On The Road with Jim and Pat

Hello from Prescott, IA

Monday evening – September 19, 2016   (First post of this travelogue)

We are in Prescott, IA to visit with Pat’s relatives and to attend the wedding Tracy and Julie Douglas.  Tracy is the son of her cousin. 

We left Evergreen on Saturday (9/10) around noon and stayed at the Walmart in Lexington, NE.  It seemed like a long day (350 miles), but we had to make a stop for fuel and to dump our holding tanks.  We really were in no hurry, as long as we got there before dark.

Sunday was a bit easier, as we only had to drive 300 miles and got an earlier start.  We fought cross winds most of the way, but they were manageable. 

This past week has been a whirlwind.  We have done some touring of the area with the Birts, visited the folks who own the house that Pat’s dad was born in, and just generally hung out.  The visit to the house where Lloyd was born is always a mind-boggling occasion.  They have built onto the house several times and it is full of museum quality furniture and furnishings.  The lady is convinced that there are ghosts in the house and has installed a game camera in her bedroom to capture the visits.  There certainly seems to be some sort of event going on. 

The visit to Lloyd,s birth house was made even more special, since we went with Pat’s aunt and uncle.  They are great people and, unfortunately, we never seem to spend as much time as we would like with them.

The wedding was great.  The minister had a good sense of humor and that made the ceremony fun.  The reception was quite a ways north.  We had been there before for a different wedding.  The crowd was very large (we were told close to 250 people).

Each time we go to Iowa, there seems to be computer projects waiting {grin}.  That is kind of like to old days when Pat’s grandma would have lots of house projects waiting for me.  I enjoy working on new computer projects.  The most challenging was working on the computer in Bill’s combine.  It is connected to GPS and has quite a few sensors that detect crop flow through the combine, moisture content, etc.  Over the years, the data card had become corrupt.  That was certainly a new challenge.

As I finish this blog post, we are again in Lexington at the Walmart.  We will head out early tomorrow and should be home at a reasonable time.

That is all for now.

Hello from Baltimore, MD

Monday evening – August 29, 2016   (fourth post of this travelogue)

Well, the trip is winding down.   We are at a Candlewood Suites hotel close to BWI airport.  Our flight departs at 7:00 AM, so it is going to be a short night/early morning.

On our flights, we cracked out and upgraded to seats with a bit more leg room.  It makes all the difference in the world, and is not all that expensive.   On the way out, we really did not have much choice, as our assigned seats were terrible.  On our flight tomorrow, it is not sold out, but they cut the cost of the better seats the day before departure so we grabbed a window and aisle.  Looks like the center seat will stay vacant given the number of seats available.

We did not do any touring today – kind of took the day off.  The drive down was a bit over an hour and quite picturesque.

I have to tell you my Corvette story.  Most of the Corvettes we saw were late model and stock.  They looked good, but you know me –  I like old stuff.  Probably the iconic Corvette was the 1963 “Split Window” Stingray.  I have always loved that style.  As I looked over the parking lot at the hotel there was a beautiful yellow ’63 Split Window.  I wanted to take a picture of it but never had the camera available.  Later, I was parking our rented car and I got a good view of the back of the car and noticed that the suspension did not look period correct.  Then I got to looking closer and the wheels seemed to fit inside the fender wells much better than stock.  To make a long story short, it was a Kustom Corvette produced by Karl’s Kustom Corvettes (link).

They take your C6 version of the Corvette (2005-2013) and adapt new custom front and rear body panels.  Their work is fantastic.  I never did get a picture of the one in our parking lot, but have included a couple of photos from their website.  Now if we hit the lotto……..

That is all for this trip.

Hello from Mechanicsburg, PA (Part 3)

Monday morning – August 29, 2016   (third post of this travelogue)

Just a bit more about Gettysburg.  I had planned to show a picture of the VW bus/camper we traveled in to the East coast and took the Gettysburg auto tour (1981) in the last post.  We had traveled to the west coast the previous year.  In between the trips, I installed a water cooled Pinto engine and that made the VW come alive.  We kept up with the traffic, no matter what the condition.  What a great way to see this country.

When we did the auto tour of the battle fields, we saw a lot of cannons.  I decided to do some research to see if they were reproductions.  I came across a site which talks about a cannon restoration shop in the park (link).  They mention that there are around 1300 monuments and 400 cannons in the park.  The blog says that the majority of the cannon tubes are original, but that the carriages have had to be replaced.

