Carl’s Kings and Cows

Today was a pretty easy riding day. Not many miles, so this enabled us to spend more time at the parks. http://tinyurl.com/63hwu4


First stop was Kings Mountain National Military Park which was turning point in the Revolutionary War. We essentially beat the crap out of ourselves here. Way back then there were individual that wanted their independence from Britain and those that were loyal to the British rule, hence only Americans fought at this site. This battle was unique because the Patriots (those that wanted independence) used rifles where the loyalist used muskets. Rifles were highly accurate and could hit a target 300 yards away, whereas muskets were good for 100 yards. Rifles were slow to load, muskets much faster.



Next stop was Cowpens National Battlefield is another Revolutionary War site. Now being from New England, it was my assumption that most of the fighting was done in the Boston area, but that simply is not true. I simply grabbed INK here and moved on to the next stop





Carl Sandburg Home National Historic site is a pretty neat place and it just about killed me walking up to the house. Ok I should be in better shape. I bet Carl drove his car up to the house and did not walk. I watched the movie here, which was an interview with Carl by Edward Murrow. While I had always known his name, I really didn’t know who he was. I now know a little more than I did.



The next stop for grabbing INK would be in Chattanooga and Chickamauga, so we had the rest of the afternoon with no time pressure to get somewhere. Steve had a hankering for BBQ, so off we were to this place. http://www.muttsbbqonline.com/ Mutts. This required some back tracking and was probably 50 miles one way out of way, but with no time constraints who cared. Mutts turned out to be great. Now anybody can cook pulled pork and stuff. I judge BBQ places on the sides they have. Mutts had some of the best macaroni and cheese that I have ever had, homemade to boot.





Some days feel like that train sign, but this was not one of them.


It looked like rain so we pulled over to don our rain suits. Since we preempted getting wet, it only rained a little bit. Mother Nature was so disappointed.

The Smokies we coming at us fast and the sun were settling in for the night and with the moisture in the air it made for some really beautiful scenery to watch.





Doesn’t this picture almost look like a picture at a studio like Sears or JC Penny. You know the one. The one you have pictures taken of yours kids or had to suffer thru your parents going gittche gittche goo to make you smile, but you showed then. you just sat there and pouted.








With our little diversion for BBQ we rode til about 10:30 and decided to call it a night

say Good night John boy..stayed tuned for tomorrow.

Courting History In Virgina and North Carolina

The sun is up and it is bright, there is a briskness to the Virgina air. Today’s first destination is breakfast in Fredericksburg. Right across the street from the Fredericksburg National Cemetery is a local restaurant. Last year I visited the Cemetery and grounds, so this was not a high priority.


First destination is Thomas Jackson's Shrine just outside Fredericksburg. Stonewall Jackson was mistakenly shot by his own men at the Battle of Chancellorville and was taken to this location, where he died.








At 11 am we pulled into Columbia, VA. This town struck me funny because you are looking at the major part of this town. There are no windows in this store except for the front door and front windown. Note the roll down protection plates over the front door. You would thing this store was in NYC.





Appomattox Court House is where Robert E Lee surrendered to US Grant and ended the Civil War. Steve and I spent some time here viewing the various buildings. One observation in the middle of the town was a lawyer’s house. With all of the legal documents coming out here, this guy must of made a fortune. The pictures below is the table where Lee signed the treaty and the one to the left is the actual house where the treaty was signed.




Next stop is Patrick Henry’s final resting place called Red Hill. He was the voice of the American Revolution. You remember “Give me liberty or give me death”. This was a fee based, private museum and we only grabbed the INK. However, we did run into an older gentlemen who was from the Cape, so we chatted with him for quite awhile.



Crossing the state border from Virginia into North Carolina you can’t help but notice the median and sidebanks to the roads are lined with planted flowers. These are planted flowers. The first group was orangish yellow. A little ways down the road the grouping was purple followed by bright red flowers. My impression is that NC takes pride in their state.




Guilford Court House is the next and final National Park destination of the day. This was the site of the longest and most contested battle of the Revolutionary War. Living in the Boston area, I tend to think the whole Revolutionary War was fought around us, but in reality the majority of the fighting was done elsewhere.



It is late afternoon and the sun is settling into evening. Steve and I are at a gas station in Statesville, NC. I am looking at real PAPER maps to see where we should think about staying for the evening. At the pump is a guy is filling a gas tank. On his way into the store, he asks where we are headed. Well one answer to a question, a conversation develops. He asks if either of us are interested in old cars and stuff. He then invites us over to his house to see a general store he has built in his backyard. At first we are hesitant, but what the heck we are on vacation. We follow Pat Ford to his house and discover he has built a very neat little museum. Well it turns out Pat is the Pat Ford that owns the F100 Supernational show http://www.f100supernationals.com/














After Pat’s place we head for Gastonia NC to find a place to sleep for the night. On the way we pass thru NASCAR country, Mooresville NC “Race City, USA”. This is where many NASCAR teams have there HQ’s.

General route for the day http://tinyurl.com/6yfugg about 400 miles

Donkeys and Elephants

...so it must be Washington DC.

Sunday May 18th was a day for running to Washington DC to grab something in the neighborhood of 57 Stamps, at least that was the plan. The morning is sunny and the temperature is a bit on the cool side. First stop is Turkey Run Park. To get there you find yourself on the George Washington Memorial Parkway. We ended up at the GWMP headquarters in error. This was an error I made in estimating where certain places would be when entering the Waypoints. For the most part I am spot on, but I am human. We passed the CIA headquarter in Langley. The sign contains the words Intelligence and George Bush in the same phrase, which made Steve and I chuckle.

OK We are HERE...18 stamps...WooHoo..hmmm, the gates looks exactly like it did yesterday. LOCKED and CLOSED. Sigh it is Sunday and this is one of those sites that is administrative in nature. First FUCK UP of the trip. It started to sprinkle so Steve put his rainsuit on and I followed suit.

OK time to recover, pull out the Excel spreadsheet that lists out my locations and cross reference to the waypoints in the GPS. Hmmmm Clara Barton and Glen Echo parks are right around the corner. I be damned if I don’t salvage this trip. So it is off to these places

Glen Echo Park is a turn of the century amusement park. It appears this a popular spot for kids to have their birthday parties, since I saw a stream of people walking in with presents and the little girls were dressed up as princesses (hmmmm maybe they were princesses with diplomatic immunity). DC is a pretty well off town, all the cars in the parking lot seem to on upper end of the car market.

This is the major attraction to GE Park today and probably yesterday. All parents stick their kids on this thing. Personally, I remember GET ME OFF, give me the boats, or the cars or even better yet GIVE ME THE BUMPER CARS, let me crash into people and things. Now that's fun, but the carousel give me a break, OK mom now can we go get some cotton candy or salt water taffy. You know the kind the pulls the fillings out of your teeth.

Next stop is Washington Monument Bookstore, having 22, count em, 22 friggin stamps. Stamp Nirvana, Washington Red (the stamps use red ink), just like Jed Clampett out hunting squirrel. From Glen Echo, downtown Washington is like 15 minutes it that. We found ourselves on Pennsylvania Avenue. The drizzle has picked up a bit, so I figure the traffic is lighter than it would have been. White House, Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, Smithsonian, Jefferson’s place, WWII Memorial, the Viet Nam Memorial.…what a great town. We circled the Washington Monument looking for a parking place and decided to squeeze our bikes between 2 cars. Steve decides to stay with the bikes in case they need to be moved. My walk (I am gonna call it a hike) was somewhere around ½ mile to get there.

I arrive at the bookstore, walk in and there it is…The counter containing all of the stamps. Since I stamp in 2 different books and on index cards, I am gonna be here for awhile. I pick up the first stamp, trembling with excitement and test the how it stamps. Just like having caviar and truffles ( I don’t think I ever had caviar and I don’t know what a truffle is).

