Today I thought that I was going to die. It’s the first time this has happened on the trip. Mandy and Earl were leading me to Orem, where the Scooter Lounge is and where my scooter is getting a check over, new tires, new oil, new belt and rollers.

We were on Utah Route 201, which is much like an interstate when “all of a sudden” Mandy swerves like mad, barely missing this white tarps with chunks of wood all around it.

I had about a second to react, which is not enough time to do anything but say an extremely short prayer and hope for the best.

I hit the tarp head on, rolling over the chunks of wood (possibly 2X4’s and some plywood). I figured that the best possible outcome would be laying it down. The worse would be flying over the handlebars.

Thankfully, neither of those happened. I hit it and it bumped me around a bit. I was able to maintain control and then it was over, just like that.

My heart was racing, my blood was pumping and the adrenaline was coursing through me. But I had to keep myself together because I was going about 70mph.

That all passed and, while it was amazingly scary, I survived. The only damage was to my side stand’s springs which were somehow ripped off the scooter.

45 miles later and we were in Orem at the scooter shop. Dave, the guy I’ve been talking to, wasn’t there, but a few really great folks were and I felt more than happy to give them my business. I’ll be picking the scooter up in about a week.

After such things and the ride back, we stopped at Long Life Veggie House. It’s a mostly vegetarian Chinese place in Salt Lake City. It really reminds me of the place in Berkeley. They may even be owned by the same folks.

I got Veggie Beef and Tofu and it was, of course, amazing.

From there, we had to head over to near the airport so that I could pick up my rental car for the week I’m spending with Sarah, heading to the Spiral Jetty and down to Albuquerque, NM.

I requested a small car, the smallest possible. What I got, however, was anything but small. It was a 2008 White PT Cruiser.

If you were to ask me what my least favorite new car is, I would say PT Cruiser. Yes, it even beats out the unbelievably moronic Hummer. It, somehow, even beats out whatever this thing is.

Simply put, I hate and have always hated PT Cruisers. They scream boring mid-life crisis. If you’re going through a mid-life crisis and you just can’t convince yourself to get a new Mustang, fix your comb-over and get yourself a PT Cruiser!

Worst of all… it’s white, quite possibly the ugliest car color ever (unless you’re talking about a Volkswagen). But you’re probably not, so yes, it’s hideously ugly.

Even worse than that (yes, even worse than “worst of all”) is that it gets about 25mpg. See, I asked for a small car because I wanted to get 35ish mpg. But no. I’m handed the keys to the crapmobile. This car is a joke.

I thought maybe I’d sort of be ok with the interior once I took it for a spin. No. The interior is just cheap plastic and honestly looks really shoddy. If I were to get drunk, have a lobotomy and buy a PT Cruiser, I’d feel extremely ripped off by the interior alone.

And on the passenger side, there’s this… handle. Why? Seriously… WHY?! It doesn’t really do anything. Is it supposed to look cool? Well, it doesn’t. It’s cheap plastic crap, just like the rest of the interior.

Oh, and to lock the thing, you have to push a little button on the key. Ok, fine. But in order to let you know it’s locked, it honks very loudly so that everyone knows you’re the douche bag with the PT Cruiser.

Sorry folks, it’s the worst car ever invented. Ever.

Right now, I’m waiting for Sarah to call so that I can go pick her up at the Amtrak station in the world’s more embarrassing car.

Miles today: 45
Miles total: 5,981

Yesterday, I went to New York City with Sarah and a bunch of folks from the Bloomsburg art program thing. While most of them checked out the museums, Sarah and I hit the lower east side in search of four things.

1) 26 2nd Ave
2) 25 1st Ave
3) The Hare Krishna Tree
4) Doughnut Connection

We also checked out a few galleries and walked WAY too far.

Well, I figured that 26 2nd Ave would be closed, but I wanted to at least see it. I’ve never been there before. Actually, I’ve never really been to the lower east side before. I don’t care for NYC. At all.

So we went around the block to see Radha-Murlidhara (spelling?), but that was all closed up. There were some buttons to push to ring someone, but I felt weird saying “Hey, um… Haribol… I want to see the temple room.”