Yesterday we took a driving tour of the Amish country.  We drove to Lancaster and then headed east on 340 (the Old Philadelphia Pike) for several miles.  We drove through the towns of Bird-In-Hand and Intercourse on that route.  We stopped at The Amish Experience  complex and had a great family style lunch (feast).  The variety of meats and side dishes was amazing.  One of the dessert offerings was Shoofly pie (link).  It is a molasses pie considered traditional among the Pennsylvania Dutch.

After leaving Lancaster, we saw a very large number of Amish buggies of all varieties.  In addition, we saw many Amish in their Sunday best clothes.   We saw one wonderful family standing outside of a church with the kids all dressed up.  It would have been a great picture, but we are told that they do not like to have their picture taken.

Shortly after we passed through the town of Cains, we turned north on a paved farm road.  The rolling country side, green crop fields and huge well kept farm building are breathtaking.

We then headed back west on 23 towards Lancaster (and then back to Mechanicsburg).  We passed through the town of New Holland where the New Holland Manufacturing Operations are located.  The plant can trace its roots back to 1895.  New Holland manufactures agricultural equipment.  They were one of my main accounts and I visited the plant often in the early ‘70s.  I always enjoyed the area and it was fun to visit again.

That is all for this post.

Hello from Mechanicsburg, PA (Part 2)

Sunday morning – August 28, 2016   (Second post of this travelogue)

All I can say is that this is an incredible location to be doing sightseeing!!! 

We decided to stay at the Park Inn for three additional days.  Our room is fine, the breakfast is good, and they extended the government room rate.  In addition, we are conveniently located close to most of the places we want to visit.

Friday we drove to Hershey, PA and had a great day.  Hershey is home base for the Hershey chocolate company and the town is tightly tied into that Company.  Milton Hershey and his wife were great philanthropists.  The following paragraph is from this Wikipedia page (link):

In 1918, Hershey transferred the majority of his assets, including control of the company, to the Milton Hershey School Trust fund, to benefit the Industrial School. The trust fund has a majority of voting shares in the Hershey Company, allowing it to keep control of the company. In 1951, the school was renamed the Milton Hershey School. The Milton Hershey School Trust also has 100% control of Hershey Entertainment and Resorts Company, which owns the Hotel Hershey and Hersheypark, among other properties. He took great pride in the growth of the school, the town, and his business. He placed the quality of his product and the well-being of his workers ahead of profits.

In 1935, Hershey established the M.S. Hershey Foundation, a private charitable foundation that provides educational and cultural opportunities for Hershey residents. The foundation supplies funding for three entities: the Hershey Museum and Hershey Gardens, the Hershey Theatre and the Hershey Community Archives.

The founding of the Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center was a gift from the Milton Hershey School Trust to the people of Pennsylvania, with an initial endowment of $50 million and only one restriction—the hospital had to be built in Hershey. The hospital is a teaching hospital, with an annual budget exceeding the initial construction cost.

We toured “Chocolate World” (including a chocolate tasting experience) and then took a 70 minute tour of the town of Hershey.  The town is so tied into the Hershey chocolate products that the street lights are “Hershey kisses” (see photo).

Friday night I went to the sprint car races at an historic dirt track: Williams Grove Speedway (link).  The track was built in 1939.  The night I went there was only one class of sprint cars (“358”) but there were close to 40 cars.  The students had recommended that I buy a pit pass and that was well worth the money.  I was able to do a lot of “rubbernecking” and watch the heat races from inside of turns 1and 2.  I then went to the backstretch stands for the feature races.  This area is a hot bed for sprint car races and the better local racers are said to be as good as the touring pros.  I can believe that, given the great performance I witnessed.

Yesterday we toured Gettysburg (link).  We last toured Gettysburg in 1980 in our VW camper bus (photo).  At that time you could borrow a cassette tape and drive to various locations on the auto tour so that you could hear the history and experience the views of the huge battlefield.  Today you can still get cassettes or CDs, but we chose to download an iPhone app that included a GPS function.   Between the park map, and the app, we were able to experience a bit of the battle.  I have included some photos from the tour.

The auto tour was extraordinary.  The scenery is fantastic with rolling green grass hills punctuated with very dense forests.  We noted several signs that said that relic hunting was prohibited.

