@hchavers I didn’t know until a recent road trip that
“Aux arcs" is a French phrase that means "the big bend”
There is uncertainty about the origin but it was likely a big bend in the Arkansas river but others think it referred to large hunting bows used by native Americans. I tend to go with the river theory.
@mycya4me Once you’re there just go to Alaska. Only another couple of thousand miles. I did it for a honeymoon in 1992 which was the 50th anniversary of opening the Alaska Highway (built during WW-II to have a land route to get troops and equipment to Alaska). At the time some was still unpaved. Lots of long beautiful stretches of road with few annoying things like towns or gas stations, so plan ahead! It’s probably grown a lot by now. I’d avoid the peak season July-Aug. Damn tourists….
@ircon96@mycya4me@narfcake@pmarin
It is a cat-sized van, which would probably fit. As for allowing cats: perhaps this is a special car on the scenic Santa Fe-Line
the only one i’ve been to recently was key west. driving sucked the first time, so much traffic. second time took a ferry that was so much better, even with the rough seas
You never know what you will find on the endless backroads of America with no particular destination in mind. I’ve got no place to go and all day to get there.
@2many2no@narfcake US 50 through Nevada and Western Utah is known as “the loneliest highway” but you won’t find much there except beautiful emptiness. Sometimes that’s good though. Also Ely NV with a historical railroad and with brief diversion, Big Basin National Park.
@2many2no@narfcake yeah I’ll watch that. I’d recommend it but mostly if you have a need to get from Reno NV area (on I-80) to central Utah where you hook up with I-70.
@2many2no@narfcake@pmarin I lived in Reno for a while as a kid and HATED the desolate miles and miles of desert and sagebrush. I found it depressing. I like greenery. Although the Salt Flats in Utah are kind of exciting in an otherworldly way. Seeing a storm way off on one horizon and a rainbow on the other, stuff like that.
@jsfs YES. We’ve been to most all Nat’l parks West of the Mississippi and lots of them on the East side, Yellowstone is the best. Also The Buffalo Bill museum right outside the park in Cody. Late Spring, very early Summer is best.
@daveinwarsh
Loved sitting at the bar at the Irma House and seeing the bullet holes in the old bar back (given to Buffalo Bill by Queen Victoria… without the bullet holes, naturally). Ate some of the best bread pudding I’ve ever had there.
US Hwy 395 - 1,122 mi from Hesperia CA (just N of LA) to Ritzville, WA, just SW of Spokane. High desert, lodgepole pine forests, eastern views of Sierra Nevada mountains (Mt. Whitney!) and Cascade volcanos, Lots of camping, historic sites, inexpensive little motels, national/state parks and forests, cute (and ugly) small towns, weird backcountry stuff, old mines, back door to Yosemite, ghost towns, Lake Tahoe, Columbia River gorge … just pick any section of it.
@eddhernandez Yes I was going to say Olympic National Park or Mt Rainier. And of course a stop at Mt St Helens volcano but at the moment the last part of road to the final large visitor center is closed due to a bridge washed out last year. Great hiking or even backpacking there.
The North Cascades highway is a nice way to get “over the mountains” to Seattle area but it closes seasonally in Winter. If you are in Seattle area you don’t need to drive around the south Puget Sound, just take a ferry. Ferries are great there, though I heard one was in disrepair, and there is a replacement plan including electric ferries, but not sure of the status of that. In any case there will be a fun way to get from here to there.
Oh yeah then take a ferry to Victoria BC about as close you can get to visiting England in North America. The short ferry trip is from Port Angeles but you can get there from other places including Seattle which is a longer ride. It’s common to see whales from the ferry.
@chienfou@eddhernandez If you go there on vacation for a week and it rains several inches every day you would say that either the rainforest or you have become pretty intemperate.
@bee1doll I have to look that up (both the route and the book). I have heard of him and it’s a great name too.
