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Fun Stuff => CHATTER => Topic started by: David_Dovey on 07 May 2010, 22:34

Title: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: David_Dovey on 07 May 2010, 22:34
Hello Internet acquaintances,

I think I have mentioned it here and there and made at least a few longer blog posts about this before; I am going to be coming to N. America, starting in the middle of July. I am going to be bringing my awesome and tiny girlfriend, Sam, with me. We will be buying a car and trying to see as much of the U.S and Canada as possible before we run out of money or our visas expire (unlikely, we both have 5 year visas) and we are kicked out of the country by John Q. Law. As part of this we will be working over winter on one of the many snowfields on the British Columbia/Alberta border.

The basic gist of our trip so far is that we will be flying into New York on July 18th, staying there at least two weeks (maybe longer, depending on the timing of this supposed forum get-together being planned). After that we are planning to stay in and around the north-east part of the U.S/south-east of Canada, as we have to be in upstate NY for the All Tomorrow's Parties Festival starting on September 3. The basic route of our travel is to make a big loop up the east coast, into Canada, head west and come back into the U.S via Niagara Falls. The only place in America we are deadset on hitting on the part of the trip after NY is Boston. In Canada we have a slightly tighter itinerary taking in Quebec City, Montreal, Ottawa, Timmins ON (The Lady used to live there and has friends to visit), Toronto and Niagara.

After ATP we are going to be traveling south down the east coast heading towards Sam's aunt near Tampa, FL. Once again we only have a few places we are sure we want to visit: Philadeplphia, Gettysburg, Washington D.C., Tampa, Nashville (maybe Memphis?) before Florida.

Following that we need to work our way back up into the north of the country to make it to the Canadian snowfields for the start of skiing season. This is the least planned part of our journey as there's a lot of stuff there in the middle of the country and neither of us really have much of an idea about what it is... So we don't really know where to go to get from the bottom right of America to the slightly left-of-the-middle of Canada aside from that we'd like to stop in New Orleans and Chicago somewhere along the way and I was hoping to see Mt. Rushmore/the S. Dakota Black Hills as well.

After winter then we will do pretty much anything in Canada we hadn't done and the west side of America but that is so far in the future it almost doesn't bear thinking about too hard.

The idea of this thread is to
a) garner suggestions of nice places to go and look at that we two wouldn't have thought of, to fill in the empty gaps between the spots we have already planned. There's a lot of empty space there and we would like to fill it with interesting and fun and historical things to do. Keep in mind the basic intinerary I have already laid out and that we are driving everywhere, though. This is also tied into:

b) I want to come see as many of you guys and hang out as is humanly possible! Tell me where you are! Of course, there might be a slight hidden agenda to this because

c) We are going to be poor as all heck, so free/cheap accommodation is a Good Thing. And although we are both pretty OK with hostels, or camping, or sleeping in the car in a Walmart car-park, it might get old if we have to do that all the time! It might be nice to sleep indoors in a place where there is no threat of contracting lice. We are both clean and well-mannered and we are totally OK with the floor or a couch or whatever, it is PUNX. Just keep in mind that there are two of us. In return for floorspace we will entertain you with our funny accents.

We have accommodation in New York somewhat sorted as I have an uncle who lives just across the Hudson in Union City, NJ and he has graciously offered one of the rooms of the bed+breakfast he runs to us. Unfortunately what this means is that we wouldn't be able to stay there if/when he has paying customers. He already has people booked in for July 24+25, so we need to vacate for a little while.

Accommodation has not been worked out anywhere else, except Tampa. I'd really appreciate it if you could help us out and wherever we end up living after this whole travelling thing is done we will totally put you up.

Anyway that's a pretty sparse general idea of where I'm going with this thing but I'll keep updating it and hopefully I'll get enough chances after we actually leave and hit the road to use Internet so I can continue to use this thread and whatnot.

So yeah, lemme sleep on yr couch, QC.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: Something Witty on 07 May 2010, 22:35
No.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: David_Dovey on 07 May 2010, 22:36
Aw c'mon man don't be a dick
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: Melodic on 07 May 2010, 22:43
dovey blows
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: Melodic on 07 May 2010, 22:44
you blow, dovey
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: sean on 07 May 2010, 22:48
dovey totally blows.

dude for a night if you are by dc after atp you should drive out to shepherdstown wv and sleep on my couch and we can drink beer all goddamn night
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: scarred on 07 May 2010, 22:48
if you go to nola you must eat:

-poboys (the more ghetto the poboy place looks, the better it will be)
-snoballs

also, bourbon street kind of sucks. but the rest of the french quarter is way cool. and there's pretty much live music at 95% of the bars, all the time. great town. especially the french quarter.


if you go to chicago you must eat:

- hot dog
- deep dish pizza

the philly cheese steak is not bad either, depending on where you go.

also, the line for the sears tower has become pretty much not worth it ever because of the glass box they built where people can go stand out and look straight down at the street. it used to be a half hour wait max, now it's like 2. definitely see if you can get tix to a cubs (baseball) game though! they are very fun, even though they rarely win.


those are pretty much the only two places i know though. and i would offer you my couch if i didn't live on the opposite coast. if you promise to be cool i might be able to hook you up with some cool people in chicago though.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: David_Dovey on 07 May 2010, 22:51
Yes, I am going to get so fat in Chicago. I only hope I can find time to eat hot dogs and pizza what with Kuma's Corner being a thing that exists and all.

Nick, yr time will come, doggo.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: Johnny C on 07 May 2010, 22:52
if you go to chicago you must eat:

- hot dog
- deep dish pizza

the philly cheese steak is not bad either, depending on where you go.

1) uh?? dude there's several variety of hot dog alone, also deep dish really isn't very special. chicago has killer non-deep-dish za joints you gotta hit. i'll give you a list after june, doverton
2) the chicago specialty is the italian beef sandwich actually, which is different from philly cheesesteak

dovey you gotta go to mr. spriggs

also if you come through regina for whatever stupid reason man you KNOW there's space for you here. who knows, i might even be able to find you cool shit to do
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: scarred on 07 May 2010, 22:53
i was implying the chicago dog, brah

and deep dish is amazing fuck yooou!
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: Johnny C on 07 May 2010, 22:56
man i know the chicago dog, what i'm saying is that they aren't all created equal. chicagoans take their encased meats seriously
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: David_Dovey on 07 May 2010, 23:05
I've heard (hysterically) good things about Hot Doug's so that was already on the list.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: scarred on 07 May 2010, 23:07
yeah i lived in chicago for 13 years. just sayin.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: RallyMonkey on 07 May 2010, 23:08
South Dakota is very surprisingly worth driving through. With a mixture of the excitement and eventual disappointment of Wall Drug combined with the vast awesomeness of the Badlands. I drove across country last summer, and I would say I am as surprised as you that South Dakota was probably my favorite part of the drive.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: Ballard on 08 May 2010, 00:14
I'll double check and get back to you but you're welcome on my couch in New York for as long as you want.

The commute from New Jersey is a bit annoying, let me warn you.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: Johnny C on 08 May 2010, 00:15
yeah i lived in chicago for 13 years. just sayin.

yeah well i've been fetishizing it for several
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: David_Dovey on 08 May 2010, 00:32
The commute from New Jersey is a bit annoying, let me warn you.

As I understand it's not particularly far and/or it's not too difficult to get to the Hoboken subway station from my uncle's. It should be easy from there, right?
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: scarred on 08 May 2010, 00:38
yeah well i've been fetishizing it for several

oh snap

one of my best friends (who lives there now) does that. i think it's a transplant thing. having been born & raised there, it just doesn't work out like that for me.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: Ballard on 08 May 2010, 00:57
The commute from New Jersey is a bit annoying, let me warn you.

As I understand it's not particularly far and/or it's not too difficult to get to the Hoboken subway station from my uncle's. It should be easy from there, right?

Sure, in the sense that you're (assumedly driving or taking a bus) to a train that takes thirty minutes to an hour and then doing the reverse to get back.

I'm 30 minutes away from all the action on the subway (local transit system) so you can do that.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: Alex C on 08 May 2010, 01:56
It's too bad I moved outta south eastern Minnesota this last year or or else I may have been able to give you guys a place to crash on the way to South Dakota. I used to live just barely north of the Iowa border, so it may have been a decent pit stop even if there was jack shit to do there. My new place is kinda the size of a shoebox and frankly I wanna be outta here by the end of the summer, so no dice there.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: allison on 08 May 2010, 04:31
Dovey I live outside of Toronto (about an hour by public transit), but you are [tentatively] welcome to crash at my house, dependent upon my folks. If you have a specific date that you'll be in the area that would be rad. Also I know some great places to eat in the city and nice places to shop and hang out with me I wanna be popular
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: Liz on 08 May 2010, 06:39
Once you hit up Chicago, you could swing up through Minneapolis and to Fargo. It is not exactly on the way, but if you want to hang out with TWO forumites in one small city, Fargo is a good place to go! (Your route would look something like this, Chicago - Fargo - Black Hilss - Canada-ish http://tinyurl.com/23ww3mz) I will have a house in two weeks which means floor space and couches, plus I could theoretically get an air mattress from my mother that you could sleep on. Otherwise I will have a big bed so cuddling is totally an option.

Minneapolis is a pretty worthwhile stop if you don't want to come up this far, the Science Museum is rad, you can catch a baseball game in the shiny new stadium, browse the largest mall in the US (it is actually kind of awesome, there's an amusement park IN the mall), go to the zoo, catch a play if you like theater. Minneapolis and St. Paul together have the second highest number of theaters per capita of any city in the US! It is a nice place.

Fargo is... not so exciting. But I am here! So is Brittany!
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: BrittanyMarie on 08 May 2010, 06:50
if you come to fargo i promise to get you drunk at the empire
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: ackblom12 on 08 May 2010, 07:50
It seems incredibly unlikely you'll be swinging through Rochester, NY but if you do you're welcome to crash on the couch/inflatable mattress. Or our bed if the ferret is a little overpowering in the living room.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: Professor Snuggles on 08 May 2010, 09:10
It seems like your path isn't gonna take you through Colorado, but it should, because this state is fucking awesome, and if you stop by I will buy you between 1 and 6 really delicious microbrews from this phenomenal state and take you hiking in the rocky mountains. Possibly rock climbing as well.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: Alex C on 08 May 2010, 09:14
Colorado is probably my favorite state. I'm not really sure why I haven't moved there yet, to be honest.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: onewheelwizzard on 08 May 2010, 09:18
I'm pretty sure I can offer you guys a place in Philly for a couple days.

Also, in Philly they are just called cheesesteaks.  If you have to add "Philly" in front of the word, you're not in Philly.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: Slick on 08 May 2010, 09:31
Wish I was still in Ontario, I could put you up in Waterloo (like, an hour from Toronto, kind of on the way to Niagara) and there are good things there and I had a sweet apartment.
Andy and I are in the maritimes but it is kind of out of your way. PEI (where I am) is touristy as all hell in the summer so unless you really want to see it (you probably don't) it is not worth coming this far out of your way (you are totally welcome to our spare room) but if you let me know when you hit Montreal (rhythmically I need to add a paranthesis here as well) I might be inclined to find my way out there to meet up with you kids.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: Ballard on 08 May 2010, 10:18
It seems like your path isn't gonna take you through Colorado, but it should, because this state is fucking awesome, and if you stop by I will buy you between 1 and 6 really delicious microbrews from this phenomenal state and take you hiking in the rocky mountains. Possibly rock climbing as well.

Shit, I'd take this offer any day.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: Blue Kitty on 08 May 2010, 11:38
If you want to come to southeast Michigan I can probably show you around, but I can't promise you a place to stay.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: Dazed on 08 May 2010, 12:11
You really should go to Colorado/Utah.

They have this stuff there
(http://followalena.com/zenphoto/Bryce%20Canyon/image/Bryce%20Canyon.jpg)
(http://spot.colorado.edu/~khalsa/Summer_1999/zion_canyon.jpg)

ETC ETC ETC.

There is so much beautiful/awesome stuff in Colorado and Utah it's kind of absurd.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: Alex C on 08 May 2010, 12:59
Really, I'm pretty much destined to move there at some point. I spent enough time there as a kid to know that I love it.

I think the big thing is the weather and the scenery. Colorado as a whole is just milder than Minnesota is yet they still have all four seasons. You still get snow, but most of the state just hovers around freezing instead of being practically forced to shut down state wide for a week or two every year. Basically, if you go in August, the weather will be somewhere between 70-85 degrees and the odds of getting rained out of a great time is pretty much slim to none. You would have to be incredibly lame or the unluckiest person on the planet not to enjoy yourself.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: StaedlerMars on 08 May 2010, 13:21
That, plus there is pretty great snow mountain situations in Colorado. Which is a massive plus in my book.

Also, I can probably talk to my brother if you need a place to crash in Montreal. He's pretty cool, and has a 8 person flat, and they brew their own beer, have house gigs, and regular movie screenings. In fact, he's probably one of the coolest guys I know. So yeah, even if you don't end up crashing there, he's probably a good guy to meet up with and hang out.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: KvP on 08 May 2010, 13:32
If you're coming up through Colorado through the South, you can hit Kiff / The Springs and then come up through Denver to Fort Collins, where I live, and stay here. You can pretty much just go north along the Rockies to where they stretch into Canada.

I would suggest heading West from NOLA, maybe seeing Sam in Austin, then coming up to CO from around Amarillo, but that seems a bit out of the way.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: Emaline on 08 May 2010, 16:39
Well, if you end up coming to St. Louis, there's two super comfy couches you and your lady could sleep on here. Possibly a bed.



Also, the best place for Chicago dogs is the Weiner Circle. They insult you/talk super dirty while making your hot dog, and they are fantastic. One of the only things I will actually eat pickles on.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: Joseph on 09 May 2010, 00:12
I'll only be returning to Montreal at the very end of August, but if you come through after that, I'd be happy to give you access to a couch or two, depending on the approval of my roommates.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: David_Dovey on 09 May 2010, 07:56
Guys I am really so stoked about all the offers I've gotten already, thank you so much.

I'm 30 minutes away from all the action on the subway (local transit system) so you can do that.

This sounds super tempting to be completely honest but I am wary of imposing on you for any extended length of time, even if you do say it's cool. But I imagine I will take you up on yr offer for at least some of the time, thanks!

Once you hit up Chicago, you could swing up through Minneapolis and to Fargo. It is not exactly on the way, but if you want to hang out with TWO forumites in one small city, Fargo is a good place to go! (Your route would look something like this, Chicago - Fargo - Black Hilss - Canada-ish http://tinyurl.com/23ww3mz) I will have a house in two weeks which means floor space and couches, plus I could theoretically get an air mattress from my mother that you could sleep on.

Fargo is definitely on my list of places to hit up, it's just a question of whether we'll get the time to go before winter or if it'll have to be sometime in the extremely-nebulous-after-ski-season/early-mid 2011 part of the trip.

Quote
Otherwise I will have a big bed so cuddling is totally an option

Just making sure you know I will be with my girlfriend/is she invited/is this awesome

Quote
Minneapolis is a pretty worthwhile stop if you don't want to come up this far, the Science Museum is rad, you can catch a baseball game in the shiny new stadium, browse the largest mall in the US (it is actually kind of awesome, there's an amusement park IN the mall), go to the zoo, catch a play if you like theater. Minneapolis and St. Paul together have the second highest number of theaters per capita of any city in the US! It is a nice place

I have a feeling West Edmonton Mall (http://www.wem.ca/) will probably sate our "gigantic mall with theme park" needs just fine

It seems incredibly unlikely you'll be swinging through Rochester, NY but if you do you're welcome to crash on the couch/inflatable mattress. Or our bed if the ferret is a little overpowering in the living room.

Actually Rochester seems like a perfectly logical place for us to stop off in between Niagara and Monticello, which is where ATP is. If not for overnight, then certainly as a day trip.

It seems like your path isn't gonna take you through Colorado, but it should, because this state is fucking awesome, and if you stop by I will buy you between 1 and 6 really delicious microbrews from this phenomenal state and take you hiking in the rocky mountains. Possibly rock climbing as well.

Once again, Colorado is probably for early-mid 2011 but based on the pics and your description of potential activities it is exactly what we are looking to do a lot of i.e; hiking through some seriously picturesque shit and drinking quality booze with solid bros

Wish I was still in Ontario, I could put you up in Waterloo (like, an hour from Toronto, kind of on the way to Niagara) and there are good things there and I had a sweet apartment.
Andy and I are in the maritimes but it is kind of out of your way. PEI (where I am) is touristy as all hell in the summer so unless you really want to see it (you probably don't) it is not worth coming this far out of your way (you are totally welcome to our spare room) but if you let me know when you hit Montreal (rhythmically I need to add a paranthesis here as well) I might be inclined to find my way out there to meet up with you kids.

I talked to Sam tonight and mentioned this and she said that she loved PEI so maybe it is a possibility. We do really have a lot of time to kill between leaving NY and the start of ATP so that's not a problem, but yes it is geographically out of the way. That being said she wants us to go to flippin' Timmins (http://www.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=timmins&sll=42.952402,-77.503052&sspn=1.905732,4.938354&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Timmins,+Cochrane+District,+Ontario,+Canada&ll=48.545705,-81.301575&spn=0.861876,2.469177&z=9&iwloc=A) for butt's sake. That is REALLY out of the way.

Well, if you end up coming to St. Louis, there's two super comfy couches you and your lady could sleep on here. Possibly a bed.

Actually I think that St. Louis was on our tentative plan for the Florida-Midwest-Canada leg of the trip, simply because it seemed like a logical place to stop.

Everybody else, once again, thank you so much!
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: Liz on 09 May 2010, 09:02
yayyy more Australians in Fargo! We got a Jodie last summer, and now a Dovey + Girl pairing! You can get a picture next to the sign for the Fargo theater like Jodie did, then make endless jokes with your friends about how you visited the place (bits about wood chippers optional).
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: allison on 09 May 2010, 09:29
fine whatever i don't even care if you don't want to hang out with me david dovey whatever i am over it
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: David_Dovey on 09 May 2010, 17:39
Oh allison of course I will hang out with you, in fact it is such a done deal that I didn't see the need to make any caveats about it. Also I don't really forsee having any trouble finding a place to stay in Tronno.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: sean on 09 May 2010, 19:49
Once again, Colorado is probably for early-mid 2011 but based on the pics and your description of potential activities it is exactly what we are looking to do a lot of i.e; hiking through some seriously picturesque shit and drinking quality booze with solid bros

this is all we would do in west virginia what the hell man i thought we were bros4lyfe :c
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: Blue Kitty on 09 May 2010, 20:18
(http://bshistorian.files.wordpress.com/2009/08/shot-down.jpg)
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: Johnny C on 09 May 2010, 20:19
consider the lack of mentioning regina duly noted (regina is a frozen shithole)
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: KvP on 09 May 2010, 20:30
Once again, Colorado is probably for early-mid 2011 but based on the pics and your description of potential activities it is exactly what we are looking to do a lot of i.e; hiking through some seriously picturesque shit and drinking quality booze with solid bros

this is all we would do in west virginia what the hell man i thought we were bros4lyfe :c
Yeah well we don't have Deliverance folk, so. We do, however, have fundies. If you do end up visiting Kiff you'll have to get him to show you around all the Megachurches. Colorado Springs has some of the biggest and most terrifying in America, and by extension, the world.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: Ballard on 09 May 2010, 20:42
this is all we would do in west virginia what the hell man i thought we were bros4lyfe :c

consider the lack of mentioning regina duly noted (regina is a frozen shithole)

We're all so needy for Dovey's blowing.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: sean on 09 May 2010, 20:50
tryin to get blown dogg dont hate!
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: David_Dovey on 09 May 2010, 20:59
Oh my God guys acting desperate is going to get you nowhere

this is all we would do in west virginia what the hell man i thought we were bros4lyfe :c

what we are looking to do a lot of

I'm pretty sure we can do it more than once brodoggbro

consider the lack of mentioning regina duly noted (regina is a frozen shithole)

Yeah but pierogies

Yeah well we don't have Deliverance folk, so. We do, however, have fundies. If you do end up visiting Kiff you'll have to get him to show you around all the Megachurches. Colorado Springs has some of the biggest and most terrifying in America, and by extension, the world.

I know! My morbid curiosity and inherent need to seek out stuff that is guaranteed to enrage me means it is a definite yes
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: ackblom12 on 09 May 2010, 21:20
Alright then, if you just let us know what dates you think you'd be in town we can introduce you to the horribly unhealthy Garbage Plate and the fantastic Dog Town Hots.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: Gemmwah on 10 May 2010, 01:40
Dovey you should come here to give me a hug :(
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: David_Dovey on 10 May 2010, 02:12
on my way
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: E. Spaceman on 10 May 2010, 02:55
Hey dovey are you still planning to pass through 日本 ?
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: David_Dovey on 10 May 2010, 04:52
(http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a55/ddovey/Speak_English_or_Die_85.jpg)
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: JD on 12 May 2010, 21:46
Come to Vancouver/Vancouver Island
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: Nodaisho on 12 May 2010, 22:54
Firstly, that is an amazing idea for a trip, maybe the best one I have ever heard.

Secondly, if you do come through Colorado, and don't mind going up into the mountains a few miles away from civilization with someone that you have never met, I would absolutely be up for hiking with you guys. I'm kind of a pussy, though, so I might not be able to hike all that fast. And there is also a restaurant in a town called Estes Park that has the best strawberry-rhubarb pie I have ever tasted. It is right outside of a national park with a lot of great hikes.

No couch, though. I live with my parents, who would be less than thrilled to have a couple of strangers sleeping on their couch.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: Zingoleb on 13 May 2010, 15:22
Okay so I mentioned this to my father. If I have a place of my own by then, great! If not, he's still more than willing to help y'all out. We live like...half an hour from Niagara Falls, maybe a little more, so we could probably take you up there, show you around.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: De_El on 13 May 2010, 17:24
Saint Paul is a thoroughly unexciting place, but if yr in the Twin Cities and need some place to crash after seeing things in Minneapolis, I got space and couches. Not 200 couches, but more'n 2.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: StaedlerMars on 14 May 2010, 00:44
Okay so I mentioned this to my father. If I have a place of my own by then, great! If not, he's still more than willing to help y'all out. We live like...half an hour from Niagara Falls, maybe a little more, so we could probably take you up there, show you around.

For some reason I really thought you lived somewhere in the West like Nevada or New Mexico or something.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: David_Dovey on 14 May 2010, 02:14
Saint Paul is a thoroughly unexciting place, but if yr in the Twin Cities and need some place to crash after seeing things in Minneapolis, I got space and couches. Not 200 couches, but more'n 2.

Only if you take me to all the places name-checked in Hold Steady songs
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: Zingoleb on 14 May 2010, 03:05
West...ern New York, yes.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: De_El on 14 May 2010, 08:58
@dovey das straight, as long as you let me take you to Heartattack and Vine
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: BrittanyMarie on 15 May 2010, 19:49
he can also also take you to places name checked by okkervil river, like that bridge on washington avenue, the year of 1972 (broke my boooones and skull and it waaaaas meeeemoraaaable). actually the twin cities gets name checked in songs kind of a lot, there's tom waits' 9th and Hennepin, and also christmas card from a hooker in minneapolis, and a ton more. and you can see the bridge that collapsed and sing this song (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqSMlGU_7-Y) in your head even though the song was written before the collapse (i bet it was all them)
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: Inlander on 16 May 2010, 05:20
Yeah but aren't they pretty much all songs about people massively fucking up their lives?

I mean yeah Dovey, follow your dream. Tour miserable America.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: tania on 16 May 2010, 07:57
dovey come to toronto before mid-august because i will be gone by then and i'll never forgive you
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: Slick on 16 May 2010, 08:24
Dude like he's going to BC you're going to BC I think you'll make it work.

p.s. dang I kind of miss Toronto that's a nice place.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: Lines on 16 May 2010, 21:49
When are you planning to hit Nashville? Also do you know where you'll be heading there from? Because if you pass through Kentucky and have a desire to camp, you should go to Red River Gorge. It's beautiful there. Also depending on where you're planning on going down to Nashville, there's a few of us north of there in Ohio (me and Jon) and Indiana (Edith). If you come to Ohio, Cleveland is probably the most fun out of the three major cities, but there's also Cedar Point (http://www.cedarpoint.com/) and Kings Island (http://www.visitkingsisland.com/) if you come during the warmer months. But when you're headed that way, give me a heads up and I could maybe meet up with you guys!
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: David_Dovey on 17 May 2010, 04:08
dovey come to toronto before mid-august because i will be gone by then and i'll never forgive you

Extremely likely!

Dude like he's going to BC you're going to BC I think you'll make it work.

Also true!

Linds: Camping is always good!
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: Lines on 17 May 2010, 05:47
Red River Gorge!

(http://www.tichenorjohn.com/red_river_gorge_2.jpg)

(http://www.wirednut.com/assets/images/Torrent1.jpg)

(http://gowaterfalling.com/waterfalls/images/full/ky/vtorrentfalls.jpg)

Seriously, it's beautiful there.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: StreetSpirit on 17 May 2010, 12:51
Speaking from someone who also goes to the Red River Gorge a lot: It is gorgeous and always beautiful in the Spring and Summer. If you drive through or stop in Louisville you could always pay a visit to the Slint house, http://thedecibeltolls.com/the-house-that-slint-built-perhaps/ - Louisville actually has a lot more to offer, as does most of the Midwest (Nashville is bound to be fun!)

Hope your journey through US and BC goes really well!
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: Ptommydski on 17 May 2010, 13:06
BLACK RIVER

(http://frysingerreunion.org/1/us/blackriver03.jpg)

FALLS MOTEL

(http://www.blackriverfallsmotel.com/building.jpg)

CHEESE STATE

(http://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-s/01/78/65/08/black-river-falls-wisconsin.jpg)

REFORMATION

(http://www.scrollpublishing.com/store/media/zz-Reformation-03.jpg)
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: Ptommydski on 17 May 2010, 13:11
TILES

(http://www.renubath.co.uk/renusurface/tiles/tile_floor.jpg)

GOLDFISH BOWL

(http://ineedweddinghelp.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/11/goldfish-bowl-centerpiece.jpg)

BLIMP


(http://prempanicker.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/goodyear-blimp.jpg)
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: Lines on 17 May 2010, 16:15
Hush Tommy. The midwest is mostly farm land, but it has pockets of really beautiful or fun places to visit. They just happen to be surrounded by corn and therefore are majorly overlooked.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: scarred on 17 May 2010, 21:09
And soy!

Good lord, so much soy.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: Inlander on 17 May 2010, 22:33
wisconsin.jpg

For the life of me I can't hear the name "Wisconsin" without thinking of Herc's amazing "Wisconsin: smell the dairy air" t-shirt from the Wire. I don't know who was resonsible for the wardrobe in that show but they really outdid themselves in that moment.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: Johnny C on 18 May 2010, 00:16
guys surely the "reformation" was a clue
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: I is Grammar on 20 May 2010, 16:13
When you're bouncing through Washington DC, definitely check out the Smithsonian museums.  It's great for poor people (me), because most of the museums are free. 

I'd offer you a couch or 6, but I can guarantee I am much more out of the way than you want to be.  (AKA very southern Maryland)  But give a heads up when you're in the DC area.  I'd hike up there, and I can guarantee Jeff (Silent J) would be joining me.  In fact, he'd be my chauffeur. 
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: David_Dovey on 20 May 2010, 22:08
I did not realise the Smithsonian was free! that is good to know because I would be all over that shit regardless.

Speaking of which, what about costs for other places, like the Kennedy Centre, Capitol Building etc. etc. etc. for D.C. or the Met or the Guggenheim in NY or the Royal Ontario Museum or MOCCA? And what other high-falutin' places of culture should I know about?
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: allison on 20 May 2010, 22:13
At the Royal Ontario Museum, Friday nights are half price. Also the Art Gallery of Ontario is nice!
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: BrittanyMarie on 20 May 2010, 22:15
the only thing here other than me you have to see is the empire tavern because it is our metal dive bar
i never actually got to drink with jodie and i'm pretty sure my friend creeped her out (he creeps everyone out)
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: Liz on 21 May 2010, 06:50
ummmm hi I am in Fargo too. We will take Dovey and friend around downtown like we did with Jodie. We could go to the zoo! It is the most pathetic zoo ever but they have red pandas and I just want to cuddle them.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: David_Dovey on 21 May 2010, 19:53
Oh hey who here is familiar with Tokyo? I realised today that there is a lot of stuff I do not know about the place and we only have two days there so I want to pack a bunch into it. What interesting/fun things are there to do in Tokyo? Don't be afraid to state the obvious.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: Jimmy the Squid on 21 May 2010, 20:00
Find one of those Anger Bars and pay to beat the shit out of someone dressed like a person you don't like.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: David_Dovey on 21 May 2010, 20:05
Oh man really is that a real thing?
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: Jimmy the Squid on 21 May 2010, 20:45
You can also book a room where you can break drinking glasses to work out your aggression.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: Dollface on 21 May 2010, 22:48
Let me sleep on yr couch

No
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: David_Dovey on 21 May 2010, 23:00
In yr bed then Jussi?
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: E. Spaceman on 22 May 2010, 01:18
WHen you are in Tokyo remember that the subway closes at 11
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: Dliessmgg on 22 May 2010, 03:33
Go to a maid cafe. Alteratively, a tsundere cafe.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: David_Dovey on 22 May 2010, 07:36
Oh God that is the most horrible thing but once again my crazy morbid curiosity means I kind of want to go now
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: Nodaisho on 23 May 2010, 13:58
Why do you think people drink so much in Japan? That which has been seen can be unseen, if you pickle your brain enough.

I'm still learning Japanese, and I would still like to visit there at some point, but there is so much fucked up about the culture. So very much.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: Lines on 23 May 2010, 21:15
Dovey, all the museums and whatnot you want to see - check their websites for free or discounted days. You'd be surprised at how many museums have free/discount days/times. The Guggenheim and MoMA both have free/pay as you wish times, I do believe, on certain days and I'm sure a lot of other places do as well.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: yelley on 23 May 2010, 21:21
oh, hey guys.

dovey you and your lady can stay at my place for a bit if you ever make it out to northern california. not much to see here in modesto, but we're pretty close to san francisco, yosemite, santa cruz, monterey, sacramento, berkeley, etc.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: David_Dovey on 15 Jul 2010, 20:40
Bumping this thread to repeat my comments from the Blog Thread, and also to add that

a) I will be getting a pre-paid phone card hopefully within the first day of being in 'Murka. Any suggestions for a good network to go with? I have a smartphone so something with decent data prices would be nice, but not completely vital. It'd also be cool to have something that I could use in America and Canada and not get charged retarded roaming charges or anything. Does something like that exist?

b) Anybody that is serious about letting me stay with them, can you please PM or Facebook msg me yr phone number, and also the city you are in, just so I can start to put together a little black book, of sorts.

c) Woooo

Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: Lines on 15 Jul 2010, 20:46
I think your best bet would be Verizon, because they seem to have the most coverage around the country. If not, AT&T should. One of them should have something that would work out for you.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: Zingoleb on 15 Jul 2010, 21:21
the phone I use is straight-talk - works with Verizon towers, and it's like 50 dollars for unlimited.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: Ballard on 16 Jul 2010, 01:06
Bumping this thread to repeat my comments from the Blog Thread, and also to add that

a) I will be getting a pre-paid phone card hopefully within the first day of being in 'Murka. Any suggestions for a good network to go with? I have a smartphone so something with decent data prices would be nice, but not completely vital. It'd also be cool to have something that I could use in America and Canada and not get charged retarded roaming charges or anything. Does something like that exist?

b) Anybody that is serious about letting me stay with them, can you please PM or Facebook msg me yr phone number, and also the city you are in, just so I can start to put together a little black book, of sorts.

c) Woooo



See you soon, mate.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: redglasscurls on 16 Jul 2010, 05:15
Dovey sorry I totally missed this before, but it's worth putting this out there since you're coming soon. I'm in DC and have a monster comfy couch that you guys are welcome to duke it out for/share if you are not super allergic to cats. If I know for sure you're coming, I may actually go out and buy an air mattress. I would need to have a heads up on the time you'd be in the area, since I will be super busy with wedding stuff around late September.

To see in DC besides the museums:
- National Arboretum (GORGEOUS huge greenspace in the city, with crazy bonsai and column ruins too)
- Gravely Point Park (park right by an airport over the line to Virginia where you watch planes zoom over your head Waynes World style)
- If summer, screens on the green, where they show old movies on huge outdoor screens by the Washington Monument
- Camping is available for 15 bucks a night a half hour out of the city in Greenbelt Park
- National Zoo, which is also free

Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: sean on 16 Jul 2010, 18:46
if you do come to dc too let me know i will try my best to come back from WV to dc chill.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: Emaline on 16 Jul 2010, 19:33
Dovey, like I said early, if you are coming to St. Louis, you are more than welcome to crash here. We've got comfy couches, and also hairy cats. If either of you are allergic it might not work. But yeah, I'll pm you our info if you are headed our way.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: tania on 16 Jul 2010, 19:43
come august 15-16thish i will be living in coquitlam (http://maps.google.ca/maps?q=coquitlam&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hq=&hnear=Coquitlam,+BC&gl=ca&ei=mhdBTJ6sEIL58AbJtJUh&sa=X&oi=geocode_result&ct=title&resnum=1&ved=0CBwQ8gEwAA), which is not quite vancouver (i am poor and the rent was way cheaper there than in downtown vancouver so fuck that noise) but it's all part of the greater vancouver area anyway and you can get to the city in like an hour by bus. i know you said you'd mostly be hanging out and working at the alberta/bc border, but you and sam are of course welcome to my couch and/or floor if you decide to head further west and if you are cool with being just a teeny bit out of the city.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: Patrick on 16 Jul 2010, 23:03
I will give you my bed and my sleeping bag if you get out to the SF Bay Area, fucked if I'm going to make you sleep on my tiny-ass couch. I prefer sleeping on the floor in my closet anyway.

No, I'm not joking, if you need a place to crash around here for a night, that is how it's gonna be if you decide to come to Livermore.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: Boro_Bandito on 16 Jul 2010, 23:51
I'll be seeing you in New York, but if you head down to DC afterwards I'll be in that area too, we might be able to do like a group meetup at the zoo! because in my opinion the zoo is the main reason D.C. exists (what? culture, history, seat of national govt? bah). Zoo is free and awesome and full of good things. Expensive food and souvenirs but hey. Also Generous George's Positive Pizza is in Alexandria.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: David_Dovey on 20 Jul 2010, 12:11
Holy hell everyone, I am in New York, holy hell.

(actually it is Hoboken right now, but Hoboken is pretty nice anyway)

Posting this from a Starbucks on Hoboken's main street. I got into New York at about 7pm last night and caught the Manhattan Express bus to Port Authority, and from there (with the help of an entrepreneurial gentleman who made sure we got our tickets and knew where to go, for the low low price of $2 each) caught the bus out to my uncle's place in Union City, NJ. My uncle is an 80-something year-old renaissance man who produced, directed and presented television for decades, knew Frank Sinatra and Alfred Hitchcock (among others, I'm sure) and lives in an indescribably beautiful four-storey walk-up smack bang on the Hudson. Out of his back window is the stereotypical postcard view of the NY skyline. Today we drove around NJ, taking in Union City, Hoboken, Secaucus and probably a few other towns. It's kind of hard to tell when you leave one town and enter the next around here. I also had my first Wal-Mart experience. Obviously stuff like this is positively mundane for the majority of you guys, but back in Perth there is literally nothing at all like Wal-Mart. It was pretty overwhelming, and the idea that you could literally fill your entire life with things entirely from Wal-Mart, that if you chose to do so, you would never have to go anywhere else for any material possession (except for house and car, I guess) is more than a little terrifying. In fact, there is a lot about my U.S. experience so far that has been kind of terrifying, or at least awe-inspiring. In a lot of ways, America is just as alien to me as Japan.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: Ballard on 20 Jul 2010, 14:06
Actually I'm pretty sure Wal-Mart sells cars. And possibly even trailer park homes.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: Nodaisho on 20 Jul 2010, 14:19
I'm pretty sure they don't, sadly. Actually, not so sadly, as it is probably better for everyone that we don't see thousands of Chinese slave-labor made cars on the streets.

I was serious about showing you two around when you get to Colorado, although, like I said, I don't have an available couch.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: Metope on 20 Jul 2010, 22:30
Oh god, Dovey, I know that Wal-Mart feeling so well! You should've seen the European and Australian part of the Camp Edith gang last summer, I'm sure the Americans who saw us found us very amusing.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: Barmymoo on 21 Jul 2010, 02:29
I seem to remember Liz and Eed had to go round picking jaws up off the floor.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: Liz on 21 Jul 2010, 07:36
Jens was taking pictures of the outside and the inside. I remember stepping through the doors and everyone was all "OMGGGGGGGGGGG"

Then we bought candy and booze. Oh Wal-Mart.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: Cernunnos on 21 Jul 2010, 09:39
Jodie bought all the pop tarts

good times
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: Metope on 21 Jul 2010, 11:05
Oh man I want pop tarts now.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: allison on 21 Jul 2010, 11:22
You can buy booze at Walmart?

America
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: redglasscurls on 21 Jul 2010, 11:24
Only some of them, state laws get weird. I think they can do beer/wine in MD but not liquor because that is state-controlled and only sold at county stores.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: ackblom12 on 21 Jul 2010, 11:31
Yeah, in NY it is Beer only. They could technically carry wine, but you have to close by a certain time to carry it. Actual liquor is dedicated stores only.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: BlahBlah on 21 Jul 2010, 11:55
You can buy booze at Walmart?

America

You can buy any kind of booze in any supermarket in the UK.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: Liz on 21 Jul 2010, 13:18
They had all kinds at the one we went to, so apparently Indiana wants their people to get drunk. North Dakota and Minnesota cannot sell any alcohol IN the store, but there is a Wal-Mart just across the river in Minnesota that has a liquor store attached, with a separate entrance.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: E. Spaceman on 22 Jul 2010, 04:39
The one we went to in California had a piercing parlour in the Walmart
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: David_Dovey on 22 Jul 2010, 04:53
Jodie bought all the pop tarts

good times

First things I bought in America: Bus tickets, sweet iced tea, Brown Sugar + Cinammon Pop Tarts, Honeycombs cereal
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: ackblom12 on 22 Jul 2010, 05:19
I love how foreigners first goal in America is to make a bee line for diabetes.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: Inlander on 22 Jul 2010, 05:31
When in Rome . . .
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: redglasscurls on 22 Jul 2010, 06:28
Eight bucks?? Arizona tea is 99 CENTS here
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: tania on 22 Jul 2010, 06:54
I love how foreigners first goal in America is to make a bee line for diabetes.

this is actually eerily accurate, canada isn't even that much different from america and yet even i did this immediately upon arriving in chicago this year. it's like a switch flips in your head or something.

pretzel m&ms? whatever this pink stuff is that is apparently only 99 cents for a two litre bottle? YES PLEASE
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: Ballard on 22 Jul 2010, 07:25
Eight bucks?? Arizona tea is 99 CENTS here

Jens said "bottle" so I can only hope he means the gallon containers which are still only $3 here.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: A Wet Helmet on 22 Jul 2010, 07:36
Hmmm... First thing I ate when I came home after living abroad for several years was an Arby's giant roast beef sandwich.    Then I got sick.

To each his own, I guess.   (I don't really have much of a sweet tooth)
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: scarred on 22 Jul 2010, 08:01
eight bucks for ariZona is highway robbery
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: Ballard on 22 Jul 2010, 08:02
Scarred do you seriously capitalize the z in Arizona iced tea?

I'm not holding Jens responsible 'cause he's a Norwegian talking about a local American product but dude what?
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: ackblom12 on 22 Jul 2010, 08:40
When in Rome . . .

WE ARE FAT AND SLOVENLY, JOIN US IN THE HEDONISTIC WAYS OF THE HOUSE HARKONNEN USA.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: pwhodges on 22 Jul 2010, 08:54
Scarred do you seriously capitalize the z in Arizona iced tea?

I'm not holding Jens responsible 'cause he's a Norwegian talking about a local American product but dude what?

Read their website - it's AriZona, AZ for short.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: A Wet Helmet on 22 Jul 2010, 09:04
If your buddy from Brooklyn is asking you for one, it's "Yo man, let me have a 'Zona!"
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: Ballard on 22 Jul 2010, 22:57
Scarred do you seriously capitalize the z in Arizona iced tea?

I'm not holding Jens responsible 'cause he's a Norwegian talking about a local American product but dude what?

Read their website - it's AriZona, AZ for short.

Yes, I know how they market it.

But when was the last time you spilled a glass of water and asked someone to pass you Bounty The Quicker Picker Upper?
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: scarred on 22 Jul 2010, 23:52
hEy MaN dOn'T fLiP a BiTcH
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: beat mouse on 23 Jul 2010, 11:33
If you've ever had iced tea from Arizona you would not hesitate to differentiate either.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: Patrick on 23 Jul 2010, 12:06
I have and I honestly prefer the stuff made somewhere in the state of Arizona to the brand-name stuff
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: David_Dovey on 24 Jul 2010, 14:04
I love how foreigners first goal in America is to make a bee line for diabetes.

Sigquoted. This has kind of become the catchphrase for our trip Stephen, thank you!

I have not decided what is my favourite soda yet, but the whole high-fructose corn syrup thing doesn't make as big of a difference as I thought it would, so that is cool. I have not had AriZona yet though! That is next I guess.

Anyway the other day we also walked around the Sam's Club in a more thorough manner. For the other foreigners or whatever, Sam's Club is a place that is owned by WalMart, except that they specialise in bulk products, like 5 gallon tubs of pancake mix or boxes of 36 corn-dogs or 1000 zip-loc bags or a year's supply of adult diapers. You can also buy Dom Perignon and engagement rings there, for some reason.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: Zingoleb on 24 Jul 2010, 14:10
Shit! I gotta marry like 12 bitches in half an hour, where can I find rings?!

~Sam's Club~
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: SilentJ on 26 Jul 2010, 05:52
Dovey, did I already miss your trek to DC?  I am still in summer vacation and looking for Things to Do, and I'd be happy to help show you around the city, to the extent I can.

Only some of them, state laws get weird. I think they can do beer/wine in MD but not liquor because that is state-controlled and only sold at county stores.

Wait, I thought MD's booze laws were by county?  I know up here in Howard you can only buy things at liquor stores, except for some gas stations and the like selling beer, but the Shoppers down in College Park does all sortsa booze.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: A Wet Helmet on 26 Jul 2010, 06:02
You can also buy Dom Perignon and engagement rings there, for some reason.

True Wal*Mart/What-was-he-thinking story:  Years ago, when I was in the Army, I had a buddy of mine drag me into a nasty, skanky strip club in El Paso, TX where he proceeded to drop a fat gang of cash.  Seriously, it was something in the magnitude of $700 or so in a place that was BYOB.    Afterward, on the way back to the barracks, we stopped in a Wal*Mart where he bought his girlfriend a $96 engagement ring at two in the morning.

WTF?
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: redglasscurls on 26 Jul 2010, 06:34
J you're right about the county thing, I grew up in montgomery county where everything is SUPER controlled. Now I live in PG and there are non-county liquor stores (everywhere) but I've never seen even beer sold in a grocery store.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: Ballard on 26 Jul 2010, 11:49
So Dovey and his lady have been staying at my place for the last two days.

Yesterday evening we went for a swim in my friend's pool and smoked some weed.

Aforementioned friend's twelve year old brother waited until we got high to reveal an entire pot of Kraft mac 'n cheese which he had made and proceeded to bring up on a serving tray, already portioned out for eight people.

Then he hung out with us the whole time.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: Slick on 26 Jul 2010, 13:19
My lord that kid is brilliant.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: Professor Snuggles on 26 Jul 2010, 13:30
Dovey I think you hanging out in CO would have been awesome but I'm in LA right now and I don't know whether our habitation of Colorado would overlap.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: KvP on 26 Jul 2010, 15:46
I'm still here, and the river's great for swimmin' this time of year if you make it up.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: Lines on 26 Jul 2010, 17:27
I love how foreigners first goal in America is to make a bee line for diabetes.

Sigquoted. This has kind of become the catchphrase for our trip Stephen, thank you!


Dont forget to pronounce it die-uh-bee-tus. It's the 'Murrcan way.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: Nodaisho on 26 Jul 2010, 22:52
I am pretty sure Dovey was going to be coming to CO in the spring/summer next year, after wintering at a ski resort, right?
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: Professor Snuggles on 26 Jul 2010, 23:03
Oh then maybe we can hang still. I didn't realize this tour was that long.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: Professor Snuggles on 26 Jul 2010, 23:04
I don't really read threads.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: Nodaisho on 26 Jul 2010, 23:04
Pretty cool vacation idea, huh?
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: David_Dovey on 27 Jul 2010, 22:19
It's become my Thing to photograph every eagle statue/poster/fresco/etc. that I see
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: Liz on 27 Jul 2010, 22:40
Fargo doesn't have any eagles that I know of, but we do have ridiculous bison scattered about town. They are kind of fun!

(See here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNZIj68r5N4)
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: Blue Kitty on 27 Jul 2010, 22:58
Awesome, other people are doing it.  Around here we have tigers
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: CardinalFang on 28 Jul 2010, 04:45
We have mermaid statues/sculptures/whatever everywhere.


Edit: YAY! A page break. Here have a link Mermaids! (http://mermaidsonparade.com/)
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: redglasscurls on 28 Jul 2010, 04:54
You might think that DC would jump on the statue thing with some eagles. But no, they chose PANDAS

Groucho Marx panda in Dupont Circle
(http://farm1.static.flickr.com/46/180617941_69aa2a3c0d.jpg?v=0)
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: A Wet Helmet on 28 Jul 2010, 05:35
...DC ... statue thing ...PANDAS


Didn't we do fish a couple of years ago?  I don't know, maybe I'm thinking of the suburb I live in now.  I'm pretty sure they change it up periodically. 
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: Lines on 28 Jul 2010, 05:38
We've got flying pigs. And a suburb north of me has squirrels. I don't understand this fad, but hey, some of them are really cool.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: David_Dovey on 28 Jul 2010, 09:07
This is disconcerting. I was thinking America would be rife with freedom eagles
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: Inlander on 28 Jul 2010, 09:41
Sheesh Dovey, you didn't have to go all the way to the U.S. to see Freedom Eagles. Just take a drive to the top of Kings Avenue in Canberra and check out the rabbit ears (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian-American_Memorial).
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: David_Dovey on 28 Jul 2010, 09:43
I wanted to see freedom in it's natural environment
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: Boro_Bandito on 28 Jul 2010, 12:07
Maryland has giant blue crab statues

(http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y110/Wildkyn/baltimore-city5.jpg)

Yes, they all stand up on end like that for some reason.


Well, Except for the big fucking glass one at the airport, which is pretty sweet.

(http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y110/Wildkyn/doc4b3c2c54595e64624359313.jpg)
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: Lines on 29 Jul 2010, 05:35
This is disconcerting. I was thinking America would be rife with freedom eagles

We were too busy killing them off. (It's the Murrican way.)

But really, they're endangered and I've only ever seen eagles in a zoo. But then again, I don't think they live around here. You may see more when you're driving through the less inhabited parts of the country?
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: sean on 29 Jul 2010, 06:40
...DC ... statue thing ...PANDAS


Didn't we do fish a couple of years ago?  I don't know, maybe I'm thinking of the suburb I live in now.  I'm pretty sure they change it up periodically. 

I'm not sure, but I haven't even seen a panda in ages, i think most of those arn't up anymore either.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: David_Dovey on 29 Jul 2010, 09:38
Well, Except for the big fucking glass one at the airport, which is pretty sweet.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: Boro_Bandito on 29 Jul 2010, 10:46
It's cool, if he tries anything those things underneath are actually steam jets that cook him if he so much as looks at anyone wrong, I believe there is an old bay dispenser somewhere in the ceiling.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: Ballard on 07 Aug 2010, 00:03
Well, Except for the big fucking glass one at the airport, which is pretty sweet.

Tommy isn't sleeping tonight.

there is an old bay dispenser somewhere in the ceiling

The way life should be.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: David_Dovey on 15 Aug 2010, 06:40
IMPORTANT INFO: I've got a new phone number. If I'm in Canada I can be reached at 416-729-8593, if I'm in the U.S. I can be reached at 201-895-0644. If one doesn't work, try the other. I've got unlimited international text on the Canadian number so it's probably best to try to text me if it's not super-duper important.  The numbers are on my Facebook info page as well.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: Liz on 15 Aug 2010, 08:32
Doveyyyyy my couch wants you to sleep on it. Hurry uppppp.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: David_Dovey on 15 Aug 2010, 16:49
Someone sent me naughty words via SMS today. Who was it.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: Slick on 15 Aug 2010, 20:22
It sure wasn't me! Because my phone has been dead for a week! So if you were heading east, I will not receive your texts but I don't think you were thinking of heading this far anyways.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: sean on 16 Aug 2010, 07:40
i didnt but i can send you naughty things/rude tits if you'd like!
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: BrittanyMarie on 17 Aug 2010, 02:01
But really, they're endangered and I've only ever seen eagles in a zoo. But then again, I don't think they live around here. You may see more when you're driving through the less inhabited parts of the country?

I see them sometimes!! Not often though. I think North and West are your best bets... aim toward Tania
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: KvP on 17 Aug 2010, 02:14
Someone sent me naughty words via SMS today. Who was it.
That was probably me.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: Liz on 17 Aug 2010, 08:35
We have eagles here! I have actually seen a fair few, mostly back home though. Fargo is a desolate wasteland. Our wildlife is as follows: rabbit, squirrels, birds.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: David_Dovey on 17 Aug 2010, 08:43
BUNNIES
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: scarred on 17 Aug 2010, 11:06
(http://a.imageshack.us/img823/7087/rabbids.jpg)
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: KvP on 17 Aug 2010, 12:33
We have some eagles out here, depending on the time of year (golden and, less commonly, bald) but we have tons of hawks, which are just as cool.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: Ballard on 17 Aug 2010, 13:20
scarred dude that's terrifying
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: KvP on 19 Sep 2010, 00:00
Dovey is coming to my town whut.

I'll be keeping my fingers crossed that the Summerish weather will keep until Oct. 1-3, around the time Dovey will make it up here. Hope you guys planned on cold weather, because it's bound to be windy in the mountains even when the sun's out.

Also the day Dovey arrives will be, to my remembrance, a year to the day since Yelley came to see me. Spooky! I wonder who will come next year... Possibly... Jesus Christ?!!?
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: Nodaisho on 19 Sep 2010, 02:04
Wait, what? I thought dovey was coming through next summer?

Well, at least he doesn't have to worry about it being too hot.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: Ballard on 20 Sep 2010, 20:54
Dude everyone knows Jesus got banned years ago because he kept making fun of Jeph's comic. I see him around on Hipinion every once in a while.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: David_Dovey on 21 Sep 2010, 15:41
Wait, what? I thought dovey was coming through next summer?

Well, at least he doesn't have to worry about it being too hot.

The lowdown is that we have to be in Banff on October 14th so we can hit up some job fairs + interviews for jobs on the ski hills over winter. Right now I am in Bradenton, FL. What this means is that we have just under a month to drive from the very bottom of the United States of America (actually it's the wang), to a couple of hours north of the very tippy top.

The principal upshot of this is, to my great, great, great, great, great




great chagrin, I will not be able to go to Chicago. It's just plain too far out of the way.

the new route goes something like this (if all goes according to plan):

-We leave Bradenton tomorrow for New Orleans. It'll be a couple of days driving to get to there, so we're going to have to stop somewhere in between. We stay there til 10/27, at which point we drive to
-Memphis, TN, where we will spend a couple of days.
-We swing up to Fort Collins, CO to hang with John via a one-night stop-off in Wichita, KS.
-From there it's Mt. Rushmore and Deadwood in South Dakota, followed by a couple of night camping in Yellowstone National Park
-and then a few days of punishing, 12-hour drives and sleeping in Wal-Mart parking lots to make it up to Alberta.

All of which is definitely Not Chicago.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: Liz on 21 Sep 2010, 16:09
Are you ever going to make it to Fargo or Minneapolis or Chicago? Maybe next year?

Will I have to rope Brittany into a road trip to Mount Rushmore to hang out with you?
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: David_Dovey on 21 Sep 2010, 16:12
I wouldn't expect anybody to do that but that would be really, unbelievably cool. RushmoreCon.

EDIT: But uh yeah, probably after the winter? Chicago is still crazy out of the way of anything else we really want to see but it's also, like, no. 1 on my list of places to go. It's gonna be a logistical nightmare no matter what.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: KvP on 21 Sep 2010, 16:29
I'm half-tempted to call up my aunt and uncle in Memphis and ask them if you guys can stay with them - they converted their garage into an extra apartment, it's pretty rad.

That's pretty tempting, actually. Both of them work and they have some kids who go to school but if you can keep yourselves occupied during the day I'm sure we can arrange something. I'm sure they'd love to show you what Memphis bbq is and should be.

* addendum - Talked to my mom and she said that is probably something they would love to do. So if you haven't already booked a place in Memphis I'm sure you can stay with my family.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: David_Dovey on 21 Sep 2010, 17:36
That's really nice man, but I'm not sure we'd be comfortable doing that. For one thing, it's kind of a huge leap of faith on Sam's part to stay with people I know from the Internet, let alone relatives of people I know on the Internet, and plus I feel bad enough most of the time when I'm staying with actual relatives, let alone Internet friends, let alone relatives of Internet friends. But thank you so much for considering it.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: Scandanavian War Machine on 21 Sep 2010, 17:58
are you ever coming to Washington? because that's where the real freedom is.

for example, I almost hit a bald eagle with my car the other day. not the first time that's happened either.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: Slick on 21 Sep 2010, 18:02
When I drove across canada I was like "OK guys, in Regina we can stay with my friend from the internet", and they were mostly cool but a little weird with that.
Thanks again Johnny, by the way.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: Ballard on 21 Sep 2010, 18:14
That's really nice man, but I'm not sure we'd be comfortable doing that. For one thing, it's kind of a huge leap of faith on Sam's part to stay with people I know from the Internet, let alone relatives of people I know on the Internet, and plus I feel bad enough most of the time when I'm staying with actual relatives, let alone Internet friends, let alone relatives of Internet friends. But thank you so much for considering it.

Dude, meeting and hosting you guys was an excellent part of my summer and I'm really glad you came through. I can only imagine everyone here feels the same way.

I'm the one who was worried that I wasn't showing you two a good time.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: David_Dovey on 21 Sep 2010, 19:29
The moral of the story is that Everyone is Pretty Weird
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: KvP on 21 Sep 2010, 20:04
Seriously though it will be fine and it will save you several hundred dollars. My family will not murder you, and they're foster parents so they're used to freakishly weird folk
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: David_Dovey on 21 Sep 2010, 20:37
I'm actually kind of OK with the idea, it more Lady that needs convincing, for entirely understandable reasons.

Anyway Personal Blog Thread, I am about to drop a serious word bomb in here. This is the first e-mail newsletter that I've just sent out. I don't think I'll be copypasting all of these, but this one is pretty important, if only because it explains just why I haven't been forthcoming with updates on my status for the last month. And I am not kidding when I say it is a Word Bomb. It's 3585 words long and I'm probably gonna have to split it over a couple of posts because of forum character limits. It also probably has some veering inconsistencies seeing as how it took me about a week on-and-off to remember details of month-old events and write them out in a manner that I am hoping is interesting enough to actually reward plowing through the fucking thing.

Anyways, here 'tis:
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: David_Dovey on 21 Sep 2010, 20:38
Hi  folks,

I know it's been a while since I've updated anybody with what is happening in this crazy ole adventure of mine, but it's been a pretty turbulent time I've been having and I wanted to make sure that I knew how it was going to turn out before I told anybody about it. I apologise in advance for the ridiculous length of my e-mail (and any future e-mails, I guess). I've also been staying in a lot of campgrounds over the past couple of weeks, so electricity hasn't been easy to get to, let alone wireless internet...

Anyway, I'll start with a brief recap of the aforementioned troubles that I'd mentioned up to my last transmission.

- We bought a '99 Jeep Cherokee in New Jersey. We were unable to register it in NJ due to not having a permanent address in the state. We were advised to drive up to Ontario and register it there.
- Realising that the temporary insurance we had gotten from the dealer was about to expire, we decided that after leaving NYC we would drive up to St. Catharine's, Ontario, Canada (the nearest town to the border) and get the car insured and registered, an endeavour we naïvely believed would take, like, a couple of days, tops.
- We were informed on trying to insure the car that we would be unable to register the car without an Ontario license, which we would also assume would be super easy, because Canada + Australia have a reciprocal agreement.
- After waiting in line for about 1.5hrs at the licensing centre we were told that we needed a detailed driver's history, which must be mailed, not faxed or e-mailed. This is only for West Australia, Ontario requires residents of nowhere else to do this. When we called the Department of Planning and Infrastructure in Perth, nobody knew what we were talking about. It took four calls and being referred to the police, and then back to the DPI, before we got anybody who could give us a straight answer.
- We decided to go stay in Toronto to try and sort this stuff out.
- Luckily Sam's father was flying into Toronto the week we were going to be there, so aside from getting gigantic steaks, he also brought the necessary documents, which saved us on having to rely on the notoriously unreliable Canadian postal service.

After this we got insured and spent our last few days in Toronto rather stress-free. We were lucky to spend a couple of days hanging out with my friend in Toronto, (hi Allison!!!), who showed us a bit more of the city than we had explored on our own and took us to the Art Gallery, as well as some of the city's better record and comic book stores. We also managed to stumble on a good stretch of Toronto's better clothes+shoe shops, so my opinion of Toronto eventually improved and I don't hate it so bad now.

Following our purchase of car insurance, (from a fella at State Farm who consistently disproved every bad stereotype about insurance salesmen by being friendly, helpful and forthcoming with both time and advice on all number of subjects) we had to kick on to the next part of our arduous journey, which was taking the car into Canadian Tire for inspection and installation of daytime running lights (For  those outside of Ontario, all cars in Canada need to have their headlights on at all times on the road. Remember when old Volvos went past with their lights on in broad daylight and you went "haw haw what a dork"? THAT IS EVERYBODY IN ONTARIO). It took several days longer and cost way more than expected, but hey, you're dealing with car mechanics. So we shouldn't have been surprised. Stressful nonetheless.

Deciding that we didn't want to throw our schedule off anymore than we already had (we had to drop our planned stops in Buffalo and Rochester NY in favour of St. Catharine's and spent twice as long in Toronto as we wanted) we departed Toronto and drove (via a night in the carpark of a Walmart in North Bay, ON) up to Timmins, ON. There we stayed with the McDonald family (dad Phil, mum Helen, daughter Courtney, son Chad, daughter Kaylan, two dogs Remi and Kelso and extremely obese cat Milo), who are old family friends of Sam from when she lived in Timmins. Let me tell you about the McDonalds; they epitomise all the best aspects of the Canadian stereotype. Not only did they take us into their house, but they practically saved our entire trip. They were more generous to us than I could've possibly expected and they went out of their way to an almost ridiculous extent to help us out at the point when we most needed it. They also fed us to near bursting at every possible opportunity, and assailed us with waves of positivity and perspectives from the Bright Side whenever we felt like falling into a big heap under the weight of our problems.

So, still somewhat buoyant at finally getting over all of the problems with getting Sam her Ontario license and getting the car insured, we rolled into Timmins and made our way to the licensing centre to register the car and put an end to all of our troubles. It was pretty good to feel optimistic for a while, but it was only for a while. We got shuffled around to a few people in the licensing centre, and eventually started going through the motions of registering the car.

Then this happened:

The lady at the licensing centre taps our VIN number into the computer, and hesitantly informs us that our car is a Salvaged vehicle. This means that the car at some point in it's life has been probably stolen, crashed, totalled and then rebuilt. Not only is it illegal to register a car that has been salvaged in Ontario, it's even illegal to drive it. It is at this point that I maintain my composure only through my inability to decide whether to swear and punch the wall or curl up in a foetal position and cry. At that point I do nothing but the next week had plenty of time for both. I was pretty proud that I managed to stay positive and keep myself together during all of the previous setbacks. But at the time this genuinely felt that it was going to kill the entire holiday. All up we had poured about $7000 in to this car between actually buying the thing, getting temporary registration and insurance, getting non-temporary insurance, getting it inspected and fixing the problems that the inspectors found. And it seemed quite likely now that it was all going down the drain. Not to mention that the incredible strain was getting to both of us and at this point in the trip it seemed like we were genuinely cursed.

We were told at the license centre that we would quite easily be able to get what is called a "structural safety check", get the status of the car upgraded to "rebuilt" and make it legal to drive. We were outright told that this would take a couple of hours, tops. Now I'm quite sure you're able to work out what actually happened, 1150 words into this litany. We drove to the guy the licensing centre recommended us, who said that 1) he doesn't even do safety checks for cars he isn't selling himself and 2) it'd definitely NOT take a few hours. He sent us down the road to another fella, who curtly informed us that there was no chance that we could be fit in until the following week. We told him our story, Sam cried, no dice. Fuck that guy (Pardon my French).

We went home and in between bouts of feeling extremely very sorry for ourselves we began to investigate our options, as well as what our rights as consumers were. Let me outright state, in case it wasn't clear: We were not told, when we bought the car, that it was a salvage vehicle. If we had asked to see the history when we bought it, we probably would've seen it mentioned there. I admit that was a major error on our part and we are least partway responsible for what happened. But there is certainly an obligation on the dealer's part (and this is backed up by New Jersey law) to inform us that the car had been rebuilt. We even got in contact with a lawyer and the Better Business Bureau who told us the same. The problem with this is that because of our circumstances and also the amount of time between  the purchase and when we actually found out the car was salvaged, we had no recourse through the government or other agencies, and if we hoped to get a refund, we would have to do it through the courts. And not just the Small Claims Court, because the amount of money involved was too high. Understandably, there was no way in hell we could feasibly sue this guy.

AND ANOTHER THING: How the hell did we get all the way to Timmins, nearly a month after buying the car, and it took us til actually trying to register the car that we found out it was a salvaged vehicle? Why didn't we find this out when we imported it at the Canadian border, or when we insured it, OR WHEN WE HAD IT INSPECTED IN ORDER FOR IT TO BE ABLE TO BE REGISTERED?

Sam called the dealer in New Jersey, and after declaring ignorance on the whole case (in other words, he's not evil, he's just a moron, that's much better am I right?) he offered to try to try to source the necessary documents in order to get the structural safety check to re-certify the car, which for some reason he did not have in the first place (This guy should really not be selling cars. At all. Honestly I really do wish we had the time and resources to sue him, not only to get our money back, but hopefully to see that nothing like this happens to someone in the future). It was Friday at this point, so we gave him the weekend to do that (and told him that yes, we would call him, because there was no way in hell that we trusted him to call us back. Sam was pretty merciless on the guy. Sam is fantastic, it was wonderful to see her pissed off as opposed to depressed.

