Road Trip

[Sailor Steve]

I'm gonna be out of touch for a few days. I'm going to LA for my dad's 84th birthday. It's really an excuse to see my sister for the first time in years, and to finally meet my 12-year-old hocky-wiz niece.

Leaving tonight, back on Monday. :sunny:

[AVGWarhawk]

Enjoy Steve. Glad you can see your dad!

[Penguin]

have a good trip! :salute:

[Randomizer]

Travel safe, bring back doughnuts.

[Tribesman]

Enjoy.

[frau kaleun]

Stay safe and have a good trip! :salute:

[frau kaleun]

Travel safe, bring back doughnuts.

Leave the safe. Bring the cannoli.

[Herr-Berbunch]

Have a really good time and stay safe :yeah:

[Sailor Steve]

Travel safe, bring back doughnuts.
You've got to be joking. No box of doughnuts can survive an hour in my presence. I'm a renowned pastry hunter/killer. :D

[vienna]

Good trip to you... :DL

BTW, bring some cold weather clothes; it's been rather cold here in L.A. of late and the forecast is for much of the same, perhaps even a bit of rain eraly next week...

EDIT: It just dawned on me, the LA you are referring to may be Louisiana; if so, disregard prior warning...

We here in Los Angeles tend to regard any pairing of the letters 'L' & 'A' to refer to Los Angeles; it is hard being a provincial...

[mookiemookie]

:salute: Have fun!

[Jimbuna]

Safe trip and enjoy :sunny:

[Sailor Steve]

BTW, bring some cold weather clothes; it's been rather cold here in L.A. of late and the forecast is for much of the same, perhaps even a bit of rain eraly next week...
Of course I'm bringing a good jacket. Whatever the temperature where you are, it's 20 degrees colder here in Salt Lake. We're over 4000 feet higher. :)

EDIT: It just dawned on me, the LA you are referring to may be Louisiana; if so, disregard prior warning...

We here in Los Angeles tend to regard any pairing of the letters 'L' & 'A' to refer to Los Angeles; it is hard being a provincial...
No, you guessed correctly. My sister's in Long Beach, my dad's in Redondo Beach. I would have been more specific, but then everybody would have been saying "Where?" I figured LA would be obvious. Guess I figured wrong. Again. :sunny:

[soopaman2]

Have fun on the freeways.

I though the NJ/Ny Metro area traffic was horrid until I rented a car on my last trip out there. They tailgate if you are not speeding , then curse you out as they pass if you refuse to speed.

PM me if you need a repertoire of vile language to use. Us Jersey guys perfected cursing out morons, we know traffic like no other, even LA morons.:salute:

All jokes aside, safe trip, and happy times.

[Madox58]

I went to LA about 5 years back.
They said bring a coat, it's cold! So I did.
I'm from Ohio and I was working in short sleeves and sweating while the natives were dressed in stuff I wear when it's 28 degrees out!
But I was the 'weird' one.
:haha:

[Sailor Steve]

Have fun on the freeways.
I won't be driving. I'll leave that to my sister.

PM me if you need a repertoire of vile language to use. Us Jersey guys perfected cursing out morons, we know traffic like no other, even LA morons.:salute:
I was a sailor. I string together whole sentences of words in a fashion today's children can't even imagine. On the other hand after years of trying not to, I can also string together whole sentences of fake swear words. :D

[Madox58]

Have fun on the freeways.

I though the NJ/Ny Metro area traffic was horrid until I rented a car on my last trip out there. They tailgate if you are not speeding , then curse you out as they pass if you refuse to speed.



In NY/NJ you get cursed at for changeing a tire on the side of the road.
In LA you change the tire while in motion or you might get shot!
:haha:

I've been to nearly every major City in the U.S.A. and LA is the one area I hate the most to drive around in.
Makes Houston look like a Muppet Show!
:O:

[Sailor Steve]

A couple of decades ago I went back there for a gaming convention, and rode with a friend in his Dodge Ramcharger. Big SUV, Utah plates, they saw us coming and made holes for us. Seems they were a little leery of Mountain Folk it conestoga wagons. :rotfl2:




Anyway, time to go, out the door, see ya all Tuesday. :sunny:

[soopaman2]

...


