Florida - Day Two (Allentown, PA - Carlisle, PA - Hagerstown, MD - Winchester, VA - Lynchburg, VA - Danville, VA)

460 miles today, with the temperature getting warmer as I get further south (44 degrees in Danville, VA)


You can see on the map that I am driving a gentle curve going west/southwest/south, planning on hitting 4 museums. I had originally planned on 5 museums, but the Museum at Sweet Briar College replied to my email saying that none of the four paintings I wanted to see were on display - so I scratched them off my list. I emailed all the museums/galleries on Feb 20, but did not hear back from either Trout Gallery (Carlisle, PA) or the Museum of the Shenandoah Valley (Winchester, VA).

As it turns out, the Trout Gallery at Dickinson College does not have a permanent exhibit, so none of the five pieces I like were available. So back onto 81 South to the Washington County Museum of Fine Arts in Hagerstown, Maryland. It is "Museum Gems" like this one that make it all worthwhile! Set in a park, with ducks and swans in the half-frozen pond, it is a one-story treasure. Pieces include:

a pair of Rodin sculptures
Childe Hassam - White House, Gloucester, 1885
Albert Bierstadt - In the Rockies
George Inness - The Coming Storm, 1876
James Fairman - Songo River, Maine, 1865
William Stanley Haseltine - Nahant Rocks, New England, 1864
Thomas Cole - Study for "The Voyage of Life: Childhood", c. 1840-1842
Jasper Cropsey - Autumn Landscape with View of River, 1870
Thomas Moran - Lower Manhattan from Communipaw, New Jersey, 1880
John Kensett - A Mountain Pool, 1863
James McDougal Hart - Cattle Grazing
sculpture by Anna Hyatt Huntington - Diana of the Chase, 1922
sculpture of child by L'Deane Trueblood - Garden Sprite

Diana of the Chase, 1922

Garden Sprite


Childe Hassam - White House, Gloucester, 1885


and what the heck - here are four other beauties:
John Kensett - A Mountain Pool, 1863


William Stanley Haseltine - Nahant Rocks, New England, 1864


Jasper Cropsey - Autumn Landscape with View of River, 1870


Thomas Moran - Lower Manhattan from Communipaw, New Jersey, 1880


as you leave the museum, there is an Oscar Wilde quote engraved into the arch:

I'm not sure I can disagree.

but not every museum has what I want. 46 miles down the road at the Museum of the Shenandoah Valley, there were no paintings I liked on display (I had not gotten a reply to my email). When I asked her about the two Cropsey's in their collection, one of the docents said "Oh, the beautiful ones ... well, they are not up now". You win some, you lose some.

But south from there, in Lynchburg, Virginia, is a wonderful collection at the Maier Museum of Art at Randolph College! Included in their collection are

John Kensett - On the Connecticut Shore, 1871


Thomas Cole - Corway Peak, New Hampshire, 1844


Thomas Moran - View of Venice, 1894


Edward Hopper - Mrs. Scott's House, 1932


At 6 PM I checked in to the Super 8 in Danville, VA (only 4 miles north of the North Carolina border), and I was glad to see they have a waffle-maker (many Super 8s - maybe one-third - no longer have the waffle machines). So it will be a great start for tomorrow! Thank you God for a great day!

Music today (I listened to albums):

Roger Waters - In The Flesh (live)(second cd) (2000)


Van Morrison - Inarticulate Speech of the Heart (1983)


Indigo Girls - first album (Indigo Girls) (1989)


Bob Dylan - Infidels (1983)


Bill Morrissey - Inside (1992)


Jamie Cullum - Interlude (pre-release) (2015)


Van Morrison - Into the Music (1979)


Eddie Vedder - Into the Wild (2007)


Q-Burns Abstract Message - Invisible Airline (2001)


My Morning Jacket - It Still Moves (2003)

Florida - Day One (Manchester-by-the-Sea, MA - Logan Airport - Springfield, MA - Allentown, PA)

Back on the road again! I drove Wendy to the airport to fly to visit a friend in Florida, and I will be driving 1,800 miles down the road to join her Saturday afternoon:


I anticipate seeing 16 museums on the way down, starting with the Michele and Donald D'Amour Museum of Fine Arts in Springfield, Mass. (along with its sister/next-door museum - the George Walter Vincent Smith Art Museum).

Visiting these two museums in Springfield only added five miles to my trip today! This is exactly how I like to organize my trips - if "something special" is not currently on display, I (hopefully) have not gone very far out-of-my-way, so no big deal.

