Day 4

So, last night (October 12th) I had a motel with no WiFi. BUMMER. So updating Day 4 to keep ahead of the curve...

Distance Traveled from Marion VA to Marion NC. Seriously. Did not plan that! 412 KM.


Cars of Note:  2 Porsche 911 series and one Corvette ZR1 making tracks at Mach 1 southbound of the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Pet Peeve(s):  Gatlinburg TN is the biggest tourist trap (less the apparently awesome Airsoft gun shops they have). 1.5 hours to travel 2.5 miles. Seriously. Just how much stuff can one buy?

...Oh, and pickup drivers.

...And RVs on mountain roads. Ban them all. They are allowed to go down hills only. Not up.

The Best Western in Marion VA was AWESOME. Nice room. Thick towels. Clean. Quiet.

So, I am feeling a bit pressured. I have been a bit lax in getting up and on the road. I am on vacation you know but taking my time I have been getting on the road late in the AM and I keep forgetting that it gets dark early so sight seeing time and road tripping time is majorly impacted.

Routing:  I-80 to 66 south. Then 441 (amazing road!) to Cherokee NC. Blue Ridge Parkway, northbound until Route 80 in North Carolina to Marion NC. Route 80 was awesome too!

I am going to focus on the Blue Ridge Parkway (BRP) here:

1. Go. Drive it. Well worth it.
2. The fall leaf colours are peaking at the higher elevations starting the 2nd week in October so I totally planned my trip with perfect timing. Elevation matters. The higher it is the cooler it is. One can see a big difference between 3, 4, 5 and 6 thousand foot elevations.
3. Expect it to take a long time if you do drive it. Top Gear made a joke about this and ha ha. The section they showed is one of the more modern parts of the BRP. Driving at 45 MPH is NO JOKE AND ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY. Seriously, one mistake, a yawn, a grab for a water bottle poorly timed and you might actually die. As in dead. There are NO services along the route.
4. Gas up early and often. When I drove out west during the winter in the early 90's I had a 1/2 tank rule. Once the tank gets close to 1/2 empty you fill up. Same on the BRP. There are no gas stations on this section and if you need gas you may have to drive 60 miles to get some.
5. Expect vertigo if you do not like heights. I do not like heights on buildings and I experienced a weird effect when going around corners mostly that projected a view over and beyond the edge of the highway. I got momentary shivers akin to those I get on the top of the CN Tower. So, if you are in a taller vehicle, like a mini-van, and have fear-of-height issues this trip may NOT be for you.
6. Cell phones do not work here but OnStar does!
7. Expect to:
1. Stop often at outlooks.
2. Not pass other vehicles.
3. Not get snacks, food, liquor or other comforts on the BRP. Bring your own.
4. Get slowed by RVs.
5. Be alert to animals such as deer.
6. Have the weather change. FAST.
7. Be amazed at the view!

Adventures:

1. The drive and view are amazing. Lots of lookouts to stop and wonder at nature.
2. Good Samaritan for a motorcycle rider who crashed. Luckily bike but not rider damaged and others helped.
3. Stopped at outlooks and learned about the region and ecology.
4. Took not as many pictures as I wanted to but the weather was so, so.
5. Got to drive in the clouds.
6. Got to drive out of the clouds.
7. Small race on NC 80 with another driver. Awesome real-time European style switchbacks on that road.

 BRP Pictures

The drive is exhausting. Even at the 45 MPH speed limit one has to concentrate and think and plan out their driving taking into account the sharp curves and elevation changes. And remember that you loose horsepower as you climb in elevation so at 6,000 feet ASL my little Accent had very little infection. I have had a car up to 13,000 feet ASL and boy do you use the lower gears a lot. I would estimate about 1,000 gear changes but I would NOT trade my manual gear box for an automatic. Just too much fun being in control.

See you soon...

Day 3

Distance Traveled Lexington KY to Marion VA:  472 KM

Pet Peeve of the Day:  Seriously, wtf is up with pickup drivers in the US? They drive their gas guzzling trucks like Dale Earnhardt Jr. on crack while having the judgement skills and timing of someone swimming in molasses. Jack rabbit starts at lights... Sudden lane changes after working so hard to pass you and realizing they need to turn right, right now!

Cars of Note:

Highly modified Ford Falcon 1960 - 63

Lime green, with super wide rear slicks. Driver looked like Lenny Kosnowski from Laverne and Shirley. Had sweep side sunglasses on, white t-shirt and a ciggy hanging from his lips. Cool car!

