Just so everyone knows, I’ve turned on Comments.

I’m in a town called Apex, outside Raleigh, visiting my sister.  Yesterday we attended a Durham Bulls baseball game.  Their ballpark is remarkable.  Thoroughly professional organization.  Sadly no Bulls player hit a homer, so the Bull didn’t blow smoke out of his nose.

Today we visited the NC Museum of History.  Very well done.  It has a variety of displays that holds the interest.  It was Free!

Team Powersports in Garner did a great job with the service maintenance of my bike, charging me surprisingly little.

Tomorrow I’ll visit the NC Transportation Museum, then approach the Great Smoky Mountains.  Hills!!  Curves!!  Saturday I’ll ride the legendary Tail of the Dragon road.

Sorry, no pictures.

No, my wanderlust has not slacked off.  But I am ready to depart the populated East.  (Linus from Peanuts: “I love society!  It’s the people I can’t stand!”)

The map below illustrates a possible route. Deviations are expected! I still have thoughts of using ferries from the Anchorage area, getting off at various ports.  I’ve been taking many days off to see significant cities so far.  This will probably not be the case so much, so forward progress should (must) improve. There is much to see in the Pacific Northwest, but I may need to cover them during subsequent short(!) rides from San Diego.

BY ROBERT FROST

Pictures from yesterday are included.

A short day.  I left the campground (after taking a picture of a nice sunrise) at 7:54.  At 7:56, raindrops.  Decided to skip Georgetown and move on.  Nothing fun about sightseeing while wearing rain gear.  There were a few dry times when I could take Marker Pics, but mostly it was driving in the rain with Gene Kelly singing in my head.  I left the bike at Team Powersports in Garner, NC for both the 12,000 and 16,000 mile service.  (I asked for, but didn’t get the 12,000 mile work done in Pensacola.)  It’s got 15,000 miles on it.  I’m planning to have the 20,000 service and tires replaced in Edmonton.  Honda’s own GPS system had Powersports at the wrong address!  A $30,000 bike and $5 navigation system.

Discovered my new Sears boots are not waterproof.  Otherwise, it was a pretty harmless drive.  I’m at my sister’s house for three nights.  I may have trouble sleeping without hearing muffled voices in the next room.

Historical Marker “beside” of the road. Sort of.

Caption Contest.

There is a city of Marion. He’s a pretty famous guy around here.

I’m tenting, so no pictures are available yet. I didn’t take many anyway

It took a long drive to reach Beaufort. A bridge was closed and detour signs were deceptive. In any case, though the town has beautiful mansions and lots of history, frankly I wish I’d passed on it. To get to the historic section I had to negotiate the single commercial road. Savannah’s mansions were better. And the history isn’t heartwarming. Beaufort was, by its own admission, the central hotbed for secession.

I went right through Charleston, having been there before. My goal was to hit Georgetown and then get a cheap hotel in Myrtle Beach. But I stopped at Buck Hall Recreation Area for the view and immediately changed plans. My tent is feet from the Intercoastal Waterway. Nearly empty campgrounds.

So it was a short day.

Oh. Historical markers. South Carolina kindly puts up signs advising that a marker is approaching, but seems to have taken down the markers!  This happened four out of five times. The one that was there was 50 feet from the road and had a fence encircling it. Very weird.

Ironically, I spent twenty years supporting Parris Island Marine Corps Air Station, but never visited and never really knew where it was. I know now.

It might rain tomorrow.

Continuing the theme of The Road Less Traveled, I avoided the I95 and drove Route 17.  This is ironic because in my youth, when the I95 was still under construction, we’d be redirected to the 17, a two lane parking lot.  But now everyone uses the 95, so the 17 is an empty road.  It was a very pleasant drive and it only added minutes.  Got me much closer to America.

Seeing a sign for the Midway Museum brought me pause.  In my mind it’s an aircraft carrier in San Diego.  But Georgia has a fairly famous town named Midway and it has a museum.  Unfortunately closed on Sundays.

Just north of Brunswick I stopped at the Hofwyl-Broadfield Plantation, which was established in the early 1800s to grow rice.  The 1851 house was not the beauty that exists in Savannah, mostly because the owners had a home in Savannah for the summer social season.  (As is becoming a normal occurrence, a caretaker saw my Goldwing and spoke lovingly of the 25 years he owned one. Old age forced him to sell it.  Ominous.)   The museum has a well designed display room illustrating how rice was grown and the plight of the slaves doing the work.  The grounds has lots of room to just walk around.  Peaceful.  Just up the road is the town of Riceboro.  No rice though.

Huge bridge for 17 just south of Brunswick.  Steep.  People jogging up it, in (of course) a very strong wind.  Thousands of cars, so it’s obviously a port for imports.  One grass field had hundreds of Smartcars.

Almost got rear ended by a Greyhound bus going way way over the speed limit as I was slowing down to stop at a historical marker.

Savannah is beautiful.  The official historical site is over 2 square miles.  Intimidating, so I did the hop on hop off thing for once.  Savannah almost certainly doesn’t have more history than many other cities, but it certainly has preserved and documented that history.  Markers everywhere.  Home to many movies, such as Forest Gump.  (The Baywatch movie is actually being filmed at a nearby beach, so there is talk of where the actors are staying.  That it’s being filmed on the east coast would be a bit of a buzz-kill if I was planning to see it.)  Home to the Girl Scouts.  Center of the world for cotton.  Ghosts; lots of ghosts.  Second largest St. Patricks Day parade (Huh?).  Just an impressive list.