But the D'Amour did have "something special" - a pair of very small paintings by Canaletto (1697-1768). He was an Italian painter (real name Giovanni Antonio Canal, but he named himself Canaletto)[it gets confusing because his nephew and pupil Bernardo Bellotto also called himself Canaletto, and also did some beautiful landscapes/Venice scenes). Whenever I refer to Canaletto, I mean Antonio Canal - I will refer to Bellotto by name. The small pair by Canaletto are

Capriccio: Farmhouse on the Venetian Mainland, 1755-1765


Capriccio: Villa and Ruins by a River, 1755-1765


a larger painting by Canaletto's nephew Bernardo Bellotto:
Church of SS. Giovanni e Paolo, Venice, 1740-1741


three paintings that stood out were
Albert Bierstadt (The Hetch Hetchy Valley, California)


Claude Monet (Grainstack, 1893)


Worthington Whittredge (The Lonely Graves, about 1866)


also in the D'Amour were paintings by
William Bradford
Alfred Thomas Bricher
John W. Casilear
Frederic Edwin Church
Sanford Robinson Gifford (2)
Winslow Homer (2)
John Kensett

In the courtyard is the Dr. Seuss sculpture garden (photo taken in Feb 2014) - what fun!


And across the courtyard is the George Walter Vincent Smith Art Museum. Their American Paintings Salon is a large room on the second floor, with the paintings displayed in the "Salon" fashion - too bad, but necessary if you have more art than wall space




The museum now has a very nice brochure that allows you to identify what you are looking at:


and the highlight here is Albert Bierstadt's Sunrise in the Hetch Hetchy Valley, California, 1873-1875


Shut down the museum at 5 PM, hit the road (91 South), and pulled into the Super 8 in Allentown, PA at 9 PM (360 miles). Thank you God for a great day!

Music today (I listened to albums):

Jack Johnson - In Between Dreams (2005)


Bruce Springsteen - In Concert/MTV Plugged (1993)


10,000 Maniacs - In My Tribe (1987)


The Moody Blues - In Search of the Lost Chord (1968)


King Crimson - In the Court of the Crimson King (1969)


Roger Waters - In The Flesh (live)(first cd) (2000)

Upper Midwest - Day Twenty-Six (Amsterdam, NY - Canajoharie, NY - Albany, NY - Manchester-by-the-Sea, MA)

With a "small" day planned - 290 miles - I realized that I could backtrack 20 miles to the Arkell Museum in Canajoharie, NY. They have a beautiful Winslow Homer exhibit going on (from Sept. 2 throrough Jan. 4), as well as a George Inness exhibit with some of his early paintings (I like his early paintings before he started to "blur the lines").

Unfortunately, the Museum has a "no photography" policy. Having said that, they do have an image gallery. In their exhibition book Winslow Homer - The Nature and Rythm of Life - from the Arkell Museum at Canajoharie, this oil painting is called "Watching the Breakers-A High Sea", 1896:


From Canajohaire it is an easy 60-minute drive to the Albany Institute of History & Art (Albany, NY). They have a lovely collection of Hudson River School art, including the most paintings by Thomas Cole that I can recall (outside of his home/studio - the Thomas Cole National Historic Site in Catskill, NY):

Frederic Edwin Church
Thomas Cole (13)
Jasper Cropsey
Asher B. Durand
Sanford R. Gifford
James M. Hart
George Inness [1869]
John Kensett (2)
Homer Dodge Martin

Highlights include:

Thomas Cole - "Study for The Cross and the World - The Pilgrim of the World on his Journey", c. 1846-1847

Jasper Cropsey - "Dawn of Morning, Lake George", 1868

Frederic Edwin Church - "Twilight (Sunset)", 1856

Asher B. Durand - "Cathedral Ledge", 1855

John Kensett - "The Mountain Stream", c. 1845


and I was able to buy a fabulous poster:


The sky started to clear as I was on the Mass Pike:


and it was a beautiful day in Boston!


Big fog had set in up in Manchester:


but I was able to put my hand in the Atlantic Ocean at White Beach!

It's good to be home (how Deede got here ahead of me is beyond me - I was driving as fast as I could!)

Well well well - wasn't that (11,080 miles) a GREAT TRIP!!

Thank you God!!

Music today (I listened to albums):

America's top ten. 1960s, the folk years (20 songs; returning today to Beverly Farms library)


Pat Metheny Group - Travels (double live album)


Pat Metheny Group - Speaking of Now


and, in closing, I have to thank Super 8 for allowing me to get my fill of Nighttime Football:

Sat 10/18 college football
Sun 10/19 Denver Broncos 42, San Francisco 49ers 17
Mon 10/20 Pittsburgh Steelers 30, Houston Texans 23
Thurs 10/23 Denver Broncos 35, San Diego Chargers 21

Sat 10/25 college football
Sun 10/26 New Orleans Saints 44, Green Bay Packers 23
Mon 10/27 Washington Redsikins 20, Dallas Cowboys 17 (OT)
Thurs 10/30 New Orleans Saints 28, Carolina Panthers 10

Sat 11/1 college football
Sun 11/2 Pittsburgh Steelers 43, Baltimore Ravens 23
Mon 11/3 Indianapolis Colts 40, New York Giants 24
Thurs 11/6 Cleveland Browns 24, Cincinnati Bengals 3

Sat 11/8 college football
Sun 11/9 Green Bay Packers 55, Chicago Bears 14
Mon 11/10 Philadelphia Eagles 45, Carolina Panthers 21

I think I will only be watching the Patriots for the rest of the year.