Travel

Everything from week long to weekend to day trips!

1324 miles of roadtrip fun…Liberty Bowl UCF vs UGA!

James Garrett

After a great season for those of us who are Knights, we won the CUSA title and got the Liberty Bowl invite. Several friends from college decided to caravan up to Memphis to watch our Knights beat UGA, 10-6. We left after I got off work on a Wednesday afternoon, hitting the road around 7pm in an effort to make it somewhere near half way.  We stopped at a cheap looking motel in Birmingham Alabama, checked in, and then grabbed some food at a local TGI Fridays.  More research about which areas of town to stay in wouldn’t have been a bad thing in this case, police sirens echo’ed all night, thank goodness for Springfield’s portable XD40 alarm system!

We got into Memphis after waking up early the next morning for another long drive  in time to stay at the Days Inn near Graceland.  The hotel isn’t terrible, especially considering how run own everything else in the area is, but we agreed that if we go next year, it’d be worth it to spend the extra money and stay at the Westin on Beale St.  After checking in, we immediately headed towards Beale St. where the pep rally, parade, and other festivities were going on.  UGA fans made for a great atmosphere, and after the pep rally, there were more UCF fans left than UGA (I assume this is because UCF is a younger crowd).

Touring the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum

James Garrett

Since I flew out with JetBlue from IAD at 4pm, the Air and Space Museum was a perfect thing to do.  It’s $15 to park and free to enter.  I had heard that this location was better than the one just off the National Mall, and I certainly agree.  The museum is an indoor hanger which includes a Boeing 707, SR-71 Blackbird, Space Shuttle, and many more very cool aircraft.  Off to the far corner of the building there’s a flight tower, which features a tour guide from Dulles International Airport who explains the monitors and how they work.  Watching how organized the flight tower really is was very cool, the operator was able to explain all the information in front of us within minutes.

The main attraction I was wanting to see is the Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird.  For those of you not familiar, the SR71 was a spy plane that is faster than any other plane ever made (and I think still is).  Here‘s a really neat site I found that has lots of information on the plane.

My favorite part of the museum after visiting was the flight simulator.  Whitney and I did the interactive flight simulator, where I was the gunner and she was the pilot.  The simulators allow you to do a full 360 degree turn while flying, or it will even hang you upside down for extended periods of time.  All in all the highlight of the trip.

Kayaking the Shenandoah River

James Garrett

Today Whitney and I headed west to do a day trip from Washington DC and kayaked the Shenandoah River.  We rented kayaks from the Down River Canoe Company, which were pricey at $39/ea, but it did include the transportation 12 miles up river, which gave us just over 5 hours of kayaking time when you included lunch.  For lunch, we packed sandwiches and found a really neat rock face to eat on.  The further upstream you go on the river, the more minor rapids you face, although none that we saw during our 12 mile route were all that bad.  The front desk there will loan you dry bags for cameras, and they also watch your keys for you.  All in all, a GREAT day on the water.

Blackwater Falls State Park and Canaan Valley

James Garrett

After researching weekend getaways from Washington DC, Weekend trips from Washington DC, and just about every other keyword meaning “I want to get out of Washington DC for the weekend”, we eventually stumbled across information on Davis, WV.  Whitney and I both love getting outdoors and seeing the mountains, and while Hertz is running their $25/day weekend rentals, we thought that now would be a great time.  We used hotels.com and got a $74/night (after tax) room at the Canaan Valley Resort and Conference Center.  The resort was aging, which was obvious, but the scenery was amazing, and the price was right.  Don’t expect the equivalent of a 5 star hotel, but expect great service, abundant wildlife, and fantastic scenery.

Our first place to visit was Blackwater Falls State Park, but first we decided to grab lunch at Blackwater Brewing Company, which appeared to have a decent biker turnout, so we assumed it would be good.  There was a group of 20+ bikers, and with this being a small place, they clearly weren’t staffed for the surge of people, so service time was almost 2 hours for lunch.  Not entirely their fault however, it’s a small town, and we realize that.  We each had the BBQ burger, which was decent, but nothing spectacular.

After lunch, we headed back to Blackwater Falls State Park.  The main attraction was the falls, however the entire park was a scenic drive.  We went to the falls first, which are off a very well maintained trail with new steps.  After that, we headed to Lindy Point overlook, which is about a 1/4 mile hike through the woods.  The view was amazing!

Orlando Wetlands Park

James Garrett

Today Sam and I decided to head out to Orlando Wetlands Park in Christmas, FL.  Sam had recently gone there with a friend, and despite how close it is to UCF, I hadn’t been there in my 4 years here because I had never heard of this place.  It’s actually a clever system designed to treat waste water by the city of Orlando, by using natural plants to absorb the pollutants.  While wildlife isn’t terribly abundant, you can find several gators as well as a variety of birds.  In the next few days, I’ll try to post the brochure map and highlight the route we took.

If you’d like more information on the wetlands park, click here to see 2 informational videos produced by the city of Orlando.

Luray Caverns & The Garden Maze

James Garrett

After working all week from Whitney’s apartment I was getting antsy to get outdoors.  We found out that Hertz doesn’t charge a fee for drivers under 21 to rent a car, plus their weekend rates were very reasonable!  We took a scenic drive over to Luray Caverns from the Ballston area.  Luray Caverns has an interesting history, but it’s sad to see how the commercialization of such a precious natural resource has damaged the cave so badly.

After touring the caverns, there’s a garden maze on site.  While certainly overpriced at $5/person, I’ve never even seen one in real life, let alone gone through one, so we had to! 🙂

Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona International Speedway

James Garrett

Today I got to experience my first Rolex 24 hours…actually my first time going to the Daytona International Speedway at all.  We had went yesterday to pickup sponsor passes from TRG Motorsports, a team who’s website we build.  The day started off rainy, and I was amazed at how well these cars ran in the rain, still approaching turns at over 100mph!  After about 20 laps however, the rain had slowed, the track was drying, and the cars started to come into the pits to get slicks put on.  It’s quite interesting to watch a race like this, it’s more like one big party compared to events I had been to before, such as Gatornationals.

Visiting the Washington Monument

James Garrett

After my last trip to DC several months ago where I couldn’t get tickets to go up in the monument, I learned to arrive early if you want to get to go up in the monument, so we arrived around 9am and were able to get tickets quickly.  We were a bit worried about the wind, as it was so strong that it blew my camera bag even with several items in there, and the tickets state that high winds can cancel tours.  The monument is currently closed to take the steps down, but the elevator stops and allows you to see out of it to view each of the 50 state’s stones.