(8)  Austin - Home

The original plan was to play a golf on 9/12 morning in Austin, drive to San Antonio after the golf and drive to El Paso on the next day 9/13 from there. However, as we played golf on 9/11 afternoon, we changed the plan to drive to Abilene, about 200 miles west from Dallas, in the morning of 9/12, which is about 110 miles closer to El Paso than from San Antonio, so that we can shorten the driving of 9/13, which was supposed to be the longest driving day of  560 miles. 

Highway-183 to north from Austin to Interstate Highway-20 was expected to be a single lane local road which must be much slower than Interstate Highway, just as what I had expected about Highway-59 to Houston. However, we found more than half of HWY-183 had double lanes and there were very few cars on the road. It was almost same as Trans-Canada Highway-1 in Canada, with very few cars and many crossing streets but still with 70 MPH high speed limits, which I could drive at 80 MPH for most of times. We left Austin at 9:30 AM and arrived Abilene by 1:20 PM driving 231 miles in less than 4 hours.

Next day on 9/13, we drove Interstate Highway-20 and -10 from Abilene to El Paso. The "Trip Maker" calculated this 450 miles drive to require 7 hours 10 min. and I planned to leave Abilene at 9:00 AM to arrive El Paso at 4:30 PM. (8.5 hours of total time including 1 hour 20 min. of lunch/break/refueling time) There was a time zone change from Central Time Zone to Mountain Time Zone and we gained 1 hour. However, we actually left hotel at 8:20 AM, 40 min. earlier, and arrived El Paso at 2:40 PM, almost 2 hours earlier than planned because of wonderful speed limit.

When we drove HWY-20 to the point where 90 miles further to go to HWY-20 and HWY-10 junction, the speed limit was changed from 70 MPH to 80 MPH. It was the first time to see 80 MPH speed limit in U.S.A. and drove almost 90 MPH for most of the time. When we hit HWY-10, it also posted 80 MPH all the way to El Paso. Therefore, I drove most of the time at almost 90 MPH speed without concern to get ticket from police, as it is less than 10 MPH over speed limit . It was really a wonderful drive and it took only 6 hours rather than 7 hours 10 min. the Trip Maker calculated. (HWY-10 speed limit to the west from El Paso - New Mexico and Arizona - was 75 MPH. 80 MPH was Texas only.)

80 MPH Speed Limit of Interstate Highway-20 in Texas.

Scottsdale, AZ

Since Arizona belongs to Mountain Standard Time Zone, the time was supposed to be changed when we cross the border of Arizona and California. However, Arizona is one of very few states who does not adopt Daylight Saving Time, and Arizona time and California Time are same in summer. Therefore, we gained one hour when we cross the border of New Mexico and Arizona. We left El Paso at 8:20 AM  El Paso time on 9/14, drove 454 miles and arrived Mr. Choi's house in Scottsdale, AZ at 3:20 PM Arizona time, which sounds like 7 hours but actually 8 hours after we left El Paso. 

Mr. Yoon-Keun Choi was another early ham in Korea half centry ago with the Korean Call Sign of HM1AC. He used phonetic call sign of Arizona Cowboy (=AC) and lives in Scottsdale now, northeastern part of Phoenix, Arizona, becoming real Arizona Cowboy(?). We visited him, stayed at his house for 2 nights and played a round of golf in 1998 when I had retired from Samsung and were moving from Austin to Silicon Valley. Now, we visited Mr./Mrs. Choi after about 10 and half years this time. 

Mr. Choi was going to leave for Germany on the very next day after we met, to attend the opening ceremony of his customer's facility in Dresden, Germany. He was invited only few weeks ago while we were travelling. If the customer's opening ceremony was going to be held one day or more earlier or our plan to visit him was one day or more later, we would not be able to see him. What a lucky guy I am again !! 

 At the backyard of Mr. Choi's house. Huge cactus is called Saguaro which lives in Arizona only
 at the elevation of 2,000 - 3,500 ft.

Mr. Choi drove around his house to show us beautiful Saguaros.

