Exploration

Today's Route 1 theme? Exploration!
This morning, the girls and I visited the Mines of Spain Recreation Area near Dubuque for some hiking. In the span of an hour, we traveled from a steamy wetland full of skittish frogs to a bone-dry area surrounded by canyon-like bluffs.
Back home, I have been unwinding from our excursion by listening to Roland Kirk's 1962 album "Domino."
Blindness never stopped Kirk. Indeed, his lack of sight probably propelled Kirk to greater levels of musical exploration. Kirk is (in)famous for playing instruments simultaneous -- on "Domino" he plays tenor saxophone, manzello, stritch, flute, nose flute (?!?!) and siren whistle... sometimes all at once.
An ability that could have been a novelty trick instead elicits wonderful sounds, as Kirk expands the boundaries of jazz.