Robert Pence

The Biltmore looks pretty fabulous. What's a nice place like that doing in Phoenix?

I'm still in. I even made a hotel reservation, and I hope I don't have to murder any family members in order to make this trip.

The town of Geneva, on US 27 between Berne and Portland, Indiana, has a tavern that's popular with Amish from the surrounding area. On a Saturday night, you're likely to see quite a few buggies parked nearby. The town marshall had to have a chat with one of the Amish bishops about littering caused by Amish tossing empties, and quite a few car-buggy collisions have occurred when the horse was taking a passed-out Amishman home. An Amish lad was arrested in Berne last summer after the buggy he was driving (or more likely passed out in) sideswiped a half-dozen parked cars.

I'm sorry but if that happens you'll need to find some other way to be uncool. This forum is for geeks! :-D If I had to be cool, I wouldn't know where to start. I've never been anything but geek, and by the time I finished high school I had accepted and embraced my inner (and outer) geek. Geek is all I've ever known, and I'm too old to change. :-P

Getting up early isn't the primary cause of a lot of people's sleep deprivation; it's staying up ridiculously late to watch inane crap like Letterman, Leno and O'Brien. They compound the problem by sacrificing any real efforts to be informed about world affairs, politics and current events, and let their opinions be shaped by clowns who will say anything for a laugh. :whip:

Beautiful place, and in your photos it doesn't look at all crowded. Pretty peaceful.

I believe it's denial. People think that if they believe strongly enough (wish hard enough?), gas prices will come back down and they can continue seeking their own private paradise in suburbia. They try to convince themselves that their fantasies are still possible by carrying on as though nothing has changed, often with a vengeance. The problem is that as the idiots continue to pursue their fantasies, they don't just penalize themselves. By helping to exacerbate and accelerate the decline of oil supplies and the increase of energy costs, they drag the rest of us down with them. I'm accepting applications for a raging mob to make midnight raids on the 'burbs with torches and pitchforks. We'll commandeer the gas from the tanks of their SUVs, and then turn them upside down in their three-car garages that face the cul-de-sacs. Then we'll take the $5,000 zero-turn machines that they use on their three-acre lawns and dump them in the swimming pools. :whip:

After I destroyed my third pager in about six months, my boss asked me to please not do that any more. So I didn't. I retired. :evil:

Interesting. I've noticed this phenomenon at the other end of the day; late-afternoon rush hour begins around 3:30 p.m. and seems to have peaked before 5. I live on a busy arterial street in a city where enforcement of speed limits is seen as counterproductive to traffic flow, and the noise makes me very aware of the ebb and flow of traffic. The opening of a self-proclaimed "lifestyle center," actually an overblown strip mall with night clubs and a movie multiplex, has led to after-hours traffic noise sometimes until after 11 p.m.. Add to that the growing popularity of loud motorcycles, bellowing dual-exhaust systems on pickup trucks and SUVs, house-rattling thumping bass emitted by everything from ghetto cruisers to soccer moms' SUVs, and wanna-be street racers revving out their screaming rice-burners in lower gears, and my property has become damn near uninhabitable. I actually wear 29-decibel-rated industrial noise-reduction earmuffs much of the time when doing yard work, and sometimes even indoors when I'm trying to read something that requires concentration. I'd sell and move if I could afford to.

I'm about halfway through American Dynasty, by Kevin Phillips. I'm a little late in reading it (published in 2004), and the depth of detail in it makes it slow going for me. Still, it reveals a Bush family history and involvement in the evolution of the current situation that goes far beyond anything I've seen in the popular media. It explores the Cheney-Halliburton/KBR relationship and history, too, and makes some frightening projections regarding the possible future of U.S. involvement in middle eastern oil-producing countries. I thought I was fairly well-informed regarding the politics of petroleum until I started reading this book, and I'm beginning to realize that I had barely a clue. I'm beginning to wonder if the real axis of evil isn't centered in the White House and built upon the legacy that the self-proclaimed imperial presidency carries with it.

Good show, Shawn! Although I don't enjoy the total experience of air travel, the view on a reasonably clear day is something I've always looked forward to. When I first experienced commercial flight (1960s), sometimes the view was even more revealing than it is now; the DC-6 flights on United between Philadelphia and Toledo or Cleveland were at about 6,000 feet -- quite a lot lower and slower than today's jets. I haven't been to Phoenix since 1979, and really haven't missed it all that much. I remember flying in on a pretty clear autumn Sunday and having a good view of the city. The next day I took my rental car up to South Mountain park for some overlook photos, and all I could see was the very tops of the tallest buildings poking through a thick layer of pinkish-brown smog. Traffic was horrendous, and brutally aggressive until congestion brought it to a grinding halt.

Great shots! I love both places; Philadelphia has density and variety and color, and Washington DC has that and grandeur, too. Pictures of the broad thoroughfares in DC make me want to ask "Where's the light rail?"

I'll second that motion!

I've never been to DeKalb, or seen pictures of the campus. The older part looks quite pleasant, and as the new trees get some growth on them, the newer parts will likely come along. Good tour.

Trolleyville collection?

