Made it back to Balloon Juice headquarters in one piece, and it was a really nice drive. For those of you who have never driven the highways of WV in the fall, the trees really are spectacular. They are just starting to turn right now, and you see lush walls of green with a little light orange starting to show, and every now and then a bright red tree stands out. It was also nice to see how clean the roads were. I am glad that littering has become more socially unacceptable.
The other thing that made the trip nice was we found this anthem rock radio station, and I heard a lot of stuff for the first time in years, all from hair bands. Scorpions The Zoo, some old Queen, and my personal favorite from the day, Billy Squier.
Can’t believe I used to own all those albums. Some of them never got replaced in the move to cd’s, and probably should have, if for the cheese and nostalgia aspect alone.
Another weird thing- we stopped at a McDonald’s for some diet coke (my old platoon sergeant was an architect who designed McDonald’s, and insisted that they all had a finely tuned coca cola set-up that produced the perfect fountain soda- I tend to think he was telling the truth, because McD’s diet coke always seems to taste better), and was absolutely mortified when they handed me a styrofoam cup. I thought everyone on the planet stopped using that crap. Using styrofoam is worse than pouring motor oil in a stream. Jeebus.
And I am rambling.
Punchy
I woke up this morning convinced the gov’t bailout was an ugly but necessary thang. Now I read taht the entire bill–for $700,000,000,000–is all of 3 pages long, written probably on the back of a Jimmy Johns napkin.
Unfuckingbelievable. I almost threw up. We’re BK in a matter of 2 years…..
ShouldKnowBetter
I had the same reaction to finding styrofoam cups at the coffee station someplace a few weeks back. I was all confused, like they’d provided old soup tins to drink from or something.
dbrown
Sorry but you have fallen for the same a myth most people do – styrofoam is much better for the environment overall than paper cups (everything is in the processing cycle where bleached paper from wood plup is used and the EXTREMELY deadly/toxic load is dumped into our rivers and air – see chlorine issues.)Facts are facts but deep down, I’ll never really believe it myself.
cleek
i just did the drive from NC to Cleveland a couple of weeks ago, so i got to see all the twists and turns of WV. it really is beautiful …but man, it’s white-knuckle driving, on I-77 at night.
stopped in Point Pleasant WV on the way back, to see the Mothman museum. awesome :)
cleek
oh, and you can’t link to a Billy Squire video, unless it’s this one
El Tiburon
Cleek, you bastard. That video destroyed Billy Squier’s career. I can’t believe they let that out for public consumption.
Styrofoam cups. I guess not enough crazy-ass liberals have worked they magic.
Squier, Scorpions, The Tubes, J. Geils, old Def Leppard -when they were good. Same for Reo Speedwagon. Throw in some Rush 2112 and you got a party.
jake
HOW’S THE HANGOVER TREATING YOU JOHN!?
And yes, WV is the most beautiful state in these parts (sorry PA).
Or it was.
Are there any mountains left down there?
jbarntt
Scorpions The Zoo, some old Queen, and my personal favorite from the day, Billy Squier.
None of this stuff appealed much to me then or now, but have to admit Squier’s “In the Dark” isn’t bad, a bit generic but well done.
As a fan of the English group Eddie & the Hotrods, I suppose I should not be too critical of other peoples tastes, so I will leave it at that.
Coke in a styrofoam cup ? Ughh, they must have run out of paper cups.
Speaking of traveling, if you’re ever in Portland, OR and are looking for a good pizza, Mama Maria’s is a good bet.
DaveC
Re McDonald’s fountain drink quality…
I worked there back in the early 70’s. Every shift I had to check/adjust the ratio of syrup to water (Brix) on each fountain mixer head with a specially designed two compartment measuring cup. Fanatical about it they were. Basic quality control.
It’s not your imagination.
John Cole
I feel fine. I only had a few drinks at the hotel and then a couple beers downtown, all over the course of almost 8 hours. I was just feeling goofy last night when I wrote that.
I really can not believe we are going to give away a trillion dollars without even debating it.
Keith
I’ve heard the same thing about IHOP, as well. They also used crushed ice instead of cubes, as that is supposed to taste better.
