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I'm really enjoying your pictures and captions. It looks like a beautiful trip. Thanks for sharing part of your experience with us. I'm looking forward to your pictures of Kitty Hawk.
Last edited by George Washnak; Jun 12, 2017 at 04:54 PM.
One video I've seen shows that on a sunny day the road changes from light to dark every few yards (because of the shade of the deciduous trees).
I agree with your position on blind/sharp contrast transitions, definitely a slow-down condition. However, I personally didn't have any problem with that on ToD, mainly because the speed limit is 35 (not too bad for this stretch of road), and at that speed the transitions didn't bother me.
I also agree about not coming 2k miles for ToD, but the Blue Ridge Pkwy? Now that's worthwhile!
Well, the driving fun part of the vacation is now pretty much behind us; day 4 saw us heading about 4 hours east from Durham, NC to Kitty Hawk. Two main things we want to do while we're here: see the Wright Brother's memorial, and do a dolphin tour. We got to our hotel with enough time to go to the memorial. The main visitor center is closed for remodelling for 18 months (!), but the memorial is where the history is anyway.
From an engineer's POV what the brothers did is amazing: problem solving of epic proportions. One thing the tour guide pointed out that I never realized is that they picked the sand dunes on the outer banks because it would soften the blow of their inevitable crashes and maximize their chances of survival! Anyway, on to the photos!
This is from the 1st flight point looking south at Kill Devil Hill, where the brothers did their glide testing. About a 1/4 mile walk, easy to do unless you only have 20 minutes to get up there, take a few photos, and get back for the presentation!
Sharon and I at the top of the hill at the base of the monument.
The boulder marks the takeoff point of the 1st flight. The first marker is where the flight ended, about 120 ft. The flight lasted 12 seconds, only moving forward about 8 mph due to a 20+ mph headwind. The other three markers indicate the ends of the other 3 flights they made that day; the farthest one is over 800 ft. away; that flight lasted almost a minute.
Looking back at the launch rail. The rail is only 60 ft long, and the takeoff runs were around 40 ft.
This is a bronze recreation of the 1st flight takeoff. It was unveiled at the 100th anniversary of the 1st flight, almost 14 years ago!
Nothing historical about this, but it feels wright (see what I did there, huh? Sometimes I crack myself up )
Well, this is about as far east as we can go on this road! Nothing but sand and water over the next hill.
Well, the driving fun part of the vacation is now pretty much behind us; day 4 saw us heading about 4 hours east from Durham, NC to Kitty Hawk. Two main things we want to do while we're here: see the Wright Brother's memorial, and do a dolphin tour. We got to our hotel with enough time to go to the memorial. The main visitor center is closed for remodelling for 18 months (!), but the memorial is where the history is anyway.
From an engineer's POV what the brothers did is amazing: problem solving of epic proportions. One thing the tour guide pointed out that I never realized is that they picked the sand dunes on the outer banks because it would soften the blow of their inevitable crashes and maximize their chances of survival! Anyway, on to the photos!
This is from the 1st flight point looking south at Kill Devil Hill, where the brothers did their glide testing. About a 1/4 mile walk, easy to do unless you only have 20 minutes to get up there, take a few photos, and get back for the presentation!
Sharon and I at the top of the hill at the base of the monument.
The boulder marks the takeoff point of the 1st flight. The first marker is where the flight ended, about 120 ft. The flight lasted 12 seconds, only moving forward about 8 mph due to a 20+ mph headwind. The other three markers indicate the ends of the other 3 flights they made that day; the farthest one is over 800 ft. away; that flight lasted almost a minute.
Looking back at the launch rail. The rail is only 60 ft long, and the takeoff runs were around 40 ft.
This is a bronze recreation of the 1st flight takeoff. It was unveiled at the 100th anniversary of the 1st flight, almost 14 years ago!
