Inserection in Jacksonville

Columbia, SC is the perfect spot of setting up Conagree Swamp National Park. Not too far from the hotel I spot this place and decide to back to it for a picture. Now you would think the satellite dish was out of place or the basketball hoops, but ADIRONDACK chairs in South Carolina. I just thought this was a kewl pic. (All pictures are clickable and will enlarge upon click)

The northwest gots the spectacular mountains like Ranier, the southwest got the rocks the shoot for the skies, in the midwest there is the mighty Missississippi and up in New England there is the classic fisherman boats and the ocean. In the Southeast nobody has the swamps like they do. Louisiana, Florida and Conagree in South Carolina. English intended to be awful.

Conagree is the largest surviving deciduous hardwood forest in the US. It has some of the tallest trees in the eastern US, forming one of the highest temperate deciduous forest canopies. The park is set up with a board walk through the forest just like Barataria Preserve in Louisiana. This time I am good to go, but MeAsWe is still having problems with the deer strike from 2010. We take advantage of the video in the VC and then stroll out on the boardwalk for a while. It really is quite impressive.

Just outside Conagree we grab this historical marker for SC. We have been grabbing these here and there for Waymarking.com and I almost have a complete collection of NH historical markers.

Grab a really kewl closed BBQ joint. We did grab with a pic with our tour flag, but this is a better picture.

And there is the USA tour stops

St George SC

In Yemassee, SC we grab this picture just because

and head out of town on Old Sheldon Church Road and stop here for awhile

The Old Sheldon Church was built between 1745 and 1753 and burned down by the Brits (the bastahs) during the Revolutionary War. It was then rebuilt in 1826 to be burned again by Sherman (who liked to play with fire) in 1865 (the bastah). If you are in the area this is neat place to take a breather and walk around.

As a bonus the above location was a USA Tour town, SHELDON.

Heading into Savannah, GA we passed this place and got a bit sidetracked

We don't have many of these stamps, but this could be an endeavor for the future. I did get the book thou.

The last time we were in Savannah I had to get a double shot glass from the HD place. This was a specific target. Well we found ourselves on River St on a wet cobblestone road. In the middle of the street were trolley car tracks with a paved section between the two rails. Do you see where this is going ? So we hopped on the paved section and began our path down to the HD dealer. Well I had to yield to the oncoming trolley since he could not steer around me so I cut the front wheel hard to make that parallel crossing with the track. Lets just say we gave a spectacular rendition of the Flying Wellendas show in front of the restaurant where we came to rest.

So what does 2008 event have to do with today. As we head for the Tour of Honor memorial, the descent down the road was a deja vu happening. Yup we are back on River Rd (I swore off cobblestone and RR tracks back in 2008). The stones looked the same, the RR tracks were still there and so was the pavement between the rails. This time I opted for a pure cobblestone ride. I was quite bumpy but we kept the rubber side down.

see the pavement between the rails

While this road is not treacherous, once you are there you are committed to the whole ride.

Chatam County WWII Monument

Savannah being a S town we grabbed the local theater which is also pretty neat NEON.

We decide to mix it up a bit and MeAsWe holds the camera as I hold the tour flag

Fort Pulaski is not too far away, is on our way to Jacksonville, FL where we are going to stay, and is a National Monument, which counts for the IBA National Park Tour.  We have been here before so we do not spend alot of time here and even forgo the Cockspur Island Lighthouse (did you know the IBA has a Lighthouse Tour ). I did capture the waving girl thou.

It's 4pm and we still have 150+ miles to go before we can rest, so I elected I-95 as a pathway to Jacksonville. Sometimes ya gotta do what ya gotta do and the Interstates are known for their speed. There are some places I want to grab just outside of Jacksonville thou. We stop here and I mention I read something about a Waffle House tour and while we are down south we just might want to consider throwing in..... MeAsWe just rolls her eyes... just sayin

Now I thought I unscheduled this stop to make time to Jacksonville, but I guess I forgot to push some button on the GPS

And while we were here how could we let this place go unvisited.

Do you think MeAsWe is thinking
will ya just take the damn picture already
and lets get out of here

We are getting close to our final destination this proves it

Hart Bridge Expressway

I am starved and we are in the area so we stop here. This place was actually very good, I didn't take the Master's recommendation to have the ribs and opted for the brisket. He gave me some complementary ribs and he was spot on about his recommendation. If you are in the area give this place a try.

4907 Beach Blvd
Jacksonville, FL 32207

We get out of Bono's around 830pm, the sun has finally gone to sleep, the hotel is only a few miles away and I say we can either make today a lengthy trip or add miles to tomorrow. Of course my presentation was a bit biased and nighttime is the time for NEON.

This was a really neat neon sign and I just couldn't get any of
cameras to focus on the sign..maybe it was the
content that effected the camera

At 8:40pm I finally called it a day....err I mean night...and we head to the hotel. We have been in the saddle for well over 12 hours and geez enough is enough...actually I probably could have found more stuff, but I do know when to quit so not to have an inserection on my hands.

Torked Off in Joisey

Today is the start. Grab a picture of the odometer to mark our start miles. Now all I gotta do is remember to take the end picture in 17 days. I deleted a bunch of stops for the day, keeping in mind the most important agenda item was the IBA National Park Tour. We will also make stops in CT, NY, and NJ for the 15/15/15 Smoke Chasing side dish. For the most part we are just going to get out of New England and get this tour underway, so slabs will be used including the Garden State Parkway for the most part. The 15/15/15 is 15 BBQ joints in 15 states in 15 days. (All pictures are clickable and will auto enlarge.)

First stop is Smokin with Chris in Southington CT. As part of the 15/15/15 one must have a receipt from the joint or a nearby gas station to document you were there on such and such date.

 

We grabbed breakfast here, which was right next to a BBQ place.

She kept us company at breakfast

First National Park stop is Weirs Farm in CT. We have been here multiple times, so it was a simple grab and run. The farm commemorates the work of J Alden Weir and American Impressionist.

As we get down into the New York area we grabbed a BBQ joint in Armonk.

Paterson Falls in Paterson NJ is our newest National Park. The museum acts as the visitor center and has the NP Stamp we need. I walked around the museum, which has alot of memorabilia from the town. They had this really neat model train set, which to this day fascinates me.

Museum

Outside they had some full size trains too.

A brief walk up the street and we get to the Falls. This is also a National Historic Landmark known as S.U.M which stands for Society for Establishing Useful Manufacture and dates back to 1792 to harness the power of the Passaic River for the surrounding mills. It was the first attempt in the US to harness the power of a major river. Alexander Hamilton was one of the primary promoters.

The Falls

The Power Plant

A brief stop a Edison's Lab in West Orange, NJ. This is the town that I grew up in and I went on the tour when I was 10 or so. We have stopped here 3 times and the next time it will be to take the tour.

Black Maria - First Movie Studio at Edison Labs

Made a couple more stops at BBQ joints and jumped on the GSP heading for Atlantic City, which is 130+ miles away. Our primary purpose will be to get a photo of the Mourning Soldier, Korean Conflict which is right on the boardwalk.



Atlantic City from afar

Grabbed the Atlantic City Gold Exchange for the USA tour. Seemed appropriate for the town. Atlantic City was the model for Monopoly and we passed all the high end and low end properties as we rode thru AC.

Atlantic City Gold Exchange

We have a bunch of stops schedules such as Stone Harbor and Sea Isle City for the USA Tour, however we decided to blow these off for another date and head to Wildwood, NJ where we would be staying for the night.


Wildwood is known as the Doo-Wop town because during the 1950 and 60’s there was over 2,000 motels built to accommodate the summer tourists. There is a ton, and I mean a ton of Neon in this city and I will have to get back here just for the lights. Our place would be the Skylark Motel, which is fairly typical for motels in Wildwood.

Check-in went without a hitch. We unpacked the top case. I inserted the key into the left side bag, turned the key and the whole key cylinder came out. WTF and the problems started. I finally discovered what the FJR Forum had been talking about loctiting the screws in the side bags meant. I had looked, but never could figure it out. Now I was the victim.

No biggie, simply take the case off, bring it to the room and put the screws back in. Sounds simple enough, right ??. Well the hex wrenches I carry on the FJR were useless. The 2 was too small and the 2.5 was too big. WTF. The sweat begins to spew out as my blood pressure goes up. Must be a Phillips head screw. Nope, not that either.
When I say these screws are small, I mean small. I really can’t make out what type a head these are. We head for dinner at the Pink Cadillac, which is just down the street from us. I gobbled down my food, forced MeAsWe to eat faster than usual and head back to the room to head out for some tools. I figured duct tape would be a fix.
At 9:45 I arrive at a Loews, which is closing at 10pm. More sweat. Once I am in the store, I figure I got a little more time. I show the screws to a guy and we look for some placement screws as a temp fix. Loews does not have anything this small.
We head over to the tool department and he shows the screws to another guy. He says come this way, we follow; he reaches down and pulls off a package of 6 TORX bits. We test the smallest one and it is the solution to the problem. I bought duct tape just in case an additional support system is needed and some blue Loctite. Just before we left this morning I was going over the stuff I packed for emergency tools and stuff. You know fuses, screw driver, multi hex tool. I had some loctite in my hand and said, I am not going to need this and threw it on the kitchen counter. Go figa

Back at the Skylark, the fix is swift, seamless and complete. The sweat eases off and so does my blood pressure. I retrieved the left side case, backed off the 2 screws, and dropped some Loctite on these, just to make sure it doesn’t happen to the other bag. I was lucky that the screws didn’t fall off somewhere on the GSP or the Tappan Zee Bridge.

the Fix
( the screw in this picture is not the real one
but they are about this size)

If I understand TORX bits, they are sometimes used as a tamper resistant screw, but I think considering the size and location of the screws. This was a bit of overkill on Yamaha’s part.


We stayed in Wildwood in 2008 and the weekend we were there was some kind of car club gathering. This must be an annual event, because 4 years later the same gathering is going on . This year is much smaller than 2008, probably because of the economy and high unemployment has taken it’s toll on the tourist industry. But just like last time there were cars doing burn outs 1 block from the boardwalk, so we headed out to get some pictures of Neon and watch the cars.

The boardwalk had shut down and that brightly lit Ferris wheel was dark, so we hung around abit and snapped off some pictures of the crowds

People edging on the drivers of cars to burn out

We returned to the Skylark and called it a night. As I pounded the pillow into shape, I wondered if this is the start of the Tour of Torture and Horrors or the second Trail of Tears, due to the side case episode It is only day one after all.