4 states, big boats, big easy

Friday August 14 Venerdi 14 Agosto

Today would be a short day of 200 miles or so. But it took us from Florida into Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana. We got on the freeway from our Florida campground and almost immediately crossed the border into Alabama. I wanted to stop in Mobile and see the battleship USS Alabama that is on display there. Doug Hendrickson and I went by there in 2006 but I elected not to stop at that time. This time I was going to stop and we did. It was impressive to walk around the ship and the biggest surprise was that the engine room was also open to the public. That is where I was stationed on an aircraft carrier when I was in the navy so I really wanted to see an ngine room again. It was somewhat different naturally then the aircraft carrier but close enough that I could explain some of it to Linda. I probably sounded like a kid with a new toy to her. After touring all of the battleship we walked over to the submarine on display, the USS Drum and toured it as well. The diesel engines that drive the generators in a submarine have always intrigued me and one of them had clear covers over the upper crankshaft so that I could see the internal construction. Very interesting. Before leaving we had a cool drink as it was quite hot and humid. Then it was into Mississippi where we were hammered by very heavy rain for about 5 miles. There was no offramp and the visibility was too poor to safely stop on the side of the highway. We were soaked when we got through the rain and we were almost completely dry again in 20 more miles of riding. On into Louisiana to the motel where we would be staying for 2 nights. Thankfully it was right next to the offramp and easy to find as my GPS is basically worthless now with all of it's problems. Clint and Charleen had arrived 30 minutes before us and had arranged for our room. The air conditioning and a shower felt really good. Later we went into the Bourbon Street area for dinner and observations of the nighttime revelry and debauchery. I hate to admit it but it was too crowded and noisy for me but the meal was really good as was the opportunity to actually see sights that I had only seen on tv. We did see quite a few damaged or destroyed houses and businesses. Very sad. About 230 miles today.


Linda controls the engine speed


Looking forward past the 16" guns


The Bourbon Street beat

Gulf of Mexico

Friday Morning August 14 Venerdi mattina 14 Agosto

So here we are on I-10 just east of the Alabama line. We camped here last night while Clint and Charleen backtracked to the noon time restaurant in Apalachicola where she left her purse. We are going to Mobile to see the battleship USS Alabama and then proceed to New Orleans where we will all meet up at a prearranged motel. We are over 100 miles ahead of them so our tour of the ship should even driving times. They are not overly interested in seeing a battleship. It is 6 or 7:45 here. We are right at the time zone change so we are not really sure. It is already warm here and we are in the shade. The humidity is very high, over 90% and we don't care for it. The Aussies live just below the tropics so it is more comfortable for them as they are accustomed to it. Yesterday was a travel day but it was along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico so it was quite scenic. We saw oyster boats doing their trade with long rakes to pull the oysters off the bottom and into the boat. The boats were piled high with oysters so it seems to work well. We stopped for coffee in Apalachicola a little after noon. After that we saw a white sandy beach so we stopped for a look and Linda and I waded in the warm waters of the gulf. About 3 we stopped for gas and that is where Charleen discovered that she was purseless so they went back and we went on using a different route that took us closer to Mobile. At the gas station was a large boat filling up for the weekend. When I looked his gas bill was $153 and climbing rapidly. He told me that he was just getting started with putting fuel into it. There was also a Lamborghini with him filling up. It appears that I was in rich company. We found a very nice KOA alongside I-10 and only had to pay $23 for a tent site. The bugs were not too noisy so we managed to get a decent night's sleep until the early bird's chirping woke us up at sunrise. 320 miles.

Watch for bears
Attenti ai orsi


Linda in the Gulf
Linda nel mare Gulf of Mexico


Right color, wrong brand for me
Colore giusto, ma non e' una Ferrari

Way down upon the ?

Wednesday August 12 Mercoledi 12 Agosto

Think Stephen Foster. We left Titusville this morning for a short 230 mile trip to Perry which is close to the west coast. We paid $11 in toll road fees to get here but we did not encounter much traffic. Our last road was Highway 19 which brought us right into town and the motel we are staying at. We arrived after a short 6+ hour ride. We just are not motivated at 2:30 in the afternoon to set up a tent in 95 degree temperatures and high humidity and then sit around in the sun. So we paid an extra $25 and are in an air conditioned room at a motel with a pool that we have already used. I stayed at the KOA here with my friend Doug in October 2006 when we were going to Key West. He may not remember the KOA but he should remember the restaurant that we ate at. It was absolutely the WORST buffet either of us had ever been to. Today like then we stopped where Highway 19 crosses the Suwannee river and took pictures. We also threw crumbs into the river for the baby fish to fight over. There were also 2 very small turtles sitting on a log but the cookie pieces hitting the water scared them away. Tomorrow we will continue on to Pensacola and Friday we should arrive in New Orleans.