...


He's gone, bring out the Tequila and strippers!
:woot::woot::woot:

[vienna]

Odd that you mention shootings...

A shooting just occurred this morning in Hollywood; a guy went on a rampage of some sort; started just at the end of the block where I live, worked his way about 3 block north down to the intersection of Sunset Blvd. & Vine St. (a very, very busy intersection), produced a gun and started firing, first into the air, then randomly at passersby and vehicles. He hit two vehicles, breaking a window on one car and injuring the driver with shattered glass; the second car's driver was hit in the head or neck and was taken to the hospital in critcal condition. The shooter ran out of ammo and started to attack cars by hitting them with the gun. An off duty LAPD officer, who was moonlighting as security on a nearby movie location set, ran to the scene and order the shooter to put down the weapon. The shooter insted produced a knife and the officer shoot and killed the shooter. Luckily for the people running for cover during the initial shooting, the shooter was a very bad aim. Just another day in L.A. ...

@ Sailor Steve: Fortunately, you'll be rather a good distance from the L.A. maddnes; Long Beach has really become a good city to visit and live in and Redondo Beach is one of the better coastal cities, kind of small townish. Hope you enjoy your stay here in the Southland... :DL

[Madox58]

Sadly, odd does not fit the everyday stuff anymore.
:nope:

It would be odd in the small Village where I live.
But it seems the Nut Cases are located in the bigger Cities, or at lest, the News reporters are more involved there.

Unless you do some kind of really out of this world sick stuff?
You'd never see my Village in the News.

[vienna]

Oh. I don't know...

Ohio is the home of Cleveland, city of burning rivers and bad NFL teams... :D

[Takeda Shingen]

Have a good time, Steve!

[vienna]

This just hit the web...short video of the shooter in Hollywood:

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2011/12/hollywood-shooting-video-gunman.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+lanowblog+%28L.A.+Now%29&utm_content=Google+Feedfetcher

[Madox58]

Oh. I don't know...

Ohio is the home of Cleveland, city of burning rivers and bad NFL teams... :D
That's just wrong!!

It should be VERY bad NFL Teams.
:D

And burning River. Not plural.
(Unless you count a few minor spills around me. NOT MY FAULT!)

[vienna]

(Unless you count a few minor spills around me. NOT MY FAULT!)

You're so defensive, privateer...I'm sure you beiieve they weren't your fault... :D

[Madox58]

:haha:
I was on my way to work one day about 2 years ago and saw a good one!
A Farmer ruptured his fuel tank on a Combine somehow.
It was near a stream I had to cross and JUST before I got to it?
It went up in flames!!
:o
It looked like a Napalm run had been done!!
:rock:
That creek burned for nearly a mile.

[vienna]

It was near a stream I had to cross and JUST before I got to it?
It went up in flames!!


Hmm, intersting...

Ever seen the movie "Firestarter"?...Just saying...

[nikimcbee]

I went to LA about 5 years back.
They said bring a coat, it's cold! So I did.
I'm from Ohio and I was working in short sleeves and sweating while the natives were dressed in stuff I wear when it's 28 degrees out!
But I was the 'weird' one.
:haha:

:salute::haha:

[Arlo]

Of course I'm bringing a good jacket. Whatever the temperature where you are, it's 20 degrees colder here in Salt Lake. We're over 4000 feet higher. :)


No, you guessed correctly. My sister's in Long Beach, my dad's in Redondo Beach. I would have been more specific, but then everybody would have been saying "Where?" I figured LA would be obvious. Guess I figured wrong. Again. :sunny:

DO, RA, MI, FA, SO, LA ......

SLC to BTR or MSY? Safe trip.

[soopaman2]

:-?I miss Steve already.

I hope he brings back some cool toys for us to play with.

[Jimbuna]

:-?I miss Steve already.

I hope he brings back some cool toys for us to play with.

Behave yersel, we have junior aged members who frequent this community :O:

[Sailor Steve]

WOW! What a rush!

This ended up being much more than I expected. First, my sister offered to fly me down, but based on my flying experience to and from the Houston Subsim meet in 2008 I decided I'd rather take the bus. My sister thought this was crazy, but I am crazy, so what do you do.

I got on a Greyhound at 1830 Friday night. We made a couple of stops in between, and got into Las Vegas at around 0100 Saturday morning. The trip was great, the motor coach was new and top-notch, and I met some interesting people and talked all the way, planning to sleep on the second stage of the trip. Alas, the bus from Las Vegas to Los Angeles was old and beat up. The bathroom was foul, like it hadn't been cleaned in a month. The door was broken, so you had to hold it shut when you were inside, and when no one was in there it would swing open and let the smell leak out into the back part of the bus. The only good news was that both buses were half full at best, so everyone got their own pair of seats and no one had to sit next to anyone else.

We got into LA at 0825 their time (Utah and California are one time zone apart) and waited until 0900 for the bus to Long Beach. It was a fairly old bus, but was owned and operated by some local Mexicans who operate locally for Greyhound. They keep their older equipment in tip-top shape, so that was a fun ride.

My sister met me at the little Long Beach station, and the whole twenty minutes back to her house she kept reminding me that Jet Blue flies direct from Salt Lake to Long Beach, and that the Long Beach airport is only five minutes from her house. Of course I kept reminding her that I didn't have to come at all. :O:

After I showered off sixteen hours of bus smell we headed over to my dad's house. The main part of this story is that my dad spent 36 years as a pilot for United Air Lines, was an avid golfer and loved to travel and kept very fit, and was always on the go. Nine years ago he was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease, and between that, the medication they put him on, and his current age, he can barely walk, let alone do any of the things he was fond of. My sister tried to prepare me for what I would see, but apparently the fact that I was coming for his birthday gave him renewed energy and my sister and stepmom both said he was looking and acting better than he had in weeks.

We had a good conversation and a mini-birthday party, and a pretty good time in general. They gave me a tour of the house, showing all the changes they had made since all three kids moved out.

A story: United moved us to Los Angeles when I was two. My dad rented a couple of places during the next three years, and in 1955 he bought a tract home while the neighborhood was still under construction.

Dad, mom and me, probably around 1954.

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a325/SailorSteve/SteveStuff/Scan0016.jpg

My mom and dad divorced in 1958. My dad remarried in 1961, and my sister was born in 1962 and my brother in 1964. This means that I was an only child, but I still had siblings. I was enough older than them that I ended up being a built-in babysitter. In 1965 my dad sold his first house and bought a very nice home further up the Palos Verdes Peninsula. They still live in the same house, and, say what I like about my stepmother, last August 1 was their fiftieth anniversary. Pretty wild, that.


A portrait of my dad in his prime.

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a325/SailorSteve/SteveStuff/02Portrait.jpg

And my dad now. His friend is my sister's dog Roscoe, who my stepmom callse The Red Rascal.

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a325/SailorSteve/SteveStuff/04DadwithRoscoe.jpg

My dad and stepmom, Barbara.

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a325/SailorSteve/SteveStuff/10BarbaraDadRoscoe.jpg

Me, my dad and my sister Chelon.

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a325/SailorSteve/SteveStuff/08MeDadChelon2.jpg

A picture of a picture of the boat my dad used to own.

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a325/SailorSteve/SteveStuff/03Boat.jpg

A funny pic from my dad's office.

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a325/SailorSteve/SteveStuff/01DadsOffice.jpg

The last time I saw my sister she was pregnant. Her daughter is now 12, so it's been awhile.

My sister Chelon, her husband Pedro and their daughter Danielle, from Chelon's FaceBook page.

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a325/SailorSteve/SteveStuff/Chelon.jpg

I made a post last year about Danielle's hockey team. Here is Danielle decked out for battle.

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a325/SailorSteve/SteveStuff/Danielle.jpg

[Sailor Steve]

PART 2.

Sunday we drove up to Simi Valley for Danielle's hockey game.

Here's my niece in action.

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a325/SailorSteve/SteveStuff/17DanielletheGoalie.jpg

But more importantly, my sister invited her niece, my younger daughter, and she came. Her two older kids stayed behind with a babysitter, but here is me, my daughter Michelle, her husband Dave and their youngest, baby Edyn.

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a325/SailorSteve/SteveStuff/15MeMichelleEdynDave.jpg

I spent another day with Chelon and family, and Dad and Barbara came over for dinner, so I got to see my dad on his real birthday.

