Teacher Carl travels to Washington D.C. (Natural History Museum)

Smithsonian National Natural History Museum

You got gum gum dum dum? 

Hope Diamond 

Teacher Carl travels to Washington D.C. (Walking around D.C.)

We took a Lyft to the Ford Theater, where President Lincoln was shot. The line was too long for it and the house he died in, so we walked toward the Natural History Museum.

Ford Theater 

Long line. 

House across from the theater where President Lincoln was taken after he was shot. 

F.B.I. building 

Department of Justice building 

National Archives building 

We will go to the National Archives building another day to see our nation's founding documents.

Finally, the Natural History Museum. 

And across the National Mall is the Smithsonian Castle.

Teacher Carl travels to Washington D.C. (Jamestown Settlement)

On Saturday, we took advantage of very nice weather, and drove back south of Washington D.C. to Jamestown Settlement. We had already been to the original Historic Jamestowne site, but didn't have time that day to see the recreation of Jamestown Settlement.

Destiny with a skunk (fur). 

This is a representation of the types of homes that the local native Indians would have had around the time of the founding of Jamestown in 1608. 

She is grinding corn into cornmeal to make cornbread. 

I think there is an Indian behind you. 

Notice the ventilation opening to allow for air flow. 

Three ships came from England to establish a settlement in Virginia. This was the biggest, the Susan Constant. 

Picture taken from the deck of the Susan Constant of the second and smaller ship, the Godspeed. 

And finally, the third and smallest ship, the Discovery. 

Walk up to the fort of the Jamestown Settlement. 

Inside the fort at the Jamestown Settlement.  

It wasn't easy for the first settlers. They had to bring everything they needed in the ships across the Atlantic Ocean. When they arrived, they had no buildings for shelter, and had no idea what to expect, or what the weather was like throughout the year.

They encountered native Indians. The two groups of people had completely different cultures and languages, which sometimes caused tension, and even fighting.

The first winter was the worst, as the settlers supplies ran low, and the temperatures became more severe than they were prepared for. Many settlers died.

Teach Carl travels to Washington D.C. (National Mall and National Zoo)

On our second full day in Washington D.C., we drove to the National Zoo, paid $25 for parking, and took the Metro to Union Station. Then we took the Circulator around the National Mall to see all the monuments and memorials.

It was a very long escalator ride to catch the Metro.

Washington Monument (closed) 

Jefferson Memorial 

View from the Jefferson Memorial. 

Inside the Jefferson Memorial. 

Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool 

Lincoln Memorial 

World War II Memorial - Atlantic 

View across to the World War II Memorial - Pacific 

View as passing by the United States Capitol building. 

Pandas at the National Zoo.

After we saw the National Mall, we went back to the National Zoo to see the Pandas and other animals, as well as see a show about dinosaurs. Then we drove back to the bed and breakfast.

Teacher Carl travels to Washington D.C. (Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum)

We made to Washington D.C., and on our first day, we took the Metro to Union Station, where we spent an hour trying to find where we were supposed to catch the D.C. Circulator bus to take us to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.

Lunar lander model, and hanging above it, the actual 'Spirit of St. Louis' airplane, which was the first airplane that flew nonstop across the Atlantic Ocean. 

Model of the Hubble Telescope. 

A model of a space shuttle main engine. 

A small model of the International Space Station. 

X-15 

Replica of the Wright brothers' airplane, the 'Wright Flyer'. 

Bell X-1 

SpaceShipOne 

Spirit of St. Louis 

Models of Voyager 1 and 2. 

Lockheed F-104 Starfighter 

Rutan Model 76 Voyager, that flew around the world nonstop. 

U.S.S. Enterprise, from the television show, 'Star Trek'.

Teacher Carl travels to Washington D.C. (Historic Jamestowne and Yorktown)

The second and third stops, after visiting Williamsburg, Virginia, were Historic Jamestowne, Virginia, and Yorktown, Virginia. All three of the colonial towns are relatively near each other, and played very important rolls in American history.

We first saw Historic Jamestowne, where we saw the original site for the town and archaeologist still digging to uncover artifacts.

