August 5 & 6th

We have arrived at Cape Hatteras, specifically the National Seashore and the national park campground. We decided to do a couple of days kind of for old times sake. i first stayed at this campground when I was 12 years old, and we had a couple of great times here with our kids. This campground has no hook-ups, but the onshore breeze provides the required cooling, and the sand dunes that surround some sights are impressive. The Oregon inlet fishing center is right across Rt 12, and is always a required visit around 4:00 when the sport fishing boats return with the days catch. I still recall my first trip here.
 It was on my birthday, that they announced on their big speakers that an incoming boat would arrive with a huge Marlin. We went over and the fish turned out to be a world's record setting catch. The record held for at least 30 years. This park was also the place Liz fell in love with her favorite light house, the Bodie Island light. This light is not a popular as the Hatteras light and was closed for climbing in the past. Liz recalls laying in bed with the side curtains to the pop-up open and looking at the light. It's also her favorite sight as we come down the cape, to see Bodie . Our kids learned to crab with a ranger on the road at the end of the parking lot, below. We're going to get a different view of that site now, because the Bodie light house has been restored and is now open for climbing, and climb we did.

The restoration story was interesting to us, because we knew from prior visits that the lower steps, and many other cast iron components were corroded beyond repair. Turns out they removed them all, and made molds from them, then melted them down, had them analyzed, added missing components to the metal, and recast them. It seems that liz was not alone in her love of this lighthouse, because there were many among the climbers in our party who were visiting because they'd heard that it was no open. Because this light is 50 miles closer than Hattras I think that this one will become a popular stop for those visiting Kitty Hawk and Nag's Head. It was also nice to be able to get an aerial view of  the Oregon inlet area, to see the "landscaping" that Hurricane Irene did.
 While we were here we stopped back at the site of the first flight, the Wright Bros. memorial. They have a notable addition, an actual a sculpture of the Wright flyer, and several sculptures of the observers of that first flight. The really cool aspect of this sculpture was that kids could climb on it. I remember the fascination that our daughter, Meredith had for the Wright Bros in third grade. I can see her now laying on the wing looking up and imaging flight, just like the little boy is doing in my picture.. Tomorrow our last stop of the trip, the KOA in Rodanthe.




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August 1-4,2013

After leaving Lexington we went over to The Raleigh Durham area. My Sister Shirley Rodgers lives in the nearby community of Fuquay-Varina. Shirley was in IT when she lived in Ohio, and continues that today with her job in the NC State Library.  She suggested a State Park, Jordan Lake, which we loved. You've heard my moan about the sorry state of CT State Parks before, and this is a reminder, of what they could be. Jordan Lake is a flood control/water  supply reservoir west of Raliegh. The park has about 500 sites, most near the lake, and with electricity and water. The cost is $22.
The picture, above is from our site, where we launched the kayaks.  The picture, left is of Shirley demonstrating the new robot in the brand new $115 million (+donor support) Engineering library. She volunteered a tour for us , and we quickly accepted. This "Bookbot" is an automated book storage and retrieval system that enables NC State to keep 2 million books (in 1/9 the space) and have them at the touch of anyone with an internet connection. The books are all kept in the drawers, you see below. The machine is 50' wide by 160' long and 50' tall. When a book is called for, the computer consults it's directory, finds the drawer it placed the book in when returned, and then sends the bookbot for it.
The bookbot retrieves the entire drawer to the clerk at the top, who finds it in the drawer, takes it out, and sends it on it's way, either by handing to the person at the pick up point, or some other delivery system. There are two floors of operators, like the one pictured below, who control the machine. They take out the books, scan the bar code, and reverse the process for returned books.It was interesting to note that a book is stored in the next available drawer that will accept it. This means that after a period of time this device will feed the most frequently withdrawn books to the front of the system.
The building itself is an amazing array of multi media, digital video, and computer technology.

Shirley, in the next picture is demonstrating one of the couple of hundred types of chairs the library has, in a "game" room. This is a practical lab that gives students and their professors the ability to develop computer games - not to play them.The monitor you see there is capable of displaying three games or various types of Wii, or integrating games. Above my pay grade. But this is a skill that is in demand in the "triangle" area with several game companies located there.

They have several very large monitors similar to those used in stadiums, a variety of special use labs for creativity, simulation, etc. They have loner digital & video camera's and a 3D printer available for engineering students to make use of. All in all a great effort, and a beautiful facility.
We spent a few days kayaking and just enjoying the scenery, running to Camping World , etc, etc.
Here is a movie I shot, with my new WATERPROOF digital video camera.

Richard Childress & Lexington

While we were touring NASCAR we stayed in a nice RV park at High Rock lake, in Lexington NC. Lexington is where Duracell had their plant when I was making 12-18 trips per year while I was working for Delker/Dexmet. It is nice little town better known for it's BBQ than Duracell. I almost never left Duracell without some of their pulled pork BBQ for our kids who were small when we were here before.
The BBQ is great, served as a chopped plate, with cole slaw, and hush puppies, or a sandwich. It has a vinegar based BBQ sauce which is pretty characteristic of the Western NC type. Lexington BBQ is a generic name for this type of preparation over here. I won't say much about how good this is, if you would like to know ask Meredith or Erin.

I never spent any down time in Lexington while visiting, except one day I had an afternoon because of a flight cancellation or something. I had passed a sign for Richard Childress Winery along US 64 on my way over from Valdese. With the incongruity of a famous racing name, and a winery, as well as it's location in the Piedmont of NC made me go back and see what was up. What I found in 2004, had grown, and become much more beautiful today. 

Richard Childress was Dale Earnhardt's owner when he won all those championships. He and Dale, when in California, would visit a winery, enjoy a glass(or two) of wine and talk about bringing a vineyard To NC. The state had targeted Wines as a replacement for tobacco in the economy. So Richard began growing a few types of grapes in the front yard of his house (estate!) 

He met with some success, and the state targeted the Yadkin river valley as a prime spot. Richard hired a well known vintner to scout out an area for the Childress Vinyard. This site then, has been the recipient of Richard"s time, and funds to become a showplace for the state's wine business. When we arrived Liz just exclaimed,  Oh! this is beautiful!
Richard, of course needs to keep those cars running, to generate the cash for his wine business!  He has two shops, one for his Sprint cars and one for his Nationwide cars. His original shop here in Welcome, NC is devoted now to the Childress museum. As I said Dale Sr. drove Richards cars in the 80's and 90's, to an amazing number of victories, and Winston Cup championships.
Most of those winning cars are here, along with a full collection from Richard's racing past, (including his first race car, a sop box derby car) and his other drivers. It was really impressive to look at the collection of black Goodwrench Chevy's, and think Dale drove all of these cars to a checkered flag.

This car was the chilling one in Richard's museum. This  car was back in the shop being prepped for Dale to drive in the next race after he died. Rookie Kevin Harvick got the call, and the car was painted white instead of black. He battled Gordon and two other drivers with 10 laps remaining, and at the end pulled out  a victory in Earnhardt fashion, by .002 of a second. The two of them went on to win more races that year,and Kevin won rookie of the year for 2001. It was the shot in the arm that NASCAR needed after losing Dale Sr.

As I said earlier Richard has a separate shop for the each circuit. We toured them both,and I would imagine you're getting pretty tired a looking at race cars being prepped  , so I'll just give you an overview of The Sprint shop with Burton's,and Menard's cars being readied. They did an excellent job of describing the suspension prep steps, the frame construction, as well as giving a lot of technical info in the museum.
 They had an older Earnhardt hauler there with a couple of #3's above your head as you walked through. This is one of Burton's haulers being readied for departure later this day. So all of Richards facilities were a surprise to me after years of visiting Lexington only to discover on this trip that all this history was only about 5 minutes away.
So that about wraps up the NASCAR part of this trip. On To Raleigh.

Oh and by the way. The Duracell plant is no more.Demolished:-(

July 29-30

So now we've had a taste of it, and we're both NASCAR fans! We head off to the "King", or the "evil empire" depending on who you're talking to - Hendrick Motorsports. Rick Hendrick has a campus of 16 buildings. We went to his museum first only to find it closed for inventory. There are  transmission. engine, frame, body composite, and the engineering  buildings to name a few, and of course a building each for his 88 & 48 cars, and his 5 & 24 car.We went to Dale Jr's (88) and Jimmy Johnson's (48) building first.

We observed the team owner is really more than the owner of a pro sports team. They are more of a player/coach/owner. Virtually all of the owners were great drivers first. We saw the "family" tradition in this sport, as well as the "work your way up" hiring environment. We also saw how the entire organization, from the guy who cleans the cars to the crew chief really does work as a team for every win. The trophies below are Jimmy Johnson's and Jr's, and they are not in their homes, they are in their shop.

Unfortunately, we also learned that the access is not nearly as good at the Hendrick shop, as it was at Jr's. They had two cars in the lobby, and you could see into the shop where the work was being done through a relatively small door. On the left side Jr's cars were being worked on and the right there was a line of Jimmie's. But that was all we could see. There was no one to explain what was happening.





The story was the same at the Gordon/Kahn shop. They had a very large window you could look through. We could see a little more but it was a bit disappointing. We were impressed with the size of the organization, and being a Jr. fan it is hard to knock his team. We were to find however, there are much more open operations that are able to keep their secrets.


One such shop was Michael Waltrip's. I have watched Michael and his brother DW on Fox, and they are fun to listen to. His shop is the same. When we walked in the door, instead of the car of a winner there was this 3' square cube of  crushed car. You can enlarge the picture and read all the details, but in this car Michael had won Daytona the prior year & his team had won all of the recent restrictor plate races. All was going well until he got caught between 2 crashing cars, spun out, rolled over a few times, and ended up on the grass upside down. It took rescue crews 10 minutes to extract him. DW told him that he wasn't a real winner until he had rolled a car at Daytona. So Michael is now a "real" winner, and here is his car. The whole shop is done with a sense of humor from the bubble gum vending machine where you can buy 2 experienced lug nuts for a quarter, to the handmade box of "restart tissues" with Jimmy Johnson's picture on them next to the guest register.

When we walked in they gave us each tickets to the tour. While we waited until 3:00 they invited us to look over the shop floor. They weren't kidding. Michael had purchased a multiplex movie theater, and converted it into a shop. There was a catwalk suspended over the cars below and we could see everything going on. We watched the two guys to your right as they selected the correct springs from an inventory of a hundred, and installed them in the car.
We watched and learned from the video presentation they had going on as they made parts on six large CNC machines. They had a good video explaining the suspension adjustments that crew chiefs make, how the cars are set up, and the changes that are made at the track. We watched the guys doing it below. We learned more at Michaels shop than all the rest combined. When the tour started, we were the only two people there. So we just kind of walked from place to place as our guide filled us in on the why's, hows, and who's of NASCAR racing. The "evil empire" reference was borrowed from this tour guide. They let us peer in the engine.
We stopped by what looked like a movie set of a pit, where Michael trains his pit crews.

He looked at  the tires and told us that they were all Kurt Busch's teams. They rent Michael's practice area. We went next door to a renovated skating rink, where the team builds all their frames, and does their fabrication work. No one had let us in these places before. In this one the guide just asked that I not take pictures. The last picture is of their haulers, the trucks that take the cars and the traveling shop with them. Each has an upper level with room for two cars, and below there are lockers with car parts. There are coffee machines, microwaves, etc. Each one of these cost about half a million $. So we'll watch Michaels drivers with a new sense of loyalty, because of the openness of his shop. BTW they are; Micael Waltrip, Mark Martin, Clint Bowyer, Martin Truex Jr, and Brian Vickers

July 27-28

Welcome to Charlotte, HQ of, among other things, NASCAR. There are more NASCAR team shops in the ~25 radius of Charlotte Motor Speedway than any other place in the country. We started at the Speedway, staying on the grounds, and taking our first tour there. We opted for the 2 hr. long tour, and we were put into an Econoline van,and taken out to the track. Our guide went through some of the history of the track, the idea of Bruton Smith. Kind of like the Packers, there was this new thing called Nascar, being run in the south, and he thought there should be a track in Charlotte.

He sold stock in his company, and built the track, on the on eastern side of town. Today he owns 2100 acres, 3 tracks and a speedway that sits around 140,000 on race day. We rode around the 24 degree banked corers at about 80 MPH in the econoline!

