Cheesy Videos XXIX

Four minutes o' drivin' the Blue Ridge Parkway, shot with the mePhone.

Never Forget

Notes From the Road

We're in London, Kentucky this evening... which means we decided not to eat the whole enchilada, getting off the Blue Ridge Parkway somewhere around mile post 279.  That said, I did more than half of the 469 mile route and was well into North Carolina when I began to think that the road was looking a lot like more of the same, not that "the same" is bad in any way, shape, or form.  It is simply a beautiful drive and would be even better on a mo'sickle, about which: I saw hundreds over the last couple o' days.

I had virtually the entire road to myself today, just like yesterday.  Another interesting observation: I saw very, very few young people.  It seemed like every car I saw was filled with Old Gray Heads (including mine... but Wait!  I'm a very light blond, so never mind.).  Even the bikers were geezers (on Harleys, of course) with very few exceptions, most notably the two middle-aged guys on beautiful dual-sport Beemers I chatted with at an overlook.

So.  I decided to head for home and called up OnStar for routing directions.  (A brief parenthetical digression: OnStar doesn't work well everywhere, most notably in heavily forested areas.  It took those friendly folks FOUR attempts to get routing instructions downloaded to my car.  FOUR.)  I was almost at that proverbial "You can't get there from here" point in my journey and the folks at OnStar had some trouble figuring out a route for me, given I told them I wanted to avoid the superslab.  So, we got the "scenic route."  And BOY was it ever scenic, as in twisty two lane mountain roads that were a driver's delight.  Or a biker's.  That link takes you to a few biker tales about riding "The Snake," which is what I did today (if you substitute drive for ride).  Here's a thumbnail view of part o' my route today:

A bonus I didn't anticipate is I had that road pretty much to myself, as well.  A further bonus is I got to seriously exercise The Tart for the first time ever and I gave her (and me) a real workout in those twisty-turnies.  The Tart has a pretty cool transmission that will either shift for herself or let me choose the gears (as in a "manual automatic").  We used the manual for a good long time today, going into those 25 mph corners (posted) in second gear while holding her in the power band... from 4000 ~ 6000 rpm... and upshifting to third on the exit; rinse and repeat for a good 60 miles or so.  There were some straights where we got into sixth gear but those were few and far between.  That lil bit o' automotive exuberance prolly wreaked havoc on my gas mileage... it seemed like every time I looked at the tach to up or down shift my "Instant Economy" readout said 4 or 6 mpg.  I was on her hard.

So.  The Tart is a LOT o' fun.  She's too portly to be tossable but she does handle well and sticks on those turns in the twisties better than I thought she would.  That's actually sayin' a lot, since I expected her to be competent.  I didn't expect her to great, however.  And she IS great.

A couple o' pics from today and then we'll go.

Clearer than yesterday but still pretty hazy.  Somewhere south of Roanoke, VA.

I was surprised to see farms and homes along the Parkway.  Some, like this one, were quite beautiful.  Note the graveyard behind the farm.  I'll bet there are some stories there.

I shot some dashcam video today, but the Wi-Fi connection here at the Hampton Inn is painfully slow.  The Tube O' You estimated 97 minutes to upload a four minute video and it's still going as we type.  I'm gonna go to bed but I'll leave the computer running and post the vid tomorrow morning.

Just a Couple o' Few Pics

I had a great day... it was a relatively easy ride about 140 miles up I-64 from SN1's house to just east of Charlottesville where I picked up the Blue Ridge Parkway.  From there on in the ride got magnificent, and you may feel free to add other various and sundry superlatives.  It really is brilliant... a snaky, well maintained two lane black top road with a speed limit of 45 mph.  But that's OK... there are some places on the road when 45 mph would be too fast, as in "not prudent."  We tended to observe the limit, most of the time.  I caught myself doing 55 a couple o' few times and backed off, mainly due to a conversation I had with a biker in one of the scenic overlooks.  He told me there are a lot o' cops on the road and they will NOT hesitate to write you up.  His proof?  A ticket for doing 52 in a 45.  Words to the wise, and all that.

The only fly in my ointment today was the weather.  The temps were fine, hovering between 72 and 68 degrees depending on elevation.  It didn't rain on me and there was no wind to speak of.  But it was overcast and very hazy, which took a lot away from the gorgeous views.  I hit the Parkway about noon so there was very little chance the haze was going to burn off, and it didn't.  There were a few times when I was driving along IN the cloud deck, seeing as how it was about 2500 ~ 3000 feet in some places.  Those periods were very brief, thank The Deity At Hand.

But all told?  A brilliant day.  I'm over-nighting in Roanoke, VA and we shall continue on tomorrow as we began today.

A few pics...

The first overlook on the Parkway, heading south.

Another vista.  Note the haze.

Why do they call it "Pine Tree?"

Never mind.

The view from the bar at Peaks of Otter Lodge, where I had lunch.

A better view.  Lousy beer menu, though.

Travel Day

So... today we're  off on the return leg o' Lil Bucky's summer vacation.  This is what we're gonna be drivin' today:

Click to embiggen.

I haven't made up my mind if I'm gonna do the whole thing... all 469 miles of it down into Nawth Carolina... or just the Virginia bits.  On the one hand, doin' the whole thing takes me outta my way by a bunch.  OTOH, I don't have anywhere I really have to be.  OTOOH, I only have seven days o' drugs left, so I have to be back home in a week so I can get to the pharmacy.

Decisions, decisions.

A Day Out In Old Virginny

My day Saturday...

We set out to drive the Colonial Parkway, destination Williamsburg.

We found this old guy writing a declaration o' some sort and I lent him a hand.