Drove past two paper mills.  They make skunks smell like fine perfume.  How anyone lives nearby is a mystery to me.

One of the steepest bridges I’ve ever crossed.

Midway Museum

City Hall dome. 23 caret gold. 23?

Girl Scouts founded here.

What makes this inscription fascinating is that I have a $2 bill issued by this company in 1861.

Amazing coincidence!

Interesting what one finds by just looking around.

I’m not sure why they built this way, but it had something to do with cotton storage. The stones in the walls and pavement came from ship’s ballast, unloaded when replaced by cotton.

GoPro shot

GoPro shot

A pleasing leisurely drive today.  From Orlando on I4 to I95.  Then a short jog eastward to Route A1A, which stays mostly right on the coastline. Beautiful views.  In St. Augustine I visited a Distillery and Winery.  Neither offer much serious competition to Kentucky or California.

I stopped by a friend and coworker’s house.  He hasn’t retired yet.  Happily, we talked about our private activities and future plans, NOT about work.  Next week he’ll attend an annual conference that I would normally attend also.  I’ll miss being around friends and enemies.  Not.

I had no idea the coastlines had these towers in WW2.

The coastline had many houses that looked out of place.

When this picture was taken it was both a very windy and cool. I doubt these boards ever got wet.

Fort Matanzas, south of St. Augustine.

This is a beautiful lighthouse in St Augustine. The museum is very well organized.

The caretaker’s house.

Castillo de San Marcos from the lighthouse.

The Visitors Center was excellent.  They have the space shuttle Atlanta displayed in a very imaginative position.  Everything else was great as well.  But I was there for the launch of the Space X Falcon 9 Dragon.  It went off on time without a hitch, and then successfully landed the stage 1 on a barge!  The first time it’s worked.  I obviously didn’t see the landing, but the launch was everything I could hope for.  Another bucket list item scratched off.

Bad news; my navigation system crashed.  I’m going to have to navigate without it for an indeterminate time.  Also crashed is my odometer and other electronic features.  I’ve called service centers and they are stumped, which is not a good sign. But I’ll survive.  I’ve got a good idea where I’m going.

I don’t mind saying I’ll be happy to see Florida in the rear view mirror tomorrow.  I’ve had some great times, but the driving and drivers suck.

This Gemini is the same type of missile I took a picture of at the Titan Missile Museum.

Launch control for Apollo.

Another Saturn 5 on its side. I don’t know why, but the one in Houston seemed bigger.

Apollo 14

This time I took the long way around Orlando.  Ended up at Ocala National Forest, which is just a forest.  But the ride was okay.

The town of Eustis is very nice.  Clearly enlightened town management.  Beautiful lakeside park.

Went up the Citrus Tower, built in 1956 in the center of what was then the citrus growing capital of the world.  Two major freezes in the 1980s killed the local industry, forcing it to move south.  Now the tower is in the middle of housing.  But it was still a nice view.

I learned that the first citrus bottling plant was opened in a city called “Howey-in-the-Hills”, which wins the award for weirdest named town on the entire ride.  The founder, William Howey, was quite the guy.  A predecessor of Trump.

Again, not the most remarkable of days, but better than yesterday.  Tomorrow is the payoff, weather and technology permitting.  I’ve already bought a ticket to the Space Center.  $50!

1960s.

Now.

Not True!

Drove around the “back lot” of Disney, following advice from an informed source.  Huge collection of warehouses!  Cool fire station.  Though it didn’t look like much, I saw one of the first employee housing sites for the Disney empire, which essentially gave them the ability to control the zoning rules.  Whenever the country has its 51st state, it won’t be Guam or Puerto Rico.  It’ll be Disney.

Drove through Orlando, which was a mistake.  It’s a much bigger (complex) city than I expected.  Got to Blue Springs State Park, winter home of manatees, who sadly left last week.  In the 1880s it was the hot spot in Florida.  Then Flagler built his trains.  But it’s a restful park where one can actually swim in the spring (if you bring a swimsuit).  Wildlife.

Drove back through Orlando, which put a damper on the day’s enjoyment.  Spent the rest of the day projecting my timing to St. Louis, where I’ll park the bike and fly home for a week.  I’ll hit Tail of the Dragon on the way.

Not the best day, but I’m just stalling until Friday.

A gated housing community inside the Disney grounds. Magic Kingdom indeed.

The beginning of the Springs.

Wildlife.

Best Western to Everglades NP to Motel 6 in Orlando.  80 miles in the park, 310 miles to Orlando.  Long day.  Drive sucked.  Another overturned 18 wheeler completely closed the road.  Had to use toll road ($15.40!).  That makes two overturned trucks in Florida.  Plus two close calls with motorists, both in Florida.  I’m not feeling the love from the bulk of this state.

Everglades was okay.  Not terrific.  Boat ride educational, but not worth the 2 hours it took.  The best saltwater crocodiles we saw were at the dock!  I think the key takeaway was that I don’t ever want to spend time on foot in a swamp.  But I already knew this.

Tried to use the GoPro.  Not too successful, but I’ll keep trying.

About two feet long.

About eight feet long.

This “Tree of Death” will kill you. The leaves burn your skin, the eaten fruit melts your esophagus.

They build straight roads in the swamp.

Taken with the GoPro while driving