Tag: Nerdtour 2003

Well, I’ve been back from the road for a week, now. Back to work, back to most of the habits and some of the chores as before. The last leg of the trip was uneventful, a mere 200 miles in clear weather. Just finished unpacking (I never claimed to be fast at the chores!) and putting stuff away. While doing so, I’ve been thinking about my life, before and after the trip. Living for a month with just the contents of my car has made me realize just how much extraneous stuff I have. A lot of things that have pleasant memories associated with them, and a lot of books that are out of print, but mostly it’s just a bunch of “stuff.” It’s time to get rid of a lot of it, starting this weekend. Fortunately, the trip seems to have given me a lot more energy, but unfortunately, not any more time, so this project will likely take several weekends. But, as I said many times on the road, when trying something new, “what the hey?”

Made it to Middlesboro successfully, just in time to be almost washed away by a huge downpour from a thunderstorm. It came over the mountain and pounced on the town like some huge monster. Fortunately it was short-lived, and I managed to make it into a fast-food place to eat while the storm flailed about the valley. Today I got up, checked out, and went up to the cemetery out on the edge of town and put fresh flowers on my parent’s grave. Later I was able to locate one of my old friends, as well as some friends on the staff at the local library where I worked decades ago (okay, during the Ford administration). Had a pretty good time catching up on what’s been happening (or not happening) in the old hometown. Headed up into Virginia, and gazed at the incredible scenery along Highway 58 in Lee County. Almost painfully beautiful, green rolling hills, wide farms, laying at the foot of the mountains. *Sigh.* Words fail.

My friend Michelle at the library pointed me to the local real estate paper to get an idea of prices and availability of property in the area (thanks, Michelle! Man, you find some smart people at the library!) One of these days, I’m going to get some old farmland or other good piece of property in the area, and set up my retirement place. The DC Metro area may be where I have all my stuff, but the mountains are where my heart is.

I left the area, and made it up into Virginia, up to Harrisonburg. Ran into more rain, of course. Turns out there was a storm cell that actually kept up with me as I drove from Roanoke up I-81. I may not have to wash my car, now!

Tomorrow: Journey’s End!

Well, the rain kept me from being able to see a couple of my great-nephew’s games, and residual alien contamin… er, sinus infection symptoms kept me from seeing the other great-nephew’s games, but overall, I had a good time at my brother’s. Got to see all of his kids but not all of his grandkids, we went to see “Finding Nemo”, had a couple of home-cooked meals, and got 4 of 5 rolls of film developed. Also got a little better illness-wise. Sunday afternoon I drove down to my sister’s home, in Manchester Tennessee, where I’m currently using her cable modem (yay!). Had a very relaxing time, finished (hopefully) recuperating. Had more home cooking (yay!).

Now, I’m getting ready to head to my old hometown, Middlesboro Kentucky, where I hope to see a couple of old friends, check out some property I might want to buy around there, and just generally hang out for a day, before starting the last leg of the trip. If all goes well, I’ll post one more LJ entry from the road, and should pull into Alexandria sometime on Friday, giving me a weekend to get ready for work next Monday.

Well, my luck proceeds apace. I woke up in Granada Mississippi, with a fever and a sinus infection. Yet more confirmation that at least one thing
in my life has to be broken at all times. I scarfed Advil, drove as best I could up the road, thru Memphis (missing the turn to I-240, and, thinking
that I would run across the real I-40, drove on into Arkansas, but eventually getting the right road), and on into Tennessee. I managed to make it to my brother’s house, in White House TN, before collapsing. I managed to roust myself due to the magical effects of the smells of home
cooking (soup beans, cornbread, pickle beets), but such was only temporary. I barely made it into the spare bedroom before I imploded.

Today, I got up and was able to go to a local doctor, who basically said, once I had laid out the symptoms and he had poked, prodded, and
peered to his satisfaction, “looks like you have a sinus infection.” He gave me some new kind of antibiotics (new to me, anyway) that claimed
it only needed to be taken for 5 days. We shall see.

