Winter 2020 Trip, Day 2: Cumberland Gap NHP, Big South Fork NRRA, Obed WSR

I awoke to a delivery truck at the Cracker Barrel restaurant where I spent the night.  I headed out to my first stop, Cumberland Gap National Historical Park:

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The park preserves the Cumberland Gap, a break in the Appalachian Mountains.  The “discovery” of the gap by white settlers in 1750 allowed for the settling of Kentucky and Tennessee.

When I arrived, I discovered that the RV refrigerator no longer works on propane but does work on electricity, so I raised my solar panels and turned on the inverter to generate 120VAC:

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For some reason, my current phone (LG V20) doesn’t communicate with the solar controller’s Bluetooth module, but my backup phone works.  Here I’m generating 384 watts of power and consuming 261 watts to operate the refrigerator:

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I wanted to visited the Gap itself as well as the Pinnacle Overlook, but the road has a 20-foot length limit, and I’m at 28 feet, so I dropped a motorcycle off the front rack:

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From the overlook, the Gap is the cleft running to the lower left corner of the photograph:

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Views from the overlook:

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On the way back down, I visited a Civil War defensive position.  The Gap changed hands several times during the Civil War:

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I parked the motorcycle and hiked up to the Gap itself:

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This memorial marks Daniel Boone’s trail through the Gap:

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The 20-foot length limit on the road makes sense:

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I continued east into Tennessee to Visit Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area:

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I then headed south to visit Obed Wild and Scenic River:

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I continued south to overnight at a closed Cabellas in Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia.  See the trip map for today’s drive.

Winter 2020 Trip, Day 1: NY to VA

As usual, I was a couple hours late getting going.  The plan is for me to pick up Trish in Mobile on Sunday, so I’m travelling solo for now:

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Google directed me to cross this bridge, but I’m too heavy, so I had to cross at a different bridge:

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Refueling after many hours of driving near Roanoke, Virginia:

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I continued on to overnight at a Cracker Barrel restaurant in Virginia.  See the trip map for today’s drive.

Biking and Running in Harriman State Park

I recently took up trail running.  Here are some photographs from biking and running in Harriman State Park:

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Flight 6231 crash site:

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Plane fragments:

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Mountain people would drag cars up into the mountains and live in them or use them to power appliances.  The Pittsboro Trail passes quite a few of these old cars:

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The old pump house on Pine Meadow Lake:

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Still more truck camper modifications

I installed the levers that hold down the solar array when it’s not tipped up:

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The air conditioner cowling was cracked, so I patched it with leftover plastic from the earlier screen door repair:

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I decided to remove this hood over the bathroom vent:

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The fan also needs upgrading:

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New fan installed:

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The lower edge of the screen door needed fixing:

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I installed the inverter’s remote switch and a shunt and display that shows live power consumption and battery state:

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Shunt wiring:

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The refrigerator’s exhaust was entering the cabin through an opening above its upper edge, so I walled it off.  This will ultimately be a cabinet:

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Shower curtain installed:

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The trim and underlayment was sagging due to water damage, so I glued it back up into position:

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I fabricated this foam “floor” for the truck camper so the 5th wheel mount rails wouldn’t be a high point upon which the truck camper would rock back and forth:

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Blinds installed:

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Struts for tipping the solar panels fabricated and installed:

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