End of a Great Trip

I was going to call this blog entry something like Home Sweet Home, but I don't want to give the impression that it was sweeter than any other day of our trip.

The big highlight of the day was meeting our friends Dave and Wally at Peace River Seafood in Punta Gorda. We pigged out on a couple of dozen huge crabs, I think all were larger than 8" point to point and they were heavy and sweet! Cold beer made it a perfect meal, although we had to go to the nearby Dairy Queen for the requisite ice cream finish. And so, our trip ended as it began, with a belly full of crab! How could life get better?

We rode the last 60 miles together down I-75 to Exit 111 and to our house where a mountain of mail waited. We were pleased to find our dwelling was devoid of squatters, human or animal, and everything worked except for my car battery and two UPS batteries. Not bad for an 83 day trip.

The ending odometer reading was 56,090 for a total trip of 8,739 fun filled miles. We felt a bit sad it had ended. Fun was had every day, even the ones spent in the hospitals. Our costs averaged about $180 a day when we were not paying Blue Cross Blue Shield co-pays. I suspect our insurance coverage will cover all but the deductibles. Depreciation on the trailer may add another thousand or so to the real cost. All things considered, we got our money's worth for an experience we will carry to our graves. I just wish our budget had allowed for one of those beautiful stuffed jackalopes.

Sunday we rewarded the Honda for its great service with a day of rest, and a thorough washing. An oil change and waxing will soon follow. I found a few cracked parts and some missing plastic, a legacy of the Wyoming accident and I'll order replacements this week. I like the bike to function and look like new, and it will. I've owned many motorcycles in my life but none come close to the comfort and reliability of this Gold Wing. The new ones are even better and it's rumored that the 2011 model will be made in Japan. That will probably set the new high water mark for quality motorcycle cruising and if we hit the lottery, I may be tempted to revisit the idea of a new bike. I'm due to hit anytime now. For years I've instructed Theresa to buy a lotto ticket whenever it gets above $200 million. So far, no hits. Be we are optimists and with our gaming investments approaching the $50 mark I'm getting ready to receive our funds, making plans, spending a little in advance, I mean, how long can it take? If any of you readers have any influence with the lotto gods, please put in a good word for us. I don't think anyone enjoys spending money more than we do, therefore we are deserving, and if this unfruitful trend continues another 10 years, we may squander another $50 on loosing tickets. I'd hate to do that, I hope we break the trend soon. For now, I'm more than happy with the 1993 mount. In Gold Wing terms, 56,000 miles is in the prime of it's life!

The trailer has been returned to new condition with a factory replaced tent and a unique accessory tray I had fabricated in Wyoming. The tray is home for two gallons of extra fuel, a 6 pack cooler, (sodas of course), and space for trash, oil bottles, and miscellaneous stuff. Welded up of diamond plate aluminum, it is light weight, functional and looks good.

Other than Daytona's Biketober Fest this October, we don't have any plans for the trailer for the next couple of years, so if any readers want to make us an offer on it, we could use the garage space.

Our next big trips will be a cruise to Hawaii in March and we plan to fly to Australia in 2011. We would like to re-visit Asia, Thailand and Vietnam in particular, and that would check the major travel items off our bucket list. We have a short, one week cruise to Fantasy Fest this October. That will help ease the shock of going back to work a bit.

This is actually a great time to be back in Naples and back to work. Microsoft will release Windows 7 on October 22nd and Intel has recently released a crop of much faster processors. That will make my computer building a lot more fun than it has been for the last couple of years. I'm planning to build our own next PC this month and for a geek like me, there's a wonderland of cool stuff available. I'm betting tech stocks will rally when the pent up demand for non-Vista PCs hits the market. Microsoft (MSFT) hovers at $24.65 a share today and Intel, (INTC) is at $20.32. Check here in a few months to test my powers of prognostication.

That's about it for this blog. Maybe my next one will be titled something like, Upside Down in Australia, or Scootering in Singapore. Time will tell.

Thanks for reading.

Homeward Bound

We are getting close now! Tonight we reached Gainesville, Florida and it looks like we are only 300 miles from home. Depending on the weather, we will eat crabs at Peace River and head home tomorrow or stay in Tampa for one night visiting friends. Either way, we will be home Sunday.

