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Drop me off on a deserted island with all that jungle food and I would die within a few days. LOL No doubt when your life depends on it you get familiar with all the free food out there, but us modern human beings need not worry about those things. All we need to worry about is the deliberate contamination put into our food and water by the food producers.

It's rare that I get so lost that I lose a sense of direction. My most recent encounters with disorientation have been when we moved down here. The entire landscape was new and I only could identify one street, the main drag. Put me one block away from Main street and I was lost. Put me one mile away and I might end up in a different state before it's all over. LOL Actually, while I was lost completely a time or two I always knew the general direction I had to go in order to reach home. I think it is a subconscious thing where I use the sun and/or moon as pointers. The problem is I might decide to go northwest when I should be going due west. Prior to obtaining my clever phone I relied on the car's built in compass. It saved me a lot of driving out of the way a few times. Now it's all easy peasey. "Hey Google, show me how to get home" works every time.

I hear ya on that account Yogi - I think half the stuff the FDA approves as safe in our foods really is deadly.

When I drove OTR, I rarely looked at a map at all, at least until I got into the town where I had a delivery stop. But even then the locals on the radio would tell you the best route to get to that companies loading dock.

After I moved down here, although I could tell directions fairly well, the way the roads run in the mountains you can be going east on one road at the same time you are going west on that same road, but actually driving north or south, hi hi.
Got myself lost several times down here before my son bought me the GPS unit. Even so, I still managed to find my way back home, even if it was 30 miles out of my way first, hi hi.

After I got the GPS, I started downloading all kinds of POI's to go follow to see what was there.
Some of these POI's were an entire day trip around several interesting places not usually found on the tourist maps.

Debi and I met some very interesting people as well while out and about following those routes.
Some because what we went to see was torn down or not open during the season we were there.
Once we were looking for an old stone fort, and the GPS took us right to it, but nothing was there.
An old fellow saw me going back and forth looking for it, and stopped us.
I told him what we were looking for, and he took us to a small stone wall about 2 feet high, and 50 feet long.
Thar it iz he said. Then he began to tell us the story about it and why it was a popular wall, once a foundation for a massive fort. We didn't see anything impressive about it, but the old mans story was great to hear.
About the time we pulled away to turn around to leave, a tour bus stopped and many folks got off and began taking pictures of this wall. A few of them had fliers and they gave us one which we brought home.
This gave us a whole raft of new things to go look at. Most were much more interesting than the wall.

In the final analysis, the only reason I'm on the road is to somehow get from point 'A' to point 'B' most efficiently. Most of the sight seeing I do is incidental to the mission. Even when we went on vacations with the family the road trip was in my mind only a necessary evil. My sole concern was getting to the resort or back home. I didn't care much about what was in between. That is not to say I never traveled just for the fun of it. My last road trip was the most spectacular of my life because it was all about discovering what was between here and the final destination. It helped that we were celebrating a milestone anniversary and one of wife's legs was in a cast. That cast slowed her down a bit, but her determination to enjoy this event was inspiring. Oddly enough we didn't get lost during that adventure. We had both the TomTom and mobile phones with Google maps.

Going somewhere new and mingling with the local characters is book writing material. LOL People are indeed more fascinating than the sights, so it seems. I've seen all those pictures of Europe where the remains of the ancient Romans and Greeks still stand. Not much is left of the original structures and they are buried deep within the bowels of a thriving megalopolis. Just a pile of rocks in my opinion and not worth the many thousands of dollars it would take to get there from here. The trip from here to Chicago has a couple "historical" sights along the way. Most are just over grown patches of prairie. Then there is the Indian burial grounds up in Wisconsin we would pass on our way to elsewhere. It was three hills that didn't look nearly as impressive as my back yard. But it did have a totem pole in the midst of it. I never checked, but I'm guessing it was made of plastic. Standing on top of Mt Evans in Colorado was worth the drive. Nearly impressive is the cliff at the edge of Eagle Point Park in Iowa which overlooks three states from several hundred feet above the Mississippi. That too was worth the road trip, but the family reunion that attracted me there wasn't so spectacular.

I'm quite satisfied seeing all the sights of the world on my computer screen, which probably will be upgraded some time soon to a cinema sized monitor. The brightness seems to be in need of help but still works quite well after it runs several minutes. I got this thing back when I switched from Windows 98 to Vista. It might be time to replace it and see the world through brighter eyes; or LED's. Whichever the case may be.

I had to make many trips from St. Louis to Knoxville, first when I was dating, next after we were married to move her stuff to St. Loo, and then again when we moved back down here to her home town.
To help break up that long 9 hour drive, we started picking places to visit along our route. Sometimes we took a different route to see other things.
When you get off the beaten path, there are many unique things to see.
We've seen a cobbler make shoes by hand, a model train museum, a peacock farm, an old printing press that still used wooden type, and saw how they made large poster boards to print hundreds, the printing boards were sheets of plywood sanded as smooth as a desktop. On another route we saw them make suspenders from scratch, which was weaving the elastic with the threads to end up with the stretch straps, and down the street from that on another trip we watched a tin craft shop make all sorts of things the way they were made in the 1850's. Interesting stuff.

