To and from Dixieland

Overnight at Franklin, TN, and next morning to Dotson's, 99 East Main St, for breakfast. The grits are a bit watery, but they are forgiven for offering sliced beefsteak tomato as a side dish. Veggies are hard to find on the road. The cafe walls are covered with pictures of country musicians, notably the Judds and Kathy Mattea. We head for the Lane Motor Museum, 702 Murfreesboro Pike, Nashville - $7 a head. This place warrants a second visit - a haven for European cars in an unlikely spot.

We head north into Kentucky for our second visit this year, passing the railway museum at New Haven, a stop in the spring, on the road to Bardstown. We check out Frankfort, but the town is confusing with roadworks and diversions, so we carry on to Lexington, a home to horse-racing, pausing at Versailles for diesel. We stop at the Holiday Inn Express and dine at the DQ (Dairy Queen).
Next morning eastbound in the rain we stop at Olive Hill, KY, for the post office, where Railway Street is much boarded up. This is not postcard country. We reach Huntington, WV, named for Collis Potter Huntington of the C&O, close to the Ohio river. The railroad station has been unsympathetically restored and the ALCO #10 engine is left out in the weather, a rotting national monument. Still worth a visit.
We take a salad lunch at the River & Rail Bakery, snapping up the last two Snickerdoodle cookies. We press on for Charleston in a monsoon, resolving to spend the rest of the day indoors at the WV archives, looking for distant relatives of Mad Jack Fuller. Next morning we search for the Fuller and Kries family graves in the Mount Olivet cemetery, on top of a hill.
We head northeast stopping for diesel at Clendenin, WV, where the customers are straight from Central Casting. We are in oil and gas country. A stop at Walmart for supplies was followed by a roadside picnic. We crossed the Mason-Dixon line to Morrisville, PA, overnighting at Waynesburg, PA, close to the Marcellus shale gas field. Motel rooms are hard to find.
We drive into Pittsburgh, PA, following the GPS to Bicycle Heaven, in an industrial estate, mostly featuring Schwinn krate bikes. The NOS parts are priced for restorers only. We take the backroads to Jamestown, NY, in time to visit the Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Center late afternoon. The prerecorded shows were filmed by Desilu in front of a live audience; taping them enabled the bonanza of reruns that has kept Lucy front and centre down the decades.
On our tour we have driven over hundreds of miles of freshly-layed tarmacadam - if resurfacing roads leads to economic salvation then surely America is on the way back. But I am not so sure.
Just when you have despaired of North American road engineers, with their endless stop signs and stoplights, you reach Hamburg, NY, which features roundabouts and bike lanes, looking the epitome of modernity. You could be in Holland. Even dear old Buffalo, NY, has streetcars. Across the Peace Bridge and we have Toronto in our sights.
Pics by RLT.

Elvis and Tammy

July 21: Up early Saturday morning to Tunnel Hill, GA, which featured in the Great Locomotive Chase. The hooter of a northbound freight is heard long before the CSX double-header comes into view. We head into Chattanooga to ride the Tennessee Valley Railroad through Missionary Ridge Tunnel, quite the best short rail excursion anywhere. The new VW factory is nearby and the Passat is being shipped by rail.
Heading west from Tennessee and Georgia into Alabama we stop at the Fame recording studios in Muscle Shoals. Unfortunately, tours can only be arranged in advance and there's nobody there to help. After a quick stop at a Frank Lloyd Wright house in Florence, we dip south and travel the Tammy Wynette Highway into Mississippi, to Tupelo, the birth place of Elvis Presley. Evidence of his (former) presence is everywhere from a lake named after him to a cardboard cut-out in the hotel lobby.
Sunday morning and it is very quiet at the Presley birthplace. The family's two-room home, with front-porch-swing, remains original (but is it on the original site?). A $4 million museum/auditorium complex is under construction just behind. It is slated to open in August to commemorate the 35th anniversary of his death. On display is a 1939 Plymouth, similar to that which took the Presley family to Memphis.

We meet a friendly couple from Wales - turns out he is a teacher and she comes from the same part of the country as my late father. They join us in a visit to the Tupelo Car Museum, which boasts a complete set of Elvis movie posters and a car that he gave as a present to the Denver, CO, Chief of Police. This 1949 Allard caught my eye. Recommended.

We head northeast on the Natchez Trace, a tourist highway devoid of trucks, but with precious little of interest along the way. We stop at the gravesite of Meriwether Lewis, with its ongoing mystery as to cause of death.
Pics by RLT.