This is my first time seeing the Florida State Capitol Building in Tallahassee and I have to say it's an impressive sight. The building and grounds are beautiful. I'd have liked to have taken a tour or something but we wanted to preserve the option of driving to Naples Saturday if the weather turned bad so that meant driving till dark.

Hotwire came through again finding us a beautiful hotel for only $60! We are settled into the Paramount Plaza next to the Chop Stix Restaurant where we had a lovely Ginger Grouper dinner.

We drove longer than we like, but in all it was a pretty good day.

More History

Andersonville, Georgia was the largest prisoner of war camp in the South and at its peak held about 45,000 Union Soldiers. 13,000 of them died. We spent the day there watching a documentary movie and touring the camp and grave sites. It was fascinating but very sad. It reminded me of the German POW Camps of World War II. The conditions were horrible for the prisoners but it seemed to me that the Captain in charge could do nothing about it and probably should not have been executed for war crimes after the conflict. He too was a victim of the times.

See http://www.nps.gov/ande/index.htm for more information.

The veterans graveyard was so large and had so many grave markers, many labeled Unknown, that it is hard to imagine a country in such conflict that they would inflict this kind of injury upon itself. War is horrible, but civil war even more so.

We ate our lunch in the beautiful park, serenaded by locusts.

Going to and from Andersonville we visited Plains, Georgia, the home of our 39th President, Jimmy Carter. We tasted peanut brittle, fried peanuts, and peanut ice cream. It seemed like a very nice, quiet, neighborhood. Perhaps it was improved by the Secret Service vehicles. One of the small shops had enough jam and jelly to last for years. Empty Billy Carter Beer cans were $5 each, and every political button imaginable was available. I think the stock in Carter memorabilia is in decline, no doubt displaced by interest in younger, flashier presidents.

We also found an antique shop with more unidentified antlers. Could they be... jackalope?

History Trip

This tunnel of trees is the scenic entry road to the town of Eufaula, Alabama. Both sides of the street are lined with historic Antebellum, (meaning "before war" in Latin), homes. They represent the grand old South before the civil war and today stand as a reminder of how grand it was. Eufaula has a large share of these treasures and it makes for a beautiful showcase as you drive into town.

Our friends, Gary and Anne Swain, live near the center of this beautiful area and have invited us to be their house guests for a few days. Not only are they great cooks but they are also great tour guides.

We started today with a trip to the new National Infantry Museum and Soldier Center in Columbus, Georgia. This place is impressive. The physical plant is huge and very well equipped to tell the story of our country's infantryman through the many wars where they have been called to action. Inside of the IMAX equipped museum there are displays and artifacts from the various wars and they show the developments in equipment, uniforms and weapons through the years.

I was surprised to find an M29 Davy Crockett on display. This amazingly small weapons system could fire a small atomic bomb, up to two and a half miles and had the power of 10 to 250 tons of TNT depending on how the operator set it up. The vehicle that moved and shot the thing was a Jeep. If they ever punched you in the nose with this nimble little device, you'd bleed. The secret weapon was deployed in Europe but was later withdrawn as it had the distinctly annoying feature of delivering a fatal dose of radiation to its operators on use. A soldier might think twice about pulling the trigger once he knew about that possible downside. The plutonium warhead part only weighed 51 lbs. and at 11 inches in diameter by 15 inches long for a potential 250 tons of TNT bang, this finned watermelon was simply too dangerous to use.

Later we went to the Ft. Mitchell Cemetery and thought about how quickly a place like this could be filled with today's weapons; very scary.

Back when the Russians were our adversaries, we could rely on their desire to live to keep us all safe from the use of these horribly powerful bombs. Today however, our potential enemies may think mutually assured destruction means they win. We get harps and wings, they get 72 virgins. Any rational, uneducated kid, who's been denied the companionship of any female, except his goat, might just think martyrdom offers a better deal than milking goats for the rest of his miserable life; no matter how pretty the goat's eyes are. This worries me much more than the Russians did.

We ended the evening with a great dinner and a trip to the Swain's cabin where we found an unidentified bit of antler. If you recognize this bone please let us know what animal might have owned it. It sure looks like jackalope to me.

Sweet Home Alabama

We arrived safely at our friend's in Eufaula, Alabama. The roads were beautiful, light traffic, nice weather, but other than finding motorcycle oil at Walmart, not much to report. Tomorrow we go sightseeing with our friends. I'll have photos and a story then.

Loveless Cafe and Natchez Trace

Breakfast today was an event. We saved our appetites for the famous Loveless Cafe, just south of Nashville. This is where all the music royalty have dined since 1951 and it has become quite the attraction. To call it a gold mine would not be an overstatement. Click on the picture to see the Loomis Armored Truck picking up the money.

A very sweet Carol Fay, AKA "The Biscuit Lady" and no doubt the biggest celebrity we've met on the trip, greeted us at the door and guided us to the seats where we might have exploded, were it not for our wills of steel. The food was delicious and so plentiful each of our meals could have fed a small Vietnamese village. Carol posed with Theresa for a picture as she has done with nearly every star in the music or political business. She and the Cafe are both Tennessee landmarks. They are about to tear down the large brick Bar-B-Q pit to expand the outside kitchen. I suggested they put the old Bar-B-Q pit on e-Bay. I'll bet it would fetch big money even thought it would have to be disassembled brick by brick and rebuilt on a new location. I'll bet some mega star around Nashville would love to have it in their back yard for entertaining, or maybe just it's smell. It's probably the most famous Bar-B-Q pit in the country.

Tummies full, I programmed the GPS to guide us to our friend's home in Eufaula, Alabama, however the beauty of the Natchez-Trace Parkway let us astray. I've been led astray before but this time by a road so beautiful I was powerless to ignore it. We rode down the scenic 40 mph parkway until multiple protests from the GPS put us back on the correct path. We might have ended up at the Mississippi again. For more info about this beautiful road see: http://www.nps.gov/natr/index.htm .

Tomorrow we should be able to reach Eufaula by 3 PM or so. This might, depending on the weather, be our last stop before heading back to Naples. I love Naples, our friends, and my work, but I'll hate to see this trip end. Theresa and I have enjoyed every day and I could not have had a better traveling companion. If she wasn't my wife, I'd marry her.

I almost forgot. Yesterday we saw a vest in a shop that had a fur collar of un-described origin but I've seen so many stuffed examples now, that I'm pretty sure it was jackalope fur.

Sweet Sunday

Saturday night downtown was too crazy. Too crowded. Fun, but not for the music. Today, Sunday, on the other hand was perfect. We started the day with what may be the best omelet Bob Evans ever served. Then to the huge mall so a Chinese masseuse could work me to a state of rag doll relaxation. Then downtown for some bar hopping where there were great musicians playing to small, attentive audiences. For the price of a beer we were entertained by many who may become the next stars spawned by the Nashville music machine. Our favorite of the day was Buck McCoy at Legends Corner, but the other half dozen bands we heard were very good too.

We spotted a sign that said Joe's Crabs and our dinner decision was made in a nano-second. They served up steamed shrimp with drawn butter, cocktail sauce and Old Bay Seasoning, followed by a large bucket of Dungeness, Alaskan, and Snow Crab with cold Bud Light to help ease it down my gullet. Corn, new potatoes and cole slaw finished us off. We lacked nothing but some of Mike's Ice Cream from around the corner which was soon had. I loved the decorations at Joe's. See the example of crab art below.

The food was good but made us miss the hard blue crabs we get from Peace River Seafood which can be sublime on a good day.

I want to say the hotel we are in has been a perfect experience too. It was suggested by the information lady at the Welcome to Tennessee building at the state border. It is a Fairfield by Marriott property and at $68 with a coupon she gave us, has to be one of the best hotel deals yet. The bed is wonderful as are the pillows, linens, shower, service, etc. I particularly like the staff who suggested we park right in front of the door for the security and so the bike would stay dry if it rained. Most places, even 4 star properties are not so accommodating.

Susan, photographed at the desk, has a college degree in hospitality and it shows. When Theresa asked Roy, yesterday's desk clerk if they sold stamps, he said no, but produced three of his own from his wallet and offered them to her for free! We did pay him but how often do you see that kind of over the top service? Tonight, Juanita is on the desk and matches her co-workers in accommodating our needs. Now I'll have to put Fairfield at the top of our pick list when looking for a hotel in the future. For a few bucks more than Motel 6 you live like royalty!

Near perfect days are rare. We are happy to have had this one.