I took a few pics and headed to Tompkins Square Park to see the Hare Krishna Tree. At first, we couldn’t find it, but we called Rati and wandered around the weird park - it’s all fenced in everywhere. Finally, we found it. I was pretty excited. There’s even a plaque put up by the city (at the request of IRM - SHAME on ISKCON for not doing this first!).

We hung out in the park and then walked a bit to the Doughnut Planet. Doughnut Planet is a devotee-run doughnut shop. I got a glazed doughnut and it was amazing. The devotee working there, a Trinidadian-bodied devotee whose name started with “Hari-” was great. He was encouraging and a bit pushy - just how I like my Trinidadians! He told me to always remember Krishna and to never forget Krishna. It’s not always easy to remember to remember Krishna. And it’s even harder to not forget to never forget Him. Thanks!

We had some time to kill, so Sarah thought it would be a good idea to walk from 4th Street to where we were being picked up… on 51st Street. Only 50 blocks away from where we were! I figured she was joking, so said ok. But she wasn’t joking. We walked 50 blocks. Around 34th Street, my left knee gave out on me. Around 40th, my right ankle was starting to not work. But by this time, it was a great contest of endurance. New York City was waging a war of attrition on me and I’ll be damned if I was going to let it win!

After nearly 90 minutes of walking, we made it to 51st Street. I was, of course, unable to walk. I was hardly able to stand - the boots I wore weren’t made for this amount of walking. I was dead.

Thankfully, the bus came and I was able to rest up on the way home.

Overall, it was a great day. Beautiful day. I was sad that I didn’t make a arrangements to see the temples. Mostly, I just don’t want to be a bother.

Click here for more pics…

And if you like, Sarah’s…

Today was a very long driving day. Even longer than the first day. Today I drove 750 miles from Cookeville, TN to home.

Along the way, we did the entire 105 or so miles of Skyline Drive. Much of today’s drive was interstate and basically eventless. However, Skyline was really nice and I’m glad we did it.

Here are my 18 pics from today.

And here are Smartz’s 15.

Well today we started in Harrison, Arkansas. We had to get to Memphis by 330pm. And we did. But along the way, we discovered that Arkansas is actually a really pretty state. Especially going south on US 65 to Little Rock. East of Little Rock, it’s not so pretty, but that’s also where some major flooding has been going on.

We got to Memphis and ate at a really really good Indian place. Then we checked out some spots that Cole told me about. Nice town, I guess, but - like her - I could never really live here. The healthfood store she told me out has gone out of business. Most of the shops were closed for the day or forever.

Sadly, we missed House of Mews, which is a cat adoption place. We got tons of pics through the window though.

After Becky was finished with her stuff, we high-tailed it out of Memphis. We are now in a motel room in Cookeville, TN. Tomorrow we will be home. Late tomorrow. Really late, probably.

Here are the pics from today (only 17).

And here are Sarah’s.

Today was a really strange travel day for me. First, it was a blast. I love being out on 66 and I’m so glad that I got to see quite a bit today.

But the strange thing was, though I was seeing a LOT of what I’ve seen before, *how* I got there was totally different. The thing is, I can’t understand why.

Route 66 has a couple different alignments, sure, but even in places where there was only one alignment, I felt like I had never been there before. Honestly, I think I must have skipped quite a bit, at least in Missouri, on the first time through.

At any rate, a really cool thing about today is where we left Route 66. Originally, the plan was to drive to Lebanon, MO… or, if we were lucky, Springfield, MO. But by the time we got to Springfield, it wasn’t all that late. Also, Becky doesn’t have to be in Memphis till 3pm on Monday. So we could do some of the traveling to Memphis tomorrow. Right? Right!

And all that adds up to having more time on Route 66. I know I was grateful for that.

We made it all the way through Missouri. Into Kansas. Did all 12 miles of Kansas. And then made our way through a pretty good chunk of northern Oklahoma! To Afton!

We then said our goodbyes to Route 66 (the last thing I did was take a picture of the last section of road that we were on. There was a train in it. Aww.

After that, for the next couple of hours, we winded our way out of Okahoma and into Arkansas. Tonight we are holed up in a nice motel outside Harrison, AR. Great room.

See the pictures. I’m pretty happy with them.

And here are Sarah’s.