Una gita piccola oggi di 230 miglia. Solamente una pausa al fiume Suwannee. Questo fiume era fatto famoso nella canzone storico di Stephen Foster. Abbiamo cantato un po' quando erano qui oggi. Stanotte stiamo nel motel perche' siamo arrivati alle 14:30 e la temperature era 35 gradi e l'umidita era alta. Non vogliamo sedere nel campeggio sotto il sole ora dopo ora. Qui c'e una camera con aria condizionata e una piscina che abbiamo gia usato. Stasera leggeremo libri e rilassarci.


Entering Orlando
Entrando Orlando


And yet another toll station
Ancora un'altra stazione per pagare



The Suwannee River made famous by Stephen Foster
Il fiume Suwannee, il sogetto di un famoso canzone storico

Kennedy Space Center

Tuesday August 11 Martedi 11 Agosto

Today was minimal riding and maximum sightseeing. Total mileage for the day was less than 40 miles, on the bike, plus who knows how many miles in Kennedy Space Center tour buses. We signed up for a tour that gets us close to the launch pads and the VAB (Very large assembly building) where they assemble everything for the launch. It was really a great day. Linda's father was career Air Force so anything to do with planes and space are interesting to her. I am of course awed by technology of all sorts. And I mean all sorts, such as why were so many fences at the Space Center curving outwards at the top and had a much finer mesh at the top? The answer is that alligators can climb fences so the curved part prevents them from going straight up and over and the finer mesh is too tight for them to get their claws into. The whole Space Center is a protected habitat for wild life and there is a lot of it there, eagles, turtles, buzzards, panthers, pigs and of course the ubiquitous alligator. The blast from the shuttle's launch engine would be deadly within a 1/2 mile radius Iif I recall correctly and deafening at greater distances. So the closest anybody is allowed to the launch pad is 3.5 miles during the launch. That means that the astronauts are suddenly left all alone when the countdown starts. Wildlife is not forgotten during the launch. There is quite a procedure for clearing the area before the launch. We also saw the gravel covered dirt roads that the crawler uses to haul the assembled shuttle and launch engines to the pad. It is about a 6 mile trip at 1 mile per hour. The crawler has 8 tracks with 57 cleats per track and each cleat is one ton in weight. The total launch weight is several million pounds. And we drove by the landing strip which is 2 miles long and paved. It must be cleared of alligators before a landing as the gators like laying on the warm pavement. The tour was full of interesting information that we were completely unaware of when we went in. This was definitely one of if not the most interesting days of our trip. I also returned my temporary GPS. The mount was broken in the box and a second unit was the same way. Too bad as it may have worked well for us.

Oggi abbiamo visitato il Kennedy Space Center, il posto dove il Space Shuttle parte terra per lo spazio e anche ritorna se il tempo e' buono. Era molto interessante. Quest'area e' anche un posto sicuro per gl'animali selvaggi. Non lo sapiamo primo d'adesso. Non e' possibile a soppravivere se si non e' piu' lontano di .5 miglia dal shuttle durante la partenza. La gente hanno metodi per mettendo via gl'animali primo della partenza. I ricenti erano costruito in maniera speciale perche' gl'alligatori possono salire sui ricenti normale. Ci sono molte cose strane si devono considerare per un viaggio nello spazio!! Era un giorno speciale per io e Linda!


The shuttle ready for the Aug 24 launch
Il shuttle pronto per la partenza 24 Agosto


Large assembly building stars are 6' from point to point
L'edifcio dove il shuttle e' preparato, i punti sono stelle sulla bandiera
sono 2 metri da punto a punto


Buzzards taking a break
Avvoltoi fanno una pausa


Linda and a mock shuttle
Linda e un shuttle modello


Snoopy, my favorite astronaut
Snoopy, il mio astronauta preferito

Florida Gators

Monday August 10 Lunedi 10 Agosto
Today we were more interested in getting from Savannah, GA to Titusville, FL than we were in sightseeing. So we took I-95 most of the way. We did see some nice rivers and swampy marshes some of which were labeled as manatee habitats. We did not see any manatees but we did see lots of Florida I-95 Gators. They look just like New Mexico I-40 gators. Big pieces of truck tire tread laying all over the highway. One truck blew a tire out in the north bound lanes just as we were passing by. Then we saw another truck that had been next to us stopped on the side with a bare rim sitting down on the ground. Evidently the inside tire also went flat so he had a lot of work to do. Are recaps really worth the initial cost savings? My GPS is not working at all except to display the map and my current location. Tonight I bought a cheap replacement to get us home. We will see how it works Wednesday. If we were taking major highways I would not need one at all but when zig-zagging on back roads it is a big help. 260 miles