Given that we could not do anything for the weekend, we tried to banish all of the worry from our brains and we went with Chad and Courtney down to their cottage for the weekend. We rode in a boat! We played beer pong! We slept and slept and ate and slept! We created fire! We dressed a dog up like it was people! (No animals harmed) It was fantastic. Sam and I have decided that we could just as easily live out in the middle of nowhere in a cottage as we could in a big city. Nowhere between, though. It's either complete, apocalyptic madman isolation, or insane dense metropolis. And yes, some folks do live out there, as a matter of fact there are some bona fide mansions in cottage country. It can get pretty ridiculous. A particularly trenchant example is the dude who moved on to the land where the Timlers used to have their cottage, and proceeded to knock down everything and build a huge house with perfectly manicured lawns, a two-storey boathouse/guesthouse bigger than the actual cottage the Timlers had, oh oh and a WATERSLIDE!

We returned Sunday evening and got up nice and early Monday to get back to work. We called the dealer and unsurprisingly, it was going to take 4-6 weeks (this seems to be the standard operating speed of bureaucracy) to get the documents for the structural safety (basically some forms filled out when the car was rebuilt, as well as "before" photos from when it was written off) to us. We informed him that that was 100% useless to us, and so he offered to give us trade-in value on the car for something else on his lot. On inspection of his website, he did not have another car on the lot that was under $6000 i.e; $1k more than what we paid for the Cherokee. Never mind that we had already ploughed nearly $2k into the car getting it up to spec for Ontario registration, or that we'd have to bring the car back down to NJ somehow, and seeing how it was illegal to drive in Ontario, that meant getting it towed back down which would cost us another lazy grand. At least. Real generous of you, man. More importantly than that, any car we bought from him we would once again have to import into Canada and pay taxes on i.e; probably another thousand dollars.

We spent at least a couple of days (A lot of the chronological details of all of this is actually pretty hazy, it was obviously an insane time in our lives and it was just under a month ago, my memory's not great at the best of times) fussing over our options, when once again our ever helpful insurance guy suggested that instead of sinking even more money and time (at that point the time being wasted was perhaps even more important than the money) into this obviously cursed vehicle that we should just bit the bullet and sell the thing for scrap, get what little cash we can for it and essentially cut our losses and start all over with a new car. It was incredibly painful to admit that this was going to be the best option for us, an option that would mean we'd be losing about $3500 EACH just like that. It became even more depressing when, after calling around to the scrapyards in the area, we'd be getting- at best- a couple of hundred dollars- I repeat, $200- for our completely functional, recently-inspected car which had driven us from Union City, NJ, to Timmins, ON (just under 1,000 miles all up) without the slightest worry. Unfortunately this really was the best option because even though we could've saved some money by taking different options, we would've wasted an awful lot of time, and missed going to even more places than we already had. And it was also becoming apparent that the process of buying a new car would eat up what little time we had left between then and the 3rd of September, which is when the ATP Festival in Monticello, NY began. We had both agreed early on that no matter what, we were definitely not going to miss that festival, as aside from the money issue, it was entirely likely that we would never get the chance to see some of the bands on the bill (Iggy & the Stooges, Sleep, Shellac) play ever again.

We finally decided that we would sell our car off for scrap to one of the local salvage companies, who were willing to give us $200 and free towing. We would then get a ride down to Barrie, Ontario with Courtney and from there catch a Greyhound bus to Ottawa where we would find a new car and proceed to actually have a holiday, instead of a several weeklong test of our sanity and resilience.

The morning we were meant to leave I woke up and as I was necking my first cup of precious coffee (one of the many things that made the McDonalds so beloved to me is that they were as crazy about coffee as I am), Chad informed me that if we wanted, he would give us $250 for the car, take some parts that he needed and attempt to sell the rest as individual parts and send the money along to us. We gratefully accepted. I'm gonna say it again, that family is amazing and they saved our trip. As much trouble as that car gave us, I wasn't looking forward to the idea of just selling it to a junkyard so giving it to the McDonalds felt far more right.

Rest In Peace Winston, The Jeep Cherokee. (1999-2004, 2004-2010)



~~~
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: David_Dovey on 21 Sep 2010, 20:39
~~~


Nursing our wounded psyches and broken bank accounts, we prevailed on the McDonald family and their never-ending well of charity one last time when we stayed the night in Barrie with Helen's sister Sue, who was every bit as vivacious and unrelentingly generous as the rest of the family. We stayed the night at her house and set off at the early hour of 11:30am (early for us) to catch the bus to Ottawa, via a stop-off in Toronto. Being back in Toronto was kind of bizarre, because even though it had been a mere week and a half since we had left, so much had happened in that time that I felt more like a world-weary traveller arriving in some familiar port from his distant youth, as opposed to some jerk who'd just spent 10 days halfway across the state flushing several thousand dollars down the toilet. To top this romantic image off, we got asked for directions on the way to the station! This happens disturbingly often. We must look like some totally grizzled well-travelled types, I bet. And definitely not like the total rubes that we are.

After arriving in Ottawa and mutually agreeing that whatever inclination we might've had at some point to forsaking the idea of buying another car and just taking Greyhounds everywhere was completely out of the question (my poor, poor back) we made our way to our hostel via the very confusing Ottawa public transport system, where nothing goes where it says is goes! Also via walking the wrong way down the street, which turned out to be beneficial in that we discovered that down said street was Zaphod Beeblebrox, a bar in Ottawa themed on the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series. And yes, you can buy and drink Pan Galactic Gargle Blasters there. We saw advertisements around for an "Industrial Night" at Zaphod and tempted by the promise of getting to gawk at freaks in PVC (and not sufficiently deterred by all the Rammstein that was gonna get played) we decided to head down. What we failed to take into account was that said Industrial Night was on a Tuesday, and obviously all of the PVC-clad vampire cyborgs needed to get up for their tech support jobs in the morning, because nobody showed up. We stayed about an hour, I guess. We did have Gargle Blasters though, they were fantastic!

We grabbed an Auto Trader and consulted some websites and after a few false starts and missed buses we made it out to some car dealers, and somewhat luckily for us, we're in the middle of a recession! We decided we didn't want to bother trying to buy another SUV (I don't think I would ever get used to driving something that wide, it was honestly scary in some instances) so we were focussing on trying to find something in the way of a station wagon, and there were several instances of what would normally be $4-5k cars as low as $2k. Eventually we found ourselves at Ideal Motors and looking at a couple of Subaru wagons (very much our number 1 choice) and a Ford Focus wagon. We settled on a 1997 Subaru Legacy wagon, dark green. Of course this time we were very insistent on seeing the service record, inspection papers and going over every single nook and cranny. I'd say we were almost being too paranoid, if I thought such a thing was possible after dropping a cool seven grand down the toilet. As much as it may have freaked the dealer out, I am glad to say that it paid off and that Sam and I are now the proud owners of Hugo the Subaru, who is registered, inspected and insured and has driven us from Ottawa, to Monticello NY, to Philadelphia, to Washington D.C, to Atlanta, to Bradenton FL, which is where I am typing this e-mail to you right now. That's just under 3,000 miles or 31 hours of driving.

Now as much as I'd like to keep typing and tell you about our further adventures from the past two weeks (ha!), I think that 3585 words is quite enough for one e-mail and as I type this I am just about to turn in for our last night in Bradenton. Tomorrow we pack Hugo back up and set out for New Orleans, on the first leg of our journey back up the spine of the country, on our way to Banff, Alberta where we will be interviewing for our winter jobs in mid-October. If you've made it this far, dear readers, I'd like to congratulate you, and add that I hope for both your sake and mine, that nothing so crazy happens to us for the rest of our trip as I have just described to you here, so that I never have to send anything like this again. Wish us luck.

Thank you for your time, and until next time,
~
D.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: David_Dovey on 21 Sep 2010, 20:41
Now to start sorting through, editing, resizing and uploading the last month's worth of pictures, and to start writing the NEXT e-mail. Fffffff

(P.S; If that actually interested you at all (pfffft) and you'd like to get more e-mails like that right in yr inbox (pppfffffffffffffft) then PM me or something)
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: Ballard on 21 Sep 2010, 21:01
Hook me up with a spot on the mailing list.

[email protected]

Jesus christ man, I'm glad you came out of this in one piece and able to go on.

o/
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: KvP on 21 Sep 2010, 21:05
I read all that as the Civilization V theme was playing, so it was even more epic. Like an episode of West Wing.

Hook me up, brohammer. [email protected]

And we are definitely going to have to get you somewhat shitfaced when you get here. We have all types of wonderful breweries.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: Zingoleb on 21 Sep 2010, 21:15
dovey what is the point of having an e-mail list if yr just gonna post it on the forums  :x

here i thought i was special
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: Zingoleb on 21 Sep 2010, 21:17
(we had to drop our planned stops in Buffalo and Rochester NY

Ohey I was wondering what happened there, too. Sorry you had to deal with all that! Hope the rest works out way better for you.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: David_Dovey on 22 Sep 2010, 06:32
Ed, I'm pretty sure all the rest of the e-mails aren't gonna get copypasted, unless something else really major happens that requires that much typing to explain. Here's hoping that doesn't happen, for all variety of reasons.

Gene, that is a hilarious e-mail address. Also, I hope you guys realise you just posted yr full emails on a public forum.

John, yaaaaay!
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: calenlass on 22 Sep 2010, 09:48
Oh man, Dovey, I know Atlanta is not on your list of places to stop, which is unfortunate, but let me know when you are in Memphis and I will make my boy come up with me and we will hang out with you. (Or stop by Atlanta. We have some cool stuff, too.)
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: Ballard on 22 Sep 2010, 18:52
Yeah, I hear you can get Grape Coke there.

Out of curiosity, why is my email address funny to you?
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: Wasteroo on 22 Sep 2010, 23:45
woo adventure stories delivered straight to my inbox

[email protected]
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: David_Dovey on 23 Sep 2010, 13:31
Oh man, Dovey, I know Atlanta is not on your list of places to stop, which is unfortunate, but let me know when you are in Memphis and I will make my boy come up with me and we will hang out with you. (Or stop by Atlanta. We have some cool stuff, too.)

Katie I have a horrible confession for you: We were in Atlanta after D.C!

Corollary: It was for 10 hours, we stopped on the way down to Florida, slept in the car in a Wal-Mart car-park, went to Waffle House in the morning, ate delicious biscuits, then left.

Also: Atlanta has the most confusing highways we have encountered yet, fuck!


Gene: Rich in Flax? It's just kinda bizarre, made me laugh.

Wasteroo: Can I get yr real name? PM it to me if you don't feel comfortable posting it.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: Wasteroo on 23 Sep 2010, 21:29
it's Ted, I would've PM'd you but I figure everyone might as well call me by my real name anyway
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: Ballard on 23 Sep 2010, 23:06
"Trust not a man who's rich in flax; his morals may be sadly lax." ~ Hagbard Celine
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: calenlass on 24 Sep 2010, 00:00
Goddammit, Dovey, you could have slept in a bed. I have a spare. I live 5 minutes from the freeway.

curses
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: calenlass on 24 Sep 2010, 00:03
Also, our freeways are not that confusing. i-85 comes down from DC and goes to southern alabama. i-75 goes from Michigan straight down to Tampa, Florida. They cross in an X in downtown. i-20 is the only one that goes east-west, and the 3 digit one (i-285) is a ring road.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: Jace on 24 Sep 2010, 01:04
I quite enjoyed that, would like more.
[email protected]

Also thanks for not mentioning the crazy toronto adventure including me thinking I was getting trolled by you guys.  :x
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: Nodaisho on 24 Sep 2010, 01:58
Also, our freeways are not that confusing. i-85 comes down from DC and goes to southern alabama. i-75 goes from Michigan straight down to Tampa, Florida. They cross in an X in downtown. i-20 is the only one that goes east-west, and the 3 digit one (i-285) is a ring road.
I found it pretty confusing understanding which one I was currently on. I go on an entry ramp to 85, but then it seems like I'm on a surface road and there are signs pointing to 85. That's the only one I remember off the top of my head aside from a tollbooth plaza (I think it was on 285) where it goes from something like 8 lanes to 3 in about 100 feet, almost crashed twice at that one. You guys remember that scene from tron with the lightbikes, when those two converge directly in front of a third? Pretty much that happened, but with real cars.

Dovey, inbound PM with my email and name.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: calenlass on 24 Sep 2010, 18:05
That tollbooth is actually on a state highway, not a freeway, and is no longer functional. Georgia has no toll roads, guys.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: David_Dovey on 25 Sep 2010, 13:27
I found it pretty confusing understanding which one I was currently on. I go on an entry ramp to 85, but then it seems like I'm on a surface road and there are signs pointing to 85. That's the only one I remember off the top of my head aside from a tollbooth plaza (I think it was on 285) where it goes from something like 8 lanes to 3 in about 100 feet, almost crashed twice at that one. You guys remember that scene from tron with the lightbikes, when those two converge directly in front of a third? Pretty much that happened, but with real cars.

Oh man yes, exactly this. I missed about 5 exits in a row because of having to get across 3 lanes in 100 feet in heavy traffic. It didn't help that our GPS was giving us information that in no way matched what our eyes were seeing.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: Nodaisho on 25 Sep 2010, 16:39
That tollbooth is actually on a state highway, not a freeway, and is no longer functional. Georgia has no toll roads, guys.
Since when? This was August... 6? 7? of this year. I was coming out of Towns County to Atlanta, I forget the names of the towns I went through. We were on a big (3 or 4 lanes each way) highway for a while in the Atlanta vicinity, and either shortly before or shortly after the toll plaza, we went through a tunnel under a skyscraper. That's the best I can remember for landmarks, I could ask my mother which roads we were on, she would remember.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: calenlass on 29 Sep 2010, 08:53
Georgia State Highway 400 (http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=georgia+400&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=33.489543,79.189453&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Georgia+400,+Georgia&ll=33.982086,-84.229431&spn=0.547734,1.237335&t=h&z=10) (it's the yellow line that goes sort of straight north between i-75 and i-85, from Atlanta to Sandy Springs, Roswell, and Alpharetta).


Edit: Apparently they reinstigated the tolls this spring. I have no idea why that legislation passed, because uh the reason they stopped collecting tolls is because there was public outcry over how many times over they could pay off the road with the tolls they had collected by 2001.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: Verergoca on 29 Sep 2010, 12:32
Maybe they figured out it was a good way to generate some extra income?
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: BrittanyMarie on 02 Oct 2010, 00:24
our GPS was giving us information that in no way matched what our eyes were seeing.

out of curiosity, what brand of gps are you using?
(i can potentially get that fixed)
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: Nodaisho on 02 Oct 2010, 01:35
Dovey, have you gone through Fort Collins yet? If not, and you do the whirlwind brewery tour that I seem to remember KvP talking about, make sure to hit the new one that just opened recently, too. It's called Hops and Berries, it is just south of Coopersmith's. I was talking to someone last night that had been there recently, that guy really liked it.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: KvP on 02 Oct 2010, 02:10
Hadn't actually heard of that, but Coopersmith's is pretty close to my house. Rock Bottom is less than a block away.

Dovey will be getting here sometime around late afternoon / early evening tomorrow, and presumably the breweries will be closed on Sunday so what I'm thinking is food / breweries on Saturday night and a hike somewhere around Horsetooth on Sunday. I don't know where Dovey and Sam have been living relative to sea level but we'll have to watch alcohol intake - when my family from the coast come up to this altitude they invariably get wasted on one or two drinks.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: Nodaisho on 02 Oct 2010, 02:24
Huh. I didn't know that elevation had an effect on alcohol tolerance. You learn something every day.

Probably also a good idea not to drink too heavily if you are going hiking the next day, anyway.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: ummmkay on 03 Oct 2010, 07:03
hey, i have been to Coopersmith's AND hiked at that reservoir, when i went to CO/fort collins in march. i tried the green chili beer... it was weird. i liked the not brown ale though.

i uh, don't really have anything to add to the discussion, i just got excited that people were talking about a place i've been to. carry on.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: Nodaisho on 03 Oct 2010, 07:22
I find it more weird to think about internet people being in a town I've spent so much time in, because it isn't exactly a big city.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: ummmkay on 03 Oct 2010, 15:20
yeah, i suppose fort collins is kind of a random destination, but i was staying there with a friend's family. it was a really fun trip! that's the only time i've ever been to colorado, and i liked it a lot.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: jwhouk on 05 Oct 2010, 06:16
I have just one question for Mr. Dovey:

Have y'all realized just how BIG our country is yet?

If you haven't... I'd suggest taking up (when you have the change) Bobby Troup's suggestion and go get your kicks on Route 66 (Okay, Interstates 55/44/40/15/10, but you know what I mean).

In the Texas panhandle, you'll be saying, "####, we're not even halfway to California?"
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: KvP on 05 Oct 2010, 16:35
My apartment is so empty now :[
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: Lunchbox on 05 Oct 2010, 17:02
jwhouk,

(http://freepages.family.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~ja7smith/Australia%20vs%20USA.gif)

Mr Dovey comes from the most western state of Australia that takes up roughly one third of the country, top to bottom.
I don't think Texas quite compares.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: Inlander on 05 Oct 2010, 18:00
Yeah Australia generally gets shrunk quite dramatically in standard map projections so people tend not to realise how massive it is until they come here and try travelling around a bit.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: Lines on 05 Oct 2010, 18:31
Tasmania looks about the size and shape of Ohio. That is kind of awesome.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: Nodaisho on 05 Oct 2010, 20:22
He wasn't talking about the size of texas, he was talking about the entire distance. By the point you get to Texas you have gone about 1000 miles. And trust me, it doesn't get more interesting once you get out of the midwest (which is really in the mid-east part of the country) and into the southwest.

I never realized how large Australia is, though. And probably pretty boring to drive through, as well. Although if you were driving a convertible, the drop bears would cause brief moments of excitement.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: scarred on 05 Oct 2010, 20:27
well folks it is a continent as well as a country
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: Lunchbox on 05 Oct 2010, 21:12
The things is that you guys actually built cities in your deserts. Our are just flat and uninteresting and full of deadly things and no water.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: Barmymoo on 06 Oct 2010, 01:24
Man I had never realised Australia was big. In my head it was slightly larger than Britain, but not much. What is wrong with mapmakers?!


Oh, ok, actually, looking at a map it does look a lot bigger than Britain. I think I was thinking of Singapore.


I just tried to find Singapore and I can't. What is wrong with my geography?
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: KvP on 06 Oct 2010, 09:26
Singapore isn't a continent.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: McTaggart on 06 Oct 2010, 10:14
Singapore's probably about the same size as London.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: Barmymoo on 06 Oct 2010, 10:16
Which explains why I can't find it.

Carry on, thread.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: McTaggart on 06 Oct 2010, 10:26
It's at the very southeast tip of Malaysia. Not separated by very much water at all. I would have posted that my last post but I really wasn't that sure exactly where to find it in any more detail than "South East Asia!" and I had to look it up.

There's also an island who's name I don't think I've ever known around there that probably is about the size of England.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: calenlass on 06 Oct 2010, 18:54
Java?
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: David_Dovey on 11 Oct 2010, 22:49
For the record, we've driven about 12,000 km since late August. No shit.

Map!:

(http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a55/ddovey/Screenshot2010-10-11at112909PM.png)

Perversely, seeing it laid out like this really just makes me think about how much of this big stupid place I haven't been to yet and all the adventures I haven't had yet, goddamnit.

I am pretty messed up by how big the U.S. is but I think that has more to do with never really driving anywhere more than six hours from my hometown. We're routinely doing 12-hour drives these days. It's also pretty trippy going through three or four states in one day of driving.

Speaking of, I'm in Banff right now. Job interviews in two days, holy shit! And we just drove up from Yellowstone National Park. That is a place that is BIG. And amazing. I am not even slightly kidding when I say that it is imperative that you all see Yellowstone at some point in your life. Get on it, doggs. It's the most beautiful place I've been, I think, if only because it is beautiful in about 10,000 different ways. As I said, it's wicked large but you can drive a couple of miles and go from wide open plain with herds of buffalo crossing a river in the distance, then wind up into a mountain with impossible-seeming rock formations teetering overhead, then pop out into a pine forest where there seems to be more trees within eyeshot than there are people on the earth.

Even though I've pretty much just said the opposite, I think it's probably gonna be nice once we have jobs (fingers crossed) to stay in one place for more than a week, to unpack my bags, all of that stuff. Although it's only because I know that it's a temporary thing and we get to pick up and piss off again once the ski season ends. I also think the enormity of this trip is kind of just beginning to dawn on me, like this is something I'll tell my grandkids about. (Which may be hard, considering I'm pretty sure I don't want to breed and just have about a million dogs instead).

At this point the trip is kind of all about enormity. Guys, I've never seen mountains before last week. Really! At least not, honest to goodness proper mountains, with snow on the top and all that. John took us out to a state park and we tried climbing just a teensy weensy little one but I got dizzy and bitched out. As we've gotten further north they've only gotten bigger and more snow-covered and foreboding and awesome and I'm pretty sure I can't live in a flat place ever again now, because I am just so in love with everything I'm seeing. Even if I do never get used to the cold or the altitude.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: scarred on 11 Oct 2010, 22:58
holy shit
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: Boro_Bandito on 11 Oct 2010, 23:09
Banff is a pretty sweet town, where if I remember correctly cars regularly share the road with caribou that you aren't supposed to feed or approach, and the Hard-Rock Cafe was meh. I'm pretty sure you're right next to Glacier National Park where you can walk out onto, well, a glacier.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: David_Dovey on 11 Oct 2010, 23:19
Yeah. It certainly didn't feel like we were doing these massive distances at the time, it's only when you add it up afterwards that you're like "well fuck me I guess we just straight navigated the spine of a rather large country and then we turned around and did it again". Incidentally, I have driven more in the last 2.5 months than I had driven in my entire life up to that point, some 7 years.

FUN FAX

Phil: Correct! Although technically we are in Lake Louise, which is about an hour north of Banff proper. If you've ever seen a picture of a crystal clear lake ringed with pine and tremendous snowy mountains on a postcard or Canadian tourism propaganda, you are probably looking at a picture of Lake Louise. It's almost disgusting how scenic that vista is, my friends. Disappointingly, I haven't seen a single caribou, nor a single moose yet. I have seen a fat fuckload of dead skunks on the road, though. Smelt them, too.

A lot of the signage in Yellowstone is devoted to making sure folks don't go near the elk. Elk will fuck you up, no doubt, but I still thought it was weird considering there was no mention of the gigantic buffalo, grizzly bears or coyotes that would casually stroll out into traffic like they got-danged own the place. Bears guys! Seriously.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: Boro_Bandito on 11 Oct 2010, 23:25
The herds of buffalo are probably what I remember most about Yellowstone. Just freaking massive herds.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: Nodaisho on 11 Oct 2010, 23:51
I don't remember seeing anything about the elk in Rocky Mountain National Park when I was up there last. I wonder if it just depends on if the elk are in an area that they normally stay in. There were hundreds of them last year, even cute little wobbly ones that were standing about 10 feet from the side of the road.

I still need to go to Yellowstone. It is just one state north, so I really have no excuse. I know what you mean about how amazing mountains are. For me, at least, sometimes being up in the mountains can be a religious experience, for lack of a better term. I want to live up in the mountains, I live within less than an hour's drive of them, but I would much rather live in them. Were you drinking enough water when you got dizzy up at Horsetooth? The way we were taught at school, if you are thirsty, you are dehydrated (or have been breathing too much dry air, but usually dehydrated).

If you don't have kids, just grow up to be like Paul. Be the cool old guy in a group of young people and tell them about your trip. Or if you have grand-nephews and grand-nieces.

I don't imagine either of you have much experience driving in the snow, do you? I would suggest you guys get a local to give you tips. The Subaru you guys got will be good for the snow, but I imagine there is a shitload of it in a ski resort town. The main thing I have found to be careful of is how much power you put down while turning. This is mostly important when you are coming out of a stop and turning, because you have to give it some power, but if you aren't careful with it, you will end up fishtailing all over the place. Also remember that just because there is only a little dusting of snow doesn't mean you are fine, I find that it is actually easier to drive on packed snow than 1/8th of an inch of recent snow. Both times that I have fishtailed I have done so on very little snow. And you will want to pump your brakes, even though the Subaru has ABS. ABS doesn't work well on snow, and pumping the brakes actually slows you more quickly than braking normally when you are on snow.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: David_Dovey on 12 Oct 2010, 00:06
Yeah I am shitscared about driving in snow, I think I will just make Sam do all the driving. She is a Canuck, it is in her blood. I assume.

Were you drinking enough water when you got dizzy up at Horsetooth? The way we were taught at school, if you are thirsty, you are dehydrated (or have been breathing too much dry air, but usually dehydrated).

I think it was a confluence of stuff. I am a goddang lowlands person. I mentioned not having ever seen a mountain before. Also I was just coming off being pretty seriously sick (The week previous, I coughed so hard I threw up! Twice!). Also also we were ascending at a fair clip so I didn't really get to acclimatise. Also also also yeah I was probably pretty dehydrated, it's pretty dry up in that shit.

Quote
If you don't have kids, just grow up to be like Paul. Be the cool old guy in a group of young people and tell them about your trip. Or if you have grand-nephews and grand-nieces.

Still here in 40-some years, Satan willing, still neglecting this thread for weeks at a time, Science willing. I'm sure.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: Nodaisho on 12 Oct 2010, 00:28
Yeah, the general recommendation is at least 64 ounces of water a day up around here, preferably more. It is more important for lowlanders than natives, not sure why. Might be that dehydration gets worse when you are already having oxygen issues? I'm not a doctor, I don't know.

