Suffering withdrawal symptoms here in the south. Twelve months ago down our road we were entertained by the antics of motorists coping with a significant snowfall.
Example: drivers who had to stop halfway up a hill due to lack of foresight, and trying to re-start. Nothing serious you understand, no basis for Schadenfreude, just good entertaining stuff. I wonder if lessons were learned?
The lesson I learned (yep, the 'old blowoff' allegation is true): I left my car in the garage.
Oz (as was)
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Still February to go. Plenty of chance of snow yet.
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March April....has been known. Anyway for half of February I will be in sunny Florida. Apparantly snow is God's revenge on BMW drivers.
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Pugugly,
"Anyway for half of February I will be in sunny Florida."
Me too - what part and what car are you renting?(motoring link)
C
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A Chevorlet Lurchmobile (some sort of MPV thing) from Avis. Landing Orlando International on 1/2/04 staying in a friend's villa in Kissemee. PU does not do Theme parks, but an extended drive down to the keys are in prospect. When are you going, what you driving ?
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PU,
A Condo on the Atlantic near Melborne, about an hour from Orlando.- sea fishing is my thing. I am there from 18 Jan to 5 Feb. No idea what Alamo/Dollar thing I will be in.
Your expenses out there have just gone down 15%!
Send me your Email via the mods please.
C
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No secret Cardew. Its Pugugly@btopenworld.com. Any tips (on driving etc) I've only ever been to New England/West Coast and I was stopped for speeding !
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How about 'keep to the speed limit'?
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"How about 'keep to the speed limit'?"
My God, they pop up everywhere don't they :-)
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Well I'm going to get a basinful of snow & ice next week. Noting that part of the program seems to involve hooning around on a frozen lake for most of an entire day and evening I'll get enough practice for the entire back room, he he he! (Not quite sure what that has to do with the tests on the particular component in question, but hey it's a hard life, someone has to do it!)
PU, re request for hints.
Biggest hazard I saw is British tourists on the wrong side of the road after exiting a car park. For some reason local plod can get a bit umpty if you indulge in European practice and reverse into parking spaces, tbey can't read the number plate if none on front bumper. Let's face it you don't argue with someone packing a gun!
Dislike of theme parks noted. That aside if you can ignore the mouse related chapters Simon Venness' book "Brit's Guide to Orlando and Disneyland" is well worth taking. Plenty of things listed which we would never have known about never mind actually visited.
Not sure if you class "visitor attractons" in the same category as theme parks. Titanic exhibition @ The Mercado , very moving. Interesting to note the different survival rates of the various passenger classes and the crew. If you visit let us know if you survived, I didn't btw. You'll know what I mean..
Plus just across the road best ribs around in Tony Romas.
Visit to the town of Celebration? very Stepford wives -esque. Some jokers idea of a perfect town! No thanks.
Finally do you class Kennedy Space Centre in the hated theme park category? The FiF ladies went under sufferance and in the event enjoyed the place so much they had to be dragged out at closing time due to the staff wanting to lock up for the night.
Have a good trip, take care
FiF
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Kennedy is the only must-do. I wanted to go there ever since I had the ABC of Space (Magpie TV Pro. book) as a Christmas present when I was about 10.
I was exceeding a stupid speed limit of 55 on the New Jersey Turnpike. I was cruising at a steady 80mph on an empty road. The Cop let me off when he found out I was British.
Thanks FiF
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PU, take the Up Close & Personal tour, well worth the extra.
Seeing as you are there in February, pls check out this link you might get to see a launch, three scheduled for Feb, jammy git!
www.kennedyspacecenter.com/launches/scheduleStatus...p
cheers
FiF (green with envy)
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No secret Cardew. Its Pugugly@btopenworld.com. Any tips (on driving etc) I've only ever been to New England/West Coast and I was stopped for speeding !
Do a forum search on "Driving in Florida"
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I have just been informed that it is snowing in Shropshire. As I am in Cambridge, this information is not a lot of use to me, tho' it might be to others...
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I have just been informed that it is snowing in Shropshire. As I am in Cambridge, this information is not a lot of use to me, tho' it might be to others...
It seems to have relented now, but it was just about snowing in my bit of Cambridge a few minutes ago too. Dunno if it's likely to really get going though.
GJD
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Snowing in my part of Cambridge (Girton) as well.
Not settling, sadly.
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Been snowing pretty heavily for the past hour or so here in Coventry. Not settling though because the ground's wet.
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GRowlette has been following this thread because the only snow she has ever seen is on the movies. OT but she'd like to see a pic of some BR-er's with their cars in snow. She thinks it's all cutes-y stuff and won't listen to my protestations that it goes brown and nasty and thoroughly unpleasant.
(Last week we were up in the mountains and it was about 13 C at night. She was literally shivering and had to buy a coat.....got no idea...)
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Spoke too soon. Inch or so here in Northampton, now turned to slush. Enough for a bit of slithering and for neighbour to run into their garage door.
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Pugugly.....May I suggest you have a look at this thread:
www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?f=2&t=94...#
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Pugugly.....May I suggest you have a look at this thread: www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?f=2&t=94...#
Excellent, thanks guys.
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Yes - living on a steep hill we get to see all sorts of stupid antics when there's more than a degree of frost let alone a few inches of snow.
We constantly hear complaints about the gritting of roads etc. in the UK but I've just watched some footage of the chaos in the US (New York??) due to recent heavy snowfall. It's not exactly unknown in that part of the world but they still don't seem to be able to cope much better than we do. Also, is there something about their cars, driving etc. which makes them seem to slide around a lot more than we do ? It seems that we get bogged down in snow whilst our 'cousins' over there just slide :-)
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Here's a complaint about gritting for you:
on Wednesday (14th) I was travelling up the A21 at 8.40am, temperature +5 deg and rising (the sun was shining, lovely day) when the dual carriageway came to a near standstill (in late-late rush hour) because... Yes! A gritting lorry!
Why grit in the morning AFTER a cold night? Is it because
a) gritters need a job, too, even if there's no actual ice
b) Kent CC has a budget for grit and it will be spent, dammit
c) salt on the roads accelerates corrosion, therefore we can reduce the number of cars by spreading more of it
d) just to make me even later for work
e) all of the above?
Grateful for any enlightenment...
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I guess it might just be because it would be impossible to grit all the roads at exactly the right time. I might be wrong but unless weather conditions were extraordinary I'd have expected the grit to stay around giving some protection from ice etc. for some time. Let's face it, if gritting only took place at the last minute we'd all be moaning about why they didn't start doing it earlier :-(
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Might be to do with our car types, our small cars get bogged in the snow but otherwise seem to get through.
Our rear wheel drive cars with big tyres tend to slide just like in the US. When a friend was on our drive in his S-type it was quite funny watching the whole car slide sideways down the drive, even though my Fiesta would have driven out no bother at all. In the US they have more large cars with big, wide tyres that just float over the snow.
Let's face it, they're not exactly a nation of Fiesta drivers! :-)
Blue
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