On The Road Again.....

[ltxi]

First road trip of the 2019 season comin' up beginning of next week. To Maine and PA. Looking forward to it and to seeing old friends. Enjoyment to be enhanced, as usual these last couple/few years, by extended break from chemo treatment. Also by the new, seriously grippy summer performance tires I bolted on to my vacation GT last month.

So if anyone were to notice I've gone missing over the next few weeks don't get all happy about it just yet. Unless I end up as roadkill in some such place as Misery (as my GPS pronounces it), I'll be back. :)

[JohnR]

Have fun! If you run into Jocko on the way, say hi.

[Bawanna]

I think they got wi fi in Misery these days, no excuse for being absent.

[wyntrout]

Have a safe trip. We'll be heading to Southern Illinois to see the granddaughters and then just north of Branson, MO to visit my son. On the way there and back we'll try to hit a few casinos again, but not the big Casino tour as back in December/January. :)

[BirdsThaWord]

As someone who used to run those parts frequently (sales “road warrior”) I can say that you might see a few stalks of corn and soybeans in your journeys. Just a few. Have fun! Glad to hear you are getting away from the docs. Traveling sounds like a lot more fun!!! : )

[ltxi]

As someone who used to run those parts frequently (sales “road warrior”) I can say that you might see a few stalks of corn and soybeans in your journeys. Just a few. Have fun! Glad to hear you are getting away from the docs. Traveling sounds like a lot more fun!!! : )

My road warrior days involved one hell of a lot commercial air travel....42 damn years of it. That's one big reason I drive. Another is my wife hates road trips. I drive, she flies. It's like three vacations in one....for both of us. The docs are great. It's the week after chemo infusion that sucks.

[ltxi]

I think they got wi fi in Misery these days, no excuse for being absent.

Whut is this wi fi thing you speak of? :)

[Bawanna]

I'm purty sure it's so you can use your computer to check in when you ain't home.

Maybe you could just send me a letter now and then? Pen+Paper+envelope........send it postage due, we miss you when you don't check in.

[DavidR]

Whut is this wi fi thing you speak of? :)

It’s magic.

[ltxi]

I'm purty sure it's so you can use your computer to check in when you ain't home.

Maybe you could just send me a letter now and then? Pen+Paper+envelope........send it postage due, we miss you when you don't check in.

Ahhh...don't think I need that, tho. I use the internet.

So you be sayin' KT is kinda like Hotel California?

[ltxi]

It’s magic.

Yeah. Like DARPA.

[Bawanna]

Yeah like California ,when we build the wall nobody gets out.

Maybe we need to build a Kahrtalk wall?

[Armybrat]

Whatever happened to sending postcards while on road trips?
You know, the 3x5 or 4x6 cards that have a picture of the world’s largest ball of twine or a giant jackrabbit on one side and on the other enough space to say something cute about the “good times you are having, glad they’re not here”. And a one cent stamp.

[ltxi]

Whatever happened to sending postcards while on road trips?
You know, the 3x5 or 4x6 cards that have a picture of the world’s largest ball of twine or a giant jackrabbit on one side and on the other enough space to say something cute about the “good times you are having, glad they’re not here”. And a one cent stamp.

I stopped sending them things sometime after they began arriving postage due.

[Armybrat]

Yeah, when they jacked it up to 3 cents, that really was annoying.

[wyntrout]

Wifey says the postcard rate is 35¢ now. :eek:

[ltxi]

Sadly, I have returned from Maine/PA road trip in one still very annoying piece. Enjoyed the trip, and vacation from chemo, immensely.

There was one unfortunate bit where I kinda trashed the lower front fascia of my car when I hit some road debris (a tire and wheel about the size of a U-Haul spare) at speed in, where else but, Misery, 800 miles into a circa 4200 mile round trip. But some cutting away of damaged underneath plastic shrouding and judicious application of duct tape and all was okay. Bizarrely, there was no mechanical damage and the car's still running just fine.

Life is depressingly good at the moment.

[downtownv]

Safe travels!

[ltxi]

Off to PA come Monday for family reunion.

Car's still running well, is now cosmetically patched to at a glance presentable, and ready for another run. It's gonna need body shop attention, but I'm putting that off until end of travel season. Don't want to chance car being hung up in the shop when I need it nor tempting the Misery road damage gods unnecessarily.

:)

[wyntrout]

It's good that the debris didn't stop you. That's one of my biggest worries on trips... hitting some of that tire debris from the big truck tires, especially if the guy in front of you ziggies one way to avoid something and you don't have time or the space to avoid it... at night, too!

Back in April, I was returning home on the fastest E-W road around town... usually 80+ or you're being run over. I had just gotten on to that thing and was in the right lane of 3 headed home after my radiation treatment for my prostate. About 100 yards in front of me I saw an old... looked weathered... soccer ball rolling from right to left across the road. Traffic wasn't heavy, but there were several cars that could become involved should someone take drastic evasive maneuvers! You just can't predict what people will do. I moved as far to the right as I could in my lane, quickly scanned the traffic around me, and looked for escape holes if people started swerving or braking in front of me.

It happened pretty fast and the guy in the center lane just held his course... or froze up... and then we were past the ball. I don't know what happened behind me, but things could have gotten really crazy fast. That was one of the weirder things I've seen on a highway... a soccer ball just rolling across a busy highway... at least it wasn't a crowded 85+ mob on the road at that time.

I drive fast, but I really pay attention and think about what I would do if something developed... having to go off the road into the median to avoid a pileup can get really dicey with culverts and the like in the median. I try to have some kind of plan... sometimes... I don't always just drone along at 85+.

Wifey and I don't want to ever fly again... too much BS and I can't carry a bunch of stuff that I like to have for protection and enjoyment. I've only flown once with a pistol... our flight was delayed and the luggage left without us. We got diverted to Denver on the way to Durango and spent the night in a hotel there with no luggage... did have a nice meal in the hotel, though, but had to get up very early to catch the next flight to Durango. My gun was waiting for me in my luggage.
On the way home, we beat our luggage arriving about 10:30PM and the airport asked if I wanted them to leave it at the front door around 3AM, without ringing the doorbell, when they were carrying the late luggage to the owners. I said no, and napped in my TV chair until the luggage arrived safely.

Both times I was checking in, the guy at check in hadn't a clue... wanted to put a tag on the outside. I'll wear and carry all I want and drive. We can sleep in the van and have a Keurig coffeemaker, DC cooler, and a cassock potty, as needed. We don't have to stop or hunt for Starbucks! :)

[berettabone]

You really have to watch the expressway's these days. Too many zombie drivers. I got reacquainted last year when I hit that skid of pipe going 80 mph on I-94. Flat tire, and a bunch of beat up plastic in the front of the car. Had no where to go. My escape lane to the left had a skid there also, and we were surrounded by traffic, so there was nowhere to go. A plan wouldn't have helped me in that situation. All you can do is try to spot the idiots and then stay away from them. The wifey and I have decided that for traveling, when possible, we take the back roads. Yes, it adds more driving time, about an hour or so in our case. Yes, it would be tough on a 4200 mile journey.:p

[ltxi]

Back from family reunion in PA a couple days ago. Good trip. Got to piss off one cousin mightily simply by not being dead yet. Good times. Car's still running just fine a good 7000 miles after the back in May Misery incident.

[berettabone]

That's quite a few miles...…………………...sometimes the relative thing makes a trip well worthwhile:boink:

[ltxi]

The see relative reunion trip was about 3400 miles. The rest of the 7K later thing was the the balance of of a 4500 mile round trips to Maine after the "incident" in Misery 800 miles in.