DennyG

I'm pretty sure that if I tried to make a living as a film critic, I could get pretty hungry. Hey, maybe that's not such a bad idea. The career mismatch weight loss plan. The Pony Express comparison was from the film although I verified it (If it's on the web, it must be true. Right?) before posting. It's impossible to talk about the file without talking about Segways but the scooter was just a device. These guys did a coast-to-coast road trip at a speed that allows eye-to-eye contact with farmers and their cows, too. And they filmed it. That's the cool part.

"10 MPH", a movie of a cross country Segway trip has just been released on DVD and I saw it for the first time last night. A Segway is that self-balancing two-wheeled "scooter" that was supposed to revolutionize transportation. That hasn't happened, possibly because the price is still pretty high ($4000+, I think) but it's certainly an intriguing device. I got on their email list some time back and have learned of the film's successes at some film festivals but it was never within viewing range. The DVD was officially released on May 29. I pre-ordered it and watched it last night. Two guys quit their corporate jobs to make the movie and there's a fair amount of time given to their struggles (largely financial) getting it done. They meet some very cool people along the way who help emphasis the "do you thing" message. All of this during a 100 day, 4,000 mile road trip from Seattle to Boston. The trip did not fit Segway's image as an urban vehicle so, even though the movie could almost be considered a Segway ad, there was no company backing. In the end, Segway did step up but the trip was a fait accompli at that point. There's lots of road shots but I don't recall seeing one route marker. I'll have to recheck that on another viewing. But there is some great scenery and general roadside views. There's also plenty of comedy & philosophy. Not slapstick comedy (although folks do fall off of Segways quite a bit) and not heavy philosophy. In general, pretty mellow stuff. Something that caught my ear was the mention that Pony Express riders averaged about 10 miles an hour and changed horses every 10 miles or so. A Segway's top end is 12 MPH and they really did average about 10 MPH on the trip and they had to change batteries ever 10 miles or so. The Pony Express was considered the fastest form of travel available in its day. The Segway, not so. It will be in a few theaters later this summer and it's available at Netflix & Blockbuster or they'd be happy to sell you a copy. Check it out at: http://www.10mph.com/ P.S., I know there are some music lovers in this group and I really intended to mention the film's music. It's all quite good, it all seems to fit, and it's all from folks I've never heard of. I've seen nothing about a soundtrack album but it seems a reasonable possibility. Click on the "Music" link at the "10 MPH" site to get blurbs on each of the musicians along with links to their own sites.

I'm sure glad you got a picture of that "We don't rent pigs" sign so people will know we wern't imagining things. At least not that time. Another good trip report.

Had I known your great-granddad had been in the area just a few decades back, I'd have looked for anything he might have left along the road. But I think it likely that his "old Independence Road" was the same as my MO-224 and that anything falling from his pack has been washed away with a flood. I didn't notice any thing that might have been the City Hotel but that doesn't mean much. As for the electronics, the GPS is just fine but not so the camera. Apparently the GPS problem really was "some nasty weather somewhere" since it started picking up signals later in the day and worked just fine on Sunday and Monday. Panasonic has a flat rate of about $160 to repair my camera and that probably is about what the camera's worth. It's a year and a half old and the line has gone through two model changes in that time. The latest model, with more pixels and other improvements, can be had for not much more than $300. Looks like a purchase is better than a repair.

After twice being scared off by snow, I finally reached Boone's Lick Road. Kip, Bliss, and others did this in February and got me thinking about it. The threat of rain almost scared me away this time but it turned out not to be much of a problem. While in the area, I also stopped by some other places like Boone's Grave & Fort Osage plus I ate at the Stein House (largely to make Kip & Bliss jealous) in Boonville. My report's at http://www.dennygibson.com/blick0507/

Assuming it's still there, Wellsboro has a great old Sterling diner and if you're willing to go just a few miles west of Wellsboro there's the "Grand Canyon of Pennyslvania" - great scenery. About three years ago in Mansfield, I ate at an old house converted into a restaurant called Mark's Brothers. Good food, as I recall, and a fairly interesting building.

In 1990's "Route 66: The Mother Road" Michael Wallis describes it as open and jolly enough to have a joke menu with things like "fried pack-rat" and "braised rattlesnake hips". The entry isn't revised for the 2001 75th anniversary edition but, since Moore & Cunningham report is as being "closed for quite a few years" in 2003, I doubt that it made it to the road's 75th birthday. I believe it was closed on my first pass in 1999 but a wise man wouldn't quote on that. It seems that the station may have closed right in the middle of a price change or maybe west bound travelers had to pay a bit more for fuel . I have a September 2005 photo of the east side of that sign that shows 1.399 but I have none of the other side from that visit. How 'bout you? Any shots of the east side of the sign during your stop?

I wasn't quite sure to where to post this but there were some US highways involved in my weekend drive so I figured this was as good a place as any. The weekend drive was centered on the Ohio & Erie Canalway in north eastern Ohio which I did on Saturday. Even though I spent only one day on the actual byway, I had to get there and get home so I've got three days posted at http://www.dennygibson.com/oecway0507/index.htm It's sort of a day trip with sideboards.

Seeing the places you told us about in Cave City helps to fill things out. Good stuff. My big surprise was the Mark Twain Tennessee connection. Looking forward to learning of your discoveries after leaving Cave City.

Whoa! I assure you that, on the rare occasions when I glow, it has nothing to do with being informed. But I do certainly appreciate the praise and point to it as an example of how one can leverage a moderate amount of knowledge on a few roads in a small percentage of the country.

I have some stuff up at http://www.dennygibson.com/wigwam042007 and, knowing the folks who were on this outing, I'm sure there will be more. I mentioned this in the thread on the trip and I imagine that's where others will let us know when their reports appear.

Proving once again, there's nothing like personal experience. Glad you shared yours, KtSOtR. Brian includes much more than grasshoppers in his description of the area and I did him a disservice by going for the catchy quote. The way that Brian describes the path through Dugway makes me believe that he received that "special permission" at some point. He may even say that in the book but I just can't recall that now.

I think a group Yellowstone cruise sounds like a great idea and I'd be happy to recount the "planning" of the DH/JH cruise. Since this is clearly moving beyond the Dixie Highway and doesn't quite yet fit the Yellowstone Trail forum, I've started a "Group Cruise Planning" thread over in Trip Planning. Besides, I moderate the Trip Planning forum and this is the first chance I've had to pad my stats. The thread is here

Last weekend a small group of forum members had a pleasant time cruising some Kentucky two-lanes and swapping stories (some even true). A couple of months back, a similar outing took place in Missouri along the path of the Boonslick Road. Forum member Keep The Show On The Road is now considering some kind of outing in eastern Washington and asked for advice. I'm not sure what I've got qualifies as advice but I can comment on the run-up to the Kentucky cruise from my viewpoint and maybe Pat can do the same. Kip and Kent can probably share some thoughts from Sweetheart Cruise planning and I'm sure there are others with useful info, too. My first thoughts along the lines of advice are "don't". Don't try to accommodate everyone who shows an interest and don't schedule too much or too tight. The most basic questions of a cruise are where and when and KtSOtR has that where question already answered. When someone decides to plan a cruise, the area of potential routes is pretty much centered on their own driveway. There are probably some dates that are better than others for going where ever it is you want to go and you, the planner, probably already have other commitments for some of those. Of those that are left, I can just about guarantee that some interested person will have a conflict with each and every one. Pick the best date you can and get on with the planning. Once you've got a location and date people can start (or stop) making plans and some of those conflicts might even get resolved. When we first started thinking about the Cave City outing, I thought of all the stuff in the area and had visions of a cruise over a few hundred miles of Dixie & Jackson Highways with visits to a couple of distilleries and some number of museums. If we had included everything I originally considered, we'd probably still be in Kentucky. We settled on one distillery, one museum, and a lunch stop on a 150 mile route and no one felt short changed. Roadies do not hurry between points A and B and there's a pretty good chance that someone will be fascinated with points A1 and A2 that you hadn't even considered stopping at. I had suggested that we might not stop in Elizabethtown square and just point out its main attraction (the cannonball in the wall) as we drove through. Fortunately, Pat suggested otherwise and it turned out to be a rather popular stop. KtSOtR, I'd suggest posting a "invitation" in the Yellowstone Trail forum with a few potential dates. Along with a general idea of the possible route and attractions, I think you should have an lodging candidate or two in mind if possible. In the case of the Kentucky cruise, the 70 year old Wigwam Village #2 was central to the whole weekend. Even if an overnight isn't part of the cruise or necessary for all participants, you should have a location in mind. Make it as convenient as possible for folks to come from farther away. Actually, I think an overnight is a rather important part of a cruise. Even though the drive is the main attraction, it's at the roadside stops and the motel where conversations occur and friendships develop.