Nothing historical about this, but it feels wright (see what I did there, huh? Sometimes I crack myself up )
Well, this is about as far east as we can go on this road! Nothing but sand and water over the next hill.
drive south over pea island bridge through Waves(town)beautiful on the cape great beaches
I have a black 2015 vert. Thinking about driving it from St Louis up to Milwaukee in 2 weekends. Will the nose get destroyed with dead bugs? Part of me says don't do it-will tear up the car, the other part of me says enjoy and the car will be fine. Thoughts?
love road trips! just did a 4200 mile one from tucson to bowling green to tour the plant and museum in new gs. car had 800 miles when we left tucson, hit 5000 exactly as we pulled back into the driveway.
98 % 2 lane state/ back roads, only criteria was to get to museum tour appointment. after that it was freelance on the way back home . did a bunch of miles on rt 66 and drove on so many great roads [ some not so great].
USA is BEAUTIFUL! The PEOPLE are GREAT! i am very fortunate and appreciative of the fact this is where i was born and raised.
on a side note, plant tour was really good, my wife got to do first start new z06 , 95% of the cars being built were gs or z06, very few stingrays while we were touring, all plant workers really nice, got a thanks from the guy who does the first starts for supporting the their jobs by buying new gs.
I have a black 2015 vert. Thinking about driving it from St Louis up to Milwaukee in 2 weekends. Will the nose get destroyed with dead bugs? Part of me says don't do it-will tear up the car, the other part of me says enjoy and the car will be fine. Thoughts?
Life is too short to be afraid of bugs.
The nose will get covered by bugs, just gently wash them off each day if there's a lot or use some bug remover if the car isn't too dirty. Don't let them sit very long or they will eat the paint.
As the miles build up, the nose paint will gradually be eroded and chipped by the sand and grit that's on the roads. The only way to stop that is to keep it in the garage, or use clear wrap like Xpel. Or just plan on having the nose repainted maybe every 50k miles.
Here's some C6 bugs, accumulated by just 30 minutes of summer driving in Oklahoma a few years ago. Also note the dead bird in the grill.
Last edited by Gearhead Jim; Jun 13, 2017 at 06:09 PM.
Obviously being in Kitty Hawk you'll cruise on down to Hattaras. Check out the Buxton and Hattaras lights. Stop in Maneo for lunch. We live pretty close and love the serenity of the Outer Banks. Not much else in America that I've seen like the OBX.
Fantastic trip and love your pictures and write up. As one other commentator stated, the trip is better than the destination. Hate flying and rental cars.
Last edited by vbdenny; Jun 13, 2017 at 06:33 PM.
Reason: Sp
I have a black 2015 vert. Thinking about driving it from St Louis up to Milwaukee in 2 weekends. Will the nose get destroyed with dead bugs? Part of me says don't do it-will tear up the car, the other part of me says enjoy and the car will be fine. Thoughts?
"Destroyed by bugs" is probably overstating it. Rock chips, OTOH, are permanent (at least until a respray). We had the bumper cover Xpeled right before our trip, and it's done its job nicely.
Today was tour day. We actually relaxed during the morning (shocking, on vacation!) and took a dolphin tour mid-day. I was quite impressed with the boat pilot and his assistant, they found a pod of 8-12 dolphins (at least 2 calves and 1 adolescent) and stayed with them for about an hour.
After that, on Fourmat's recommendation, we took a drive down the Outer Banks past Wave, almost to the end of the road. Unfortunately construction along the route kept things slow enough that we turned around about a half-hour from the end of the island. We stopped back at Pea Island national park, just in time to help an elderly lady that tripped over something (my wife saw her fall, I was digging the camera out of the back) and go down pretty hard. We rushed to her aid, verified that she was OK other than a banged up lip, got her cleaned up and made sure she was OK to drive back to her condo. There wasn't anyone around (the visitor's center was closed by this point in the day), so I'm REALLY glad we just happened (uh huh) to be in that parking lot at that point in time.
Anyway, we took a walk down the beach and, while I was watching a pelican glide towards us, it suddenly tucked and dove into the water. Don't know if it caught what it was looking for, but pretty cool in any case.
Tomorrow we start heading back towards home, stopping next in Charlotte, NC.
Been a few days on the return leg, and tomorrow we I-40 it back home. Day 6 was just a travel day from Kitty Hawk to Charlotte, NC. Nothing to see here, move along....
