Art La Flamme

In about 48 hours, I went from my living room on Oahu, in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, to sitting at a picnic table in Kuwait City, just inland from the northern tip of the Persian Gulf.

Is it just me, or do others think that this is truly amazing?

In 1932, my grandmother went to LA to go to the Olympics. Reading her account, it sounds as if that trip took more effort than the American effort to put someone on the moon. But today, in less than 2 days, I can move clear around the world, from an island in the Pacific to the Middle East.

Wow.

For all those years that we lived in Europe, flying to and from deployments was a very uneventful thing. The USAF picked us up, and they dropped us off at an airbase in Germany. Maybe there’d be a reception or something at our actual garrison when we got off the bus, but really, the travel itself was very straight forward and uneventful.

So, flying from Iraq to Hawaii was a bit of an adventure for me, for among other things, I was flying commercial airlines for 2/5 of the trip, and flying in uniform (which we never did on commercial airlines in Europe).

The entire way home, I felt like I was being treated like a rock star. Which, I’ll be honest, made me a bit uncomfortable. I am so very not-used to that. I am a staff guy, a solver a problems — not some hardened killer. So, the rock star treatment was a bit humbling — why would anyone treat me like this?

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You can download it here: The Arrival at the House

Priorities -- Wife, then beer

65 hours and 13 time zones later, I have completed the secret mission. I made it to Hawai’i and surprised my family by ringing the doorbell late on a Friday night.

So, if you need me, I’ll be at home. Yes, I’ll blog more about this later — sneaking out of Iraq and to your house is a pretty neat trick, I think.

In case you haven’t noticed, I’ve departed. Gone. Poof. Into the wind.

I am going back to Iraq.

Field Manual 30-5, Combat Intelligence, February 1951

I’ll be there for a year, or until they tell me to come home. I should get a two-week-or-so break somewhere along the way.

I’d like to keep blogging here during the year. I am sure there’d be things to write; I know, though, that the Army is a bit cautious about blogs, so I will have to see what wickets I’ll need to jump through in order to blog. Feel free to email me and ask questions; if I can answer them, I will, and if not, I’ll either lie (ok, no, not really) or I’ll just fess up that it’s not appropriate for me to answer, for whatever reason. If I upload photos, or blog here or elsewhere, or bookmark neat things, it’ll all show up in this RSS feed.

“As crutch attests”

About going

I’ve had people ask me different questions about this adventure. The questions generally fall into a couple of categories.

Aren’t you worried about going? No, not really. Things started to sink in Sunday morning, early, that it was almost time for change. I think I get more angst about the change, the picking up and going someplace, than I do about where I’m going or what I’m going to do there. I do a pretty good job of living in the now, and it’s only that slight anticipation that my now will likely change that gets me thinking about it. But no, it’s not worry. I’ll be fine.

Are you worried about being there? No, not really. I know that some have a view that Iraq is some horrible place, but that’s not a view I share. Yes, there is violence, yes there are crimes occurring. But there’s that in Los Angeles, New York, Moscow, and so on. I’m a believer — I believe in the Iraqis, in the Iraqi government, and in what we’re doing there. So no, I’m not worried about being there. I’ll be fine.

Victory in Europe (VE) Day, 08 May 1945

How’s your family taking it? Well. I don’t like saying that we take separation well, or that we’ve done this enough times that it’s not new. That sucks. But it is true — we have done this enough times, for the war, for other missions, for schools and the like, that we’re pretty good at it. My wife runs the house, with or without me there. The kids have their routines, with or without me there. We have mail, and email, and sometimes video chats. My wife covers down on the gift shopping for us when I’m not there, and I work hard to draw out of our kids info on what’s going on in their lives. I don’t like being apart, much less for a year, any more than I like missing another set of birthdays, another holiday season, another recital or event. But it happens, especially when service to the Nation and to the Republic comes before family.

What’ll you be doing there? I’m a staff guy. There’s no door kicking for me, no jumping out of a helicopter as it gets ready to set down on the objective. I sit and think deep thoughts, ask questions, give a briefing from time to time, and make an all-out effort to avoid making PowerPoint slides (not just while in Iraq, but in life in general). It’s not a bad deal, and it’s stuff that I’m actually well suited to do. But through all that, I remain ready to all of those basic soldier skills we expect of every soldier; if they need an extra gunner, I go.

