American Roadtrip

The Great American Roadtrip

2003

Date Location Comments

5-24-2003 Selma,
North Carolina
Yesterday I climbed the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse (tallest in the US). Today I climbed the Currituck Lighthouse. I think I've climbed enough lighthouses for a few days.
Last night while the storm was raging (and it really was "raging" - no other word for it), I read up on Blackbeard. It turns out that his home base and hideout was on Ocracoke Island. According to the various histories, the governor of North Carolina was tolerant of Blackbeard (who gave him a share of the profits). However, the relationship fractured not long after Blackbeard hosted what became known as the "Ocracoke Orgy", inviting all his pirate buddies to join him in several weeks of partying on the island.

I also read up on the Lost Colony of Roanoke Island. It had always been one of my favorite stories growing up (I read a lot of history books as a child). The Roanoke Colony was the first attempt by the English to establish a permanent colony in North America. Due to some unfortunate circumstances, they were essentially abandoned for several years, and when someone came looking for them years later, they found only the word "Croatoan" carved on a tree at the site. The assumption is that the settlers went to live with a tribe of Indians on Croatoan Island and that possibly moved north and lived with the Chesapeake tribe. However, Powhatan (Pocahontas's father) later ordered his tribe to massacre all of the Chesapeakes and the settlers who were living among them, and it is assumed that none of the Lost Colony survived. In any event, from the time they were left on Roanoke Island, they were never seen again by European eyes.   There are lots of references to Virginia Dare on Cape Hatteras ... she was the first child of English origin born in the New World. However, she was also one of the Lost Colonists, so if she didn't die as a baby, she almost certainly died by the time she was 15 at the hands of Powhatan's tribe (years before the John Smith - Pocahontas incident).

While I was driving up Cape Hatteras (and I drove the whole thing from Ocracoke to Corolla), I passed by an interesting structure that I wanted to photograph. I didn't see a way to get there, so I stopped and asked a local. What follows is an example of how NOT to ask for directions followed by how to go about asking effectively...

Me: Excuse me, but can I go down this road to get over to that building?

Local: You could, but you'll get stuck in the marsh.

Me: Could I walk over there from here?

Local: You could, but you'll get eaten alive by mosquitoes.

Me: Oh, well, could you suggest some way for me to get to that building without either getting stuck in a marsh or eaten alive by anything?

Local: Yup, just turn left, go a quarter mile down the road and turn left again.

OK .... so I got there, unbitten and without getting stuck in a bog. Oh, and I stopped by the memorial at Kitty Hawk (really at Kill Devil Hill, but why quibble). I did a lot of walking there. The site has the markers for the powered flights of 1903 at one end and waaaaay at the other end is Kill Devil Hill where they have the large memorial marker (and where the Wright brothers did their experimental glider flights in the years before they attempted a powered flight).

Went by the memorial to the Lost Colony. It's a beautiful garden, more like a manicured woodland. I took another long walk, which turned out to have a rather mystical quality to it since someone out there was playing selections from Bach's Well Tempered Clavier on the flute.

5-25-2003 Fort Mill,
South Carolina
It is impossible to do laundry, check email, and shower, and still get on the road before noon. Which is to say, that I didn't get on the road until noon. I made good time considering that the roads in North Carolina do not go in straight lines (for good reason) and have low speed limits (also for good reason).
Gypsy went a little berserk on Highway 74 and kept telling me to make a U turn (in the middle of a six lane freeway no less), so I turned her off for most of the trip. I turn her back on when I got to Monroe, NC. And, thank heavens she had calmed down by then and was once again a rational traveling companion.

The campground is completely packed. I gather there is some big race going on close by. Not my thing, so I'll be the only one in the whole KOA not flying a banner with racing cars on it. Eh, I'm used to being odd man out.

5-26-2003 Fort Mill,
South Carolina
The Fort Mill KOA is heaven. I cannot stress this enough. It's on a highway, but not a horribly busy highway, so there isn't much traffic noise. Next, there's a Blimpie franchise right in the KOA store, so you can purchase a nice inexpensive (and fresh) hot meal just steps from your rig. But, wait, it gets better ... they have a gas station at the store, and the gas is CHEAP!! The campground is pretty -- lots of trees and a nice pool -- and there is gravel at each site (so you don't track in lots of dirt). The shower stalls are nice and roomy too. There is even a fantastic ice cream place about a mile away (called "Maggie Moo's"). Bliss ... this is bliss.
Given that there isn't much to do or see in the area (unless you are a big NASCAR fan), I took today to clean and organize again, nap, read and take care of "stuff." There's a Ford dealership about a quarter mile down the highway, so tomorrow morning I'm taking PeeWee in to have his oil changed and get him lubed. Then I think I'll feel more prepared for the long haul home.

