January 19, 2006

• Excellent. Cheers Also reminds me of something I have meant to do for ages, but never got round to, due to lack of equipment and technical knowledge (and recently, job) - film my drive to work every day for a (week? month? some indefinite time period, anyway) and then overlay them all on top of each other, somehow, and see what the result looks like
• dng, someone did that and got the following weird result. If you watch closely, you can see (?) something, is it a face in the car's reflection or is it just your imagination playing tricks on you.
• I can't believe I fucking fell for that!
• That was very cool! I actully found myself exclaiming, "Oh no!" in dismay when the car wouldn't start at one point. Now I reaaalllly want to take a road trip.
• No video > Click here to download plugin > Firefox is now checking for available plugins > No suitable plugins were found [Unknown plugin] Gee, thanks, Firefox 1.5.
• Rolypolyman, I am using Firefox 1.5 and it worked fine for me. ???
• I can't believe I fucking fell for that! Uh, well knock me over, because i have trouble seeing anything supernatural in that video at all. Some people actually say to turn the volume up really loud and look for a shadowy shape (?) But maybe it's just me, i just don't see it.
• Roly: same problem here, which I fixed with the MediaPlayerConnectivity extension.
• OK, awesome video. Maybe I'm biased because I absolutely love to roadtrip at any opportunity. (It looks like that Speedy's he stopped at was in Kayenta, AZ.)
• What I want to know is that after driving across the country, corner to corner as it were, does it feel smaller or bigger afterwards? You know, when your 30,000ft up, looking down it looks huge but when your down on the ground it feels small. Does the drive give you a different sense of scale? (rhetorical questions all - the only way to tell is to do it I suppose)
• There's nothing like a road trip. I did three cross-country trips in my youth, one from NYC to LA with my best bud. Another one, round trip from NYC to LA and back with him and our respective girlfriends at the time and a third from NYC to Dawson City, Yukon. All awesome, all just possibly some of the coolest things to have done in our early 20s with nothing ahead of us but air and opportunity.
• Nice driving scarves. That cross-country trip ended at a kitchen and bath center. I've done the trip using the northern route. The video makes me want to drive the southern one too.
• I'd love to drive across America. I wonder if I ever will...
• Why did it take longer to get from LA to New Mexico than it did to get from New Mexico to NY?
• My best friend and I did the northern route (Maine to SF, I80 most of the way IIRC) in 2 cars with CB radios (my handle was Itchy, his was Scratchy), and it took us 5 days (spending nights in motels). I would love to do it again someday, taking a different route. To answer your question, Klepton, it really gives you a sense of how vast the country is. (Vast!)
• I hate you for having done what I want to do.
• Road trips are awesome. Proof that getting there is half the fun. Before I die, I'd love to do the across-the-desert-on-Route-66 thing.
• When we did our NY-LA shots we took what parts of 66 we could. (Some of it had seriously gone to seed with the "advent" of the interstate system) it was still fun, there's some great stuff to see. If you do ever take that trip, make sure to hit the Big Texan, the Cadillac Ranch and try to fry an egg on the sidewalk in Kingman over the 4th of July. Hmm, I'll root around in my old pictures and see if I've got any left from back then.
• I hate you for having done what I want to do. It's the awesomest, most funnest thing you could ever do. Too bad it's illegal for people from Liverpool named Nick to do it.
• Great, now I really want to do my CT-AZ trip again. As for scale? This New Englander was just amazed at the OMG BIGNESS of things out West. Does it feel closer or farther away? Arguably farther, but there were five of us packed in that station wagon and it wasn't like we were kids.
• Should Koko's new nickname be "Smokey" or "Bandit". Westbound and down, eighteen wheels a-rollin’ Ah she gonna do what they say can't be done She's got a long way to go, and a short time to get there She's westbound, just watch old Bandit run Keep your foot hard on the pedal Son, never mind them brakes Let it all hang out cause she got a run to make The boys are thirsty in Atlanta and there's beer in Texarkana She'll bring it back no matter what it takes Westbound and down, eighteen wheels a-rollin’ Ah she gonna do what they say can't be done She's got a long way to go, and a short time to get there She's westbound, just watch old Bandit run
• Y'all can call me Rubber Duck ... Well we laid a strip for the Jersey shore Prepared to cross the line I could see the bridge was lined with bears But I didn't have a doggone dime I says Pigpen this here's the Rubber Duck We just aint gonna pay no toll So we crashed the gate doin' ninety-eight I says Let them truckers roll, ten-four Coz we got a mighty convoy rockin' thru the night Yeah we got a mighty convoy aint she a beautiful sight Come on and join our convoy aint nothin' gonna get in our way We gonna roll this truckin' convoy across the USA Convoy
• *makes yanky-horn arm gesture*
• Y'all can call me Rubber Duck ... Stupid Fuck, more like...
• gasp!
