Tennessee, Others Say Goodbye to Rest Stops

Via the Wall Street Journal:

"Later this month, cash-strapped Virginia plans to barricade entrances and switch off the plumbing and electricity at nearly half its highway rest areas. Other states also are lowering budgetary axes on the public pit stops that have lined the interstate highway system since its creation in 1956.

"But rest stops aren't going quietly.

"Truckers, blind merchants and a dogged historian are fighting to preserve them. If the battle is lost, every long-distance motorist will need "a strong rear end and a strong bladder" to hit the road, warns John Townsend, an official with the American Automobile Association in Washington.

There are about 2,500 rest areas along the interstates. State governments build and maintain them. Most have remained steadfastly utilitarian: a parking lot, a simple building with toilets, a few picnic benches, and maybe some vending machines. Because many of the interstates bypassed cities and towns, travelers often had no other options when they needed to pull off the road.

But over the years, big clusters of gas stations, fast-food outlets and motels have sprung up just off interstate exits in all but the most remote parts of the country. A national directory lists nearly 2,500 privately owned truck stops, each with at least 10 parking spaces and two showers. Even Wal-Mart Stores Inc. -- which permits overnight stays by recreational vehicles at most of its more than 4,000 locations -- offers a popular alternative to old-fashioned rest areas.

A growing number of states have come to see rest areas as obsolete. Rather than spend the money on maintenance and repairs, states began closing them.

Louisiana has closed 24 of its 34 rest areas since 2000, four of them last year. Maine, Vermont and Colorado have recently announced plans to shutter more rest areas because of cash constraints. Rhode Island, Tennessee, Arizona and others are thinking of doing likewise."

Civil War Soldiers vs Dinosaurs

Not far from this corner of East Tennessee, folks can find some sights that are simply not among those you can find anywhere else. Like what, you ask?

Well, first there is Foamhenge. Yes, it is indeed Foamhenge. I saw this and immediately wondered if the guys from Spinal Tap had ever seen it.

And as an added bonus, another unique location. Dinosaur Kingdom -- the only place in the world where Civil War soldiers are attacked by the giant prehistoric reptiles. Take that, Creation Musuem! Pictures and info on both Foamhenge and Dinosaur Kingdom are here at Hillbilly Savants.

They also had another post which gave me pause, about the mysterious herbal delight called ginseng. A chunk of it just sold for $400,000!!

I do recall growing up when someone asked me if I wanted to go Ginseng Hunting. I admit I thought to myself, "what did he just say? and what word was he trying to say which has been filtered through mountain-speak?" Foolish me. It brought good money way back then and who knew one day it would be a key ingredient in a host of energy drinks and vitamins?

And that, for some reason, brings to mind the three warehouses which bear the name Elizabethton Metal and Herb Company.

Da Vinci Goes to the Air and Space Museum

The blend of work and pleasure has happened to me more than once, but the past week was one of the most memorable such blends. I hope it is also a sign that the future holds even more opportunities where work and pleasure co-exist for your humble narrator.

I'll explain some of the details of the how and the why in a later post. For now, let me just offer some tantalizing examples of why I had a fine week.

Imagine getting an offer to fly to Washington DC and stay at the ritzy Washington Court Hotel, all expenses paid, and to spend my working hours entertaining folks as a historical character -- in my case I performed as a Russian Cosmonaut and as Leonardo da Vinci. Added bonus - I was told I would be performing the da Vinci role at the Smithsonian's Air and Space Museum, which would be closed for the evening for a private catered party.

I had to pinch myself more than once at Air and Space. It's a place which I had visited before, spending hours wandering thru the exhibits and gawking at the displays of planes and rockets which made history. To be strolling casually through it, sipping wine and acting as da Vinci ("I invented everything here, you know. I never finish, I just make a sketch.") while a jazz combo played just under the heat shield of the Apollo 11 Command Module ... and to be paid while doing all that ... it makes you say Life is Good.

It also made me think if I ever do go to space, I want a jazz combo on board playing the whole time. Jazz and Space. Each compliments the other.

As I mentioned in my previous post , my camera wasn't working, but fellow performer MountainGirlXD was kind enough to share the photos she took. So here you are -- first, me as daVinci. The costume wasn't too uncomfortable, but man that hair and beard took some work so it did not look like Santa. A little bit of make-up was needed too, so that the wig did not look Mamie Van Doren's hair and too much would have made me look like Bob in Twin Peaks. One thing I learned was that about half of those I talked with thought that da Vinci painted the Sistine Chapel. And just for the record, I doubt there would much difference between da Vinci's astonishment inside that museum and mine.

Sadly, as exciting as the exhibits were, I hate to think we now see space exploration as merely an exhibit in a museum, part of our past. It must remain part of our future, too.

Here's a shot of the X-1, which broke air speed records when piloted by Chuck Yeager.

I admit to being stunned when thinking that a company could rent out the museum for the evening and have dinner catered. I'm sure I could live quite well for years on what that must have cost.

In the next post, I'll have more on how I landed the job last week and other tales from Washington, so stay tuned.

Oh, and why not take a peek at MountainGirlXD as she played the role of Amelia Earhart?

Return of the Blogger

I have returned from Washington, DC and have many stories to share with you.

It was a truly busy week, and the networking and meetings were endless. So many of us were in DC this week - all the big dogs in Hollywood were there for the Jack Valenti funeral, also the Queen of England and her massive entourage arrived to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the founding of Jamestown, the folks with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and of course, me, your humble narrator.

I noticed that as the President used his mighty veto pen this week on ending the war in Iraq, the entire GOP-For-President Gang all fled to the other coast, gathering at the President Reagan library for a debate. It was kind of sad to see them reaching deep into the past to find some relevance to 2007. Does not bode well.

I noticed numerous Obama For President bumper stickers and only one other name was visible on any bumper -- someone was driving about with a Fred Thompson for President sticker.

And someone in DC needs to be fired for putting this motto on DC license plates: Taxation Without Representation. Leaving out the word "No" before "Taxation" is just anti-American. Or is the word's absence just an indication of the times we live in?

My digital camera crapped out the first day, so all pictures presented over the next few days as I recount my adventures will be verbally created. For instance, I was really hoping I could show you what I found when I went to the Jefferson Memorial one day around sunset. The site was utterly empty and there were tears streaming down the cheeks of the bronze face of Jefferson.

"Why are you crying, Tom?" I asked, standing on a floor made of Tennessee pink marble.

His bronze arm slowly rose and he pointed to words on the frieze circling the dome of the memorial, which read "I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every tyranny over the mind of man."

Then a low voice from the frozen form of our third president said "I fear the tyrants have defeated my country."

"No," said I. "Not all minds have been overtaken by the tyrants. I will tell others what you have said so well in defense of our Freedom and our nation."

"You? Your camera doesn't even work, you chucklehead, no one will believe a word you say."

"Wellllllllll, yeah there is that. But I can Google a picture for my blog. And if America can just recall some of your words, that is the place to start."

"Google a picture? Great, another witless entry on the internet. Thanks for nothing. Just go, please. I want to sleep before they convert this space to another Starbucks."

I suppose Tom has seen too much of his efforts falling by the wayside of late.

And I did Google him, anyway --

"All, too, will bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will to be rightful must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal law must protect, and to violate would be oppression.

Let us, then, fellow-citizens, unite with one heart and one mind. Let us restore to social intercourse that harmony and affection without which liberty and even life itself are but dreary things. And let us reflect that, having banished from our land that religious intolerance under which mankind so long bled and suffered, we have yet gained little if we countenance a political intolerance as despotic, as wicked, and capable of as bitter and bloody persecutions. During the throes and convulsions of the ancient world, during the agonizing spasms of infuriated man, seeking through blood and slaughter his long-lost liberty, it was not wonderful that the agitation of the billows should reach even this distant and peaceful shore; that this should be more felt and feared by some and less by others, and should divide opinions as to measures of safety. But every difference of opinion is not a difference of principle.