1st Gen. Lunch Table - General Discussion

BWIA is the worst. We were scheduled to fly back from St Lucia at 8am. First it was a 1 hr delay, then another 1 hr delay, then they boarded us on a bus and set everybody up in a hotel. We finally left 8 hrs late but it doesn't end there. They hopped to every island they serviced even, at one point, making some of the crew get off so they could load more passengers. Got into NY at 1am. Our pickup had long gone home and of all the car rentals only one had a single car left and he bagged me (I went after the airline and they reimbursed me). Needless to say I never flew BWIA again.

 

That must've seriously sucked.

I guess this is the one of the only things I get extremly snobbish about. I'll stay overnight in budget hotels, I'll sleep on strangers couches, I'll drive beater rental cars, I really don't care. But when it comes to airfair, I'm a picky asshole. I honestly only fly Delta these days, unless I have absolutely no other practical choice. It helps a lot with me living in Atlanta, largest airport in the world, and Delta's HQ, no shortage of options. I know with Delta I may be delayed, but I've never, across hundreds of trips, ever been boned. My wife is diamond/million-miler, I think she'd say the same.

About the only other airline I'll fly is an affiliate/partner of Delta, or potentially one of AA's more reputable partners like Lufthansa. I won't fly British, and really don't like flying AA. I won't fly Southwest, and I definitely won't fly any of the budget airlines like Frontier/Spirit/jetBlue/Allegiant. If Delta only offers direct to somewhere a couple hours by car, or few hours by train, I'll fly direct and hop on the damn train, or rent a car and drive it. My time, my comfort, it's worth the extra $$ and effort. My work sent me all over the place, mostly all over Europe, nothing sucks worse than air travel issues.

Some people on here like @KNABORES are in the air way more than I ever was, I imagine he's racked up more than my paltry few hundred thousand miles of air travel, at least with all the flying I see him doing for work. He can probably speak more to it than me.

I really wish we could figure out a better solution for fast travel, but we seem to be going backwards in this world, from an education/science/discovery perspective, and it's been rapidly getting worse. I'd hoped by now we'd be closer to me not having to sit in a car for 3.5 hours to get to a beach before I was in my 50s, but clearly that not only failed (miserably) to happen, I don't see it happening before I die in the next couple decades or less.

 

I’ve got well over 2 million miles in the air. But I’m not a million miler with any one airline yet. I fly them all as needed, but definitely prefer Delta. I miss Continental.

 

Cops everywhere and choppers overhead. Don’t see anything about anyone at large on the local news.

 

It's weird, I just saw a bunch of reports about choppers and police over here too.

 

Well we just bombed another country so I wouldn't be surprised if police have been told to be on alert the next 48 hours.

 

Might be a busy wkend....moments ago, it's reported B2's dropped 3 payloads onto IRAN

 

Might be something different here. They’re posted at the highway on/off ramps like they’re waiting for someone.

 

Another war we didn't want/need to be involved with.

Anyway, side bar. Maine. Midcoast Maine stats on 1st gens:

• There are tons, I saw at least 10 a day
• 90% are AC
• about 10% are RC
• I saw one DC the entire time I was there
• I don't think I saw a single 2WD

 

We had 3 of them holding up I-85 northbound as we were leaving the airport on our way home. They were pacing traffic to slow everyone down, the backup was about 1/4 mile deep, and I have no idea when it started. Then choppers overhead about 10-15 mins before you replied, and I saw a couple of local reports of police activity around the city (ITP).

 

This is one time the CAT between Boston and Halifax would be welcomed. Supposedly they’re getting 70F heat while it’s 90F+ for the next 3 days here in the Boston area.

 

1 out of every 5 tags I saw while driving up there was Massachusetts. It was insane the number of massholes floating around.

But I'll say this too. There were clearly a huge variety of people up there. Like wildly different viewpoints and backgrounds. But everyone - and I mean everyone - was giving everyone else a fair shake. Nobody bickering or starting shit. You had clearly-polar-opposites next door to each other (one such pair of neighbors a few doors down from us) and I saw them, on multiple occasions, having conversations. Nobody flipping off the other person or honking and waving fists because their bumper stickers were mutually offensive. Just generally a kickass, "alright, you bleed, I bleed, fellow human" attitude.

It was a radical departure from the lack of decency I often find in rural GA, and sometimes even here in the city.

 

Welcome home!

 

Most people in Maine or traveling there are pretty laid back unless you run into Portsmouth locals, but that’s a major city so you’ll always run into that.

