Quick bit of background: I've been interning this summer at an engineering company in San Clemente, CA called Swift Engineering working on their Killer Bee project. The Killer Bee (currently KB4) is a small UAV they are trying to market for the military. For about a month in July and August, Swift is participating in the BTCR (Beyond-line-of-sight Tactical Communication Relay) demonstrations at Ft. Dix in New Jersey. Basically, both the Navy and Marine Corps are looking for a UAV to fill the role between very small scale UAVs (backpack-carried, hand launched) and larger aircraft (Global Hawk, Predator). For those who enjoy the military habit of making acronyms out of everything, the role its meant to fill is the STUAS/Tier II
Anywho, for the demonstration we needed to take a bunch of stuff out to New Jersey, and it would have been bloody expensive to try to get it there by air somehow (C-130 probably), so me and 3 other guys at work have been recruited to drive all the equipment out there. We have the Ground Control Station van that has all the fun computer stuff in it, towing the trailer that is the pneumatic launcher, carries the poles and net for the recovery system, and also carries 3 KB4 aircraft. We're also taking a F-350 diesel truck hauling a 5th wheel with a bunch of other gear stowed away.
Thats a 2,800 mile drive from San Clemente to Fort Dix, estimated to take around 5 days of almost non-stop driving. How can you not have fun with that?
We headed off out of San Clemente Tuesday morning around 8 am, hoping to make it to Gallup, New Mexico by evening. Google gives it as about 670 miles, which you could make pretty easily within 10 hours at an average speed of 70 mph.
Problem was, our average speed was somewhere around 50 mph. Traffic and hills really slowed us down, plus stops for food and gas. The 'check engine' light on the truck also came on at one point, so we tried stopping at the Ford Dealership in both Needles, CA and Kingman, AZ to get them to hook up a reader to the computer just to see if the light was because of something important. Neither place could do it right then, but then the light happened to go off when we left the dealership in Kingman..... We didn't question it and kept on going.
We were only able to make it to a hotel just outside Flagstaff, AZ, almost 2oo miles short of where we intended, but it turned out to be probably better anyways. The area for 80 miles or so west of Flagstaff was pretty incredible. I wish I had gotten some photos of it, but I was driving at that point. It seemed so odd for Arizona, it was green everywhere. Huge trees covered the hills as far as we could see; really, it looked more like one of the forests of Northern California than something in Arizona.
That night was cool, we walked from the hotel to the other side of the freeway to get food at a Harley-Davidson bar and grill. On the way over we saw a nice sunset - I have a picture of it on my camera I'll upload as soon as I get back and get the microSD adapter. The bar/grill was interesting, they gave you the raw meat and provided a grill so you could cook it yourself just the way you wanted. I made myself a tasty burger (plus included salad bar), but as the guys were saying later, it wasnt very expensive, but more than we should have paid for a piece of raw meat. Then we played a couple rounds of pool: Trent (driving buddy) and I won the first one because Steve (other intern) pocketed the 8-ball, lost the 2nd, and lost the 3rd, although that last one was so close! I was on the 8 ball, but sunk it and the cue ball at the exact same time. I had a pretty good time despite spending waaaaaaay too much time on my butt in the car, I only wish I could have gotten some more pictures along the way.
Day 1: 490 miles traveled - about 11 hrs driving time
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