July 25 &26

On Thursday we headed to Charlotte. The city is still a mystery to me after about 25 years of flying in here. Despite all these trips I've never spent any time in the city. We read in the AAA guidebook that the Billy Graham Library is here, and it is very near the Carolina Aviation museum, the new home of the aircraft Sully successfully ditched in the Hudson River, USAirways Flt 1549, Airbus 320. First we went to see Billy. The picture at the right is the house Billy grew up in restored to around the time of Billy going off to college. Billy's dad was a dairy farmer as were his brothers. Billy too would have probably stepped up and continued in this business had he not attended a series of revival meetings by Mordecai Ham, who Billy gives credit for converting him. The library starts with the dairy farm, and goes through Billy's life in steps from some of his first meetings in LA, through the enormous crowds to whom he preaches in the large stadium venues.
The consistency of his message through the years is evident no matter whether it is his newspaper column, or a more modern media avenue. He is clearly the pastor that the Christian world looks to during times of trouble such as 9/11. The displays describe the millions of people reached by his ministry, and describe his ministry to the worlds leaders. No ministry of Billy Graham would be complete without asking every attendee to come forward to accept Christ.

Maybe He was with Sully on that day in January when US Air flt 1549 took off in NYC and almost immediately hit a flock of Canada geese, losing  power in both it's engines. The plane was ditched in the Hudson river, and subsequently recovered. The flight is know as the "Miracle on the Hudson" primarily because all the passengers survived.
The insurance company that paid the claim donated the plane to the new Carolina Aviation Museum. All of the planes parts were gathered together ( from the NTSB, the engine manufacturer, etc) and it was shipped by truck to the planes original destination, and USAir's primary hub and headquarters, Charlotte. The picture you see here shows a number of dents, holes punched and a broken pilot's window, all due to the recovery operation. You can see some faint circles on the body. These highlight dents caused by bird strikes.

The museum displayed the life raft deployed after the ditching.  There were a number of videos showing interviews with passengers who described the it, and the plane filling up with water. Several of them took the opportunity to visit the display, and to take their seats on that day and re-live their experience. The NTSB has tried to re- create this accident in many ways to try to find another way of landing the plane. In one example they have given the pilots all the cheats they can, info of what will happen, that the engines can not be re-started, available airports, procedures, etc. Knowing all this before they  climb in the cockpit, the pilots still crashed half the time. No one has been able to simulate what Sully and Jeff did that day. Having flown a lot in my career, I can say that fact is kind of spooky.

July 22 thru 24

We spent a few nights in Marion NC, in a very nice campground down in the valley, right next to a river. I know a few of you know how much Liz likes the sound of a river flowing. Well with all the rain they have had down here, she got her fill. The video here is of the river 10' below and about 2' behind our camper. Liz took Jet down to play one day. Jet likes to bite at the waves when we go to lakes (wonder what will happen when we take her to Cape Hatteras)!The campground is kind of unique. It is a combination driving range and campground, with a field in the center that the owner allows RC airplanes to take off and land in!

I forgot to report that we picked up a lag screw on the Blue Ridge Parkway,so we had a tire to get fixed, and Marion was  good size city to accomplish this. There was a good tire dealer who fixed the tire one day and we plan to stop on the way out and have him remount on the trailer. The side of the building on the right is at the Waldensian museum in Valdese NC. Vladese  was one of my frequent stops when I was traveling while working at Dexmet. It is where Duracell had a plant that they sold to Saft. I had heard that Valdese was founded by a group of people that fled Europe in the late 1800's, and always intended to find out more about them, but never had time while working. Since one of the purposes of these trips is to more fully explore areas that I had visited before, we stopped here.

 

The Waldensians were Christians from the area between what is now between Switzerland and Italy. Being good Europeans they spoke French. The Roman Cathollic Church persecuted them, and many other Christian sects who did not follow Catholic rules. The first house here is a replica of a Waldensian house/barn from the steep Alpiann valleys. These people lived deep in these valleys to protect them from the Romans. After a centuries long battle, they finally got thier freedom, but the economy in Europe was in depression. They heard of  North Carolina, and came over. Waldese became Valdese, and they lived and prospered here by growing wheat, baking, bread, and making wine. I have oversimplified their story here, but it is one of true faith, & fighting for what one believes is right. If you'd like to learn more:http://www.waldensiantrailoffaith.org/ will do it!