 

Portland? I think Portsmouth is NH, no?

I actually like NH and VT also, overall. But I dunno man. I don't normally like other states. Maine - especially between, I dunno, Rockland and Bar Harbor? - totally felt like I could live there.

 

My bad, you’re right. It’s Portland. I travel to NH 90% off the time I’m out of state. Most of my trips to ME are Kittery, Bar Harbor or Sebago lake. Also, Sunday River.

 

Whatever happened about those ufo drones up there?

 

Nobody ever found out what they were all about. There was some thought they were Iranian drones which wouldn’t be good if that’s true but I think that was primarily in the NJ area.

 

What blows my mind is that it’s a felony to shoot down a drone over your property since they’re considered authorized by the FAA.

 

Not in texas. When my neighbors shoot em down they post a marketplace ad for parts on nextdoor. Aparently the hoa uses em for code violations.

 

I mostly see realtors use them for photos of properties. I do know towns have their own ordinances as to how low they can fly.

 

We plan to go back in fall and winter. Two of our good friends and their kids just moved to Camden. We hung out while up there. I really don’t want to move somewhere there’s rust. But I also like places when they feel like “home”, you know?

 

You can do what some people do. Have a winter beater and save your other vehicles for the nice weather.

 

Winter bugs me because i have to prepare to go outside. I cant imagine that having to get more prepared would be any better. Snowmobiles have cvt’s and i wont stand for that kinda communism.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAV6cgnAIdM&ab_channel=DanK. race car stuff done today.. cooked a wheel bearing. SO tundras going to ohio tomorrow instead of my second day of autocross and im picking up a clean interior for this car.

 

It's 100% what we'd do.

And yeah, everyone had their 2WD and/or convertible and/or cruiser and/or nice "other" car out while up there, summer was in full effect. Which was cool for the youngest, he saw tons of classic American muscle, Ferraris, MGs, Fiats, Porsches, etc. in two weeks that aren't models which normally show up down here that he was really happy. A lot of the car shows down here it's nothing but recent (2000 era and newer) supercars, McLaren/Lambo/Ferrari and lots of luxury stuff from Porsche/BMW/etc. so seeing almost nothing newer than the 1990s was cool for him. I think I found where all the Miatas and MGs in the world retire to. Felt like every other block in Camden and Rockland had a Miata sitting somewhere in the yard.

We already kinda have to do that, but from what locals were telling us, as long as you live within a mile or two of the shore the snow melts quickly, sometimes same-day. The claim from one person in Rockdale was, "you can get 12 inches of snow (I lick he boom-boom down!) in one day, and if it isn't melted by coastal breezes within 48 hours, it's unusual".

The wind was a little crazy though.

 

I thought about this a bit more.

You'd probably benefit greatly from cementing in two or three pressure treated 6x6es and sinking them in the ground along the side of the house, about 24" away from the wall, in such a way that the tops are relatively at the same height.

You can use them for anything after-the-fact, like a clothes line, or remove afterward. Once in-ground, drop an extension ladder across them to use as your scaffold. If the side of the house is long enough, longer than your extension ladder, you could always drop in 3 of them.

I wouldn't doubt if someone makes a system like this on the market. It's the most practical way I can think of it.

​

 

6x6 is overkill but I would do something similar as well. Heck I’ve actually done it but simply building a temp place to build a platform. Then ladder on the platform.

 

https://youtu.be/TSffz_bl6zo?si=LVY8MwfJFziZcZTE

 

have a question on something our 2006 Tundra, and 4 Runner do.
Seems like it’s something built in?
Never seen mentioned, and never really noticed until this week: (no gmc has ever done it.)
Similar to a hill descent control but at highway speeds.
There are Several hills that in any other vehicles I always have to ride the brakes on any other vehicles to keep from getting over speed limit so much might get speeding ticket.

On Toyotas we don’t have to do that as long as foot isn’t touching gas pedal. In fact it’s the opposite.
Taking a trip today in 4 runner in very hilly terrain; going down hill and it was gaining rapidly. Touched the brakes slightly, at 40mph and it downshifted bringing rpm up from 1500 to 3K rpm and held its speed.
The Tundra will do The same.
There are no switches to activate. just seems to be an inbuilt feature??
Can anyone shed some light on this?

I was able to get a small example.
Normal rpm on flat 40-45 no pull about 1100 rpm.
And coasting down decent grade after touching brakes so it is does downshift. And it won’t upshift unless put pressure on gas pedal.

Second photo is about 42mph coasting down grade.