Then we took a trolley bus through Yorktown, but did not stop to see anything, because we had run out of time, and had to continue our drive to Washington D.C.

Teacher Carl travels to Washington D.C. (Williamsburg)

On day three, before we went to Washington D.C., one of the places we visited was Williamsburg, Virginia. This is a very historical old town of the United States. There were so many things to see, do, and experience. But this was only one of three stops that day.

Teacher Carl travels to Washington D.C. (Monticello)

Our first stop on the way to Washington D.C. was at Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson. We had passes for a guided tour to see all of the home and grounds, although they did not permit pictures inside the home except in the dome room. This home is pictured on the back of the United States nickel coin. Please go to the links to read more about Thomas Jefferson. It is very fascinating to learn about this very important man in America's history.

Teacher Carl travels to Washington D.C.

It was wonderful weather for our entire vacation. We drove across Tennessee on the first day. We began to enter the mountain range toward the eastern part of Tennessee. We stayed in a hotel in Knoxville, Tennessee the first night, and continued the second day by entering Virginia. The mountain and valley views got more spectacular.

Easter 2019

These are my two daughters. Suzanne will be 22 at the end of September, and Destiny will be 10 at the end of August.

I always enjoy spending time with my daughters. For Easter this year, our church had a fellowship and egg hunt at Beech Springs on the Friday evening before Easter.  

And on Saturday before Easter,  my mother prepared a wonderful meal for everyone. Then in the afternoon on the same Saturday, I took Destiny to another egg hunt at White Oak Lake State Park. 

We attended church Easter Sunday morning, and again in the evening to listen to a Christian concert.

PHEV

One of my favorite things to discuss is the environment, and another is technology, so I am very happy when I can talk about both things at the same time. Many students have asked questions about my PHEV (plug-in hybrid electric vehicle), so this blog post is an attempt to answer some of the questions.

I know that EV's (electric vehicle) still are a little too expensive for some people, and they are still not popular everywhere, but I think that will change in the next ten to twenty years.

Here is a history of the electric car. It goes further back than you might think, but the early EV's all lacked one thing, range. Then along came Tesla, which manufactured a car that could go as far as most ICE (internal combustion engine) cars.

Until Tesla, if someone wanted an environmentally friendly car, they had to settle for a hybrid, such as the Toyota Prius. A hybrid car uses electric motors to make the car move when at slow speeds. An ICE car burns a lot of fuel to get a car moving from a complete stop. But an electric motor is perfect for getting a car moving from a complete stop, because it provides instant torque. And in a hybrid, the ICE isn't usually running when the car is at a stop, but the ICE starts after the car gets moving.

Hybrid cars use an extra battery that is dedicated for use with the electric motor. The battery is only recharged when the ICE is running. Owning and driving a hybrid is just like a normal car. A PHEV is a combination of an EV that must be plugged-in to recharge the battery, and a hybrid car. A PHEV uses all the same technology as the hybrid, including a dedicated battery for low speeds, but it also has an extra battery, that does not recharge by the ICE, but instead has to be plugged-in and is used exactly like an EV.

There are many PHEV's on the market, with varying size batteries for EV mode. My car has a 7.6 kilowatt battery for EV mode. The industry standard for plugs is the J-1772, but some use a different type of plug, such as Tesla.

There are different levels of charging. The most common are level 1 & 2. A level 1 charger uses 120 volts, while a level 2 uses 240 volts. My EV battery takes about 4.5 hours to recharge using my level 1 charger at home. Most EV owners, that have much larger batteries to recharge, will have a level 2 charger installed by an electrician at their home to recharge their battery in half the time.

Most PEV's (plug-in electric vehicle) are capable of level 1 & 2 charging. Some can handle level 3, (quick / rapid / fast / super) charging, which uses 480 volts. Not all cars can handle level 3 charging, and they need a special plug. My car can only handle level 1 & 2.

PEV's in the United States are mostly concentrated on the west coast, the northeast, the great lakes region, and Florida. California has strict emission laws. For most of the U.S., the convenience of fueling, and range are the two major factors in buying a vehicle, but also, trucks are very popular, because of their size and variety of uses. Many homes will have two or more vehicles, so if they are in a city, one of them will probably be an economy car with good gas mileage.