We arrived in Chicago in effing record time. Our departure was at 430am. I slept from about midnight to 330am. Goodsleeperic.

The drive itself was rather uneventful, as would be any drive through Western Pennsylvania, Ohio and Indiana. It was I-80 all the way! God, this was so exciting.

I did fall asleep at the wheel once. I love it when I do that. It kept me awake though. Until about right now. I’m in a hotel room in Joliet, Il. Where is Joliet, you ask? It’s a bit south of Chicago. The Blues Brothers had some affiliation with Joliet prison, if I remember correctly.

So basically, since I’ll be doing Route 66 in a few weeks, I’ll spare you the play-by-play. Instead, I offer you the pictures I took today. Hey, that rhymes! I should SO be a poet!

Here are the pics from today!

And here are those from Smartz.

Sometimes impromptu trips are wonderful.

I’ll be leaving on Friday morning for a whirlwind trip with Smartz and her friend Becky. It’s kind of neat to be hitting some of Route 66 before hitting Route 66 on the scooter.

Day One - Leaving early morning on I-80 west (possibly my leave favorite highway ever) to Chicago. Once in Chicago, we’re seeing The Bean and maybe the Chicago Diner. Hey, did anyone know that Oz Park existed? Weird! I’d love to see it. We’ll be staying near Joliet, IL that night.

Day Two - Taking Old Route 66 across Illinois to just outside of St. Louis. Lots of things to see. You can read about my 2006 trip on this section here.

Day Three - In St. Louis we’ll see the arch, Laumeier Sculpture Park and the Sierra Sculpture Park. After those, we’ll be taking Old Route 66 to Lebanon, MO. We’ll bid adieu to the Mother Road and take a couple of other roads to just outside of Memphis, TN.

Day Four - In Memphis. Becky is visiting a campus for grad school and Smartz and I will be taking in some sites provided by my dear friend Cole who had the fortune to live in Memphis for a bit for some reason or another (hehe). This is the reason for the trip, really. It started with Becky wanting to just go to Memphis to check out a campus. We’ll be staying east of Nashville that night.

Day Five - Heading to Roanoke, VA and then taking the Blue Ridge Parkway and Skyline Drive to Front Royal, VA. From there it’s a near straight shot on I-81 back home to Bloomsburg.

The trip was originally supposed to be Smartz and Becky going to Memphis. Clearly, I got my meddling fingers in this thing.

We’ll see how it goes.
Here’s the map…

Upon coming back to WV, I had a few trips in mind. One was to Philippi and Rich Mountain (the first and third land battles of the Civil War)… (the second was The Battle of Big Bethel, in southeast Virginia).

Anyway, Philippi is about 2 hours of ridiculously twisty US250 South away. It’s beautiful, of course, but wow, it’s really freakily twisty. The towns along US250 are pretty run down, but would be great for a bit of urban exploration if you’re crazy enough to enter the rickety buildings of West Virginians with guns. Just a thought.

The towns of Littleton and Hundred were great and there seemed to be a bit of appreciation for their history. There was a rails-to-trails section along the old B & O Railroad bed (B & O stands for Baltimore & Ohio Railroad - they owned most of the rail traffic through here).

I stumbled across an old tunnel, but it had been bricked up. Hopefully it can be unbricked for future rails-to-trails stuff. But seeing has how the locals use the old railroad bed as a road for everything from ATVs to regular cars, it’s rather unlikely.

A bit farther down the line, the town of Mannington was pretty cool. There was a Civil War Trails plaque that basically gave an overview of stuff in the area. Union troops camped here in 1861, before any fighting took place.

While driving through Mannington, I saw a sign for “Round Barn.” Sarah, for some reason, was on a round barn kick a few weeks ago and yeah, I think they’re pretty cool too. So I hung a right and after a few miles, there it was. West Virginia’s only restored round barn.

An old fellow came out of his house, which I assumed originally was the farm house for the barn, though it’s a separate property now. He walked up to my car and asked “Is that one of them there hybrid cars?” I said that it wasn’t, “nope, just a normal car.” He asked how much it got per gallon. I said around 40. “Yeah boy, I tell you, that’s what you need nowadays. Gas is ridiculous. N’it’s just gonna git worse, I fear.”

