About Harrison Smith

Harrison Smith was born with an insatiable need to learn. His wife Nancy often refers to him as "Johnny 5" in reference to the robot in the movie "Short Circuit" who was obsessed with learning. Today after 38 years of working and overseeing Research and Development at a major software company he pursues topics of his own choosing. His thrust for knowledge spans a wide variety topics including traveling, history and a deep fascination for how and why things works the way they do.

An Indy 500 Road Trip

Overview A trip to the Indy 500 was a bucket list item for us and one of our sons (who has gone every year for over 15 years) finally got us to plan a trip out to this enormous event. We put in our request for tickets in June of 2023 through the Indianapolis Motor Speedway website.   In September we were notified we'd been granted 2 tickets and so we began laying out a trip [...]

A Florida and Charleston SC Spring Road Trip

Overview Our first trip of the year took us to south to get out of the late winter weather and to explore and experience some of what the south has to offer in early March. On this trip we made stops and visited in the following towns and cities over the course of three weeks. As always when we head south this time of year, we try and meet up with friends and family, catch [...]

By |2024-04-02T09:20:50-05:00April 2, 2024|Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, USA Travel|0 Comments

The Ancient Civilizations Road Trip Part 3 – Greece

Overview In 2016, we visited the Island of Crete in Greece for several weeks and had a blast, however, we've never been to mainland Greece. High on our bucket list was the Acropolis in Athens as well as a number of other famous archeological sites such as Olympia, Delphi and Mycenae. We started planning for this trip by reaching out to Insight Guides, a company that connects travelers with hand-picked local travel experts.  On their [...]

By |2023-12-19T08:52:04-05:00December 19, 2023|Europe, Greece, Road Trips|0 Comments

The Ancient Civilizations Road Trip Part 2 – Egypt

Overview After a lifetime of thinking about it, we finally pulled the trigger on going to Egypt and visiting this part of the ancient world - and our son Carl was able to join us. We planned the trip 5 months in advance and 2 weeks before our departure, the "war" between Hamas and Israel erupted at the Gaza Strip, just 6 hours from Cairo.  We did some research (including talking with someone whose husband [...]

By |2023-12-19T09:06:12-05:00December 9, 2023|Africa, Egypt, Road Trips|1 Comment

The Ancient Civilizations Road Trip Part 1 – Italy

Overview For us, there is nothing like a road trip and we kicked off our fall 2023 travel with an Italy road trip that focused on picking up several places we didn't get to see the last time we were here in 2016. Our friend Carole retired to Italy about 9 years ago and she's helped with a lot of the travel planning.  It really beneficial when traveling to have a "local" who knows some [...]

By |2023-12-19T09:03:12-05:00December 1, 2023|Europe, Italy, Road Trips|1 Comment

A Slow Meandering Trip to South Florida

Overview It's early spring in Virginia in March and Nancy and I have gotten cabin fever after being home for 3+ months from our 6 1/2-month cross country road trip to Alaska and we ready to hit the road once again. This short 1-month trip down through the south enabled us to experience spring through summer and then back to spring again while we travelled down to south Florida and back to our home in [...]

By |2023-05-26T09:55:47-05:00May 2, 2023|Florida, Georgia, Road Trips, USA Travel, Virginia|1 Comment

Shenandoah Valley Getaways – A Local’s Guide

  Overview We live a few miles outside of Round Hill Virginia up on the Blue Ridge and this is within easy striking distance of a great deal of the Shenandoah Valley area of Virginia. I grew up in this area of the country but have travelled widely across North America, and I still believe that the Shenandoah Valley is still one of the most beautiful areas. The last few years we have been  road [...]

By |2023-05-26T09:57:14-05:00February 10, 2023|Road Trips, USA Travel, Virginia|0 Comments

Cincinnati OH & State College PA – Our 6 Month Road Trip – Part 24

This is post 23 on our cross-country USA adventure as we travel along the Ohio River Scenic Byway to Cincinatti and finally home to VA on our 6-month adventure. The following areas in are covered in this post. Day 1: Louisville, KY to Covington, KY (day 182 of the overall trip) Louisville to Madison We leave Louisville and head back across the Ohio river to Indiana where we pick up Route 62.  We're [...]

By |2022-11-18T16:18:20-05:00November 18, 2022|Ohio, Pennsylvania, Travel, USA Travel|2 Comments

Louisville and the Ohio River Scenic Byway – Our 6 month Road Trip – Part 23

This is post 23 on our cross-country USA adventure as we travel along the Ohio River Scenic Byway in towards Louisville Kentucky on our 6-month adventure. The following areas in are covered in this post. Day 1: Hot Springs, AR to Paducah, KY (day 176 of the overall trip) Winona Scenic Drive We want to drive up AR-9, designated as a scenic road - but somehow, our GPS routes us to another northern scenic route, [...]

By |2022-11-18T16:22:07-05:00November 11, 2022|Travel|2 Comments

Crossing the Great Plains – Our 6-month Road Trip – Part 22

This is post 22 on our cross-country USA adventure as we travel though Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and parts of Kentucky on our 6-month adventure. This bog covers the Pueblo Colorado to Hot Springs Arkansas leg of the trip. Day 1:  Pueblo to Dodge City (day 170 of the overall trip) Pueblo Colorado to the Kansas Border Today is a driving/transition day as we head from Pueblo, CO to Dodge City, KS.   We stopped for lunch [...]

By |2022-11-11T09:19:11-05:00November 6, 2022|Travel|0 Comments
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