 Well, here I am in Lexington, Kentucky. I originally tried to get into a Super 8 just north of Lexington in Georgetown but was denied. Not because of my Canadianis or my accent (the accents change almost at each State border) but because of poor planning on my part. There seems to be a law of inverse benefit if one travels by road in the US. The later you drive the less likely you will get a room. I popped back in the car and hit the next major exit with accommodations and lucked (?) out at the Knights Inn.

It was their last room and the clerk let me know that the parking was limited (i.e. I would have to park on the street and not near my unit) and that one of the two Queen sized beds were broken. Luckily I only use one bed at a time (except when playing Kangaroo - ask Cam and Annika about that) and agreed. Well, I thought the Motel 6 was bad but my unit here compared most remarkably to the condition of my first night's stay. But the motel was full and there were 4 other hotel/motels in the area all with full parking lots so high demand creates customers that become less discerning about room quality when they become more desperate for sleep.

Anyways... The clerk said that a complimentary breakfast and coffee were included so all is good. Plus, traveling alone it is only my standards that matter so I have a wider range of tolerance. You're only staying for about 8 hours and moving on but it certainly makes me think to increase my nightly accommodation budget to something around $75 a night.

The next day went to check out and no coffee. Damn it motel clerk... Your PROMISED! Actually they were just out of coffee so I decided to use the old GPS and find a Starbucks, regroup and recce my routing for the day.

They are putting bar codes on everything these days!

 Lexington is not an unknown city for me. I used to work for Lexmark Inc. and it is headquartered in said town. And it is not called LEXmark after LEXington. I will let you google-ites figure that one out. I was just of New Circle Road and the headquarters/main plant building. It brought back some fine memories of training and product introductions. The town is really very nice and the Starbucks was downtown right near the convention center. I logged on my iPad, called the folks and decided on a route.

BTW, Lexington is very sophisticated and up-scale. The downtown is looking a little worse for wear since the economic downturn but there seems to be a fine selection of restaurants and shopping (and I do not mean MALL shops). The University of Kentucky is a major school in the area and you can see UK stuff everywhere. 

I get tired of interstate travel so I decided to do the following routing for this leg of the trip:

I-75 south to Berea and then 421 south to the Hal Rodgers Parkway. From there travel east until it hooks up with 421 again. Then west on 119 until 25e south and then to the Cumberland Gap National Historic Park.

OK. So about 5 miles out of Berea the whole world changed. South of the Ohio/Kentucky the land is hilly characterized by gentle slopes and grades but once outside of Berea the geography changes rapidly and quite unexpected by me. I should have known that all the squiggly bits of road on the map indicated major topography changes but I had a major topographical and brain freeze. I associated the topography to be much like northern KY.

Suffice to say the driving was FANTASTIC. The speed limit in this area varies from 35 to 55 MPH and for about 2 hours the longest straight I had was barely a mile long. The rises and falls, and turns on the road gave me a lot of lively driving and I had a major smile on my face.

There was not any traffic, either, which enhanced the pleasure of the drive. But I did find one small quibble with my trusty Hyundai Accent:  The assisted electric power steering has no feel what so ever. When one is driving everyday you hardly notice this but when transitioning right and left with on and off-camber corners you feel - NOTHING. Seriously it would be easy to over or under-correct and I think the tendency would be over-correct for turns (i.e. turn in too tight). There is no feedback on road conditions or adhesion limits so one has to work extra hard concentrating on what the "F" they are doing. I am so glad I had a standard though if you compare 400 KM of interstate driving I might do 20 gear changes in total but on this run I must have done 500. Remember to that the higher in altitude you go the less power a car has (unless turbo or supercharged) so my 'Ol Accent had to be flogged often in 3rd or 4th gear up even minor grades.

Pluses of the Route:  Fun to drive! Scenery! Engaging! Never a Boring Moment! Did I say Fun to Drive? Little Traffic!

Negatives:  No or little guardrails. Cliffs. Rock Falls. Trees 5 feet from road. No shoulder to speak of. Blind corners. Blind rises. Death at every turn potentially. Far from medical facilities. Fun to Drive as in one can be tempted to be a little to Jackie Stewart on the road. Little Traffic so potential to go off the road and have no one know.

Eventually I dropped down into a valley that opened up and followed 25e south towards the Cumberland Gap National Park. The drive into the park from my entry point and up to the lookout was almost as hairy as the drive down 421 but well worth it. I have long heard about the Cumberland Gap and know some of its history.

It is hard to imagine the barriers that geography placed on the pioneers with our modern roads and transit options. The discovery of the the Cumberland Gap was a major step to opening up the Ohio Territory and other points west. The Appalachian Mountains is one major barrier to travel in the 1700s, 1800s and even the last century and even now. The whole topography of the area impacts how one travels by car, train, and plane. Sometimes you have to drive a 100 miles north just to head west depending on your starting and termination point.