I've probably gone through this routine before on this forum; it's sort of my theme song. It bears repeating, though, and that's fortunate because I'm given to repeating myself. :-D < :speech: >In most communities, property tax assessments are based heavily on "improvements" (mainly buildings), and only lightly on land. The result of this is that investors and investor groups buy under-utilized and undervalued properties, raze the buildings to reduce the taxes to almost nothing, and turn the land into parking lots. Then, they just sit on the land and milk it for cash flow while they wait for somebody else to do something to raise land values so they can cash out. That practice impairs tax revenues for maintaining infrastructure while simultaneously attracting more car traffic that increases the cost of infrastructure maintenance and construction. Also, federal tax codes allow businesses to deduct the cost of employer-subsidized employee parking, including the full cost of parking lots, as compensation and benefits expense. As a side note, they can also deduct the cost of subsidized transit passes, but there's a strict cap on the amount. I don't know what the current dollar figure is, but I'm pretty sure it's a lot less than many employers spend on employee parking. A few cities have inverted the property tax structure so that most of the assessed value is in the land, with only a small amount resting on the buildings. That means the land becomes too valuable to park cars on, and owners have to double or triple the parking fees to cover taxes. The result is density, development, and transit useage. It's called split-rate taxing. I think Pittsburgh is one of the cities that has done that, and I've thought that there's a lot less downtown street-level parking there, and higher transit useage, compared with other similar-sized cities.</ :speech: >

Wonderful stuff! It's an interesting mix.

I dunno. What's max drive, anyway? If it's a big honkin' SUV, I say sock it to 'im! :whip:

Don't forget, you're talking about Indiana, here, folks. If the Indiana portion isn't well underway before Mitch Daniels leaves office at the end of what I predict will be his only term, there will be twenty more years of discussion before the concept dies of old age. Not that that would be a bad thing, IMO. The major reason cited locally for the project is safety; we'll spend a ton of money to make a road where the truckers can go even faster, instead of enforcing existing traffic laws, and I speculate that it won't reduce the body count much. I'm not entirely on board, either, with the notion of spending public funds to give the trucking industry an even greater edge in competition with established, already-heavily-invested private enterprise in the form of freight railroads. The Fort-to-Port highway, linking up at Fort Wayne with I-69, already proposed for extension to Mexico, will serve a market that would be better served environmentally and economically by rail.

Great pics! Looks like good times!

Gorgeous place! Looks very relaxing.

I had read that the South Shore commuter trains between South Bend and Chicago are experiencing rapid growth in ridership because of high fuel prices and road construction on the expressways in the Chicago area. I had the opportunity yesterday to verify that. The first indication I saw was on Monday night from my motel near the South Bend airport; I saw a four-car train that had departed the airport headed for Michigan City. Typically in the past, two-car trains have served 35-mile line east of Michigan City (South Bend and a flag stop at Hudson Lake). In the morning, there was a four-car train at the platform. I'm accustomed to seeing maybe a couple dozen commuters on that train, and commuters don't bother anybody; they find their seat and prepare for a day at work, doze, or listen to their ipods. And I've never seen a morning when there were no empty seats in the waiting room. The big draw yesterday was a Cubs game. The waiting room was crowded, and excited children were making so much noise that I had to go outside to wait for the train to open for boarding. Admittedly, the Cubs game was a special event, but even on game days I haven't seen crowds like that boarding at South Bend. I think that until they felt the impact of gasoline prices, most of those families piled into their SUVs and minivans and drove to Wrigley; quite a few people were trying to find out how to get there on the EL. Usually, westbound weekday trains don't fill up until Dune Park, but this time there were standees by the time we got to the second Michigan City stop. I was glad I had brought my industrial hearing protection, even though it's not completely effective against childrens' voices and some women's laughter. Napping was out of the question. I was glad to exit the train at 57th Street and not have to deal with a confused mob at Randolph Street. My return train at 3:58 p.m. was equally crowded, but mostly without the Cubs fans. Still, it was very noisy; novice commuters haven't a clue as to train etiquette ("Use your indoor voice!"). Even with hearing protection, I could hear conversations going on half a carlength away. Again, more riders than previously, all the way to South Bend. Only two cars ran east of Michigan City, but most of the seats were occupied; that didn't used to be the case. The crowding made me aware of things I hadn't noticed before. For one thing, the seating is just about as uncomfortable as airline seating, with legroom designed for people shorter than 5'5". The hard surfaces inside the cars reflect and amplify the sounds of voices and make for a noisy ride where the track is a little rough. While tolerable for shorter commutes, the whole experience is a little harsh on the 2 1/2-hour ride the full length of the line. The short-term consequences of increased ridership are discomfort and inconvenience, but maybe if the trend continues, operators will have incentive to provide more comfort and amenities. I'll continue to ride (and complain, probably). Maybe instead of hearing protection I'll start carrying duct tape :evil:. Overall the South Shore is still my best option; the trains run on time and cut off a couple of hours from my drive, and it only costs me $5.15 one way (geezer fare).

Beautiful! I should visit the Hocking Hills area and see if I can turn up any kinfolk; my dad's ancestors came to Indiana from Hocking County.

Pretty remarkable. It looks like they plan to go all the way on the courthouse restoration.

Excellent presentation! :clap: