[Specop_007]

So, the worlds comin to an end. Here we go, hang on for the ride!
But on a lighter side......Its been so depressing of late...
I want everyone to share one or two of their favorite memories. Something that you look back on and really smile....
Seeing as its my post, I'll go first eh?

This isnt my favorite really, but stands out as a perfect example of our wasteful society. Back in high school my best friend was about 3 years older then me. Anyways, my mom and dad were divorced and I lived with my dad. He spent a lot of time working and pretty much i had free run of my life as long as I didnt get in trouble and made it to work in time in the morning. On a side note I think it helped me to mature faster (No jokes now ).
So my junior year in high school I was bored out of my gourd and nothing was going on in town. Anyone who was out was just hanging out at the park. I was cruisin and pulled up to see if anything was going to happen. Nope. No parties, no runs to another town. Nada. So I grabbed my friend and at 9:30 at night we decided to pack up and head for Omaha Nebraska, a 300 mile drive across the state to go see his brother. So we ran up to O-town for the weekend and just hung out at his brothers drinkin and just relaxing. Rolled back into town Sunday afternoon.

It was a good time. We drove 300 miles to do nothing more then we would have done if we had stayed home. But, we were kids with nothing to do and a tank full of gas.

So, what are some of the fond memories of the PO crew? More then 1 is fine if you have some good ones (Which I'm sure MANY of us do!)

[Jack]

Fond memories?

My first new car. It was a Cadillac Sedan de Ville. Blue. Leather, loaded. It was huge - big V8 engine, great air conditioner.

I will not see its like again.

[wisconsin_cur]

I did four years of college in a mid-sized Illinois town after leaving (and I exaggerate not) the "least densely populated county in Illinois (the title has since passed to another county). A lot of kids from Chicago went to that school (the cause of some conflict on other occasions, but I digress) and I heard some of them talk with wonder about how wonderful the stars were in our mid-sized city.

I made them load up in my room mates Chevy Celebrity. We drove 150 miles and laid down in a field, stones throw away from a house I lived in during elementry school and we sat for an hour looking at the stars.

I always thought those city kids were clueless...

that was the one time that they admitted it.


Soon, I suppose, that view will be available every night.

[Specop_007]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Jack', '
')I will not see its like again.

[eastbay]

Knowing that at any time over the past 35 years I could fire up my car and for under a couple of hundred bucks be anywhere in North America in under four days. Under three if I really put the hammer on.


I suspect I'll live to see a day when it will take a bit longer and cost quite a bit more. But it was really spectacular to have lived through that special and magical time.

[Specop_007]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('eastbay', 'K')nowing that at any time over the past 35 years I could fire up my car and for under a couple of hundred bucks be anywhere in North America in under four days. Under three if I really put the hammer on.


I suspect I'll live to see a day when it will take a bit longer and cost quite a bit more. But it was really spectacular to have lived through that special and magical time.

[wisconsin_cur]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Specop_007', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Jack', '
')I will not see its like again.

[CarlinsDarlin]

Specop,
Your post reminded me of a road trip we took when I was a freshman in college. We didn't quite go so far, but one Saturday afternoon, I had a craving for a Mr. Dunderbach's pretzel - found only in McCain Mall in Little Rock. We were about 3 hours from Little Rock at the time. Another friend knew he could get pickled herring at the same store... So 3 of my guy friends and I loaded up the car and took a drive to Little Rock to buy a pretzel and some pickled herring and bagels. We each had about $20 on us - maybe. Well, as it happens, we made it to the mall, ate our fill and started out to head back home well after dark, having spent most of our money at the mall. Then we had car trouble.

So we pooled our money and found the cheapest motel we could find in town ($29.95 for the Budgetel Inn at the time) and I rented a single (couldnt afford a double) .... and we snuck in everyone else.

It was a hoot. The next day we got the car fixed and headed back home (thanks to Chris' parents who paid for it with their credit card).

These days I consolidate trips to town - 15 miles away - to save gas... Those were the days.
K

[eastbay]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Specop_007', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('eastbay', 'K')nowing that at any time over the past 35 years I could fire up my car and for under a couple of hundred bucks be anywhere in North America in under four days. Under three if I really put the hammer on.


I suspect I'll live to see a day when it will take a bit longer and cost quite a bit more. But it was really spectacular to have lived through that special and magical time.

[Muckingfess]

1962-freshman year at UT-9 passenger wagon (to pull horses to rodeos)-charged dorm mates $25 each for trips to Mexico every weekend- not just pocket change back then-always full

same year-made runs to Big Spring (the closest place to by Coors beer)- filled horse trailer- Cost me 3.65 a case-sold for 10. If I'd gotten caught crossing all those dry counties they would have put me so far back in jail they would have to pipe sunlight to me.

