Ron Beatty's wintertime trip January 2003

My January trip from Salt Lake City through Santa Fe and Little Rock to Columbia, South Carolina was "warm," pleasant, and uneventful.

I intended to leave Salt Lake City at dawn on January 8th, but didn't get rolling until 11 am. Consequently I barely got out of Utah and into NE Arizona by sunset. Part of the reason for the late start was sub-freezing temperatures at daybreak. (I think I remember 26 degrees that morning). Another part was concern about icy conditions on Soldier Summit. But mostly it was the same old situation of trying to pack everything perfectly, and trying to tie up as many "loose ends" as possible before leaving. Since it was a sunny day, the temperatures were well above freezing, perhaps as high as 40 degrees when I left Salt Lake City.

I wore ten layers of clothes on my torso and my "new this year" rain suit for wind protection, so I was warm from the waist up. Unfortunately I didn't have enough on my legs, just a pair of old blue jeans, thin coveralls, and the rain suit. The surprise was that my old, holey tennis shoes and the terrific "SmartWool" socks kept my feet warm. (Thanks Danny). I was a little unnerved crossing Soldier Summit, especially in those places where there was lots of snow beside the road and the roadway appeared "wet." Temperatures at the summit (elevation 7472) were probably in the lower twenties or upper teens. This was one of the coldest places on the trip. My hands and legs were both too cold.

Once over the summit, I thought the road would drop to a lower, warmer elevation, but I thought wrong. More accurately, it was lower and it was warmer, but not enough. My hands lose strength and feeling so that they are useless to unzip zippers, etc. It was a good thing that I had stopped to relieve myself of the morning soda earlier. That part of Utah is a high plateau so I stayed cold. Winter scenery in those high plateaus is very different. It is an arid region, so it seldom rains or snows. When snow does fall, it stays cold enough to keep it. Bright sunshine on desert scenery dusted with snow is an unusual and beautiful sight. I followed old U.S. highways 6 and 191 through Helper, Price, Moab, Montecello, Blanding, and Bluff.

As darkness approached, I started looking for a good hill. I hadn't trusted my aging battery to start the bike ever since that one cold December morning in Salt Lake City when it died trying. I made my turn onto U.S. highway 160, heading towards Shiprock and came to a beautiful spot at the top of a hill between Mexican Hat & Mexican Water. I explored the roadside at the top of the hill thoroughly and found a place where traffic headlights didn't shine on the bike. The place was obviously much used by locals as a place to drink and watch the street lights of Mexican Hat. It seemed unlikely that anyone would be out carousing on a below-freezing winter's Monday night. The night was very cold and deposited mucho frost on my sleeping bag, a huge surprise in the very arid Southwest. I packed before dawn and was riding through frigid air soon after the sun cleared the horizon. This time I was also wearing my snowmobile pants, so stayed comfortable. Even with the early start I didn't get into Santa Fe until about 1pm. The new cell phone is wonderful. Centaur Cycles knew I was coming and was ready to mount a new rear tire for me. The old one still had a 1/16th inch tread showing, but since I needed to cross the country in winter, I splurged on a new tire earlier than usual.

I spent several days in Santa Fe visiting friends, playing Go, and enjoying the scenery. My friends and I managed a nice little Saturday stroll in the mountains. I lost at both Scrabble and Go. The big surprise is that the women who manage my long-time favorite breakfast restaurant, Tia Sophia's, are three sisters from my home town in Illinois. I even recognized the name of one who was two years my junior in high school.

I left Santa Fe early (like 11 am again) Monday morning, and decided to ride the Interstate to Little Rock. The Interstate traffic to Oklahoma City was not too obnoxious, especially since I upped my speed to 80 mph. (My BMW speedometer reads more than 10 mph high, so I was actually doing 70 mph or so). It was getting dark as I cleared Oklahoma City, and bad weather was forecast for Little Rock Wednesday evening. Conversely it was forecast to be "warm," and the Interstate traffic was OK. Considering all that, I rode through the night and arrived in Little Rock for breakfast. Breakfast was terrific, two flavors of that wonderful Blue Bell ice cream from Texas. Since they were only pints, it was a "light" breakfast.

