The “Visiting places mentioned in MASH” plan didn’t quite work out(because I’d need to cross the (slightly) less eventful central states of the US), so I decided to go further south to visit the Marshall space flight center in Huntsville, AL for a fix of space race-era hardware.

And THAT was one of those few experiences you can only have in the US.. Sure, we’ve got the European space agency over here, but it doesn’t have the rich history of NASA and the space race, some of which could be seen here in person.

Destin over at Smarter Every Day has a few videos from there, if you’re interested.

I landed in Boston with no real plan on what to do or where to go..

At some point during my “Visiting places mentioned in MASH” trip, it swung around to becoming a baseball trip.. Having visited the home of the Toledo Mudhens, visiting the Louisville Slugger factory seemed like a natural follow-up.

I got to see a very large baseball bat leaning against the factory building, I got to see Babe Ruth’s bat, got to see how the factory workers basically select a model or player’s name from a database and have the milling machine produce the selected bat in a matter of seconds!

And at the end of the tour, you even get a mini bat as a souvenir :-)

This day was the turning point of my trip, because to continue my MASH tour, I would have had to go for 500 miles to get to Ottumwa, IA to visit Radar’s hometown and then continue through the Great Plains and I didn’t have any set plan for such a distance(and back, to return the car, of course)..

So I basically turned around to use the opportunity to visit the Rock & Roll hall of fame, before heading south and it was the right decision. So many memorabilia of so many great bands in one place!

Yet another milestone on the MASH part of my trip to the US of A: Tony Packo’s restaurant and their famous hot dogs 🙂

It was also my first collision with American restaurant culture and a bit of a culture shock. I had to take a seat at the bar to not block a whole table.. People were kind of eager to get me to order some more and in the end, there was the tipping.

Don’t get me wrong, most of it makes perfect sense, it’s just a little different in the old world, where tables are the norm, you notify the waiter if you want something(and he’ll only come around occasionally asking if you need something) and tipping is used to value good service, not a default to top up someone’s salary.

Anyway.. Had a great hot dog and the paprikas dumplings and before that, I had a visit to the 5/3 field and the Mudhens swamp shop for a couple of souvenirs. Who would have known that baseball jerseys are made of such a thick fabric? Probably everybody who’s slid to base in one 🙂

So today I fetched the car from the rental agency, still a little confused about forfeiting insurance at the agency and relying on the rental car insurance included with my credit card, but at least I rested enough to be able to drive and boy, what a country to drive in.. Once I left Massachusetts and entered upstate New York, the landscape was a lush green with loads of forests, idyllic little villages and homes off the beaten path and while being in the area, I used the opportunity to stop at the Niagara falls which were cool, but just a set of waterfalls, loads of people being there for the same reason I was and a relatively run-down city.

The motel I was staying at fit the description as well.. a noisy AC unit, protective plastic peeling off most surfaces and a broken shower, so a quick wash in the bathroom sink had to do. In addition to that, I got to listen to the maintainers of the motel arguing most of the time through a door between the reception and my room.

The year is 2016 and work proved to be a bit stressful, so it was time to plan a proper vacation. Having just gotten my driving license(I didn’t need one before), I could surely use the practice and decided to have it in a place built for cars: The US of A.

So I booked a flight to Boston, because I thought New York might have been a bit hectic for driving(more on that later) and once I landed, I headed straight to the HI Hostel to sleep off my jetlag before going into traffic.

With me being 6'4, flying usually isn’t very comfortable, so I spent the first day in Boston with just a small walk and grabbing a bite to eat, a lock for the dormitory locker and start what was planned to be a road trip following MASH characters, starting in Boston with Trapper John McIntryre and Charles Emerson Winchester III.

I’m not going to write a post for every day of the trip, just a few of the more memorable ones.. So let’s circle back to the “driving in New York” thing: I was right not to start my trip driving out of New York City, because on my way back to return the car in Boston, I got to drive through a remote bit of NYC during the evening rush hour and got to experience the length of the New York second a couple of times. Even with the A/C in the car on arctic blast, you could wring out my shirt after I got out of it. On the plus side: The rental company didn’t charge me for the bridge toll I missed, because I wasn’t aware of it and had no cash on hand, so they probably just scanned my number plates and billed the company. 🙂

It took me several years to set foot into Berlin again(my professional stint here left a somewhat lasting impression 🙂), but after working in the vicinity, I’ve always wanted to visit the Technikmuseum and now that I did, it really delivered. I love museums that cater to my broad spectrum of interests and there’s pretty much something for everybody here.

There’s old radio equipment, old factory equipment, airplanes, trains, you name it.. If it’s somehow tech-related, there’s an area for it and it’s a lot bigger than the outside lets on 🙂

Overall, the trip to Berlin wasn’t bad at all and there’s been a lot to discover.

One of the benefits of living in Hamburg is that we get to choose whether we’d like to go to the North Sea or the Baltic Sea, two distinctively different bodies of water. Either you get to see the riviera-like resorts on the Baltic Sea, with it shallow and warm(-ish) water or you get to visit the slightly rougher North Sea with “proper” tides. This weekend, I went for the latter, watching the waves, nice cloud patterns and having all weird thoughts blown out of my head by the constant breeze.