Next stop is for another stamp bonanza location. National Capital East Headquarters. Well this is when the political promises started coming down like donkeys and elephants (my allegory to rain). I made it to the new DC stadium, stopped and asked someone. Of course it was just across the river. So back Steve and I go. Well I circled probably at least 3 times. Ended up at Anacostia Park, which theoretically was the right place. Stopped in a metro park police station and all they did was scratch their head. Plenty of signs around saying "Save our Park" blah blah blah. I finally had to give up and head back for my cousins house in Fredericksburg.

Ok it is Sunday, it is pouring out, Washington DC is not full of people, we are on I395 going to I95. GIVE ME A BREAK!! There is a traffic jam. The traffic is not moving..WTF...how does anybody live down here. No wonder our politicians lie to us, their brain patterns have been altered from norm by all the exhaust fumes. Make note, don't move to DC or surrounding area when required to travel to DC on a regular basis. Steve and I pull over so I can plan a different route. 7100 leads to Rt1. That's the ticket...I love my 2610.

On the way back to Fredericksburg, I head for Prince William Forest Park. I don't have a clue what the significance of this place. One of these days I will look it up, but I stopped for the spot I am sure Steve is getting antsy at this point and I bet his feet are wet.

Arrive in the Fredericksburg area. At a traffic light I say to Steve "2 or 3 quick stops and we will go back to my cousins". I smell ink. Well it is still pouring. At the next light Steve says, "I am going back to your cousins, this rain is gonna kill me". We part ways and I am off to find Salem Church. Again NADA, now I am suspecting all of the work I put into locating the National Parks. sigh. It is around 4pm and I figure I have time for one more location. I am going to the main visitor center for Fredericksburg / Spotsylvania Battlefield. This where my cousin John works out of. Arrive there to find out it is open to 6. Damn I could have gotten in 1 more location and then this place. I have a nice chat with the folks in the center, after getting my INK at the bookstore. Time to head home for the day.

My cousin has this gravel and dirt driveway, which drops into a gully and then immediately climbs back up to a plateau. I really hate this driveway. Not only does it go down and then up but it has a big curve in it to avoid the big tree and it is tilted on the rise to his house. No, I did not drop the bike, but I still hate it. It is the most imperfect way to end and a perfect day.

Today's bounty 26 INK spots, not bad but not 57, however there is always tomorrow.

Forging and Hoping for Crayons in the Hamptons

Got up early around 6am, raring to go. Looked outside and the sun was out. WooHoo!! Outside our room was a woodchuck playing in the field and then some birds and rabbits showed up. As I was packing the bike up I was humming.

Zippiddity Doo Dah Zippidity Eh my oh my it’s gonna be a wonderful day.

First stop is right down the street in Easton PA at the Crayola factory. We arrived there before 9am and the doors are not open. Impression of Easton is a town under a big revitalization / beautification project. The center of town is just darn nice. The doors opened and got my INK then headed for Hopewell Furnace in Elverson, PA.

Picked up 3 Spots at Hopewell. Hopewell Furnace is very similar to the Saugus Iron Works in Massachusetts being one of the iron smelting locations in the early 1800’s that made up America’s Industrial Revolution. There is a small fee to visit the village, which I paid and visited.

Next Stop was Valley Forge National Historic Park in PA. I did not spend much time at VA, other than to get some INK, but my observation is the place is huge, required probably a whole day to visit (maybe more). Valley Forge is a Revolutionary War site..

Next stop was Hampton Historic Site in Towson, MD. Hampton was a large plantation with iron works on the grounds. The home was finished in 1790 and was the largest house in the United States at the time. We arrived here at 4:30pm just as they were closing up for the day. I did get my INK and was able to walk the grounds a bit. On the grounds was a deep cellar for storing ice for the family that lived in the house. How ingenious and maybe the roots of sweet tea.