I've been atop Mt. Evans twice. It is higher than Pikes Peak although not as well advertised. Also rode the Cog Trains over at Pikes Peak. Been to Taos, NM to see ancient burial pyres above ground, and they had a few totem poles also.
I forget where it was, but I stood in front of a sign that said, this is the point of beginning of the Mississippi River, had one foot on one bank, and one foot on the other bank. But later on I found out the location was not really considered the beginning because there were many creeks in the area, and each one claiming the same thing. hi hi.

One of our local drive in theaters replaced their film projectors with a new digital projector. I have no idea how that would work to shoot an image onto the large outdoor screen, but the shows look great.
The guy who ran the projector has made a copy of every show for himself, which is probably illegal.
To show the DCI file requires a special projector with some interesting type of lens, which he has not figured out how to do yet. Nevertheless, he's still making copies of every film they show.
He figures some day the technology will change again, and he will be able to pick up a small size used projector.

It probably won't be long before lasers are used to project images on the big screen, sorta like they did shows at Lasarium in the Planetarium. Or like the laser displays in the fog mist over some of Disneylands buildings.

When I think about it, the drive from here to there is boring because it's infinitely repetitive. All the roads and scenery start to look the same and there is barely any interaction between me and the road. It's not a whole lot different than sitting at this desk playing games on the computer. I can do that for hours and it turns out to be less productive than driving the car from here to Peoria. While it is just a time waster many times, there is no stress. In fact many times I sit here to decompress from whatever is bothering me that day. On the road being bored is stressful, if you can understand that. You might advise me to get off the main road and seek out some of those local sights. Well yes, that is possible. But it takes away from the main mission which is to get to the destination as efficiently (read that to mean quickly) as possible. LOL

You are correct about Mt Evans being higher than Pike's Peak. The day we went on the tour we had a choice of the cog wheel train or a limo ride to the top of the world. I didn't have much experience inside limos back in those days so that was the prime reason we chose Mt Evans. Also, the Mt Evans tour included lunch at a restaurant half way up the mountain. The view from there was spectacular too but not so panoramic as the top of the mountain.

My last road trip to SC included a drive through downtown Atlanta. I thought Chicago had some monstrosities for expressways, but Atlanta has us beat. I don't recall exactly how many lanes wide the Atlanta expressway was but it seems like at least eight or possibly ten across. They had a great idea for navigating through that spaghetti bowl in that they painted road number markings on the pavement of individual lanes. I think we were supposed to take I-75 through the city. If it were not for those lane markings telling us we were on I-75 I probably would still be traveling round and round the middle of Georgia today. We lucked out because we passed through (both directions) on a Sunday morning when the traffic was lighter than normal. Thinking about rush hour in a place like that gives me nightmares.

When I first started driving OTR, everywhere I went was totally different.
Different buildings, different scenery, different stores and places to eat, different people, who also dressed differently too.
Within the span of about only 3 years, everything changed. All the towns looked almost the same, all the stores were the same, all the places to eat were the same, and all the people dressed about the same.
What caused this vast difference? The abundance of chain stores and eateries popping up everywhere.
Back then, almost every gas station, fast food place, department stores, etc. all looked alike.
All the billboards now advertised the same things. The entire country turned cloned commercial.
The only way to find something different was to get off the beaten path, and even then, gas stations and food chains dotted the back roads too.
New roads took you away from the familiar towns, and then the Interstates totally bypassed them.
So yes, driving became very boring, nothing new to see anymore!

The widest highway I was ever on was in California. That sucker was 16 lanes wide, and had exits on both the left and the right, and in a couple places, the center two lanes became not exactly exits, but where you switched from one highway to another. At least they had an abundance of signage to tell you which lanes to stay in, and amazingly they were in the right places so as not to confuse you.
By contrast, the worst roads I ever had to travel OTR were from the top of Oregon up to Washington state. For one, the lanes were too narrow for the big rigs, so we had to stay one behind the other hugging the shoulder the whole way.
Due to narrow lanes, median dividers, etc. there was not enough room to pass another rig without clipping signs or scraping median dividers.
The worst place I ever drove OTR as far as traffic was through New York to Long Island. It takes four times longer than it should, which is why they paid nearly double to any driver who would make that run. I jumped at it the first time, heck double pay. Never took another load going that way ever again, hi hi.

I truly do not see how it will ever be possible for autonomous vehicles to go from point A to point B without a driver taking over due to the many illegal lane markings and signs out there. They might be able to traverse some of the Interstate Highways without human assistance, but I can't see it anywhere else yet.

Speaking of which. Many years ago they came out with an idea for self-driving cars. It was called the Barris Guidance System if I recall. Seems like it required a wire be buried in the center of each lane for the car to follow. But I don't know if had to be energized or if it was just a special type of wire the system would pick up.
It is not mentioned in any automotive guidance systems of the past, probably because it never came to fruition.

Up in Denver, there was the North/South Tollway. When you entered the tollway, they gave you a punched time card, and when you exited the tollway you fed the time card into a slot. If you were speeding it issued you a traffic citation, hi hi.
At least the speed limit in it was set at 80 mph.

You are absolutely correct about all the big box stores and fast food establishments looking identical throughout the country. As you might imagine that is done on purpose. It's a attempt to make people feel comfortable in familiar surroundings no matter where they are in the USA. The identical look, from what I understand, also carries over to foreign countries. A McDonalds in Tokyo looks just like one in Memphis. The menu, however, is localized. You would find sushi burgers in Japan instead of those phony fish sandwiches we have around here. I've been to more than a few truck stops and was duly impressed each time. No two are alike and the food is generally exceptional. Since I'm not on the road very much these days, I don't know if those old time truck stops still exist. As far as the scenery and billboards go, you are probably right there too. I liked what "Lady Bird" Johnson did when she was First Lady. She headed an effort to put ad signs at least 300 feet off the road. It was hard to read those Burma Shave signs, but the roads were actually roads and not advertisements.

I recall reading about the Barris Guidance System but don't believe it was ever implemented on a wide scale. Back in those days computers were not very sophisticated and a wire guidance system was state of the art. I believe the military used something similar for guiding missiles or torpedoes at one time. Now and days GPS and AI are the norm. I'm not sure those autonomous vehicles being tested pay any attention to the road signs. It's all mapped out in some gigantic database, plus the autonomous computers actually learn how to spot hazards and dive legally. They are still learning from what I can tell, but companies like Uber and Lyft have made some serious inroads to self driving vehicles. UPS and FedEx have too.

Johnny Carson used to make jokes about the LA freeway being so convoluted, and I can only imagine it being worse today. My one and only road trip to Calivornia (when I was 16) was down the original Rt 66. We passed through Turner's Turnpike in Oklahoma which was just what we know as a toll road in Illinois. Arizona had one of those ticket punched cards too and the guy driving the car I was in was charged for driving 118 mph. The only reason they didn't lock him up was because I was a minor and they could not hold me. LOL

As the country became mobile, kids going away to distant colleges, meeting and marrying then living far away from home in many cases, often where they landed a high paying job. Families have virtually ceased to exist anymore.
So seeing all the old familiar places wherever you go is a boon for many. Perhaps even thwarts homesickness.

I had the opportunity to learn about the Cable Car System, both the original system, and the later complex system.
Places where I lived had street-cars that ran on tracks, powered by electric cables overhead.
But the Cable Car System is unique.
The original system was fairly simple, because it was in a straight line from San Francisco to the Wharf.
But the later Cable Car routes, now all abandoned of course, had turns and crossings.
And this was what intrigued me the most. How did those Cable Cars cross the path of another Cable Car?
Well they couldn't until the double or quad clamps were developed.
To simplify this a whole lot. The early cars, able to cross the path of another cable used a clamp in the front and the back of the cable car, or should I say the OTHER front of the car. They had an engineers seat at both ends, hence two fronts on a cable car.
Normally, a cable car only uses the front clamp to grab the moving cable.
The clamp could not be raised and lowered at all on original cable cars.
But on later cars they could be raised and lowered, rapidly.
As a cable car neared a cable intersection.
The engineer would drop the rear clamp and grab the cable, then release the front clamp and raise it.
The cars were slow enough, as soon as the front crossed the intersection, they would drop the clamp and lock it to the cable, then release and raise the rear clamp.
Later on this job became mechanically automated. After that it made it possible to turn corners.
That was a more complex cable system that required floating clamps and even better technology.
Too complicated to explain in words. You almost need a video to see how it could do that.

I was on a tollway once where they gave us the punched tickets.
I was probably in my late 20's early 30s at the time, and saw an older man and lady on the side of the road with flat tire.
I've always carried tire repair kits in my car since I before I was 16. Mainly because we did so in all of our trucks and farm vehicles.
They were lucky they did not have a blowout, and did not drive on the tire after it was completely flat.
The man pulled over because he knew his car was not steering right, kept pulling to the right, so he stopped to see.
It was completely flat by the time I stopped. He opened his trunk and got the jack out already. I told him don't need the jack or the spare tire. I'll just fix your tire and pump it back up again.
He had a good sized hole in his tire, more like from a spike than a nail. But luckily I had a mushroom head plug, and the gun for those larger plugs. I dipped it in the rubber glue and shot that plug in there and pulled the gun back out to seat it, then pumped the tire up with a small battery powered compressor. Trimmed off the plug end when I was sure there we no more leaks, then followed him to the exit booth.
He obviously told the booth attendant that he had a flat, and the car behind him had stopped to help fix it.
Because when I got to the booth, they guy didn't even take my time card, just motioned me on through the gates.

Family life in 2020 certainly is different than it was back in, say, 1950. Many things have changed including what people consider a family to be. When Ronald Reagan ran for president I recall a lot flack in the air about his being a divorced man, and a movie star. That kind of man should never be president of a country like ours. Ideas about divorce have changed dramatically and along with that the role of single parents. Nobody talked about unwed mothers back in the 50's but it's more or less a non-issue today. Even the need to be married has diminished and, of course, being married to the same sex person isn't just a fiction story you might read in Vogue. That traditional family of my youth disappeared along with my youth, but that is not to say families have become extinct. Instead of Sunday dinner with the family we now meet on Zoom or message each other on a smartphone. The physical contact is gone but the feeling of family still exists even if it is virtual.

Also back in the days when a family was a family mom would take me to visit her sister on the other side of town. Chicago being what it is made that trip very long and not comfortable. I don't know the exact time it took but it was well in excess of an hour to get from our house to aunt Rose's house via the trolley/bus system. The trip involved a few transfers from trolley to bus and back to trolley. Buses were a new fangled mode of public transportation back in those days and only ran on one or two major streets. The trolley ran down the middle of the streets and those poles gliding along the suspended wires sparked at their junction. I loved to see that. LOL Plus my favorite seat on the trolley was in back of the driver. Between us and the driver was a box of sand that I liked to play with to pass the time. The trolley driver didn't seem to mind but mom did. It wasn't until many years later that I figured out why that sand was there. Those steel rails get pretty slippery during Chicago's icy winters.

I've known about cable cars since way back when but only had a vague notion of how they worked. It's still not that clear and seems like a dangerous mode of transportation. I suppose there are all sorts of safety rigs to prevent disaster but I don't like elevators for the same reason cable cars seem unsafe. Trusting my life to a cable doesn't sound like a great idea. The clamps are not that hard to understand in theory, but turning corners smoothly? They have some great mechanical engineers on the West Coast, obviously.

Modern transportation, and the location of jobs, has really spread families apart.
True they are still families, but they all no longer meet at grandma's house for Sunday get togethers.

We still had street cars in Kirkwood when I was young.
We could ride our bikes about 1/2 mile to a bus station, take the bus up to Lindbergh Blvd. then hop on the street car and ride it to the loop at back again. Catch a bus back to the station and ride our bikes back home again.
When mom took us shopping downtown, she would usually park at one of the larger department stores, then we would go from store to store taking the open air trolleys.
They still have trolleys here in Knoxville, but they are more like decorative buses, they only run back and forth through the commercial shopping districts and are provided by the stores. Originally established to get all the college kids from campus dorms to the stores, but now carry anybody who is shopping.
My father took me for what was supposed to be the very last ride of the Hodemont street car. But after the ride, that was considered the last ride, and we all got souvenirs for it. They decided to do one last ride for the big shots of the city.

Cable cars had independent brake systems. But you also have to realize that the cable was not just a single cable either. It was a bundle of multiple cables, and any single cable in the bundle could be replaced without anyone knowing it was being replaced.
The only thing dangerous about cable cars, or street cars for that matter, where all the cars and trucks, and people, crossing it's path, oftentimes a wee bit too close for comfort. They ran slow enough, most folks didn't even pay much attention to them, hi hi.
But if you want to talk about efficiency or being green, then cable cars had to win out hands down.
One power source drove an entire cable route. Usually a high speed electric motor geared down so it had enormous power at the cable drive pulley.
The Pikes Peak Cog Train was self-powered via a diesel engine. The drive mechanism was like a large gear riding in a cogged track. Due to debris that fell into onto the cog track, just ahead of the driver gear were rotating brushes to brush debris out of the cog track. So the box the cog track was in had to be cleaned out quite often.
And I hear it will be reopening again in 2021 after being closed for some time.

Modern lifestyles have had their effect on families, for sure. Being mobile and ideas about social norms certainly had it's influence. Perhaps the greatest reason for the family disintegration is the need in many families for moms to work. Dad is no longer capable of being the sole bread winner, or at least that's the case in highly developed countries like ours. The ideas of equal rights and women's lib too gave mom a new role in society. She no longer was confined to the kitchen and bedroom. My wife's brother retired from American Airlines in his thirties because his wife made enough money to support the family. She broke all the glass ceilings and was able to rise up the corporate ladder. They were very much into strong family ties and decided dad would stay home and take care of the kids. No daycare for them. Those kids are far from home today, but the family ties never were stronger.