The Arkansas Historical Commission is smack next to the museum and the State Capitol. There is even free parking nearby. The library was just opening at 9 am when I arrived, so I spent the entire day there cheerfully researching Rambo genealogy until closing time at 5 pm. Unfortunately the John Pierce collection didn't yield any startling new information.

It was still light at 5 pm so I rode east on old U.S. highway 70 until dusk when I came across a rural trailer that had been burned out. Nobody anywhere around, no neighbors near, and I could park on the lawn on the far side of the trailer, shielded from headlights ... perfect lodging in my book. It was a beautiful, peaceful night. In the morning my gear was again covered with frost and I again started riding as the sun cleared the horizon. Despite the frost, the morning was warmer that those other frosty mornings. I was able to stay off the interstates until Birmingham, but the city traffic through Birmingham was truly noxious. I was actually glad to get back onto the Interstate ... and was lucky enough to find one of the eastern most gas stations with a convenience store stocking Blue Bell pints. Yum. Blue Bell is only available within a certain radius from the plant, and this was pushing the radius.

The Interstate from Birmingham to Atlanta was again nice enough since I kept the speed up. It was getting dark as I cleared Atlanta, and I decided it would be simpler to push on into Columbia while I had nice weather, especially since the ice & snow had reached Little Rock and was heading my way. I parked the bike in my buddy's driveway around 11 pm. I love it when trips are pleasant and uneventful.

A week later we drove out to Myrtle Beach to prepare for the wedding. My friends timeshared a 14th floor suite until other wedding guests started arriving, then moved to a suite on the 8th floor in the neighboring building. Nice views of the beach, the swimming pool, and the hot tub. Strangest thing, but I didn't see many sun worshippers or bikini outfits. It was a cold week with a dusting of snow one evening. The wedding was beautiful, the bride was radient, and the groom and his buddies had great fun.

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I took four other trips in 2003. Here is the travelog from the longest.

I've finally returned to South Carolina safely. I'm glad to hear that Danny is enjoying his new bike on the weekends. Me, I just finished toddling along with my decrepit old body [I'm 56] on my decrepit old Beemer [it is a 1973] for a short five week trip.

The plan was to leave Columbia on September 25 so that I could visit friends in Ohio en route. However, I misplaced a day, was overwhelmed and finally left Irmo, SC on Sep 27. Main street was closed for the annual fall Okra Festival parade, so I wandered around lost for an hour or two trying to get out of town. Eventually I got out my map and discovered that the road I had been trying to avoid did indeed go Northwest, exactly the direction I needed. I rode about 80 miles of back roads before I got onto I-77 to Marietta, Ohio where I stopped to see the couple who ran a Lionel train museum until last Christmas. They are 83 and 79 years old and kept the museum open from 10am til 5pm 365 days a year for 7 years. Amazing isn't it? Lovely people.

Then I spent two days with Ruth Renton. We didn't do one shred of actual genealogy, but we laughed and laughed and exchanged stories of travels and genealogy. Boy oh boy, do I like her.

The motivation for the trip was to meet a couple of college buddies in Rochester, NY. Turns out that the other two guys are also both on a restricted diet for weight and heart health, so we were excellently compatible and I learned many things about my new diet. Ed and I ate breakfast before I left Webster, NY, and that was a mistake as the rain started around 10:30 am. The color radar (on www.weather.com at the library) showed only a small band of rain east of Webster extending perhaps 30 miles, but it rained on me all the way to Albany. Most of the rain was light, but there were several stretches of soaking downpours. No fun. I slept out overnight on a picnic table under a large church picnic shelter. Next morning dawned dry and cold, but I had warm enough clothing along and enjoyed a pretty ride across southern Vermont into New Hampshire.

I stayed in New Hampshire for several days visiting friends and housesitting during prime leaf-peeping time. The leaves were marvelous for two days, but the wind knocked them down early. I visited several friends in the vicinity and enjoyed a good hike to see fall colors near Mt. Monadnock. I also rode into Boston one day and into its suburbs another. My sleeping bag was covered with frost nearly every morning.

