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Antidotes are what you take to prevent dotes.
Antidotes are what you take to prevent dotes.Antidotes are what you take to prevent dotes.Antidotes are what you take to prevent dotes.Antidotes are what you take to prevent dotes.
I think I have done very well in not doing much on my two weeks of R&R. I sleep well, I am eating very well, I am soaking up time with my wife and the kids, and can’t really imagine this ending. It’s been a period of great rest and then more rest.
We have done a few things.
This past Saturday, we went to the 17th Annual British Car Show, held down in Waikiki near the zoo. The local British car club invites the Hawaiian Mini Motoring Club (of which I am a member), as they view the Mini — even the new ones, made by BMW in England — as being true British cars. Well, who am I to pass on a chance to go to a car show?
Naturally, I put my Germany badge on the front of the car. The kids and I had a great time of it all — from the pre-meet at the mall downtown, to the slow procession through downtown and Waikiki (honking and waving the whole way), to parking in the shade and swapping stories all morning.
And while there were some exotics there, this car below is the one that caught my eye. I could not stop staring. Lovely Austin-Healey — just lovely.
I also loved the wide range of MG’s that were there — quite a few of which were adamantly described as daily drivers (which has to be easier to do here in paradise).
I was surprised, though, to see a fleet of Cobras and even a GT40 roll in as part of this group. I had expected the MG’s and the AH’s, even the Jags and the Land Rovers and the Rolls’, but these ones caught my eye.
I had to go do some reading, to learn that yes, the GT40 was designed and built on UK soil. And the Cobras? Yeah, I’m a dumbass for forgetting that it’s an AC Cobra — which is most definitely British. Nice and loud, too. Great crew of owners, very nice people.
The other thing I’ve been doing while here is running. Well, running and shoe shopping, as I’ve purchased a new pair of running shoes, a new pair of Five Fingers, and now a new pair of combat boots (that feel like running shoes).
How much running? Try 45 miles. I’ve been doing 4 runs a week, using the Hal Higdon running formula (though not adding miles) — short runs on Tuesday & Thursday, medium run on Wednesday, and a long run on the weekend that about equals what I ran during the week. 45 miles seems like a lot, though.
Today, I had a wild hair and I ended up doing 10 miles. I pushed through the fields on a route I had scoped out via Google Earth. I’ve been trying to find a semi-legal way to get from my house, to Schofield Barracks where I will work post-Iraq. There’s a road that drives there, but it’s certainly not running friendly. That leaves the pineapple fields — which are all adorned with NO TRESPASSING signs. Leaving at 6 AM this morning, I moved with people going to work in the fields — all of whom waved and seemed OK with my being there, which is all I needed to keep going.
I had no intention of doing ten miles today, but the sun was low, the clouds blocking the sun very well, and I was on a roll. Here is a Google Earth file from today — I think this might be my new favorite route, though I do worry about the work area in the middle (I think it’s part of the Dharma Initiative).
Why am I running so much on R&R? I have no idea. Running & More Running. It feels great, though. Last week, I was still dealing with jet lag, so running early — between dawn and sunrise — was working out ideally. Now that I am sleeping well, I should — should — lay off the miles some. Maybe. We’ll see; I am very excited about finding this new route, and may need to go back there once more before I turn into a pumpkin.
If you remember, about a month ago the kids and I went to ride bikes at Ka’ena Point State Park and had an awesome time. When we were doing that, I noticed some odd structures up on the ridge above the point itself — one of which looked like a giant golf ball.
Look for the golf ball.
Today, we went to that golf ball, and to pretty much all of the other stuff up there. A guy I know works up there, and offered to show us around.
The shimmering Pacific.
Nice drive. I think it’s probably less than 2000 feet climb, on a government maintained road (meaning, not so good). The drive was pleasant, but wow, from up there the view is stunning.
The drive up.
I uploaded some of what I took, here. I also made a Google Earth file, with embedded photos (here). The ocean was smooth and silky, and the clouds were breathtaking.
The wife and kids and I went to MINI to the Max at Aloha Tower on Sunday morning, here in Honolulu. It was a mix of a Mini car show, toy drive, and sales event for the local Mini dealership. It was sponsored by the dealership, the local Mini club (Hawaii Mini Motoring Club), and a few others.
One thing I did get a chance to do there was talk about my Mini, and Minis in general. Not hard to do — I love my car, and I love the Mini. And I love my Mini adventures — I put a sheet of paper on the dash, encouraging folks to ask about driving the Alps, or the Ring, or across America, or the Dragon.
I spent some time chatting with a guy who was there with his family. Not a Mini owner, but he is considering one. The dealership invited him to come down – and he was very pleased that he did. At the show, there was just about one of everything — Coopers, Cooper S’s, supercharged, turbo charged, Clubmans, stripes, stock, street racers, etc.
He isn’t in a hurry to buy a car. But he did have a million questions. Gas mileage. Stock / OEM run-flat tires, vs. after market.
I encouraged him to:
Read. Rummage around the Mini website, and check out all of the things.
Ask questions of owners. Find some Mini websites (like NAM, or Coopernation, or a local Mini Club, like the Tar Heels or HMMC) and join in their forums; they’re always receptive to questions from prospective buyers, and the forums probably have questions to answers you haven’t even thought up yet. And go to Mini events in the area — Mini owners tend to be social, and tend to enjoy talking about their cars.
Consider used Minis. Motoringfile has great buyer’s guides, for 2002-2006 Mini Coopers (R50) and Mini Cooper S’s (R53). With 2007 came new engines (turbo, not supercharged) and slowly also some other changes. Nothing wrong with a good, used Mini.
Test drive EVERYTHING. If you’re going to buy new, try one of each. See what heated seats actually feel like, if you’re considering buying them. See how noisy a convertible is at highway speed. Put your foot into a 210-bhp John Cooper Works monster. Make the dealer earn their money, and leave no question unanswered. And if you’re considering used, find the local Mini club and ask folks to take you out for a drive, or to let you try theirs, too.
The wife and kids and I snuck off for a long weekend on Maui. We took the ferry over, which meant that we also got to take along Tess Turbo, the coolest Mini Cooper S in all the Pacific (if not the world).
It was a fantastic trip. Truly. Great weekend. We were the guests of Robin and her family, who treated us like royalty and with whom we had a ball. (She blogged about the weekend, here. And the flubber recipe is here.)
But this weekend made me think about a few things going on in my life. I am getting ready to go to Iraq for a year, so it’s not light stuff.
A part of me wishes I had pursued being a writer. I think I’d be good at it. I enjoy the research, and I find satisfaction is being able to explain complex things in simple ways. My spelling sucks. When I have a chance to sit down and put together something like this, I feel a great sense of accomplishment.
With that, blogging is a way for me to write. To get things out of my head and onto a screen. I still suck at, but that’s fine– I’m doing it.
And it’s OK that I am a pretty crappy blogger. I know that I am. Good blogs have a simple, singular, unified topic. Mine does not.
I plan to find a way to keep blogging while in Iraq. Why? Because there are two things that I do like writing about: solutions, and adventures.
More times than not, I don’t point people to my blog — I point them to my Friendfeed. Why? Because it contains all of the neat little things that I run across around the web. Tips, tricks, and solutions. And it’s an RSS feed — which often means I get the chance to explain why RSS is so cool, so powerful, and why it should be their best friend.
So, go to that friendfeed, and follow the RSS. I promise you — it’ll have some jewels in it this coming year, things I find and things I write myself.
But I also like writing about my adventures. Whether it’s a week in Egypt, or my driving adventure up with the cows on Maui this weekend, I know how lucky I am to be able to roam this planet (a lot of it with my hot rod Mini Cooper S) and see and do all kinds of things. I will try and keep doing that in Iraq, but I’ll be honest — a year in Iraq without adventure would be just fine with me. I don’t need to be kicking in doors, or even firing a shot in anger or defense.
But with that, if I can give you simple answers to complex questions, well, super. Feel free to write — because I’d rather do that than go out into harm’s way.
But, before heading out to Iraq, we headed to Maui for an adventure. And we did find it. This is a tale of adventure, and a few tips and tricks.
Going to Maui
We took the Hawaii Super Ferry from Honolulu to Kahului, Maui. We got up at 4 and left at 4:30 to catch a 6 am ferry. Yikes. That was rough, after Halloween. Good thing the kids had sugar crashed!
Out ferry was huge. Giant. It’s a big catamaran, and it’s both fast and very smooth. Oahu to Maui is 3 hours — very cool. A bunch of folks walk onto the ferry, but most seemed to drive. On the way there, it was all cars, but on the way back we also saw motorcycles and big trucks, to include an 18 wheeler. My low-slung car had to be angled up in a few places, to avoid scraping, but the bulk of the other vehicles — Hawaii is the land of the big truck, like Texas — had no problems. We’d pre-paid online, and getting aboard was a snap.
Heading out that early in the morning, under the threat of rain, was very pretty. That first light was getting lost in the dark clouds, which made for a pretty setting. And it wasn’t too cold, either — which made going outside to check things out a treat, not a chore. But, I gotta say — the inside of the ferry was great, too. We scored a booth, which had a 110 outlet. The ferry also had free WiFi — which just baffled me. Very cool, being able to email updates to Robin while en route.
The Beach
We got there mid to late morning, plugged the address into the GPS, and headed to Robin’s house. Too easy. On the drive there, this was my favorite sign:
“Speed Limit Enforced by LASER”
Lasers? What, like a death ray from space or something? Goldeneye?
#2 was this one:
“Speeders will be fined $277″
Why $277? Why not $277.41?
Anyway, we got in, got settled, and did what everyone new to Maui does — we headed to the beach. We drove down to Paia Bay, with boogie boards and skim boards and fins and towels and more crap than any one Sherpa / mini-van could carry.
Nice beach. Waves that weren’t good for surfing, and certainly not ideal for boogie boarding or skim boarding, which meant it didn’t have gobs and gobs of folks there. Perfect for a big gaggle of kids in the 7-12 years of age range.
I spent some time talking physics with my son, about how skim boards work, about draws and spurs, and about how to get past the shore break and out into the waves. The kids need fins — maybe Xmas this year. I need to swim more — it was great to be back in the ocean, but wow, it tired me out quickly.
Swinging Bridges (Waihe’e Valley)
Sunday morning, we all had a big breakfast and headed up to Swinging Bridges, aka Waihe’e Valley, for a hike. It’s a couple of bucks admission, and then a nice, cool 2 mile hike up to a dam and a nice swimming hole.
I know what you’re thinking, looking at these photos. Easy, wide path.
But it’s not. Some parts of it get very thin and very rocky — no push strollers, no wheel chairs for sure. Covered shoes with socks would probably be best, for the cushion that offer. And the bridges. Yes, they are that cool.