Band-Aids, circa 1944

What do you do?

And every time I get ready to go somewhere, I seem to end up fielding questions from friends / family: What can I do to help while you’re gone?

So, some thoughts on that, too.

Email. You have my email address, right? A note, something personal from time to time, would be cool. Sure, send me the link to that NY Times article; even better is cutting and pasting it into the email itself (because some web sites get blocked or require that I go to an MWR (Morale, Welfare & Recreation) computer to see) or as an attachment. Best, though, is including it and offering up your thoughts on it, too.

Actual mail. You have stamps, right? As long as there have been literate soldiers, there have been letters from home in their pockets. An actual letter is awesome, probably all the more so in this age of email. Yes, it takes longer to write, yes, your penmanship might be a bit off, but so what. Real letters are awesome. Throw in an article from the hometown newspaper, or something from Time or Rolling Stone or Hot Rod, and you’ll make my day.

If you want to go above and beyond that, well, there’s a ton of other things you can do.

Wounded Warrior Transition Units. Find your local military installation, and get in touch with the Wounded Warrior unit. These are the units where our banged up, battered, and slightly-damaged guys go to mend. Guys and gals whose role in life is to get better, after something has happened to them. Want to help someone locally, to help make the world a better place and to maybe honor our soldiers just a bit? Contact the unit, and see how you can help.

Family Readiness Group. Peek around and find the local unit near you. They might be on a base, they might be a Guard or Reserve unit in your area. This is the group of spouses, kids, and extended family (parents, loved ones, boyfriends / girlfriends, etc) who are working to help each other and themselves while their loved ones are gone. Sometimes there are problems to be solved, sometimes there are bake sales to raise money to send care packages to their loved ones.

Army Emergency Relief. AER is help for soldiers in need. A quick loan in a jam or a grant in a time of need, it’s money to help soldiers during their hour of need. It’s run locally — here‘s the link to the one at Walter Reed Army Medical Center — and it’s tax deductible.

Footlocker, packed in 1946

No wallowing

I suppose it would be easy to wallow in my own misery, over having to go. Or over having to go someplace again, or over having to go for a year. There are a million reasons one could be upset about going, or be upset about a loved one going.

But I won’t. I don’t think I can. Things could be so much worse.

As I was getting ready to go, I was looking for those last little things I would need to take with me, I made a stop off in the footlocker that had belonged to my wife’s grandfather. The photos in this post — I took the photos that day as I was peeking here and there.

Los Angeles Times, 08 December 1941

On December 7th, he got the call. He left the next morning, heading off with the 32nd Cav, his National Guard unit. Apparently, he bought the paper on the way that day. He came home from the war in 1946.

5 years. Sure, he got R&R from time to time, but still — five years. That’s a long time. That’s a lot of letters to write. That’s a lot of great experiences with your kids that you’ll never get back.

Late in his life, when I was a lieutenant stationed in Germany, he came to visit us. I made the time to go show him all of our equipment — M1A2 tank, M2 infantry fighting vehicle, M109A6 self-propelled howitzer, and everything on down to machine guns and pistols. It was fascinating to hear his views of our military today — our equipment, our organizations, our capabilities, our training. He had been, at times, want for things as simple as a heavy machine gun that worked reliably — that’s hard to reconcile today with my worries about things like access to email and Skype. Understanding this history not just of my profession but of my own Army and the sacrifices asked of our soldiers in the past, is helping me balance the pressures of heading back to Iraq.

I don’t know how much, if any, difference I’ll make, but I’ll do my best.

Alright, that’s enough for now. More later — whenever that is.

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.

I was thinking earlier that the arrival of Tess Turbo marks the closure of a pretty good summer of motoring. Since late August, Tess Turbo and I made it through the Nordschleife at the N?rburgring, across the Alps, onto a boat to Baltimore, across America to Kansas City via Hermann, MO, and then on to Augusta (and the welcome arms of M2C2, the Mini Motoring Club of the Carolinas) and the Dragon with the Tar Heel Mini Motoring Club, before heading to HI.

Wow.

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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.

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.

So, bear with me — this will take a bit to recap.

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So, where was I?? Oh yeah — Baltimore.

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:

Just a hint of an Archway peeking through.

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.

(more photos, here)

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.

More to follow, I suppose.

Doug et al,

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).