🇩🇪 (English translation below)

Du hast ein Video oder Foto von meinem Rad gemacht?

Schick! Ich find mein Rad auch hübsch.. Wenn du magst, schick mir doch bitte das Foto/Video oder einen Link dazu an dfxl@sparced.org , Danke!

Was ist das?

Das ist ein Fahrrad. Es hat drei Speichenräder, es hat Pedale und einen bequemen Sitz. Durch die Verkleidung sieht es ein bisschen aus wie ein kleines Auto, aber es hat keinen Motor, also ist es rechtlich ein Fahrrad.

Hast du das selbst gebaut? Ist sowas teuer?

Nein, ich habe es nicht selbst gebaut, sondern bei InterCityBike in Dronten in den Niederlanden gekauft. Gebaut wurde das Rad in Rumänien, weil die über 100 Stunden Handarbeit dort einfach billiger sind. Insgesamt ist so ein Rad nicht gerade billig, aber durchaus noch im Rahmen von z.B. schickeren Rennrädern.

Wie schnell fährt sowas?

Kommt immer drauf an, wer drin sitzt 😀 Bei mir selbst hängt es stark vom Trainingszustand ab und kann von superlangsam bis ca. 35km/h über längere Strecken gehen.. Wenns gut läuft, hab ich mit dem Rad ein Durchschnittstempo von 20-25km/h über 100km, unabhängig vom Wetter. Es kommt aber auch immer darauf ab, wieviel Steigung die Strecke beinhaltet und wie oft ich anhalten und anfahren muss, das kostet mit einem 25kg-Rad schon einige Körner. Die Übersetzung gibt jedenfalls so ziemlich alles zwischen 6 und 60km/h her.

Ist das nicht gefährlich? Übersieht man dich nicht leicht?

Mit seinen drei Rädern ist das Rad sehr stabil und auch bei höheren Geschwindigkeiten neigt es kaum zum Schlingern und durch die große Kontaktfläche zum Sitz weiss ich auch jederzeit, wohin das Rad fahren will.

Sollte es dennoch zu einem Unfall kommen, nimmt die Carbonhülle schon einmal viel Energie auf und ich rutsche wahrscheinlich ein ganzes Stück auf der Karosserie herum. Zudem fahre ich ja mit den Füßen voraus und nicht mit dem Kopf wie auf dem Rennrad.

Auch anders als beim Rennrad: Autofahrer halten mich oft für ein kleines, langsames Auto und überholen mich klaglos statt mir den Weg abzuschneiden oder mir keinen Platz zu lassen.

Und übersehen werde ich in der Regel nicht.. Das Rad hat das Format eines großen Kühlschranks. Wer den auf der Straße übersieht, sollte eventuell einen Augenarzt aufsuchen. Zudem ist die Farbgebung nicht willkürlich: Die rote Frontpartie fällt tagsüber besonders gut auf und das weiße Heck ist in der Dämmerung gut zu sehen. Für die Nacht sind diverse Reflektoren am Rad und es gibt gute Beleuchtung, Blinker und Bremslicht.

🇬🇧

Did you take a photo or video of my bike?

Great! I like my bike, too.. If you don’t mind, I’d like a copy of your photo/video, please send the file(s) or a link to dfxl@sparced.org , thank you!

What is it?

It’s a bicycle.. Well, technically, it has three wheels, but it has spoked wheels, pedals and a comfy recumbent seat. The fairing makes it look a bit like a car, but it has no motor and is legally a bike.

Did you build it yourself? Is it expensive?

No, I did not build it myself, but I bought it at InterCityBike in Dronten in the Netherlands. It was built in Romania, because more than a hundred hours of manual labour went into this bike and to keep the price down, it was built there. It isn’t cheap, but still on par with better road racing bikes.

How fast does it get?

It depends on who is driving it 😀 With my current state of training, I can go somewhere around 35km/h for a couple of hours if the conditions let me. My average speed is usually somewhere between 20 and 25km/h for 100km, because I have to speed the heavy bike(~25kg) up at every traffic light and climbing is not much fun either. But the descent after the climb is great and the bike easily reaches 50-60km/h. My gearing allows me to comfortably pedal anywhere between 6 and 60km/h.

Isn’t it dangerous? Don’t you get overlooked a lot?

With its three wheels, the bike is very stable, even at higher speeds and due to the large contact area with the seat, I pretty much know what’s happening with the bike.

Should I be involved in an accident, the carbon fibre shell will take some of the impact and I will be skidding on the shell, not on my skin. Also: My feet are in front, not my head like on a regular road racing bike.

Unlike on other bikes, car drivers respect me, because they think I’m one of them, only very slow like a tractor. Instead of trying to squeeze past me with only a couple of centimetres to spare, they often change lanes to overtake me like any other car.

As for not seeing me: I chose the colours for my bike very carefully. The bright red is well visible in broad daylight and the bike is about the same size as a fridge/freezer combination. Whoever doesn’t see that should think about selling his car.

At night time, the white half of the bike will reflect incoming headlights very well(and there are also reflectors attached) and there are head-, rear- and braking lights installed.