I’ve done a lot of US-50 (which includes the loneliest highway mentioned a few posts above). Have not ventured far enough South on a big trip for US-20. Note: add to bucket list.
@bee1doll UPDATE wait, US-20 is up there? I just found a site with cross-country map of it. I regularly drive on I-84 to I-80 and sometimes backroads of Wyoming.
I thought it would follow the numbering system of the Interstates where the higher numbers are further North (or East if an odd number) but I guess these numbers go way back before that.
@pmarin I would also suggest “River-Horse”, another book of a trans continent trip, this time by water!
I’m in Oregon, so I already have a little of Hwy 20 under my belt…
@bee1doll@chienfou Yes, but just for the Interstate numbering system. That started in the 1950s in the Cold War era (aren’t we still in that?). Known as the Eisenhower Highway System but also the Defense Highway Network. The rules were pretty systematic about numbering. Major East-West always end in 0 (I-10 in the far South up to I-90 the Northernmost). North-South majors end in 5, so from I-5 in the West to I-95 far East. Additional segments would follow the same even/odd convention, like I-84. It was a good system, but old US Highways like US-20 or Route 66 were before that. I don’t know all that history.
But even as a young kid I always loved roads and the history. When they would build a new highway and the old one would be left unused, I always wanted to ask my parents about “the old road” and felt sorry for the old road.
Good timing!
Just decided to pick up an RV for this summer. I have a young cousin visiting from France for 3 weeks. Found a 20-year-old class C with less than 30,000 miles that we’re going to get next week, I think. Had one very similar about 25 years ago and enjoyed the heck out of it when we used it for in a 6+ week trip from Central Alabama across the southern US up the West Coast to Vancouver, then back thru the Badlands and the Midwest (cousin’s uncle was on that trip) Didn’t keep it at the time, but I’m looking forward to using this one for the next few years. (More cousins growing up that want to visit the US.)
Current tentative itinerary includes Montgomery to New Orleans to Grand Canyon to San Francisco (when the cousin and grandchild will fly home) then SWMBO and I will wend our way back.
@chienfou Sounds terrific! And from what you’ve said about your house and property I can see you fixing it up and customizing it the way my neighbors have done with theirs, to make it really deluxe.
@chienfou Yay sounds great; sounds like you’ve had (and still have) similar travel ambitions to me.
And you’ve done the RV thing so you know about some of the things to check out and maybe have to fix.
Class C means probably an older V-8 gas engine. With low miles the engine itself might be fine but hoses and belts may be weak. My friend had a motorhome parked outside and squirrels ate some of the wiring.
All the battery and water systems. Might be best to get new batteries unless old ones check out well. You’ll be in a comfortable climate. I usually take a little portable heater (like the one sold here about 10 days ago) so I can use that heat instead of the propane heat (which is LOUD in my RV). But it can’t keep up in a cold climate so it’s nice if the propane heat works which can be 5-10x what a little electric heater can do. Also campgrounds cost a lot these days so if I’m paying $60/night to park and plug in, damn right I’m going to use their power!
My refrig died last year and I’ve been getting by with reusable ice packs from a portable cooler that runs on 12 or 120v. But haven’t traveled in the heat of Summer. Make sure to check the refrig. There is a new generation now which is much better and more efficient but will cost you at least $1000. The old ones that used power or propane were “ammonia cycle” a very ancient system but worked; amazing it was still the common RV system until just the last few years. New ones use DC compressors on 12V input.
The original TV will be a tube CRT TV and probably not be able to receive channels anymore (the old system is gone). So you either need a converter box (there used to be a lot of them) or just remove it and put up a flat panel TV which are super-cheap these days for the basic ones. Depending on the cabinet work it might be a bit tricky getting rid of the old tube TV.
