I really hate borrowing someone else's car...

[PranQster]

Ugh!

My car's in the shop today to get a new upper strut mount and control arm bushings installed. Had to borrow a relative's truck (90-something Dodge Dakota) which has poor brakes, poor shocks, loose steering, and poor enough fuel delivery to make it difficult to bring up to highway speeds. Only a few more hours until I get my car back, but I'll appreciate it all the more.

[SiyahParsomen]

I though you had accient. However you still have a high chance to make one that will keep you uneasy which is even worse.

[PranQster]

LOL, all back to normal now that my car is out of the shop and running beautifully. Now it's time to get that other beast in for brakes ASAP.

[demagogue]

Living on the east coast I've learned to get by without a car. Just get around by trains everywhere.

But coming from Texas, of course we're bred to live by the car. The car is life. The car is hope.

So I know what it's like not having the comfort of your own car around.

[PranQster]

Yeah, I'd take the bus if I could, but San Antonio's bus system does not go anywhere near where I work. And where I'm from in northern Cal. * there is no such thing as a public transportation system of any kind... no bus, no taxi... nothing. So I'm dependent on my car. Besides, driving and maintaining my car is one of my hobbies. I couldn't give that up

 

* My new screenshots in the 'What are you working on now?' thread show a bit of my nor-Cal life (minus the skulls). I just realized I'm extremely homesick, lol.

Edited November 30, 2011 by PranQster

[Glyph Seeker]

I'm british but I infer the kind of despair people in America have with underfunded public transport when reading things like Ray Bradbury: "The land of the gasoline refugee"...

[demagogue]

No the east coast has an excellent public trans system, and you could get to basically any point from Richmond VA to Boston MA by train, bus, & walking, it's that dense. It's not that.

 

The issue with everywhere else, but Texas and California most of all, is sprawl. Things are literally so spread out and sparse at any point that even the buses and trains they have aren't useful. The stops would be 10 miles apart and you'd still have to walk 12 miles to your destination.

 

But that's aside from the fact that Americans don't despair of it. Having a car is a way of life; it totally taps into the whole independent spirit, you can get anywhere yourself, and the frontier spirit. At least for me, driving across a vast stretch of open land is practically a spiritual experience, emphasis on "vast" and totally "open" and untamed.

 

This

captures it for me, and to me it's not coincidental that the band is from Dallas/Austin Texas, and the road trip is around Fresno California (also a good video for PranQster for that reason.)

 

It's something you can't feel going through UK or Europe (although the train rides through pastoral landscapes are very pretty!) It's funny how living overseas in Europe & Asia a lot, and even getting Japanized a bit, also made me more in tune with home & being American. Also suddenly really missing my old car, lol.

[OrbWeaver]

But that's aside from the fact that Americans don't despair of it. Having a car is a way of life; it totally taps into the whole independent spirit, you can get anywhere yourself, and the frontier spirit. At least for me, driving across a vast stretch of open land is practically a spiritual experience, emphasis on "vast" and totally "open" and untamed.

 

That corresponds with what I've read actually: the American culture is heavily influenced by the expansive and often inhospitable geography, and the resulting need to establish secure, tightly-knit communities that can look after themselves rather than expecting the government to do it. Hence all of the gun ownership laws, objections to perceived "socialist" healthcare policies and so on.

 

It's something you can't feel going through UK or Europe

 

You're right there. The concept of a "road trip" is completely alien in the UK, travelling by road is an unpleasant chore that you have to sit through until you reach your destination.

[Glyph Seeker]

You're right there. The concept of a "road trip" is completely alien in the UK, travelling by road is an unpleasant chore that you have to sit through until you reach your destination.

 

Absolutely - the idea of a pleasant driving experience is kind of an oxymoron for me.

 

Around where I live there are lovely country roads which I'd love to drive around more frequently but it's all ruined by the "gin and jags" brigade in their stupid audis or chelsea tractor 4x4s which have never seen an inch of mud and if you dare to actually stick to a safe speed they drive an inch off your bumper trying to physically push you out of the way.

 

The obvious solution is that no one should be allowed to drive except for me. =-D

[PranQster]

That corresponds with what I've read actually: the American culture is heavily influenced by the expansive and often inhospitable geography, and the resulting need to establish secure, tightly-knit communities that can look after themselves rather than expecting the government to do it. Hence all of the gun ownership laws, objections to perceived "socialist" healthcare policies and so on.

Man. I am so sick of the politicians here using the word "socialist" and "socialism" in regards to universal healthcare. They try to scare the dumb voters (who believe them) into thinking that means we are becoming a hard core "red communist" dictatorship. Sometimes I kind of wish we were so we could send those alarmist blow-hards to the "Gulag"

A lot of those same people seem to have forgotten that our second constitutional amendment requires any militia to be "well regulated"... meaning managed by the government. A lot of those yokels believe they have a right to set up their own militia groups, which they actually don't.

 

Around where I live there are lovely country roads which I'd love to drive around more frequently but it's all ruined by the "gin and jags" brigade in their stupid audis or chelsea tractor 4x4s which have never seen an inch of mud and if you dare to actually stick to a safe speed they drive an inch off your bumper trying to physically push you out of the way.

You are describing 'normal' driving in central Texas at 80MPH on the highway (motorway). You look in the rear view mirror and all you see is the grille of the redneck truck behind you.

[7upMan]

You are describing 'normal' driving in central Texas at 80MPH on the highway (motorway). You look in the rear view mirror and all you see is the grille of the redneck truck behind you.

 

LOL No, you are describing the normal driving on the Autobahn A9 into Munich, where have your Powerful German Car up at the speed of 200 km/h and you STILL have the grille of an Even More Powerful German Car in your rear view mirror, whose driver is chatting relaxed into his cell phone.

[Springheel]

the American culture is heavily influenced by the expansive and often inhospitable geography,...Hence all of the gun ownership laws, objections to perceived "socialist" healthcare policies and so on.

 

Canada is the second largest country in the world, geographically, and I'm pretty certain most of it is more inhospitable than the US (except Alaska, perhaps). Yet we generally don't share the American attitude to guns or health care.