1783 replies to this topic

[cusimano_brothers]

Tomorrow is the annual (eighteenth year, I think) train trip to Toronto, with a little shopping, Real Sports for lunch and a visit to the HHoF. Anybody here take the train anymore?

[Jenny]

I looked into taking the train to Chicago when I needed to go last year, but the schedule wasn't convenient. I think it would have been a nice way to get there, though.

[cusimano_brothers]

One of my favourite moments of the trip is after the train has cleared Union Station and I look over to my left and see the taillights of the bumper-to-bumper rush hour traffic (which now starts to get heavy around three in the afternoon) heading west out of Toronto. I always have the same thought: "This sure beats driving".

[WizardOfOz30]

Tomorrow is the annual (eighteenth year, I think) train trip to Toronto, with a little shopping, Real Sports for lunch and a visit to the HHoF. Anybody here take the train anymore?

Have a great time, I'm jealous. I've never been to the HHOF, I need to get there someday.

[malts85]

I took the train once from Montreal to Toronto and completely did not enjoy my ride, at one point we had to stop in the middle of no where for them to do some maintenance and it was so boring. I was only able to do so much reading and thought to myself I should've drove.

[55fan]

I used to take the train between Fargo and Wisconsin when I was a nymph. I love it, but I also like driving so I can have a car at my disposal when I get there.

[cusimano_brothers]

The train trip was great. Redesigned cars are more comfortable. Via Rail now has a "snack cart" they roll down the aisle; two dollars for a candy bar or a bag of chips and six dollars for a Coors light (all prices Canadian dollars). Although I don't have a laptop computer, WiFi is available on the "Corridor" run gratis, Montreal down to Windsor, plus the line across to the Falls. Name Drop Alert: Mark Napier was in the group ahead of me in line at Real Sports. You might have to Google him.

[55fan]

I was just checking out the Wings' flight to make sure they landed safely in Buffalo, and looking at the flight map it struck me as odd that they are flying from one American city to another, technically not leaving the country, but their entire flight is over Canada.

I then got to wondering if you have to go through customs when you do that. If not, and if you owned your own plane, and you had valid reason to fly that route on a regular basis (business, family, medical, whatever) you could make a bit of extra cash parachute-dropping contraband into Canada without deviating from your route.

[puckloo39]

Do pregnant women really think everyone wants to see their belly with a too-small t-shirt stretched until it screams over it? I know all the celebrities have made this oh, so cool. But, really.

[WizardOfOz30]

I've never thought that was a good look. I'm all for showing off your belly but in a tasteful way.

[55fan]

I asked my aunt for the address she lived at when my dad was born. She was 16 when he was born and they moved when he was 7, and she's the only one left out of the family.

She told me the address and I looked it up on mapquest. I'm not familiar with Detroit, so in order to give me some sort of idea where it was, I asked mapquest for directions to the JLA.

It's not far at all, from what I could tell, but one thing confused me. They made mention of a "Timed turn restriction" from 7 am to 7 pm every day when you turn from Joy Road to Grand River Av.

What is a timed turn restriction?

[Jenny]

I'm not familiar with that particular intersection, but it probably means something like you can turn right on red from 7 pm to 7 am but not between 7 am and 7 pm. I know I've seen signs like that elsewhere in Detroit.

[WizardOfOz30]

That is exactly what it is Jenny. I'm impressed that mapquest puts that in the directions. I always struggle when they put those No Turn on Red signs farther back than where you are sitting looking to try to turn.

[55fan]

Oh, they have one in Findlay (Ohio) that says you can't make left turns during a certain time. My cousin got pulled over once when he was going home from work after working a different shift. No one else in the family had even seen the sign before, but they're never there during rush hour.

I was thinking that it meant that you only had so much time to make your turn or else you had to go straight, and I was wondering why on earth they didn't have turn lanes or how you'd find yourself to the right street.

Thanks for the explanation. Odd, but the street Dad used to live on is only one block long! It connects two big streets and kind of goes at a weird angle, but it's in keeping with the other streets around it.

It's like they had a whole bunch of streets going one direction, and another bunch going a different direction, and then decided to connect them with little streets.

[malts85]

That is exactly what it is Jenny. I'm impressed that mapquest puts that in the directions. I always struggle when they put those No Turn on Red signs farther back than where you are sitting looking to try to turn.

That confused me one time when I was in Detroit, I was trying to get back to the hotel and then I saw the one way sign so I thought I was able to turn right on that street so that's what I did and I was going in the wrong direction. You can imagine my surprise when I see all the cars heading my way. The sign was actually for the next road.

Edited by malts85, 18 December 2011 - 12:19 AM.

[puckloo39]

A heroic human being has died. Rest in peace, Vaclav Havel

[Hockeytown0001]

I'll always applaud those who stood against Communism, one of the blights of human history.

[Jenny]

I can go on Twitter and have conversations with someone pretending to be Ilya Bryzgalov's dog, someone pretending to be Petr Klima's helmet, and someone pretending to be Mike Babcock's hair.

Do you ever wonder sometimes if the internet has just Gone Too Far?

[55fan]

I know. I can converse with people in Toledo. Creepy.

[MabusIncarnate]

I've still managed to never visit or use Twitter, i'm an internet failure. Social networking in general isn't really interesting to me, yeah I have a facebook account that I check twice a year, but thats just because of peer pressure. All I see is a hub for people to find you that you never really liked and people you went to school with 10 years ago that you didn't know or talk to then and wonder why they want to be friends now.