Author: Kim du Toit

Don’t Do That

Travels

This article got me thinking:

Locals reveal the ‘common forms of torture’ tourists subject themselves to when visiting their countries

Here’s the one that caught my eye:

For American Roger Cole, it’s ‘the Cross Country USA Road Trip’.
He wrote: ‘Let’s take one state, Florida. Rent that car in Miami after hitting the beaches and drive north. Guess what… in eight hours YOU’RE STILL IN FLORIDA.
‘You’ve seen 47 exit ramps and some ads for Ron Jon’s Surf Shop, golfing retirement communities, and road signs telling you Jesus Saves and don’t abort your babies.
‘You ate at McDonald’s or maybe tried some alligator meat at a weird little place off a highway exit that smelled like bug spray.’

So, O My Readers:  if someone asked you what not to do when you visit the U.S. of A. (or your home country, if yer a Furrin Reader), what are the top three (3) things you’d tell them not to do, or places not to visit?

Mine are, in no specific order:

  • Avoid New York City.  It smells terrible, the people are rude, and everything costs at least three times more than it should, for no discernible increase in quality.  Most activities are crowded and overrated (e.g. Broadway plays such as Les Miz), food in the “best” restaurants is no better than you’ll get in any good restaurant in your home town, and walking in the streets of Manhattan is as close to a contact sport as you’ll get off a rugby field.  Don’t buy into the hype;  New York sucks.  If you can make it there, you probably have organized crime ties (just like Sinatra did).
  • Don’t drive on the interstate highways.  Almost without exception, the scenery is terrible (writer Bill Bryson suggests that beautiful scenery along the interstate highway system is in fact banned by federal law), the distances are astonishing (except in New England), the highways around major cities (e.g. Washington D.C., Seattle, Los Angeles and even Dallas are more like (slow-) moving parking lots than highways, and the plethora of 18-wheeler trucks make driving a white-knuckle exercise.  You will never find any decent food just off the interstates unless your idea of “interesting” is McDonalds or Waffle House, and in a word, interstate highway travel is BORING.
  • Don’t visit a theme park, any theme park.  Disneyworld/-land/-whatever is horrendously expensive and at least half of the “rides” will always be closed for maintenance, regardless of season.  Sea World is crap except for the killer whales.  Six Flags and Wet ‘n Wild “amusement” parks are an anthropological exercise in trailer-park entertainment, and the non-franchise local amusement parks are even worse.  Avoid too the goober theme parks known as “state fairs”.  They are designed for and run by farmers, and unless you’re a farmer or country hick who enjoys looking at livestock, the day will be a complete waste of time.

Your suggestions in Comments, and feel free to disagree with my selections, as always.

New Feature: Open Thread

The Gun Thing

Here’s something new for Saturdays (traditionally a slow day at this address):  an open thread, but not that unstructured nonsense such as found at Insty’s place.

No;  what I’d like to see is Readers weighing in with their opinions of the Gun Of The Day.  The comments can be your experiences, stories (preferably reasonably true), tragic tales, inside information of any kind, and so on.  I’ll add my thoughts as the mood takes me.

I know it’s difficult for us gun nuts to stay on topic, but please try to do so.

Anyway, without further ado, here we go.  Today, the topic is  the German Pistole 08 (P08), otherwise known as the “Luger“:

Have at it in Comments.

Chippies

Food & Drink

I see that the top 10 list of fish ‘n chip shops in the U.K. has been published.  The one I’m going to make a beeline for the next time I’m Over There is Harbor Lights in Falmouth, Cornwall, because of this pic:

Granted, it may have been a promotional gimmick to get that many people to queue up outside the place, but whatever.

All that said, however, I’m still a huge fan of Sharon’s Plaice, in Boscastle, Cornwall:

…because I have never eaten such good fish ‘n chips before, anywhere.  And yes, the potatoes are locally-sourced (delivered fresh daily) as is the fish, caught right offshore and brought into the harbor.  I hope it survives until my next visit — Boscastle is a small village, and very dependent on tourism to keep its head above water, so any  retail establishment there leads a precarious existence (other than the pubs, of course).

Coincidence?

Drive Time

About two days after I talked about the relaunch of the Toyota Supra, I took a young man from Toyota US HQ to a function room somewhere in Plano, and what was parked outside?

Actually, I kinda like the “shape camo” Candy-Colored Tangerine-Flake Streamlined Baby paint job.  Imagine seeing that  in your garage after a heavy night’s drinking…

Best of all, I’d like to know what you’d write under “Color” on the insurance form.