The battle of Gettysburg was fought from July 1-3 1863.  It was a terrible battle with between 46,000 and 51,000 casualties (dead/wounded/missing) reported

In addition to the auto tour, we toured the museum and watched a great documentary film.  Following the film, we viewed an amazing cyclorama (with program).  The cyclorama is a type of 360° cylindrical painting. The intended effect is to immerse the viewer in the scene being depicted, often with the addition of foreground models and life-sized replicas to enhance the illusion. The version that hangs in Gettysburg was created in 1883 and restored in 2005. It is 42 feet high and 377 feet in circumference.

On the way down to Gettysburg, we took a slight detour through Carlisle to get a feeling for what the Corvette show was like.  We did not go in the fairground, but it was obviously a huge event.

That is all for this post

Hello from Mechanicsburg, PA

Friday morning – August 26, 2016   (First post of this travelogue)

Pat and I are staying at the Park Inn in Mechanicsburg, PA (Google Map Link).

{google_map}40.241003 -76.981972{/google_map}

I am here to teach a class on machine tool alignment for NTT.  It is a four day class and it just finished yesterday.  Today we start four days of tourist type activities.

The class got off to a rough start.  The hotel had not set up the room and the boxes of our manuals were misplaced.  Once we got past that panic, the second one set in when it became clear that the students in the class I was teaching had a huge amount of experience with the processes taught in the class.  I had to change the approach of the class – mainly from instructor to facilitator.  That worked well and if my grades are any indication, the students seemed pleased. 

The company is a Department of Defense contractor that rebuilds older machining tools for use in by DOD military locations all over the world.  The variety of the size and type of machines they work on is mind boggling. One of the machines we worked on was a huge lathe (probably 16 foot bed) that was originally built in 1943.  When they are done, it will be completely rebuilt and updated with modern controls.  Here is a picture of the class working on a large horizontal boring mill.

I will document some of our tourist activities in later posts.  However, one of the fun happenings  in the area is “Corvettes at Carlisle”  (link).  This is an annual event that attracts over 5000 Corvettes.  We have at least 30 Corvettes in our hotel.  We will not attend the show, but we will be traveling through Carlisle when we go to Gettysburg – probably tomorrow.

That is all for this post.

Hello from the Land of Salt and Speed (Bonneville Salt Flats) – Postscript

Tuesday evening – August 23, 2016   (third post of this travelogue)

Over the years, I have worked with a team that has a goal of a speed of 550mph.  Their website details incredible quality of construction  and complexity of the vehicle:  site link.  They use Gates PolyChain belts to drive the two blowers and three specially designed belt drives that connect the two engines/transmissions to the drive axles.  Marlo Treit (owner) and Les Davenport (tuner/driver) offered their typical hospitality.  While they worked on a broken transmission output shaft, I was able to check one set of drive belts.  They designed drive housings that fully support the belts and avoid some issues that could have cropped up.  I feel proud to be a part of that design.  Marlo signed a picture for me (see attached) and gave me a team tea shirt.

This was the first year the car has been on the salt and they are doing some shakedown runs.  That said, they ran 385 on their last run.

They had to work on the car for the first three days of the event.  As a result they made their first run on Tuesday.  We had planned to leave on Tuesday morning, but I decided to see if I could observe their run.  Fortunately they made a run in the late morning and I got to witness the run from their pit (about the 4 mile mark).  It was a real thrill to finally see the car run.

We departed our campsite around one and decided to drive as far as possible – planning a three day trip.  The bus is pretty easy/comfortable to drive, so it was no problem to make it half way home on Tuesday .  We parked in the back of a service station in Green River, UT.  Wednesday we drove the rest of the way home. 

That is all for this trip.

Well, I was tired when I made the post last night and forgot to include the Big Red Wagon picture.

I also forgot to metion that the motorhome in the last post went over 118 mph!

Hello from the Land of Salt and Speed (Bonneville Salt Flats) – Number 2

Monday evening – August 15, 2016   (second post of this travelogue)

I touched on the amazing collection of both race cars and spectator rod/customs/stuff that shows up at Bonneville each year.  This year seems to be an even more impressive collection.  Perhaps it is the pent up demand for salt {grin}.  Speed Week (the major event at Bonneville) has been canceled the past two years due to weather and salt conditions.  You could just feel the joy of folks at being at Speed Week. 