Wait a minute, is it really a sinus infection? Was it really coincidence that my car loses electrical power, so suddenly and at the edge of
nowhere, that I have to spend the night at a hotel that just happens to be where my car dies? And was that really a bunch of high-schoolers,
partying in the next room, and was it really an accident that one of them knocked on my door, thinking it was the party? Were they trying to
make sure that I was there, when they called down the mothership? [CENSORED] aliens and their nasally-inserted tracking devices…

At any rate, I missed Graceland, missed taking a picture of the pyramid in Memphis (kind of neat, seeing it in real life), and missed some other
things. I did get to sit in traffic jams twice, once due to construction, and once due to rush hour.

Tonight (rain permitting): watching my brother’s youngest grandson play pee-wee baseball.

Whew! The problem with my car last night was indeed a broken alternator. After a sleep-deprived night, I called one of the local Vidor
repair shops, and asked if they could take an emergency repair job. The nice lady on the phone said they could but that it might take
until the afternoon to fix. I told her that I could wait as long as it took, and she said to bring it in. She gave me directions, and I told her
that I might not be able to make it, and if the car stopped I’d call so they could send a towtruck. Fortunately, I got the car started after
checking out of the hotel, and I limped down the service road as far as I could before getting back on the Interstate. The car had enough
power to start, but as I drove down the road, the needle started falling towards the redline. It was only a mile or so from where I got back
on the Interstate, but that was about the longest piece of highway I’ve been on. I took the exit she had told me to take, pulled up to the
light just as it turned green (yes!) and made my way into the parking lot of the garage. I got it parked just as it gave up the ghost. When I
went in, I told them they’d have to push it into the garage.

The guy in charge, who I figured was the owner, took my info and my cell phone number, and welcomed me to sit in the lobby while they
worked. Fortunately, the garage was next to a Burger King, so I told him I’d be there getting some breakfast. I hadn’t finished my C’rsandwich
when my cell phone rang. It was the garage guy, who told me it was definitely the alternator, and that they had one in stock, so it’d be fixed
by 11:00 AM. Greatly relieved, I hung up and leisurely finished my breakfast while reading one of my books (“Mortal Prey”, by John Sandford).
I walked back across the parking lot to the garage, exchanged some pleasantries with the other folks there, and promptly took a nap in one
of their comfy chairs (wasn’t planned, but they were so comfortable, and I was so sleep-deprived)

Once I put the $280 charge on my card for the repair, I got back on I-10 headed east. The trip was completely without incident, and I made
it all the way to Granada, Mississippi, where I’m writing this. And contrary to some comments, this is the first time I’ve had broadband Internet
access the whole trip! It’s so refreshing, being able to actually load web pages again, and download my email, and do all the other net things
a true geek needs broadband to do! Comfort Inn here provides free DSL to each room. Interestingly enough, I saw a couple of truck stops in
Texas that offered wireless Internet access, but I never stopped to try them out. Wireless Internet access at a truck stop. Who would have
thought?

Anyway, Granada MS is about 90 miles south of Memphis, and just for the heck of it, I’m going to stop by Graceland, if it’s easy to do. Then, on
to Nashville to visit my brother and his family!

Well, today has been a real up and down day. The day started up, went to tour the Alamo, spent the
morning there, had a small lunch while the local western wear store cleaned and blocked my felt
cowboy hat. Left in time to get to Houston right at rush hour, so I wandered into a mall for a couple
of hours, to eat supper and wait out the mess. Hit the road headed east to Beaumont, when my battery
light came on, and found that the battery was draining as I drove. I coaxed it, and thought once or twice
that it was recovering, but as I got a little ways past Beaumont, the power practically went dead. Almost
no headlights, other lights started coming on as the onboard computers stopped getting enough power.
Worst of all, I drove into a storm in this condition, and had almost no power to run the windshield wipers.
Finally, as the car was dying, I made it to a town called Vidor, near the Texas-Louisiana border, and
pulled into a little roadside hotel. Almost didn’t make it, but thankfully Texas has these service roads
that run parallel to the Interstate, and I could limp along with no worries about hitting or being hit, but
I had a moment of panic when I found that the hotel was on the other side of I-10, and there was no
bridge visible! I kept on the service road, finally seeing a sign showing a way to turn and go under
the Interstate, so I could go back to the hotel. That’s where I am as I write this, and I am anxiously
waiting until morning, to contact a local garage to see if they can fix my car. I’m hoping it’s just the
battery, but if it’s something else, I may be here for a while.

