Day 100 - Elkridge & Maryland Day

Son Brent asked me to attend Maryland Day at the University of Maryland today with him and his daughter Avery.  

The catch is that I needed to be at his house by 9:00 am.  I stayed at the truck stop way in western Maryland last night with 2 hours and 45 minutes left to go.  

I woke at 4:30 am and after filling up with gas I was on my way by 4:45.  I don't normally drive in the dark on my travels since there isn't anything to see.  Well today I found myself driving in very dark conditions with a heavy overcast that came in made it darker.  The above photo was my first view of morning light as I traveled wast in I64 before it merges to I70.

My son had visitors at the house overnight and not wanting to be too early I was stopping at McDonalds down the stret to publish yesterday's blog.

As I was driving east on MD175 I had to wait for fire apparatus responding to a call tripping the traffic light holdings traffic.

When we got to head east again I could see what they were responding towsrds in the distance in the area of Jesup, Maryland where MD175 and US1.  I could imaging it may be a vehicle fire.

Now with my blog published it was time to see my son and family after 3 months as this was my first day stop when I started my 2015 Travels.  My two Granddaughters are 3 and 8 months so you can notice how they have changed.  

Avery the oldest remembers me but she has grown some Norah didn't recognize me so I have short of a week to spend time with her.

I parked the Prius at the house in Ellridge with about 40 miles short of 19,000 miles traveled so far.  I am about 450 miles from home and I will be driving some day trips during the week

After the warm welcomes the three of us were off to the University of Maryland.  It is going to be cloudy and cool. All day with rain later.  Brent gets a text that one of his friends saw some snow flakes in nearby Columbia, MD.

I'm sure that most of the followers of this blog know I do not like the cold and when we arrived for Maryland Day it was raw outside.

Maryland Day is basically a campus-wide open house where people explore exhibits from agriculture to Enginnering to technology and so on to sports and fitness.  Companies help sponsor the event and government agencies also have public safety activities.  There were also many food vendors.

The college has a large campus and is used to handling large crowds when they fill their stadium for football games.  Today's event with many thousands attending they handle it very well.

Here Avery takes her try at the football team's obstacle course.

After this she got a team poster and went into the team tent and met the players and got their signatures.  Her dad takes her to the Terps games at the college.

Later we stood in line to get our liquid nitrogen ice cream.  The science students put liquid vanilla ice cream in a foam cup and while you hold the cup you are to stir it after they pour in the liquid nitrogen.

I'm already cold even though I have layers on,, but the student pouring liquid nitrogen intoy cup filled it up and some spilled out onto my hand and I it hurt.  It took a long time for my nitrogen to boil off leaving me with a very hard mads of ice cream that stuck to my tongue.

You can see the vapor coming from this person's cup.

I am having problems with my phone and will check with the Apple Store this week.

My problem is that just over two weeks ago my phone's screen started to separate at the bottom.

When it's cold at night the gap tightens and the warmer it is the more it widens.

I am still publishing the blog from it but it's getting difficult to take out and use as I don't want to break the screen totally off hoping I can get a reasonable repair.

This means that I have limited taking pictures too.  The whole phone also needs to be wiped as the memory management isn't working well.  I have to clear cash often.  I will have one memory number before a hard rest and it will be half after the boot.

I have resulted in deleting things to get by until I get home.  At least while here in MD I can take a picture like the one of my phone with my iPad and then mail it to my phone to use it.

When I'm home I plan on getting the IPhone 6 (smaller of the two) as a replacement for this IPhone 5

Last night was Girls night out for Brent's wife Manina so Brent and I took Avery & Nora and went to an Italian Restaurant.

Brent

macaloney@hotmail.com

Day 99 - Fire Stations / Fire Museum

That is thick heavy frost on the ground and I had a frozen windshield on the outside.  It wasvinvrhe high 20's last night.  I was warm in my sleeping bag but didn't want to get out.

What is worse was there was no way I was going to take a shower in that in heated bathroom this am after I paid for the night.  I will deal with that later.

I met a guy in the bathroom this am and he was waiting for hot water to arrive at the sink.  He was still waiting when I left.

Down the road on the Ohio River from where I stayed last night is the town of Madison, Indiana.

This town has one of the most beautiful houses of any town on the trip.  Their Main Drag is also very nice with older buildings giving the town a wonderful character.

