RQ #170 is over - although it remains to see how long the the aftermath
will be. :-)
The quiz is based on my vacation trip in the Carolinas and Georgia in 2013.
It was certainly brave (or foolish if you like) for me to run a quiz about
the US, when there so many of regulars here are from North America, and
I am fully aware of that I will be proven wrong on more than one question.
(Which has already happened.) I mean, when no one has a question right
that I assumed not to be too difficult, I get the feeling that I may have
screwed up.
So I am perfectly willing to adjust the scoring. But given the current
standings, there is nothing to going change that the winner is STEPHEN W
PERRY!. Congrats Stephen, and please set RQ #171 when you find time and
inspiration.
Here is the score board:
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 TOTAL
Dan B 1 1 1 1 1 1 6
Marc D 1 1 ½ 1 1 1 1 1 7,5
Mark B 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 7
sqp 1 1 ½ 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 ½ 1 13
Pete 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 7
Dan T 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 7
Below follows a travelogue with the *intended* answers interleaved. In
a follow-up posting I will comment on selected questions. (So please
hold your objections until you have seen that post.) The travelogue is
intended, so that you can easily skip it if you like.
I flew in to the biggest city in North Carolina where my friend
Alejandro works.
> 0. In direct continuation of RQ #168 (Sounds better in French), what
> is the name of the region that stretches over several states, and which
> has the highest population density in North Carolina?
Piedmont.
I stayed the night at Alejandro's place and the next day I set of
towards the coast by train and bus to arrive in New Bern
> 1. What popular beverage origins from New Bern, NC?
Pepsi-Cola.
In New Bern I picked up a rental car and drove around the coastal
area and the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Amongst other places I
visited the Brothers Wright Memorial at Kitty Hawk
> 2. How many machine-powered flights were conducted on 1903-12-17?
4.
I continued along the Banks and stopped to climb the lighthouse at
> 3. What is the southeasternmost point of the US?
Cape Hatteras
Eventually I was back in New Bern, and by train and bus I travelled to
> 4. In what US city were people in older days divided into SOB and SNOB?
Charleston, SC
SOB = South of Broad, SNOB = Slightly North of Broad. Broad here meaning
Broad Street. SOB was the more plosh side.
Charleston is a city of many sights, and one place I stopped at
was the Huguenot church, supposedly the only active one in the US.
In the church there was a board with all US presidents of Huguenot
descent.
> 5. From what I'm told there is only one active Huguenot congregation
> in the US. Despite this, according to them, quite a few of US
> Presidents have been of Huguenot descent. Which is the most recent
> one?
Gerald Ford.
You can view the board here:
http://www.sommarskog.se/temp/P1020175.jpg
A very taking place to visit in Charleson was a museum that is housed
in a building where the street commerce that was outlawed in 1856 was
relocated for a few years:
> 6. In <answer 4> a law or regulation was enacted in 1856 to prohibit
> buying and selling in the streets of what?
Slaves.
When you are in Charleston, don't miss the Old Slave Mart Museum! It's
certainly a sobering experience. Thankfully, the commerce in the
slave marts did not last for very many years.
Charleston is a great place not only for the sights in the city itself,
but there are also some nice sites in the surroundings. I went to the
Magnolia Plantation which was a very good full-day experience, as well
as the Boone-Hall Plantation.
Before I left home, I had booked a two-day tour in the Okefenokee
swamp in southern Georgia, and I had booked a rental car to drive
down to Folkston, GA from Charleston. However, the swamp is a National
Wildlife Refuge, which means that it was closed down due to the
brawl between the President and the Tea Party clowns in the Congress.
> 7. In what country do you find the cities of Usa and Obama?
Japan.
I cancelled the car, and took the train to Savannah which had been on
my list anyway, and I enjoyed a day in the historic city.
> 8. The historic centre of Savannah is dotted with lush and relaxing
> squares. The first and the largest square is named after whom?
Robert Johnson, colonial governor of South Carlonia, and a friend of
General Oglethorpe, the founder of the city.
I jumped on a greyhound going west, and the bus made a short stop in
> 9. In my previous RQ I asked about the tragic motorcycle accidents
> that occurred one year and three blocks apart that took the life
> of two of the members in Allman Brothers Band. In which city did
> these accidents occur?
Macon, GA.
The bus continued to
> 10. In which metropolitan area are you if you are riding the MARTA?
Atlanta, GA.
Atlanta is a confusing city where about every second street is called
something with Peachtree. There are also some worthwhile sights. A fun
museum is the one which had a statue of this guy outside of it:
> 11. What is John S. Pemberton's claim to fame?
Coca-Cola.
After having seen the World of Coca-Cola (and the nearby Aquarium
which was not really my place), I went across downtown to Sweet Auburn
which is the area where this great man grew up:
> 12. The tomb of which Nobel laurate reads "Free at last"?
Dr Martin Luther King Jr.
Just outside Atlanta, perfectly reachable by public transport, is
Stone Mountain Park. Not only a geological wonder, the park is also
home to various Confederate memoribilia. In front of the mountain
wall there is an open space, and around the open space there is a
platform for each one of the Confederate states with a memorial stone
table that gives a short history of how the state seceeded, fared in
the war and when it was finally re-admitted into the union. It was
here that I learnt that:
> 13. Which was the only of the Confederate states to hold a referendum
> on secession from the Union?
Tennesee.
And then there is this huge carving on the mountain of three
Confederate leaders:
> 14. Name any of the three persons depitcted on the engraving on
> Stone Mountain.
Jefferson Davis, Robert E Lee, Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson.
(Now "Stonewall" isn't that a very apt name for someone who ended
up in that place?)
As a tropical storm reached Atlanta in the evening, I went to the
train station in the pouring rain and rode to Greenville and spent
some nice days exploring some state parks in
> 15. Where would you find the places with the illustrious names
> Pumpkintown and Traveler's Rest? I need not only the state name,
> but some direction of where in the state.
South Carolina upstate.
I had picked up a rental car in Greenville, and after some nice
hiking in Caesar's Head State Park, I continued into North Carolina
and
> 16. In which city do you find North America's largest private home?
Asheville, NC.
More precisely, this is the Biltmore Estate, certainly a place
worth visiting. While Asheville is kind of nice in the evening, the
city itself (outside the Biltmore Estate, that is) is not worth
a full day in my opinion. But I liked the pinball museum.
From Asheville I continued to Blowing Rock, a small place in the
Appalachian mountains. I did not directly drive the fastest road,
but it certainly was a wonderful experience.
> 17. If you want to drive from Cherokee NC to Waynesboro VA and you
> want as much as possible stay on the same road all the time,
> which road would drive along?
Blue Ridge Parkway
For a European like me, it was certainly a sort of weird concept
to have a road which is intended for sightseeing only. But it was
brilliant sunshine, and the colours of autumn had just arrived.
After Blowing Rock (where I managed to miss the blowing rock itself),
I took the car back to my starting point, and Alejandro was kind to
drive me to my hotel in:
> 18. In which city do you find the NASCAR Hall of Fame?
Charlotte, NC.
I stayed in Charlotte for the week, as my main reason for going to
the area was to attend a conference at the convention centre in
Charlotte. I'm not into racing of any sort, but the conference party
as at the NASCAR place (which also is adjacent to the convention
centre.)