One can see from this satellite composite of the north-east of the US that the big purply band of stuff is the Appalachian Mountain Chain. You cannot discern the Cumberland Gap from this map but imagine if someone told you that there was a way through the mountains other than around it you would be interested. Especially if you had to walk the entire distance.

I have flown over the Appalachians many times and until you get on the ground, as it were, one does not appreciate just how impressive this range is and how it influenced North American history. For those that do not believe that Canada was (and is affected) by this geography the Bi-Centennial of The War of 1812 is coming fast so read up and learn.

Some Shots of The Cumberland Gap

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Day 2

B-58 Hustler. Sexy! See the movie Fail-Safe for more...

Woke up in my little piece of heaven at the Motel 6 in Fairborn and packed and checked out. I was in a major hankering for a coffee but the nearest Starbucks was on base at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base and me not having the requisite credentials to enter the base decided to head on south to the National Museum of the United States Air Force.

I must comment that the area around Dayton is very nice and the drive from the area I was at which is by the new Air Force base and the original one is very picturesque. The fall colours were at an early stage with yellow leaves figuring most predominantly.

For those of you that do not get WHY the U.S.A.F. has the worlds largest aviation museum located in Dayton here is a thumbnail history for you...

1. The Wright brothers (heard of them?) developed their Wright Flyer in Dayton and from that nascent discovery grew an industry that has revolutionized communications and travel for all of us.
2. This area became a major center for military and general aviation technical developments and its growth was spurred on by the Second World War.

This area was a mecca for technical developments that led to some of the features of today's aircraft that help make air travel so safe and reliable.

I cannot say enough of the museum. I was told that it would take 2 days to see the entire complex and that is correct. I toured the main facility and the aircraft collection is simply outstanding. If one had no knowledge of aviation and general history relating to world events reading all the exhibits and viewing all the airplanes would take 2 days in the main complex alone. Seriously! The written exhibits are well done and directed to the general population and not just us aviation aficionados. I banged through the exhibit halls at the main facility in about 6 hours and then realized there was a whole other section located about a mile away (you get there by shuttle bus) focusing on experimental military and the Presidential aircraft.

Damn! WTF! Oh well, I will be coming back for sure. I had only planned to stay one day so let's call it a recon in force and a trip to return is in the offing in the future.

Of note is an amazing gift shop with one of the most varied and interesting selections of books on U.S. Military and foreign military aircraft development, personalities and histories available in one place. I had budgeted a Benjamin ($100) for books and had to select only two of the twenty of so I would have picked if I could.

My tastes in aviation books tend to be technical and not literary and I picked up:

Magnesium Overcast and  Test Flying at old Wright Field. Not exactly Giller Prize material but definitely FTW for aviation enthusiasts like me.

But do you know why I went to the museum in the first place? To see one plane, and one plane only.

The B-36 Peacemaker...

Years ago I saw a movie titled Strategic Air Command with Jimmy Stewart in it. Sure, it was a SAC puff piece leaking with propaganda about apple pie and the American Way but if you lived in the '50s with the threat of Russia and the A-bomb you probably would have eaten this up for breakfast. The movie follows the experiences of Stewart (a real live WWII bomber pilot) as a baseball player reactivated into the active military from Reserve status. He goes in the U.S.A.F. grudgingly and then becomes enthralled with the process of being part of SAC.

This clip illustrates the logistics of getting one bloody bomber started and flying. It does not illustrate the people hours needed to maintain and fix the damn thing. You might recognize Harry Morgan who was Colonel Potter in M.A.S.H. playing the flight engineer. That would be me btw... Let someone else fly MY airplane as I fix and monitor its systems.






 Something that massive just can't fly but it did! BTW, I got one of my questions answered that have been bothering me about this aircraft for some time. You will note in the video a pair of jet engines slung underneath the wing. These were added later in the production run to improve take-off performance and bombing penetration speed (i.e. make the bomber less susceptible to interception). The technical issue is that piston engines (the six pusher props) use av-gas (gasoline) and jets use JP-4 (really refined diesel fuel) so having two fuel systems and tanks is pretty complex and a bit dumb. BUT turbine engines (jets) can use av-gas. It affects their power output and maintenance but they work just fine. So Convair simply piped av-gas to those suckers and they turned and burned just fine, thank you.