Backroads and Blue Highways

July 16: The Deep South tour rolls on, leaving Pennsylvania behind and heading down the Delmarva peninsular, passing close to Wilmington, DE, an Amtrak stop at New Year. We are making for Georgetown, DE, an overnighter away from the coast, which saves dollars. We lodge at the Comfort Inn & Suites, 20530 DuPont Blvd, $105.95 incl tax. We find some bagels for supper in a strip mall at J&J Bagels, 28 Georgetown Plaza, Georgetown, DE.
In the morning we head for Lewes, DE, twinned with Lewes, East Sussex, England. It is a wonder anybody visits as there are no signs off the highway and, like its counterpart in England, the place is plagued with parking meters. Founded in 1631 by Dutchmen, and shortly after named Lewes, the town is a relative newcomer, but claims to be the first town in the first state of the US.
Friendly folk greeted us at the Chamber of Commerce and the Historical Society, who both do a fine job of promoting the town, once you find it and a place to park. We find some postcards at the latter, hard to come by in Lewes. I guess folk are sending less cards.
Next we hug the coast, driving through endless beach resorts crowded with holiday makers. It's hard to imagine a sharper contrast to the Amish farmland we left yesterday. We turn inland and off the highway to Pocomoke City, MD, which turns out to be a rewarding lunch spot by the Pocomoke River. The newly-opened Riverside Grill, 2 Riverside Drive, sells hamburger lunches at popular prices. I was amused by the nearby MAR-VA cinema.

We take the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel, an engineering marvel and an attraction all by itself. Opened in 1965, the toll costs $12 to cross the 20 mile stretch of bridges, man-made islands and two 1-mile tunnels. We detour via Elizabeth City where we fill up with diesel at $3.58 per gallon, rightly fearing worse on the Outer Banks. We learn that diesel will be cheaper in South Carolina where there is less tax. An overnight stop at The Travelodge, Kill Devil Hills, is a bit spendy at $160.88 incl tax. We meet up with Tracy next morning, a friend for over forty years, and go out for brunch. She has lived in KDH for many years and has many tales to tell about the local scene.
We leave the Outer Banks, spotting our first Piggly Wiggly at Plymouth, NC. We take diesel at Pinetops, NC, where I spot this Winnebago for sale. A snip at $2,000!

Avoiding the interstate we pass fields of tobacco, cotton, peanuts and other crops. A heavy driving day in the over 90 F heat we cover 260 miles before checking in to the Comfort Inn, 1957 Cedar Creek Road, Fayetteville, still in NC. This is the cheapest yet at $67.66 incl tax.

Next morning we stop to photograph a Renault Dauphine, atop a defunct gas station on Hwy 301. There was a time when Renault gave VW a run for their money in the US, but those days are long gone.
"South of the Border" billboards proliferate beside the highway as you drive towards South Carolina. A phoney Mexican attraction, right in the middle of nowhere, it has got more kitsch than Route 66. At Darlington Raceway we visit the small NASCAR musuem which has an impressive collection of stock car racing exhibits. This is stock car country as she used to be, a world away from the slick-suited businessmen of Daytona. The Darlington track, "Too tough to tame," is a holdout from the days of Rockingham and North Wilkesboro. We reach Augusta, GA, and crash out with takeout.
The highlight of the tour goes pear-shaped at Madison, GA, - see Punchbuggy Passim.
Skirting Atlanta we stop at Kennesaw, GA, to visit the Southern Museum of Civil War and Locomotive History, which features the story of the "General" locomotive. During the Civil War, "Andrews' Raiders" stole the General and a chase ensued north through the mountains toward Chattanooga. A different perspective is given here than that at the museum in Strasburg, PA, on the "Great Locomotive Chase." Another exhibit contains the only fully restored belt-driven locomotive assembly line in the US, which was rescued when the Glover Machine Works in Marietta, GA, was demolished.
We ride on to Dalton, GA, for a stop at the Holiday Inn Express, with supper next door at the Holiday Inn.
Pics by RLT.

Microcar Museum complete PITA

Bruce Weiner Microcar Museum: If you are planning a visit to this museum don't bother. These time-wasters are a complete PITA.
We planned a visit, calling in advance to check they would be open. We drove from Toronto in Canada to Madison, Georgia, for the high spot of our tour, to find they have shut for the weekend. A phone call to a member of staff meets with ignorance and evasiveness.
We called in at the Madison Visitor Centre in town, where they let us know that we were the latest in a long list of visitors unhappy with their treatment by this outfit. These people have more money than manners, treating folks with contempt. Bad luck to them.
I recommend if you want to see microcars at a proper museum go to the Lane Motor Museum in Nashville, Tennessee.

Steaming in Lancaster County

We overnight at Hershey Farm Restaurant and Motor Inn in Ronks, PA. After a splendid breakfast, with grits, we head for the Strasburg Rail Road and The Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania. These separate establishments are opposite each other. We ride the 09:30 Susquehanna behind Baldwin #90 for a 45 minute trip in Amish country.

Pics by RLT.

Turbo tames The Giant

Up early to Giants Despair hillclimb. First we nip into Wilkes-Barre to the post office and then off up Northampton Street to the races. We park near the startline, guided by Eddie Brooks in the house opposite. Everybody is welcoming and gracious.
We talk to John Hartmett, #232, who is driving a self-built car based on an Elden FF chassis, powered by two snowmobile engines and fitted with a sprint car wing. He says the biggest buzz is being asked for his autograph.

