Americky Trip

stickyfiddle

Road trip!

So in April, we took a couple of weeks in the USA, mostly involving a road trip through the national parks between DC and Nashville. I wasn't in a super-mega-photography mood for most of the trip, but thought I'd share my favourites. 

We flew, obviously, going north over europe and crossing Iceland on the way rather than straight across the Atlantic, helping to prove the whole non-flat-Earth thing... This was Greenland:




First up was a couple of days in New York. It was my 4th time there, so this was about getting through the jetlag (and getting some decent gluten free pizza) than sightseeing. But a few sights were still seen...

stickyfiddle

Next up was Washington DC. We went by train, which was really nice actually and much easier than just hacking down the interstate







Of course, being in DC there are flags and monuments everywhere, so we took a sunset walking tour of a good number of them. Highlights for me were the Korean war memorial and the Lincoln Monument.









The rest of our 2 days in DC were museum-heavy. Which mostly meant going to see this guy...

RobDavies

Great images.  Thanks for sharing.   

Emp_Fab

What a strange portrait.  HIs hands look enormous, his nose is too wide and why is he sitting in a chair that looks like it's being slowly consumed by the vegetation ?  WTF is this supposed to represent ?  If I didn't know better (which I don't), I'd read into that that the artist was trying to imply he was some kind of 'gorilla in the mist'.  Very odd.

Edit: and whose eyes are those ?!!  I've seen them before on someone famous, but not Obama.

stickyfiddle

Next up we hit trouble with the rental car. We were supposed to have a Mustang convertible (american dream, yada, yada) but Dollar at Reagan Airport, but they couldn't find the keys and were a complete pain about our insistence that a hardtop Dodge Challenger really isn't quite the same thing. Eventually we shuffled over to Dulles airport, spoke to National rental in the Uber ride there, and go upgraded to a BMW 430i convertible for barely any more money. AMAZING.

That cost us a few hours of faffing, but we had to go to IAD anyway as it's next to the Steven F Udvar-Hazy Centre, which is the bit of the Smithsonian air & space where they keep The Good Stuff...

stickyfiddle

After all that, the weather went to shit and I was *really* glad of a car with a metal roof.



Like.. really...



And we turned up to our guesthouse about 4 hours late, and scared the shit out of the housekeeper who had assumed we were a no-show. No phone signal meant we couldn't call ahead. Thankfully all was ok and the breakfast was EPIC. I started really healthy. 

Then gluten-free pancakes happened. 3 times... I now fully understand the north american pancakes+bacon+maple syrup "thing"





Than we got on the road in search of glorious views over the Skyline Drive...

Errr...



Actually it made for some good moody pics, but driving a full day in that fog was a bit nuts

stickyfiddle

Emp_Fab said:

What a strange portrait.  HIs hands look enormous, his nose is too wide and why is he sitting in a chair that looks like it's being slowly consumed by the vegetation ?  WTF is this supposed to represent ?  If I didn't know better (which I don't), I'd read into that that the artist was trying to imply he was some kind of 'gorilla in the mist'.  Very odd.

Edit: and whose eyes are those ?!!  I've seen them before on someone famous, but not Obama.

I think it's a great portrait. It clearly looks like him, but in a gallery full of historical portraits it really stands out in a good way. The only others that really do are JFK's (in a good way) and Clinton's (not so much..)

I can't wait to see which way Trump goes with his. I assume he'll want something that makes him look wealthy and powerful... 

stickyfiddle

Next day. AMAZING breakfast again (massive yes for white grits...)



And much better weather. i.e. not rain. Therefore - roof off!





This continued for the next few days. Loads of good views, great roads, no rain, plenty of birds and squirrels and deer and goats! 
 

BloodEagle

Fantastic photos!

Neil

Great trip with marvellous photo's. 

Thanks for posting. 

Wolfetone

Brilliant photos. Where were the rail tracks and what's the story behind them?

stickyfiddle

Wolfetone said:

Brilliant photos. Where were the rail tracks and what's the story behind them?

It's actually a reconstruction of the old logging railroad (google Yankee Horse Ridge on the Blue Ridge Parkway). The original tracks are long gone but these have been there long enough to look plenty old as well. 

