Two Lanes?

Why is the major north/south highway on the east coast only two lanes through the Carolinas? Today seems to be the day that all the Northeasterners who are too cheap to fly to Disney (H and I included) decided to clog 95 south. We were joined by all the Floridians returning from Christmas visiting. The result was a six hour drive through SC.
SC may have some beautiful places, but the 95 corridor is not one of them. It is flat and homogenous. It is the kind of landscape you want to fly through at 80.
Today the drive was a lot like bad sex. You zoom, then slow to crawl, then zoom, then suddenly stop, then zoom... And so it goes without such as a glimmer of eventual release.
Then there was Santee, a foggy oasis of fast food and crap. The perfect way to break the fun.
Thank god for Georgia's three lane high way!

Mobile Blogging from here.

Two Guys Grill

Today's leg of the Journey started off well. The roads were clear and traffic moved swiftly. Then somewhere in NC we hit a massive traffic jam. In over an hour we moved about 3 miles.
Lunch brightened the day we stopped at Two Guys Grille in Lumberton, NC. I got the southwest chicken salad and it was sublime. The Cajun spiced chicken had just enough kick to clear the sinuses and the cheese was just enough to balance it all out. H got a salad 'freddie' style. It was topped with the innards of a hoogie. It was a little greasy, but not too cheesy.
It gives me hope that the next 400 miles will fly by.

Mobile Blogging from here.

"Flying" to Florida

H was feeling a little guilty about never visiting my Mom in FL, so we decided that Christmas would be a great time to go. It is also the most expensive time to visit. The cheapest flight and car rental combo H could find cost $1000 and had terrible flight times. Joking, I said we should drive...
So now we are in a Days Inn just outside of Petersburg, VA after a very long day of driving.
One bright spot on the trip (other than getting to spend time with H) was an Itallian resturant named Giuseppe's Pizza in Ruther Glen, VA. The food was simple, cheap, and good. The atmospher was casual. It really hit the spot after 10 hours of traffic.
One other thing that made the drive go by was a Christmas present. H's Dad gave me a Griffin AutoPilot so I can play my iPod through my stereo and keep the iPod charged. Egg 2.0 has an auxilary input, so the audio plays crytal clear. The AutoPilot pulls the audio signal from the dock connector which means there is no messing around with trying to align the volumes.
From the technology incompetence file: We tried to get the GPS to plot the route to my Mom's house while zooming down the Garden State Parkway at 70, but it would just lock up. This was very upsetting because it has been a trusty piece of gear until this point. Eventually we stopped at Dick Clark's American Bandstand for lunch. (It was as bad as the name implies.) While waiting for lunch we decide to give the GPS a chance to redeem itself. After an eternity of calculating it finally pops up with a route. H checked the route over, decided the thing is busted, and hands it to me to check out. The route takes us off of the highway and down a series of back roads.... The last time I had used the GPS was on the bicycle... The GPS was working just fine. I was impressed that it managed to figure out a bike route from NJ to FL. Once I set the GPS to route for a car it spit out excellent directions.

Mobile Blogging from here.

Kayaking, Blogging, iPhoning

While I tend to cleave towards extreme simplicity (I ride a single speed bike and paddle with a piece of wood) I also love my high tech toys. I dig my digital camera, my GPS, and my shiny MacBook Pro. My favorite piece of digital wonder is my iPhone. It does more than a Swiss Army knife. It is my phone, my music source, my address book, my date book, my mobile e-mail, my link to the vast store of human knowledge, my guidance system, and my game boy.
What does any of this have to do with kayaking? Well in addition to all of the other things it does, my iPhone is also a global tide table. The app store has several tide apps. I decided on installing TideApp. The interface let's you select tide stations across the globe. The first page sorts the stations by US ports, non-US ports, and favorites. The tide reports seem to be pretty accurate. There are only two potential drawbacks: the times are always in EST and the app appears to access the Internet to get the tide data. For me, neither is a problem. I live on the East coast and the iPhone is usually connected to the Internet.
One other bit of iPhone and kayaking related business. To keep my precious safe while its in the day hatch, I wrap it in an Otter Armor series case. The case is water proof and protects the phone from shock. It adds some bulk to the phone but it is worth it. The phone is mostly usable while wrapped in it's cocoon. The only functionality that does not work in the case is the phone speaker. You can still use the phone with a headset or in speaker phone mode. Sadly, Otter decided not to make a version of this case for the iPhone 3G. It is one of the reasons I'm holding off on upgrading.
The iPhone has one other neat trick up it's sleeve for the kayaking blogger. It makes a good mobile blogging platform. I tried to use the Web version of the Blogger interface and it was passable but not a tool I'd use regularly. Then I found an application called iBlogger. It is made by the same people who make the ecto blogging client for OS X. The app usually cost $4.99 but I managed to get it on sale for $0.99. It works with all of the major blogging services, makes posting and editing old posts easy. The interface is uncluttered and makes working with a blog on the go easy. It does not, however, support posting pictures. The only pain with mobile blogging is the tiny keyboard.

Something New, Somethings Repaired, Some Wind

After a month without the Q-Boat, I was itching for some time on the water even if the forecast was less than stellar. Besides I wanted to try out the the repaired mighty stick, the Q-Boat's new keel strip, and the Egg 2.0.
The drive down was excellent. Egg 2.0 is a nice ride. The roof racks are a little noisy, but the stereo cranks good quality sound at plenty of decibels. It also has speed sensitive volume: it gets louder when the car goes faster. I took advantage of the aux jack to catch up on Mark Kermode's movie reviews - he blasted the new version of the "Day the Earth Stood Still."
At the put-in things started to go awry. I had forgotten to pack a spray skirt... I had seen H's in the wall in the garage and never thought to double check that mine was in my box... (The spray skirt hanging on the wall of the garage is not H's). The wind was stronger than I had expected. BH was running very late.
Fortunately, JS had an extra XL spray skirt. So once BH showed up and got his stuff together we set out.
There was 6 total in the group: JS, BH, KF, J, T, and myself.
We paddled out of Sakonnet Harbor and turned south - faces into a steady 15knt wind. I was glad to have the mighty stick for battling the wind. I am not in tip top shape and the paddle out the lighthouse was a slog. The wind waves made the slog even more challenging. The Q-Boat's bow would ride up one and crash into the middle of the next one. My face was covered in cold spray.
From the lighthouse we headed along the outside of the islands. It was a lively run. The wind was pushing the waves hard into the rocky shore.
When we turned back toward shore we got some very nice rides. JS told us to enjoy the rides, but to not get too close to each other. We didn't want any collisions....
J was looking for seals. We spotted a zodiac with six gentleman surrounded by swimming ducks. It wasn't until JS yelled that the ducks were decoys that I noticed the shotguns.... We made sure not to get too close.
We mucked around for another hour or so before stopping on West Island (Easter Island) for lunch. We managed to find some decent shelter for lunch. We also spotted a pod of seals who were staring mighty hard at my PB&J....
After lunch we decided to call it a day. The wind was picking up and it was cold.
The paddle back to the harbor was fun. The wind whipped up some sweet waves and pushed us right up the river.
Despite the cold, the wind, and the lack of a spray skirt, it was a good day. The mighty stick appears to be fully restored. The Q-Boat is in fine form. The repairs to the chines are hardly noticeable and the new kevlar keel strip looks like it was meant to be there. Egg 2.0 performed its job as kayak carrier with aplomb.