I cannot break the laws of physics captain!

[Jetfire]

Yeah my mom's a teacher and her school often has exchange students from Europe and Asia. While the weather tends to be the main "Wow" factor they have, the size of the Great White North and its sparsness/ruralness tends to get them a lot too. (her school is in a large town, but there's very little of this entire province that you would consider "urban", other than Moncton and Saint John and maybe Freddy). The kids often get wowed when they realize that just trying to drive to Ontario is a multi-day trip, most of it just within Quebec.

Just some quick browsing of Wikipedia seems to say that the province of Ontario is twice the size of France; Quebec can hold 3 Frances. And all of Canada is the same size as all of Europe.

[Lots42]

Okay...so these people traveled to what they correctly believed was a tropical island full of beuaty and wonder what amazed them was a Wal-Mart?

Okay, everyone duck, I'm setting of the nukes now. Humanity is doomed.

Or the European tourists asking for a Sydney hotel with a view of Ayer's Rock/Uluru.

This ... this just makes me want to run around screaming and waving my arms.

That'd be like taking a whiz in the Sistine Chapel.

[Frantic Freddie]

Yep yep yep. I have done many road trips, and have established a rule of thumb that I can drive 15 hours or 800 miles in a day (with me as the only driver, of course), whichever comes first.

You're runnin' slow Jester ,back when we'd visit my parents in San Antone I'd do the entire 750 miles in 11 hours.Had it timed so we'd get there just as Mom had the steaks on the grill

[Jester]

Congrats! You've discovered the world's only living brain donor.

You've been dealing with people and coming to this site for how long now, and you honestly believe the above statement to be true? Hell, I've dealt with many living brain donors just on my lonesome. Let alone all the stories I hear in here.

Humanity is doomed.

Again, you're just now realizing this?

Or the European tourists asking for a Sydney hotel with a view of Ayer's Rock/Uluru.

This ... this just makes me want to run around screaming and waving my arms.

That'd be like taking a whiz in the Sistine Chapel.

To be fair, I have no idea where Ayer's Rock is, either. I know it's out in the boonies somewhere (at least I think it is), but I would have no clue if you could see it from Sydney or not. I would imagine not, but I wouldn't know.

You're runnin' slow Jester ,back when we'd visit my parents in San Antone I'd do the entire 750 miles in 11 hours.Had it timed so we'd get there just as Mom had the steaks on the grill

A couple things. First, I never said 800 miles took me 15 hours. I merely said that, either way, whatever else happened, whichever one of those milestones I hit first, I knew I was done for the day. Secondly, I take breaks. And by breaks, I don't mean running into a rest stop to pee, though I do those too. I mean, when I stop for lunch, I stop for a sit down lunch, and relax, letting the road ease off of me. Because I can only drive so long.

And finally, I never claimed to be the Ultimate Road Warrior. I know people who can drive far further and far longer than I could. A poor example is my ex-roommate, who would make the 900 mile drive back home to Atlanta in one day, and the drive back also in one day. Just beyond my capabilities. But I have definitely known people who could power out over a thousand miles in one day. Or do 750 faster than me. It happens.

The key is knowing your limitations. And I know mine.

[vikingchyk]

Funny you should mention that, I did get one or two requests for cruises in the Great Lakes.

"We have a lovely cruise using the same path as the Edmund Fitzgerald..."

[drunkenwildmage]

Funny you should mention that, I did get one or two requests for cruises in the Great Lakes.

Like This?

http://www.greatlakescruising.com/

[thatcrazyredhead]

I have to know. How many were actually land-locked cities?

When I worked in the call center selling cruises, a co-worker of mine got a call from a lady who was irate that he couldn't book her on a cruise from Arizona. In desperation, he asked his supervisor for help and the sup suggested that he ask her if the map she was looking at showed Mexico. It didn't, and she assumed that everything south of the U.S. was water. The same co-worker also had difficulty explaining to a different woman that there are no cruises to Las Vegas. I was talking to a lady about a cruise to Bermuda and she asked me if the ship would pick her up. In Detroit.

[Jester]

Stop, stop, stop, stop, and STOP.

Seriously, STOP!!!

Fuck the map. I am from Arizona, and anyone who lives there who has half of an operational brain cell knows full well that directly south of Arizona is fucking Mexico. You can't live there and NOT know that, unless you are walking around with an empty cranium. Clearly, this woman was just that.

And for her and the woman from Vegas, seriously, how the flying fart monkey do you live in the fucking desert and not know that a cruise SHIP can't get within several hundred miles of you? Here's a hint: look outside your window. See all that sand? All those palm trees? All those cacti? Now, ask yourself this simple question: DO YOU SEE ANY FUCKING WATER? No? Well, then, Stehpanie Hawking, how the Teddy Ruxpin do you think a cruise ship is going to be able to pick you the fuck up?

As a desert rat myself, this kind of idiotic ignorance offends me to no end, if for no other reason than it makes the rest of us desert dwellers look like flippin' idiots by association. NOT that the Arizona politicians aren't doing a good enough job of that, mind you.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a metric shit ton of alcohol to drink to try to wipe this moronity from my memory.