Well, I wanted an adventure! Thank God I don’t have to spend the night in my car somewhere along
the Interstate. At least I have cable TV and Internet access!

Ft. Worth, actually. I went to the DalWorthIngton metroplex to see my nephew and his fiance. Had a really nice time, I took them to an incredible
steak restaurant a friend recommended, “Pappas Brothers”, in Dallas. Hefty price tag, but man, was it worth it! The New York strip was fantastic,
and the desserts were indescribable! We split a Key Lime pie and some kind of chocolate mousse-based concoction. Woof! And to think I was
losing weight for a while!

We went to a church-group picnic down by one of the lakes Saturday, which was nice, but for some reason the National Weather Service decided
to turn the “summer” switch on, full! Went from 70s -80s in Denver, to over 100 each day in Ft. Worth! Fortunately there was a slight breeze near
the lake. Afterwards, we were going to see a movie that night, but “Finding Nemo” was sold out, and we were all worn out. So we went back to my
nephew’s place to watch videos and play with his and his fiance’s kittens. And soon everyone was fast asleep, except the kittens!

Sunday we went to the Ft. Worth Botanic Gardens, which was nice, so they could scout out where they wanted to have their wedding. Ft. Worth
has a nice cultural center, with the gardens, a nearby zoo, and some pretty good parks. Of the towns in the metroplex, I’d say Ft. Worth was the
nicest. Dallas is a bit more run-down, and the other towns are just names on a map, for all I could see. Decent enough, just nothing very distinctive.
Oh, and one thing made it worse. The drivers in the metroplex are among the worst I’ve found, much worse than St. Louis, and worse than DC! It’s
indescribable, the things that the “drivers” did. I guess it’s not too surprising, since I only saw a couple of state troopers the whole weekend, and
they might have only been looking for seatbelt scofflaws.

Monday, I left Dallas and headed to San Antonio, but not before stopping at Nerdvana, Geek Central. I’m talking about “Fry’s Electronics”. For
anyone not in the know, Fry’s has been famous for many years in the Silicon Valley area as a place to get anything electronic or even remotely
related to computers. It is to electronics what Wal-Mart is to everything else. I was stunned when I was driving through Irving TX and saw they had
just opened a branch in Texas. So, no matter what, I had to stop. I raided as much of their Anime DVD section as I could afford, and found a bunch
of add-ons for my cell phone. It was hard to do, but I left without buying one of everything they had, just on general principles!

The drive to San Antonio was uneventful, other than the huge supercell thunderstorms and random tornadoes that touched down in some towns
some distance from my route. “Out of sight, out of mind,” that’s my motto. If I can’t see it coming, it can’t hurt me! Once I got into town, I ran into
traffic as bad as rush-hour DC metro traffic. Stop-and-go for miles. And why not post a few more signs to tell you how to get to the [CENSORED]
Alamo? I drove around trying to find some sign to tell me which exit to take to go to the Alamo area, but until I stumbled across I-37, I never saw
anything saying “Alamo this way.” I guess everyone is just supposed to know which roads to take. I must have missed that class in school. At any
rate, I found it, and took some pictures of the outside, which was nice, the front was lit by the setting sun.

Most shocking thing: having lightning strike so close to the car that there was no delay between the flash and the boom.

Tomorrow: The inside of the Alamo, and then on to Houston and parts east!