Because I work at home, I only use my car for short drives in town, such as to my daughter's school, the store, or to church. I very rarely use all of the power from the battery, and can easily recharge overnight at home.

J-1772

120 volt - level 1 charger

The average cost for me to recharge at home is about $6 / month.

This model of car was originally built with only an ICE, and later they also sold a hybrid version. The hybrid version puts the extra battery that is needed in the place of the spare tire. They include a portable 12 volt air pump, that has a tire sealant, with the car, to replace the need for a spare tire. When they added the PHEV model version, they had to find somewhere to put another battery, so they put it in the cargo area of the vehicle. This does take away some space in the back of the vehicle.

All hybrids use an ICE to recharge a battery that is used to provide power to electric motors at slow speeds. There are some models of EV that use a gas powered generator motor to recharge. These are called, 'range extender EV's'. All PEV's and hybrids also use something called regenerative braking, that when either the accelerator is no longer being used, or if the brake is used, the electric motors work in reverse, converting the motion of the wheels into electric power to recharge the battery.

The biggest concern people have about PEV's today is where to plug-in and recharge, because it isn't as convenient as refueling. Tesla has a 'network' of chargers to recharge their cars. And for all the other cars that are not Tesla and use their special plug, we have a good number of places to recharge, but there still aren't enough, and for right now, they are mostly only found where PEV's are more popular. A company in Canada, that is in the gas station business, is experimenting with installing PEV charging stations at their gas stations. There is also a movement, by PEV owners, to setup a network using a phone app, to share their private, home charging stations. Since most people have some sort of charging station at home, this would dramatically increase the number of charging stations, and the owners can also make a little money. There are even some charging station that can wirelessly recharge specially equipped EV's, although this is very rare, and the technology to do so is not very efficient.

As far as being environmentally friendly, there have been many debates that argue whether EV's are better for the environment. First of all, mining the raw materials needed to produce the batteries is damaging to the environment. The techniques for mining these materials are improving, and becoming more efficient, and thus lowering the cost of producing batteries, but that doesn't mean it is less damaging to the environment. Sometimes EV batteries need to be replaced, and they are not cheap, but with reduced mining cost, increased production, recycling, and improved battery technology, replacement cost are coming down, and becoming much less of a problem.

Secondly is the concern for where the power comes from to recharge. Most of the world still uses fossil fuels to provide energy. If the auto industry continues moving towards producing EV's only in the future, there will be a higher demand for energy. In order to be more environmentally friendly, there will need to be an equal movement to get energy from renewable sources. Tesla is not only in the business of making EV's, but they also produce solar panels. Some Tesla car owners use Tesla solar panels for their homes, and thereby are recharging their cars at home using solar energy.

As I already mentioned, many car companies around the world are starting to produce EV's, with some companies promising that at some point in the future, they will make only EV's.

Safety is another big concern. But safety should be something that everyone considers anyway when buying a car. The truth is, EV's are probably no less, or no more safe than most ICE cars. There are some ICE cars that are less safe than others. And I would say that you get what you pay for, but sometimes I think that some cars are way overpriced. Let's face it though, cheap is cheap.

Tesla is famous for it's 'Autopilot'. But there are other manufacturers with varying levels of some sort of autonomous driving. In the past, they said we would have flying cars, and we do, but not in mass production for use by the masses of people around the world. So now they are saying that in the future, we will have self-driving cars. I think that this will turn-out to be just like the flying car prediction, not for everyone, everywhere.

I think in the future what we will see will be FCEV's (Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle). There are a few of these cars available today, but they are rare, and refueling locations are limited. The nice part about an FCEV is that they can be refueled like a normal car, without waiting, like you have to do with an EV when recharging. There is a bigger downside to FCEV's right now to be concerned about. Hydrogen is abundant everywhere in the world, but depending on the method used to extract it, it can create more damaging greenhouse gases, and use more energy than it can provide in a FCEV.