Hopped on the bus yesterday at noon, left LA at 1500, Las Vegas at 2200. Got back into Salt Lake at 0630, was home by 0730 and now here I am typing merrily away.

One last shot of me with my daughter and granddaughter.

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a325/SailorSteve/SteveStuff/13MewithMichelleandEdyn.jpg

[Jimbuna]

Way to go Steve :rock:

Your restoring my faith in humanity....over the moon for ya mate :sunny:

[frau kaleun]

So great that you got to reconnect with some family. I know seeing that grandbaby must have been especially awesome. :yeah:

[Sailor Steve]

Well, holding her for a few minutes was even better. :D

[Dan D]

Sailor Steve, you are my hero !
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/images/smilies/salute.gif

[Randomizer]

Glad you had a great time; welcome back. And just in time for National Monkey Day too.

[Sailor Steve]

OOKA OOKA OOK!

[Herr-Berbunch]

Stoppit Steve, I'm welling up! So pleased for you, hope you can all catch up again soon. :yeah:

[CCIP]

Great to hear you had such a good time with the family :yep:

Ironically, my folks were also in LA for a short visit at the same time as you. Heard the weather's been a little chilly/rainy last couple of days.

[Sailor Steve]

It was nice Saturday, and Sunday wasn't too bad, though it did get fairly cold at night. Yesterday it rained pretty good.

[Penguin]

Aye, he's back, get the grammar books out again, kids.

Though their where no reports of bed spelling while your gone, Steve! :O:

I agree with Jim, I also got a little faith in humanity again, the story/pics felt very heartwarming.

Your father still looks very respectable in his high age - hope the both of you got along well.

I cannot see the content of two pics though, as your huge smile covers the whole area of the picture, from the left to the right - in German we say "smiling over both ears" :D

[AVGWarhawk]

Looked to be a very fruitful trip for you! :yeah:

[Sailor Steve]

Though their where no reports of bed spelling while your gone, Steve! :O:
I'm hoping your use of "their" for "there" and "your" for "you're" were intentional. :stare:
:rotfl2:

Your father still looks very respectable in his high age - hope the both of you got along well.
My dad was always a little overbearing and intimidating to his kids, so there were anger issues, but once we grew up he related to us a lot better. He's also reached a stage where he can't do a lot, so he is always very appreciative of phone calls and visits. He was a harsh father, but a good friend now and to his friends he's always been a cool guy, with a great sense of humor.

I cannot see the content of two pics though, as your huge smile covers the whole area of the picture, from the left to the right - in German we say "smiling over both ears" :D
It's the same here. The American phrase is "grinning from ear to ear". And yeah, I was happy. It was a good trip all around.

[Penguin]

I'm hoping your use of "their" for "there" and "your" for "you're" were intentional. :stare:
:rotfl2:


Off Coor's it was unintentional :O: - just like 'bed' for 'bad' and 'where' instead of 'were' :03:


He was a harsh father, but a good friend now and to his friends he's always been a cool guy, with a great sense of humor.


Good to hear, looks like you both mellowed out a little and found a relation (again). :up: Not too much news on my relationship to my dad, we're still related strangers.

[vienna]

Aye, he's back, get the grammar books out again, kids.


Years ago, I worked at a law firm where one of the senior partners was a stickler for grammar and spelling. He was the head of the Probate Department, an area where dotting "I"s and crossing "T"s is particularly important. He had also, in the past, been a professor. If you sent him a memo (this was in the era before email) containing errors, he would send it back (or a copy) with the errors marked in red ink and corrected. He was a very nice person and nobody took offense at his idiosyncrasy. One year, he was reaching a milestone birthday (I belive it was his 50th) and the staff threw him very nice party. When the cake was brought out, it was in the shape and form of a typewritten interoffice memo, complete with the firm's logo. It was addressed to the attorney and was full of errors. In red icing, in a facsimile of his handwriting, were corrections of the errors. Some of the staff were afraid he might take offense, but, when he saw it, he began to laugh and said he was touched they would go to such trouble on his behalf...

[Arlo]

Welcome back to where you're at, Steve. :DL