Tuesday, Jan 11th, 2007

And so the journey begins. I'm writing this from a hotel room in Cornelius, NC, about 20 minutes north of Charlotte.

And I've driven 1100km. It's been a while since I've done such a large distance -- and I don't think I've ever done that in one day. Certainly, I'm now the furthest south driving myself I've ever done in my life.

I'd like to say the drive created moments of inspiration or excitement -- but, mainly it was a nice drive. Not boring, but not hugely exciting either. My entertainment came from listening to MP3s and the first half of the book "Days of Infamy: Military Blunders of the 20th Century" (which makes me wonder if the invasion of Iraq in 2003 will qualify for a book "Military Blunders of the 21st Century". BTW, the more I think about what Bush has done, and said, the more I think he's gone from mistaken to dumb. Denial is not just a river in Egypt, you know...)

Anyway, today was just a travel day, as I blitzed through five states: New York, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Virginia, and into North Carolina. The landscapes were beautiful, from what I can see -- sadly, I did the last two states in darkness, so missed the chance to really see the Appalachians. I'm hoping to correct that on the way back in two weeks. I suppose I find even the low mountains fascinating (even the Niagara Escarpment, after all the time I've lived in Hamilton) because I grew up in a relatively flat place. (Midwest, baby.)

Tomorrow, the sightseeing begins in earnest, as I'm hoping to spend a couple of hours at Hendrick Motor Sports and their store and museum there. Hopefully, I'll find some neat stuff. Then it's a 9 hour drive to Florida, and a visit to the Astronaut Hall of Fame on Saturday, and maybe a Florida Panthers game Saturday night.

Friday, January 12th, 2007
I'm writing this from a hotel room in Titusville, FL. Another set of states driven through -- North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and through a good chunk of Florida.

This drive was shorter, but, strangely enough, seemed to take longer and left more bored during the course of it. I think it's because, for most of the second part of it, the highway is lined with trees limiting your view outside the car. Plus, once you're on I-95, the terrain pretty much flattens out and the only variety you see is the marshes and wetlands in the area.

One of the cool things about the drive (in its total) has been how the weather has changed driving down. It feels like I've super-accelerated the change of seasons, going from winter to spring to early summer. When I left Hamilton, I needed my winter jacket, with lining in, and gloves, vest on. Tonight here in Titusville, I felt comfortable walking around in jeans and a t-shirt. It makes me a little worried, since, one of the things about a cruise is that it's supposed to be warm enough to swim. It has me wondering if it'll be warm enough for us to kayaking on Wednesday of next week - in particular, the snorkeling bit of it.

It also hammered home that there's definitely something weird about the weather. Talking to some people on Charlotte, they were mentioning just how unseasonably cold it was (funny to a Canadian, who felt like it was a early spring day.) Global Warming isn't just about temperatures going up everywhere, it's about more energy added to the system. The Earth's climate is never in equilbirum. More energy means more odd things can happen. (If you want a very simple example of how adding heat doesn't result in a change of temperature, measure a pot of water as its boiling. The added energy is being used to convert water to steam, not raising the temperature of the water -- thus, it stays at 100C.)

The drive did succeed in giving me time to think as I weaved my way down through the southern United States. Random stuff follows...

- I hate it when promising books crash out. Yesterday, I mentioned listening to the first half of 'Days of Infamy: Military Blunders of the 20th Century'. During this trip, I listened to the second half, or, at least, tried to. The first half was well written, but the second half, I started to notice errors in the history that affected the conclusions of the author. Never a good sign in a book. I stopped listening after another hour or so.

- The biggest problem with Iraq is the same problem that affects any sort of major project -- what is your objective? If you set it too low, you really haven't accomplished anything worthwhile. If you set it too high, or make it too vague, you never accomplish anything. With Iraq, we have both problems. The two main causes that its remaining defenders seem to have latched on to are getting rid of Hussein (problem one), and creating a democratic Iraq (problem two.) Essentially, Bush hasn't read Managing for Dummies.

