gfish | STS trip

STS trip

Since I'm still unemployed, and my parents were going to drive out to DC to visit my brother anyway, I've decided to fly out on May 6 and join them. And then we're going to drive down to Florida to see the STS-132 launch. (Maybe with a VIP pass? We're on the waiting list.) Not many Shuttle launches left, so I'm happy to finally have an opportunity to see one. My mom will then fly home from New Orleans, and my dad and I will drive a not-particularly direct path home (Spokane, that is), probably stopping to see aunts in Texas and a cousin in North Dakota. This will be the first time any of us have driven across the country, or done anything together on the east coast, so I'm pretty excited about it.

I'm looking for input on what we should make sure to see along the way. Right now I don't have too many goals: Colonial Williamsburg, Kittyhawk, the Dali Museum in St. Petersburg, the National Museum of Nuclear Science and History in Albuquerque. If you read this blog, you should have a pretty good idea what I'd be interested in. (And for these purposes my dad can be approximated as a 30 year older version of me.) Ideas?

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I love the outer banks with aching passion but it's been a while since I've been there and most of the things that matter to me there probably wouldn't be of much interest. :)

There is a little aviation museum there, but if you go all the way out to the islands just to go up Kill Devil Hill you might feel a bit let down. If you are interested in kites or hang-gliding, go to Jockey's Ridge while you're there. (It's also nice just to look at, but - hang gliding school!)

There's a couple little museums down the islands towards Ocracoke but again, long drive for not much return, unless you really, really like gingerbread. (No, that's not a museum, that's a bakery, and that IS why we drive down there.) And some wild horses.

For just plain driving notes, driving through Kentucky is usually scenic IMO.

There's some more space stuff in Huntsville, Alabama, where we got sent on field trips. Chattanooga has a very nice aquarium. Knoxville (well, Oak Ridge) has nuclear power and the dead body farm but I'm not sure if visitors are allowed to see those.

If you go to Memphis, you can meet the woman thrown out of her home to make a civil rights museum...

Oak Ridge has both the original Y-12 reactor (but I think you have to arrange in advance to see that), and the Atomic Energy Museum (that you don't, it's outside the main research facility).

Better wild horses up on Chincoteague Island north of Norfolk, but that might be out of the way.

Also on I-40 (or just off it): Biltmore House, George Vanderbildt's summer home (365 rooms, four kitchens, a bowling alley, and a 3/4 Olympic pool) set up as a museum with among other things Napoleon's chess set. The Parthenon in Nashville, a replica of the one in Greece. Just beyond the western end of I-40 is Mojave, home of many wild and wonderful aircraft and space ships. (Dunno about tours, but they're there; there's also an awesome wind farm atop the ridge west of Mojave.)

Oh, and getting into Albuquirky on 40, when you come off the Sandia plateau and into ABQ proper? There's a big freakin' hill, that says TRUCKS 35. They MEAN IT. Cars can go faster, but don't push it; when we did it we saw a semi go by with his brakes ON FIRE. (We did not, thankfully, find him in a heap at the bottom or up one of the runaway ramps.)

Also, definitely recommend taking the southern route across the Rockies; even this late you may find inclement weather in the passes on 70, 80, or 90. (Cliff Mass says the passes are supposed to get dumped on this weekend, maybe even as we speak.) Donner Pass (I-80) is LEGENDARY for this.

And the drive through the Smokies will make up for missing Kentucky. OTOH? I hope your suspension is good, because last I checked, 40 through Arkansas is segmented concrete. BUMPadaBUMPadaBUMPadaBUMPada... Only way to fix is plow up the road and start over; even fresh asphalt over top will develop cracks in a year or two. But the Ozarks are pretty too...

The NIST museum is pretty great. If you're in Ohio, the USAF musem is pretty good.

I'd love to go on a tour of just huge aircraft museums some day. Get in on one of the days when you're allowed to look around at the Davis-Monthan AFB graveyard, get back to Dayton (which I've heard has gotten better since I was last there), the SAC museum in Offutt, the Kansas Aviation Museum (only reason to go to Kansas), Planes Of Fame in Chino... of course the only good way to do it would be in a Cessna twin.

Okay okay I know you'd prefer a T-38.

I'd also accept a Cessna 337. :)

Los Alamos is pretty nifty, if you're in New Mexico. There's an Atomic Museum. There are some beautiful ruins right near there in Bandelier National Monument.

Jamestown was more awesome than Colonial Williamsburg (in 1997ish), mainly because they had a glassblowing setup going.

I was going to suggest Los Alamos, particularly The Black Hole. That's a pretty amazing place.

Huh. Williamsburg had a glass blower when I was there, but you were but a twinkle in your folks' eyes when that was...

I remember the pub food in the Williamsburg taverns being good. But expensive.

National Air & Space Museum in DC. (All of the Smithsonian, if you have a week to spare.)

I enjoyed seeing the Eleutherian Mills (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eleutherian_Mills), the duPont blackpowder factory.
I also enjoyed Allaire Village (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allaire_Village) and Batsto Village (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batsto_Village,_New_Jersey), which are both reconstructed villages built around bog iron foundries. Batsto is particularly neat because you get to look at the Pine Barrens, which are nearly wilderness even though they're in one of the most densely-populated states.

While I'm at it, places I'd like to go:
American Precision Museum (http://www.americanprecision.org/) in Windsor, Vermont: "the largest collection of historically significant machine tools in the nation."
Tuckahoe Steam Museum (http://www.tuckahoesteam.org/index.html) in Maryland: "we maintain a 70-acre facility five miles north of Easton MD on which we collect, restore, display, and operate a wide variety of antique industrial machinery and agricultural equipment."
And if you're really wandering, the EAA museum in Oshkosh is pretty cool.

Mesa Verde. Or Chaco Canyon. Or both. Bandelier if you're short for time.

Chaco is so neat.
Although, Hovenweep's pretty cool insofar as you get to walk around in the buildings n stuff, and that huge three story high pueblo is pretty amazing.

Didn't you do some archaeology/rock stacking at Mesa Verde?

Hovenweep is cool, but it's not really enough for a major detour by itself. Also, mosquitos.

Aaaaand if the stuff in NJ sounds interesting, Lakehurst Hangar #1 (http://www.nps.gov/history/nr/travel/aviation/lak.htm) is pretty damn cool, especially if you apply in advance for a tour. Maybe it's not as exciting to you, since the Tillamook hangars aren't all that distant, but I thought it was amazing. And since I seem to be all NJ, Invention Factory Science Center (http://www.state.nj.us/dca/njht/funded/sitedetails/roebling_machine_shop.html) is supposed to be cool these days, although I haven't been there in a looong time.

http://www.nps.gov/glac/planyourvisit/goingtothesunroad.htm

Driving on the Going to the Sun Road at dawn was the highlight of my 1992 drive from MN to WA.

Wallops Island Virginia has a NASA sounding rocket facility. It also has rarely used orbital capability. They run regular escorted tours.

Colonial Williamsburg actually is pretty neat. I enjoyed it, while not really expecting to.

I don't know what you think of roller coasters and amusement parks but if you're into them and you're already there, you might as well stop by Busch Gardens. Paul <3 the coasters there. (And used to work there, for that matter, during college. His family's from the area.)

Millari and I are going to try and get tickets for the STS 123 launch when they go on sale tomorrow morning. No idea how quickly they'll sell out, but perhaps we can meet up if we get down for the launch?

Also, it sounds like you are bouncing all over with those destinations. If you are in NM, is AZ too far afield? The Titan Missile Museum (http://www.titanmissilemuseum.org/) in Green Valley (basically outside Tucson)is something to see.

Also, have you been to Harper's Ferry or the Springfield Armory?

Yeah, let me know if you're going to end up down there. I don't know how free I'll be to meet up, since I'll be with my parents, but it would be neat to meet up again.

Alas, we were not two of the happy few to get tickets. Perhaps on one of the other two....

This is such a wacky route to visualize, but since New Mexico seems to be part of it--I'm reminded of my Kansas-to-New Mexico rocket tour. The Kansas Cosmosphere (http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&ct=res&cd=2&ved=0CBcQFjAB&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cosmo.org%2F&rct=j&q=kansas+cosmosphere&ei=uUnWS_G2J8KAlAf5qIDyAw&usg=AFQjCNEUvNisYlzNP3KFp6pazj98Uk0wog) in Hutchison, KS, has the best collection of Soviet space artifacts anywhere--you can see Vostok, voskhod, and Soyuz, as I recall, as well as a pretty good selection of US stuff. Then in New Mexico, there's the Goddard museum in Roswell, the Space hall of fame museum in Alamogordo, White Sands missile range, and Space Murals Museum (not much, but it's on the way and amusing.

Oh, and if you are doing the east coast of Virgina, the Mariner's museum has a replica of the Monitor and some of its salvaged components. I'm starting to itch to go see it.

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Going to the Sun Road

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