On 3/19/14, 10:17 AM, Poco Loco wrote:
On Wed, 19 Mar 2014 09:57:19 -0400, F*O*A*D wrote:

On 3/19/14, 9:16 AM, Mr. Luddite wrote:
On 3/19/2014 8:18 AM, Poco Loco wrote:


One of the most enjoyable trips I have taken was driving to Denver, CO
via Rt. 90. I did so on a whim in the Ford F-350 diesel towing a car
trailer to pick up a 1955 Ford F-100 pickup that a guy had for sale.
Like many, I had flown back and forth over this part of the country many
times while working and making trips to the West coast but this was the
first time I could actually see what states like Iowa, Nebraska and
Colorado actually looked like at ground level.

Nebraska was strangely beautiful to me. I like being by myself and the
trip across that state certainly makes you feel alone and away from
everything. The only concern I had was fuel stops. There aren't many,
so you have to make sure you fuel up when you can. The one fuel stop I
found reminded me of an old, western stage stop or something. Friendly
people but I have no clue how they survived or made a living out there.

On the return trip I took Rt.80 east. I stopped at the World's Biggest
Truck Stop in Iowa. Interesting place. It has everything you can
imagine including huge shopping areas, doctors, dentists and damn good
food!

I spent some years attending college and working in that part of the
country and saw all I really wanted to see of Kansas, Missouri,
Oklahoma, Nebraska, Colorado, the Dakotas, et cetera. On one assignment,
I spent a month on the road with a photographer writing and researching
a magazine story on small town rail stations that had been abandoned or
repurposed. We made a special effort to avoid "chain" restaurants and
motels. It was interesting. I liked the old M-K-T stations the best.

I spent a college Thanksgiving holiday at a buddy's farm in rural South
Dakota. Talk about cultural shock...sheesh.

I don't like driving long distances. These days, when I visit long-time
buddies in the New Haven area, I take Amtrak and rent a car when I get
there, and New Haven isn't that far of a drive, maybe 300 miles, a six
hour drive if you don't get nailed in the NYC area. It's four and a half
hours on the Acela, maybe an hour longer on the slower train.


Good. You undoubtedly saw everything worth seeing.


There you go again. I didn't say or imply I saw "everything worth
seeing" in that part of the Midwest and West. I said I saw everything I
*wanted* to see there.

The night city editor at the KC Star warned young reporters not to screw
up too badly because, he said, if we did, he'd post us to Great Bend,
Kansas, for a month. Hell, there were worse places in Kansas back then
than Great Bend.

Wes Gallagher and Keith Fuller, my old bosses at The Associated Press,
gave me a similar warning when I was promoted to Correspondent for a
good chunk of West Virginia, Ohio, and Kentucky.

"Screw up there, and we'll send you out to the South Dakota bureau."

I told him I'd already been to South Dakota.

Fuller's last words to me: "Get your ass out of here (NY AP offices)
and get down to West Virginia."

Once we got to West Virginia, we stopped for gas at a really rural station.

The attendant looked into our car and asked, "What kind of dog is that,
mister?"

His buddy, who was wiping the windshield, said, "That's no dog, you
dummy...that's a Siamese cat. I saw one in a picture book once."

He was right...it was a Siamese cat. Obviously, he was too sophisticated
for his town.

I had a great time in West Virginia. Met some terrific people.





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Rand Paul & Ted Cruz…your 2016 GOP nominees, because ‘Mericans deserve
crazy!