Towards the east end of town there is an old fire station with a wonderful hose tower.  Although you can't see it in the picture there is a copper statue on top of a firefighter yelling orders in the horn.

It is Fair Play Fire Company No. 1

(Web photo)

I got this shot off the web, although a bit blurry from blowing up) of the ornament on top.  Very nice.

I made my way to Cincinati, Ohio and my stop for today at their Fire Museum.

This is a very nicely done museum.

One half of the basement is where the history starts.  The other half is where they have children programs.

They have this picture blown up on the stairwell.

This tapestry is hanging on another stairwell.

A lot of work went into this museum as you can see from this diorama.

From what I gather, Cincinati was the first paid fulltime fire department about 1855.

This shield was from the stack of one of their sum team fire engines.

Cincinati is the home of Ahrens Fox fire apparatus.  There was a previous history of making fire apparatus prior to Ahrens buying up the defunct company before him.

Prior to this style steam engine Cincinati had other first of their kind pumps built off the concepts of riverboat steam driven engines used on the Ohio River where they were situated.

Around the mid 1800's Cincinati Fire Department also had all steam engines except for one hand pumper.

In contrast from my town's fire department we used handpumpers entirely up to 1919 when we got our first Ford Model TT pumper and continued to use handpumpers until about 1930.

Cincinati faded out all handpumpers by about 1880's.

This is a nice museum not hard to get to or park at if going by.

Since I put 46 years into the fire service I figured I would at least go to one Fire Museum on this trip.

(Web photo)

I have a long day of driving yoday so I stopped for a quick lunch in Wherling, West Virginia 

Two speciality Hot Dogs and frys for under $10.00.  This is also a goo place to stop driving on I70.  Easy off and on the highway.

My day was not complete yet although I had planned to stay in this area for the night.  My son Brent asked if I wanted to attend an event on Saturday with him and granddaughter Avery so I am driving to the Maryland Panhandle to get a jump on tomorrow's drive so I can arrive earlier in the am vs the afternoon.

My place for the night is a Pilot truck stop so I can get a shower and a little to eat for dinner and sleep in the car for the last time boondocking for my 2015 Travels.

Truck stops are noisy and I usually wake a few times but it doesn't bother me at all.

Brent

macaloney@hotmail.com

Day 98 - Louisville, Kentucky - Baseball Bats / Lunch Shop

Today I got up at 5:30 and off to the heated bathroom at the campground, that didn't collect for my stay, for a hot untimed shower.  Of all the campgrounds on the trip this one had the best setup yet.

Then after a stop at McDonalds during school bus time to post yesterday's blog it was off on US31E north towards Louisville, Kentucky.

But first I need to wash clothing so a search brought me to Glasgow, Kentucky's laundromat.

Then I was on my way to the Louisville Slugger Baseball Bat Manufacturing and Museum in downtown Louisville, Kentucky.

This is another place I have wanted to go to for a long time and I enjoyed the experience.

They make thousands of baseball bats from the small toy ones to the baseball bats made explicitly to the professional players expectations.  

They get their ash and maple wood from Pennsylvania and southern New York and they rough the wood to 3 inches round and 37 inches long.

They they take the blank and turn them on machines that produce a bat every 30 seconds that is numerically controlled.  

They used to be all made by hand turned on a lathe and they still make some that are built on an automated lathe using a metal template.  But all the professional bats are made on the computerized lathe for consistency.

No photography was allowd on the production floor so I can't show how they are made today.

When making baseballbats for professional balplayers the players need to choose the length, weight, a color from 7 approved choices. 

They can also choose if they want the tip cupped out to reduce the weight for faster swings.

The pro players order their own bats usually in a quantity of 80 to 100 for the season and then they have the bill to have them made sent to the ball team.

The museum had all kinds of antique bats on display.  You could also order your own bat with your name in it.  Pro bats have the signature in script of the balplayer from the way they signed their contract.

They are making pink bats that will be used one day (Mother's Day) for breast cancer awareness.  They too make pro versions to the players exact specifications.  The bats will be collected and sold on Major League Baseball's website with proceeds going to breast cancer causes.

They also have a Topps ball card room and a bicycle made out of a wooden frame driven by a belt vs s chain.

It's well worth the trip and I'm glad I get to have my tours during the week when it is less crowded.

After a bit of pushing I got a recommendation from our tour guide at the Louisville Slugger Plant to the sandwich shop.

I walk in and I asked the woman behind he counter what their speciality sandwich was and she named three so I settled on the turkey with cheddar with fried salami heated on a bulky bun.

It was a good sandwich and they had others that were just as good.

I looked at my app for finding a place to stay for the night and decided to cross over the Ohio River to an Indiana state park for the night.  

I came across this industrial area on the Indiana side that was abandoned and would qualify for the term rust belt.

It was 4:30 when I arrived at the state park and the office was closed and the sign said ranger will come by to collect.

So I picked my spot for the night and it is a nice campground although I was disappointed as i was hoping for a river view but the camping area is not near the river.

I made a light dinner and waited for the ranger.  He came bear dusk and told me it was $28.86.

Now that is high for tenting and not using any services but I think there is one price for all sites as they come with hookups.

So, it's still a nice campground but no heat in the bathrooms and it's going to be cold tonight.  The shower has a water push a button and you get 5 seconds of water and push it again.  We'll see if I do this in the am and wait 10 cycles for the water to come as I freeze standing their.

Sorry forgot to take a photo of the campground.

Brent

macaloney@hotmail.com

Day 97 - Nashville, Tennessee - The Grand Ole Opry / Peg Leg Porker

Today's travels I decide to take US70 from Memphis, TN to Nashville, TN rather than use the Interstate.

I do get to see the countryside but also some different things.  This is a company that sells storm shelters.  People in tornado prone parts od the country these could be a life saver since most houses do not have basements.

The ones above are for in the ground as they have a top hatch.

These storm shelters are walk-in.

My tour for today is the Grand Ole Opry.  My GPS took me to the Opry Mall and I thought it was wrong as we are miles from downtown Nashville.  

I remembered to ask for any discounts and when I did they offered AAA, so it pays to ask.  I just wish they published it so I don't forget to ask.  They also have a Millitary discount too.

Well the sign says Grand Ole Opry so I must be in the right spot.  I would later find out that the Grand Ole Opry did start downtown but moved here after they outgrew the theater in town.

In fact, the Grand Ole Opey was the entertainment and never about the location.

We start the back stage tour with Blake Shelton on video.  He provides the introduction and will later describe the artist's area.  The tour guide fills in the tour.

Many shows like Hee Haw were filmed here and now the TV show Nashville is filmed here too.

The inductees get their name on the walls. I figured I would take a picture of Blake's 

We are in the area of the artist dressing rooms.  Each is numbered with an image of a guitar pick.

Each room also has a theme like the one above.

Herebiscthe vorresponding dressing room.

This is the green room.  Notice the black line on the wall.  This is the high water mark from a flood.

Here is a picture onstage looking out to the audience.

Here is the orchestra area on stage.  There are bleachers on the stage for family of the guest stars.

The Canadian couple on the tour took this pictur of me on the original flooring from the theater downtown that was brought here when they built this venue.

I was asked about country music and my favorate artist and I fessed up and told the woman giving the tour that I am not a country & western music fan but will listen to it from time to time.  The couple from Canada that was with me knew all kinds of country & western music artists and facts.

So I was asked why I came.  I said I was always interested in what I saw as a national icon and that I should go to learn  more about it.  

I am guessing that I was out of place as this back stage tour must be for the diehard country & western folks.

Lastly I was asked if I was seeing a show this week.  Strike 3 - I replied that I was just passing through.  Unluke the Canadians that we're seeing a show Saturday.

No matter I enjoyed the tour and I did know a number of older country & western artists, even though I was not a Hee Haw watcher.

Well, it was on to find a better restaurant for pork than last night.  In fact I was even more disappointed with the meal I had on Beale Street.

My choice today was Peg Leg Porker in Downtown Nashville.

I was told they are famous for their dry rub ribs.

So that is what I got and it didn't disappoint.  The portion of ribs was twice last night.  The beans were home made not canned as last night.  It was less expensive and you get a "to go" drink that you fill up before you head out.

Oh they had silverware too.

Now this is the way a pork rib meal souls be!

I was off now to find my camping for the night at a state park.

Fishing is popular here.

I even got a chance to update my expenses before dark.

I tried to pay for the night but the two camp hosts were gone and I spoke to a man that seemed to be in the know, and he said if you don't see anyone don't worry about it and enjoy.  This is what I did.  

It was 37 this am and the bathrooms are heated and the showers were unlimited hot water.  It was nice.

Brent

macaloney@hotmail.com