So, I had mentioned that the wife and I had lunch in Cairo the other day. We were finishing a week of vacation there, with the kids, at one of those all-inclusive resorts. It was a good week.

If you’re reading this and not seeing photos, you need to go to the site (click here) to see them.

(more…)

26 April: New photos.

25 April: Update. Google Earth file, here.

13 April: Big day today.

Me and the kids and the boys went to the N?rburgring today to drive some laps on the Nordschleife.

Holy. Crap.

The N?rburgring, known as simply “the Ring” by enthusiasts, is the name of a famous motorsport race track in N?rburg, Germany, built in the 1920s around the village and medieval castle of N?rburg in the Eifel, which is about 70 kilometres south of Cologne, 100 kilometres northwest of Mainz, and 120 kilometres northwest of Frankfurt. Originally, the track featured four track configurations: the 28.265 km (roughly 14.3 mi) long Gesamtstrecke (“Whole Course”), which in turn consisted of the 22.810 km Nordschleife (“Northern Loop”), and the 7.747 km S?dschleife (“Southern Loop”). There also was a 2.281 km warm-up loop called Zielschleife (“Finish Loop”) or better known as Betonschleife, around the pits area.[1] Between 1982 and 1983 the start-finish area was demolished to create a new GP-Strecke, and this is currently used for all major and international racing events. However, the Nordschleife is still in use; nicknamed The Green Hell by Jackie Stewart, it is widely considered the toughest, most dangerous and most demanding purpose-built race track in the world.

Out of this world awesome. Fantastic.

The kids and I had to get up insanely early to pull this off. We met up with Nick (BMW) and Henry (2006 Mini Cooper S) at 0600, for the two hour drive north, which was unevently. I had slept like crap, though. I think I sleep better on Xmas eve, waiting for Santa to bring the presents.

When we got there, Poppa Bear (Ken) and his younger boy were there waiting, and in a few minutes we were joined by Rob. Nick, Henry and I were virgins. Ken had been there once before. Rob has an annual pass, and runs a few hundred laps a year.

Yeah, he’s in a whole other category.

Lots of Brits were already there, and Wow, there were some AWESOME cars out on the track, to include a bevy of Porsche and other luxury / $ toys. Yeah, even a Lambo.

L to R: Rob, Nick, Henry, me, Ken

After making small talk, we hopped into our cars and headed out for a lap. I’d paid for 4 laps — 70 Euros. Not chump change at all. Rob slowed down and led us on that first lap, showing us a decent line to follow through the curves. It was early, and still mostly dry (that would change), and not many cars were out as the track had been cleared to haul out the first wreck of the day.

I should add this early on in all of this: the kids went with me out on the race track. They were in their car seats, and all buckled up, and they had an absolute ball. They loved it. They wanted to listen to Harry Potter on CD while we were doing it (they asked before we started) but stopped asking once they saw how intense the driving was. They were awesome co-pilots.

After that first lap, I left the kids with Ken while I went with Rob for a lap in his car. Somewhere, I have video of it. He’s a decent (!) driver on that track — he’s pretty much got it figured out. But, he did walk me through it as he went — where to brake, where to start the turns, when to push out of the turns, and to look for the white dots (key). It was a, um, spirited drive, on which we passed two cars off the track — one facing the wrong way.

I then did two laps with Ken and his son, them chasing us. It was starting to rain some, so we throttled back. Funniest thing was passing a mini van / sedan thingy, with the family out for a Sunday drive. On the Nordschleife. On one of these laps, near the end, I was braking hard before a sharp turn, looking for the white dot (turn here!), and seeing it, turned and punched the gas — and started to drift sideways. DSC kicked in and we were fine — just a flash of tire slippage — but yeah, my blood pressure went up.

That was nothing compared to Nick’s day — a couple of spin outs, to include one that left him facing the other way. Henry put a wheel or two in the dirt on one corner. I stayed dirt free – one of my goals.

For the last lap, we all went out again as a group. Rob came and road with me, walking me through the turns. My own coach. It ruled. Of course, when he sat down in the passenger seat, he pointed behind the rear view mirror and said, “Wow, you’re going to need a new windshield soon, huh?” I had no idea what he was talking about, or that, yeah, my windshield is cracked. Rrrrrr.

We have to do it again, and soon. Yeah, the laps were a blast, but it was a great group to hang out with and a great / classic guy day. I’m sure my wife loved that I had the kids out of the house all day. We loved it.