We went to a restaurant called "Pinnacle Peak Patio" for dinner. 
This long building was just one restaurant, built almost 100 years ago but preserved very well.

At the outdoor dinner table waiting Arizona cowboy dinner dishes.

Formal dress was taboo here. All ties were cut and hung on the ceiling with owner's business card, 
if anyone comes in with tie. There were thousands of ties on the ceiling including very expensive ties too.

　Irvine, CA

Our plan was to go to Johnny's house from Phoenix and have dinner with Johnny on 9/15. However, we changed the plan, went to Irvine, met frientds there and had a very enjoyable dinner time with them. From right to left : Mr. Won-Suk Yang with his daughter in the arm (We worked in Samsung together. He lived in Sunnyvale but moved to Irvine only a few months ago.), Mrs. W. S. Yang, Dr. Sung-Moon Yang (He worked in early KMI), D. I. Cho, Mrs. Hak-Song Park (Her husband has worked in Samsung with me who is in Korea for his business now.), Jane Cho, Mrs. Sung-Moon Yang.

Los Angeles, CA

After we had a great dinner time in Irvine, we drove about 45 min. to Johnny's house at Sunset Boulvard, Los Angeles, northwestern part of L.A. near Santa Monica. This is Johnny at his desk in home. He loves Apple computer and has never used other than Apple computer.

Instead of dinner, we had a nice breakfast at nearby restaurant in the morning of 9/16, the last day of the long trip.

We left L. A. at 9:00 AM after the breakfast with Johnny and arrived home at almost 3:00 PM
after the last drive of 351 miles in about 6 hours. 

We made it !!    Right on Schedule.

Epilog

When we planned this trip, we didn't think it would be easy. First of all, Jane was not fully recovered from the surgery yet and I am too old. However, since I can feel I am getting weaker and weaker every year, if we don't do this year, it will be definitely harder and harder as time passes by and this must be a good time for Jane to change her depressed mind forgetting everything but the travelling. Therefore, we started this trip under the condition that we would quit the trip any time when we feel we are too tired and return home cancelling the rest of the trip.

However, we are glad we have not quit but completed the trip as planned. I think 5 days in Ashburn and 2 days in Columbus at the middle point of the trip really helped us to recoup from 18 days of hard driving. When we left Columbus, 24 days out of 33 days were already behind us and there were only 9 days left to go. It was not planned that way - to recoup at the middle point - but it happened to be that way and I am very glad we planned a week of rest at middle point. Originally, I planned only 3 days in Ashburn but Jane's sister Young-Hyuk insited a week at least. We compromised to 5 days which was long enough to rest after 18 days of hard driving.

It was definitely a great trip and we really enjoyed the whole trip. We visited many beautiful places like Lake Louise, Waterton National Park, Canadian side Niagara Falls, Thousand Islands, Luray Caverns etc. which will take many trips to visit all of them normally, and met so many relatives and friends whom we can not meet easily. We really had great time with all of them talking so many subjects of past, current and future.

We travelled very much on schedule as planned except just few minor changes. We skipped the Mammoth Cave, added the Graceland of Elvis Presley in Memphis, TN and added Irvine, CA to visit more friends at the last minute. We also changed route from Austin-San Antonio-El Paso to Austine-Abilene-El Paso to reduce the longest driving day by about 110 miles. Departure/Arrival times of each day were also very much as planned with no more than +/- 1 hour most of days.

I did most of the driving every day. However, after I drove about 1-2 hours, Jane drove about 30-40 min. in the morning and afternoon too. While she was driving, I could rest or take a short nap which really helped me a lot.

We wanted this 2nd. Around-Continent-Trip to cross Canada this time ever since we did Around-USA-Trip in 1975 because whole family really enjoyed the 1975 Trip. I once bought a van when we returned from Taiwan to make this 2nd. trip but could not make it because of few different resons. After 33 years, we finally made it, twice while most of the people could not do even once,  and we are very proud of it, though, frankly, we were just little tired when we returned home, but far less than some relatives and friends as well as we had worried. (Jane gained the weight by about 5 lb at the end of the trip and became healthier, as we ate well but had been sitting in the car without much excercise most of the time.)

