NJ to Savannah Georgia to Mississippi to Tenesse to Washington DC

[LarryC]

Second I made it on time or early to LarryC happened to be due to a female driver.....

Your going to have to explain that a little more ?

Wasn't at my end, unfortunately.

[Jay481985]

heh, i think i shall keep that to myself.

[dtel]

heh, i think i shall keep that to myself.

Well if was that good, congratulations, I think ? You have some strange experiances when traveling, the bus now this. [H]

[Jay481985]

it wasn't that good a story in fact the reason why i do not want to talk about it is cause it wasn't that great at all

[jamesV]

So, any pictures of this nice trip?

Sounds like you really had a lot of fun. Are you thinking about planning another trip? How much do gas prices change along the way?

James

[Jay481985]

I have pictures and such, but I am a week behind since I wanted to try and do work during spring break but got lost somehow [] but I want to do a writeup and and post pictures.

I plan on going to hope and if things work out stay a bit more at the dtel's again as they graciously asked me when I left.

Gas prices ranged from 2.70 premium in NJ (full service as we are not allowed to pump our gas) to 2.99 in Savannah, 3.05 in mississippi, to 2.85 in tennesse.

[Jay481985]

I know this is way late but I guess better late than never.

I want to thank the various people I got to meet on the road trip (The Dtel's, Coytee, LarryC) and specially thank the people who invited me over but I could not make it due to time or location restraints (SunburnWilly and Skonopa)

I did learn a lot more than I bargained for while having the trip down south. A few things to note:

Florida does it right with the rest stops, clean bathrooms and a security guard present and makes rounds. I never felt safer sleeping in my car.
I also froze my *** off, I didn't think it would dip down to 40 degrees down in Florida (this was mid march) WTF........ also leather seats make it just all the worse.

Mrs. Wilkes Booth was very good southern eat. I really do not care if its touristy or not but it is definitely worth the wait and a definite stop if you are near Savannah. I sat in the same table that Obama was in the week before and actually in the same chair position he was in. (They removed the chair apparently and kept it for ???) I was told this by the granddaughter of Mrs. Wilkes as she asked if she could join our communal table and talk. We found out she was her when someone said she looked like Mrs. Wilkes and she said I am the granddaughter. She wanted to get our honest unskewed review of the food I guess.

Always order one or two people down when ordering the seafood platter thing at the crab shack. We ordered the serving for 2 when there was three and we could not finish is all. I do like the built in garbage can hole in the middle of the table. Paper towels a plenty.

Never got to go to a Publix, but was accused that was a Yankee supermarket thang by one family []

I learned a little about myself, a little about the south, and a deep respect for the southern way of life. This was due to a car accident in South Carolina. I saw about 300 yards ahead of me a car that went up an embankment on 95. At first I thought I was just seeing things after drive 5-6 hours straight. But it was infact a land rover that went up and enbankment and lodged itself in some small trees. I saw cars pull over, and I pulled over as well. I have to say that everyone pulled over. Something that is rare for my New Jersian self, I mean to say we will call 911 but most likely not pull over or in most instances cannot pull over due to the roads being 4-5 lanes wide. But we all pulled over: a car with Ontario plates, a person in a suit with a 80,000 dollar car. A stereotyped person that you would never have thought would pull over, an army truck. I learned a little about myself because I never thought I would pull over and just go into "rescue mode" I forgot to turn off the engine (someone could have stolen my car easily but no one did) I started to run up the hill with a few other guys, got in ankle deep mud without hesistation, and tried to help best I could.

Tennesse by far has the best roads to drive to drive. The highways though (95 around Chatanooga (sp)) have banked highways. I caught traffic and I literally thought I would slide off it...... You do not need to steer to turn. But that was not so much fun as the dragon's tail. I left Coytee's place even though I was told that it was closed due to a mudslide. I went anyways just to see if it was possible. I was closed but the backroads that got me back to 95 were amazing. Literally you are at say 100 feet elevation and in 3 miles you are 3000 feet elevation with twists and turns and all mayhem. The speedlimit was 35 and it was hard to even do 35 on some parts of the road. I was going 45 mph and there was an elevation so steep that when I got on that part my car went from 45 to oh 20 mph even with me hitting the gas. Crazy. The dragon's tail is supposed to be craz with 318 turns in 11 miles. Wish that was open, damn.