If any of you haven't checked out the photos lately, I updated them recently to include photos of some of the houses in Charleston's Battery district and of three of the Outer Banks lighthouses.

5-27-2003 Hendersonville, North Carolina While at Fort Mill Ford this morning, I got PeeWee a nice new hub cap as well as a complete service. With the rig all cleaned up and repacked, I feel like I'm just starting out.
I was talking with a very nice lady (fellow camper) at the KOA this morning, and she told me about this wonderful stuff ... it comes in a stick, and it's called "After Bite." You put it on the bug bites and it not only takes away the itch, but it makes the bite go down almost immediately. I have not seen it sold in California that I recall, but I plan to stock up on the stuff at the local Ekerd's Drug. If you travel out to the South, I recommend you get some somewhere.

The Blue Ridge Mountains are nothing less than jaw-dropping in their beauty.   It's like Nature ran out of room for all the green, and started stacking green on green on green. The kudzu coats everything. I realize that the kudzu is a foreign invader and quite a problem, but before you know that, it really is rather beautiful.

I spent the afternoon and evening with my friends, Fran and Ray Tock, who live in Hendersonville. They were kind enough to let me camp in their driveway and to get a kitty fix. Late in the evening, I introduced them to "The Daily Show" ... which is my personal addiction. Funniest and most informative show on the air. If you haven't seen it, seek it out and watch it.

5/28/2003 Asheville,
North Carolina
Fran and Ray took me out to breakfast this morning and for a walk around downtown Hendersonville. What a remarkable town. It's small, but very cosmopolitan. They are even doing their own version of Cow Parade, but with bears instead of cows. Sadly, I did not have my camera with me, so I didn't get to take a bunch of bear photos.
It was afternoon before I got unhooked and on my way to Biltmore Estate. If you don't know about Biltmore (and I am constantly amazed at the number of people who don't know about Biltmore), it is the largest privately owned residence in the United States. It was built by George W. Vanderbilt in 1895 and is currently owned by his grandson, Mr. William Cecil.

I can't say I cared all that much for the huge rooms on the first floor, but those on the second and third floors were lovely and livable. I especially liked the third floor living hall and the library. A highlight was the original Durer woodcut (a gigantic piece ... about 6 foot by 8 foot) that they have over the mantel in one room. After touring the house, I decided to take a special tour of the rooftop. That was well worth the extra $14 I paid. The views from the top of the house are remarkable. Pretty much all of the land you can see from the house is part of the estate. It goes on for miles and miles -- 8000 acres in all. I took about 100 photos on the grounds of the estate (none are allowed in the mansion itself).

The guide who took me over the roof suggested that I take a detour off the main track when leaving the property so that I could see the view of the house from the lagoon. So, I managed to get PeeWee over a narrow bridge (without dumping him in the water) and down a dirt road to a stand of trees by the lagoon. Oh, the view from there!! Of course I took a few photos, but I don't know that they will do it justice.

I bought what I could of plans and schematics of the house because I would love to try and model it in 3D on the computer. It will probably take me the better part of a month or two when I get home, but I think I'm up to it.

5-29-2003 Nashville
Tennessee
It took me a lot longer to get from Asheville to Nashville than I thought it would ... about five and a half hours, not counting the one hour nap I took at a rest stop about an hour outside of Nashville. I don't know if it was low blood sugar or what, but I just ran out of steam and had to lie down before I caused a wreck on the highway.
I wasn't planning to do much of anything here in Nashville, but that was before I knew that The Hermitage was here (that's Andrew Jackson's home for those of you who don't already know). I may have to take the morning and see it, as well as the mock up of the Parthenon (and the statue of Athena Parthenos) they have in downtown.

I was having a little problem with my black water tank ... the fill indicator was out of whack and showing 2/3 full even after a dump. So, as soon as I got to camp here, I filled it with fresh water and dumped it twice, at which time the indicator went back to empty.

On the agenda for tonight: shower, watch a little TV and sleep.