Let me get back to talking about the present or near future, and some things that are more practical when considering EV's. One student wanted to know about maintenance, repairs, and insurance.

I'm going to talk about maintenance and repairs together. For an EV, that does not have an ICE, clearly there are fewer moving parts and no need for oil changes, but there is still some maintenance. Just like ICE cars, some of this maintenance needs to be done by a mechanic/technician that knows what they're doing. EV's are more complex, with lots of things being computer controlled, even more than a modern ICE car. Finding a qualified technician to work on an EV is difficult right now, because it is still fairly new technology, and not widely popular, yet. For me, because I live in a small town, my local dealership doesn't have anyone that can work on my car, yet. So, I have to drive about 90 miles to the nearest place that can work on it.

As far as insurance cost, I think it is not much different than considering insurance for a normal car. The insurance company looks at the drivers personal information, driving history, and then considers the year, make, model, and so forth, about the car. My insurance cost did go up about 40%, but that is because I went from a paid for 2007 car, to a financed 2017 car.

I would suggest the biggest thing to think about if you might want to buy an EV is still the range. How far do you normally drive to work, school, church, the store, and back home each day? What ever the longest distance is to drive where you need to go and back, should be less than the EV can drive before needing to be recharged. The longest I drive on average to church and then maybe to the store, is around 10 miles. Double that to get me back home, and it is less than the 22 miles I can drive in EV mode. Then I plug-in and recharge in less than 4.5 hours. It is always ready for me the next day.

Something else to think about before getting an EV is the weather. Just like lowering the temperature of water slows the movement of the molecules to form ice, lower temperatures slow the movement of electrons in batteries, reducing their efficiency and effectiveness, resulting in less range. In ideal warm weather conditions, my car will go 22 miles in EV. But in freezing temperatures, the range is cut in half, to about 11 miles.

To finish this post, I want to talk about some of the features of my car. Auto manufactures are always coming out with new features with each new model. Some of the features have to do with safety. Some of the cool safety features that my car has are: BSW (blind spot warning), RCTW (rear cross-traffic warning), as well as other standard safety features found on many other cars. My car also scored very well when it comes to crash safety. And my car has a really cool feature called 'Active Park Assist', which basically allows the car to parallel park itself, while the driver only needs to control the speed at which the car parks, and then stop the car when it is finished.

I really enjoy my PHEV. The more I use the EV mode, the less gas I need to buy. And when I am on long road trips, the hybrid mode gives me an average of 40 miles per gallon. One of the things I like most about my new car, is that it is connected to my smartphone, allowing me to monitor and control several functions of the car. I can remotely lock, unlock, and start my car from anywhere. I can program a time I want to leave, and the temperature I like it to be inside the car, so the car will automatically adjust the interior temperature so it is at the temperature I want when I am ready to leave. I can even see a location of my car on a map on my phone. If I wanted to, I could even program the key so if I let someone else drive the car, they could not exceed the speed limit. And the key itself is also one of my favorite parts of the car. I never have to take the key out of my pocket to unlock, lock, or start the car. This means no more laying the keys down and losing them, or locking them in the car.

Mean Pig!

I had a memory pop-up on Facebook I want to share with you. This originally occurred four years ago:


How many stupid things have you done in your life? If you are like me, too many to count. What was the last stupid thing you did? I don't think we often plan on doing something stupid, it just turns out that way after the fact. I went to visit family in Jacksonville yesterday and went to lunch at 'The Mean Pig' and took the challenge. What is the challenge? It is a pulled pork sandwich with BBQ sauce made from some of the hottest stuff in the world. Turns out there are a lot of people out there that have done this same stupid thing. Very few have completed the challenge by eating all of it. I love spicy hot stuff, but could only do three bites before I threw in the towel. When I opened my mouth to breath, I felt as though flames should be coming out. I don't know of anyone who has died from the challenge, but I can tell you that the pain I went through for the next eight hours as those three bites passed through my body was not fun. I AM A SURVIVOR OF THE MEAN PIG SHUT UP JUICE CHALLENGE! (barely)

The Bible (TV miniseries)

THE BIBLE (TV miniseries)

During my life in China, I was pleasantly surprised to find Christianity everywhere I turned. There were home churches where believers would meet. There were jewelry and pictures depicting Christianity. I found the Bible in bookstores, that were in English and Chinese. There were even people would celebrate some of the Christian holidays, such as Christmas and Easter.

