(7)  Columbus - Austin

After good rest of a week, we left Columbus on 9/8 at 8:40 AM and drove 395 miles directly to Nashville skipping Mammoth Cave National Park, which was planned to visit. We were told Mammoth Cave, which is the largest cave in U. S.,  is not that beautiful but just a large cave which will make us very tired to look around and, since we saw Luray Cavern this time, we decided to skip Mammoth Cave to make this long trip easier. Because the time zone was changed from Eastern Time to Central time gaining 1 hour in addition to the time planned for Mammoth Cave, we could arrive Nashville much earlier at 3:30 PM Nashville time, allowing more time to upload the trip story of Section-6 to this web site sooner.

On 9/9, the next day, we left Nashville and headed for Hot Springs, Arkansas. As we learned that the home of Elvis Presley is in Memphis, which was on the way in today's route, we stopped by the Memphis and visited "The Graceland of Elvis Presley". 

Graceland of Elvis Presley, Memphis, TN

As it is told Elvis is making more money after his death than when he was alive, there were lot of visitors with sightseeing buses as well as private cars, and tours of his home site was very expensive - $68/person for full tour, $32 for partial tour and $27 for shortest tour - his home site only. $8 was charged just to park the car !! (Probably the most expensive parking fee in U. S. except top 5 or 10 largest cities in U. S. A.. Now, I can understand how Elivis can make more money after his death.) We didn't take any tour because, not only it was too expensive, there was no time to take tour as it was not in our plan and we had to drive 400 miles on the day to Hot Springs from Nashville　

Two private airplanes of Elvis Presley. One had 4 engines (Boing 707?), another had twin engines (Boing 727?). Touring the inside of the airplanes is a part of paid tour. Nothing free here except air to breeze.

There were so many trucks on the Interstate Highway-40 from Nashville to Hot Springs we drove today. We could see more trucks than passanger cars on the road sometimes, competing to pass each other blocking both lanes for quite a long time so often as their speeds are almost same each other. I drove U. S. highways all over the country but have never seen so many trucks on the highway. The picture below is Interstate Highway-30 next day, not -40, which also had many trucks but not as many as HWY-40.

Hot Springs National Park, AR

The first federally protected area in the nation's history, Hot Springs National Park, Arkansas, features amazing 147‘ thermal water, rich history and beautiful architecture. Picture post card perfect Arkansas historic sites of downtown Hot Springs National Park include classic hotels, Victorian architecture, world-class art studios, Hot Springs restaurants and famed Bathhouse Row. (From Internet Hot Springs National Park web site)

The whole city of Hot Springs, the home of Bill Clinton, is a National Park and it was a beautiful city - not too large but not to small either. The natural hot spring water from the ground was everywhere - on the hill, on the main street and in the many bath houses, of course.

There are almost 10 beautiful bath houses on one side of main street of downtown which serve hot natural spring water bath and massages, and called "Bathhouse Row". We came here  to take a bath but, by the time we arrived there, it was too late as they all close at 3-4 PM, very early in the afternoon.

One of bathhouses. (already closed)

Hot natural water coming out of ground on the hill.

A sign was posted on the main street. No explanation required !!

Houston, TX

There are two routes to go to Houston from Hot Springs. The short cut is to take Interstate Highway-30 for about 2 hours and then take Highway-59 to south which shows thin line on the map meaning it seems to be a single lane local roads slowing down the drive. The other is to take Interstate Highway-30 all the way to Dallas and then take Interstate Highway-45 to Houston which is freeway driving all the way.

The "Trip Maker" software calculated 407 miles and 8 hours 20 min of driving time for short cut and 550 miles and 8 hours 50 min. for the alternative route through Dallas. There was 143 miles of difference but only 30 more min. of driving. It all depends on the road situation of highway-59, which I had no idea. I asked Mr. Yoon in Houston but he has not driven highway-59 and didn't know the situation of highway-59 either.

I had been wondering which route to take for almost 3 months untill the last minute and decided to take short cut. And... What a wonderful decision this lucky guy has made !!! Highway-59 was double lane road with 70 MPH speed limit for most of sections. It looks like the road was expanded in last few years but "Trip Maker" used older data base for this road. We left Hot Springs at 8:20 AM and arrived Houston much earlier than the plan. However, we waisted more than 30 min. after we got out of freeway because of heavy rush hour traffic and arrived at Mr. Yoon's house at 5:30 PM, still 30 min. earlier than plan driving 412 miles on the day.

Mr. Eun-Sang Yoon was one of the very early radio ham in Korea half century ago. We met quite often at that time but could not meet for more than 40 years now as he moved to U. S. A. much earlier than us. He visited our home in Sept. last year and we were so happy to see again after such a long time. This time, we stayed one night in his house and enjoyed wonderful cooking of his wife and talking about so many subjects about early time in Korea.

In front of Mr. Yoon's house.

Mr. Eun-Sang Yoon half century ago in Korea operating Hanyang University ham radio club station HL2AG.