• Guffaw! *Does 'cheeky scamp' dance*
• **smacks Kit across back of head for being cranky** For those of you who haven't experiences a 1000 mile road trip with four kids in an old Mazda wagon: ARE WE THERE YET? ARE WE THERE YET? Don't hit your brother. ARE WE THERE YET? ARE WE THERE YET? ARE WE THERE YET? ARE WE THERE YET? ARE WE THERE YET? ARE WE THERE YET? Don't hit your brother. ARE WE THERE YET? ARE WE THERE YET? ARE WE THERE YET? ARE WE THERE YET? Get that candy out of your hair. ARE WE THERE YET? ARE WE THERE YET? I told you to go when we stopped! Don't hit your brother. ARE WE THERE YET? ARE WE THERE YET? ARE WE THERE YET? No, you can't have any more candy. ARE WE THERE YET? ARE WE THERE YET? Don't hit your brother. ARE WE THERE YET? ARE WE THERE YET? ARE WE THERE YET? ARE WE THERE YET? ARE WE THERE YET? Leave your brother alone, dammit! ARE WE THERE YET? ARE WE THERE YET? ARE WE THERE YET? ARE WE THERE YET? ARE WE THERE YET? ARE WE THERE YET? OK, that was the first mile and a half.
• *rubs back of head* *smacks brother*
• That's funny, BlueHorse, especially since I have 4 siblings and our parents did own an old Mazda wagon for a while. (A '77 808, to be exact.) Seven people in one teeny tiny little car... that was hell in the summer when someone would cut a fart. We were sooooooo glad when we finally got an old '72 Ford station wagon that was the size of a battleship. As much road tripping as we've done, we haven't gotten that far. I haven't been any further west than Oklahoma. But I've seen just about all of Arizona, and that's an accomplishement considering just how freaking big and spread out this state is. Also have seen a bunch of New Mexico and a lot of SW Colorado. I may not get too far, but I get to see everything in-between. A cross-country trip is definitely in the cards as soon as I've got the money, though.
• I do a road trip with a group of ten friends every summer. Our long-term plan is to see a baseball game in every major-league park. So far, from our Southern Ontario home base, we've hit Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Boston, and Chicago. This summer will be New York City. After that, the trips get longer...
• One of you has to be independently wealthy - someone get a big bus so a bunch of us can travel across each country. Well, don't just sit there - go 'wan!
• Azpenguin: Is that you, my long lost son? Don't hit your brother.
• Travel is so much less romantic in Britain
• Figures that these guys make great time until they hit Manhattan.
• My folks had an olive-green Plymouth Fury that was roughly the size of an aircraft carrier. We kids would sit on the back floorboards and use that big ol' bench seat as a table. When we got tired, we could both stretch out prone on the seat and go to sleep. Unless it was a hot summer day, my chain-smoking Dad would refuse to have the windows rolled down, and we'd be in a blue haze for hours.
• We had a '67 Ford station wagon when I was a kid and the seatbelt laws weren't so strict -- us four kids would sit in the very back and play board games. We moved around a lot and spent many long trips doing that all over the South Island. I have road tripping in my blood, man. While we lived in California a couple of NZ friends and I took a road trip to Arizona via Mexico. It was a grand adventure complete with a car that committed autocide on the way to Tombstone, AZ. Had I the money, I'd take the family over, rent an R/V and we'd see all fifty states, even the boring ones like Kansas. #2 and I discussed renting a touring bike and doing Route 66, but I was a little concerned about riding such a heavy bike, since neither of us have ridden any large motorbikes yet. Would have been so cool though.
• even the boring ones like Kansas It's not boring, it's minimalist. Discuss.
• Kansas is minimalist alright. Like most of minimalism, it's all about surfaces. Kansas' attractions are also minimal.
• I don't think their BBQ is minimalist. From what I've heard, anyway. I'd like to visit all 50 too, eventually. Though I don't think it'll happen through driving. Maybe some of my frequent flyer miles will come in handy for this purpose.
• Friends say that driving across Kansas caused hallucinations. The brain so craved stimulation that it made some up. Also Colorado. The mountains were on the western horizon forever, it seemed.
• Koko, what a great link! Thank you so much for that. I've done the western part of that drive a couple of times, when I lived in Utah. Gorgeous scenery for a road trip. Kansas didn't bother me. Both times I went through were in August and there were lots of green hills full of sunflowers or cows. Not so bad! Now, eastern Colorado, on the other hand - that was a godawful dirt lot that went on forever. No way would I drive that again. Speaking of which, never take a road trip with someone you're not very fond of. The multi-day togetherness only makes it worse. Every mile is like someone dragging nails on a chalkboard, getting louder & louder, until you're fairly sure that the next exit will bring so. much. death.
• I get that way driving through mountains. Must . . kill . . . everyone . . .
• My boy and I would make up for the monotony of the flat states by getting kicked out of as many Denny's franchises as we could along the way.
• That was you? Dude! I was trying to enjoy my breakfast slam!
• Sorry about the hamburger in the ceiling fan...