Music City

Nashville, Music City, The Grand Ole Opry, nightlife, it's a fantastic town! We checked into a nice hotel and set off to see what this opry thing is about. Way cool! The complex consists of the Grand Ole Opry House, Opryland, which is a huge hotel, dining, and entertainment complex large enough to hold a football stadium; and what must be the largest indoor mall in the state, complete with multiple theaters including an IMAX screen and an Outdoor World. We bought our tickets and walked to Opryland's River Walk to dine. Opryland is very upscale and dinner at most places there require a small mortgage so we took the shuttle bus back to the mall where a great burger, fries and onion rings satisfied our hunger without requiring a bank loan. Then we were off to the Grand Ole Opry.

This was show number four thousand and something. Every show is broadcast live on the radio and Internet so each is different. Hear one at http://www.wsmonline.com/the-world-famous-wsm-tower . This appetite for live performers permits almost everyone who makes a mark in country music to make an appearance on the show. Anyone who is someone in country music has been on that stage or will be. All consider it to be an honor and a rite of passage into the professional ranks. My recently departed friend Ben Simpson, was very proud of having played his guitar there many years ago.

One of our favorite acts in the two hour show was a duet by Joey & Rory. They are a young married couple who write and perform their own material and do it very well. I found an example of the song they performed on Youtube. Click

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-w40-YpOMM&feature=related for a humorous treat.

Theresa and I both agree that, although we are not really country fans, this was much more entertaining than any of the rock bands we saw at Sturgis. The skill and stagecraft of the performers is high order, the jokes were clean and still entertaining. There wasn't a single dirty word uttered and no bare breasted women. The show was classy, casual and fun. Wholesome. I wouldn't change a thing other than the bare breasted women part.

After the Opry we went exploring downtown and we were very surprised to find a rich nightlife that dwarfs any town of this size we have seen. There are blocks and blocks of live music venues, where the music and beer both flow like a river. Thousands of bar hopping people in the streets, keep a trio of mounted police at the ready. As busy as they were, one detected that I wanted to park on the otherwise closed off 2nd Avenue and waved me past the barricade to park the Honda. Nice guy. Theresa rewarded his horse with TLC and petting while it tried to eat my sunglasses.

The only other animals in evidence were some wild beavers as proven by an official crossing sign near the Wild Beaver Saloon. I didn't even know they drank.

Bourbon

While I recover from another Walmart haircut, Bill, Theresa and I went on a very nice guided tour of the Woodford Reserve Distillery. This place is incredibly photogenic. The buildings are very old, circa 1892, and are beautiful. The stills are huge copper vessels, the fermenting tanks look like 7,500 gallon hot tubs. The vibe is like a Nappa Valley winery. Classy, old money, no expense spared, picture perfect, but not snooty.

The still room was made for photography, wood floors, old brick, real copper. I could have spent the day just taking pictures. If you ever find yourself in the neighborhood of Frankfort, Kentucky, this is a good use for a $5 bill. They even give you a shot of their good bourbon at the end of the tour and you keep the, (plastic), shot glass. They make other adult beverages too, and I understand that few things help ease a girl out of her pants better than the products shown below.

Next we visited the lovely state capitol. I can't remember seeing a prettier capitol building anywhere.

The roads here are beautiful too. Horses, fenced lawns half the size of the National Mall, rocky outcroppings, all conspire to make picture postcard scenes where ever you look.

Tomorrow we head to Nashville. More then.

State #49 Kentucky

Kentucky gives us our 49th State visited. Now, only Hawaii is left and we have booked our March cruise to that volcanic land to complete our quest.

Kentucky is beautiful. The geology reminds us of parts of Utah or Colorado where the land was submerged for millions of years, adding thousands of layers to the rocky sea floor, only to be thrust up by tectonic plate movement to make hills for future dynamite wielding roadbuilders to cleve. I wish I had the luxury of carrying a rock hammer in our overloaded trailer. The road cuts here look very fossil rich. For an educational romp through Kentucky's geologic history see: http://geology.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?zi=1/XJ/Ya&sdn=geology&zu=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.uky.edu%2FKGS%2Ffossils%2F

Tonight we are hosted by friend Bill Frye in Frankfort. Sweet luxury. There's something to be said for steam room showers and bidets, and a guest bedroom with a soft bed and clean linens. No elk snorting near you tent to wake you up either!

We expect to take a quick tour of the North end of the state, then we are off to Eufaula, Alabama by way of Nashville.

Just Driving Again.

