I kinda missed the last of last weeks MMP because we went out of town. Since a lot of people travel around this time of year, (and since I haven’t started an MMP for awhile),I thought this would make a good topic.
So what are your car traveling stories?
We were just outside of Atlanta this weekend, and one of mine has to do with that area. I was going back to Ohio after visiting my folks in FL (this was before I moved here) My Aunt and Uncle live up there & had agreed to take me back. We’re tooling down the interstate and all of a sudden, Uncle Bob says “Sue, ain’t we getting kinda low on gas?” Well, we saw an exit up ahead, but we didn’t even make it that far… the car goes pff pff pfffff and dies. So there we are stuck on a 8 lane highway in the middle of downtown Atlanta rush hour traffic on the wrong side of the road…
Two police cars came to help, one parked diagonally on the road to block traffic, while the other pushed us across the highway to where it was relatively safe on the other side. The thing was, the presence of the cops blocking traffic wasn’t even slowing people down!! :eek:
Eventually some old boy in a wrecker truck pulled behind us & volunteered to go on a gas run.
It sounds bad, but it was actually pretty funny… and it built my faith in humanity just a little. The guy could have taken my Aunt’s money and never come back… not only that, but he wouldn’t have taken anything for helping us had she not insisted upon it.
Good afternoon. Zsa Zsa Gabor has apparently finally kicked the bucket at 99. I’m sure some dopers will be cashing in on their death pool choice!
We used to do lots of road trips when I was a kid, travelling up to our hometown on school holidays (1600km/1000mi over 2 days, each way). We were two parents and 4 kids, crammed into a Ford station wagon (column shift with a bench seat in the front). I have fond memories of stopping at roadside truck-stops and “cafes” for petrol and food, stopping at my aunty’s house in Emerald at the halfway point, then always having rotisserie chicken and fresh bread for sandwiches made on the back pull-down section of the station wagon’s trunk. The station wagon had a truck-size air-conditioner that my Dad had retro-fitted, and because I was the youngest and stuck sitting in the front between Mum and Dad, it blew straight onto my knees - they were usually numb by the end of each day!
Up, caffeinated, and sheveled. Off to work. Hockey tonight.
My last roadtrip was driving up to Lawn Guyland for the hockey booster club convention. One of the highlights was getting to met rosie. The low point was getting lost in lower Manhattan, and almost being t-boned by a cabbie screaming something at me in Arabic.:eek:
Pearl, glad you got help. Atlanta is something else ,traffic wise.
It’s a cold 25 degrees outside with a predicted high of 32. Tomorrow is supposed to be even colder, then it gets warm again with Christmas in the 50s.
I don’t have to go outside and so I won’t.
I’m up too early, but that is cool, I can get some stuff done and then take a nap if the sleepies hit.
Y’all will be happy to know that my shift key is working again and that the cat finally pooped.
We took some road trips when I was growing up, but they weren’t all that much fun.
Embarrassed to say, I’ve run out of gas a few times. Once on the Baltimore Beltway, and that is how I found out that the tow trucks carry a few extra gallons of gas just for that reason. They don’t even charge you for it, they just want to get you off the shoulder.
Another time I was the last car in a funeral procession and ran out of gas. The funeral was going past the town where I grew up and some guy from the next neighborhood over stopped to help me. I didn’t know who he was, but I knew I had seen him around, very nice of him to stop and help.
Now I’m pretty careful not to go much below half a tank.
I don’t know what I’m doing for Christmas yet. I’ll be heading down to the armpit sometime over the weekend, I don’t know what day yet. Depends on when the HFH are going.
Good Mornin’ Y’all! Up and caffeinatin’. YAWN ‘Tis 46 Amurrkin out and rainy with a predicted high of 51 and rain which should clear up this afternoon. I am "road trippin’" to Ye Olde Hometowne this mornin’. 'Tis 34 Amurrkin there and rainy with a predicted high of 52 and N.O.S. this afternoon. The good news is I may start out in light rain but by the time I get about 50 miles up the road the rain will have gone away already.
Durin’ my misspent youth, we’d do such things as get up early on a Sattidy mornin’, drive five hours to Panama City Beach, Flahrduh, spend the day and drive back that night. Also, spur of the moment trips to Etlanner (about an hour away) to watch Braves games (cheap seats were three bucks) or to party and come back in the wee hours of the mornin’. Then there was the one and only time I went to Disney World. A friend and I decided to go so we went to Orlando, Flahrduh and spent two days at Disney. We were supposed to come back home but instead got a wild hair and drove from Orlando to Miami to spend the night at the Fontainebleu Hotel in Miami Beach. Ah misspent youth!
OK, I need more caffeine and to feed rumbly tummy. Then I shall purtify and get on the road. I plan to kinda unplug whilst I’m gone but I will check in a few times. Y’all behave. Use a coaster, especially flytrap.
My roadtrip story is from 1978. I was driving from Indiana to Pensacola, FL in the winter for a temporary duty assignment. (I was still in the Navy at the time.) Somewhere in Alabama, I saw a car wash and decided to get the crud off my little Datsun B210. As the car came out, I heard a rather loud hissing sound and the “helpful” car wash attendant told me it sounded like a hole in my tire and I could go next door and get it fixed.
Yeah, what a coincidence - a single female traveling alone in a car obviously packed full and sporting out of state tags… :rolleyes:
I pulled across the street into an empty lot, got out my owner’s manual, and proceeded to unload my trunk and change my tire. This is back when you carried a real spare in the trunk!! Then I repacked my trunk and went on my way. Once I got to Pensacola, I went to the garage on base and they plugged my tire. I’m guessing ice pick. Guess I showed them!!!
