The Highways Traveled

This trip served these purposes:

MARYLAND: Because of the traffic in Baltimore, I had to skip Philadelphia so that I could still get to Valley Forge before it closed at 5:00 pm. I can someday make a trip back to Philadelphia easier than Valley Forge. Anyway, in Baltimore, at first I thought some bigtime sports game was getting ready to start but eventually found out they were having something called Star Spangled Spectacular Event. Tens of thousands of cars were on the interstates leading to the city. And construction made this worse as did an accident that blocked a lane. Since I was so late getting to, thrn through, Baltimore, I made the decision then to skip Philadelphia. Another time.

PENNSYLVANIA: Pennsylvania is where the Wilsons hail from as far back as I know. I would loved to spend a couple of weeks visiting all of the places where they lived and do some research. This trip allowed for visiting some national parks and one U.S. President as well as finally visiting Pittsburgh on my quest to visit all major U.S. cities (I once changed planes here but that did not count as a visit). And, I needed to photograph the state capitol building.

WEST VIRGINIA: I had visited West Virginia a few times before. This time was mainly to photograph the state capitol. Plus, I found one national park along the way -- New River Gorge. I was impressed with the highways in West Virginia. And, they have the speed limits at 70 MPH which is unusual for states east of the Mississippi River. And, the mountains are much bigger than in Pennsylvania. Some places along the highways just make you stare and say "Wow!". I did notice, though, that the leaves n many places were rather dull looking. The oddest thing I noticed in West Virginia is that time seems to pass much more slowly than anywhere else I have been. Uncertain why, but I did notice.

NORTH CAROLINA: I visited North Carolina a couple of times in the past. This time I had two goals in mind. One was to photograph the state capitol building. The other was to visit Charlotte towards my quest of visiting all major U.S. cities (I changed planes here earlier this year but that did not count) The only remaining major U.S. cities to visit after this one are Miami and Buffalo. Lastly, my mother's side of the family lived for a couple of generations in the south central part of the state so would like to do some research there. The corridor from Raleigh to Winston-Salem is certainly impressive, and it seems to go on a loooonnnng way. And in the interstate median were thousands and thousands of beautiful flowers of 3 - 4 different colors. Would loved to been able to stop and photograph them. Oh, and North Carolina citizens score an extra bonus point for almost none of them having those incredibly ugly PT Cruisers. These folks have good taste.

SOUTH CAROLINA: I had been to South Carolina a time or two in the past. This time the visit was just to photograph the state capitol. I loved their countless stands of tall pine trees along both sides and the median of the interstates.

VIRGINIA: Virginia has many national parks and U.S. Presidents. Additionally, I have close family here whom I have visited many times. This visit was to photograph the state capitol, visit the several U.S. Presidents from Virginia (some were repeats), see some national parks and visit the cousins. Also, my mother's side came to Virginia from England so would like to do some research here. In the median along I-64 from West Virginia were a multitude of colorful wildflowers. Sure wished I had a place to stop and photograph some of them. I was really surprised, upon leaving Charlottesville (headed south towards Appomattox on narrow two-lane roads) the hundreds of vehicles headed into Charlottesville before 6:00 am. I had my south-pointed lanes totally to myself save for maybe three other vehicles.

MISSED VISITING:
-- Family history research in Pennsylvania and Virginia and North Carolina.
-- Philadelphia and the Franklin Memorial (a national park monument of my #1 favorite historical person), the Univ. of PA (an Ivy League school) and Drexler Univ.
-- Appomattox Courthouse since it was closed when I arrived and I did not want to sit there doing nothing for 90 minutes. I can catch it on my someday Blue Ridge Parkway trip.
-- Anything interesting at the national battlefields -- they were either confusing to navigate or there simply was nothing there to really see

OBSERVATIONS: Some observations made while traveling in this area:

The Bests:

  1. Pennsylvania had a number of places where fall colors were starting.
  2. I like Pennsylvania's road construction use of a sign at the beginning that has a flashing light indicating whether the work zone is active or inactive. It always seems silly to get to a work zone area and not a working in sight and it may be 4:00 am or raining which probably means no workers anyway, so why slow down
  3. Highways of West Virginia
  4. Highway wildflowers of Virginia
  5. The fact that we Americans can just travel anywhere without having to get permission from or even check in with anyone. And, there are countless things to see and do all over.
  6. When there is no vehicle in front of me, my facorite road to drive is mountain switchback roads. I take them quick with fast turns, very little braking, and accelerating when I can. Left and right, up and down, zip zip. But when on these roads and someone is in front of me, these roads are the worst to drive because 99.7% of the time the vehicle in front of me is pokey and brakes at every turn.


The Worsts:

  1. Rain all day Saturday in the mid-Atlantic states, where I was
  2. Foggy all morning of Monday and Tuesday. I am beginning to believe that east coast states -- Maine to South Carolina -- has many cloudy or foggy days because every time I am touring these states, I rarely get full sunny days.
  3. Baltimore stop-and-go interstate traffic for a couple of hours and in the rain -- I had to skip downtown Philadelphia because of the time it took in Baltimore
  4. Pennsylvania highway speed limits are 10 - 15 MPH lower than other states for comparable type highways -- they seem to just arbitrarily have everyone slow to 45 MPH in the middle of nowhere on a limited-access interstate-like highway in t
  5. Charlottesville, for many reasons
  6. Columbia SC has got to have the record, or at least near it, for the traffic lights staying red the longest. I sat at the one just across from the state capitol for three minutes.
  7. United Airlines. Usually they do well enough but this time, they kept us on the Dulles tarmac for half an hour because their flight plan got lost. Then, at KCI, we had to wait nearly ten minutes just to get someone to "drive" the skywalk to the plane so we could get off the plane.

The Totals: