travel

Road Trip 2008: Day 3

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More driving today, as we crossed 5 more states/districts: Virginia, Maryland, D.C., Delaware, and Pennsylvania.

We left Wilson, NC around 9ish and found our first Starbucks since leaving Tampa about 50 miles north on I-95 … finally! 😉 Continuing north into Virginia, we decided take the Jamestown-Scotland Ferry across to Williamsburg. This entailed leaving I-95 and taking some back roads through the Virginia countryside, which was a nice change from the monotony of the interstate system. The ferry ride across the James River was pretty cool.

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Once in Williamsburg, we made a bee-line to The Cheese Shop in Merchants’ Square for lunch, making sure to pick up some bread ends and house dressing for later. After lunch we briefly strolled the grounds of the colonial settlement, taking some photos of the courthouse, armory, and Governor’s palace before jumping back into the car.

Many hours later, we took a detour through Washington, D.C., driving through the national mall to catch glimpses of the White House, Capitol building, and the Supreme Court. Then it was back to the interstate.

Finally around 7:30 we reached my brother-in-law and sister-in-law’s place in Cheyney, PA. Tomorrow we’ll probably take in the sites of Philadelphia.

Road Trip 2008: Day 2

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Today was a driving day. We left Orlando bright and early shortly after 8am and took I-4 the rest of the way to I-95. From there we turned northward bound …

We crossed into Georgia around 11:30am and then headed over to Savannah for lunch. We ended up at The Shrimp Factory on the river walk … excellent Caesar salad and really good fried shrimp! On the way back to the car, we popped into the Savannah Candy Kitchen to pick up some sweets for the road.

Back on I-95, we made it to South Carolina around 3:30pm and then into North Carolina about three hours later. Would you believe we couldn’t find a single Starbucks off of I-95 between Jacksonville and Wilson? There’s a serious market opening there.

We finally made it to our hotel in Wilson, NC about 8:30pm. Whew. Tomorrow: more driving .

Road Trip 2008: Day 0

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This week we’re on vacation: a road trip that will take us 3,000 miles up the east coast of the United States, over to Ohio, and back to Florida in the next 10 days. I’ll be blogging the “highlights” when I can via my Eee.

We left the Tampa area right after work this evening and headed over to Orlando since my in-laws were there for the 2008 Kiwanis Convention. Check out the sweet “ghetto blaster” we found in our hotel room!

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Too bad I didn’t have any tracks from “Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo” on my iPod. 😀

Garmin StreetPilot c340 GPS receiver

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StreetPilot c340Another one of my new Christmas toys is the Garmin StreetPilot c340 GPS. Times have really changed since the days (i.e., 1999) when I would connect my Delorme Tripmate to the serial port on my laptop and drive around using Street Atlas. The c340 is the shape of a small tube television set and has a color touchscreen. It comes pre-loaded with maps of the entire United States and has an SD card slot for loading other maps (like Europe). It does text-to-speech recognition (a feature that separates it from the slightly cheaper c330) so it will actually read out the street names when speaking directions (instead of just “turn right in 500 feet”). You can download different voices as well. The c340 is very easy to use and view in the car and comes with a very sturdy windshield suction cup mount.

While it’s not flat and PDA-sized, and doesn’t have some of the fancier “kitchen sink” features of the higher priced units (like widescreen format, MP3 playback, photo viewing, Bluetooth, customizable icons, etc.) it’s the perfect device for me. I was looking for an in-car navigation system, not a portable navigation/entertainment/PDA system (check out Garmin’s Nuvi line if you’re looking for something like that).

Time to do more driving!

Vacation 2000: Day 1

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Today was a travel day. We started out on a 9:00am EDT flight from Cleveland to Houston (having driven to Cleveland from Cincinnati the night before). We enjoyed the luxuries of first class as we flew through some rough weather to land at a rainy George Bush Airport in Houston.

The weather delayed us for a bit, and even after boarding the plane (again in first class), we sat on the runway for about 40 minutes before we were released by air traffic control for Albuquerque. We landed in New Mexico about an hour and a half late, around 2:15pm MDT.

After grabbing our luggage from baggage claim, we headed out to the parking garage to pick up our rental car from Budget. We loaded up the navy blue Ford Explorer and hit the road for Arizona.

The countryside we drove through was amazing, especially in New Mexico (see pictures below). Six hours later (8:00pm MST (Arizona does not observe daylight savings time)), we pulled up to the Fray Marcos Hotel in Williams.

After unpacking the Explorer, checking into our room, and reorganzing some of our luggage for tomorrow, we walked over the Max and Thelma’s for dinner.

Like I said, a travel day. Tomorrow, the real fun begins.

Delorme Tripmate GPS receiver

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TripmateNow this is cool. The TripMate from Delorme is an inexpensive GPS (global positioning system) device that uses the government’s network of GPS satellites to pinpoint your position on the globe. Paired with Delorme’s Street Atlas software in your laptop, you can plan a trip, attach the Tripmate to the serial port of your laptop, place the Tripmate on your dashboard, and then watch yourself move on the map as you drive. The GPS calculates your heading and speed and even speaks when your next turn is approaching. Very, very cool.