Several years ago, I bought a Speed Week license plate frame to install on the bus.  While I have returned to Bonneville a few times it was in rented cars while I was traveling for NTT,  I vowed not to install the frame until the bus was here.  So, this morning Pat captured the moment as shown in the photos.

I am posting a few photos of a sample of the vehicles that can be found here.

Of special interest is the huge red wagon vehicle that came in on the back of a semi, and the blue Nash that has a period correct Allstate scooter in the trailer and luggage/cooler of the era on the roof.

My tired old brain goes into overload here {huge grin}

That is all for this post.

Hello from the Land of Salt and Speed (Bonneville Salt Flats)

Sunday morning – August 14, 2016   (First post of this travelogue)

We are camped at what they call “the bend in the road” (link to Google Map Location)

{google_map}40.762304 -113.965180{/google_map}

The Road we are on is called “Bonneville Speedway Road”.  It is only 4 or 5 miles long and terminates about 2 miles east of us.  At the termination, the flats are closed to the public except for racing events.  The salt is fragile and could be damaged by reckless driving.

The area we are camped in has no fees even though it is BLM land.  There at several hundred campers in the area.  The outfits vary from small tents to elaborate motorhomes and everything in between (see photo of our bus and some of the campers).

The photos make it look like we are on the salt.  When you are on the salt, the appearance is quite different – very white (like fresh snow).  The soil we are parked on is some sort of clay that can be a real problem if it rains.  In the past some campers have sunk to their axles.  Indeed, if you venture very far from the road, it is still wet from the spring rains and at least two vans were stuck yesterday (they were not supposed to be in that area).  I suspect the whitish color is a very slight deposit of salt on the surface.

We took the I 80 route to get here, stopping at the Walmart in Rock Springs, WY.  The first day was about 370 miles and the second day it was a bit over 300 miles.  When we woke up in Rock Springs it was 44 degrees!

The weather here is in the 90s during the day and gets down to the high 60s at night.  That makes sleeping very pleasant, since there is no humidity to speak of.  We run the generator and air conditioners  during the day if we are in the bus.  That makes it very pleasant.

We parked next to the road so that we could see the “endless” line of cars going to and from the salt.  There are tons of what are called “rat rods” plus many rods and customs that travel back and forth each day. 

I have a lot more to talk about, but I want to get out on the salt.

That is all of this blog.

Hello from close to Salina, KS

Monday  Afternoon  – August 1, 2016   (First post of this travelogue)

We are in a beautiful Bureau of Reclamation Campground about 30 miles from Salina  (Google map link) – see photo.

{google_map}38.610883 -97.956144{/google_map}

This is our second trip in the bus this year.  We still have a couple of more planned.  It feels good to use our fun “toy”.

We made this trip so that I could attend the KKOA Leadsleds (link to KKOA).  I have been attending this event off and on for over 30 years.  Indeed, we first drove the 56 Chevy to the 1987 event (and I had attended quite a few before that).

With our senior discount, this is a very low cost “place to stay”.  The hotels tend to jack their prices up for the event.  Also, most of the good hotels book up quickly.  Cost wise, the extra fuel cost plus the cost of driving to Salina three days probably makes the cost a wash, but this is more convenient and relaxing.

There were well over 1200 cars registered for the event.  Some, like me, probably register but don’t bring their cars.  The park is huge, but almost all of the participant parking areas in the park (many on the grass) were filled up on Saturday.  The quality of the cars varies quite a bit.  Many, like the 56 Chevy, are not show cars, but hold their own with a lot of the cars.  Some of the cars are true masterpieces or “works of art”.  No matter, they are all fun to see.  I have included a few pictures that illustrate the types of cars at this event.

I have started to get the 56 back into a condition that will allow us to drive across country so that I can attend with it next year.  Over the years, I did a lot of patching of systems to keep it going, but that catches up with you and I really need to do quite a bit of work to get it ready to attend its 30^th anniversary event.  Last summer I did quite a bit of work on the paint and body work.  The paint was in terrible condition.  It now looks “OK” with a red primer covered with clear coat.  Some day, maybe I will find the time and money to apply the finish paint.

We are staying over an extra day to relax and enjoy the campground.   On our way here we stayed overnight at the Walmart in Goodland and will probably stop there on the way home.  It is well over 400 miles each way and we try not to drive more than 300 miles if we have a choice.

That is all of this blog.