July 20&21

On Saturday the 20th we went to Spruce Pones BBQ and Bluegrass festival, held in the mountain community of the same name. The town has a few streets that rise from the river valley in kind of a terrace. The first street is along the RR tracks. and this is where the  festival is held. This is the second time this town has held  this contest. Last year they held it primarily as a BBQ contest, and invited some bluegrass bands. They were surprised that so many people that came to enjoy the BBQ, that they ran out!
This year they had 2 big name blue grass bands there, one each on Friday and Saturday evening, and about 6 less well known bands, who performed throughout the day. They had a BBQ competition that began on Thursday evening, and had a number of categories, from BBQ chicken to 4 types of NC favorite - Pork. The BBQ was incredible, and the BBQers were a kick to watch. We sampled chopped pork sandwich, BBQ ribs, and a chopped plate, from various vendors. Each of them entered in each category, and this was a serious competition.
The equipment they brought was impressive, and this is only a tiny sample! Most guys brought in a trailer at least as big as the one pictured, with one or two BBQ units on it. I was particularly happy to note the fire extinguisher on this unit. All are custom made. We watched the award ceremony, with curiosity. These were all pro-am BBQ folks. Guys who do this on weekends, and have a day job. They employ family and friends for sales. The best was a guy who won for the best ribs, named "Kilted Kilbey" from Easley SC. He claimed his prize in a real kilt! There is a real Scottish influence to the music in this part of the country. We saw it really come out in the dance. When they gave the bluegrass bands a break they had cloggers dance.

July 18 and 19

The evening of July 18 we planned to visit Jeff and Ursula our son in law's parents. They live in Mt. Airey NC just over the border from VA. Mt. Airey is the birthplace of Andy Griffith, but more about that later.
 Jeff and Ursula were very accommodating to our lack of schedule, especially since they were also being visited by their daughter in law Lisa, and grandson Curtis. We had a great dinner of Hamburgers, corn on the cob and two fresh salads. Their house is very nice, and we had a good time. They have a fifth wheel, like ours, and we look forward to camping with them, and the kids when they relocate north.
On the way down, we stopped at the D-Day memorial in Bedford VA. Because Beford was the town that lost the most men per capita in the D Day invasion, Congress awarded them the memorial. Unfortunately they didn't fund it. You may know that Liz's dad was a ranger and was in the group of men who climbed the cliffs to neutralize the guns at Pointe du Hoc, in Normandy. This memorial is to all of the men and women who were involved in getting the soldiers to the beaches, as well as the soldiers. We opted for the guided tour of the plaza, and in our group were 4 students from Normandy France! Our guide was only a bit flustered from having to discuss the invasion of France with French students in a southern accent!





Co-incidently, I had just found and was listening to the recording of the CBS live broadcast of the D-Day invasion on the internet. It was kind of eerie to imagine what it must have been like for parents to be sitting at home in the 40's and listen to the reports from Europe, knowing their son is probably climbing the cliffs into German machine gun fire.
On the perimeter of the memorial there were busts of Eisenhower's generals surrounding a full length statue of Ike in his bomber jacket. There was a large mosaic overhead of a map of  the beaches showing the ships approaching and the regiments landing. There was a great story told of a British toy company given a contract to build a scale model of  the ocean going ships and the soldiers landing. The order was given in pieces, so no one could know where this area was. When it was installed in SHAEF headquarters, the company's people were detained until the invasion was over.
Around the plaza there are plaques mounted on the wall listing the men from the US and it's allies who gave their lives that day to begin the liberation of Europe
There is a combination of sculptures commemorating the actual invasion, showing soldiers coming ashore from a landing craft and climbing the cliffs. There are bursts of compressed air to simulate rifle fire.

There are pieces of metal in the water depicting the obstacles Germany had placed on the beaches, along with mines.At the top of this picture there are sculptures of men climbing the cliffs. You can observe this from many different vantage points, including the bridge on top, where you are looking the soldiers right in the eye, as they climb over the edge. All in all the memorial was very moving and very well done.

July 15-17, 2013 Down the Skyline Drive and Blue Ridge Pkwy.