Those particular roads bring back fond memories of the genealogy research I did on Marsha's Belding ancestors who lived in Jaffrey, NH and in Townsend, Pepperell, Groton, and Sudbury, MA.

While I managed to not waste my diet on mediocre ice cream, I did catch the last two days of the season at Kimball Farms in Jaffrey, NH. Imagine my surprise when I missed a turn a week later and discovered the original location complete with minature golf - and enjoyed another quart. I left New Hampshire Oct 23, stayed mostly on smaller roads from New Hampshire south, and slept the night behind a deserted kitchen store just across the Connecticut state line. Next morning I skirted New York City on I-684 (? I think), entered Pennsylvania as soon as possible (since they revoked their motorcycle helmet law), and continued on small roads to Norristown, PA.

I found a "lovely" public boat launching ramp on the Schuylkill adjacent to flood plains in Chester County between Phoenixville and Trappe where I spent three nights. Fortunately the lush growth of poison ivy seems to have been dormant already. (The first night I laid out my sleeping gear in the dark - and was very unpleasantly surprised to see poison ivy everywhere in the morning.) I was stranded by showers the next day at that boat ramp - I hate to start riding in the rain, especially since my old holey running shoes get soaked in a hurry. The forecast had been for showers the previous night for three hours, so I delayed thinking the rain should end soon. It finally ended around 4pm. The Norristown area does include nice suburbs and pretty scenery not very far from the downtown ghetto.

Unfortunately the archivist espied my photography of the wills and forbade it. The whole reason for that stop was to photograph those old wills before the delinquents thereabouts walk off with the original Rambo wills. The ride into Philadelphia on Friday was uneventful freeway, and I enjoyed meeting Herb Rambo on Oct 25th. He showed me around Gloria Dei and the Colonial Swedish Museum. I've been offered future accommodations in the churchyard at Gloria Dei by the sexton.

I stayed at Mt. Airy and my brother and his family came up from Potomac to go for a day hike at Cunningham Falls in Coctactin State Park. We all had a good time. It was great fun visiting Jim Sweet, meeting his friend Dave, and tagging along behind them for a day of motorcycling on back roads around Mt. Airy. Imagine my surprise when we entered Coctactin State Park and rode right by Cunningham Falls where I had been with my brother the day before. I also stopped in D.C. to see Peter Craig briefly and to visit several friends there. It is always a treat to see his smiling face.

I enjoyed the smaller roads in Virginia, and stopped in the historical society in Washington, VA; then to the courthouse and library at Staunton in Augusta County. I found an estate case and a few deeds there that explain a few of the thoughts others have had about the Rambos who migrated south. The real genealogical plum from this trip came while thumbing through the unindexed book of "Parish records" at the courthouse and discovering a bastardy case against Jacob Rambo, son of Swan. Hard to believe that none of the other Rambo researchers has found that previously. I decided not to spend Saturday at the historical society in Rockingham Co., so rode an hour south on I-81 and slept that night on the shoulder of the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Next morning I especially enjoyed riding 100 miles of the Blue Ridge Parkway without seeing much other traffic from either direction. Sometimes I didn't see another car for a full five minutes. I arrived at I-77 much too quickly and rode south 30 miles to one of those smaller roads to end my trip in a relaxed manner on November 1.

I'm now back to typing genealogy although the end is near. My weight is down to 187 this morning. A friend in D.C. took my blood pressure after a meal. It is 127 over 69, pulse 64. The diet to improve my arteries is fine although I need a trailer for my pills. Besides glucosamine, condroitin & MSM, I'm taking juice-plus, lecithin, melatonin, garlic pills, aspirin, vitamins C, E, B-complex, and an iron-free multi. Speaking of which I've got to take them now.

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Rambo family genealogy,  Bankston & Bankson family genealogy,  the Camblin family genealogy,  the Dorsey Overturff family,  cousin Jean's Schenck and Hageman genealogy, and 

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