He was a nice fellow and I got a smile out of him. Not a bad thing.

Back on US250, eventually it connects to it’s parent route, US 50. It follows along US 50 to Grafton, passing a really cool old motel. Grafton has a very large national cemetery where they’ve buried soldiers from WW 2 onward. I visited it looking for Civil War graves, but those are in another, apparently impossible to find, cemetery. I drove around the town looking for it and failed. I did, however find a sad, run down town that was desperately trying to find itself.

It was in Grafton that the Union troops coordinated the attack on Philippi. It was here that the Civil War’s first battle was planned. They really want to focus on that. It was also a pretty big B & O Railroad yard. And not only that, it was (supposedly) the place where the first Mother’s Day was celebrated.

While it’s true that Anna Jarvis founded Mother’s Day in Grafton, WV, the first attempt at an American Mother’s Day was by Julia Ward Howe after the Civil War as a call for peace and disarmament. It didn’t really take since there was a political bent to it. However, Jarvis’s “just celebrate mom” (a good idea, to be sure) worked. And in 1907, we got Mother’s Day. Though, nine years after the first Mother’s Day, Jarvis protested against what it had become: commercialized by American consumerism. Big shock.

They should have went with the original idea.

While leaving Grafton, I stopped at a Civil Monument. I usually just pass them by (seriously, I know it doesn’t seem like I do, but I really do!) and found this one to be very interesting.

This was the spot, the exact spot, where the first Union soldier was killed by enemy fire. Actually, it’s where the first soldier of either side was killed. Here is where, on May 22, 1861, Thornsbury Bailey Brown, Company B “The Grafton Guards,” 2nd Virginia (US) was shot by a Confederate sniper.

When the Confederates fired upon the Union-held Fort Sumter, in Charleton harbor, on April 12, 1861, it was considered the start of the Civil War. However, while the fort was surrendered, nobody was killed by enemy fire. So, well over a month later, we get our first casualty.

Coincidently, the first Confederate casualty was at the Battle of Big Bethel, hundreds of miles away, on June 10. The Confederates soundly defeated the Union, incurring only one death, though killed several (eight, I think) Union soldiers.

And from Grafton, on to Philippi! Philippi has a covered bridge. A big one. Oh I couldn’t wait! I had been there over a decade before and wanted to see it again.

It’s also the place where the first land battle of the Civil War took place on June 3, 1861. It was a fairly bloodless battle where the Union troops caught the Confederates by surprise. They fired a few shots and fled. Nobody died.

The real carnage of the war wasn’t a reality. Not yet. After Philippi was the battle of Big Bethel, hundreds of miles away and basically unrelated. Few deaths there too.

But The Battle of Rich Mountain had to have changed some folks’ idea of what the war would be.

Rich Mountain Battlefield, south of Philippi was my next destination. I had never been there and I really dig these small battlefields. The Confederate camping ground was still open land (treeless) and you could get a feel for how it was. The battlefield, just up the hill, still had fairly well preserved earthworks. I was pretty stoked about that. You don’t get to see such things very often.

Up the hill even farther, is where the real tumult took place. On July 11, 1861, the sneaky Union troops surprised the Confederates yet again and split them in two. After a two-hour (some sources say four-hour) battle, the Union had killed, wounded or captured over 400 Confederates.

After the war, many Confederate soldiers came back and carved the names of the fallen comrades upon the many rocks, memorializing the first who fell on their baptism of fire.

I had further plans for the day, but had taken too long along the way (especially in Grafton) to complete them. On top of all that, I had one of the worst headaches I’ve had in a long, long time. I decided to call it a day and head back.

Click to view pics of my day.
[a few, at the bottom, are out of order - I don’t know why]

[And now the exciting conclusion of the “Thursday was the longest day ever” trilogy!]

I knew I was running short on time. I had told Rati that I would be there around 7pm. My initial figuring was that this trip would take me 14 hours. For some reason, I reassessed that and said that it would take me 12. It was looking as if 14 would be a bit closer to reality.

I was six or seven hours away from my final destination. Antietam wasn’t my last stop for the day, but it was my last long stop. The rest would be mostly driving.

The driving would mostly be on Old National Road. I made my way through Hagerstown. From here on out, Civil War history was mostly behind me.

