Driver's License, Destination Ideas?

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bigblockz8

Pre-takeoff checklist
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Gore
So got my license yesterday (on my first try, assuming I'd surely fail) and now I am out of places to go. I drove to seven airports, eight fire houses, two junkyards, and then five different rail yards.

What are fun places to drive to? I doubt that I will fly to the airports in MD anytime soon so I plan on driving to all public use airports, all 36 of them. I am fresh out of ideas!

Where was the first place you went when you got your driver's license? I went directly to the airport :D...and another....and another...and four more.

Now when I get my private I know exactly where I'm going for the first year, but driving? Out of ideas.

Driving= 1/4 fun of flying, still need a fun fix.
 
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I just got lost and had a blast. I ended up about 30miles from where I thought I was.
 
I used to try to find really obscure towns and roads when I first got my license in NC. That should read I used to find back roads that were unpatrolled so I could speed.

I dunno. Don't bring your GPS and try to get yourself lost. That was always a fun game until I actually became lost.
 
I know I drove my aunt (in her car) and grandmother back home after I took my road test. IIRC, my Sr prom was the following week and I drove myself and my date there. But Immediately after taking aunty and granny home, :dunno:
 
hopmedic said:
I didn't either. I didn't hear of GPS until almost 4 years later, when I got to my submarine and had to learn something about all of the ship's systems to get sub qualified.:skeptical:
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They were available but pricy.
 
can't remember where I went on my first trip after my DL. Maybe to buy beer with a fake ID (just needed to be 18 back then), but probably not. I might have just driven around town for a while, or out for pizza or something.

First long trip solo was probably that 23 hr drive between Leavenworth, KS and Newport News, VA.
 
Matthew said:
First long trip solo was probably that 23 hr drive between Leavenworth, KS and Newport News, VA.
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My first long trip solo was from Naval Training Center Orlando to my parents' house (NW Indiana), on leave between duty stations, and it took 20.5 hours, including one stop for a 30 minute nap on I-65, about 45 minutes from home.

I wouldn't think of trying that again now that I'm in my 40s!
 
hopmedic said:
My first long trip solo was from Naval Training Center Orlando to my parents' house (NW Indiana), on leave between duty stations, and it took 20.5 hours, including one stop for a 30 minute nap on I-65, about 45 minutes from home.

I wouldn't think of trying that again now that I'm in my 40s!
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Hell not sure id want to do it in my 20s!
 
When I first got my license, about the only places I could drive were to school and to work. Didn't have much time for anything else for a while.
 
HerrGruyere said:
I used to try to find really obscure towns and roads when I first got my license in NC. That should read I used to find back roads that were unpatrolled so I could speed.

I dunno. Don't bring your GPS and try to get yourself lost. That was always a fun game until I actually became lost.
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Sounds fun! I'd do that but at $20/(or 5 gallons)hr to drive and only 16 gallons, If I get lost I am SOL. Ran out of gas in Kentucky before...longest walk I ever took!

I don't have a GPS though so that's a start!
 
Drive along the route of your next flight, stop at each of the farm fields and look at them from ground level to decide which would be good to land in and which not (Soy beans are supposed to be real bad). Pick out some real good and some real bad (wire, rocks, crops). Then when you fly over, correlate what you saw on the ground with what you see in the air.
 
Capt. Geoffrey Thorpe said:
Drive along the route of your next flight, stop at each of the farm fields and look at them from ground level to decide which would be good to land in and which not (Soy beans are supposed to be real bad). Pick out some real good and some real bad (wire, rocks, crops). Then when you fly over, correlate what you saw on the ground with what you see in the air.
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Soybeans aren't 'real bad', they're like wheat and other grain crops, they are tall and dense and while you may go on your back, it will be a smooth ordeal. Green beans on the other hand are a low vine row crop, they spell death.
 
bigblockz8 said:
Driving= 1/4 fun of flying, still need a fun fix.
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Just purchased a used BMW Z3 for my son (now he owes me!), I am supposed to deliver this car to his college so he has a car for his first serious engineering summer job. This is one fun car to drive, take it on some windy road among California vineyards (and small airports too), great weather, top down, it may not be the same as flying but you do feel great...
 
When I got my driver's license 20+ years ago, the examiner got out of the car after my three-point turn to measure the distance to the curb, which had to be 12 inches or less, but the tires were not permitted to touch the curb. Do they still do that?
 
olasek said:
Just purchased a used BMW Z3 for my son (now he owes me!), I am supposed to deliver this car to his college so he has a car for his first serious engineering summer job. This is one fun car to drive, take it on some windy road among California vineyards (and small airports too), great weather, top down, it may not be the same as flying but you do feel great...
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One of my favorite roads there is Highway 128 from Winters to Napa, through Lake Berryessa. A lot the rubber from my motorcycle tires ends up on that road.
 
Sac Arrow said:
One of my favorite roads there is Highway 128 from Winters to Napa, through Lake Berryessa. A lot the rubber from my motorcycle tires ends up on that road.
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Thanks for the tip. I was on 128 many times but never on the stretch that winds around the Lake.
 
I drive to Airventure a few weeks after I got my drivers license when I was 16. I couldn't camp at Airventure but I did manage to find another small campground nearby that didn't care about my age.
 
hopmedic said:
I don't think they were available then (1988). GPS was still military-only. Unless it was in use by commercial aviation, which I am not aware of.
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GPS didn't exist when I got my license. The Navy had something called "Transit", but that was primitive and civilians didn't have access (and the equipment would have been a bit bulky. Oh, yeah, that was in 1968. :D
 
The day I got my license, I drove my mother home and drove to school. Exploring was usually on my list after school (which paid off big time delivering pizzas the next summer), but my first road trip was up to Cape Elizabeth, Maine with a buddy to go see our mutual friend who had just moved there...Maine is a truly beautiful place.

As for distance to curb measuring, my basic license road test in 1996 was on a semi-plowed course and was the biggest parking space I have ever had to fit a car into, and I think the examiner glanced out the window, but didn't measure. For the CDL road test, after the alley dock, the examiner got out for my right hand turn, to watch distance from the curb of the inside (passenger side) rear wheels, for which there was a chalk line on the pavement.
 
I would head down to the beach. For you, Beach Week in Ocean City might be pretty close to paradise.

Head out to Skyline Drive on top of the Shenandoahs some day too. About 90 minutes west of DC. Carved along the mountain top with awesome views.
 
Well, I know I took the test in a '74 VW Super Beetle with the vaunted Semi-Automatic transmission. You shift, no clutch. 3 gears, plus reverse. That was one sloooooooooow set of wheels. On the plus side, it did have a nice AM radio with pushbutton presets. ;)

Where did I go after I passed the test? Man, that was thirty years ago, I have no idea, but I'm pretty sure I volunteered for just about every scut driving job my parents came up with. Go get pizza? I'll do it. Pick up Sis from school? I'll do it. Return these books to the library? Oh, oh, I'll do it!!! Get a gallon of milk from the WaWa? Yeah, I'm on it!
 
Most of my driving as a teenager was to my girlfriend's house, and whatever quiet, secluded spot we ended up in.
 
Put it off and got it the week before I left for school (already had my PPL by this point)...in that week, I was volunteered to be my dad's personal chauffeur for wherever the hell he needed to go. He drove every time we went flying, so I guess it was only fair.
 
For some reason the tune to Dueling Banjos keeps running through my head....
 
denverpilot said:
And a cop knocking on the window. Haha.
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Yeah, that happened once. :eek: I still hear about it every once in a while. OK, I still hear about it every time I suggest we go park somewhere quiet. :D Same girl, all these years later.
 
I drove to a pick up a girl and go for a joyride, all at a cost of 36 cents a gallon. When gas went to 41 cents I about had a stroke.
 
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