5-30-2003 Paducah, Kentucky Well, the black water tank shows empty - as long as I don't put any chemicals in it - because then the indicator pops right back up to 2/3 full. Hmmmmm. Not that this puts a crimp in anything. I can pretty much tell by looking into the toilet and down into the tank just how full it is or isn't -- but, odd just the same.
I went on a tour of The Hermitage and Belle Meade in Nashville. Belle Meade was also a plantation, but their specialty was race horses. One of their most famous horses, Bonnie Scotland, is the ancestor of just about every Kentucky Derby winner in modern history. Also, you could see the bullet scars in the front columns from a skirmish that took place right in the front yard during the Civil War. Both tours were great, the only glitch was that the tour bus got stuck in traffic, so I didn't get on the road until about 5:30. (Our tour bus driver sang to us and did impressions of various country singers ... he also ordered barbeque for us, so we had dinner and a show.) However, I made it to Paducah, Kentucky, in record time.

I had a productive evening. One of my mp3-cds would not read in the mp3 player, so I re-burned the cd and did a little troubleshooting on the jukebox. Also charged up my camera battery and erased a lot of people in front of The Hermitage (all seated and waiting for the next tour).

From what the (very nice) owner of the KOA told me, Paducah looks like a neat little place. They have a quilting museum, which as a quilter for many years I am simply going to have to see. Only problem is that, tomorrow being Sunday, it won't open until 1:00, so once again, I won't get on the road until late in the day.

5-31-2003 St. Louis, Missouri Paducah turned out to be quite a surprise. First, it's a nifty town on its own, but then it has a lot of good restaurants and stores. Then, add the quilt stores and quilt museum, and you have my idea of paradise. To top it off, they were having a street rod show downtown, so I got to try creating a few automobile based abstracts.
I also walked along the riverfront to see "Wall to Wall", a collection of murals depicting episodes and people from Paducah's history. All by one artist too ... it has to be a massive undertaking for one individual.

The quilts at the Museum of the American Quilters Society were phenomenal.   They ran the gamut from traditional to abstract and everything in between. I wish they would have allowed photos inside so that I could share a few of them with you. At least I was able to purchase a book with some of the quilts in it, as well as one on the mathematics of quilting, including creating tessellations and using the Fibonacci Sequence in quilting.

I got to St. Louis about 6:00, which normally would have given me plenty of time to answer email and post photos and such to the net. However, a "free" dataport at this KOA means the first 10 minutes are free and then they charge you. Thank you, but I'll pass.

