I did figure out my last question. I created the 3D UTM tiles for the route with a blank terrain. While the graphics were much better, Transdem created about 1400 kuids for this 90 mile route. I know I can cut that back a bit with the options on the export menu. For right now I'll look into the orthoimagery ground textures.
I guess I'm trying all the options to see which one is the best and easiest to work with.