It was a three-day class with Skip Barber. They go to various tracks around the country; mine was at Laguna Seca in California about three years ago..
There was a reasonable amount of track time over three days, but the whole thing felt quite rushed. There was a pretty careful process to get us each fitted to our car. I got a very small cushion to bring me a little closer to the wheel and pedals. When it was time for my first session on track, I couldn’t find it, so someone gave me one that was a couple inches thicker. I didn’t think much of it at the time, but I may have been too far forward. That may have caused some of the problems I had.
Costs was a few thousand dollars. I think I said in my earlier post that it was probably too much of a step up for me. If I had it to do over again, I’d find something a little more low key, and with a different company.
Have they improved again? Because they absolutely sucked in the 90s, then somewhere around the early 10s I want to say, they changed their dough and sauces and actually got reasonable, but the last few times I had them over the last two years, they’ve been disappointing and I haven’t ordered from them since last fall maybe.
You might be interested in this post I made about the pros and cons of various forms of amateur motorsports. It’s almost ten years old, but aside from the prices, which you’ll have to adjust, I think it’s still mostly accurate.
Continuing the burger subtopic, there was a Checkers burger joint near our office. I had somehow gotten the idea they were supposed to be a notch upscale from Wendy’s and Burger King, so I snagged one for lunch.
Looks like sometime around 2009-2010 is when they actually did it. And they got dramatically better. My local shop has stayed that way; they’re easily the best of the national delivery chains (Pizza Hut, Papa John’s, Domino’s) around here.
Yeah, that corresponds with my noticing a huge bump in improvement. Unfortunately, my local shop seems to have have slipped the last few times we’ve had it from there. Used to be our place to go to for cheap pizza, but now the kids have switched allegiances to Pizza Hut after a few subpar experiences at Dominos.
That’s interesting. Our experience has been the inverse. Our local Pizza Hut has gone downhill pretty steadily over time, and we tried Domino’s after reading that they’d done a lot of work to improve, and were pleasantly surprised.
One of the alleged benefits of Patrick Mahomes playing for the Chiefs is they started opening Whataburger franchises in Kansas City (I guess they’re big in Texas and Oklahoma.) Lots of hype surrounding Whataburger, but when I finally ate one… meh. Five Guys is better, and that’s probably not saying much.
As franchises variance can be high at these places. I’ve pretty much ceased trying to eat KFC, which was the fast fried chicken of my youth. When it’s good it’s…well…good, I suppose. But far too often it is mediocre to bloody awful. Popeye’s in my area is entirely more consistent.
Honestly the most gnat’s ass consistent franchise I’ve found on long road trips is probably McDonald’s and even then you get variance if you get food at the tail end of its hold cycle.
I mean, I’m not happy with Pizza Hut…it’s the kids who prefer it now. When I really want pizza, I’m a supporter of local businesses, but it’s like $30 for a decent-sized pizza now from a local pizzeria, so it’s a treat. But I used to actually enjoy Domino’s Philly Cheesesteak pizza. Regardless, Domino’s is way better than it was in the 90s now. I think it’s just this particular store that has taken a dip.
Some tome ago, KFC did two things- according to a manager there- increased the time food could be under the hot lights, and increased the use time on the grease the chicken is fried in.
I used to work next door for one, and the clerks used to let us know on “fresh grease day” and the second batch fried in that fresh stuff was excellent. But the stuff the day before the grease was changed- meh. Now that they have more days it will have gone from “meh” to “nasty”- IMHO.
Same as the chicken sitting out. Now, we will only get one of the pot pies.
I only played X-Wing a few times, but the longest game lasted about 45 minutes. If your game lasted 4 hours and you weren’t close to completing it then whoever was showing you the ropes screwed up badly. X-Wing was fairly popular in my neck of the woods for a few years but interest started to wane before they released 2nd edition. I think 2nd edition killed whatever interest was left in the game.
We rotate through a few local chains (Zalat and I Fratelli) and also Pizza Hut and Domino’s.
Typically if we’re in the mood for good pizza we make it ourselves. But a lot of the time it’s something that is delivered, mostly tasty and that we all agree on.
I keep hearing good things about Popeye’s, but that’s not been my experience. I don’t think Popeye’s is very popular here in Canada, but there’s one in my neighbourhood where fast-food outlets have been popping up like weeds. I’ve had a few different things from there, including their much-famed chicken sandwich, and didn’t really like any of them. I think the place may just be badly managed.
Burger King is another example of franchise variance. In my old neighbourhood, there was a BK that was just sad-looking, dirty, and I finally stopped going there after one of their burgers just tasted off, as if the meat had expired. Ironically it was in a very high-cost retail location. Here in the burbs the BK always has great fresh burgers.
One thing that can be said about McDonald’s – while no place will always be perfect, they do work hard to achieve consistency and are mostly successful. The cynical view may be that the food is consistently poor and consistently unhealthy, but at least it’s consistent!
To be entirely fair, it was four players (most, if not all, of whom were new to the game) plus the GM, and each of the players were running multiple ships.
Popeyes can be wildly variable between locations. A good one is up there with the very best fast food fried chicken out there, and is really an exceptional fried chicken experience. But that’s not the rule- most are good, and a fair number aren’t even that.