Incidentally, that photo and the foggy road one were taken only about 100 feet and 5 minutes apart - the rate the weather can change from crap to *really crap* is amazing!

Emp_Fab

Fabulous photos mate!  Amazing stuff.

But I can't let that portrait of JFK go without comment!  He looks like he's just about to finish an epic w**k.

Sorry about that.  I think I'm spending too much time with our drummer.  He's a bad influence.

stickyfiddle

More! 

Did I mention the views? They don't call them the Blue Ridge Mountains for nothing. They were pretty good...





This one was particularly special. We had a cain in Wears Valley, just outside Pigeon Forge in the Great Smokey Mountains. Yes that's about 10 miles from Dollywood. Dollywood is great. Pigeon Forge itself is like Blackpool or Gt Yarmouth but in the middle of nowhere without the beach and without even a tinsiest shred of irony. 

I also got a load of shit of a guy in a Dodge truck own..., presumably because I wasn't in a redneck car and didn't have sunburn and was clearly from out of town. But apart from that guy everyone was lovely!

Anyway, this view, from a private cabin with a hot tub, pool table and cable tv. Oh my god. I didn't want to leave. I am very happy to share details if anyone wants a trip.You might even see bears! We didn't see bears

Nitefly

Wow, fabulous pics, matey - thanks for sharing them!

boogieman

Looks a great trip. Oh, and...excellent photos sir! 

stickyfiddle

And finally Nashville. Not so photo-heavy, but we managed to see the Rolling Stones' Exhibitionism exhibit, which included several guitars I didn't even need to read the labels of to know what they were. 

The personal highlight was this LP Custom, which I hd a photo of on my bedroom wall as a teenager. They were definitely on the good drugs back then



Next up was the Musician's Hall of Fame, which included this wonderful Gretsch with EMGs which would make most purists shudder, but was apparently used on shitloads of successful records, including the Sound of Silence (though I suspect it didn't have the EMGs in 1964...




That was followed by a night at the Opry for their Country Classics show. Not "my thing" by a long shot but a really fun night out and amazing musicianship from the 20+ players. 

And on our last night, the Foo Fighters were in town, so I couldn't resist seeing them again - my first Foos gig since my first "big gig" 16 years ago. Amazing seats and an awesome show. I now adore Pat Smear... 



Aaand, I'v just realised I didn't mention Brooklyn! On our last night in NYC We saw the Darkness   

1800-ish capacity venue and every bit as much fun as when I first saw *them* 15-ish years ago as well. No decent pics sadly, but here's a couple of videos from someone else who must've been standing pretty much next to me. 

RandallFlagg

Great pics - what camera did you use?

stickyfiddle

RandallFlagg said:

Great pics - what camera did you use?

Cheers. Everything is from either my Fuji XT1 (with either18-135, 10-24mm or 35mm f1.4) or my rather creaky iPhone 6 and Lightroom for post.

The good shit is all the Fuji, but plenty is the iPhone (Greenland, NYC, guitars and most of the food). I am, however, aching for a faster phone with a better camera  - trying to hold out for the next iPhone refresh.

stickyfiddle

One more thing from me. THIS ROAD

Most of the Blue Ridge Parkway is quite slow - blind crests and bends with massive steep drops on one side or t'other (occasionally both!). But this bit in particular was AMAZING. I didn't take pictures because I was too busy driving   

https://goo.gl/maps/8Dxn7585M5k

boogieman

stickyfiddle said:

RandallFlagg said:

Great pics - what camera did you use?

Cheers. Everything is from either my Fuji XT1 (with either18-135, 10-24mm or 35mm f1.4) or my rather creaky iPhone 6 and Lightroom for post.

The good shit is all the Fuji, but plenty is the iPhone (Greenland, NYC, guitars and most of the food). I am, however, aching for a faster phone with a better camera  - trying to hold out for the next iPhone refresh.

Whichever iPhone you get, get the plus version. It has twin lenses and the IQ is so much better. Tbh I wouldn’t bother going much beyond a 7 at the moment.. the 8 has the same pic technology and lenses as the 7 and the X is just stupidly expensive for what it is, basically you’re paying a whole lot more money for animated emojis. The 8 and X also have glass backs which make them more fragile.