Large cities, like Hagerstown (ok, not really large, but it was larger than anything I passed through today), don’t mean much to me when traveling these back roads. Sometimes I’ll even bypass them. I did that a bit with Hagerstown, but before I knew it, I was back on Alt Route 40.

There were no scheduled stops now. I would pull over wherever I saw something worth pulling over for. A bridge or a historical marker or an old alignment that was long-ago bypassed. It’s the way I travel. And after you’ve done it, it’s difficult to pull the car back onto the long, boring super slab of an interstate. Very difficult. And so even though I was running late and the interstate was, at times, mere yards from me, I stayed true to the old National Road.

Unfortunately, I did have to jump on the interstate for a bit. I-70 is laid right over the old National Road. However, before I was giving this displeasure, I searched out an old fort (which was gated and closed) and found an old cemetery.

And I mean old. The newest grave was from 1823 or something. Many of the graves were marked only with an unmarked river stone. I’m not sure if there was a town here or perhaps this was from the fort or the railroad (which was nearby). Many of the markers were damaged, most of them by time.

Farther west, just after leaving I-70, I was able, for the first time, to navigate Sidling Hill via US Route 40. Ironically enough, the abandoned Pennsylvania Turnpike tunnel (Sideling Hill Tunnel) I had visited on my way to Pennsylvania a week or so prior was dug through the same hill, 20 or so miles to the north. The interstate now cuts a huge gap into the mountain. The Old US Route 40 (National Road) takes the long way around. It’s a beautiful drive and i encourage anyone to take it.

After many more gorgeous miles of National Road, stopping here and there to read a sign or two, driving through Cumberland (the old start of National Road) and Frostburg, I drive by and turn around for a really fun looking bridge. Are you shocked? No?

Castleman’s River Bridge is quite the structure. It was built in 1813 and was the largest stone arch in America at the time. It was used for about 100 years and then retired. And though it was getting late, I stopped, walked across it to a weird little village of log cabins that must be something touristie during the warmer months. Traveling in March has its blessings afterall!

Shortly after the bridge, I crossed into Pennsylvania. National Road/Route 40 cruise up into Pennsylvania before crossing the West Virginia panhandle and Wheeling. And shortly after crossing into Pennsylvania, I pass Fort Necessity. For the record and for what it’s worth, let me say that I know nothing about Fort Necessity. It was a fort during the French & Indian War. There was a battle there. That is my entire knowledge of it. I’ll hopefully be revisiting the fort in the near future.

However, farther up the road I came across a sort of place of pilgrimage for National Road folks. Here lies General Edward Braddock. He was the leader of the British forces during the French and Indian War. He is also the guy who carved out “Braddock’s Road,” which later became the basis for National Road and US Route 40. Basically, this is the fellow who started it all.

Braddock started in Cumberland, just like National Road. His objective was a fort near Pittsburgh. Unfortunately, he met an untimely death in an ambush near what is now the town of McKeesport, PA (in 1755). His troops, in retreat, carried his body to the location where I now stood and buried it in an unmarked grave under his road. George Washington, who was fighting with Braddock, performed the ceremony.

The grave remained unknown until 1804 when road workers found it and reinterred it a short distance to where he lies today.

The road is still very visible in this location. Much of the long ago abandoned trace is visible in farmer’s fields and through woods. Sadly, much of it is gone.

And now it was really getting dark. I had no chance to stop at anything from here on out. I passed through and got very lost in Uniontown, PA. I hope it never darkens my path again.

However, just after Uniontown was Brownsville. Brownsville looks like a bomb hit it. It was nearly full-on dark when I passed through it, but I will most definitely be back. National Road drags you to Brownsville’s downtown. Every store is closed. Every single one. It was almost like driving through the largest ghost town I had ever seen.

Darkness had fully set in.

Upon Washington, PA, I entered the Interstate and drove quickly to Wheeling, West Virginia. My home for about a week.

Thanks for reading along. I’m sorry that it was so long-winded. I know most of it is history related and I know that it doesn’t appeal to many, but thanks for putting up with me.

As a reward, here are all of the pics from Thursday.
All 172 of them.
Click!