Austin, TX

We left Houston on 9/11 and arrived Austin after short 2.5 hours of driving of 201 miles only. We lived in Austin, Texas for about a year (1997-1998) while I worked for SAS (Samsung Austin Semiconductors) as the VP Quality, which is a wafer fabrication plant of Samsung Semiconductors, still under construction at the time as a new company.  It was my final job and I retired from SAS in 1998. Upon arrival to Austin, we stopped by the SAS just to remember SAS 10 years ago.

SAS Today

SAS in 1998 still under construction.

Assuming I will work for a few years in Austin, we bought this house in Clithea Cove (street name) and lived only about a half year. Half year later, I quit SAS, retired and sold this house. However, because housing price was going up and up at the time, I was lucky enough not to loose money at least. We visited this house during the trip just to remember our life in Austin 10 years ago.

Mr. Min-Ho Tan worked for me as the Quality Asurance Director when I was the Senior Director of Samsung Semiconductors in Kihung, Korea. He is retired from Samsung and now operating his own company in Austin. I visited his beautiful house on hill top with a great view of northwestern part of Austin and met him after more than 15 years. We palyed a late afternoon golf together on the day arrived to Austin at the Barton Creak Country Club which is one of the best golf course in Texas and also the backyard of his house.

After the golf in the afternoon, we had a great dinner at Country Line Restaurant with Mr./Mrs. Tan and Mr./Mrs. Hee-Kyun Park, who is the President of SAS currently. We worked together in Buchun Plant of Samsung Semiconductors and in SAS also when it started 10 years ago. The County Line Restaurant has a best Baby Back Rib BBQ and I have insisted to have dinner there as I can not forget the taste of the Baby Back Rib BBQ there yet.

When we left Houston on 9/11, hurricane "IKE" was still at the west of Florida and moving to west in the gulf of Mexico. Houston was still clear but it was forecasted that it might hit Houston within 1-2 days. On 9/12, we left Austin in the morning and drove 231 miles to Abilene. When we turned on the TV at the hotel in Abilene after check in, it was showing the hurrican Ike approaching to the Houston area and hundreds of thousands of people were evacuating from Houston area, only one day after we left there. 

Hurricane Ike, a Catagory-2 hurricane, hit the Houston in the morning of 9/13, 2 days after we left Houston. TV news said 110 MPH, 135 MPH at peak, were blowing in the Houston and millions of people lost their power which will take more than a week to be restored. However, by that time, we were far away from hurricane in Abilene, a small city 200 miles west from Dallas, and  there was no rain, just some clouds only. Again, what a lucky guy I am !!!

Traffic of Texas

When I lived in Austin working for Samsung, I met many Texans saying "I am proud of a Texan" and they must have many good reasons to be proud of. However, I see many traffic problems in Texas.

First of all, Texans love to drive left fast lane always, not only fast cars but slow cars too. Because they love left lane so much including trucks, left lane is always crowded and there are far less cars on the right lanes. Therefore, in Texas, right slower lanes work as passing lane many cases. In other states, faster car pass slower car on the left lane and move to right lane after passing. But, in Texas only, no one want to move to the right lanes including slower cars. One time, when I approached to a slower car on the right lane at the two lanes road, he yielded me moving to the left lane so that I can pass him on the right lane. This strange habbit makes the utilization of highway roads very inefficient as it is hard to pass slower cars and right lanes are not fully utilized.

The freeway system in the cities of Texas is quite different from other states (or other part of whole world). On both sides of the freeway, there are 2-4 lanes one-way roads called "Access Road" and there is no intersection exit as it is common in all other part of the world. Instead, there are "Entrance" and "Exit" here and there without any relation to the major cross roads. To drive freeway, you drive Access Road first for a while and get into freeway through any Entrance to freeway. When you approach to the destination, if the destination is at your right, you must take a Exit well in advance, because you don't know where the next Exit would show up, unless you live in the city and familiar to all the Entrances and Exits. If you miss the right Exit once and pass it, you must take next Exit, make a U-turm at the next U-Turn only lane which you will find every 0.5 - 1 mile, drive back to another U-Turn only lane for 0.5 - 1 mile and come back to the destination. To go to a next building to the right, you have to make same one round of driving as the Access Road is one way street and you can not drive even to next building unless it is on your left. When I was not familiar to this system, I was just driving around a few times and it took easily 5-10 min. even I could see the sign of the destination.

On the other hand, if your destination is on your left, you have to pass the destination, take the first Exit, drive Access Road for a while untill you find U-Turn only lane, make U-turn to other side of Access Road and drive back to the destination.

If your destination is located on your right very soon after you took an Exit to Access Road, you have to change 1-3 lanes very quickly to make right turn to the road you want to get in, while there are many cars approaching to you very fast on all 2-4 lanes. It is very dangerous circus driving and I had an accident when I lived in Austin.

This time, I found another problem - the navigator problem. The navigator could not distinguish the freeway lane and Access Road lane, as they are so close each other, and gave me so many unreasonable confusing instructions. It asked me to exit next while I was already on the Access Road and asked to turn right at next road while I was still driving on the freeway yet. I can not understand why Texas adopted this dangerous and inefficient unusual traffic system. They must have their own reason to be proud of this crazy system but I hated this system while I lived there and this time too.