BTW: On the chlorine issue in water, isn’t that just a temporary issue, as chlorine degrades very rapidly in sunlight (which is why water districts are switching to the more-stable chloramine)?
Jennifer
We are in the process of trying to decide whether or not to capitalize on an opportunity to move back home (Charleston, WV) after nearly two decades away, the last spent in Raleigh. There are obvious ‘cons’ in the discussion, but one definitive ‘pro’ is the beauty of the place. I miss the rivers. The mountains. And, frankly, the seasons.
Still, it’s an ulcer generating process, this decision.
burnspbesq
If you still have all that old vinyl, get yourself a turntable with a USB output (most of them are junk, but an Austrian company called Pro-Ject makes a good one that sells for about $450 including a decent Ortofon cartridge), a free software item called Audacity, and burn your own CDs.
Josh
They only use styrofoam in Texas, too, which isn’t surprising–probably just a big redneck, “FU” to all science, the environment and civilized opinion…that or it’s just cheaper and therefore holy in this ‘business-friendly’ state.
jake
I can’t believe it is illegal to stick Paulson’s head in a toilet and flush that turd out into the Potomac.
In the meantime, fill up your Congress Critters’ [e]mail boxes. A postcard sent to their state office should get there in a day.
The Moar You Know
He was mostly right. It’s not the machine itself, it’s that they tune the mixture on them every day. I wish more places took the amount of care that McDonalds does with their basic operating fundamentals, if they did this would be a much better nation.
DonnaInMichigan
John Said:
For those of you who have never driven the highways of WV in the fall, the trees really are spectacular. They are just starting to turn right now, and you see lush walls of green with a little light orange starting to show, and every now and then a bright red tree stands out.
My reply:
We recently took a drive down to North Carolina, from Michigan. I have 2 sons stationed at Fort Bragg. My one son Michael, just returned again, from his second tour in Iraq. My other son Matthew will be going, to Afghanistan in December. I’m not impressed with Fayetteville, NC though. Dirty, nasty city. I’ve never been through West Virginia, before this trip. I was speechless on how breath-taking beautiful it is. Took so many pictures…I can just imagine how it looks in the fall or winter for that matter.
daniel thomas macinnes
What? Move your albums to CD? What blasphemy! What you need is a new turntable system to play your records again. Good heavens, why did anybody dump their record collections all those years ago? You had true high-definition audio, and you chucked it for something smaller and weaker.
Ah, well. The upside to the rush towards digital is that, thanks to the internet, we’ve seen the music industry self-destruct. Couldn’t happen to a nicer bunch of crooks. And lookit that! The compact disc is going away, and the LP is making a comeback.
Seriously, spend some money on a good turntable. Head over to Needle Doctor and they’ll set you up nicely.
PhoenixRising
Wild, wonderful Styrofoam litterers. When my sister lived in a nearby area of KY I was astonished by the refuse stream by the side of the road, partly that it was an accepted method of ridding one’s pickup of fast food wrappers and partly the plasticized, everything-resistant contents of the stream.
Styrofoam is a 2 on the 10 scale IF you dispose into a landfill after use rather than redecorating the mountains after filling it with your urine (if I hadn’t seen it I wouldn’t believe it either). Bleached paper is a 3 and pouring used motor oil into a stream is an 11. I take one of our family’s fleet of 8 stainless drink cups into anyplace like that, to reduce my score.
But then I’m a hippie pinko who wants to know where to send the invoice for the 8% gains my family forewent during the past 15 years on the theory that only FDIC savings accounts were backed by the US Treasury. Man, do I feel stupid! But I’m sure there is a plan to make up MY losses because I chose the lower reward that accompanied the lower risk. So, whoever finds that address at Treasury email it to me, ‘kay?
Notorious P.A.T.
Did it really? It’s pretty cheesy, but no worse than most of what I remember of the 80s.
dobrojutro
I had to endure that video drinking beers in a jarhead bar on a Saturday night when it premiered. It was the only bar we could get into with fake IDs. Me, my high school buddies and 50 buzzcuts watching Billy all but fondle himself. Worst douchechills imaginable.
Here’s a thing he did with Jeff Beck and Les Paul for you Squier completists.