We are on the way to Kentucky to visit our friend Bill Frye. then we will head to Eufaula, Alabama to visit friends Gary and Ann. Then we expect to head home. We will pause for anything that looks fun and/or exciting. Right now I'd guess we will be back in Naples around the 28th or 29th unless we pause to camp with our new tent.

We passed the empty and quiet Indy Brickyard today without realizing that today is the 100 year anniversary of the first race there. I'm surprised they didn't have some kind of memorial race.

The most interesting thing I saw today was the price of milk at Walmart. Cheaper than gas! Is this a mid-west phenomenon or is milk this cheap everywhere?

We also fulfilled one of Theresa's wishes; to have a White Castle Burger. It reminded us of the old Little Tavern burgers of yesteryear. Tasty and cheap. Lunch for us both, under $5.

Maybe tomorrow will bring more adventure.

More New Friends

Time is precious on your last day in the big city so in an effort to get the priorities right, we had breakfast, and followed it immediately with a big bag of Garrett's Popcorn.

Garrett's is a Chicago landmark and rightly so. Not wanting to overuse the word sublime, which I have already applied to Chicago's Pizza, I will simply call it perfect popcorn. We shared a medium sized bag of the mixed caramel and cheese and like some on crack cocaine, became instant addicts. I don't know why that combination of flavors generates 40 to 60 minute long lines at their several stores, but it does, and rightly so. I may dream of it tonight.

Our fingers were still cheesy and sweet when we arrived at the Museum of Science and Industry. This magnificent attraction deserves days, not just hours, but our time was limited so we arrived early and stayed till closing. It had the very thing I wanted to see most, a big farm combine. I sometimes have a hard time denuding an ear of sweet corn, and I have good teeth! Having seen them on our farm tour with Tom McDonnell I was left aching to understand how this half million dollar gizmo manages to get the corn kernels off the cob while cutting a 36' wide swath through a field at 10 mph. Seeing the illustrations, movies, under the hood cut-aways, and the clear plastic sided actual combine was worth the price of admission. I rarely get emotional about a machine but, combine, I love you. xoxoxo.

There were many other worthwhile things to see and do. One presenter led us on a hands on trip through his historic tool box. We were asked to guess the function of 100+ year old tools like candle stick molds, a broom making jig, a molten candy dropper, a coconut meat scraper, and my favorite, a ruffled linen iron. The presenter was skilled at humorous delivery and history and his audience was locked in, unable to leave, or even look away for fear of missing something. Similar kudos to Warren, the Smart House Guide who showed us the latest in smart home building techniques.

Also on display are full size airplanes, the whole, genuine, Silver Streak Train, and the actual, in-tact, complete, German U-505 submarine. Not only did they have the real boat, but they wrap it in an entire wing of the building including many displays and short movies of the heroic , salvage, and secret transport back to Bermuda where it was studied, improving our defenses against similar machines. I can't imagine telling the story any better than they manage here. Learn more at http://www.msichicago.org/whats-here/exhibits/u-505/

For an extra fee we watched an IMAX movie about the sea and toured the Smart House. Interesting, but not as cool as putting a real U-Boat in the building.

Up till now, I've thought of the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia or the Smithsonian's History and Technology to be my favorite museums but this place is a real contender. The whole damn submarine is in the building!

Time to eat again. We found ourselves near the highly recommended Gino's East so we joined the 45 minute long line.

It was drizzling, but our wait was made enjoyable when we started talking to others. When the host came out to announce that they had a table for 6 available, the Decker Family, a party of of 4, and the Hanburys, a party of 2 became instant friends and shared the table.

For about two hours we consumed Gino's famous fare, talked, laughed, drank, and wrote our names on the walls. They cheerfully tolerated my usual bragging about our kids, Harry and Jane. We talked about motorcycles, (Chris, the fast bike video I mentioned is at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3IxSjuMUCE&feature=related ), and many other things. They were great company and we enjoyed dinner much more than if we had dined by ourselves. Thanks, Amy, Sandra, Chris and Jamie, for a very pleasant evening.

.
Our lovely waitress, Alison, photographed us, and herself, and improved the party with her charm and good service. She is leaving for a new job in a Shakespearean Theater; best of luck Alison, or is it Nosila?

And then, out of food and drink, we went back to the hotel feeling very good about a day that turned out better than average and most of our days have been wonderful.