We then encounter Brit Nigel Cass in a 1982 Le Grand Formula Ford, bought as a rust heap. He is wearing a James Hunt tribute helmet and is a huge McLaren fan. A former autocrosser, he says "Hillclimbing is so addictive, it pulls you in." He is currently restoring a Lola T342 Formula Ford.
Steve Mestrow has a Merlyn Mk29 FF, imported to the US in 1977 and bought locally as a basket case. Some twenty years ago he raced a Merlyn Mk6 sports car fitted with an Alfa-Romeo engine, quick but unreliable.
Darryl Danko has the tyre warmers on his 1998 Lola T8900 Indycar, fitted with a turbocharged Buick V6, giving 900 bhp. A time of 40.01 sec looks good for best time on this power hill. The car is bottoming on the new tarmac - the driver says "there is no testing so you have to go with what you know." The Danko shop is at the top of the hill.

In the evening we spot a McLaren supercar in the unlikely setting of the parking lot of the American Legion Post 815. Allegedly owned by Honda for evaluation purposes. Some benchmark. We head into Wilkes-Barre and find the Thai Thai Restaurant at 41 South Main Street. Dinner for two inc tip $41, bring your own alcohol.

Next morning back at the track and I give an interview on WYLN 35 TV about hillclimbing. A downpour halts proceedings but soon the track is drying and this classic event unfolds. The McLaren is giving rides on the hill driven by Ted Klaus Junior. After another shower we pull out for Ronks, PA.

Hillclimbing in the Keystone state

A day in Corning, NY, with the smart car parked for the day. Cooked breakfast at Donna's on Market Street, with Pyrex collection and 95 cent coffee. We take the shuttle bus to the Corning Museum of Glass. We took in the Frank Carder collection, missed on a previous visit, plus the exhibition re the 1972 flood in the Rakow Research Library. Combination tickets $36.50 for two, includes art museum.
Hot Dog lunch at Jim's Texas Hot, followed by watching the Elmer Darling Duo singing country tunes in Centerway Square - "Happy Trails to You." Annette buys some Snickerdoodle cookies from an Amish gentleman at the Farmer's Market.
To the Rockwell Museum of Western Art:
"There was no where to go but everywhere, keep rolling under the western stars." - Jack Kerouac.
I never saw a backroad that I didn't want to go down.
In the evening we planned a quiet snack in the Steuben Bar at the Radisson. First the fire alarm went off and wouldn't stop, so the fire brigade turned out. Then a tiddly grandma to be, tipped gin and tonic all down herself and insisted on demonstrating how it was done. We retreated upstairs and a large dog started barking outside our door. Never go back.
Next morning depart 07:53 on Hwy 17 for Elmira, NY. Great road breakfast up at the counter at Lights Bakery & Coffee Shop, 211 West 2nd Street, $12.64 for two incl tax with bottomless coffee. South on Hwy 14 towards Canton crossing into Pennsylvania. Hwy 154 to Laporte, then via Nordmount and Sonestown. Take diesel at Endless Mountain Market, Muncy Valley - $3.79.9 per gallon. They have Goldenberg's peanut chews!

Arrive Wilkes-Barre at 12:50, after checking into the Comfort Inn we divert to Wegman's for grocery. They have grits, the shape of things to come. Reading The Times Leader, the local paper trailing Giants Despair hillclimb this weekend. Speed Channel is also advertising the hillclimb, admission free.
More here. Pic by Annette.

Come on Baby Drive South

The Deep South smart car tour is underway. We left Toronto at 07:15 on Tuesday heading for Fort Erie. After a pitstop to deliver a package in Oakville, we reached the Peace Bridge at 09:25. Our luck was in and we cleared customs in half an hour. Next stop Arcade, NY, after a short detour to climb the old Holland Hill Climb course. It is at this point that we discover that Annette's camera contains no memory card.
In Arcade we snack at Ma ma's Home Cooking, apple crisp $2 a piece, opposite the Arcade & Attica Railroad station. We do some research at the Arcade Free Library, which turns out to be a bust.
We then head for Hammondsport, NY, on the backroads, and the Glenn Curtiss Museum. This is a mixture of bicycles, motorbikes, cars, boats, aeroplanes and a delightful travel trailer. Recommended. We are tired by 17:00 and glad to find the comfortable Keuka Lakeside Inn in Hammondsport, $99.68 incl tax. We walk to The Union Block Italian Bistro for supper, good food with a shouty waitress.

We are up early and head for Watkins Glen and the Glen Mountain Bakery and Market for a light breakfast. There is a Corvair pickup - see Punchbuggy Passim - and an old Corvette parked outside. On to the International Motor Racing Research Center, a regular port of call. I subedit some copy for a newspaper back home.

We break for lunch at Jerlando's Pizza in town - there is enough left over for supper. We ride down to Corning, NY, by 16:00 where we are staying at the Radisson. We buy an 8gb SD card for $10.80 at Walgreens - deal. We stroll round the shops but are back in time to watch the Tour de France on TV. More here.
Pics by RLT & Annette.