That same old guy kinda took a shine to Grandson Sean.  Watch where you put your hands, Mr. Jefferson.

Speaking of Old Guys... they were pretty wise.

Taking a page out of Mr. Johnson's book... we headed for the Dog Street Pub, whose menu had one page of food and three pages of beers and wine.  Srsly.

Grandson Sean & SN2, in the pub.

SN1 & YrHmblScrb in the same venue.

My lunch: mussels.  Yum!  I HAD to do seafood.

SN2 was the designated driver.

It was a guys' day out... three generations o' Pennington men set loose on the unsuspecting inhabitants and visitors of/to Williamsburg.  No locals or tourists were harmed in the making of this production but a great good time was had by all concerned.

I've decided to delay my departure for home by a day; we'll spend the entire weekend at the SN1 home.

Saturday: Be Careful Who Ya Try To Rob

Heh.

Travel Day

On the way home, with a brief stop at the SN1 house tonight and tomorrow.  I have no idea where I'll be Sunday, other than "west of here."

Old Dear Friends

One of the best things about this trip has been reconnecting with a couple o' my oldest and dearest friends... Chip and Kathy.  We... all of us... go back to 1977 when we met at Fortuna AS in North Dakota.  The long and the short of it is Chip and I shared a house in Westby, Montana and we worked and played together for nearly the whole time we were there.  Chip met Kathy... who was also in the AF at the time... at Fortuna and they married about a month after The Second Mrs. Pennington and I married.  Chip and I were each other's Best Man at our respective weddings... so, yeah... we have HISTORY.  I'm sure all of you Gentle Readers have experienced this phenomenon: the three of us haven't seen each other since the mid-90s but we picked up EXACTLY where we left off.  That's the way it is with old, dear friends.

I searched the blog for pictures of us back in the day and came up rather short.  I have pictures of Chip and Kathy's wedding that I could scan if I were home and I also have other pictures of the two of them (you could look up "cute couple" in the dictionary and find their picture there).  But all I have with me is the laptop and my archives ain't on the device at hand, alas.  This is the best I could do:

Fortuna AS squadron picnic... Chip at the keyboard

Ah... we were so YOUNG then!  Chip hasn't changed a whole helluva lot and I only WISH I could say the same.

Today's Happy Hour Soundtrack

It's a stretch... but there are a couple o' lines that fit:

Well I'm learning
It's peaceful
With a good dog and some trees
Out of touch with the breakdown
Of this century

It's about the trees and a good dog at my feet this afternoon.  At some point in time I'll capture Ace, the SN2 family dog.  He's hard to catch sitting still but we will endeavor to persevere.  In the meantime, our day looks like this:

This is the environment on SN2's back deck: very leafy with sunlight filtering through the trees on a seriously balmy September afternoon.  The weather has taken a turn for the better, which is to say 80 degrees and 48% relative humidity.  Perfect, in other words.  It's gonna be hard to go back home after this.

Udvar-Hazy, Part II

More plane pr0n from my class field trip...

Don't look now, but I think we're bein' followed.  (SR-71 & Discovery)

Discovery's back end

F-35B engine showing lift fan mechanism.  Complexity, Part I.

Complexity, Part II. A WW II vintage radial; I think this is a Wright R-3350.

Me-163 Komet

Looking up at a Corsair

Eye-level with a Corsair

Two Hurricanes

Two more Hurricanes (SN2)

Bid'niz end of a P-61

P-61 again

MiG-21

My favorite jet (F-86)

We be done now.  I do have more pics but I don't wanna go into overkill, not that I haven't already done that.

This Rang a Bell...

...since I watch a bit o' late-nite teevee from time to time.

Yup.  "See your congress-critter to find out if Obamacare is right for YOU!"  Not.

Back in a bit with more plane pr0n.

Udvar-Hazy... the First Batch

So... there I was, in place at the wonderful Smithsonian Udvar-Hazy Aerospace museum all ready to take some really spiffy pics with my high-zoot dSLR... only to find the gotdamned camera was pretty much USELESS in the available light at the Udvar-Hazy annex.  I pushed the ISO speed up to 1600, played around with various exposure and aperture settings and the results were simply frickin' abysmal.  The ONLY way I could have gotten good photos using the SLR would have been to put it on a tripod and set the exposure for a few seconds or so... the lighting wasn't good enough to take hand-held shots without a LOT o' blur, and believe me: I tried.

So... enter the mePhone.  You have no idea, Gentle Reader, of how absolutely PISSED I was when I saw that my $100.00 CELL PHONE took better pics than my SLR.  So, that said... here are the first few pics from my day at the Smithsonian's Udvar-Hazy Annex, ALL o' which were shot with the mePhone.  As always, click to embiggen.

This is an astounding mural... view it full-size.

Adversaries nose to nose: MiG-15 and F-86 Sabre

Milliseconds before the mid-air: Curtiss P-40E and Vought F4U-1D Corsair

Junkers Ju-52 in Lufthansa livery

Another view of the Ju-52

Boeing 307 Stratoliner

C-121 Constellation in West Virginia ANG livery

Another view of the Connie

Connie... meet Concorde.  Concorde... this is Connie.

The Stearman Kaydet, arguably the prettiest bi-plane ever built

Another view of the Stearman

A Jug under the wing of the Enola Gay

An Okha Type 22 under a Nakajima bomber

Arado Ar-234 jet bomber (WW II)

The legendary Fw-190

Northrop N-1M prototype flying wing, c. 1940

Curtiss F9C-2 Sparrowhawk.  BIG brass ones were required to fly this lil guy.

We have more pics, believe it or don't... but it's late and I'm tired.