I also took in the IMAX film Fighter Pilot:  Operation Red Flag and it was amazing with its 6 channel sound. BTW, my father Russ was instrumental and helping IMAX get off the ground. If you ever see him ask him about it. Watch some of it here and do it in 720P.

Some of my pics from that day:

B-36: Hard to get the scale of the size of this A/C in the photo

 

Landing gear and wing of B-36. This man is about 6 feet tall so you get an idea how big this A/C is.

Bomb bay detail of B-36. The bomber had pressurized crew compartments in the cockpit and aft of the bomb bay so if someone wanted to travel between these compartments they got on a trolly and slid down this tunnel to where they wanted to go. The windows probably served as a means for the crew to inspect the bomb bay for any ordinance hung up in the bay.

Original landing gear tire of B-36. At that time it was the largest tire ever made or an airplane. To give you an idea just how big this was it is taller than my 5 feet 8 inches. It weighs more than most cars.

Wing span:  230 feet. A current Boeing 747 has a wing span of 224 feet. At the time this plane was in service there was NO hangar in the US that could accommodate it entirely. They could put the plane in the hangar but leave the tail outside. Initial production models had almost all their maintenance done outside!

It was closing time and time for me to go. I headed south on I-75 and drove to Lexington, Kentucky.

KMs:  353

No cars of note.

Day 1

Point of Origin: Cambridge, ON
Destination: Dayton, Ohio

Route: 401 then the 402 to the Bluewater Bridge. I-94 South via some bizarre GPS routing into Detroit. I-75 South to Dayton.

KMs: 574.7

Cars of Note: Lamborghini Murciélago in green head east on the 401 at a rather sedate pace. Damn speed limits!

I took this route instead of going to the US through Windsor because the drive from London to Windsor is SO DAMN BORING!!! The weather was fantastic and as I approached the boarder crossing I remember that Cam and Annika's mom had introduced me to "Bridge Fries" under the Bluewater Bridge at Point Edward. Since the new bridge has been installed the area is much more formalized than it was back in the early '90s. At that time there was a gravel lot and one chip truck that served delicious fries. Now the area has more parking and a park and another competing chip truck. I do not think the one I graced with my presence was the original one Heather introduced to me but the fries were very good and I enjoyed the view of the St. Clair River with its active boat traffic.


I took some shots while I was there...

The drive to Dayton was interesting. I trusted in my Garmin GPS and it must of used its ability to assess traffic conditions and sent me into downtown Detroit. The route probably saved me some time and I got to see some utterly fascinating architecture but Detroit is a sad town. There were whole blocks of abandoned buildings; abandoned schools and other public buildings; and burned down businesses and apartments. A case of modern urban decay. I wanted to stop and take some photos but not knowing the area I thought it best not to. If I was going to do this I would charter a taxi and guide and use their local knowledge to get some great shots.


Once I cleared the metropolitan Detroit area the drive became more than pleasant. The weather was amazing and I made good time never going over the speed limit.

I got into Dayton around 8:00 PM and saddled up to the Motel 6 in Fairborn, OH, just north of the National Museum of the  USAF. I was looking for cheap and cheerful and I got cheep and scrungy. The Motel 6 in Fiarborn is massive. At least 200 rooms but only 4 or 5 cars in the parking lot. The room was not acceptable but at that time of night I was not going to find another place to stay at. Plus, I have stayed at much worse places in my life. It was serviceable and had WiFi so it would have to do.


I called my parents to let them know all was good. Did some web surfing and then, on a whim, decided to check out the drawers of the clothes bureau in case someone left something behind. Voila! I found a yellow legal pad full of jottings. Interesting...mostly the author writing her name over and over and the birth dates of herself, her siblings repeatedly. Not much in the way of content but oh so teenage obsessive!




NOTES:

1. Why does the US change the speed limits so often? Pet peeve re. GPS does not often have accurate maximum speed limit information. Sometimes it reports the speed limit too fast and sometime too slow. So, do not just trust technology. Use your head and read the signs.
2. Re. GPS routing... It may work but if you are not familiar with the area you are putting your trust too much into technology. Have a map (I have one now!) and look at it and think.
3. Pickup Truck Drivers:  In the States these people are generally IDIOTS. I got cut off 4 times one this trip segment by this category of drivers. Is there something about owning a pickup truck that automatically lowers their IQ?
4. Never seen more pieces of junk driving on the road. In Ontario, generally, people keep up with the flow of traffic but on the trip down to Dayton there were, invariably, a late model Ford, GM, or Dodge that was puffing smoke and cruising along at lower that the 55 MPH legal minimum allowed on Interstate highways. It could be because most of these vehicles were driven by Orca fat women that spend too much time at Hardees.