Wife tells me you can still ride a trolley in New Orleans. Don't know because I have never been there. The giant shopping mall near our old house had what looked like a converted school bus decked out to look like a trolley. It's rout was very limited and basically was used to bring people in from remote parking spots and then transport them around the mall parking lot. My son-in-law drove it for a few months but I never got close to it. LOL

I too have heard about the Pikes Peak cog wheel train shutting down. The reason for doing that escapes me now. It was a cool tourist thing but to be honest I think if I had to do Colorado Mountain climbing again, it would be in the limo. LOL

When they replaced the middle of the street trolley in our neighborhood my crazy uncle Gene somehow managed to get about six of the red bricks that they embedded the tracks in. They were totally useless and sat in the garage collecting dust. Sometimes they made great paper weights but that was it. It would be great to have one, or two, now but they are long gone.

I think my dad hit the nail on the head about parents having to work.
The number of things available to buy has increased exponentially, even in his own lifetime.
The number of things to buy and do when he was a kid, was minimal.
They basically had a ball, bat, and if lucky a glove, perhaps a kite or two they bought instead of built, and a bicycle.
Bowling was about the only activity until the movie theaters were built.
The mechanical toy boom, fancy push-pedal vehicles and all type of metal toys became available when I was young.
The girls had whole toy kitchens made of tin, and in some cases, ovens that worked.
Boys had toy tin vibrator football games, printing presses, slot machines, toy airplanes with real motors, etc.
Eventually tin gave way to plastics, for the younger kids, and electronics began to creep into the older kids toys.
For the older adults, hundreds of new activities became available, as well as clothing and shoe styles.
The fancier the clothes, the higher the price, of course. And they Just Had To Have what was new to save face.
Hi-Tech opened a whole new world to this generation, and along with it the higher cost of everything, which just keeps going up and up and up.

I had a light bulb taken from Sportsman Park when it closed. Actually dad got it and passed it on to me. I ended up selling it after having it myself for like 30 years, before the verifiable evidence marking wore off of it.
I had a bench from a merry-go-round, but no horse, I sold when I moved north.
Almost every other unique item I had, I had placed in my Wonder Plant office downtown, and lost all of it. Long story.
I did have two pieces of wood from the Comet, a wood roller coaster that was taken down, but no way to prove that is where they came from, so they had no value. I burned them in the fireplace when I lived in the big house in Des Peres.
Since then, I've sold off many things, or they went for pennies on the dollar at auction after 9/11 when I unloaded my business holdings, houses, and my own house.

For a moment I thought you were talking about Chicago when you mentioned Sportsman Park and The Comet. A racetrack in a suburb of Chicago went by the name of Sportsmans Park. The infamous mobster Al Capone had an financial interest in it from what I understand. I had a friend at Motorola who was very interested in horse racing and that is where he took me one day. Oddly enough he was of Italian ancestry. The main reason I went was because they had what was called Harness Racing where the horses race at a trotting pace instead of a full speed run. There was a buggy behind the horse where the jockey did his thing. I never could figure out how they determined if a horse was trotting or not, but a few got disqualified from their race because they broke their gait. It was a very interesting form of horse racing and I figured it was totally rigged. LOL

The high school I attended was located next door to Chicago's last amusement park, which went by the name of Riverview. The doors didn't open until 1:00 PM so that it generally wasn't worth cutting classes to go to the park. To give you an idea how much things changed, the regular admission to the park was 5¢ before I attended that school. Mom took me a few times when they had a special 2¢ day. By the time I graduated from high school the general admission was up to 25¢, and that was the last year the amusement park existed.

Riverview had hundreds of rides and booths where you could give your money to the local con artists. It was an amazing place for a kid to see. The very first ride on the runway was ... The Comet roller coaster. It was kind of wimpy compared to The Bobs or the Wild Mouse, but it was classic. We often rode that ride six times in a row never leaving our seats. Of course we had to pay the attendant each time but no way were we going to give up the front seat we managed to wrangle between rides. I don't know how many dozens of times I've been to Riverview, but each trip was an adventure. You never could do everything or ride all the rides in one visit. I don't know what they did to the more famous rides, such as the Comet, when they tore down the park. But I am certain the pieces would have fetched a very high price at auction.

Apparently St Louis also had a Sportsmans Park and a Comet, but only Chicago had an Al Capone.

This window is acting weird today.

Sportsman's Park, home of the St. Louis Browns, but better known as The St. Louis Cardinals Baseball Team.

The Comet was the Roller Coaster at St. Louis Highlands Amusement Park.
Next door to the St. Louis Arena!

I used to love going to the buggy races.
But after I worked on a ranch and learned more about how horses are trained for some things, I lost interest.