What a Lucky guy I was !! - I was really lucky guy for this trip. I have expected rainy weather from time to time because it is more than a month long trip in summer, rainy season for most places we have travelled. However, we were always a day or two ahead of weather system and could avoid rainy weather always. Hurricane Hanna hit Washington DC area only a day after we left there and hurricane Ike also hit the Houston area 2 days after we left Houston. There were only 2 rainy days but the rain lasted only 2-3 hours in the morning while we were driving the car which didn't give us much problem. There was no rain at all when we were doing outdoor sightseeing during whole trip. 

In addition to these lucky occasions of weather, there were a few other lucky occasions too : We could see Young-Bae Moon, the son of Jane's eldest sister, as he moved from Champaign, IL, to Ashburn only a few days before we arrived Ashburn unexpectedly, Young-Jin who left Columbus, OH, for Singapore only 2 days after we met and Yoon-Keun Choi in Scottsdale, AZ, who had to leave for Dresden, Germany very next day after we met. If we planned only 1-2 days earlier or later, we would not be able to meet these guys. What a lucky guy I was !!!!

Traffic Tickets - I was very lucky during whole trip, but not always. Since there were not many cars in Canadian highways and I did not see any highway patrol police car for days, I drove at 70 MPH (135 Km/h) for most of times, though speed limit was 110, 100 and 90 Km/h. In Ontario Province where speed limit was 90Km/h, I was driving at 135 Km/h as usual and a police car was coming from the opposite direction mixed with 4-5 other passenger cars which I couldn't notice easily. He turned around, stopped me and asked where I am from, what I am doing in Canada, where I have visited etc. etc.. Finally, he said I drove at 135 Km/h which will cost more than $400 fine but he would reduce it to 120 Km/h which will cost little over $100. I was unlucky to be caught but still lucky to meet nice police man.

Next one was in Austin Texas. After late dinner with old Samsung friends, I was looking for my hotel at around 11:00 PM in total darkness. I got off the freeway and was driving city street concentrating to navigator which way to go. These days, my night vision is not as good as when I was young, there was no other car on the street but I was keep looking at rear view mirrors to make sure there is no other car around. When I was going to change a lane giving turn signal light to the right and moved the car to the right lane slowly, I heard horn suddenly. I moved the car back to the original lane immediately but saw a blinking police car lights on the right back! I don't know where he was from. But it looks like I was almost going to hit him. He stopped me and asked few questions - where I am from, what I am doing in Austin etc.. And, I again met a nice police man! He gave me a warning ticket which has no penalty. I was unlucky but lucky again. 

The third ticket was when I approached to Phoenix, AZ. It was only less than 10 miles to enter to Phoenix city. The speed limit was 75MPH on Interstate Highway-10 and I had been driving at around 80-83 MPH not to exceed more than 10 MPH over speed limit. However, accidentally, I drove more than 85 MPH for just a few seconds I think and there was a police car hiding behind the tree. I was stopped and questioned same questions again. And, this time too, the police gave me only warning ticket with no penalty saying I drove at 86 MPH, 11 MPH over the speed limit, very marginal speeding ticket speed. Well, I was unlucky but lucky again.

Driving almost 10,000 miles for a month every day on the left fast lane passing 99% of cars most of the time, 3 tickets were not too bad - especially, only 1 ticket was to pay penalty out of 3 tickets.

Road Signs - During this trip, I have learned again how the California road signs are friendly for travellers. California freeways have road signs for next 3 exits always giving advanced notices to be prepared well in advance. It also has road number signs after every exit showing which road you have just entered with speed limit signs informing which road you are driving right after you took a new road. It has quite frequently how far the next city and a few major cities are from where you are driving now. For instance, if you drive Highway-5 south to Los Angeles, it shows how many miles are left to go to next city, how many miles to Los Angeles and few more cities in between frequently. 

