Roark - How Was Your Trip ? ??

[Julles]

Dying to know what all you found to get in to.

[Esther]

Maybe they kept him.

[Sunbeam56]

He came back tired, and with a terminal case of Toyota tush. 

And a new conspiracy theory. He has a source for all things conspiratorial in California. The new one is the proliferation of cameras on phones, computers, etc... Big Brother is watching. 

Roark's offspring was glad to be home - finds California limiting because of the unavailability at Grandpa's house of EVERY kind of video game imaginable, and because he can't build fires and blow stuff up.
So we immediately repaired the problem with a bonfire, a sack of fireworks, and a day at the boob-tube playing games. 

[Roark]

Hiya!

As Savannah said, I've been mostly offline for the better part of two weeks.  My parents are completely non-internet-compatible, so I was forced to "borrow" time on a poorly secured WiFi connection when I couldn't stand being disconnected any longer.   Funny thing:  My home, in Nowhere, Texas, is rural... yet I have excellent internet service.  When I go to Calif, my parents house is in the 'burbs, but neither cell phones nor fast data connections work worth a darned.  Funny!!!

Calif is always a fun place to visit. It has an energy which is just flat-out contagious. I was born/raised there, and didn't move to Texas until about 7 years ago.  So the connections are many, and I can still see my earlier footprints in the technical sand when I visit.  And of course, Calif has the really wonderful "cultural stuff", like In-N-Out Burger, Fry's Electronics, and the generally laid-back California Way, which I miss horribly.  (I think I ate at an In-N-Out at least once a day.  Not kidding!!)  But visiting also reveals some things that I never really remembered from before... like the "packed-in-like-sardines" housing, which now drives me completely nuts.  (I can drive around my current house... and frequently do.  In Calif, you're considered lucky if you don't scrape your knuckles on your neighbors wall when you try to open your window).

The whole "family thing" was very enjoyable... even when the Lunatic Fringe showed-up for Christmas dinner.  I have an uncle who believes Big Brother is watching.... and tweaking... everyone.  He's a huge, rabid believer in "ChemTrails".  The rest of us know them as con-trails, ie, condensation trails from high-altitude jet exhaust, but he's convinced they're full of psychoactive compounds and has "conclusive data" that these "toxin-laced clouds" are the #1 cause of irrational behavior (to which I bluntly ask if he'd been breathing jet exhaust again. heheheh).  His cause-du-jour presently is letting people know that all these internet cameras mounted in laptops are being monitored by the "gov'ment".  Yeah right.   This made for an interesting after-dinner discussion, and it reminded me that you can't really educate someone who refuses to listen.    But I did give Uncle Roark a hot new conspiracy link:  www.officialdisclosure.com. I spent some time one night Googling to find the grand-daddy of all conspiracy sites, and that one took the cakes.   When I got back to Texas, he emailed me to express his appreciation for that link.  Apparently, he found a bunch of "like-minded" folks.  LMAO!!!

I managed a trip to the beach, too.   Took Roark Junior about 60 seconds to get soaked... and I approved heartily.  

And I got Toyota Tush.  Or RAV-4 Rump, if you please.  24 hours of drive-time to get there... and the same back.  Drive 12 hours/day and I guarantee if you're not intimately acquainted with the seat when you start the journey... you'll be well-introduced by the end of it!

So thanks for asking!  What did YOU guys do for fun over the holidays?

Roark

[tracey_shafer]

Thanks Roark, I was feeling bad that I did not make it home to  the Bay Area for the holiday but you hit all of my favorite points of why I don't live there anymore except the pervert quota.  lolThat and it take us 31 hours with bathroom breaks.

[Lynda]

I have to laugh, as a fellow displaced-Californian.  The last time I was there in March, I got in about 4:30 in the afternoon, checked into my hotel and asked the desk clerk where the nearest In-n-Out was.  When my friend came to take me to dinner at 6:00, he asked where I wanted to eat - assuming I'd want Japanese food, or a Jewish deli, or Thai, or some other delicacy I can't get in Arkansas.  I thought he was going to fall on the floor laughing when I said In-n-Out, and here's the directions...

I really really really miss In-n-Out! 

[Mikey]

After I joined Facebook I found a fan group for In-N-Out.  Being an In-N-Out fan (grilled onions plz) I had to join.  Upon joining the fan group an update was sent to all my friends stating, "Michael became a fan of IN-N-OUT Lovers".  A friend from Georgia read that update and was shocked at me  ........until she did some research and learned it was the name of a burger joint..... 

[Julles]

Mickey - you're funny!

Even I (a vegetarian) know about In-N-Out... A local restaurant reviewer wrote about a new place owned by someone who used to have one of the In-N-Out franchises in California, and so the food here is supposedly somewhat like In-N-Out.  The reveiwer went on to tell a lot about In-N-Out, and what makes it special, etc. 

I don't know if the little place here is doing well or not.  It's not in a particularly "enlightened" neighborhood.  Hopefully it will catch on and make a good go of it.

Uncle Roark, Regular Roark, and Little Roark.  Not just Look Out California - Look Out WORLD!!

[Lynda]

The way In-n-Out maintains it's quality is the fact that it's not franchised, and even with much urging by folks like me who miss it after we move, they resist the temptation to expand outside their geographic area.  They are in California, and I think there's one in Las Vegas now, and that's it.  It's still family-owned and controlled - they refuse to go public.  Although the family is changing and I've read that there are some family members who want to change things up a bit.

[Jerry]

If you are in so cal try "the HAT."  I think it has"in and out" beat to heck

By the way the kids in cal love to alter the bumper stickers to read "In n Out Urge"
Urge was burgers

[Roark]

During the trip from Texas to California, I did see a couple of In-N-Out's in Phoenix, and one in Tucson, but that's as far east as I've seen them.  You're right about them moving slowly but deliberately.  As long as they're still expanding, I have hope for the rest of the world.

Giggle: The In-N-Out in Simi Valley still had two faces I remember from ten years ago: One is "Myra", (who is just as cute as a bug but doesn't seem to realize it!),  who I'll bet is the manager... and another whom I never have known by name but is a familiar face and was working the register.

Wierd how the little things like the guy at the register, or the person who sacks your groceries, or the hotel bartender stick with you and somehow become more important as the years go by!

Jules: "Uncle Roark, Regular Roark, and Little Roark.  Not just Look Out California - Look Out WORLD!!"  RegRoark & MiniRoark can definitely do some damage to a diet in an In-N-Out.  (With regards to Uncle Roark, we prefer to keep him at home and feed him through the bars in his cage. Think of it as protective custody.  We don't want anyone debunking his hallucinations with actual facts. hehehehe).

Roark


Roark

[Lynda]

OMG - "The Hat!!!!"  Second-best pastrami sandwiches on the planet (old family argument between those of us living in the San Gabriel Valley, and those of us who were lucky and smart enought to live on the far-superior West Side.)  Of course, anyone lucky enough to live on the much-better West Side knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that the very best pastrami sandwiches in the entire whole wideworld were only available at Johnny's Pastrami on Sepulveda Blvd. and Washington Blvd. Right next-door to the home of the very best Mexican takeout food, Tito's Tacos.  Both of these restaurants have been there for more than 50 years, and the lines at both are always awesome.  Take a book and be prepared to stand in line for a very, very long time...

[Esther]

Do you people every eat at home?

[Lynda]

Esther, I now live in Arkansas, not Southern California.  Eating out here is basically chain restaurants and fried food - the motto here seems to be, "If it ain't fried, it ain't food!"  I don't eat out very much anymore...sigh.  But I do dream of "comfort food" in So Cal.