Typical wetland area

Cherokee to Savannah through South Carolina

Sunday August 9 Domenica 9 Agosto

Today was a long, hot ride. We started on the back roads of North Carolina and crossed into South Carolina on Highway 178 which was great fun for a little while. It was very twisty but was not long enough. We continued on through South Carolina on back roads until about 100 miles from Savannah, Georgia where we got onto I-95 for the last leg of the trip. South Carolina was quite interesting. There would be a big southern style mansion on one side of the street looking very clean and elegant and on the other side would be a run down house, often a pre fabricated with a front yard full of old cars and junk. There were an incredible amount of churches. As in North Carolina there was a lot of grass. All day Saturday and Sunday we saw lots of people out mowing these great expanses of grass. There are also road crews with tractors cutting the grass on the side of the road. At one gas stop we pulled in behind a pickup pulling a trailer which was a cage. In the trailer was a black bear that was being relocated. Needless to say that the bear drew a lot of attention. We finally arrived in Savannah after close to 400 miles. It was hot so weselected a motel with air conditioning and an indoor pool. We took advantage of both and later went to eat at Ruby Tuesdays which was an easy walk. Linda had a bowl of soup but I broke down and had a fish dinner with the salad bar option. Very good but too much food. I tried again to fix my GPS but did not succeed. We slept like rocks.

Oggi era un po' noioso con ecetto della strada 178. Era una strada bellissima con tanti tornanti! Linda non e' piaciuto South Carolina. Questo stato ci sembra povero. C'erano qualche case grande e elegante ma sul altro lato della strada sarebbe una casa sporca con rifiuti dappertutto. Al distributore c'era un carello e sul carello era una gabbia. Dentro c'era un'orso nero. Tutta la gente facevano le foto. Alla cena ho mangiato buono pesce e ho bevuto un martini. E poi abbiamo dormito bene. ~400 miglia oggi.


Chasing Clint and Charleen
Inseguendo Clint e Charleen


Bear in cage
Orso nella gabbia

Linda the Dragon Slayer

Saturday August 8, 2009

Today we rode first to Deals Gap and the Dragon, a road with 318 curves in 11 miles. We did not want to be here on the weekend as it will be very crowded with all speeds of motorcycles with all capabilities of riders, sports car clubs, casual (slow) car drivers observing the bikes and of course there will be the police. So we left shortly after 7 and arrived at the Deals Gap store at 8:30. We did not stop but went right on by and up the road into the first of the curves. We took it easy as Linda does not like curves and steep lean angles and none of us like speeding tickets. We were into the road less than 2 miles when we saw the first police car. Then we speeded up. At the end of the 11 miles we stopped for awhile and finally returned toward the store at a brisk pace. Linda did not complain so we kept it up until we arrived at the other end which is where the store is located. We did have to pass 2 bikes and a Cadillac Escapade which is much easier said than done in a reasonably safe manner. The police were busy writing tickets to 2 other bikes. If you crash on this road you have been bitten by the dragon. We did not crash so we can say that Linda has slain the dragon. When we arrived at the store that parking lot was quite a bit more crowded than when we first passed by. And the crowd increased. It was now impossible to ride the road briskly so it was good that we had left early. We bought t-shirts which is unusual for us but this place is special and known around the world. And we had ridden it together. If it had been a weekday I would have taken a couple of passes alone but definitely not today. We went up the road one more time albeit very cautiously because of the traffic on our way the Cherohala Skyway. It was another beautiful mountain top road but this was our third day of them and it was a little harder to appreciate the sights we were seeing. We returned back to our motels where I took my GPS apart to see if there was any visible problem but to no avail. So we will need to stay close to CnC the rest of the trip or buy a GPS which I do not want to do. Tomorrow it is 360 miles to Savannah, Georgia by way of South Carolina. 225 miles today.

Oggi era un giorno molto prevenduto. Era il giorno del drago. Il drago e' una strada famosa fra i motociclisti. 318 curve in 11 miglia. Buonissima. Linda non piace le curve, ha paura, ma per oggi lei era molta corragia. Abbiamo guidato la strada una volta con veloce media e poi un altra volta velocemente. Quando si guida questa strada senza cadendo per terra si ha ucciso il drago. Adesso Linda ha ucciso il drago. Brava Linda!!


At the start of The Dragon
Alla comincia del Drago


The straightaway
Un sezione dritto