In Canadian highways, the road signs are all street names, no city names, and you have no idea where you are driving now. In eastern U. S. as well as in Canada, the road signs show next exit only which shows up suddenly and you have no time to change lane from one end to the opposite side. Both cases, it is hard to see the road number signs most cases and you don't know which road you are driving when you get in to a new road.

GPS Navigator - It helped a lot most places but also caused problems here and there as the Waterton National Park case which I have described in Section-2 story. As it always calculate the shortest route, there were many cases they conflicted from what I wanted and I had to turn it off for a while, as Sault St. Marie case in Section-3 story.

In New York, I was looking for Highway-95 South to go to Washington DC. The navigator led us to Highway-95 but, not South but North. When I realized it was wrong direction, it was too late. I had to pay $8 toll to cross George Washington Bridge, make U-turn right after the bridge and head 95-South finally, waisting time and $8 toll.

After that, I assumed I should stay left to continue for Highway-95 South as usually most highways do. However, suddenly the road sign showed up without any advanced notice that Highway-95 South should take right lane, not left lane and navigator also told me too late. It was too late to change to right lane and I had to get in to Highway-80 West for many miles as it led to Highway-80 West EXPRESS lanes to make it worse, which has no access to many exits. I drove more than 10 miles, finally could make U-Turn and returned to 95-South driving back more than 10 miles again.

In Texas, because of their unusual freeway system, the navigator couldn't distinguish freeway lanes and Access Road lanes, and gave me many confusing instructions or too late instructions very frequently. It was better to turn the navigator off many times in Texas.

Because I was almost totally depending on the navigator most times during this trip and didn't study maps enough in addition to unfriendly road signs, I was lost a few times or got into wrong road many times (I didn't carry map at all but the Microsoft "Streets and Trips" map program in computer.) In 1975, I collected all street maps from AAA, carried many maps, studied them carefully always in advance and had no problem of getting into wrong road except just once in New Orleans.

The most useful information in addition to the road instruction navigator gave me was estimated arrival time display. Even though I didn't know where I was driving, I knew always how long further I had to go today. As a conclusion, the navigator was extremely usefull tool to travel with but not a perfect travel mate causing troubles quite frequently.

Statistics - Total Mileage Driven : 9,261 Miles (14,818 Km)
                      Total Days Travelled  : 33 Days
                      Driving Days                : 27 Days (Stayed same place without driving : 6 days)
                      Daily Average Driven : 344 Miles/Day (550 Km/Day) (Total Mileage/Driving Days)
                      Longest Driving Day   : 501 Miles (802 Km) (Sault St. Marie - Niagara on 8/25)
                      Shortest Driving Day  : 101 Miles (162 Km) (Waterton NP - Lethbridge on 8/20 and
                                                                                                 Ottawa - Gananoque on 8/28)
                     Provinces/States Passed   : 5 out of 6 Canadian Provinces 
                                                                                         (British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario)
                                                                   14 States (CA, OR, WA, NY, PA, VA, MD, OH, KY, TN, AR, TX, NM, AZ)
                      Relatives & Friends Met : 21 Couples/53 people including 8 kids.
                                    Relatives             : 9 (Hyo-Jin, Bryan, Do-Hyuk, Dong-Wook, Young-Hyuk,  Michelle Cho 
                                                                       Young-Bae Moon, Seong-Koo, Young-Jin, Johnny.)
                                    Old Ham Friends : 6 (HM1CC, HM1AX, HM1BA, HM1AB, HL2AG, HM1AC)
                                    KMI/Samsung     : 7 (Myung-In Shin, Sang-Maun Lee, Min-Ho Tan, Hee-Kyun Park, 
                                                                       Won-Suk Yang, Sung-Moon Yang, Mrs. Hak-Song Park.)
                      Sightseeing Spots Visited : Vancouver, Glacier NP, Lake Louise, Waterton NP, Niagara, Ottawa,
                                                                   Thousands Island, Luray Cavern, Elvis Presley Graceland, Hot Springs NP. 

Jane and I would like to express our heartfelt appreciation to all those whom we met during this trip for their great and wonderful hospitalities which made our trip really enjoyable.

Thank you for reading my story.