For most people in China, they saw the Bible as only another fiction story. The symbols, such as the cross worn as jewelry, were seen as just that, jewelry. Christmas and Easter are only seen as fun activities for the children, and for most of Chinese, have no spiritual meaning.

I should say here, that in my opinion, these latest actions by the Chinese government, are not an attack on Christianity, but a response to disruptions in society because of extremist from other religions in China. Over the years, especially in the northwest of China, there have been numerous outburst in communities that are predominately Muslim in religion.

There are more Christians in China than there are people living in the United States of America. And now, the Chinese government is trying to eliminate all religion in China, and requiring people to denounce their faith and embrace atheism.

A student from Taiwan introduced a website to me last year where I could watch movies and TV series. Today, I saw they had added a new series that I want to introduce to you.

IT IS NOT FICTION.

IT IS A REPRESENTATION AND INTERPRETATION OF THE BIBLE.

THE BIBLE IS A HISTORICAL DOCUMENTATION.

THE BIBLE IS FACT.

THE BIBLE IS TRUTH.

You can also watch the 'Jesus' film here.

Spring Break 2019 (Abraham Lincoln's birthplace)

One of America's most famous presidents was, Abraham Lincoln, who was president during the civil war, and our last stop was to his birthplace. This was my favorite part of the trip. It was so exciting to be in and see such a historical place. I learned a lot, and felt more connected to America and it's rich history.

Spring Break 2019 (Daniel Boone's grave)

One of the places Destiny wanted to go on our return trip home, was to see Daniel Boone's grave. Destiny loves history, and had been learning about this famous American  that helped pioneer our country. It had a gorgeous view.

Spring Break 2019 (Newport Aquarium) Newport, Kentucky

The second attraction in Newport, Kentucky, was the Newport Aquarium. Destiny got to have a special encounter with the penguins. That was her favorite part of the whole trip. And we both had a tour of how the aquarium works.

Spring Break 2019 (World Peace Bell) Newport, Kentucky

We saw two attractions the next day, both in Newport, Kentucky. The first was the World Peace Bell.

Spring Break 2019 (National Museum of the United States Air Force) Dayton, Ohio

We spent an entire day in Dayton, Ohio, exploring the National Museum of the United States Air Force. The pictures below are in reverse order that I took them. We started with the early years of flight. Next up were World War I and World War II. Followed by the conflicts with North Korea and Vietnam. Then we came to the Cold War era. There was even a section dedicated to missiles. The last two sections focused on more modern era aircraft and included several presidential aircraft, as well as a mock up of the space shuttle. They even had several different flight simulators, including one where you can land the space shuttle, and another where you go on a space walk at the International Space Station, using VR. The museum housed more than just U.S. examples. It also had examples from Japan, Russia, Germany, France, and England.

Spring Break 2019 (Ark Encounter)

The second attraction of our first full day of Spring Break, where we were not traveling, was at the

Ark Encounter

We got an early start at the Creation Museum, saw that, and then drove 45 miles down the road to the Ark Encounter. We took a few outside photos, then had a great buffet lunch in the restaurant at the Ark Encounter. After lunch, Destiny rode a camel, and we spent a little time with some goats. Finally, we went inside the ark. Some things I came away with were: Noah not only built this huge ark with tools and technology of the period, to house the animals(as well as plant seeds), and survive the great flood, but he had to engineer how to care for the animals (water, food, air, waste), and he was also tasked with preserving the good history of mankind to that point (art, literature, and such), as well as documenting and cataloging everything. My favorite part was the large living quarters for Noah and his family.

Spring Break 2019 (Creation Museum)

On the second day of our Spring Break vacation, we planned to see two major attractions. The first was the Creation Museum. This is where the theory of creation proves the Bible is fact, not fiction. I think my favorite part of this museum shows how the myth of dragons were in fact dinosaurs.