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Post by stonecutter on Feb 2, 2011 13:52:40 GMT -7
Where've ya been? Where ya going?
Personally, I have nothing planned, but I want to hear about your upcoming vacations. There's a lot people who regularly come out. Where was/were your favorite vacation(s)?
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Post by cherylm on Feb 3, 2011 1:19:59 GMT -7
I hope to "vacate" this year, but I'm waiting until my taxes are filed for the year to determine if, when, and where I might be going! With a little luck, I'll be going to the ACA Conference in Kansas City in June, and making a road trip down to see my SoCal friends in September or October. (I moved 400+ miles away from my lifelong home this past summer, and I love it up here, but there are some people down south that I miss dearly.)
Favorite vacation ever was a weeklong small-ship (48 passengers) cruise of the Washington state coastline and British Columbia. Dream vacation would be England...maybe some day!
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Post by allenuk on Feb 3, 2011 4:04:35 GMT -7
Haven't been on one since 1988. First, because we ran a small but demanding company, and just couldn't (well, could've, but didn't) take time off. Second, because after getting OUT of that and retiring at age 51, it hardly seemed worth it, as every day was like a holiday.
Please come to England some time, but I have a feeling that my notions of New England (dreamy hills, pretty leaves in the fall, quiet roads meandering through green woods, old universities, etc), is as Hollywood-inspired as yours might be of Old England, which in many respects resembles the US, except that we drive on the proper side of the road!
Allen
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ann58
Female Member 
Posts: 278
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Post by ann58 on Feb 3, 2011 17:16:07 GMT -7
Allen, we drive on the right side of the road ;D
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ann58
Female Member
Posts: 278
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Post by ann58 on Feb 3, 2011 17:18:59 GMT -7
Honestly, we don't go on vacations......we always were dirt track racing. Both our sons also built their own cars {super late models} so I guess we vacationed every week-end.  |
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Post by allenuk on Feb 4, 2011 8:48:39 GMT -7
Allen, we drive on the right side of the road ;D Ann: you might drive on the right side, but we drive on the proper side. Didn't we send roads across on The Mayflower? A. |
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Post by kapteenkoukku on Feb 4, 2011 20:01:54 GMT -7
Why the difference on the traffic rule: The French Revolution of 1789 gave a huge impetus to right-hand travel in Europe. The fact is, before the Revolution, the aristocracy travelled on the left of the road, forcing the peasantry over to the right, but after the storming of the Bastille and the subsequent events, aristocrats preferred to keep a low profile and joined the peasants on the right. An official keep-right rule was introduced in Paris in 1794, more or less parallel to Denmark, where driving on the right had been made compulsory in 1793. Later, Napoleon's conquests spread the new rightism to the Low Countries (Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg), Switzerland, Germany, Poland, Russia and many parts of Spain and Italy. The states that had resisted Napoleon kept left – Britain, the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Portugal. This European division, between the left- and right-hand nations would remain fixed for more than 100 years, until after the First World War. users.telenet.be/worldstandards/driving%20on%20the%20left.htmMost of it was originally on left. |
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Post by allenuk on Feb 5, 2011 3:39:51 GMT -7
Fair enough, Captain, I concede. Anything that started off as anti-aristocratic has got to get my vote (although I'm not going to start a 'drive on the right' protest movement in the UK. Might be inherent dangers)...
Allen.
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Post by barclay on Feb 5, 2011 22:02:09 GMT -7
I'm spending Easter at home with my son and working on the garden. I've got my on-line shopping cart filled to the brim and I check it one a week or so and switch plants in and out. It's a lot of fun :-)
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Post by cherylm on Feb 6, 2011 1:44:54 GMT -7
Well, there are parts of the country where your "New England Fantasy" would still be available, Allen...and any number of other places that are wall-to-wall McDonald's, WalMarts, and Burger Kings.
