Sprinty headed for Maryland

Tuesday, 30 April

After almost 4 whole weeks at home, Sprinty headed out.  The time in Georgia was spent taking care of medical and maintenance items for Sprinty, Kris and Darrell.  Sprinty got some suspension upgrades - new rear shocks and Sumo Springs front and rear.  He also got a new driver side air bag (Mercedes safety recall), alignment, and a remount/balance of front tires.  Darrell seemed to be doing over a dozen little tweaks to Sprinty from the winter trip.

We headed out before 7am, with Reems Creek Golf Course in Weaverville, NC as the first intermediate point.  It was one of only a few golf courses along the chosen route from Canton, GA to Roan Mountain State Park in Roan Mountain, TN.  Sprinty enjoyed three hours of back roads through North Georgia and western North Carolina before getting onto I-40 just west of Asheville, NC.  

Reems Creek Golf Course is a hilly course, where most approach shots involved side hill, downhill and/or uphill lies.  Combined with inconsistent green speeds and several blind shots, it made for a challenging day.  Kris started off strong taking a two shot lead early.  Darrell caught up after five holes, then Kris got ahead, making the turn one stroke up.  On the back nine, Darrell played better to take honors on the day.

After golf, we continued the additional 1.5 hours to Roan Mountain State Park, a place we had stayed before.  We picked it in hopes of being able to get together with Darrell’s brother for the evening, but his brother was out of town.  A very nice feature of Roan Mountain State park is very good wifi, which compensated for no usable cell signal on Verizon or AT&T.  The wifi was robust enough to stream video, a rarity of campground wifi anywhere.

As the first trip after Sprinty suspension mods/maintenance, the improvement was noticeable.  The slight front shimmy at highway speeds was gone, the front tire pressures did not elevate as before, and less sway in cornering.

Wednesday, 1 May

Earlier weather forecasts indicted possibility of rain for today, so we elected to wing it for golf.  In scouting out options last night, we found the Auburn Hills Golf Club in Riner, VA, located about 2.5 hours up the road near Christiansburg, VA.  After getting underway for a couple an hour and re-checking the weather forecast, we called to make a tee time.

Auburn Hills Golf Club was a nice find.  And a bit of a find as it was located in a rural area.  It had a nice practice area, the staff was very welcoming, and the course was in pretty nice shape.  The course was a mix of wide open holes (grip it and rip it) and very tight, narrow tree-lined fairways with little margin of wayward shots.  We also enjoyed more consistent green speeds than yesterday.

Today was Darrell’s turn to start off strong, but it was very close, shot by shot, through the first nine holes.  After following a three-some for several holes, they waved us through.  Both Darrell and Kris hit beautiful drives on that hole while they waited, always an anxious moment.  Nothing like getting waved through and then clutch hitting a bad shot.  

Darrell had a two stroke lead at the turn.  On the 10th hole, a four-some waved us through, and again, we hit nice tee shots.  Kris finished the back nine two strokes up on Darrell to finish the day tied.  Finishing the round in about three hours gave us the opportunity to go by a Starbucks in Christiansburg for Darrell to pay up.  Darrell had to buy because Kris originally mis-added the score card and we did not find the discrepancy until after Starbucks.

Our destination for the evening was Natural Bridge/Lexington KOA in Natural Bridge, VA.  A very nice campground near the interstate, but far enough away you could not hardly hear any traffic noise.  Verizon was pretty good, AT&T was only one bar, and T-Mobile was very nice.

Today was mostly interstate driving, and a good test of the suspension mods/maintenance at 65 mph and 70mph.  The alignment and wheel balancing made a difference.  And a lot less sway when in the draft behind 18-wheelers and when getting passed by 18-wheelers.  The sway improvement is amazing, but the reduced sway included hitting small cracks in the pavement being a bit a more noticeable.  Overall, after two days and almost 500 miles on a variety of roads (interstate, US highways, and curvy, twisty back roads), the suspension improvements are noticeable, and a welcome improvement.

Thursday, 2 May

Partly due to the weather forecast predicting rain mid-day, we made today a travel day.  First up was to dump the black and gray tanks - we are giving them a good cleaning after the winter trip. 

Next, we drove the 45 miles to Staunton, VA to visit the Woodrow Wilson Presidential Museum.  We had seen the signed in I-81 for years, each time saying we needed to visit the museum some day.  So we made today that “some day”.  First challenge was finding parking in downtown Staunton.  The museum had a small parking lot, and Sprinty took up just over his fair share.  Fortunately, Sprinty did not have the bike rack or bikes on the back, so he took up a little less space than usual.

We arrived about 9:30, which was perfect timing to catch the 12-minute video, and still be part of the 10am tour.  The guided tour is actually through his birthplace, a home built in the mid-1800s.  Thomas Woodrow Wilson (Tommy until he went to college and dropped the “Thomas”) only lived in the house for a couple of years before the family moved to Georgia.  His widow bought the house after he passed in the 1920s to be preserved.  

The tour through the Presidential Museum next to his birthplace was self-guided and included various exhibits on his challenges (World War I, Women’s Suffrage, Civil Rights) and accomplishments.  It also had the Pierce-Arrow that was his automobile when he was in the White House and afterwards.  We took in the video, tour, and the museum in about 2 hours.  The Woodrow Wilson Presidential Museum is not part of the federally funded Presidential Museums - no explanation given, it could be that due to the age of the buildings it is not practical to be ADA compliant.  Maybe just hometown pride. 

After a quick stop to a convenient Lowe’s Home Improvement store, we headed on up to Deep Creek Lake in Western Maryland, arriving about 3pm.  We unpacked with deliberate speed so we could play golf with our sailing friend, Melanie, when she got off work.

Another quick note about the suspension mods/maintenance.  It seemed that Sprinty did not sway as much in the wind.  Hard to say definitively as it was not a real windy day, but Sprinty seemed to track better than before.