McBeast goes to Washington DC

[Greg In Austin]

McBeast is heading out on its real maiden voyage next week, and is heading to Washington DC.

McBeast will see a little of Arkansas, Tennessee, Virginia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana...and a little of Washington DC too.

Do we have anyone in the DC area?

Are there any places we need to see along IH-40 on our way there?
or on IH-20 on our way home?

 

[Greg In Austin]

Anyone know anything about the Natchez Trace State Forest in Tennessee?

Or about the Jefferson National Forest in Virginia?

Or about Shenandoah National Forest in Virgina?

We will be staying in each of these so any hints on locations would be great. Anything we need to make sure and not miss?

We will also be looking for a spot to spend a night somewhere between Birmingham AL and Meridian MS.

 

[Greg In Austin]

Tomorrow is the day.... McBeasts first real maiden voyage. He has been to Dallas and Houston, but this will be a real test of most of the systems.

We will head to Dallas for a night at Mom's, then up 40 heading East past Memphis and all the way past Knoxville TN. We will then head northeast to DC.

Has anyone seen the 4th of July Fireworks at the Mall in DC ?

:c3:

 

[sdwindansea]

I was in DC for the 4th of July fireworks at the same time the US was playing Brazil in the World Cup (summer of 1994). The bar with the yards of beer was a great place to watch the game :b5:. All I can say is that it was the best 4th of July experience I've ever had. The mall on the 4th is spectacular and I doubt you will be able to find a better place to celebrate our country's independence. Enjoy your trip.

 

[Greg In Austin]

McBeast made it safely to DC.

Afer a night at Mom's we headed East, going across Arkansas and into Tenessee on the first day. As planned we found a nice little spot to boondock in a State Forest.

We had lightning all around but only got a little rain.



Before we got to the State Forest we had stopped by to take a closer look at the Mighty Mississippi River in Memphis. McBeast drew a lot of attention and had folks taking pics. This guy was part of a group of about 8 people that were cicling as we walked up.

As we left the visitors center I notice something down the road....

I always wanted to see The Great Pyramids, but I was thinking they were on another continent. Is this like The London Bridge?? Someone buy one and move it?

 

[Ed in Montana]

I thought the Luxor Pyramid was in Las Vegas!

Great pics!

 

[Greg In Austin]

Well, the trip went off without a hitch. We are extremely happy with McBeast.

The trip ended up being about 3400 miles RT and we averaged between 14 and 15 mpg (we have a fillup to do tomorrow to finish the calculation).
The trip home had significant extra weight since my wife had been at a 5+ day conference so she had an extra week of gear as well as bags and bags of conference give aways and piles of paper stuff.

We had absolutely no problem with loud 6.0 PSD.
We had no cab heating issues from the 6.0 PSD.

The 35 inch Cooper STT tires did great on the hiway with no noticeable road noise.

The Beast was much much easier to drive long distance than we ever thought it would be. I drove the entire way to DC since it was just me and the 12 yr old, and 1500+ miles in three days was a piece of cake. We drove back in two days with Michele taking a couple of good turns behind the wheel; she also thought it was easier to drive than expected.

The XM Radio is wonderful. It was a lot of fun for us to listen to Channel 7 and hear all the music we grew up on.

We are getting the night air circulation needs and possibilities figured out. The weather was unseasonably cool and dry in DC according to my cousins, and it was cool enough that we did not need the AC at night.

We stayed at Cherry Hill RV park in College Park MD while there in DC. I have driven past a bunch of RV parks, and stayed in a lot of campgrounds in my day, but nothing comes close to Cherry Hill RV Park. It was incredible. If anyone goes to visit DC, I would suggest checking out this place; it made the stay very easy.

We boondocked or stayed at State Parks or National Forests on the trips to and from DC. Between the driving and the solar the battery seemed to never stray frm topped off even with lights and Fridge at night and with the Danhard running during the drive.

We are now looking forward to some extended time boondocking.

 

[Greg In Austin]

Here are some more photos from our trip

Above is a shot from Day Two on the way to DC. Ches was excited about the elevation change.

We were up in the clouds but did not get much rain.

Finally a break without clouds where we could enjoy a little of the view.

This is the day after we got to DC after my wife's conference was completed. This was an unscheduled stop on our night tour of the monuments.

Here was one of the many views we found of the Washington Monument. It seems every time we turned around there was a different view from a different spot.

The biggest surprise of the whole trip was a new museum called The Newseum. It is a museum dedicated to journalism and news. We spent an entire day there and it was absolutely fantastic. This shot was from the 6th floor observation deck of The Newseum.

...and of course The Fireworks!

And then there was the Shenandoah trail on the way home....

...and the cockpit of McBeast on the ride home.....

 

[Greggde]

Great Trip

Great trip Greg and I am very happy that all went well with you and your Family . The route that you took encompasses some of the most beautiful parts of our Great Country , thank you for sharing .
Greggde

 

[charlie56]

Greg, just curious
In the cockpit photo, what are those two serrated shaped objects on the ceiling just above you and your wife's heads?

 

[Greg In Austin]

Those are vents for the power supplies for the HID KC Lights... we were not sure they were needed but they added them just in case.

.

 

[Greg In Austin]

Maybe we were overly optimistic, but we were hoping to see other SMBs during our trip..... and we did think we saw one when a class B Sprinter crawled past us on the highway. We caught up with it, but it was not a SMB.

You would think we would see more living right here in Austin!

Soooo we will have to wait for one of the later trips. There are a bunch planned.

Lost Maples in just a week or so.
Guadalupe Mnts late Summer
Boulder CO in the Fall
Big Bend in the Fall

Lubbock will be visited, but I am not sure it belongs on the same list with the above.

 

[Txn2daBone]

Soon...very soon, the chances of seeing another SMB in the neighborhood will increase.

Actually, my first trip in the SMB will be to Big Bend later in the year. I know you'll enjoy that as I've been there about the past 5yrs in a row. With over 800,000 acres to explore there's lot's of things to experience...there's a few pics of Big Bend in my album.

The Guadalupe Mountains...amazing! I made the hike to the peak just last year.

And just a suggestion while in West Texas....The McDonalds Obsevatory in the Davis Mountains. It boasts as being the darkest place in Texas when the sun goes down. They have star parties with numerous telescopes at the visitor center and it's just too cool...I've never experienced the night sky like that before.

Anyway I'm sure we'll pass one another sooner or later down the road.

Enjoy your adventures!

Ric

Guadalupe Mountains rising above the low cloud cover

 

[Greg In Austin]

For years we were out to Big Bend twice a year; it is one of my favorite spots on the planet.

The Davis mountains just north and the UT McDonald Observatory is also great. They have expanded the program line up such that you can now spend a full day there from about 10am until after midnight (when there is a star party). THe have remotely operated sun telescopes that can keep you busy even during the afternoon. The outdoor star parties with their laser pointers are amazing and load of fun; the last one we went to happened to have a number of shooting stars right in the middle of the program. It is still one of the two or three darkest spots on the planet; one spot in Hawaii and one spot in Siberia are supposed to be darker. That does make for an absolutely amazing night sky.

Although I know much of Big Bend NP like it were my back yard, we have not spent ANY time in the new Big Bend Ranch State Park. I think we may head there and get back into some of the newly opened areas that are only open to permitted visitors.

.