One Amusement center I went to all the time as a kid was named Let's Play Golf.
They had over 1000 things to play that all cost a nickel. Some were stupid, some funny, but most were games of one sort or another.
Much of the golf course was covered and inside chain link fence. It was NOT like Putt-Putt put at all.
The goal was to make it onto the green. And the green itself was shaped like a shallow cone, so if you landed on the green, the ball would role into the hole by itself, and back to the pro shop.
It was 9 holes, so they gave you nine golf balls when you paid to play, and two clubs, one a driver and one an iron.
The idea was to use the driver to hit the ball down the longest length of fairway, then use the iron to hit the ball from where it landed to the green, which was about half the distance as the first leg of the fairway. There were two holes that were straights from the tee area to the green, but normally too far to make the shot, due to the overhead chain link fence and sun shields.
They also had a golf tee range outdoors for just whacking balls, and several batting cages to practice batting.
As far as I know, it was the only one of it's kind for over 50 years. Then something similar opened up I think at Mall of America in the 1980's or thereabouts.

We had one small amusement park up near Chain of Rocks that boasted the Mad Mouse Roller Coaster.
It was the scariest roller coaster around for many miles for a couple of reasons.
They had to repair the framework after nearly every ride.
And you sat a good 4 feet in front of the the 4 wheels on the track, if you got a front seat that is.
This means you were suspended over mid-air before the car turned to follow the track.
It also was like playing crack the whip for those of us on the front seats.
The entire roller coaster was built on what looked like scaffolding.
And after each ride a team of about six guys were all over that scaffold tightening bolts and putting some pipes back in place, hi hi. Nobody was ever killed on it though. No car ever left the track, even if the track itself came apart. When it did come apart, it was usually behind the car as it made a turn. I suppose the way it was designed, that car acted like a huge crowbar against the track at the back wheels of the car.

Many eons ago, my brother paid for a long trip for me to go ride all the famous wood roller coasters around the U.S.
I have no idea what he paid, but it was with a group of around two dozen of us, all taking trains, planes, or buses around to the parks. We all met in Dallas, Texas first. I flew down there on TWA by myself. And the darn cab driver almost dumped me off at the wrong meeting place. Seems there were like three or four hotels with the same name in Dallas, and he went to the most common one first. We had talked about the roller coasters, and he got on his radio and asked the dispatcher which of the hotels were the roller coaster riders supposed to be at. They told him, so he had to backtrack about 2 miles then turn on another highway to get to the one I was supposed to be at. At the time I thought he did it on purpose to run up the meter and charge me more. Turns out, all I had to give him was a tip, as the ride was covered by the group.
I can say this, there is not a single modern roller coaster than feels like those built from wood. The new ones may have more fancy turns, spins, and drops, and may go much faster too. But the don't have the same feel or sound.

The Wild Mouse at Riverview was the last roller coaster to be added to the park. It was similar to the mouse you described but apparently constructed much better. The repair crews never were visible during working hours. The mouse was a gondola type car in which you would sit in on the floor. Since there were no seats per se the person in back of you acted as a cushion. I don't recall how they kept you from falling out of the car, but it was something like a harness pilots would wear in jet aircraft. I believe only four people could fit into one car but most of my rides were with a cousin of mine who loved this ride. There was one point in the course where the car appeared to go over the edge of the rails and nearly straight down. The drop couldn't have been more than about 20 feet but it seemed endless. I always was grateful that my cousin sat in front of me blocking the view somewhat. LOL

The Bobs was one of those classic wooden roller coasters. It was the hallmark of the park and probably the first roller coaster they installed. There was one next to The Bobs that had a peculiar name that is lost in my memory - I think it might have been The Flying Turns but I'm not sure. Away it was all wood too but the track was not the normal rails you would have on a regular roller coaster. They did pull you up to the top in the conventional way but then you entered what seems to be a giant gutter that twisted and turned. This ride too had low seating and your feet straight out in front of you. I guess the idea was to keep the center of gravity low, or something. The sound of that ride was unique. It wasn't particularly scary but some of those turns had to be 5 G's or more.

That golf course you describe sounds awesome. I don't recall any such thing around Chicago, but there were numerous driving ranges. Most of the miniature golf courses were cool things to do on a date but not all that impressive otherwise.

I forget which state I was in for a wooden coaster that had a 50 foot drop, not exactly straight down since roller coaster back then had a test they did with them that wouldn't work on most of today's roller coasters.
They had this rubber cup about the size of a low mug they filled to a line about 2/3 of the way up with water.
It got sat on the seat which was considered the center of gravity position on the car. The the coaster would run the track. When it got back to home base, that mug had better still be there, and have lost no water, else they would shut down the ride until they figured out where the bump in the track was. Not applicable to the Mad Mouse, hi hi. Well maybe, the very back seat would have been the center of gravity, but I never saw them to that test. Seems it was only done on the wooden coasters anyhow.

We had a coaster at Six Flags that had three spirals and two large loops. All steel of course. I rode it twice and never slid in my seat, or was lifted up. I was surprised. After the ride I told the guys with me, the harness was probably only to make us feel safer, my straps never tightened on any turn or loop. Maybe just a tad on the spirals, but that could have been because I was pulling on them myself, hi hi.