It does sound like a great trip plan though. One thing I learned is that people you don’t know in RV parks tend to be very supportive and friendly. I had a truck issue where I had to wait for service for a few days and the only RV park, if you could call it that, was some sites with hookups behind an old motel. Since I had to stay a few days, people started offering me food, beverages, substances that may or may not have been legal in the state, and a kitten I really wanted to take
@pmarin
Yeah thanks. It’s not my first rodeo and since every car/truck/van I’ve ever owned has been older and/or high mileage most of that applies to any vehicle I’ve ever owned.
My current plan is leaning towards picking up one of those small “generators” that pop up here now and then as it should run the fridge that’s in the unit now for probably 15 to 18 hours a day. The charge back up quickly enough that being on the road for 3 or 4 hours should get it back up to snuff. Not to mention the solar panel that comes with them.
At any rate thanks for the info. Waiting to actually have the unit in hand before I make any major decisions. I’ll keep you informed as to what I decided to do.
Even though it was all old hat to me, I’m sure someone will be appreciative of the info.
@chienfou I went to St. Pierre about 35 years ago (to do a ham radio expedition). It was a lovely place to visit, but other than a hike up into the hills and walking around the town – and the ham radio stuff for my friend and I – there wasn’t a lot to do. Of course, it was very French with seemingly little influence from Canada or the US. At the time it was hardly a tourist destination so there weren’t a lot of restaurants, but where we did eat we had wonderful food!
There are a couple of things I found interesting about its history. It was involved with liquor smuggling of Canadian whiskey to the US during Prohibition. Maybe because it was a island full of fisherman, it was pretty easy to pull off. The other thing is the electricity standard. According to our host, the islands were on 115 VAC 60 Hz for a very long time, like the rest of North America. France decided to change to the French (European) standard of 230 VAC 50 Hz. Of course, lots of appliances couldn’t be used anymore, so the French government replaced them all for everyone on the islands. Our host was of the opinion that France did this more out of a sense of pride and to assert Frenchness than for any practical reason.
Oh, and our host’s heating system was broken and he was anxious to get it fixed because the days could be chilly and damp and the nights even more so. We were there in August!
@ItalianScallion
That’s cool.
I’d never even heard of this pair of islands until sometime last year when it popped up on my radar. Thinking that I will have to make a trip up to PEI and this spot sometime in the next few summers. I think they have developed their tourism industry some but they are still pretty quintessentially French.
I was aware of the prohibition history, found the power system change as a typical French “thumbing your nose at the rest of the world” kind of thing.
Thanks for sharing.
TACOS!!
HOMETOWN, USA!!
West Virgina mountains or Arkansas Ozarks. Do you want majestic cliff hangers or beautiful drama?
@hchavers I didn’t know until a recent road trip that
“Aux arcs" is a French phrase that means "the big bend”
There is uncertainty about the origin but it was likely a big bend in the Arkansas river but others think it referred to large hunting bows used by native Americans. I tend to go with the river theory.
More info: https://butterfieldtrailvillage.org/aux-arcs-to-ozarks-a-regional-history-travel-series/
@hchavers @pmarin
/showme wizard of oz arks
@hchavers @phendrick @pmarin
@hchavers @macromeh @phendrick @pmarin
WHAT? It’s not not pronounced ar-kansas ??
Well, TIL…
@hchavers @macromeh @pmarin
SO many notions to consider in that image…
E.g., still working on that wrist / watch band.
And, get that hog masthead.
And what’s with the peg leg?
Apparently the bot-A.i. is getting deeper in its “thought” (?) processes.
@chienfou @hchavers @macromeh @pmarin
Maybe Dorothy is still in ar-kansas?
@chienfou @hchavers @macromeh @phendrick @pmarin
Ar-Kansas? Is that one of the Kings of Númenor?
North American road trip. During the warmer months, throughout Canada!
@mycya4me Once you’re there just go to Alaska. Only another couple of thousand miles. I did it for a honeymoon in 1992 which was the 50th anniversary of opening the Alaska Highway (built during WW-II to have a land route to get troops and equipment to Alaska). At the time some was still unpaved. Lots of long beautiful stretches of road with few annoying things like towns or gas stations, so plan ahead! It’s probably grown a lot by now. I’d avoid the peak season July-Aug. Damn tourists….
/showme cats on a Road-trip
@mycya4me So they drove a van onto a train for a road trip.
@mycya4me @narfcake Well, yeah–trains don’t have nearly enough, if any, cupholders.
@ircon96 @mycya4me @narfcake or cats….
I think I checked about 10 years ago and even if you paid for a sleeping compartment, animals were strictly prohibited.
Is there a designation of “service cat” or “emotional support cat?”
@ircon96 @narfcake @pmarin Yes it is!
@ircon96 @mycya4me @narfcake @pmarin
It is a cat-sized van, which would probably fit. As for allowing cats: perhaps this is a special car on the scenic Santa Fe-Line
@ircon96 @mycya4me @narfcake @rockblossom Oh yes of course, the Fe-Line.
@ircon96 @mycya4me @narfcake @pmarin @rockblossom
Also known as the Iron Cat.
the only one i’ve been to recently was key west. driving sucked the first time, so much traffic. second time took a ferry that was so much better, even with the rough seas
Niagara Falls baybeee
Anywhere off the Interstate.
You never know what you will find on the endless backroads of America with no particular destination in mind. I’ve got no place to go and all day to get there.
@2many2no I enjoy the Sidetrack Adventures channel for such a reason:
@2many2no @narfcake US 50 through Nevada and Western Utah is known as “the loneliest highway” but you won’t find much there except beautiful emptiness. Sometimes that’s good though. Also Ely NV with a historical railroad and with brief diversion, Big Basin National Park.
@2many2no @pmarin He’s done that too.
@2many2no @narfcake yeah I’ll watch that. I’d recommend it but mostly if you have a need to get from Reno NV area (on I-80) to central Utah where you hook up with I-70.
@2many2no @narfcake @pmarin I lived in Reno for a while as a kid and HATED the desolate miles and miles of desert and sagebrush. I found it depressing. I like greenery. Although the Salt Flats in Utah are kind of exciting in an otherworldly way. Seeing a storm way off on one horizon and a rainbow on the other, stuff like that.
@Kyeh
That sounds very cool!
Yellowstone.
@jsfs YES. We’ve been to most all Nat’l parks West of the Mississippi and lots of them on the East side, Yellowstone is the best. Also The Buffalo Bill museum right outside the park in Cody. Late Spring, very early Summer is best.
@daveinwarsh
Loved sitting at the bar at the Irma House and seeing the bullet holes in the old bar back (given to Buffalo Bill by Queen Victoria… without the bullet holes, naturally). Ate some of the best bread pudding I’ve ever had there.
US Hwy 395 - 1,122 mi from Hesperia CA (just N of LA) to Ritzville, WA, just SW of Spokane. High desert, lodgepole pine forests, eastern views of Sierra Nevada mountains (Mt. Whitney!) and Cascade volcanos, Lots of camping, historic sites, inexpensive little motels, national/state parks and forests, cute (and ugly) small towns, weird backcountry stuff, old mines, back door to Yosemite, ghost towns, Lake Tahoe, Columbia River gorge … just pick any section of it.
Walley World!
The Pacific Northwest…duh!
@eddhernandez Yes I was going to say Olympic National Park or Mt Rainier. And of course a stop at Mt St Helens volcano but at the moment the last part of road to the final large visitor center is closed due to a bridge washed out last year. Great hiking or even backpacking there.
The North Cascades highway is a nice way to get “over the mountains” to Seattle area but it closes seasonally in Winter. If you are in Seattle area you don’t need to drive around the south Puget Sound, just take a ferry. Ferries are great there, though I heard one was in disrepair, and there is a replacement plan including electric ferries, but not sure of the status of that. In any case there will be a fun way to get from here to there.