I don’t have any photos to share from the pool where we swam at the end of the trail, but here‘s a video from YouTube. It was a nice place — cool, crisp water, and neat things on which to climb and from which to jump.
If you click here, I made a Google Earth file that shows the routes of the ferry (going there is different than coming back), plus the hike. The GPS did an OK job of tracking us, but we were were deep down in this valley, with little linkage to the GPS satellites. Still, you’ll get the general idea.
On the way home, the wife and I treated all to tacos and other awesomeness at a place called Las Pinatas. Wow — amazing food. Seriously, if you make it to Maui, go here. K and I had carne asada burritos that were to die for, and the kids ate tacos. $3 tacos. And yes, they were worth $3.
Oh, and that night I had both star fruit and dragon fruit. Dinner was fresh and hot homemade brownies with vanilla ice cream. Yeah, my day totally rocked.
The Drive to Haleakala National Park
The night, as we were all starting to talk about dinner, K and I looked outside and saw that we were in for a chance of rain. We opted to go for it — we left the kids, hopped in the Mini, and headed up to Haleakala National Park. The joke of the night was, “Oh, man, we went to Maui and we got soooooooo high!” True, we did — 8000+ feet high (stopping short of th summit, which is past 10,000 feet).
The drive was awesome. Zippy, uphill, and on a well-maintained road. It was something of a cross between the Black Forrest, the Dragon, and the lower Alps.
But with cows.
Kind of hard to bear down and really work the gears when there are, you know, cows to contend with.
The countryside, though, reminded us of northern California. Dry, open fields with big trees — very un-jungle-like. We might as well have been tooling through the foothills of the Sierra Nevada range, or along the coast of the Pacific just about anywhere in CA, OR, or WA.
Soon, though, we were up above the clouds, and it was stunningly beautiful. Cold (50 degrees) by Hawaii standards, but we were ready — no shoes, no socks, just shorts and a pullover. If it’d dropped below 50, we would have broken out the socks.
Because of the cows, we took our time going down.
I’d talked about doing the road to Hana on this trip, but that will have to wait. This was a fine in lieu of option, and the bonus was seeking the sun set with my wife and not my kids, from a mountain top on Maui.
The Ferry Home: Moloka’i
I suppose to could just gloss over the ferry ride back, but we went around to the north / backside of Mokoka’i.
I really want to go to Moloka’i some day. It was, for a long time, home to a leper colony. It’s something of an untouched island, with a low population (probably below 10,000 even today) and a reputation for being the least developed of the Hawaiian islands and where people go when they want to be alone, as in not bothered by civilization, government, etc.
If ever you were to turn a corner and come face to face with a dinosaur, it’d be on Moloka’i. For sure.
Oh, and we saw tons of flying fish. Really. Fish, with wings that come up out of the water and fly for a while before diving back into the ocean. Seriously.
K and the kids and I headed off this AM for coffee with the Hawaii Mini Motoring Club. I’d been in touch with some of the gang online, so it was a chance to say hello and put faces to names, and to ask a ton of questions.
Today was, apparently, the smallest gathering in known history. We counted maybe 15 or 18 Minis. Last month, they did a drive across the island — 51 Minis.
While there, a few of the folks said, “Oh, you should go drive up to Tantalus. It’s really pretty.”
So we did.
K fired up the GPS while I drove, and plugged in Honolulu and then Round Top Road. That worked. The area was described as Tantalus, but they were specific — the road is actually Round Top Road. It goes up through a residential area, and then into Puu Ualakaa State Wayside Park (here).
And it is beautiful. The drive is on a mediocre road, but it gets up into thick foliage — very jungle-like, the kids told us. And the view from where we had lunch was wonderful.
That’s Diamond Head across the way, and then the city of Waikiki below.
I make a Google Earth file (here). The orange route is the one we took to get there. It leads across Oahu and up to the park and where we had lunch. The purple route is the rest of the drive — what we took to come back down off of the mountain.
Nice drive to get there. Great view. Great picnic areas. Good bathrooms, too. Easy to get to. We packed our lunch for the trip, but hey, I’d go there just to eat a sandwich from Subway. This is worth visiting, and worth taking visitors to.
We went and got her from the port today. She’s got two new and tine scratches on the passenger door — the shipping folks acknowledged that the scratches are new, so we’ll work out something to get her fixed. It’s why we have insurance.
Hey, Tess and I made it onto Killboy’s blog (here). He’s the photographer at the Dragon, the best and the best known. He posted me and RudyT — pretty cool.
I drive a 2006 Mini Cooper S. I am, in every sense, just your typical Mini owner, in that I am as fanatically obsessed with my Mini as the next guy or gal.
I love my Mini. I love driving my Mini. And I love my Mini adventures.
I’ve got a running list of adventures that I’ve had in my Mini. It looks something like this:
* Going full throttle on the autobahn
* Driving the Odenwald
* Sunday drives the Black Forest / Schwarzwald
* Driving the Black Forest from end to end
* Driving Poppa Bear Point
* Turning laps on the Nordschleife at the N?rburgring
* Minis in the Alps 2008
And this weekend, I added another one to that list.
I joined 8 others, mostly from the Tar Heel Mini Motoring Club, for a few days of driving through North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and on into Tennessee. The trip was organized by my “brother from another mother”, Paul. He’s a veteran of five trips up to Deal’s Gap, and he organized a great weekend.