Day 7 we were intending to go to the NASCAR Hall of Fame, but on the drive in to Charlotte I started seeing signs for Hendricks Chevrolet, and being fans, we decided to start the day off going by and seeing what we could see.
Turns out, they let you see A LOT. The museum has a lot of artifacts, since Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, even Dale Earnhart, drove for Hendricks over the years. Plus you can watch the pit crews practicing their stops, dyno runs in their engine shop (none were running while we were there), and the individual team car shops. We never made it to the HOF. Here's a few shots I took during the day...
The pit stop practice was amazing. Each of those wheels they throw around weigh around 70 lbs. The lug nut guns aren't your typical Ingersoll-Rand, either! First, their noise is LOUD, much louder than the track exhaust at idle. Second, these aren't impact guns, they use clutch packs to set the torque values, so the gun speeds never slow down. One interesting thing I noticed is that they set the line pressure to the guns based on the tone of the sound the gun makes.
Now THAT's a dry sump! I wonder how much power that pump pulls at speed?
Automotive art work. I was impressed with the oil pump drive belt; guess they want a decent bit of margin in that sucker!
Ray Evernham's famous "T-Rex" car for Jeff Gordon. Built to the edge of the grayness of the rule book at the time for the '97 Winston all-star race, NASCAR let them run the car, told Evernham "great job, don't EVER let us see this car again", then changed the rules before the next week's Coke 600 race.
One of Kasey Kahne's cars in the shop. They would let you see what was happening, blocking off parts they wanted to keep private with black draping.
You kinda have to look through the window reflection, but check out that brake caliper and duct work! I'd guess that caliper is probably 5+ inches wide.
We visited Hendricks's shops 4 or 5 years ago after doing the Dragon, southern end of the Blue Ridge Parkway, Biltmore estate, etc. It was a worthwhile stop. Too bad you didn't have time to visit the NASCAR museum in Charlotte as it's a neat place to visit.
We spent the night in Concord and the next morning I just wanted to get home to my bed in Springfield, MO. Drove 859 miles in my C6 Z06 with only stopping for gas(once) and potty breaks(twice) and for a quick lunch. That was around 300-350 miles farther than I normally drive each day. Corvettes make tremendous road trip cars.
After Charlotte we drove back to Nashville, TN, spending the night in Brentwood. Nice hotel, but nothing to take pics of.
Yesterday we drove back home; again nothing but Interstate, as we had been gone over a week and the pull home was getting strong.
So, here's the summary of our trip:
Total miles: 2,950
Total Fuel: 106.2 gallons
Calculated mpg: 27.8
Computer mpg: 28.6
No noticeable oil consumption
I played around with Econ mode on a few legs, Touring on the rest, and found very little difference in mpg, but definitely smoother operation in Touring. I think I can confidently state that Econ won't be used in the future.
The car is very comfortable for the two of us, and we were able to get everything we wanted in the car for a 9 day trip. So, what can you pack into the baggage area of a C7? NOTE: this was packed such that visibility through the rear window was not obscured.
2 duffle bags of clothes
2 small bags of toiletries
1 bag of swimming gear
5 Walmart bags of dirty clothes
1 bag of books and other reading material
1 crate for soft drinks and snacks
1 ice chest
1 camera bag
1 laptop
1 bag of various electronics gear (chargers, Kindle Fire, etc.)
1 flexible bucket and car cleaning equipment
1 emergency tire repair kit (12v pump, SafetySeal kit, tire gauge)
2 Water bottles
oh, and 1 NASCAR Cup tire from Jimmie Johnson's #48 car at the Memorial Day race at Charlotte!
It was a great trip, but it's good to be back home.
Have a good one,
Mike
Last edited by VetteDrmr; Jun 18, 2017 at 07:59 PM.
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The museum has a lot of artifacts, since Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, even Dale Earnhart, drove for Hendricks over the years. Plus you can watch the pit crews practicing their stops, dyno runs in their engine shop (none were running while we were there), and the individual team car shops. We never made it to the HOF. Here's a few shots I took during the day...