I was more terrified on sky-lifts, especially when folks started making them bounce, which was not allowed. As simple as they are, I was always scared as it passed over the pylons, because I knew it was no longer on the cable as it passed over those three rollers. If it is still there, perhaps you could head out the Clarksville Sky-Lift, the view is awesome!

Back in the late '80s early '90s we had some really awesome putt-putt courses around town. Each hole had some unique puzzle you had to figure out, just to get from the top section to the bottom section to finish your last putt.
There was this one that had an interesting mill on it. Where most you try to hit the ball through the hole in the bottom without getting blocked by the blades, you could do that on this one too, but the blades looked more like Hai Alai scoops. And if you could hit the ball just right to the scoop snapped it up, it would dump it across the roof so you got a hole in one on that hole. About the only way to get it into the scoop was to bank the ball off the side board in just the right place and at the right time of course, hi hi.
One course was like playing bumper pool almost, it had concrete wedges throughout the course.
I think theft and damage is why so many closed down. Like what happened to the one only a couple of miles from me here. Kids would go there at night and destroy the many obstacles and buildings. After someone broke into the pro shack and stole all the clubs and balls, they chose not to reopen.

One of my many cousins was a female nearly the same age as I was. Her dad was well off and they lived in a beautiful suburban home. We lived in that converted stable at my grandpa's house in the middle of the city. The lifestyles were strikingly different. Her dad was my mom's brother and once or twice during the summer I'd go out to their place for a few days and enjoy the suburban life with my cousins. As luck would have it, this gal was diagnosed with leukemia and told she didn't have too many years to look forward to. It must have been depressing for a young girl to receive that news, but she was in pretty good spirits and did just about anything a kid her age could do. She decided that she wanted to come stay at our house and go to that Riverview amusement park. That we did. The first thing she spotted after we entered the park was the parachute drop. Like the Bobs I avoided it like a plague all the times I've been there. However, that is what she wanted to do first.

This ride was constructed like a giant steel framed mushroom. There were four or six parachutes attached to vertical guide wires that stretched from the cap of the mushroom all the way down to the bottom. I guess they didn't want people flying all over the park in a parachute. LOL The seat was like those wooden seats you find on swings at public playgrounds. Each side of the seat had a vertical padded pipe that you can hang onto, but apparently it wasn't necessary. I can't for the life of me think how they strapped you in to keep you on the ride, but they did. Regardless it was open air on all sides except for that sissy pipe. It seemed to me that it was a mile up to the top, but maybe it was more like 100' for so. There was a single cable at the center of the chute which pulled you up to the top. I recall vividly to this day the spectacular view on the way up. I also recall the intense anticipation not knowing when you were going to hit the top and be released. I was holding onto the sissy pipe all the time, but not my cousin. She was as giddy as little girls can be with a cross between a smile and a panic on her face. We were looking at each other, and then ... CLICK. I almost wet my pants. That initial drop before the chute opened was the most exhilarating thing I ever experienced in all my 75 years. The glide down after that initial drop was anticlimactic. We landed on a bed of springs and the seat of the chute bounced a bit before we were finally released. And, of course, you know she wanted to do it again right away. LOL Well, no way was I going to tempt Fate twice and my mom wasn't willing either. Once was enough.

My cousin died less than a year after that memorable moment. Her funeral was one of the saddest events in all my experiences. But, there we were viewing her in her final resting place; tears in everyone's eyes. I kept a straight face but was grinning ear to ear internally thinking of that once in a lifetime parachute ride we shared.

A very heart touching and wonderful memory you have there Yogi. Sad circumstance, but you brought her some joy.

We had several rides at Six Flags that brought you to the top then dropped you. But it was all controlled by hydraulics, which was my fear. What If? One of those hydraulic lines broke? It was something I had to ask about, and the ride controller showed me the emergency brake system to cover just that instance. Then I felt better.