The coordination for the trip was ongoing, and it was online. Paul’s plan was to meet Friday night near Asheville, NC, have some dinner and a beer or ten, and stay at the Days Inn. Saturday, we’re make a wandering drive through the countryside, ending at the Dragon and staying at the Fontana Village Resort. Sunday, we’d have some breakfast, drive the Dragon again, and then head out separate ways in order to make it home at a decent hour — some folks had to work this morning.
Friday I popped smoke around noon and started the drive north. Dropping the address of the hotel into Tess’ GPS, she wanted me to head an hour east to Columbia SC and then north on interstate the rest of the way. Well, this was going to be a weekend about the drive, and that wouldn’t do at all. So, I had Tess re-plot a new route — the shortest one possible.
Much better. Much. The new route was almost entirely on 2 lane roads headed through the country side. I took a peak into Greenville, SC, as the only real detour from heading north, stopping to see the city some — no reason, other than it was there. Once I got north of the city, though, the low mountains started to come into sight, and I knew it was going to be a good weekend — the looked like the mountains around where we just were living in Germany.
I was the first to arrive, so i was able to relax and settle in some. We’d only be there the one night, so I kicked off my shoes and relaxed some. Just when I was starting get a little bit hungry, the convoy of 5 Minis from NC arrived.
We turned around and headed into Asheville, figuring we’d find some place to eat. Asheville is a nice, nice little city. I rode with Rudy and Paul, and the two of them told me the history of the founding of the city. Rudy had gone to college nearby, and Paul, having come up that way often enough to drive the Dragon and for work, is in love with the city. We didn’t have a chance to stop off and see the Biltmore Estate, which would be on my list of things to do if Tess were hanging around some more. We walked through the city some — on such a nice evening on a long weekend, everyone was out and about, and parking was limited — and ended up at Tupelo Honey, a nice restaurant with great food, great atmosphere, and great beer, and a wait that was probably less than an hour. I opted for chicken, vice the shrimp with grits that a few people had. Yes, I am not Southern.
(L to R: Frank, me, Paul, Mike, Van)
After dinner, we were teenagers — we stood around the back of a car in the parking lot, drinking beer from 5 liter kegs, using the ubiquitous red cups, and smoking (cigars, because we’re civilized). This weekend was advertised by Paul as being his Tour of Terror, and he was promising to show us a “spirited” drive. There had been much debate on what he meant by spirited — I was hoping it meant good German bier, and I was not disappointed. But other clearly wanted it to mean going fast, and it was that, too. Paul is fast — just look at this photo. He’s that fast.
Saturday was indeed about driving. Here is the actual route we took (it’s in Google Maps). We were assembled and on our way at 0800, in military precision. Eight Minis, 9 people, and not much extra stuff other than a cooler of beer. Paul had laid out this elaborate drive to get there, and I was not disappointed at all. It was fantastic. Easily, any one part of the drive to the Dragon would have been a good day, and we did it all. Without a doubt, my favorite stretch of the road was Wayah Road — it was fantastic. It’s marked in here, my Google Earth file for the trip.
Just driving Wayah Road would have made it a great day. We did so much more than that.
Lunch was at the Sweetwater BBQ, in Robbinsville NC — and the food was out of this world. Somehow I doubt I’ll find BBQ like that in Hawaii or Iraq.
After lunch, it was a good drive up to Highway 129 and Deal’s Gap, the Tail of the Dragon. And let me be clear — we were deep in motorcycle country. It was clear when we arrived at lunch, and there was no doubt, as we got closer to Deal’s Gap, that cars were the minority. I think they cut us some slack — eight Minis is a pretty cool sight. And, well, we drive like the dickens — that helps. We got up to Deal’s Gap, bought goodies and stickers and shirts and stuff, and then made a slow drive out the Tail of the Dragon for orientation and to check for police — who were out in numbers. We stopped at the dam at the far end, and took a group photo. I snuck in a photo of the 300Z guys who had gone before us and gone a little too fast (it’s a 30 mph zone), and they got to meet the TN fuzz.
The Dragon itself is 11 miles. It starts at Deal’s Gap, and goes out along a ridge and then on down to the water. It’s not a lot of changes in altitude, no massive climbs or descents. It’s all turns.
And by turns, I mean 318 of them. In 11 miles.
Is there any wonder why it’s motorcycle country?
The best part, as I see it, is that the route starts in NC and heads into TN, and there is nothing along those 11 miles. No driveways. No intersections. No stop signs. Nothing. Just turns. And since it starts in NC, and since there are very few places to even pull off the road, the only police are from TN, and if you don’t see any on the way out, there won’t be any on the way back in.
But we’d seen some on the way out, so we had a nice, tame drive back in. Once back at Deal’s Gap, we turned left and headed out Hellbender, the stretch of road to Fontana Village where we were staying. Nice, nice place, loaded to the gills with motorcyclists, of course. We dropped bags, changed, had a beer or three and then had some dinner. The Fontana Village is a very nice resort, and the rates were very, very good. And yes, there’s a military discount — always a good sign. There was no free ‘net access in the rooms, and we had drinking to do, so we only loaded and shared photos on thumbdrives, stood outside drinking and telling lies, before we called it a day and headed to bed at a decent hour.
One Mini driver had to head out early, so we were down to seven Minis. Five of us headed out around 7 am, to drive the Dragon and then meet the others for breakfast. The drive out was, um, spirited indeed, and the drive back was, um, terrorizing. On the way back in, I loaded Sara’s camera onto the camera mount in my car, and chaser her the whole way. I’ll link to the video when she posts it — it was awesome.
The driving. Let’s see. I have dynamic stability control on my car; if the front tires are going to break free, the DSC kicks in to get the car back under control (and a light goes off on my control panel). It’s front wheel drive, and those front wheels are getting about 190 horsepower — maybe a little bit more. The car is supercharged, and I’ve replaced the supercharger pulley with a smaller one (for more pressure and more horsepower). The car weighs nothing.
That warning light from the DSC? Yeah, I saw it — a lot. The front tires? Thoroughly abused. The brakes? Needed cooling off time from excessive use. I learned how to torque steer when the ass of the car broke contact with the ground and I’d tripped the DSC at the same time. Ponder that one for a minute.
There are a few photography shops that go out to the Dragon every day and post their photos online. I am waiting for them to do so — I am dying to see them! I’ll link to them later when they go up.
Most made one run on the Dragon Sunday morning, before we had breakfast and before they headed home. Paul and Rudy are known for going fast. I was known for liking pretty roads. They’re the terrorists, I’m the prettiest. Paul and Rudy and I made a second go of it — and it was the slowest, “prettiest” drive on the Dragon, ever. Nice, though. At the far end, we said our goodbyes, and headed our separate ways. Actually, I headed out while they let their brakes cool some more.
I headed for Helen, GA. Why Helen? It’s Bavaria, in Georgia. Really, it is. Spot on tourist reproduction. And there happen to be some amazing routes to get there. It was just me, one Mini driving solo, and I really, really enjoyed the drive. At felt at one with Tess again, and I’d missed that feeling. Once I got out of Helen, though, it was pretty mundane driving (in comparison to the rest of the weekend, I suppose), though it was mostly smaller roads. When it was all done, I was really, really tired. I was asleep by 2000 / 8 pm.
I’ve got two videos from the weekend. The first one is on Google Video and is on the drive getting to the Dragon. It’s filmed with my camera, but a borrowed mount that just didn’t see to want to work with me on finding an angle to see around the damn mirror. The second video is on my server, and it’s in an iPhone-friendly format, just for the cool kids. The second one is actually a good chunk of the Dragon, but I had no idea that that run was going to be soooooo sloooooooow. I ran out of disk space, it was so slow.
I’ve got photos up on my Flickr account, and Sara posted hers, here and SGT Pepper his. I suspect there will be more — like RudyT.
One last topic: How does it compare?
It’s not the N?rburgring. The Dragon is not built for speed. You’ll never hit even 4th gear on the Dragon, when you can wind it out past 100 or 120 mph on the Ring if you know what you’re doing (and are in a capable car). The Dragon is no racetrack, that’s for sure. The Dragon is all turns — which makes for an entirely different experience. But — both the N?rburgring and the Dragon are public roads; the only difference, I suppose, is that the N?rburgring has no speed limit. And it’s car country, without a doubt, while the Dragon isn’t.
It’s not the Alps. Holy crap, it’s not the Alps. Both have lots of turns, but the Dragon slinks along across the spine of a ridge. Lots of small turns. The Alps? Massive changes in altitude, and lots of switchbacks. Granted, the Dragon is 11 miles long, while we did 1100 miles through the Alps. But still. Even if you add in the miles getting to and from the Dragon, there’s no comparison. The area around the Dragon might, at best, qualify as foothills for the Alps. Foothills for the foothills of the Alps. Maybe.
It’s not the Black Forest. It’s close to the Odenwald (here and here). It could easily be Poppa Bear Point Run. The area absolutely reminds me of the area around Annweiler, out west of where I use to live in Baden-W?rttemberg. The Dragon would be an intense section of one of those drives. However — and there’s always one of those — there are a couple of differences. You wouldn’t see cops in the back woods in Germany, unless it was something unusual (I think I saw them once on Poppa Bear Point Run). Also, the roads in Germany were in better shape — this is more clearly shown if you include all of the miles I drove getting to and from the Dragon. Lastly, there are some great, great stretches I use to drive that were maybe wide enough for a car and a half, but were in fact two lane roads. Zippy fast, very smooth, very curvy — and very narrow, with the highest chance of an encounter with a tractor and not another car.
I’d do this weekend again, though — in a heartbeat. Great group. Great drive getting there, especially Saturday. The Dragon itself? Yeah, it’s OK. I got my sticker to put on the car later. But really, it was all of the other driving that made it awesome. I’d move to Wayah Road tomorrow if I could. I am glad that we had that one, um, aggressive run on Sunday morning, and I am dying to see Sara’s video of how I was driving. But really, it was great time spent in my beloved Tess Turbo, doing what we do best. I wish the kids had been with me, too — they’ve have gotten a kick out of it.
Oh, and as thanks for putting it all together, I bought Paul something pretty for his Mini. He’s a Dragon Slayer, and a Lady Killer.
It only took 34 years to get around to making another Italian Job movie. What brought that about? The return of the Mini, of course.
This isn’t a sequel, and it’s not a remake, per se. Mark Wahlberg plays Charlie, Donald Sutherland plays his mentor, and the ever beautiful Charlize Theron plays Steller, his daughter and Charlie’s love interest. They go to Italy with a crew to pull off one more job, the one that will let them all get out of the business. And they pull it off — only to have Ed Norton, as Steve, double cross them and take the loot.