I always have a "meal book" in my car to read when I'm eating alone. By remarkable coincidence, Brian Butko's "Greetings from the Lincoln Highway" is my current "meal book" and, by incredible coincidence, I ended today's lunch time read at the Utah-Nevada border. Before noon today I had now idea what the Dugway Proving Grounds was but now, thanks to Brian, I can sound like an expert for the next two minutes. Brian explains that the original LH route is inside Dugway and inaccessible without special permission. He gives Pony Express Road as the route around Dugway and says that it is definitely NOT the Lincoln Highway. I've never driven this but can pass along Brian's description of "a dusty drive full of sagebrush and grasshoppers". I'm pretty sure I can get away with passing along one or two more passages before Brian gets upset, but it sounds like you could benefit greatly from having your own copy of "Greetings...". Among the many places offering it is this nearby trading post: http://americanroadmagazine.com/catalog/pr...products_id=135

I'm guessing that the "grass is always greener..." line is equivalent to a local saying that "the grass is always bluer on the other side of the river" Does that Blue Book go into any detail about the DH route between Horse Cave and Rowletts? The road scholars in our group (primarily Pat & Bob) theorized that the Dixie may have originally arched west rather than east between these two towns. Anything in there to support or dispute that? While little of the area would be considered "sparsely settled" by 1920 standards it is still largely farm country. And some of those farms are, of course, horse farms. Neither Elizabethtown (20,000) or Bardstown (10,000) are large cities and both feel comfortably small when you're strolling around their town squares. The standard description is: "the land of good whiskey, fast horses, and beautiful women". Did you know that your Jim Beam came from a spot just about a dozen miles from Bardstown?

Here's a bit of an update on Norman Pepper's catfish problems. I stopped by on Friday and talked with Mr. Pepper and signed his list of supporters. There is a hearing coming up next Monday (the 7th). As told here, the city has also cited Hooters for some palm trees so things could get interesting. Pepper said he has been written up in twenty some news articles in the last month or so. When I asked about who had complained, he said he didn't feel at all vindictive and offered no names. Just an all around good guy, it seemed.

I made it home last night about 9:00 after a pass through Indiana to make this a true Okyana outing. Bob & Susan were planning on further exploring the Phantom Highway then returning to the Wigwams for one more night. They were gone before I came out of my own tepee. So were Kent & Mary Sue and the Bremers Corvair was soon gone, too. When I left, RoadDog was contemplating a stop by Dinosaur World followed by further meandering. The report of my third and final day out has been added to http://www.dennygibson.com/wigwam042007/index.htm I'm ready to go again. Curse this paycheck addiction.

I surprised myself by getting Saturday's journal up before heading out. I guess I'll also surprise myself by wherever I go today because I've yet to pick a path home. Anyway, the weather turned out great yesterday and there's no doubt everyone enjoyed themselves. Check the link in the previous post for the journal. I must be off.

Neither rain, nor sleet, nor... Sleet? Well, sleet maybe. That might stop us. Maybe. But definitely not this wimpy rain. We're here (8 roadies, 5 states) and we're ready for the 31W-62-31E triangle. Not much happened on the road yesterday and the developing lab ate my carefully posed group shot but there is a bit of a start at Wigwams 2007 and more will follow.

In Vandalia, Ohio, the Crossroads Motel was recently closed. People in a neighboring business (It was a bar AND grill, I'll have you know.) said the owners failed to make repairs dictated by the city so water and electric services were cut off. It's one of those motels that is too close to home for me to have ever stayed there and I really don't know much about its history. It was there in the 1960s though I don't know if it's any older than that. Although faded, it always looked reasonably well maintained and, even now, the grass is mowed. The inside must be a different story. A distinguishing characteristic is the large octagon shaped office. The motel is barely a quarter mile from I-75 and less than a mile from where the National Road once crossed the Dixie Highway. I've put a couple of pictures from yesterday in my forum gallery.

Congrats to Fordtractor (There's just gotta be a story in that name:-). Very nice pic! And congrats to Jennifer for cooking up a contest that brought out a bunch of good looking photos showing a whole bunch of different places. Pretty good voter turnout, too, even though making a selection wasn't at all easy.

I've known about this program for awhile but not about the archives and I haven't been organized enough to listen to the live show. I listened to and enjoyed the show you pointed to. Nice contribution over the phone. I intend to listen to the other archived segments soon. Thanks for the pointer.