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| Dear
Reader, I’ve just returned from the Sebring Club Race, what a wonderful
way to break up our long, cold winter. But it presents a lot of very anxious
moments long before leaving for the long tow…will I be able to get the
rig down our long, winding, steep driveway. If there is any ice or snow
that I’ve not been able to clear, it simply is not worth the risk of seeing
the loaded trailer preceding me and the truck down the drive. I’ve had
several near disasters over the years and take no more unnecessary risks
in that area. Fortunately this year there were enough days without snow
or freezing rain prior to my departure to give me a clear driveway. However,
the weather report for several days prior to leaving suggested snow or
freezing rain over night so the entire rig lived at the bottom of the drive
for those days with just enough room to get the AWD Volvo past.
I don’t know about you, but our winter weather simply leaves me in a frame of mind that does not make me want to work on the car or have anything to do with the upcoming track season, except plan out my tentative schedule. That’s analogous to ordering our garden seeds for the season, the anticipation is sometimes better than the actual act (guess that applies to a lot of things). Anyway, I found myself researching my route the day before leaving. Sure, the inland tracks i.e. Summit Point, VIR, and Road Atlanta call for inland Rte. 81, but Sebring and most of FL call for Rte. 95 which I’ve taken in the past the entire way. I was looking for an alternate and found an excellent compromise. Rte. 95 has its problems between NY and Washington, DC, while south of DC is a piece of cake. Most of us from the Boston area don’t even consider the shorter route down the CT Turnpike, through the Bronx and across the GW Bridge which shaves 56 miles from the entire 1450 mile trip, but is hell towing through all the traffic. Instead we take Rte. 84 to Newburgh, NY and then due south, hooking up with the NJ Turnpike and through DE and around and under Baltimore and finally around the DC Beltway. Well, it is only 39 additional miles to take Rte. 84 to Scranton, Rte. 81 to Harrisburg, Rte. 15 through Gettysburg to Frederick, MD and then Rte. 270 to the DC Beltway. In exchange for the added 39 miles you get to avoid all of NJ, DE, Baltimore and ½ of the Beltway. To my way of thinking an excellent deal and it worked out very well. On the way I was surprised at the number of museums and memorials that were advertised along the highways, enough to extend one’s trip several days one of these years. And that is not counting the myriad of un-advertised points of interest. In Bristol, CT is The New England Carousel Museum which houses “one of the largest collections of antique carousel pieces in the country”. The museum was recently founded in 1990 and has undergone many renovations and additions in just a few years, naturally adding a restoration department, education programs and many antique carousel pieces in new galleries. The National Fallen Firefighters Foundation was created by Congress and is based in Emmitsburg, MD and since so designated in 1990, is home to the official national monument to all firefighters who have died in the line of duty. The Foundation, Monument, Memorial Chapel and Walk of Honor are all on the grounds of the National Fire Academy, a federal property. Work is presently underway to expand the site to create a National Memorial Park A bit further south in Fort Lee, VA is the U.S.Army Quartermaster Museum, charged with collecting, preserving, exhibiting and interpreting the history of the Quartermaster Corps from its birth in 1775 to the present. If we ever think of the Quartermaster Corps we generally think of supplying the military kitchens, only one of the many things the Corps does. They’re also responsible for the search, identification and burial of the dead, airdrop of supplies, as well as general supply and petroleum and water. From 1924 to 1962 the Corps was responsible for heraldry including the research, design and development of all flags, medals, patches, etc. for the Army. From 1775 to 1957 (clearly one of their first duties) they handled Remount duties which was the procurement and training of horses and mules for military use. And from 1942 to 1951 the Corps trained and handled more than 15,000 war dogs, until that responsibility was given to the Military Police Corps. Reaching NC we find Smithfield, NC and the Ava Gardner Museum founded by Dr. Tom Banks in the 1980s. This is a weird story. Apparently when Tom Banks was 12 years old Ava Gardner (then a secretarial student) kissed him in retaliation for teasing her and when he learned a few years later that she had become a movie star his life long obsession with her began, eventually extending to his wife. He became a psychologist, traveled the world with his wife collecting Ava Gardner memorabilia, and eventually bought and lived in her house in Smithfield where he opened the original museum. Not too far away in Fayetteville,
NC is the Airborne & Special Operations Museum, a “dramatic 59,000
square-foot building highlighted by the 5,000 square-foot, five story high
open lobby area.” The 235 seat Yarborough-Bank Vistascope Theater
presents a movie designed to “show military operations in a way never before
experienced by the public.” A pitch, roll and yaw motion simulator
physically moves 24 of those seats up to 18 degrees in concert with the
film.
SIGNS YOU’VE GROWN UP
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