Bastard. He even kills of Donald Sutherland’s character, he’s that much of a cold hearted prick.
From there, it’s an issue of trying to steal back the loot. Charlie rounds of a crew of good seconds, and they pull it off. And, true to form, the second half of the movie is the getaway, and the second half of the movie features the Minis.
Wahlberg is OK in this movie. Charlize Theron is smokin’ hot, as always. The one to watch in this movie, though, is Seth Green — he’s awesome as the computer nerd of the bunch.
You don’t need to see the original to enjoy this one. This a good one to put on the Netflix list, for sure. Can’t go wrong with this one.
Look what I passed today! I need to go back, just for a cup of coffee or something. Maybe they can make some small upgrades to my Mini — Gatling guns, flame throws, or something.
In case you had not heard, I’m on the road today, headed north to Deal’s Gap. Tomorrow, I’ll be driving the Dragon with a bunch of other Minis. Should be good.
So, to honor that glorious event, I decided it was high time to went back and watched The Italian Job again. Yes, the original one.
I went up to Atlanta for the weekend.? Went to see A & T & their daughter, MacAttack.? T and I went to college, and being as it’s only 120+ miles to their house, it seemed to close to not do.? Awesome, awesome weekend.
Let’s see. There was:
1.? The new iPhone.
2.? The trip to the mall.
3.? Dinner at Ted’s.
4.? A morning of unlocking the iPhone and T’s iTouch.
5.? A lazy afternoon of looking at the new iPhone like it’s a naked lady who moved in across the street.
Wednesday night closed out well. JB and I went down the street to a tequila bar for some food and a drink (or two).? Yummy food, and wow, good drinks, er, I mean, drink.? Bartender took pity on us, I think, or at least found humor in serving up drinks, er, a drink to a guy who’d been living out of the country for so long.
So.? Thursday.? Wow.? Drove a lot that day.? 600+ miles, from Baltimore to Louisville.? After two nights of about 4.5 hours of sleep each night.? No problem, though.? Took my time.? Even took a cat nap at a restplatz at mid day.
One of my goals of this drive was to stay off of I70.? Interstate 70 is something I’ve been on before (I can’t remember how many times I’ve driven across the country in the last 30+ years), and in a word, it’s boring.? I don’t want to be in Kansas City, I want to drive to Kansas City.? So, getting there is important.
Out of Baltimore, though, I had to suffer through some I70, but just a little.? Then poof, off into the hills.? It looked like this:
Please excuse the dirty windshield.? America is, apparently, a dirty place now.
Along the way, I ran across things I had forgotten about, like this:
Runaway truck ramp?? Yep.? Long hill going down and, well, they plan for the worse.? Never saw this in Europe, that I can think of.
The drive itself was uneventful.? I was amazed at the American drivers — cigarette in one hand and cell phone in the other hand, driving 70 in the left lane for no reason at all.
Lots of puffy clouds, though.
One thing I did decide on the drive, though, was that I was pleased with my plans for my Garmin.? I brought it along, and had picked up a 12v to USB adapter, so that I could keep it charging while I drove.? It’s set to best-record mode, so when this is all over, I should have a great and detailed Google Earth file of the entire drive.
Here’s what it looks like.
I also noticed that day that yes, Tess gets some funny looks.? Here’s a photo of one lady giving Tess the Huh? look.? I wonder if it’s ’cause she’s a Mini, or because of the unusual license plates she’s sporting.
So, good drive.? I got into Louisville around 1800 — a little under 11 hours of driving.? Averaged almost 30 mpg for the drive — up a bunch from my normal 23+ in Germany.? So much for top speeds on the autobahn, huh?
When I was checking in, guy behind the counter asks if there’s anything else he could help me with.? “Yeah,” I say, “did Germany beat Portugal?”? Sure enough, they had.? Best news of the day.
Friday, I was up early and out the door and driving while it was still dark.? Did I mention that I love my car?
Yeah, I do.
I stopped for gas after a little bit, and this is what I was greeted with:
Because obviously, truck drivers crave more than porn, booze and smokes.? But, I should mention that they also had fresh fruit, so I guess they’re taking a holistic approach to caring for the long haul truck drivers. So nice of them, huh?
Filling the tank (12 gallons, on average — just under 50 liters) has generally been about a $50 event.
That’s a far cry from the $100+ that I paid per tank when we drove the Alps.
Coming out of Louisville, I hit the flats.? It wasn’t as bad as it could have been, but it was still pretty flat.? I ran into some long stretches of rain, too.
One thing I did not do was pack meals and eat at the rest areas.? Should have.? Baltimore to Louisville, I did not eat — not sure why, either.? Friday, I stopped for a late breakfast, then had a bagel and cream cheese in St. Louis and a late dinner.? But the rest areas across America are nice and often have picnic areas.
At this one, inside, there was a screen with weather and travel info.? While looking at ti, the man and woman (older) walk over.? “Does it say?” she asks.? “No,” he says.? “I just want to know what bridges aren’t out,” she says.? “Think of it as an adventure,” I say.? He laughs.? She does not.
Soon enough, I was approaching St. Louis.? You can tell you’re getting close — it’s like playing Where’s Waldo:
St. Louis:? Good town.? How do I know this?? Do you really need to ask that?
I stopped and saw an old friend who lives and works there.? Her office is across the street from a new Mini show room.? She really needs to stop reading this and take a break from her work and go test drive a Clubman.
