendly station. Using what
she learned at the Court House, we then
proceeded to a couple more
cemeteries.
Then it was time for
dinner. We decided on the White House
Lodge's restaurant in Richland Center. Upon
entering, I was astonished to see that the
person behind the desk, operating both the
restaurant and the hotel, was one of my past
students at UW-Milwaukee! We visited before
and after dinner, and took some time to enjoy
all the presidential portraits on display.
We had a fine dinner; I had the famous
oxymoron, jumbo shrimp. From there we headed
home, and totaled 321 miles. I did not add
any new counties.
CHRIS'S
COUNTY UPDATE:
3 new in WI: Crawford
Vernon Richland
now 40/72
2 new in IA:
Clayton Alamakee
now 10/99
new total:
115
St.
Louis Trip, 1-3 June 1998
Two
past
developments led to this trip. First, the
last time I was
in St. Louis was in 1996 with a couple DX
friends. At that
time we wanted to go up the Gateway Arch, but
when we
arrived it was already too late in the day.
We did get up
close to it and came to appreciate its
extraordinary
grandeur.
The other background relates
to the
planning for our recent Detroit trip. Jill
was looking at
the web site for the Detroit art museum we
were planning to
visit, and encountered a list of special
exhibitions. One
was titled "Angels from the Vatican," which
sounded good,
and she learned that the same exhibit will be
at the St.
Louis Art Museum during our next free week.
So we changed
our original plans to go to Indiana, and
worked on a trip
to St. Louis to catch the Arch, the exhibit,
and the
museum's permanent collection.
A few
years ago I
started to work on a National Parks Passport
book, a nice
little book you can buy at National Parks
Service sites
that contains space for "cancellations,"
i.e.,
postmark-like inscriptions that note which
sites you have
visited and when. I learned about it from a
DX friend and
have been having fun collecting the postmarks
when we
travel. There are two to be had in St.
Louis: the Arch,
which I had from the 1996 visit, and the
Ulysses Grant
home. Once I realized that the Grant site
was there, we
made plans to visit it as well.
We
left Monday
morning in warm and sunny weather. On the
way across
Illinois we took the time for two side trips
into needed
counties: tiny Putnam (via 71, 89, and 18)
and Menard,
which I-55 barely misses. Approaching town
we took a route
that allowed a visit to the KMOX 1120 tower.
We also
passed the 550, 630, and 1600 arrays; I took
a picture
which will (I hope) show part of all three.
All this was
working us further toward the city. Mainly,
we tried to
make good time in order to get into St. Louis
early enough
to catch the Grant site before it closed at
5. We
succeeded, and viewed the exhibits there. We
did not take
the time to walk the grounds, because we were
tired and it
was pretty hot (about 85-88). We intended to
buy Chris his
own Passport book there, but they were out of
stock,
getting more the next day! So we got his
postmark on paper
and will paste it in, and of course I got my
book
postmarked.
From there we headed to
the motel, the
Motel 6 called St. Louis South, on Lindbergh
near I-55. It
was marked in the directory as one of the
newly remodeled
ones that are being advertised, and we were
quite pleased
with it. We stopped a couple doors down,
thinking a sign
we could not quite see was for a Bob Evans, a
good
possibility for dinnner, we thought. It was,
and I saw a
Post-Dispatch box outside it, so I got
out of the
car to buy a paper. There was an odd sound,
especially as
I got close to the paper box and the
restaurant door. I
realized I was hearing hundreds of bugs in a
single tree.
We learned that they are cicadas, which
people call
locusts, which come in large numbers every 13
to 150 years,
depending on whom you talk to. They were
everywhere,
buzzing like mad. We have them here too, but
you hear
single bugs sing their song from time to time
in warm
weather (I grew up hearing them called "heat
bugs"). There
was a TV news item about them while we were
there. It was
a scene we won't soon forget. They were in
the trees near
the motel too.
We had a good take-out
dinner from
that Bob Evans in the room, and I got busy
trying to tape
the entire radio market (and largely
succeeded by the time
we left). It was a warm night as I went
outside to tape
AMs on the car's trunk.
On Tuesday
morning we headed
for the Arch. We got a parking place easily
($3) and had a
considerable walk, partly uphill, to get to
the monument.
We headed straight inside to get our tickets
($6/adult) for the ride
to the top, and had about a 25-minute wait
until our
designated time. (When we left, they were
selling tickets
about an hour ahead, so we were glad we got
ours when we
did.) In the meantime, I bought Chris his
Passport book
and added his second cancellation. We got in
line, stowed
Chris's stroller in a designated area, and
waited for our
turn to ascend the structure. There are six
cars in each
tram (one ascending each leg of the monument;
only one was
operating), each car carrying five people.
We were
assigned no. 1 with three men (assuming Chris
stays on a
lap). After waiting a bit, I noticed that
the men were
speaking German, and I enjoyed trying out my
German to talk
to them. They were from Karlsruhe and in the
midst of a
wonderful trip in the western half of the
country. It was
fascinating talking with them in both
languages, and
hearing their reactions to the United States.