That was my last year of school- I was making more money than most adults.

[metalflake]

Road trips in a Lincoln Continental MArk V special edition for days. Fill up for under 5 dollars. Aircondition the left side and heat the right side. Light, life friends water boats waterskiing, surfing swimming driving filling up the tank for 2 dollars, music, rain, rainbows, we had the world and could do anything.

walking through a park and a beautiful girl throws a cup of ice on you, barbecuingsunbathing hawaii on a whim no motels for a week, sleep on the beach in the day/burn, smooze at night, hike and never get sore, climb and never fall, run and no one can catch you.

Wet cement putting in a fountain in Maui at the IO needle, sneaking back putting my initials and the date '74, going back thirty years later and seeing the initials. Marvelous!

Heated swimming pool at ski resort, hot tubs, climb the snow bank in your bathing suit and heat sauna, what a lot of power we had to waste.

Yeah that was beautiful.
We could go anywhere and everything was beautiful
Those were the days.

I don't think we will ever get to the point of Kaptain Kirk, using a phaser and a weeks worth of energy to heat a boulder to red heat for comfort on an alien planet. There just isn't that much energy available anymore.

[biofuel13]

Two days after I graduated from high school I jumped in my car and went on a road trip that hit 32 states, Canada, and Mexico. No plans, no agenda, and no one telling me what to do. Just me, my car, and the open road. It was a great way to emerge into adulthood.

[Quagmire]

.
Swimming laps alone in an olympic size heated pool in the dead of winter; followed by a huge extra hot whirlpool, dry sauna, and then the steam room. Keeps me warm for hours afterwards outside without a coat even. I will miss that.
.

[yeahbut]

Early summer, 1990. Eight people and a cauldron of cactus juice in a '66 Valiant. Young, wild, untouchable by the misfortunes of life. Tank full of sweet, cheap gas. Warm wind thru the windows, Pixies wailing, Tribe Called Quest rolling, Happy Mondays babbling.

A cop pulls us over. I'm looking at him as face melts into his collar a la Robert Crumb, and wondering how the hell my friend is managing to keep it together and convince him that we are fine upstanding members of the community. He does though, some kind of juiced up Jedi mind trick, and we're on our way, silent for a awhile and then hooting and yelling and laughing til we have to pull over and dance it out- and then off again, nowhere we have to be, wherever we want to go...

[socrates1fan]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Specop_007', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Jack', '
')I will not see its like again.

[PrairieMule]

My 1st car was a 1976 Checy Monza town coupe. This all metal mini tank was the precursor to the Cavalier . In the summer of 1988 I paid $600.



This little car had something special under the hood. It had a 4.3 liter V8.

Anyways this car was just too fast for a teenage boy to drive. Within the first month I got busted doing 43 in a school zone. I had fond memories of the a few adventures in this car. One of them including loosing a few townies in Ralston, OK trying to kick my narrow little behind.

[Grifter]

You Americans are so flash, jeez.

My first car was a bright orange Skoda 0.9 ltr, slow as a fat bloke going up stairs.

I once got 8 people in it though and we travelled about 10 miles!

My friends first car was a mini van and we were going down hill in Anglesey (that's in Wales) and the front wheel overtook us, we didn't realise it was ours until we hit the brakes at the bottom of the hill.

[AlterEgo]

College road trip from east coast to west coast and back in a '69 VW bug with my roommate, stopping to backpack in various places in the Rockies. Sweet.

[JoeW]

About ten years ago, I traveled from Pennsylvania to Wyoming to go dirtbiking with some friends. We were three guys and three dirtbikes in a Dodge passenger van, and we logged 1800 miles each way, taking turns paying for the fill-ups.

The riding out there was definitely worth it. It might still be.
After driving through Nebraska and Iowa for hours and seeing nothing but cornfields as far as the eye could see, I thought I would never worry about food.

[WildRose]

I have great memories of beautiful, sunny winter days spent on lakes ice-fishing, having a winter picnic with cold sandwiches and hot chocolate. On one trip it was Easter, and we hid Easter eggs in the snow along the shore for our kids - they were surprised and delighted, it was fun. I'd take the dog with me exploring (she went everywhere with me). Lots of our kids' friends have accompanied us on these trips as well.

Road trips, from Edmonton to Vancouver Island, northern California, Cape Cod Massachusetts, and all through the Canadian Rockies. Really good times. We made the northern California trip in a boat-sized station wagon, sleeping in the back of it at night. Cape Cod in a small Dodge Colt. All trips with the same guy!