- One of the things I find myself worrying about down here is how I represent Canada to the people I come across. While Canadian / American culture do share many points of similarity (much to the chagrin of cultural nationalists on both sides), there are points of difference, usually related to acceptable personal contact. This is why greeters in Walmart work down here in the United States, but don't work in Canada. Thus, interacting with American culture down here has its pitfalls, as I have to remember to react in an American, not Canadian way. It also hammers home that, 99% of the time, the only real difference between here and home is that ESPN doesn't carry as much hockey. This is why I'm not big on American stereotypes; having spent a fair amount of time down here (even before having met Sarah), I see the other side of the equation as well, and most Americans want what most Canadians want -- a stable environment to raise their kids and occasionally go out to a movie or something. The media usually creates a bigger difference then actually exists, by highlight the differences -- after all, difference makes news, not sameness. This does make me wonder about the Internet from time to time -- does exposure to other cultures trigger understanding, or does it trigger our genetic monkey genes and make us even more protective of our little 'tribe', no matter how artificial that definition is. I especially shake my head whenever certain Americans talk about America for Americans -- as if America was a well-defined set of genetic markers. I agree with Tom Clancy here -- what makes America is the U.S. Constitution. If you're willing to abide by it, you're an American, or, at least, should be. Kind of puts the debate about suspending Constitutional guarantees in favour of greater security intoa new light, doesn't it?

- I stepped into my first Walmart SuperCentre today. Holy Mary Mother and Joseph. It's not a shopping centre, it's a shrine to consumerism and trade to China. It's the only time I wanted to bring my camera into a store, just to document my quest for a roll of scotch tape.

- I visited Hendrick Motorsports today, the Charlotte HQ of the NASCAR team. I think I might have been one of a half-dozen people visiting the museum at that time -- it's pretty obvious that they basically get tons of people during the events at Lowe's Motor Speedway (which is HUGE), and almost nobody the rest of the year. Sadly, I didn't get a Jimmie Johnson 2006 Championship Diecast -- maybe when I get back to Hamilton I'll check that out. It's a rather interesting little campus, for lack of a better term. Probably a couple hundred million dollars goes through that place every year, among the four race teams, yet, it doesn't feel rich. There's the musem, and the gift shop, and certain parts of the actual facility can be viewed on from public viewing areas. I can't imagine an F1 team letting strangers with cameras taking pictures of the team setting up cars for testing at Daytona -- but HMS does, and I think most of the other shops do too. NASCAR has its detractors, and I've heard all the jokes -- but, to the teams involved, it's a serious business, with serious money involved.

Tomorrow, the sightseeing continues. The Astronaut Hall of Fame, then the completion of the drive to Fort Lauderdale, where I hope to catch a Florida Panthers NHL game in Sunrise, just next door. (Think GTA Toronto -- a whole bunch of small cities, all to the north of Miami.) Then Sunday, I hope to get to the local Science museum, then meet up with Seasleepy and get ready for the main course of this trip -- Ships and Dip cruise. I hope it's worth it...

Saturday, January 13th

Now sitting in an EconoLodge in Fort Lauderdale, about thirty minutes before I head out and see if I can get myself some tickets for the Panthers game tonight. The day has pretty much gone according to plan; the Astronaut Hall of Fame was very interesting to look at, and the trip down was without major incident.

I suppose the only thing really missing from the Astronaut Hall of Fame is mention of other countries space programs -- it should really be termed the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame. But given its proxmity to Kennedy Space Centre, and the general 'rah-rah' that surrounds the place, I suppose I shouldn't be surprised at all. There was the introductory film, To Explore, which demonstrates to me that film makers have learned the lessons of Leni Riefenstahl and Frank Capra. It also hammers home just how hard it is to tell history evenly... or perhaps, how easy it is to use history to support your thesis by putting the right 'spin' on things. Especially since when this is as far as most tourists are going to go in educating themselves about the space program.

You fight bad information with good information -- but, it always seems good information takes a lot longer to relate, in defiance of Occam's Razor. I'm sure some philosophers out there are having a field day with this contradiction.

Finally, I'm wondering how many more astronauts will be added to the Hall of Fame. It has always seemed somewhat unfair that somebody has chosen to single individuals out of a group that is inherently the elite of the United States and its allies. These people have already proven themselves highly worthy, and have chosen to accept great risk, to fly aboard spacecrafft. To single out individuals for even greater praise seems to do the others an injustice, even though I, myself, looked out for names like John Glenn and Story Musgrave and their like.