Oh yeah then take a ferry to Victoria BC about as close you can get to visiting England in North America. The short ferry trip is from Port Angeles but you can get there from other places including Seattle which is a longer ride. It’s common to see whales from the ferry.
@eddhernandez @pmarin
Don’t forget to visit the Hoh national forest. Only tropical rainforest in the lower 48 states.
@eddhernandez @pmarin
D’oh… TEMPERATE rainforest
@chienfou @eddhernandez If you go there on vacation for a week and it rains several inches every day you would say that either the rainforest or you have become pretty intemperate.
Route 66! Fun along the way….
Driving US Hwy 20 from coast to coast is on my bucket-list; inspired by reading “Blue Highways” by William Least Heat-Moon.
@bee1doll I have to look that up (both the route and the book). I have heard of him and it’s a great name too.
I’ve done a lot of US-50 (which includes the loneliest highway mentioned a few posts above). Have not ventured far enough South on a big trip for US-20. Note: add to bucket list.
@bee1doll UPDATE wait, US-20 is up there? I just found a site with cross-country map of it. I regularly drive on I-84 to I-80 and sometimes backroads of Wyoming.
I thought it would follow the numbering system of the Interstates where the higher numbers are further North (or East if an odd number) but I guess these numbers go way back before that.
@pmarin I would also suggest “River-Horse”, another book of a trans continent trip, this time by water!
I’m in Oregon, so I already have a little of Hwy 20 under my belt…
@bee1doll @pmarin
Interstate numbers are even numbers east to west odd numbers North to south.
@bee1doll @chienfou Yes, but just for the Interstate numbering system. That started in the 1950s in the Cold War era (aren’t we still in that?). Known as the Eisenhower Highway System but also the Defense Highway Network. The rules were pretty systematic about numbering. Major East-West always end in 0 (I-10 in the far South up to I-90 the Northernmost). North-South majors end in 5, so from I-5 in the West to I-95 far East. Additional segments would follow the same even/odd convention, like I-84. It was a good system, but old US Highways like US-20 or Route 66 were before that. I don’t know all that history.
But even as a young kid I always loved roads and the history. When they would build a new highway and the old one would be left unused, I always wanted to ask my parents about “the old road” and felt sorry for the old road.
@bee1doll @chienfou interesting article about highway network but with some popups and ads (sorry… those bastards!)
https://www.history.com/topics/us-states/interstate-highway-system
@bee1doll @pmarin
I just reread your initial post and realized that you meant the first number even or odd… not the actual number itself…
@pmarin
“There’s (still) no such thing as a free lunch”
Good timing!
Just decided to pick up an RV for this summer. I have a young cousin visiting from France for 3 weeks. Found a 20-year-old class C with less than 30,000 miles that we’re going to get next week, I think. Had one very similar about 25 years ago and enjoyed the heck out of it when we used it for in a 6+ week trip from Central Alabama across the southern US up the West Coast to Vancouver, then back thru the Badlands and the Midwest (cousin’s uncle was on that trip) Didn’t keep it at the time, but I’m looking forward to using this one for the next few years. (More cousins growing up that want to visit the US.)
Current tentative itinerary includes Montgomery to New Orleans to Grand Canyon to San Francisco (when the cousin and grandchild will fly home) then SWMBO and I will wend our way back.
@chienfou Sounds terrific! And from what you’ve said about your house and property I can see you fixing it up and customizing it the way my neighbors have done with theirs, to make it really deluxe.
@chienfou Yay sounds great; sounds like you’ve had (and still have) similar travel ambitions to me.
And you’ve done the RV thing so you know about some of the things to check out and maybe have to fix.
Class C means probably an older V-8 gas engine. With low miles the engine itself might be fine but hoses and belts may be weak. My friend had a motorhome parked outside and squirrels ate some of the wiring.