Snow driving isn't really all that bad as long as you are careful. Especially with Subarus, you don't have to worry about them being quite as squirrely. Just remember that AWD doesn't mean you can brake any faster, it just means you have better traction to get going and not slide around in turns. You still need to give yourself plenty of room to brake. I've only been driving 2 years and I haven't gotten in a wreck, you should be fine as long as you give yourself time to learn before a huge blizzard hits.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: Barmymoo on 12 Oct 2010, 01:38
You are missing out Indiana, dawg. That is where Edith lives! Edith is awesome! Indiana is awesome! Turn back round.

I was wondering, did you book job interviews before you set off and hope you would arrive on time, or did you wait until you knew for sure when you would get there? Both seem like they might be a bit risky but it obviously worked, whichever it was.

And I find it weird that you guys measure water in ounces.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: David_Dovey on 12 Oct 2010, 02:07
Basically the main resorts in the area have a "hiring fair" where they interview a bunch of people on the same day, so we planned our itinerary around that. We knew from the outset it was gonna be mid-October but we didn't have an exact date til about a month ago and as it turned out it was even earlier than we thought so hence us cutting out some planned places to visit (i.e; the entire Midwest) and spending not much time in the places we did go to. We actually only knew for sure that we had interviews last week, though! It could've been all for nought but we got lucky, I guess.

Also measuring things in ounces trips me out as well, particularly when I worked out the conversions and realised that the average "medium" sized soft drink is like, a fucking liter of soda. What is with yr giant drink sizes America, srsly.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: Nodaisho on 12 Oct 2010, 02:46
It tends to be more of a large if it is 1 liter (1 liter is more than 1 quart, which is 32 ounces, which is a normal large). On the other hand, the midwest and eastern part of the country has the Pilot chain of gas stations/truck stops, with $1 44 ounce soda. I'm glad for it, that is what helped me get through Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, and Tennessee.

And our large servings mean I get to make people jealous by eating 2 big macs and going for a refill on my non-diet large soda in one sitting, while still being skinny as hell. I shouldn't enjoy that sort of thing as much as I do.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: pwhodges on 12 Oct 2010, 03:58
The US is not always larger.  A real  quart is 40oz. 

I had trouble in my engineering course at uni when I bought an American book on fluid dynamics and proceeded to use the conversion tables in the back - all my answers were 20% out because I was using the wrong sort of gallon!  I don't find fluid oz odd; but then my engineering course deliberately forced me to work in both imperial and metric units, even in the same experiment  (putting Centigrade and Fahrenheit thermometers at opposite ends of each condenser on the steam engine was just simple cruelty, I felt).  Another trouble area was MKS (SI) and CGS units in electricity - which are not merely different units, but call for different equations to relate them (multiple versions in CGS).  Happy days (?)
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: Nodaisho on 12 Oct 2010, 04:10
The US is not always larger.  A real  quart is 40oz. 
Huh. Wonder why that change was made. 8 ounces to a cup works for me though, I'm more or less used to thinking in multiples of 8.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: pwhodges on 12 Oct 2010, 07:14
Both are old in origin, actually.  The US gallon was based on the older "wine gallon", which was the volume of eight pounds of wine; whereas the imperial gallon was based on the larger old "ale gallon", and was then rounded up to the volume of 10 pounds of water as a nod to the emerging metric system (!).
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: Liz on 12 Oct 2010, 08:05
Yellowstone is badass.

Dovey I am angry that you haven't slept on my couch yet.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: StaedlerMars on 12 Oct 2010, 08:54
Holy shit Dovey I am massively jealous, that looks like an amazing trip.

I'm sorry I didn't pay much attention earlier on in this thread, I'm guessing you're using Canada's Working Holiday thing? Are you just travelling through the US on a tourist visa?
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: celticgeek on 12 Oct 2010, 09:34
The US is not always larger.  A real  quart is 40oz. 

I had trouble in my engineering course at uni when I bought an American book on fluid dynamics and proceeded to use the conversion tables in the back - all my answers were 20% out because I was using the wrong sort of gallon!  I don't find fluid oz odd; but then my engineering course deliberately forced me to work in both imperial and metric units, even in the same experiment  (putting Centigrade and Fahrenheit thermometers at opposite ends of each condenser on the steam engine was just simple cruelty, I felt).  Another trouble area was MKS (SI) and CGS units in electricity - which are not merely different units, but call for different equations to relate them (multiple versions in CGS).  Happy days (?)

Real physicists use the FFF System of units (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FFF_system)
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: David_Dovey on 12 Oct 2010, 10:06
I'm sorry I didn't pay much attention earlier on in this thread, I'm guessing you're using Canada's Working Holiday thing? Are you just travelling through the US on a tourist visa?

Yes, and yes.

Guys let's all just agree that imperial measurements are just dumb as hell and move along
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: Nodaisho on 12 Oct 2010, 12:09
Guys let's all just agree that imperial measurements are just dumb as hell and move along
Only if you are one of the weak-minded people that limits themselves to base 10.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: jwhouk on 12 Oct 2010, 13:06
Aw, you haven't seen NOTHING yet.

When you get time, track down south to Northwest Arizona. There's this "little ditch in the ground" made by the Colorado River. Pictures do NOT do it justice.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: Nodaisho on 12 Oct 2010, 13:26
He drove through Kansas. I'm pretty sure he has seen plenty of nothing.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: Ozymandias on 12 Oct 2010, 16:57
I'm impressed that you managed to do a massive road trip through US like that and mostly hit the shittiest places.

Well done.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: Inlander on 12 Oct 2010, 17:19
Only if you are one of the weak-minded people that limits themselves to base 10.

Funnily enough, right now I'm watching a game of American football. It strikes me that it's all based around measurements of ten yards. A team has to make TEN yards in a series of plays to keep the football. The field is divided into sections of TEN yards. There are TEN of these sections.

Basically why do you Americans keep fighting against the metric system when you clearly recognise in your heart of hearts that it's the natural way?
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: David_Dovey on 12 Oct 2010, 20:53
I'm impressed that you managed to do a massive road trip through US like that and mostly hit the shittiest places.

Well done.

fight you motherfucker
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: tania on 12 Oct 2010, 21:02
when the fuck are you going to come to british columbia and sleep on my couch, you dildo
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: David_Dovey on 12 Oct 2010, 21:05
Shit though I guess I did only go to the birthplace of jazz, the birthplace of rock n roll, the birthplace of Western democracy, saw a gigantic metal tube which will carry men off of our planet get wheeled out of the largest door in the world (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle_Assembly_Building) and stood on top of a mountain which itself was on top of a motherfucking supervolcano which will likely kill us all
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: David_Dovey on 12 Oct 2010, 21:08
Tania I don't wanna get yr hopes up but depending on

a) whether I get this job I am interviewing for tomorrow
b) When we actually have to start working (i.e; when the ski season starts)

it is possible it could be, like, next week or the following, seeing as we'll probably have a few weeks to kill in the interceding time and Sam has friends who are going to school in Washington State who we were gonna meet in Vancouver at some point as well. I'll keep y'all apprised of the developments.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: tania on 12 Oct 2010, 21:14
oh i was actually just being a brat because i don't want to read this thesis i am supposed to write a critique on by next week (this thesis is so bad dovey it is so bad how did it get approved i don't even) but that would be pretty cool! hopefully though you will get the job in banff because jobs in alberta pay real well on account their standard of living is much higher than the general population's whereas jobs in vancouver are pretty rare and hard to find for the most part.
but hey here is a thing! jrl phelps is playing here in november for the first time in literally a million years and you can totally drive from banff to vancouver in a day. you should consider a day trip for that, at least.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: David_Dovey on 12 Oct 2010, 21:15
This notion intrigues me
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: Nodaisho on 13 Oct 2010, 02:21
Basically why do you Americans keep fighting against the metric system when you clearly recognise in your heart of hearts that it's the natural way?
Because big money isn't in natural (except food), it is in computers, and that means bases 2, 8, and 16. Besides, natural does not mean better. See: Football. Or baseball. Anabolic all over the place.

Dovey, do people in Canada really say Eh all the time? And wear flannel and suspenders? I've never been there, except for the moose-filled side of the Niagara Falls.

Seriously, though, I want to hear about culture shock.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: allison on 13 Oct 2010, 06:29
I say "eh" all the time.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: valley_parade on 13 Oct 2010, 07:16
Funnily enough, right now I'm watching a game of American football. It strikes me that it's all based around measurements of ten yards. A team has to make TEN yards in a series of plays to keep the football. The field is divided into sections of TEN yards. There are TEN of these sections.

Fuck meters, Harry. Fuck em.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: David_Dovey on 13 Oct 2010, 08:20
"My car gets forty rods to the hogshead, and that's the way I likes it!"
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: valley_parade on 13 Oct 2010, 08:22
My car gets 29 hectares per cubic foot!
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: David_Dovey on 13 Oct 2010, 09:34
It's probably more a matter of being able to get time off of work for me than anything. I don't know how flexible they're gonna be, what with it being a short-term seasonal thing anyway
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: Ballard on 14 Oct 2010, 20:41
Basically why do you Americans keep fighting against the metric system when you clearly recognise in your heart of hearts that it's the natural way?
Because big money isn't in natural (except food), it is in computers, and that means bases 2, 8, and 16. Besides, natural does not mean better. See: Football. Or baseball. Anabolic all over the place.

Dude, how does binary justify Imperial measurement?

Hilariously, to count our money we use base 10 math.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: peterh on 15 Oct 2010, 00:03
Basically why do you Americans keep fighting against the metric system when you clearly recognise in your heart of hearts that it's the natural way?
Because big money isn't in natural (except food), it is in computers, and that means bases 2, 8, and 16.

Computers count in base 2 because they have two fingers. We have ten. Therefore, us programmers make sure we convert from base two to base ten before we print out your payslip. If you do your taxes in hex, your tax inspector will have a cow.

On top of that, the relationship between base 2 (and its derived bases such as 8 and 16) and the alleged superiority of the Imperial system is completely nonexistant.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: Zingoleb on 15 Oct 2010, 02:26
Base 8 is the same thing as base 10...if you're missing two fingers.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: peterh on 15 Oct 2010, 02:38
"How did 64 get into it?"

"I hear you cry."

(I have to admit I thought of this song when I posted, but I was afraid the reference would be lost... apparently not. :D

Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: Jimmy the Squid on 15 Oct 2010, 03:12
My car gets 29 hectares per cubic foot!

? (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYrhzcCUcxI&feature=related)
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: pwhodges on 15 Oct 2010, 03:39
how does binary justify Imperial measurement?

The great computer scientist Donald Knuth pointed this out:

Quote
mouthful = ½oz.
pony = 1oz.
jack = 2oz.
gill = 4oz.
cup = 8oz.
pint = 16oz
quart = 32oz.
pottle = 64oz.
gallon= 128oz.
peck = 2 gal.
pail =. 4gal.
bushel = 8gal.
strike = 16gal.
barrel = 32gal.
hogshead = 64gal.
butt = 128 gal.
tun = 256gal.

Requires US gallons, but as I've pointed out already, they are as old as UK gallons, if not older.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: Nodaisho on 18 Oct 2010, 02:13
And while I could be wrong, it is likely that way because it is much easier to double or halve something than to add 1/10th to it, or take 1/10th away from something.

Or it could just be ancient Sumerian brain-programming inclining some minds to lean towards binary while others lean towards base 10 as made simple by our body.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: pwhodges on 18 Oct 2010, 02:15
And where does the base-60 used by the ancient Babylonians come from?

(We still use that, of course, in our time units)
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: Nodaisho on 18 Oct 2010, 12:22
No idea.

But I just realized that in our modern sense of bases, 10 doesn't make sense with our fingers. There are 11 amounts of fingers that can be up. 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10.

This should probably go into a different thread, rather than cluttering up Dovey's.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: calenlass on 20 Oct 2010, 13:50
I still can't believe you didn't tell me when you came through Georgia. Or Florida. Or Alabama. Or Tennessee.


Humph.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: David_Dovey on 21 Oct 2010, 21:56
True story: It takes a pretty monumental effort for me to actually contact anybody in the forum for local hang-outs, such is my incredible social retardedation, that I basically have to screw up all my courage to phone people I talk to about 10 times as often as my "real-life" friends.

To put it another way: Internet Man is Profoundly and Monumentally Fucked Up, No-One Surprised
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: Nodaisho on 22 Oct 2010, 00:24
You too? I'm terrible at calling people on the phone.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: Barmymoo on 22 Oct 2010, 05:25
I hate making phone calls, I think it's quite common which suggests there's some inbuilt human distrust of disembodied voices (for good reason!). But I have a masochist habit of forcing myself to do things I dislike, so I am intending on working for the college telephone campaign again.
Title: Re: Let me sleep on yr couch
Post by: calenlass on 22 Oct 2010, 18:54
You coulda sent me a PM or texted me or something. I'da bought you lunch.


Oh, well.