Micro Cars in Nashville

We spent a couple of days in Nashville, Tennessee on our journey north. We were able to spend a few hours with some long time friends, Bill and Bitsy.

Visiting us in our home on wheels.

We also visited the Lane Motor Museum, which was started in 2002 by Jeff and Susan Lane.  It features mostly European cars.  Elizabeth enjoyed her time there over the previous motor museums we have visited as the Lane has a “unique collection of cars.”  It is not just a collection of US muscle cars or race cars. They have everything from micro cars, propeller driven bicycles, packable motorcycles, cars that are also boats and home-made streamliners.

The first car you see is a 1965 Peel Trident made by the Peel Engineering Company on the Isle of Man. The car is 73 in long and 39 in wide, with a weight of 330 lbs. 

Will I be able to drive it????

In the collection is also a Peel P50 which is a three-wheeled microcar made from 1962 to 1965. At 54 long and 39 in wide and with an unladen weight of 130 lbs. it is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the smallest production car ever made. The original model has no reverse gear, but a handle at the rear, called a "reversing handle," allows the very lightweight car to be maneuvered physically when required. Peel produced 50 P50s and only 27 are known to still exist, one of which was sold for a record US$176,000 at a Sotheby's auction in March 2016!  In 2010 Peel started up production on the P50 and the Trident. If you have deep enough pockets you might be able to purchase a new one…  Click HERE for a link to Peel Engineering. 

I weigh more than this car.....

The staff have a unique sense of humor.

A Tatra towing a Tissier towing a Golith towing a Subaru towing an Acoma.
Jenga anyone?

They have at least two cars that are also boats. A project cooked up by Chevrolet engineers, Richard E. Hulten and Roger D. Holm, the Corphibian was a running, driving, floating proof of concept intended for mass production.  Regrettably,  I did not get a photo, but here is the business end of an Amphicar.

Twin screws on a car?

On of my favorite cars is the Messerschmitt KR200, or Kabinenroller (Cabin Scooter).  It reminds me of a fighter plane on wheels.

Regrettably I didn’t get a photo, but they have a Tatra T87.  It was made in Czechoslovakia and this model of car is credited with killing more Nazi officers than active combat!

What about these predecessors to today's electric assisted bicycles?

If you ever find yourself in Nashville and want something to do not related to country music, we highly recommend the Lane Motor Museum. 

Where Are We Going Next?

 

 

Pecans, Peaches, and Rockets

From Pensacola we headed to the Macon, Georgia, area to visit with Keith and his wife, Carol. Keith is a co-worker of Harold's. To break the trip up, we overnighted at Hidden Hollow RV Park in Dothan, Alabama, using our Passport America discount. The next day we arrived at Crossroads Travel Park in Perry, Georgia, which is about 30 minutes below Macon. We used a combination of Passport America and military discounts to get a decent rate. 

We met Keith and Carol a couple of times throughout the weekend for some food and conversation.

This is the Carol that Ben Folds sings about.

While the weather was cool and rainy, making outdoor dining a challenge, it was nothing like what most of the country was facing. We stopped by a farm store and bought some yummy peach preserves and pecans for snacking. 

Rainy day in the pecan grove

Leaving Georgia, we headed almost directly west, back to I-65, for our journey northward. We spent a couple of nights at Maxwell AFB Famcamp in Montgomery, Alabama, before continuing to Redstone Arsenal Famcamp in Huntsville, Alabama. Redstone Arsenal was definitely the better campground between the two. 

You cannot miss the Saturn V rocket in Huntsville. It dominates the sky. We spent a few hours at The US Space and Rocket Center. The museum not only has an upright replica of the Saturn V in the yard, it has a real one laying on its side in the Rocket Hall. The displays run you through the beginnings of rocketry and the space race through current happenings. I found it interesting that they actively promoted Spacecamp by highlighting graduates who have gone on to careers in rockets, space, and other related industries. There were lots of fee-based experiences and simulators you could choose to add to your museum admission. We decided against those. We don't need a multi-axis trainer or G-force accelerator at this point in our lives.