The story with the girl before and how I made great time to LarryC was pretty mundane. It was a story about me going to a rest stop to go to the restroom. When I left (Virginia) there was a girl that left the bathroom at the same time. So we are just driving and stuff and she apparently was behind me the whole time till like a 1-2 hours later when I went to another rest stop. She stopped there as well. Same thing happened we left at the same time. This time though I was low on fuel and had to break and get gas. I tried to catch up, meaning speeding to try and find her (pretty much all the way up to Washington DC). Never did catch up to her. Oh Well.

Muffalettas are very very good sandwiches. I brought an olive salad back home and tried to replicate the taste, Not quite the same. Had to use some other subpar bread.

New Orleans was fun but also expensive, I guess we are far gone from Post Katrina (which is a good thing) but also 8 dollars a beer at certain places were not cool on top of a enterance fee.

I had a great time at the Dtel's. Got to do a lot of cool things not allowed by my state and the feeling of doing it without it being illegal made it all the sweeter to me. Shooting BB's (yes you need a permit to get a bb in NJ), playing with fireworks (illegal),fishing without a permit. The mvm sounded great and were not tht bad in the wide living room that Eldon has. Also I have never seen soo many stars out there. I live near arguably the brightest part of the globe. Being there are 4 major airports, two major metropolitan areas, one northeast (NY) and one southwest (Philadelphia) My town is over 50,000 people as well and we have street lights everywhere. Over there there was maybe one light from the neighbors. I really wish to have land out in an area where people won't complain every 5 minutes of noise or something.

I never had trouble with the law enforcement even though I did 5-10 over the limit average. I saw less police around my trek than in my state.
I saw more accidents in the city part then out there. (city part: getting to LarryC there was a major accident with a motorcyclist, the tow truck picked up pieces of the motorcycle. NJ lots of accidents) (the rest I saw one truck somehow get itself stuck in the grass median, and the landrover incident)
I never had to pay a toll...... (NJ has tolls for everything. 95 is tolled in NJ, Delaware had the toll bridge to get into Maryland. I am used to 11 dollar bridge tolls, (Verazanno Bridge) but it was a pleasant surprise to not pay for tolls.
I had to learn how to pump my own gas (NJ has full service gas only, btw we also have the cheapest gas in the country as well [])

Never drive at night without xenon (HID) headlights. In Florida I had a flock of 3-4 cars follow me cause they could see much further ahead with my lights than their own. I had it on cruise control at 80 mph the whole time.

I found out the F18 have permission to break the sound barrier near Pensacola, where I tried to fall asleep at a rest stop there but was woken up by sonic booms!

Most of the highways, I could not tell the difference what state I was in by looking at what was on the road.
I did though eat at sonic, hardee's, stuckey's and something else I forgot. Those do not exist where I am from.

I went to an picnic for the army soldiers that were going to be deployed, most of them were my age or younger but most of them already had a wife and babies. I guess it puts it into perspective, it seems to me atleast that these people have something to look forward to everyday versus me, my biggest decision is to wake up and goto class sometimes.

Coytee makes a killer coffee cake, the jubes are not that bad. BTW I have that incriminating photo richard!
Your basement shower made me not want to get out. You have an incredible dogwall protecting your house as well.

LarryC has by far the best sound Klipschorns I have heard. Very impressive. I hope to see you at hope or possible that annual DC event that you host?

I learned a lot about life in that one compressed week. I am glad I did it. Thank You guys for showing me a part of your life and way of life. It really opened my eyes, and sometimes tastebuds!

Oh the following monday I was dismissed from a volunteer job I did at my school because I was tired. FML. Though I would not have changed a thing about my spring break. Since it really does not matter anymore the story is:

I volunteered as a big buddy to a failing public school. And by failing I mean its a miserable piece of filth that the teachers should be fired and legally prosecuted/sued for failing the students. I tried to make the student's lives a little more bright but the teachers saw me as a nuisance and threat. For some reason I was blamed for when I came into class all the students (2nd and 3rd graders) would stop listening to the teacher and get up and group hug me. I told them they could not do that but they did so anyways. The teacher disliked that and me for that. But I came in class Monday because the little buddy I had begged me to come in as soon as possible. My spring break was 3 weeks before their's and thus my little buddy did not see me for a week. Pushing myself beyond tired, I got home early sunday like 5 am went to sleep, woke up a few hours later and had to do laundy and stuff before school and went back to school. So basically 3500+ miles I went to see my little buddy beyond tired and I was dismissed due to things I do quite understand as well. I think a big part was coming in tired, I did go in and out of sleep where the children started to play with my hair and doodle on me but I did not mind. I just got an email later in the day saying I was dismissed from the program and thank you for the work you did but you are no longer welcome in the school. Yeah Thanks. I was also the only male in the whole volunteer program and did more than the required 3 hours a week (I averaged 10 hours or so) I am becoming cynical but we recently elected a republican governor for NJ and he actually froze all teacher's salaries, and from what I hear he is dismissing teachers from failing schools. The school I was at is top of the list, Karma I think it is.

Well that was a summary of what happened that week. I will try and add more and some pictures when I have time.

[LarryC]

LarryC has by far the best sound Klipschorns I have heard. Very impressive. I hope to see you at hope or possible that annual DC event that you host?

Thanks, Jay. Of course, I think it's far from perfect.

I don't think I'll be in Hope this year, unfortunately.

Next year's symphony programs are just starting to come out, so I'm starting to look and have a call into the Strathmore group sales manager. I'm never sure I'll put on a fest until I see a winner concert. Also, I ran out long ago of other members's homes and equipment to show, and I think interest has fallen off a bit. Plus, we don't have much in the way of crash pads around here. But stay tuned --

[Arky]

Jay, I enjoyed reading your write-up, thanks.

I would say you have matured quite nicely.

[Coytee]

Jay, perhaps you'll share with them the tidbits about your flashlight?

I thought I had a killer flashlight (Maglight 4-D with LED) until I saw this thing. Given where I live, I'm interested in it and forget what it was.

[Jay481985]

Jay, perhaps you'll share with them the tidbits about your flashlight?

I thought I had a killer flashlight (Maglight 4-D with LED) until I saw this thing. Given where I live, I'm interested in it and forget what it was.

Ah yes, I remember going to this flashlight forum http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=225844 (from a link here) that posts about people who love flashlights. I remember the first generation model flashlights that I was interested in were over 1000 dollars! These use the same technology and lightbulb as the ones found on expensive cars, the bluish tint xenon or high intensity discharge light. They give out 3000 lumens (a halogen car light gives out about 900-1100). Those 10 million candle power flashlights cannot hold a wick (pun intended) to this flashlight. It will shoot out past 1/2 a mile easily. More like 1 mile with the beam easily seen, it probably can be noticed 10 miles away say if you needed to catch the attention of a helicopter or search and rescue plane.

http://www.amazon.com/Stanley-HID0109-HID-Spotlight/dp/B001U04MEY This is from amazon but I brought mine at walmart for 70 dollars. Its in the automotive section and make sure it says HID model as they kinda just throw them with other models that look the same but are not it. It used to hold a charge for about 20-30 minutes but mine dies very fast now because they did use a lead sealed battery which I forgot to charge for 6 months (it was in my trunk) but now it lasts for amybe a minute. But they do supply a car charger which enables you to turn it on while plugged in. It does not do it while charging from an ac outlet. The thing is also heavy due to the lead sealed battery. But if you absolutely need light, this is it. It will make whatever you want to seem like daylight. Go look at the candleforum, they do a great job talking about it. Also i spray painted mine black cause they made it stanley color yellow. Also there is 3 leds on the top that you can use to a nice option if you do not need a lot of light.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/images/B001U04MEY/ref=dp_otherviews_z_1?ie=UTF8&s=automotive&img=1

view pictures from amazon ^ (yes it does actually make it that bright)

[Jay481985]

1

[Jay481985]

Somewhere near Jacksonville Florida

[Jay481985]

ditto

[Jay481985]

another

[Jay481985]

charging through the panhandle at twilight to get to the dtel's

[Jay481985]

another2

[Jay481985]

Bill H you asked how bright the lightbulbs are, these were uncorrected pictures meaning they were not brightened or darkened. This is about how they look as well at night.

[Jay481985]

A good night in New Orleans

[Jay481985]

A Familar Face