"God created
the world in seven days," said one, "and then
created
America in the next thousand years." The
cars are small
and, on a day with a high of 91, hot. The
ride up takes
about three minutes. The view, of course, is
fabulous, and
we took lots of pictures. We rode down with
our German
friends, and then went outside for more
pictures. A high
school band was playing. Then we made our
way back to the
car, looking at the riverboats.
Now we
were off to
the art museum. We found our way all right,
and got a
good, free parking place. Admission is free
on Tuesdays,
and the Vatican exhibit is free Tuesdays
after 1:30. I got
in line for tickets right away, and we got
some for a 4:45
entry, about 4 hours in the future. That was
just right,
because we needed lunch and wanted to see
the museum's own
collection at leisure. So we ate at the
snack bar
("Mummy's Place") and gave Chris his lunch
too. Then we
surveyed the galleries of European paintings.
They have a
nice Madonna by Gerard David, and a fine
portrait by Sir
Joshua Reynolds. When our time came, we were
allowed
(punctually) into the Angels from the Vatican
exhibit. It
is not very large, containing about 100 works
of art of
various media. But it contains some
extraordinary
treasures, and of course these are works one
cannot
ordinarily see outside of Europe. There were
two works by
Raphael: a fragment of a fresco, and his
Faith of
1507. Raphael, to us, is perhaps history's
greatest
painter, and not many of his works are to be
seen in
America. (The National Gallery in Washington
has five.)
There also two great works in the exhibition
by Fra
Angelico, another of my favorite painters.
We bought
postcard reproductions of some favorite works
at the shop
at the end of the exhibit, and Jill got a
refrigerator
magnet of Raphael's Faith.
We
returned to the
motel via Noonan Avenue, which is smaller
than many alleys,
and took a picture of the sign. Near the
motel we spotted
an Old Country Buffet, and went with this old
favorite for
dinner. Back at the motel the cicadas were
now much less
active.
Wednesday morning it was time
to go home.
It was considerably cooler and cloudy. We
took I-255 into
Illinois on the way out of town, which
afforded us the
chance to add Monroe co. and see the 1430 and
770 towers.
We passed through some brief heavy rain just
south of
Springfield. We planned to eat at the
Bishop's Buffet at
Eastland Mall in Bloomington but learned that
it closed
about a year earlier. So we ate at the food
court (I
sampled Taco John, a refreshing change from
Taco Bell, and
A&W) and I copied station addresses out of
the phone book.
Heading north we took a detour to catch big
Livingston
co., and as we approached Rockford there was
a clearing
line ahead. By the time we were back in
Wisconsin, it was
clear and cool. The Wisconsin Welcome Center
had outdated
highway maps out. 862 miles
total.
COUNTY
UPDATE:
6 new in IL: Putnam Menard
Montgomery St. Clair
Monroe Livingston
IL now 57/102, my first
state over half
(except WI)
New total: 381
Chris got 14
new in IL and
1 in MO
MO is his state no. 7
Chris's
new total:
109
Detroit-Grand Rapids Trip, 19-22
May
1998
We originally conceived the Detroit trip as a
chance to
visit two attractions: the Detroit Institute
of Arts (DIA)
and the Henry Ford Museum. If memory serves
from a visit
to the Ford Museum as a child, the JFK
assassination limo
is there, and I was anxious to see it again.
Some work on
the web sites of each one revealed two issues
that changed
our minds. First, the art museum (really our
highest
priority) has fairly limited hours--11-4--and
it seemed
unlikely that we could go there and to Ford
the same day.
In addition, Ford is much more expensive.
So, we dropped
the plan of visiting the Ford Museum, but
still hope to do
it next time we're there.
My education
at UW-Madison
required a minor area, and I chose art
history as a natural
field with which to accompany musicology.
The minor merely
requires some course work, but in taking
those courses my
love of the visual arts, especially painting,
grew, and so
has Jill's. So now it is a common practice
for us when in
a larger city to go to its main art gallery.
My interest
within painting is fairly broad--European
painting from
Giotto to the mid-19th century. I focus my
attention on
forty-some major painters, and note any of
their works I
find on a master list, organized
chronologically through
their careers. I will return to DIA's
holdings
below.
We left on Tuesday morning, May
19, in warm
and sunny weather, via I-90 toward Chicago.
Within the
Chicago area, though, we went out of our way
to accomplish
two things: to see the WLS tower, and to
catch Will co.,
still needed. We did both; I had wanted to
see the WLS
site for years, and we got pretty close and
took a picture.
I love those clear-channel sites; I continue
to be
impressed that a facility on just a small
plot of land can
serve such vast areas at night...that's the
DXer in
me.
Our son Chris (17 months) got two
new states
this trip--IN and MI--and that was the most
noteworthy part
of passing through IN's three lakefront
counties. Our
route to Detroit was planned with counties in
mind: we took
US-12 from just past the state line all the
way to
Dearborn. This, of course, was slow at
times, but we got
to see a lot of towns we had never been in.