Really.? Stop reading this.? Go.? Motor on.
St. Louis to Jeff City, where I would spend the night with my cousin and his family.? OK, here’s the story.? I posted a message on a Mini website, saying that I was driving from Germany to Hawaii, via Louisville, St. L, KC, and Augusta, and where should I go, what should I do, etc.? Gal from St. L chimes in — oh, from here, go to Augusta MO, then on to Hermann MO.? Pretty.? German.
German?? Really?
Seems that, back in the day, a group of Germans in Philly weren’t happy with the English influence there, so they sought out and bought a huge piece of land out here, because it was just like Germany.? And, having driven through it, I have to say, Yeah.? It is.? They started by building Hermann, and growing grapes, and making wine and beer, and building boats and bricks and musical instruments and so on.? School was taught in German, papers were printed in German, and so on.
So, I have to say, her advice was spot on.? Great driving (55 mph speed limit, too!), and great stops. I picked up some wine at a small winery near Augusta, and some really good beer in Hermann after I had toured the city / town museum.? I had a good laugh on the “tour” (me and a volunteer) when I saw on display an orange cap described as having been worn by a guy when he went to University in Heidelberg.? Pretty funny.
I mentioned flooding and bridges and stuff, right?
Yeah.? None shall pass.? Had one stretch of road closed.? GPS took me around it.
Later today, cousin and I are going back to Hermann — there’s a beer fest.? What?? How can I not go back for that?? $10 says I get to judge the beer or something.? After that, we’ll swing back through here so I can drop him off, then it’s on to Kansas City and, hopefully, a chance to do laundry tomorrow.
I made it to Baltimore on one piece.? Good trip, actually.
United guy at the airport was good.? I gave him my two bags, he weighed them, and then asked, “Are you military?” Turns out that he knew the secret code to plug into the HAL9000, so that he would not have to charge me for my over-weight bag (yikes).?
I ended up on a 767-300, in the Economy Plus section — next to a smelly guy, of course.? He moved over after we were in the air (when the lady on the other side of him fled), and that worked out well.?
Economy Plus — gotta say, I liked it.? For once, my knees were not up against the seat in front of me.? It took me a couple of hours to figure this out — it was that baffling.? But I could get use to that.?
Landed almost an hour early.? Buddy was there to police me up, and we headed off to Baltimore.? Good timing on the drive, too — we fared well through all of the DC traffic.? Headed to the inner harbor, right to a brew pub for a pint or two and some snacky food.? So many big vehicles everywhere – that’s going to take some getting use to.?
Linked up with Friend #2, with whom I am staying.? Got settled, chatted some, ran an errand, and then huddled in the kitchen while the he and his girlfriend made dinner and I tried to stay awake.? Amazing food — probably all the more so because I’d been up forever.? In the end, when I crashed, it was about a 22 hour day.?
Today, I will go get the Mini.? Turns out that the office where I do all of the paperwork for the Mini is two blocks away from where I am staying.? So, I will walk over there, do the paperwork, and then cab it to the car itself.? Yippee!? After that, maybe some errands, some unnecessary driving and car groping, a nap, and maybe a run / photo reconn of the area.? It’s georgeous around here, worthy of a photo or 600.
Next week, I’ll make the 1000 or so mile drive from the port in Baltimore, to Kansas City, MO. After a week there, I turn SE and head to Georgia for a ~100 day course. After that, or during that, I need to get my Mini Cooper S on a boat and pointed at Hawaii, so I can hop a plane myself and head to the islands.
All good trips need a name. Tess Takes The States (TTTS) — I think that’ll work.
Right now, the plan is to head first to Louisville and spend the first night there. It’s a decent drive there and a good stopping point — a hair over 600 miles, and it’s not on Highway 70.
Louisville — it’s such a great city. I’m looking forward to the chance to get out and wander some, and to take a ton of photos (Flickr – please excuse the bikinis). From what I’ve read, the downtown has really turned around in the last couple of decades, which I am anxious to see as well.
And, if all else fails, I know where to find the house where Hunter S. Thompson grew up. I could make this adventure all Gonzo and stuff, just without the booze and drugs and, well, most of it.
From Louisville, I will head to Kansas. I may or may not swing by and see my cousin on the way; still waiting to hear on that one. There’s no real way to get from St. Louis to Kansas City without hitching onto Highway 70. Ugh. Oh well. If the visit works out, that’s be great. If not, I’ll stop for lunch in St. Louis (maybe by the arch), tank up, and zip on over to Kansas City.
The week in Kansas City should be good. I have a few friends in the area, in addition to a full schedule with my boys. So, I am sure I’ll get some running in (somehow) and some good grub, maybe a free home cooked meal or two, and a baseball game. Our hotel is about a 20 mile drive from where we’ll be during the day, which kind of sucks. I bet they’ll have vans or something to shuttle us; I’ll probably try and drive my car anyway. We’ll still be all cute together, like newlyweds.
After the week there, I’ll head to my uncle’s house near St. Louis. Been a while since I’ve seen him and his family, and I am excited about the chance to catch up. I’ll be heading there after the last (half) day of our work, so it’s a decent drive, not too long. The drive from KS to GA is a real hump, so this little head start will help.
But from there, I’m going to aim for Nashville. Shooting down the highway, it’s something like 350 miles. Which means I should have ample time to get off of the highway and seek other routes. Assuming my GPS is up and running in the car (I am bringing two different DVD’s for it, so one should work), it’ll be nice to get off of the main roads and to see some of the parks and wildlife preserves in the area.