[When last we left our hero, he was descending South Mountain on National Road nearing Hagerstown, Maryland. The Washington Monument behind him, he now makes his way towards Antietam National Battlefield and west towards Wheeling, West Virginia.]

One thing that I failed to mention was just how windy it was the whole day. Especially on the Washington Monument. Possibly 40 to 50 mph gusts. It was quite blustery!

Alt Route 40 West from South Mountain takes you through Boonsboro. It’s a neat little town that seems to be getting to big. I’m not sure why, there’s no strip malls or anything, but it just seems to be too big. Stop it, Boonsboro.

A quick left turn down Maryland Route 34 takes me in the “back way” to Antietam. However, before I get there, I decide to take an old alignment of the Shepherdstown Pike through Keedysville. There was something about this town that really did it for me. I think it was the houses. Now, as I may have mentioned before, I love northern Maryland. I’m not exactly sure that I could live there, but I love to visit. Keedysville is a very Civil War-era town. Many towns around here are like this. However, many of the towns have been changed by larger US Routes going through them.

Keedysville seems relatively unchanged. It was cut off long ago by a quick little Route 34 bypass. And while life hasn’t really stopped for the folks who live there, it has definitely slowed down. I will definitely make it a point to stop here again.

A few miles down the road from Keedysville is Sharpsburg, home of the battle of Antietam. Many Civil War battles have two names. The south would generally name battles after the city or town that was nearby. In this case, Sharpsburg. The north would name battles after a body of water or some other geographical location. In this case, Antietam (named after Antietam Creek).

Antietam’s battlefield park is quite a bit different from Gettysburg. In a way, it seems older. Or at least not as redone and refurbished. That’s not to say that it’s falling apart or shabby. Not at all. With the exception of the goofy looking visitor’s center, probably built in the architecturally unforgivable early to mid 1960’s, the park is pristine. It seems fairly unchanged from September 1862, when the battle took place.

Looks are a bit deceiving, several large wood lots were logged after the war. They are being replanted.

Of course, the battlefield is dotted with monuments and plaques commemorating the boys who fought and died here. And many died, were wounded or captured. In one day’s fighting, there were 23,000 casualties. It still remains the bloodiest day in American history.

The battle has always been a bit of a blur to me. I know the basics, of course, but when I get there, my sense of direction is all thrown off. The Union attacks happened in three phases, from north to south. First through the Cornfield, then to the Sunken Road (or Bloody Lane) and lastly over Burnside’s Bridge.

The day was brought to a stalemate when Confederate reinforcements attacked the attacking Union forces. By 5:30, the battle was over. Neither side could claim victory. The next day an unofficial truce was observed and the dead were buried. There were more dead than on D-Day, more dead than on 9/11.

Out of all of the battlefield, the Burnside Bridge means the most to me. I had an ancestor, a great, etc grandfather in the 51st Pennsylvania. They, along with the 51st New York, took the bridge. Throughout the day, General Burnside had tried to take the bridge. It was being held by roughly 500 Confederates in the hill immediately overlooking the creek. Burnside had at his command 12,500 troops. About a quarter of them got lost in the woods. Another group tried to ford the creek about a half-mile down stream (they failed to do so). Burnside’s remaining troops tried twice to take the bridge. They also failed with very heavy casualties.

It was then up to the two 51st’s to give it a shot. The colonel of the 51st Pennsylvania abstained from alcohol. He also forced his men to abstain. Most Union troops were given a whiskey ration. But not the 51st. The men did not care for this. After receiving orders from General Burnside to take the bridge, the colonel of the 51st Pennsylvania spoke to his men, “It is General Burnside’s special request that the two 51st’s take the bridge. Will you do it?”

A soldier shouted back, “Will you give us our whiskey, Colonel, if we make it?”

“Yes, by God!” was the reply.

The two 51st’s, my great, etc grandfather with them, stormed the bridge and took it. And yes, they got their whiskey!

From Burnside’s Bridge, I drove the remainder of the park, along the crest of a ridge that overlooked a valley. I’ve been meaning to take a nice long walk down in there to see what there is to see. If I had more time, I would have.

[Thus ends the second of three installments… tune in tomorrow for the exciting conclusion of “Thursday was the longest day ever!”]