I saw the place James Dean died today

[Tote]

Well I'm back in California for a couple of weeks so I thought I'd relate some more of my experiences as the TV is even more unwatchable than at home, the best thing at the moment is some country music awards show on cable.
I watched the Howard Stern show last night, how some strange bloke fondling strippers boobs on TV (with the nipples blurred out of course, couldnt offend anyone, could we) could be considered entertaining is beyond me.
My trip started off with a slight hitch, on Friday it was hot in Sydney and they left the aircraft sitting on the tarmac without an air conditioner on and the temperature was 50 in the first class cabin, so, after bringing it to the gate they decided to take it for a drive around the airport with the A/C on to cool it down a bit. We eventually got to board at 18:00, only about 3.5 hours late. Luckily I scored an upgrade and got to drink some free bundy in the lounge whilst this was happening.
When we got airborne the captain decided that because of his little tour of the tarmac they didnt have enough fuel to make it safely to San Francisco so we had a little stopover in Hawaii to fill her up. I eventually got here about 4 hours late, at least I didnt have a connection to catch. By the way the airline wasn't Qantas.
I scored a mighty Camry this time in the rentathrash lottery, I got one with a navigation system this time because I'm on my own this visit, unfortunately the polite female voice isn't clever enough to remind me that I should stay on the right hand side of the road. Only one emergency deviation across to the correct side ofthe median strip so far......
The Camry is even less impressive than the Pontiac I had last time, It not only handles like it has no shocks, it has no torque unless it's doing 5500RPM but it still hops all over the road under hard acceleration.
Anyway back to the title of my post, I went for a 400 mile drive today, south from San Jose through Salinas where "The Grapes of Wrath" was set and went over the range to Cholame where James Dean met his end. There's not a lot more there than there was 50 years ago, but it's cool to have visited the place. Here's a link in Google Earth if anyones interested: http://bbs.keyhole.com/ubb/showthrea...true#Post47478
The news over here is filled with the current situation in Iraq, it's a bit wierd having it 24x7 instead of sedition laws, industrial relations and capital punishment in Singapore, none of which incidently has made any impact on the media over here. The other wierd thing is that in the most rabidly Christian country on earth its politically incorrect to mention Christmas, instead it's referred to as the "Holiday Season". Anyone got a "holiday tree" in their loungeroom?, I $h!t you not.
I've yet to spot a Monaro/GTO over here, I might go on a mission to a car yard and see if I can find one, Plenty of new Mustangs around though, they look most excellent even if a large proportion of them are V6s.
Oh well, Ive had enough Bundy now to make the Country Music awards bearable so I'll save my other stories for the next time I need a sanity check. Just remember, we have the Best Country in the world.
Regards,
Tote

[Ghiadude]

Great post man... i take your over there on business??
lucky man... americans....they have no idea(holiday season indeed!!)

[smoo]

Yeah just another example of a western country bending over backwards to suit the minorities. Wonder if they'd ever do that for us? :rolleyes:

[XD 351 Ute]

Heh, good post. I'd like to get to the US one day to look at car stuff.

If you do any more jumps over the median strips, we want pics!!

Ed

[MO]

Hate to mention this guy's but Islamic group here in OZ is demanding we follow the yanks and get rid of xmas...must also mention that the normal muslims don't care..it is our faith not theirs and are quite happy to go with it.

As for Jimmy Dean, well gone before his time but then maybe he would not be the legend if he had'nt.

[Redrum]

Interesting read, hope the reports on our seppo friends keep rolling in.....

[RegSpec]

Originally Posted by smoo

Yeah just another example of a western country bending over backwards to suit the minorities. Wonder if they'd ever do that for us? :rolleyes:

Just dont get me started on "minority" groups, OK! :

[MO]

Originally Posted by BlueBAXR8

Just dont get me started on "minority" groups, OK! :

No the minorities would never do that for us.....now is the time to stand up and be counted...because if you don't...it will be happy holiday....not xmas!!!!!