It didn’t get as cold as forecast overnight, but our high will barely hit the mid-30s. At least the wind has died down. Last normal work week of the year. I’ve got a 4 day weekend ahead, followed by a 3-day week and a 3-day weekend, and a 4-day week. My next full work week starts Jan 9! Daughter and bf get to town on Thurs, but they won’t be staying with us till Christmas night. We will have custody of Cozmo, her pug, since her bf’s mother doesn’t like dogs.
So a couple of interesting weeks ahead.
Oh, and regarding Zsa Zsa - just last week, on FB, I think, **swampy **and I were talking about her - I thought sure she was dead. Turns out, now I’m right. Sad that she was just a couple of months shy of hitting 100.
It wasn’t a road trip, but I was commuting from Baltimore to DC one morning after an ice storm. The BW Parkway had been recently resurfaced, so it was nice and smooth, giving the ice a lovely base to adhere to. “Traffic” such as it was moved at maybe 10MPH, probably less. When I realized how bad it was, I decided to take the next exit and go home.
Very gingerly, I tapped my brakes so I could get over to the right. All of a sudden, I was doing a 360° turn in the middle of the parkway. Fortunately, the nearest car behind me was probably 500 yards away. So I just sat there watching the scenery spin by in slow motion. I was able to recover and scoot over to the right where my tires found some purchase on the rougher shoulder. Exit, go home, call boss. I told him I wasn’t coming in. He said “Good.”
I’m thinking in an Archy and Mehitabel way. Archy wrote about Mehitabel the cat but couldn’t use the shift key.
Lots a road trip stories. Was just telling someone last week why I hate [Del]OhNo[/Del] Ohio (didja ever notice just one little extra mark separates Ohio & Oh No? [/Andy Rooney].
It’s because of two trips into that state. One waking up to a trooper’s gunpoint & the other from a hot ass.
Once I was driving home from a then bf’s house, late at night on an icy road, in a new truck. This truck had an idiot light telling you when to shift. The damn light kept blinking and I kept thinking I shouldn’t shift, but I did.
Big mistake.
The road was three lanes in each direction with a wide median between them, and construction work going on with lots of orange cones and barrels.
I slid all the way to the left and bounced off the curb, which sent me spinning to the right and bounced off that curb, which sent me spinning back to the left and through the opening in the median - sending orange barrels flying - and spinning into the other three lanes and left me sitting sideways blocking all three lanes.
Which pissed off the other drivers who started honking their horns and one screamed at me to get out of the way.
Like they thought I did it on purpose?
That was the last time I listened to an idiot light.
Below freezing in Ali-Bama again today, but warmer weather is promised by the holiday.
I drive up to my brother’s (about 430 miles one-way) for T-giving and Xmas, so I’ll be doing the I-65/I-24/I-57/I-64 shuffle on Thorsday. When we were teenagers, our uncle Russ would take us on vacations with him, so I got to see a lot of this country I might never had the chance too. Haven’t taken a long driving vacation in a while now, it’s on the list but too much interesting stuff elsewhere that I haven’t seen before.
Midget, sounds like music has you feeling a bit better. Good.
Sari, good looking cat, even if it’s constipated…
FCM, Big Kitty thanks to ice and snow, I have ended up in a guardrail on the Pennsy turnpike, a families front yard, and the median of I-65 between Chicago and Indianapolis. Good times…
swampy, now that I have the ability to say “**** it” and just GO, I find that I really need to think about it and plan it out…old age I guess.
Trying to think of a good road trip story… sure I must have had some interesting ones.
I’ve never yet out of petrol though, though it got pretty close when I got this car a few times. On my old car (rust in pieces), the first 3/4 on the fuel gauge lasted about the same as the final 1/4, and that last bit lasted for ever, you didn’t need to start paying attention until it was well into the red. This car is the other way round; it once dropped from almost 1/4 full on the dial to fuel light on to flashing fuel light in less than 5 miles, albeit in heavy traffic.
It actually uses less fuel, and the first half tank lasts for ages, so I think it’s just a quirky dial (reminds me of some people I know, actually; two settings ‘Yay, everything’s great, no problems at all’, straight to ‘AAARGH! HELP!! FIX IT NOW!!!’).
I was planning on spending today doing the final bits of present shopping, (need to get something for an Aunt and Uncle, as I’m visiting them on Boxing day), but it’s raining, and it would involve walking into town, and I’m getting a case of the dontwannas. I could drive to the [del]gates of Hades[/del] out of town mall, where it’ll be dry, but I hate going there at the best of times, and the week before Christmas is decidedly not the best of times to be there.
I really do need to get them something though, showing up to parties with presents for all the other guests but not the hosts is Frowned Upon in most manners guides.
I have no interesting road trip stories. The most I drive is 8 hours to Lexington KY once a year for a horse show. No, I don’t take my horse.
It is MINUS 12 today. High will be in the mid teens. Maybe. Gradual warming to above freezing by Thorsday.
I found a recipe for Almond Joy cookies and it involves 4 ingredients and no mixing and minimal baking. If I make the cookies tonight, do you think any will be left for Christmas Day???
I’m guessing the ingredients are 3 Almond Joy bars and a roll of refrigerator sugar cookies. Bake the cookies, top with almond joy bars, eat.
LUNCH!!
We got an email from the head engineer this morning. Apparently, this facility usually has some sort of Christmas party every year. But it’s kinda crazy this year because we’ve got 2 projects that are being delivered this month, so no one has time to party. Instead, they’re going to have it in January.
This is the party-ing-est organization I’ve ever known!!