In any event, when space travel becomes commonplace (or, if the trend against manned spaceflight continues, which I think NASA's future manned spaceflight program will not stop), how do you single out heroes? Look at modern flight -- how many pioneers are there today? It's a function of maturity of any endeavour -- as it becomes more accepted, more stable, the perception of its uniqueness diminshes, and it becomes harder and harder to push the boundaries back. Or, to use a hockey metaphor -- Crosby and Ovechkin are amazing hockey players, with the potential for long and storied careers -- but everybody's going to compare them to Gretzky.

Other random thoughts while driving from Titusville to Fort Lauderdale:

-- I still see Bush/Cheney 04 bumper stickers out there. It really makes me wonder about the point when support for an Adminstration, or a political ideology, becomes indistinguishable from religion. And if you choose faith, you gain the benefit of not having to justify your choice -- but you also gain the drawback of being unable to convince people of the rational validity of your choice. It's the simple tradeoff -- not relying on objective reasoning means you can't present objective evidence.

-- Is I-95 one of the orginal Interstates, dating from the 50s? Does anybody know? It certainly drives like parts of it are over 50 years old. And driving through seemingly 8 light years of construction while working my way through West Palm Beach didn't help either.

-- Bad Metaphor of the Day: "My blue and white Ontario license plate is a small boat lost in a sea of Florida plates and IHOPs." The thought popped into my head while I was weaving around traffic (and traffic was weaving around me) and it seemed every other stop had an IHOP at it. It's become my favourite breakfast place, and we don't have them in Ontario, sadly. Admittedly, I'm not sure if it's my favourite place because the food is that much better (though it is much better than Golden Griddle, which IS available in Hamilton, and the Westown, a local Hamilton joint), or it's because seasleepy and I always eat there at least once a trip (and take a photo too.) So thinking of IHOP reminds me of her. Gotta love LDR traditions. Yes, it's sappy. Shut up. :)

-- Along those lines -- I'm working very hard to try and eat reasonably 'healthy' while on the road. So, it's been a lot of salads, a lot of chicken sandwiches, and avoiding fries. I've had McDonalds once so far in eight meals -- and I'm hoping to avoid it the rest of the trip. The only problem is that it's hard in fast food places to get anything other than pop/soda, especially the OJ which is my usual drink fare. I hear the cruise ship will offer many options, and,WDW isn't actually too bad as long as you choose carefully.

-- One of the highlights of this leg of the trip -- I watched a car weave in and out of traffic, cutting other cars off, moving at quite a clip. It was one of those annoying cars too, with a muffler that doesn't actually muffle, but makes the car sound like a 5 foot long mosquito, and just as annoying as one too. However, the car, after passing to my left with a loud buzz, proceeded up the road to cut off a vehicle that reminded me of a Jeep Cherokee Wagon. One vehicle too many, as this wagon was actually an unmarked FHP patrol car. I was rather shocked myself -- I don't usually think of SUVs as potential unmarked cars, and I guess somebody at the FHP figured out that gives it the perfect cover. And Mr. Mosquito fell for it. I passed him when he pulled over to the side of the road, with Mr. Police SUV right behind him.

-- One of the things about travelling is that you tend to forget that other cities have their issues too. It's all so new you, the problems at hand tend to disappear in the aura of wonder at discovering new things. For example, you forget that other cities have rushhours too, and just because your city is relatively pedestrian friendly, others are not. Wandering over to Target to get some painkillers (for a sore neck from sleeping in odd beds) resulted in several close calls as it became obvious that people in this part of Fort Lauderdale aren't used to pedestrians. Whew.

Alright, time to head back on out and see if I can find my way to Sunshine, FL, to see if I can watch a NHL hockey game that won't cost me several major internal organs to get tickets for.

Saturday, January 13th, Part Two

Back from the game, and boy, it was worth it. The scoresheet will be rather lopsided; the Panthers won 7-3 and outshot Washington 53 to 13 or something like that. For the most part the Panthers controlled the play. But, the Panthers executed decently, and, the Capitals did show some spirt from time to time, and watching Ovechkin and Bouwmeester was great. Ovechkin had a bad night, and still managed to create chances (which is what you want your offensive stars to do) and Bouwmeester played a great game. Two goals, two assists, and, as far as I could tell, was never out of position. For a defenseman, that's the key to your game. You hear a lot about Ovechkin, not so much about Bouwmeester -- but, after seeing them live and watching them in the full context of the ice surface, they're both the real deal, IMHO.