Since we were headed to my cousins house and just happened to be in the neighborhood, (I told Steve it was on the way) we stopped at the Turkey Run Park for INK gold. Turkey Run has something like 18+ stamps, however they were closed for the evening. I did a quick calculation and figured it was only 60 miles from my cousin John Stoddard’s house and would return on the next day for the stamps.

Turkey Run was the last scheduled stop for the day and we had ridden somewhere in the neighborhood of 300 or so miles. Just south of Washington DC at 7pm at night the traffic was a stand still on I-95. A quick viewing on the 2610, I figured a quick jump on US 1 would do the trick to get around this traffic. Much better route and the scenery was perfect, the weather turned to a very nice evening, warm enough to travel in short sleeves. One more stop at Outback before ending the days ride in Corbin, VA.

Approxmiate route for the day http://tinyurl.com/4eexco Some where between 325 and 350 miles for the day.

The INK of the Day

Dancing in the Rain Gene Kelly Style

It is 1pm May 16, 2008, Steve and I begin our 3200 mile trek thru the south for INK. Fast forward to 1:10pm. We are pulling over, to put our rain suits on. For the next 10 hours we will ride in various types of rain from drizzle to downright downpours.

Of course the whole purpose of my trip is to grab INK at as many National Park locations as I can. First stop is Weir’s Farm in Wilton, CT [ http://tinyurl.com/5r2gb7 ]. We arrive right at 5pm, closing time, but manage to scoot into the visitor center and grab INK. First stop accomplished.

We continue south and west trying to make I84 in Newburgh, NY, Steve becomes concerned about a strange sound coming for his Road King. He thinks it is the fuel pump and thinks it is louder than normal. We are in the Bridgeport CT area so we pull into a Dunkin Donuts to make a call to the HD dealer to see if they can look at the bike. Steve simply wanted to listen to another bike to see if the pump was really louder or was it because this was his first real ride of the season and just spent the last 5 hours riding in the rain. My sense is it was the rain against his helmet that he heard. Back to Dunkin Donuts. Steve is inside on the phone and I am outside reaching for my key to remove it from the ignition. Next I heard this... tink tink tink. Yup the key slipped out of my hand and fell down into the fairing. So off comes all the stuff from the bike, pull the left side panel to get access to the inside and I can see the keys. Keep in mind it is pouring out. Into DD’s to see if they have a hangar. Go to the counter and ask the girl if they have a hangar. She gives me this blank stare and asks, “What do you want”. I say a hangar. She exits for a couple of minutes and comes back. Sorry sir we don’t have any hangars. I realize then as I gazed into her eyes, she was STONED out of her mind. . OK, next plan, outside I go and I look around at the stores to see who might have a hangar. Well lookee thar it is a Cleaners…WooHoo. Get my hangar, unravel the hook, bend the tip for the hook and fish the keys out. Life is back in balance and the trip is on. Steve decides to ignore the noise from the pump and enjoy the trip. It never causes a problem for the whole trip

We wait for traffic to die down since it is rush hour, with no hope of the rain dying down. For next 5 hours we ride in the rain and finally arrive at the border of NJ and PA. We pull off and pull into the Phillipsburg Inn at around 10pm. Lady behind the counter asks if I have an AARP card. I said nope. You have a Triple A card, Nope. I plead with her to give me the discount, explaining I definitely qualify for the AARP. I simply refuse to acknowledge that I can have an AARP card and tell her I have RVRoadHelp which is like AAA and have maps like trip tics on the bike and and and on and on…She says all right already, you have AARP. (make note to join AARP the discounts are worthwhile). So ends the first day of travel. Oh, as soon as we checked in and went outside to ride our bikes to the rooms, the rain had stopped and the moon was out. Go figa.

http://tinyurl.com/3k4hl3 Approxmiate route Estimated miles 275 to 300