And if I get into Nashville early enough, it looks to be a great city for going for a run. I can’t recall ever being there, so it’ll be nice to get out and about, find some grub, and take some photos while seeing what the city as to offer.
From there, it’s off to Augusta. I would swing through Atlanta and see a friend from High school, but really, on Sunday, I need to get to Augusta at a decent hour and get checked in. I can drive back to Atlanta on another weekend, just for a visit.
What I don’t know is what will happen after that. I’ll be in Augusta for a while — about 100 days — and somewhere along the way, I need to put Tess on a boat for Hawaii. If I can sneak off and do that while in school, great. If not, I’ll drive her to Los Angeles and throw her on a boat there. But that’s a whole other chapter to this tale, I fear. One that I kind of hope happens. It’s be awesome to do something like pick up Route 66 in Oklahoma City and drive it out west.
MotoringFile is a great Mini related site. All kinds of good information there, including all the latest news on Minis and future Minis (Opa, it’s where I am tracking what’s going on with the plans for a 4WD Mini), plus a great section on do it yourself stuff. They also have a comprehensive buyer’s guide for Minis, broken down by not just by model but also by year (which is a fantastic idea).
The Mini Challenge (translated) is a Formula 1 style series of races for some seriously hopped up Minis. Think stock car racing, if the factory was in the business of making race cars. Hopefully, you’ll notice that these Minis look, well, different. And they are a wee bit fast.
I tried to make it to Hockenheim last year, to see one of the races (here), and had my plans fall apart at the last minute. The boys went, and we joined them for a BBQ afterwards.
Hopped up Minis racing on two of the most famous tracks in the world, one with which is a stone’s throw from where I live and the other is one that I’ve driven. How cool is that.
I did some tinkering yesterday with how I use my Garmin Forerunner 405 when driving. I think I found something would sharing.
1. I changed the setting on my Garmin, to have it record the location every second. The default has it computing when to record the location based on some (unknown) algorithm. Recording every second increases accuracy, but cuts battery life to 1/3 (not by 1/3 – to 1/3), from about 9 hours to about 3.
2. I brought along the charging adapter and a USB cable, and attached it to a cigarette adapter that has a USB port on it. That let the Garmin keep right on charging while in use, and off-set the accelerated battery consumption. Not an issue for short drives, as in under 3 hours, but really, in life, good drives take a hell of a lot longer than 3 hours.
I’ve attached a Google Earth file, here. It shows the difference in accuracy for the different recording methods for the Garmin Forerunner 305. Like night and day, as I see it.
I’m tinkering with this because I’m getting ready to go to the US and to be reunited with my Mini. Tess Turbo and I will be celebrating our reunion by driving from Baltimore to Ft. Leavenworth, and then on to Augusta, GA, a week later. That’s a lot of miles. And while in GA, I expect to be making some trips up to Deals Gap to run the Tail of the Dragon with other Minis. While I’d probably be OK with the less accurate, longer battery lasting default setting for the long haul drives, it’ll be nice to have really accurate recordings for the Dragon and other sporty drives. Battery life was always the issue; I think this solves that, and for not a lot of money.
You should be able to find USB adapters for your cigarette lighter at Radio Shack or at Amazon (an example is here).
I haven’t coughed up a summary of cool things from around the web for some time. I suppose it’s because I’m all about the RSS feed concept, and the fact that I have a couple of them.
There’s this one, just for the stuff that I post to this site.
There’s this one, which is all of the stuff that I bookmark and share and annotate as I read 100+ RSS feeds in Google Reader. Pretty much, I have stopped surfing the web, and instead I use Google Reader and these RSS feeds to bring the web to me. As I find cool things, I mark them, and they show up in this RSS feed. Want to see what I think is noteworthy, on a daily basis? Yeah, get this RSS feed.
And then there’s my Friendfeed. It picks up a few other odds and ends, like the Twitter stuff I am playing with, the rare comment I make on YouTube, etc.
So, really, if you’re hip and cool and use either of the latter two, you’re aleady seeing the cool things that I’m stumbling across around the web (granted, I’m no Andy Baio, but still.)
But, that being said, here’s some of the good stuff. Read carefully — you might even get your own shout-out!
If I end up with a new Mac, it’s going to get X-Box Media Center loaded on it. No if, ands, or buts. Oh, and I can run it from a thumb drive? Even better — cookies and porn, my favorite!
Paul, Poppa Bear, Scott, etc: Can we mount these to the tow hook on the front of the Mini? Someone buy one, figure it out, and send me the solution.
Orwell, Jay, Doug — the almost-geo capabilities of the iPhone amaze me, and should impress you, too. It’s one of the reasons I’m looking at getting an Eye-Fi Explore (that, and so I can upload easily to Panoramio — it’s too much of a pain in the ass right now to manually geo-code crap). Oh, and speaking of iPhones — you did read this one, right?
I love this piece on terrorism and photography. It’s a sound argument. Kind of mocks TSA and DHS a bit, don’t ya think. It struck a chord with me, having just finished Little Brother.
Bets, there’s a new version of the video camera out. Don’t worry — while it’s smaller, the early reviews all seem to indicate that is fares worse in worse light conditions, if that makes any sense.
So, follow a feed, and keep up with what’s hip and happening in my little world. While on the road, I’ll probably blog less, but I doubt my RSS reading will suffer much.