We found MI's
traffic lights, hanging above the road,
awkward and easily
covered up by trucks, and prefer the
ground-mounted ones at
home.
Our motel was the Super 8 at
Dearborn, on
Telegraph just south of US-12. We have been
using Super 8s
most of the time in recent years, using the
"VIP card"
discount and are satisfied most of the time.
This one, as
might be expected in a large metro area, was
not in very
good condition; both sinks had problems, etc.
But we
managed, and were basically confortable. TV
reception over
the air (I always travel with the little
GoldStar to
monitor stations not on the cable) was very
poor. There
was hardly any signal on 2. But with the
GoldStar we could
see CBS on 62, which the cable excluded.
Dinner was at
Dimitri's, across Telegraph from the motel.
My taco salad
was among the largest I have
had.
Wednesday
morning we got up aiming to do three things
in Detroit:
stop by and photograph Tiger Stadium, cross
the bridge into
ON, and go to the DIA for most of the time it
is open. We
found a good spot to pull over and take
pictures of the
stadium. Of course, we would have liked to
see a game, but
we decided that Chris is too young for that.
The Tigers
were out of town anyway, a point that didn't
matter for us.
The Ambassador Bridge is quite close to the
stadium, and
we crossed it ($2 US each way) and took
pictures. In
Windsor we stopped in the McDonald's, where
they had pizza,
and at the ON tourism center. There, we got
maps and
exchanged some currency as souvenirs. They
call the $1
coin the "loonie" because it has a loon on
it, and the
bi-color $2 coin is a "toonie." The staff
was particularly
friendly and helpful.
Next stop was
the DIA, the
main destination of the trip. We found
parking nearby ($3
for about 5 hours) and went in; admission is
$4 for adults.
The European paintings are not all together,
and switching
floors of course requires an elevator when
you have a
stroller. In one area there is a special
exhibition (for
which you pay extra) and the only access to
the elevator in
one direction, and to the paintings on that
floor in the
other, is through it! That caused some
bother, and some
carrying of the stroller up and down stairs.
I knew in
advance that the collection held a work by
Jan Van Eyck,
the great 15th-century Northern master who is
perhaps my
favorite painter. There are not very many of
his works
outside Europe, and Detroit's Saint Jerome
in His
Study is a glory of the collection. It
is in a glass
case in the center of its gallery, and it is
impossible to
get as close to the work as I wished I
could...but it was
great to see it. They have a Botticelli and
a Correggio;
the latter is another painter I have not seen
often in the
galleries I have visited--with the notable
exception of the
great Virgin and Child with St. John the
Baptist in
Chicago. Bouguereau's The Nut
Gatherers is utterly
charming and is apparently the DIA's most
popular
painting.
On our way out of Detroit
Thursday morning
the weather was still warm and sunny. We
took a detour to
add Macomb co., and then headed west on I-96
to Lansing.
There we stopped long enough to tape a
couple stations and
visit the capitol. It was full of grade
school kids. I
copied down station addresses from the phone
book while
Jill changed Chris's diaper. The dome is
beautiful, though
I confess a bit of bias toward
Wisconsin's.
Out of
Lansing we took Hwy. 43 to catch a couple
counties, and
then picked up I-96 to go into Grand Rapids
for the night.
We crossed town on 28th St (Hwy. 11), a road
with every
imaginable chain restaurant. Our motel was
the Super 8 in
Wyoming, at 44th and US-131. It was a very
good one, and I
worked like mad to tape the whole market
before we left.
We had dinner at the Denny's next to the
motel, and it was
OK as usual.
On Friday morning we took
the time to
track down the tower sites of 1300 and 1480.
Then we had
lunch at Steak 'n Shake, where I resisted the
temptation to
have a taco salad and had the Steak 'n Shake
dinner
instead, with a chocolate shake...yum! We
looked for
the 1530 site on our way out of town, and
found an odd
looking tower right where it was supposed to
be. I
remain unsure whether it was really 1530.
Then we headed
to Holland on I-196 and made a couple of
stops at the
lakefront near Saugatuck and again near
Benton Harbor. By
now it had clouded over and rained
intermittently. On the
way home, we crossed Chicago on the
Tri-State, noting a few
AM arrays. Traffic was great at first, but
really slowed
down after O'Hare. We stopped for dinner at
Rockford's
Home Town Buffet. Co-owned with Old Country
Buffet, the
menu, and even the day certain items are
served, is just
about the same. We got home after 10, very
tired, with a
total of 1075 miles.
COUNTY
UPDATE:
1 new in IL:
Will, now 51/102--I made it to half!
9
new in MI: Cass
St. Joseph Branch Hillsdale Lenawee Macomb
Livingston Eaton
Barry, now 38/83.
New total: 375
Chris
got 1 new in
IL, 3 in IN, and 20 in MI; new total: 94
2 new states:
IN and MI, new total: 6, and 1st province:
ON