[thatcrazyredhead]

Stop, stop, stop, stop, and STOP.

Seriously, STOP!!!

Fuck the map. I am from Arizona, and anyone who lives there who has half of an operational brain cell knows full well that directly south of Arizona is fucking Mexico. You can't live there and NOT know that, unless you are walking around with an empty cranium. Clearly, this woman was just that.

And for her and the woman from Vegas, seriously, how the flying fart monkey do you live in the fucking desert and not know that a cruise SHIP can't get within several hundred miles of you? Here's a hint: look outside your window. See all that sand? All those palm trees? All those cacti? Now, ask yourself this simple question: DO YOU SEE ANY FUCKING WATER? No? Well, then, Stehpanie Hawking, how the Teddy Ruxpin do you think a cruise ship is going to be able to pick you the fuck up?

I've lived in Arizona my entire life (currently in Mesa), so I know exactly what you mean. I think these people were from somewhere else and in the area on vacation and thought it might be fun to take a cruise. From Yuma.

Pour me one, too, would ya, Jester? Oy.

[Jetfire]

To be fair, the Las Vegas person was apparently looking for a (land) cruise(r) to Las Vegas, not FROM Las Vegas. So they were probably from Somewhere Else; some place where Cruise ships don't need to ride on water but can go over land too it would seem.

(And to be pedantic, just because a site is desert, doesn't mean it can't have a sea coast. See Northern Africa for example)

Now picking up a cruise in Detroit would be a neat trick. Not impossible (assuming you bus around Niagara Falls IIRC) and don't mind making it multiple cruise ships to get up the St Lawrence Seaway and out to the Maritimes to pick up a boat to Boston or NYC from which you can get to Bermuda. But in a single cruise? Nope.

[Jester]

(And to be pedantic, just because a site is desert, doesn't mean it can't have a sea coast. See Northern Africa for example)

Hell, you don't have to go that far. The Mexican beach town us Zonies go to is both desert and coastal. I'm well aware of the desert's ability to be on the coast, as odd as that seems to many.

However, you'll notice I did not just say for her to notice the desert scenery, but also to notice the complete lack of water outside her window. As one would find in either Phoenix or Vegas. Or even Tucson, if you want to complete the triad. And you won't find a full-size operational cruise ship anywhere near any of those three desert cities, as they are desert, not desert coastal.

[Treasure]

had a guy that i worked with at the car dealership who argued for many hours with some friends of mine (who also worked at the dealership) that
Alaska was above
New York

they tried tell him that technically he was correct, but that Alaska is on the opposite side of the continent from New York, and still he argued.

the girls even pulled out a map and showed him, and still he insisted that "No, that map's wrong"

I think they finally got him to stop arguing, but not sure if they ever convinced him

we still laugh about it when we talk about those days....

[Ironclad Alibi]

The same co-worker also had difficulty explaining to a different woman that there are no cruises to Las Vegas.

I did a quick Google search and discovered on this web page:

Las Vegas Cruise Lines. Ceased operations May 2009. Ship now being auctioned off to pay off debts. Oct 2009.

[Kogarashi]

Screw the Euros, it blows MY mind!

I think the actual total driving time was clocked at 52 hours, actually, but close enough. Basically, we stopped to pick up food, go to the bathroom, stretch our legs (and switch drivers) or gas up the car, but otherwise it was highway all the way. We slept in well-lit rest areas in the car. The third time we did it, we actually had a third driver (my then-fiance, now-husband), which greatly reduced the driving time because then we rarely even needed to take the sleep breaks because two would stay awake in the front while the third slept against all our pillows in the backseat.

[Frantic Freddie]

A couple things. First, I never said 800 miles took me 15 hours. I merely said that, either way, whatever else happened, whichever one of those milestones I hit first, I knew I was done for the day. Secondly, I take breaks. And by breaks, I don't mean running into a rest stop to pee, though I do those too. I mean, when I stop for lunch, I stop for a sit down lunch, and relax, letting the road ease off of me. Because I can only drive so long.

And finally, I never claimed to be the Ultimate Road Warrior. I know people who can drive far further and far longer than I could. A poor example is my ex-roommate, who would make the 900 mile drive back home to Atlanta in one day, and the drive back also in one day. Just beyond my capabilities. But I have definitely known people who could power out over a thousand miles in one day. Or do 750 faster than me. It happens.

The key is knowing your limitations. And I know mine.

No need to get testy amigo,I was just funnin' ya My wife & I don't kill ourselves on trips (it helped on those trips that I-10 in west Texas was 80 mph) & we enjoy a good lunch in a small town restaurant instead of fast food.We enjoy our long road trips & we can now afford to stay in nice hotels,so road trips are a matter of fun,not work.


7 weeks in 5 states,7 nights a week,500-700 miles between gigs,in the 55 mph days....we fired our agent when we got home