Being from SoCal, where a 50-year-old building is considered "historical" (Literally....the town I was born in mounted a campaign to "save" the world's oldest still-operating McDonald's as part of a historic preservation campaign...and we actually have tourists come to visit it!!), I'm sure I'd be able to find some of my "Old England" as well.....!
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Post by allenuk on Feb 6, 2011 2:02:48 GMT -7
Well, I know where there's (nearly) a Wimpy Bar from the 50s, but don't tell them as we can't cope with any more tourists. It actually stopped being a Wimpy in about 1970, but the new owners were mean sods, and left the internal decor alone (yes, even down to the tomato sauce in squeezy tomato-shaped bottles), just nailing a new sign next to the old one saying "Italian" (i.e. Italian Wimpy Bar).
It was still there only a few years back - I must drive by and check!
A.
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Post by cherylm on Feb 7, 2011 15:35:01 GMT -7
"Italian Wimpy Bar" is a good one, Allen, but I think I can do you one better: We had a "Johny's Broiler and Drive-in Restaurant, Home of the Fat Boy Burger" used car lot! The entire indoor seating section of the restaurant was being used as "offices" for the car sales staff...the parking lot and drive-in bays were the display areas for the cars, and all the original neon signage, including the giant Fat Boy (a not-so-sly rip-off of Bob's Big Boy character) hovered over everything.
This odd situation occurred because the car sales folks were only leasing the property, and the owner also rented out the "Johny's Broiler" property to film companies as a "traditional '50s diner" location film site. (Robert Altman filmed a good portion of "Short Cuts" in Johny's Broiler, for example.) So.....one day, the car folks decided that running their business out of a former restaurant/film location site was well-nigh impossible. So they started to demolish the site! Without the permission of the owner...with an illegal and inexperienced demolition crew consisting of assorted family and friends...without appropriate permits, and without properly disconnecting the electrical and gas lines...on a Sunday afternoon when no-one much was likely to be around. By the time the police arrived and put an end to it, the only things left standing were the front wall of the restaurant, part of the car-hop bays, and the giant neon sign with Fat Boy!
Now things got REALLY interesting. The owner said, "well, they've gone this far, so let's just finish off the demolition properly".......but the local "historical preservation" group (renamed SAVE JOHNY'S BROILER!...exclamation mark not mine) filed to prevent that while they tried to figure out a way to "save the restaurant" (which had been closed to the public for years and wasn't that popular before that...Johny's Broiler was well past its 1950s/1960s prime, as was much of its food). A fence went up around the mostly-demolished restaurant, but all the piles of demolished stuff remained. Court hearings were held. Preservation applications were filed. The whole town split into sides....110,000 people all arguing and writing letters-to-the-editor on the immensely important Johny's Broiler issue. It went on for a couple of years that way........
Enter the Bob's Big Boy Restaurant Corporation. (Remember them from earlier in this tale?) They offered to buy the entire property and refurbish it "in the spirit of Johny's Broiler." And so it was done...the piles of demolished stuff were hauled away...the front wall of the restaurant remained as the link to the Johny's heritage...Fat Boy was taken off the giant neon sign and removed to the rear parking lot and a plaque telling his history was planted beside him...the Bob's Big Boy character was placed ON the giant neon sign, and "Bob's" replaced "Johny's" in the name of the place. The car-hop bays were reinstated, and the interior of the restaurant was done up in a picture-perfect recreation of a hollywoodized version of a 1950s malt shop/burger joint. Photos of 1950s/1960s local teens went up of the walls in a tribute to the "spirit of Johny's Broiler," and Bob's Big Boy Restaurant Corporation started filming ads for their chain of coffee-shops (which in no way resemble what they did with the Johny's Broiler location), when they weren't serving generic coffee-shop fare to the towns' citizens. They sell Bob's Big Boy T-shirts with designs "in the spirit of Johny's Broiler" at the cash register.
And everyone lived happily ever after...................................!
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