Date	Location	Comments
5-24-2003	Selma, North Carolina	Yesterday I climbed the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse (tallest in the US). Today I climbed the Currituck Lighthouse. I think I've climbed enough lighthouses for a few days. Last night while the storm was raging (and it really was "raging" - no other word for it), I read up on Blackbeard. It turns out that his home base and hideout was on Ocracoke Island. According to the various histories, the governor of North Carolina was tolerant of Blackbeard (who gave him a share of the profits). However, the relationship fractured not long after Blackbeard hosted what became known as the "Ocracoke Orgy", inviting all his pirate buddies to join him in several weeks of partying on the island. I also read up on the Lost Colony of Roanoke Island. It had always been one of my favorite stories growing up (I read a lot of history books as a child). The Roanoke Colony was the first attempt by the English to establish a permanent colony in North America. Due to some unfortunate circumstances, they were essentially abandoned for several years, and when someone came looking for them years later, they found only the word "Croatoan" carved on a tree at the site. The assumption is that the settlers went to live with a tribe of Indians on Croatoan Island and that possibly moved north and lived with the Chesapeake tribe. However, Powhatan (Pocahontas's father) later ordered his tribe to massacre all of the Chesapeakes and the settlers who were living among them, and it is assumed that none of the Lost Colony survived. In any event, from the time they were left on Roanoke Island, they were never seen again by European eyes. There are lots of references to Virginia Dare on Cape Hatteras ... she was the first child of English origin born in the New World. However, she was also one of the Lost Colonists, so if she didn't die as a baby, she almost certainly died by the time she was 15 at the hands of Powhatan's tribe (years before the John Smith - Pocahontas incident). While I was driving up Cape Hatteras (and I drove the whole thing from Ocracoke to Corolla), I passed by an interesting structure that I wanted to photograph. I didn't see a way to get there, so I stopped and asked a local. What follows is an example of how NOT to ask for directions followed by how to go about asking effectively... Me: Excuse me, but can I go down this road to get over to that building? Local: You could, but you'll get stuck in the marsh. Me: Could I walk over there from here? Local: You could, but you'll get eaten alive by mosquitoes. Me: Oh, well, could you suggest some way for me to get to that building without either getting stuck in a marsh or eaten alive by anything? Local: Yup, just turn left, go a quarter mile down the road and turn left again. OK .... so I got there, unbitten and without getting stuck in a bog. Oh, and I stopped by the memorial at Kitty Hawk (really at Kill Devil Hill, but why quibble). I did a lot of walking there. The site has the markers for the powered flights of 1903 at one end and waaaaay at the other end is Kill Devil Hill where they have the large memorial marker (and where the Wright brothers did their experimental glider flights in the years before they attempted a powered flight). Went by the memorial to the Lost Colony. It's a beautiful garden, more like a manicured woodland. I took another long walk, which turned out to have a rather mystical quality to it since someone out there was playing selections from Bach's Well Tempered Clavier on the flute.
5-25-2003	Fort Mill, South Carolina	It is impossible to do laundry, check email, and shower, and still get on the road before noon. Which is to say, that I didn't get on the road until noon. I made good time considering that the roads in North Carolina do not go in straight lines (for good reason) and have low speed limits (also for good reason). Gypsy went a little berserk on Highway 74 and kept telling me to make a U turn (in the middle of a six lane freeway no less), so I turned her off for most of the trip. I turn her back on when I got to Monroe, NC. And, thank heavens she had calmed down by then and was once again a rational traveling companion. The campground is completely packed. I gather there is some big race going on close by. Not my thing, so I'll be the only one in the whole KOA not flying a banner with racing cars on it. Eh, I'm used to being odd man out.
5-26-2003	Fort Mill, South Carolina	The Fort Mill KOA is heaven. I cannot stress this enough. It's on a highway, but not a horribly busy highway, so there isn't much traffic noise. Next, there's a Blimpie franchise right in the KOA store, so you can purchase a nice inexpensive (and fresh) hot meal just steps from your rig. But, wait, it gets better ... they have a gas station at the store, and the gas is CHEAP!! The campground is pretty -- lots of trees and a nice pool -- and there is gravel at each site (so you don't track in lots of dirt). The shower stalls are nice and roomy too. There is even a fantastic ice cream place about a mile away (called "Maggie Moo's"). Bliss ... this is bliss. Given that there isn't much to do or see in the area (unless you are a big NASCAR fan), I took today to clean and organize again, nap, read and take care of "stuff." There's a Ford dealership about a quarter mile down the highway, so tomorrow morning I'm taking PeeWee in to have his oil changed and get him lubed. Then I think I'll feel more prepared for the long haul home. If any of you haven't checked out the photos lately, I updated them recently to include photos of some of the houses in Charleston's Battery district and of three of the Outer Banks lighthouses.
5-27-2003	Hendersonville, North Carolina	While at Fort Mill Ford this morning, I got PeeWee a nice new hub cap as well as a complete service. With the rig all cleaned up and repacked, I feel like I'm just starting out. I was talking with a very nice lady (fellow camper) at the KOA this morning, and she told me about this wonderful stuff ... it comes in a stick, and it's called "After Bite." You put it on the bug bites and it not only takes away the itch, but it makes the bite go down almost immediately. I have not seen it sold in California that I recall, but I plan to stock up on the stuff at the local Ekerd's Drug. If you travel out to the South, I recommend you get some somewhere. The Blue Ridge Mountains are nothing less than jaw-dropping in their beauty. It's like Nature ran out of room for all the green, and started stacking green on green on green. The kudzu coats everything. I realize that the kudzu is a foreign invader and quite a problem, but before you know that, it really is rather beautiful. I spent the afternoon and evening with my friends, Fran and Ray Tock, who live in Hendersonville. They were kind enough to let me camp in their driveway and to get a kitty fix. Late in the evening, I introduced them to "The Daily Show" ... which is my personal addiction. Funniest and most informative show on the air. If you haven't seen it, seek it out and watch it.