My cousin Larry, and an old school chum named Jim, and myself. We used to keep all of those coupons from comic books for free Rides at Palisades Park.
Then one day we decided to make the long trip to Cliffside Park, New Jersey. We were leery about all the tickets we had, that maybe they wouldn't accept them, thinking they were just a gimmick, since you paid to get in, and like other amusement parks, the rides are free. Well this was a little different, you did pay to get in, but many of the rides did have a fee over and above the entrance fee. I must have rode the Cyclone at least a dozen times. We didn't half the things we had tickets for, because most of those rides had long lines waiting.
While Larry was on a ride and we were waiting for him, because our next ride was on the other end of the park, Jim and I were going through our coupons. A lady was watching us and came over. She asked if we paid to get in, and we said yes we did, here is our entrance tickets. She said with all those coupons, you should have showed them to the ticket clerk. Each of them is worth a dollar off your ticket. We figured it was too late by the time we learned this to do anything about it.
But Jim was the type of person that if he thought he got rooked on something, he spoke up about it.
He saw a person who looked important and made a bee line straight toward him.
Said, we have all these tickets and learned we didn't have to pay to get in since we had so many.
The man asked if we were coming back tomorrow, we said no, have to head back home due to school.
Where you from? We came from St. Louis just for this one day of fun.
The man had us follow him to a brick building and told us to wait outside.
In our mind he would never come back again, but he did. And talk about a surprise.
He gave each of us a Palisades Park T-Shirt, a 45 RPM record by Freddy Cannon of Palisades Park, a Palisades Park tote bag and soda tumbler, and 100 dollars each in exchange for the rest of our tickets. And that wasn't all. He took us to dinner at one of the restaurants, and we didn't have to wait in line to get in either, plus after dinner, he gave us six tickets for the Fox Theater in St. Louis which were donated to them by KMOX radio station. He probably would have had to throw them away anyhow, because the show at the theater was in two weeks. I gave my tickets to my mom and dad.
I had almost forgotten about that trip, because so much happened in my life just afterward. Including marriage, hi hi.

I had one of those 45 rpm's of Palisades Park by Freddy Cannon. Never in my life did I expect to go there, but I did like the sound of the music. LOL The story you tell about the tickets and the free goodies is amazing. I doubt that many kids would speak up as did Jim, your friend, but there are times when voicing your concerns does pay off. Of course it helps to speak up to the right people, and I think your buddy lucked out in that regard.


Along those lines of thought, today I did something that I have not done in about 50 years. I went out and voted in the general election. My last visit to a poling place was when I was a newly wed and we lived in the city of Chicago proper. I don't recall much about it, but I do remember there were about a dozen ballots that needed to be filled out. In addition to that there was a machine with several rows of levers. You could flip one of the major levers and vote by party, or bypass that and flip individual levers to indicate your choice. My most lasting memory was the vote for judges. There were many, none of which I knew by name.

Here in Missouri is an entirely different environment, not to mention the pandemic surrounding it all. I decided I do enough griping about politics so that it is about time I cast my vote to actually be part of the process. Registration was by mail and they sent me a neat little postcard for me to take to the polling place. Not knowing how long the lines would be, wife and I left on this mission around 8:30 AM just in case we had to spend the entire morning there. Fortunately the line was not THAT long, but there were about 100 people ahead of us waiting to get into the school building. Each one of them work a mask and kept the correct distance. Oddly enough it all seemed pretty normal to do that kind of thing. There was a gatekeeper outside the door who controlled the number of people who could enter the school gymnasium to vote. The weather was perfect for standing around and waiting; it was sunny and almost 70 degrees. Given the nature of the news lately I had my eye peeled looking out for ominous looking characters, but none were is sight. Everybody was calm and relaxed.

Once inside there was a table with three smiling ladies ready to take our ID cards and process them. We were given a single sheet of paper and a ball point pen. The pen was wrapped in cellophane which the polling judge opened so that I can extract the pen without it being touched by human hands first. I thought that was a brilliant idea. All those ladies were behind plexiglass and all the signatures were done on a touch screen using that sterile pen she gave me. I was duly impressed with the whole process. Besides voting for president there were also a few judges for the state Supreme Court and the usual Representative choices. I didn't see Roy Blout's name on the ballot so that I guess voting for senators will be some other year. There were also three propositions for the county and the city. I had to think about it for a few minutes, but I voted yes to increase my taxes so that the fire fighters can earn a little extra cash at my expense. This ballot form was like one of those standardized multiple choice test sheets you see in schools. You get the question and must fill in the box ENTIRELY to have your answer validated. It was pretty simple and not at all like those Chicago ballots.

On the way out this completed ballot was put into a machine that looked a whole lot like a scanner; which is was, of course. Put the ballot on the tray and the machine sucked it up. That's it. No further action required. The whole process took around 45 minutes. My wife tells me that she voted there a couple times in the past and there was no such machine. I don't know if that's good or bad news, but I feel better now that I had my say.

I can't say Palisades Park was the best amusement park I've ever been to. But during that era, it was the most advertised, at least in comic books hi hi, and the record of course gave it a big boost as well. We were there in 1965, and it was more crowded than anywhere else I had ever been.

I'm glad you voted, no matter who you voted for. That my friend is the American Way!
We had paper ballots like you described here too, no machines this year, other than the scanners we fed our paper into.

The frau and I voted early, and then on Nov 1 we logged into a website to see if we were shown as having voted. It did show we voted, but not who we voted for. But we can log back in on Nov 6 to see who we voted for to make sure it was correct. Although nothing we can do about it after the fact if it is wrong. Although I doubt it would be.

I guess we won't know for a few days if we will still be living in the USA or if it will be the USSA.