Update: Wisconsin driving tour

I had a chance to listen to the Great River Road Stories audio driving tour last weekend on my way home from Illinois, and I was really impressed.  As I wrote last month, the production quality is so-so, but the information was really interesting and the oral histories were compelling.

In one case, I listened to a tug boat captain explain how he navigates his barges into the river locks.  It's trickier than I ever imagined and as I listened to him, I drove passed a lock & dam and could see just how narrow an opening he has to deal with.  And a few minutes later, I passed a barge heading down the river.  It was like a personalized story just for me...a driver alone in the car.

This experience further proved to me that being on location matters.  Stories that aren't worth my attention elsewhere can take on new layers of meaning when told in a particular place.  I'll always associate that story with the images of my drive...but the podcast producers just had to give me the audio and tell me where to press play.