It was a rather weird experience compared to the other NHL games I've seen at Air Canada Centre in Toronto. First off, it looks like a lot of people buy their tickets on game day. The Panthers have a lot of trouble selling tickets, and it shows -- even the scalpers sell at a discount. I ended up getting a $82 ticket for $19, and I probably could have gotten in for free if I wanted to if I knew enough about Panther tickets to completely trust the ticket somebody pushed in my hand. A lot of promotions involved getting people into the arena; you could upgrade a $19 upper bowl ticket for $20 and get into the lower bowl. My ticket was about perfect, about 30 rows up, far enough back to be able to see a zone completely, yet close enough so that you could read names and numbers pretty easily. A lot of people who knew the arena, and knew the system, got a heck of a lot closer. The game wasn't even close to being sold out though -- if we were half-full, that would be a miracle. I suppose the most telling symptom of their attendance problems is that they did not announce attendance during the game.

Compare and contrast to the Leafs where an upper bowl ticket is in the $60-$80 range, every game is sold out, and good luck trying to get within 200 feet of the ice surface.

There were some things that were wacky for a guy raised in the Canadian half of the NHL. There were about a half-dozen mascots. There were cheerleaders. (They danced on a platform at one end of the arena.) And while some fans obviously knew the game as well as any Canadian, some fans still had trouble with things like offside.

However, it was obvious most of them were into the game, as much as any hardcore fan in an Original Six city would be. Afterwards, while perusing the gift shop, I watched people plunk $200 US down for jerseys. You don't do that unless you care.

And perhaps that's the biggest lesson of them all -- even franchises that are considered 'failures' by their more established brethren and the media that repors on them, these franchises do have a hard core, of which losing their franchise is like having a family member die.

I don't know if the Florida Panthers will survive. The youth of the franchise is obvious when you look in the rafters and only see three banners hanging -- their opening night banner, an award for the best first-year team in the NHL, and the Eastern Conference banner from their 1998 Cup run. (Alas, they do not sell rats anymore -- I tried to get one.) But, seeing the fans, knowing there's a base, however small -- I do hope they get the chance to create that history. It's an odd mix of players on that Panthers team, but there is potential there.

The facility itself is first class, as you would hope a NHL level arena would be. Food prices were robbery, unfortunately, but you also expect that at a NHL level arena.

All in all, an enjoyable evening.

The way back did create a question in my head -- does anybody in Fort Lauderdate use their turn blinkers when changing lanes? Dodging traffic was my biggest concerning coming out of the arena, and driving back to the hotel.

Which leads me to one other thing I want to note: my GPS handheld is amazing. Now that I've used it on this trip, I'm not sure how I managed any sort of road trip without it. It's not infalliable -- it doesn't replace local knowledge, and thus doesn't account for things any local of the city would know, like rush hours, busy intersections, construction issues, which lane to get into for the easiest turning, etc. But, instead of carrying around a zillion printouts and lists of directions, I have the GPS receiver, my standard road atlas, and focused maps of the critical places that I always need to find in case the GPS breaks. But knowing where you are at almost all times, and being given precise knowledge as to how to get to your target -- that completely changes the way I approach travel. Instead of having to worry about navigation, I find I'm concentrating more on the road and the things around me. And for locations that are way off the beaten path, or a desire to visit is born of last-minute whimsy, instead of having to haul out a city map, I can now just program the location into the GPS, and get a readout of streets, distances, and estimated times of arrival.

It's very seductive, and I have to be careful not to become 100% reliant on it. Electronics can break, and things like this are not meant to replace common sense and paying attention to what you're doing. Still, it makes a lot easier, and that's what electronics are meant for. It gives me confidence to see new things, find places that I normally wouldn't go because I couldn't be sure I could get there and back successfully -- and that's always a good thing.

