(snip)
Gryphonn, it's really too bad you're all the way on the other side of the Pacific. I think we could seriously chill, you and your lady and Dave and me.
Yeah, pity it's such a long swim, else we'd be there tomorrow for sure. I think we'd have an excellent time .
**Thread Hijack Ahead**
Now, I don't want to offend any
Merkins here (fukkit, I did it already), but I have found that many of the Americans I've met in person over here carry an air of superiority that makes them look like
fuck knuckles (refer to the term fucktard). Now, before anyone gets upset, I said many, not all. I met a lovely California Girl once, back in the early eighties, whose dad used to grow weed in his mansion on the coast somewhere over there. I've also had some good friendships with a few American ex-pats.
I have been re-educated on my perceptions of the majority of US citizens after having known some (online) that my mother visited in the states in '05 before she passed away.
She met a bunch of folks from various states after I got her hooked on the Internet. She decided to go over and say hi to as many as she could and ended up going from L.A to van Nuys, to Mission Hills (friends there), then through Death Valley and Mojave to Las Vegas (met more friends there).
Two of the friends she met at Las Vegas lived in Florida and had come to take her to their place (long way to pick someone up hey?). They headed back via Hoover Dam (stayed in Boulder City o/night). Then headed off to the Grand Canyon (of course), intending to stay at Flagstaff, but the weather got bad (snow and shit), so they stayed o/night in Williams. Next day they headed to the GC. Apparently her friends (Bill and Brenda) had never seen the Grand Canyon either, so it was a buzz for all three of them.
Then they went on to Grants NM, and stayed there for a night. After that, they headed on to Little Elm Tx, and stayed with some people there (Clair and Gloria). After sightseeing around there for a day and a half(including Dallas of course...we Aussies know all the cliche cities), they headed off to Lake Fork. Bill and Brenda own land there but hadn't seen the block for 11 years! They went through Longview, Marshall, Shreveport, Nachitoches and finally to Oppelousa for the night.
Next day they headed through Baton Rouge to New Orleans. They left Mississippi and headed through Alabama and on to Pensacola Florida. She checked out Perdido Keys and Orange Beach (all the hurricane damage still evident).
After staying there, she flew over to Portland Oregon via Atlanta Ga. to meet some more friends. She ended up in Salem where her friends lived. She even went to a Walmart, but described it as just like Big W here in Oz. She went down to Madison County to see the covered bridges (give her a break, she was 64 years old). She also visited the McInville Air Museum and a few other places...Depoe Bay, Tullamook Bay... Caught an Amtrak to Bakersfield...well that's what was supposed to happen. The train had dramas and it took 21 hours to get to Sacramento and the connecting bus to Stockton. Her friend, John, ended up picking her up there. They went to Sequoia Nat Park and checked out the Kern River and a few other places before the weather beat them.
After that she headed to Burbank on a bus and back to Mission Hills, then after a couple of days, back to Oz. She left Oz on April 1 2005 and got back to Rockhampton, her home on the 3rd of May.
On the 25th of that month, I found my mother, passed away in her home. I am *so* glad that she got to meet her stateside friends and got the holiday that she'd wanted for many, many years.
So anyway, if my mother got on well with all her friends over there, you can't all be bad.
One last thing, after having led this thread astray. If you get a chance, watch '
The Amazing Adventures of a Nobody, USA'. I was hooked on the series. It seems to shows that Americans aren't as bad as some people may think.
(don't hit me). Now don't take offense, there are plenty of Aussie Fuck Knuckles to go around too.