We headed down the skyline drive on Monday the 15th. We stayed at Big Meadows campground, in the Shenandoah  National Park. I said before that this trip is kind of a reprise of an earlier trip, made 20 years ago with a pop-up camper, a days old mini-van, and our two little girls. Liz doesn't remember staying here at Big Meadows. I do remember staying here, but I have to go back about 45 years or so. My parents took us on a trip down this road then. I remember standing out at the Big Meadows sign at the park entrance for the required picture.
Any National Park is an unatural environment, and deer have no predators here. They are as ubiquitous and as tame as "y'all" down here. This is a shot out of our trailer door. I think they'd let us pet them.

If you've been with us for these in the past years, you'll know one of our favorite things to do are the ranger programs, and our National Parks are great at these. The picture here is of our ranger on a meadow walk one evening. The ranger was talking about the indigenous animals and their sensory awareness, especially as dusk was approaching. We attended another outdoor slide program, where the ranger addressed some of the major storms that have occurred here in Shenandoah NP. In this one deer sauntered right through the audience!

 I could have taken a thousand pictures of vistas from the mountain tops. It reminded me of the task my dad and I had editing slides. It always seemed so hard to throw away a perfectly exposed, and composed slide just because it was similar to dozens of other ones. It seemed easier to put them in a box to take down to the store where my dad worked for use in their demo projectors. So now as an adult, I've got to apologize for the exposure and the composition of my mountain vista shot! And look at that huge piece of dust that installed itself on the top of my digital sensor! That is a beautiful little town in the valley below.

Summer 2013 Starts

For 2013 we needed to remain at home until Thurs, July 11. We left on Friday morning, and headed to southwesten VA. We have not been to the Skyline Drive/Blue Ridge Parkway for 20 years and intend to pull the trailer down most of the way on it. There is a tunnel that's a little short for us just past the 1st (Thorton Gap) entrance. We picked a convenient Wal-Mart in Hagerstown MD to stop for our first overnight. For those that were with us on last years trip, there were no car fires in the parking lot or anything else worth photographing here.
Next morning we headed down I-81 to a KOA around Harrisonburg VA. I- 81 runs near the Skyline Drive and Blue Ridge Parkway. We were about 50 miles down just outside the Shenendoah National Park boundry, and close to our entrance at Swift Run. Campground was a nice KOA.
They had a flock of Chickens that roamed the park "free range" eating the insects They had just had about 6" of rain in 2 hours the previous evening. and we heard stories of how water rises and falls very fast on the mountains. Saturday afternoon we went over to the Skyline drive in the truck, to scout out campgrounds and see the Big Meadows visitor center.

Realizing how close we were to W. VA, on Sunday we drove over to Cass. Cass is the small isolated mountain community where Liz's dad grew up. Liz remembered fondly the times she spent there as a child with her grandfather, and grandmother. Her grandparents have long since died, but Liz loves to go past the place where their house stood. The house was razed years ago but the pump Liz remembers  is still along the side of the property. If you've been to our backyard, the hand pump behind our deck is a reminder of the pump in WVA.
Cass in Liz's dad's day was a logging community. There the men went up the mountain every morning to harvest the red spruce native to the cool mountain climate. Liz's dad did a bit of logging when he returned from WWll and prior to coming to Ohio. The need for a means to move the massive spruce trees gave rise to the invention of the Shay engine. These engines were much stronger and because of their gear driven wheels they could easily haul heavy loads of spruce up and down the slopes. If you'd like a better explanation of this let me know and I'll put you in touch with Liz's brother John, who is a railroad buff. He's run everything from the Cuyahoga Valley steam train to CSX locomotives hauling freight thru Ohio. The locomotive you see here is a Shay running in Cass, and hauling passengers on the scenic Railroad. Cass retains a number of working Shay engines all on the scenic RR.
The antenna here is another feature of the area. Back in the 50's the government was looking for a remote part of the country for their radio telescopes. They found it here in the Greenbriar river valley. There were, and still are few people here, and these telescopes are shielded from radio interference by high mountains around this area. This is the newest and largest telescope, just built recently. People, and other countries from all over the world come to tiny little Cass WVA to look into the heavens and learn more about the stars.
I purchased a digital video camera recently. I hope to include some videos on this blog, so here is the first one, from Cass. It is recorded in HD video, and I'm a novice at this & still experimenting with sizes that the campgrounds internet will swallow, and the resolution I can't show you all. Let me know if you have any ideas, or would like a higher res copy.