5/28/2003	Asheville, North Carolina	Fran and Ray took me out to breakfast this morning and for a walk around downtown Hendersonville. What a remarkable town. It's small, but very cosmopolitan. They are even doing their own version of Cow Parade, but with bears instead of cows. Sadly, I did not have my camera with me, so I didn't get to take a bunch of bear photos. It was afternoon before I got unhooked and on my way to Biltmore Estate. If you don't know about Biltmore (and I am constantly amazed at the number of people who don't know about Biltmore), it is the largest privately owned residence in the United States. It was built by George W. Vanderbilt in 1895 and is currently owned by his grandson, Mr. William Cecil. I can't say I cared all that much for the huge rooms on the first floor, but those on the second and third floors were lovely and livable. I especially liked the third floor living hall and the library. A highlight was the original Durer woodcut (a gigantic piece ... about 6 foot by 8 foot) that they have over the mantel in one room. After touring the house, I decided to take a special tour of the rooftop. That was well worth the extra $14 I paid. The views from the top of the house are remarkable. Pretty much all of the land you can see from the house is part of the estate. It goes on for miles and miles -- 8000 acres in all. I took about 100 photos on the grounds of the estate (none are allowed in the mansion itself). The guide who took me over the roof suggested that I take a detour off the main track when leaving the property so that I could see the view of the house from the lagoon. So, I managed to get PeeWee over a narrow bridge (without dumping him in the water) and down a dirt road to a stand of trees by the lagoon. Oh, the view from there!! Of course I took a few photos, but I don't know that they will do it justice. I bought what I could of plans and schematics of the house because I would love to try and model it in 3D on the computer. It will probably take me the better part of a month or two when I get home, but I think I'm up to it.
5-29-2003	Nashville Tennessee	It took me a lot longer to get from Asheville to Nashville than I thought it would ... about five and a half hours, not counting the one hour nap I took at a rest stop about an hour outside of Nashville. I don't know if it was low blood sugar or what, but I just ran out of steam and had to lie down before I caused a wreck on the highway. I wasn't planning to do much of anything here in Nashville, but that was before I knew that The Hermitage was here (that's Andrew Jackson's home for those of you who don't already know). I may have to take the morning and see it, as well as the mock up of the Parthenon (and the statue of Athena Parthenos) they have in downtown. I was having a little problem with my black water tank ... the fill indicator was out of whack and showing 2/3 full even after a dump. So, as soon as I got to camp here, I filled it with fresh water and dumped it twice, at which time the indicator went back to empty. On the agenda for tonight: shower, watch a little TV and sleep.
5-30-2003	Paducah, Kentucky	Well, the black water tank shows empty - as long as I don't put any chemicals in it - because then the indicator pops right back up to 2/3 full. Hmmmmm. Not that this puts a crimp in anything. I can pretty much tell by looking into the toilet and down into the tank just how full it is or isn't -- but, odd just the same. I went on a tour of The Hermitage and Belle Meade in Nashville. Belle Meade was also a plantation, but their specialty was race horses. One of their most famous horses, Bonnie Scotland, is the ancestor of just about every Kentucky Derby winner in modern history. Also, you could see the bullet scars in the front columns from a skirmish that took place right in the front yard during the Civil War. Both tours were great, the only glitch was that the tour bus got stuck in traffic, so I didn't get on the road until about 5:30. (Our tour bus driver sang to us and did impressions of various country singers ... he also ordered barbeque for us, so we had dinner and a show.) However, I made it to Paducah, Kentucky, in record time. I had a productive evening. One of my mp3-cds would not read in the mp3 player, so I re-burned the cd and did a little troubleshooting on the jukebox. Also charged up my camera battery and erased a lot of people in front of The Hermitage (all seated and waiting for the next tour). From what the (very nice) owner of the KOA told me, Paducah looks like a neat little place. They have a quilting museum, which as a quilter for many years I am simply going to have to see. Only problem is that, tomorrow being Sunday, it won't open until 1:00, so once again, I won't get on the road until late in the day.
5-31-2003	St. Louis, Missouri	Paducah turned out to be quite a surprise. First, it's a nifty town on its own, but then it has a lot of good restaurants and stores. Then, add the quilt stores and quilt museum, and you have my idea of paradise. To top it off, they were having a street rod show downtown, so I got to try creating a few automobile based abstracts. I also walked along the riverfront to see "Wall to Wall", a collection of murals depicting episodes and people from Paducah's history. All by one artist too ... it has to be a massive undertaking for one individual. The quilts at the Museum of the American Quilters Society were phenomenal. They ran the gamut from traditional to abstract and everything in between. I wish they would have allowed photos inside so that I could share a few of them with you. At least I was able to purchase a book with some of the quilts in it, as well as one on the mathematics of quilting, including creating tessellations and using the Fibonacci Sequence in quilting. I got to St. Louis about 6:00, which normally would have given me plenty of time to answer email and post photos and such to the net. However, a "free" dataport at this KOA means the first 10 minutes are free and then they charge you. Thank you, but I'll pass.