IGHR 2016 Registered!

It’s that time of year again. Registration for IGHR opened at 11:00 am today. It is the last time it will be on the campus of Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama. Next year it will be at the University of Georgia in Athens.

Samford University

My husband and I will be going again this year. I’m registered for Course 9. Advanced Library Research: Law Libraries & Government Documents course and Rich is registered for Course 3. Advanced Methodology & Evidence Analysis. We are certainly looking forward to our trip in June! It will be a great week of fun and learning. I've heard that Course 3 was full about half an hour after it's registration opened!

I’ve got our trip mapped out already. Although it’s a day and half of hard driving both to and from, we’d rather do that than spend a day flying there. I have a hatred of flying and trying to negotiate large, crowded airports and Rich isn’t far behind in his dislike. First all the hassles of packing to get everything on a plane and then there is no direct flight to anywhere we’d want to go from Syracuse. It’s either a run from one end of the airport to another to barely catch the connecting flight or hours upon hours in sitting in uncomfortable seats. Yes, we are definitely driving. I take after my father in that miles on the highway are perfectly fine.

I’m glad that I’ve got everything mapped out and ready to go already. Over the weekend I called the hotels to make reservations. We’re not staying in the one on the way home that I had originally planned; they were already booked up when I called! I was very surprised as it is a few miles off the interstate in an area with not much around it. There must be a festival or something going on in that town- we found a different one at the next exit.

All the planning and logistics that go into a trip... I learned some of this from my parents when we traveled when I was a kid. However, it was very different for us back in the 70s and early 80s. Then, we planned our route, but didn’t ever worry, or really need to about overnight accommodations. A long day on the road like these would start coming to an end when my Dad would say from behind the wheel, “Kiddo, I’m getting tired, find me a campground.” I’d grab the camping book and start looking to see what campgrounds were available for a reasonable price at the next exit or two and then read out the information to my parents. We’d pull in and there would be no problem getting a site for the night. Soon Mom was preparing a supper in the camper and later we climbed into our own beds for the night. Now, from what I’ve heard, you’ve got to book a campsite weeks or even months in advance and they’re a lot more expensive accordingly. As we don’t own a camper or have one available to borrow, I have not looked into what this would involve today.

A Florida campsite February 1975

Instead, I have our maps ready-- we do it the old-fashioned way, no GPS. Make a reservation for a hotel along the way; pile everything into the car and go. A cooler for some snacks and stop to eat along the way. So, we’re ready and in June our car will be once again Alabama bound.