Saturn V

Second stage

Apollo 16 Command Module

♫We all live in a yellow submarine♫
The Army's first submarine based out of Kwajalein Atoll
Used to locate and recover missile debris

It was still on the cold side as we left Huntsville, headed toward Nashville. For the second time within a week, we had to break the ice on the tow bar in order to hook up the Jeep.

Well, we will be a little later in leaving the campsite.

Pretty...

Where Are We Going Next?

Florida - Just Barely!

We left Mobile and headed to Blue Angel Park on Perdido Bay. The park is in Florida, just across the Alabama state line. It is a Navy MWR facility, though it is not on NAS Pensacola proper. It's about a 20 minute drive to the base with a Navy Shopping Mall with a commissary and exchange about 10 minutes away. 

With Harold spending a lot of time working on the Aqua Hot and a couple of cooler, rainy days, we didn't do a lot of off-site exploring. We did a little geo-caching, and I snuck in a day of shopping while Harold took in a work teleconference.

We did go on base to the Naval Aviation Museum. We spent a couple of hours milling around and took in a giant screen film of Apollo 11. 

The large flying boat in the background was the first to cross the Atlantic

Love the dangling feet

Garber target kite

Does this count as seeing the Blue Angels?

No social distancing worries - we were the only two (325 seats)

The next day after attending services at the base chapel, we visited the Pensacola Lighthouse, which is also on base. Wearing a mask and climbing 176 steps had our heart rates going. The view was worth it though. 

Round and round and round

The gargoyles are rain spouts too

And that pretty much wraps up our one week in Florida. At least we can say we made it to Florida for the winter. 

Where Are We Going Next?

Nineteen Eighty-Four

This article is not about the Van Halen album of the same name.

Cue music: Brazil by Ary Barroso. Performed by Geoff and Maria Muldaur

When connected to shore power our 2007 Newmar Essex motorhome uses three roof-mounted heat pumps as the primary heating and cooling system.

When the outside temperature drops below 32°F, it has a hydronic heating system made by AquaHot.  Wee use it seldom as one of our full time RVing goals is to stay where I can live in shorts. However, we we have failed on this a lot this past winter....

From an article on Wikipedia.com HERE: Hydronics (hydro- meaning "water") is the use of liquid water or gaseous water (steam) or a water solution (usually glycol with water) as heat-transfer medium in heating and cooling systems.

Our AquaHot is also our primary fresh water heater. When the 500HP main propulsion engine is running, waste heat is run through the heat exchanger in our AquaHot. So, we have plenty of hot water when stopping for a lunch or a break on travel days.

When connected to shore power our system uses a single 1650W 110VAC heating element that keeps up with dish washing. However, it will not keep up with an extended dance in the rain locker (AKA Hollywood Shower). W usually turn on the diesel burner for endless hot water.

I was conducting the annual maintenance on our AquaHot, which is to clean the burn chamber, the flame sensor and to replace the diesel fuel nozzle and fuel filter and to adjust the ignitor spark gap.  I accomplished this. However, the diesel burner failed to ignite.... OOPS....  

Lots of troubleshooting got me down to either the control board or the ignition coil. The documentation to support troubleshooting was of poor quality and was rather confusing, which slowed my progress.  It also rained off and on so that slowed me down too. I need to sit on the ground to access the AquaHot.

Flowcharting

Not being able to take a long dance in the rain locker added to my frustration factor.

I was down to the last isolation step when the ignitor actually fired.... What????? so I reassembled the AquaHot, and had Elizabeth flip the diesel burner switch to the on condition.  The burner fired up.

For a moment there, I felt like Sam Lowry having the AquaHot fix itself. Luckily, I did not have to call the guys from Central Services and have them produce their twenty-seven-B-stroke-six work authorization form.

Fixed Itself, did it?

So go read George Orwell's book 1984, then watch the Terry Gilliam film Brazil....

Where Are We Going Next?