Tomorrow is the big test day of the GPS. I'm planning on getting out to the local Science centre, and I plan to kill some time wandering around Fort Lauderdale. I'm relying on the GPS to keep track roughly where I am, so I can find my way to the airport. I'm picking up Sarah. Having Sarah around will make this trip an order of magnitude better. I think it's always better if you can share an experience with somebody, and I'm kind of sad she couldn't join me for this first bit, as I'm having a lot of fun and I wish I could share it, as I think she would have had fun too. Yes, even visiting a NASCAR museum. :) (And yes, this is one long sappy comment. Shut up. :) )

Hopefully, it all goes according to plan.

Sunday, January 14th, 2007

The day before Ships and Dip. Went to the Science Museum here in Fort Lauderdale today. It was pretty interesting. It's a fairly small facility, compared to things like the Ontario Science Centre, or the Museum of Science in Boston, but it had some interesting displays, concerning the Everglades biosphere and a travelling display of flight stuff, as well as some space stuff (including a whole bunch of Mars stuff that was obviously put together before Spirit and Opportunity did their thing.) But, I managed to spend four interesting hours there, which is probably the best praise I can give it.

Like most science places these days, there was an IMAX theatre, and I saw a film called Shark 3D. Interesting film, meant for kids mostly (like the museum in general), but, also having a bit for the grownups. Contrary to the title, it wasn't just about sharks -- the setup was that of a sea turtle giving a 'tour' of various sea creatures. The cinematography was amazing at times -- the menace in a school of several hundred hammerhead sharks swimming around you is pretty high. And there were scenes that I felt were out of some science-fiction space opera, with a giant shark (SDN) being 'escorted' by smaller fish (DDs), all holding formation on the big shark. (Apparently this isn't as gutsy as it looks, since sharks only eat once every couple of weeks, if that. It's pretty bad luck if you meet a hungry shark, and it decides you look like a seal.)

The sad part of the film was that every creature featured (probably a dozen, at least) were all endangered. Now, I'm not what I would call myself an environmentalist, but I do believe we have a duty to the Earth to be at least responsible for what we do. Using natural resources is one thing; destruction because of our carelessness is another. Environmental cost is just as real as economic cost.

Another really cool thing at the museum was a Rube Goldberg clock. You're probably familiar with the basic idea -- plastic balls moving around on tracks, going through slides, conveyors, etc., making up some massive clockwork machine. The Science museum here had such a contraption, except it actually was a clock, with the balls actually keeping track of the time.

Finally, there were some souvenirs I picked up. You know how in some places they have machines that you put pennies into and they get turned into souvenirs? In this case, you put in a couple of bucks, and you get a 10cm tall (approx) plastic injection formed souvenir. Or, in this case, two, from two separate machines -- a T. Rex, and a shark. Silly, but, I found it amusing enough to collect the set. :)

After the museum visit, I went to pick up Sarah from the local airport. She got in a little late, due to the weather stuff happening in the rest of the United States (and I seemed to have lucked into a good week to get out of Hamilton!) We then went to dinner at a small restaurant we just walked into called Angelo's Pizza/Pasta. Really, really good food, with a cabonara to absolutely die for. (Perhaps literally, given the cholestrol content of said dish. But it's so GOOD.) In the plaza, we also encountered a yachting supply store named Xtreme Yacht Products. Turns out they make custon name plates and such, but, with a name like that, I wanted to see hard rock/punk bands with Tony Hawk's face painted on an anchor. Or something like that.

We also went into a grocery store, and, while looking around for snack type foods, we came across chocolate flavoured bubble gum. Brings to mind those old Reese's Peanut Butter Cup commercials, except, I'm pretty sure the Chocolate Spirits never intended things to go this far. Ugh.

Also in the plaza was a 'yacht broker.' If you want to buy a boat, you're looking at this guy. Starter models from $200,000, and, if you want luxury, there was one selling for a million five. I think it was 'only' a 45 footer, which means the inside had better been done up in 24k gold or something.

Anyway, tomorrow is going to be a busy day. We're going to try and tag the Museum of Art in town, as they apparently have an exhibit of old Christian artifacts that sounds fascinating to me. Then, we go and board Carnival Legend for the Ships and Dip cruise. I'm not sure if I'm excited yet or not; it's an experience that I have no real base for, as I've never cruised before. People I know who have, have told me that it's a lot of fun, but, I have no context for that. I'm hoping it's fun, given the money paid out for it. Still, we'll see how it goes.

Tags: great florida road trip 07