All the battery and water systems. Might be best to get new batteries unless old ones check out well. You’ll be in a comfortable climate. I usually take a little portable heater (like the one sold here about 10 days ago) so I can use that heat instead of the propane heat (which is LOUD in my RV). But it can’t keep up in a cold climate so it’s nice if the propane heat works which can be 5-10x what a little electric heater can do. Also campgrounds cost a lot these days so if I’m paying $60/night to park and plug in, damn right I’m going to use their power!
My refrig died last year and I’ve been getting by with reusable ice packs from a portable cooler that runs on 12 or 120v. But haven’t traveled in the heat of Summer. Make sure to check the refrig. There is a new generation now which is much better and more efficient but will cost you at least $1000. The old ones that used power or propane were “ammonia cycle” a very ancient system but worked; amazing it was still the common RV system until just the last few years. New ones use DC compressors on 12V input.
The original TV will be a tube CRT TV and probably not be able to receive channels anymore (the old system is gone). So you either need a converter box (there used to be a lot of them) or just remove it and put up a flat panel TV which are super-cheap these days for the basic ones. Depending on the cabinet work it might be a bit tricky getting rid of the old tube TV.
It does sound like a great trip plan though. One thing I learned is that people you don’t know in RV parks tend to be very supportive and friendly. I had a truck issue where I had to wait for service for a few days and the only RV park, if you could call it that, was some sites with hookups behind an old motel. Since I had to stay a few days, people started offering me food, beverages, substances that may or may not have been legal in the state, and a kitten I really wanted to take
@chienfou
@pmarin
Yeah thanks. It’s not my first rodeo and since every car/truck/van I’ve ever owned has been older and/or high mileage most of that applies to any vehicle I’ve ever owned.
My current plan is leaning towards picking up one of those small “generators” that pop up here now and then as it should run the fridge that’s in the unit now for probably 15 to 18 hours a day. The charge back up quickly enough that being on the road for 3 or 4 hours should get it back up to snuff. Not to mention the solar panel that comes with them.
At any rate thanks for the info. Waiting to actually have the unit in hand before I make any major decisions. I’ll keep you informed as to what I decided to do.
Even though it was all old hat to me, I’m sure someone will be appreciative of the info.
Canada
/youtube Canada by natural wood
@OnionSoup Eh?
@macromeh Canada is in America, so is Mexico, Belize, and Brazil for that matter… Just not the USA.
I found out recently you can “drive” to France. It’s actually just a short ferry ride to Saint-Pierre and Miquelon!
May have to do that some day…
@chienfou I went to St. Pierre about 35 years ago (to do a ham radio expedition). It was a lovely place to visit, but other than a hike up into the hills and walking around the town – and the ham radio stuff for my friend and I – there wasn’t a lot to do. Of course, it was very French with seemingly little influence from Canada or the US. At the time it was hardly a tourist destination so there weren’t a lot of restaurants, but where we did eat we had wonderful food!
There are a couple of things I found interesting about its history. It was involved with liquor smuggling of Canadian whiskey to the US during Prohibition. Maybe because it was a island full of fisherman, it was pretty easy to pull off.
The other thing is the electricity standard. According to our host, the islands were on 115 VAC 60 Hz for a very long time, like the rest of North America. France decided to change to the French (European) standard of 230 VAC 50 Hz. Of course, lots of appliances couldn’t be used anymore, so the French government replaced them all for everyone on the islands. Our host was of the opinion that France did this more out of a sense of pride and to assert Frenchness than for any practical reason.
Oh, and our host’s heating system was broken and he was anxious to get it fixed because the days could be chilly and damp and the nights even more so. We were there in August!
@ItalianScallion
That’s cool.
I’d never even heard of this pair of islands until sometime last year when it popped up on my radar. Thinking that I will have to make a trip up to PEI and this spot sometime in the next few summers. I think they have developed their tourism industry some but they are still pretty quintessentially French.
I was aware of the prohibition history, found the power system change as a typical French “thumbing your nose at the rest of the world” kind of thing.
Thanks for sharing.