I miss my Cheesy little cars...

Hey, I'm not 83 yet!

That bloated Sequoia had enough room for me, my climbing gear, camping gear,

4 teenage girls, 1 21 YO female, plus all the crap they brought camping - teddy bears, huge pillows, hair driers, curling irons, etc. this past weekend. I just got back from picking up 6 teens from downtown Chicago, the Sequoia was just as nimble as a Chicago taxi in traffic! I have not used 4Lo because it hasn't gotten stuck in 2WD yet, even in some pretty out of the way camp sites.

Isn't the MR2 still available?

If you are in the Chicago area come see my 1993 Toyota Corolla LX. At

141000 miles it's not exactly low mileage but it still possesses the expected goodness of a Toyota.

But YOU used it for what it was actually DESIGNED for! Like I said...ski lodge...

I haven't seen one in this area for quite a while. And I didn't like the current rendition; the last one was juuuust riiiiight.

It's been to the ski lodge as well, with 6 passengers and me.

I'm not real crazy about the style of the current rendition of the MR2 either. The last one was the best looking version so far.

Well, yeah, but you actually USE the thing. You could get to the ski lodge with a Sienna. But the Sequoia IS a BIG ASS vehicle! I was surprised the first time I drove one, at how large it was!

Yeah. I say one 'Boy Racered' today, and it was too much. It ruined the naturl, flowing lines of the car. He must have had 18 or 20" wheel with bicycle tires on them and it raised the car but about 3 inches. It looked dumb.

I had to adjust the garage door opener so that it pulls the door completely horizontal so that the beast would fit in the garage. Luckily, we have the Limited with the power fold-in mirrors. In order to fit into our garage, we have to retract the mirrors, lower the antenna, and creep up to the 4x4 wheel stop. With the front tires against the stop, we have 3 or 4 inches to the shelves in front of the garage and about the same in the back with the door closed. When I open the hood in the garage, I place a blanket across the front edge so it doesn't get scratched when it rests against the ceiling.

Doing the squeegee thing on the windshield at the gas station is a PITA because I have to stand on the front tires, grip the windshield trim with my fingertips, and work the squeegee with my free hand. - That climbing experience pays off!

Still, it's not as bad as a Crusher. I had one as a company vehicle, and I pulled into the gas station on the Mass Pike on a slushy day, heading to your place of employment. I opened the hood to add washer fluid, and although I wasn't very diligent at checking the oil level on my demos, for some reason, I pulled the dipstick out. The oil level was fine, and when I went to put it back in, I couldn't see the tube to re-insert the dipstick. There's Ray, in a suit and wool overcoat, trying to stand on the sluch-covered front tire so I could see far enough into the engine compartment to get the stupid stick back in. Never checked the oil again without a step stool handy! On the Sequoia, the dipstick tube comes up far enough to see without having to do gymnastics.

It is nice to pull into camp on a rainy day (what other kind is there when camping) or when winter camping and not have to carry everything a half mile in, or pull our troop's trailer at highway speeds. Our Previa was a great van but it could barely hit 50 MPH pulling the trailer.

Like putting catsup on a good steak.

Damn, the things you see when you don't have a camera! And, i can hear Bubba in the car whizzing past you (left to your imagination...)

I don't even think I'd try it...Previa's are cool, and available w/AWD, but pulling a trailer...

LOL! Exactly! Except, as you should know, in New England we spell it Ketchup...like Heinz...

I reemember when i moved from Western Mass to the Boston area, i met up with some cool people at work. One night we were out goofing around and driving, and I saw a sign "Salisbury 12 miles" I said, Hey, we're going to SALSBARRY Beach? The Driver says "SALSBARRY???!!! It's "Saulsbury"! We speak the KING'S English here!"

Coming from the Mid-West, then California, you must have had a REAL good time here, especially when travelling from Boston to the Western part of the state!

I finally started to get the hang of things towards the end of my stay in Mass.

During that time, I learned...

Regular coffee is what everyone else calls "coffee - Boston" and not caffeinated coffee;

A "rack" is a 6-pack of beer in NH;

A "bubbler" is a water fountain or cooler;

A "tonic" is a soda everywhere else except for Chicago, where it is "pop;"

A "rotary" is a traffic circle and not a civic organization;

Worcester is pronounced "wuss-sta" but Dorchester is not pronounced "duss-sta"

A "frappe" is a milkshake and not punishment from Natalie;

Hot dog buns are white with no crust on the sides;

Hot dogs in Maine are bright red;

A quahog is a giant clam;

"Sliders" and "steamers" come from the ocean and not from White Castle;

Attleboro is pronounced "attle-bra" but Marlboro is not "marl-bra;"

"Wicked" is a lot;

The universal response in Maine when you ask for directions is "ayuh, you can't get theah from heah;

There is a stretch of highway between I-95 and Route 3 just south of Boston with signs that read "128 South" and immediately underneath, "I-93 north" - WTF? How can you go north and south at the same time?

They build brand new expensive large houses without central AC;

Going "Down East" in Maine means heading north up the coast;

Waltham is pronounced "wall-tham" but Raynham is "rain-hum;"

Provincetown, MA is gay-er than San Francisco;

Don't make eye contact with the other driver when both of you are trying to fit into the same spot - whoever looks first loses!

The Honda Jazz/Fit is coming. It's very much the nice little car that doesn't feel like a tin can. Basically a more evolved version of the Civic Hatch.

Hmm....regular coffe here is light w/sugar (and caffinated...)

Here too.

And a Soda is what you get from the old Pharmacy soda fountains, with Ice Cream and carbonated water.

And seem to infect this part of the country in large numbers.

And, worse than that, and something *I* got caught on, Leicester is "Lester" (???)

Wouldn't have it any other way!

no, two clams that live together! (For those that don't, it's pronounced Co-Hog)

Mmmmmm! Steamers! Clam bake with double lobsters! God, i love New England! And of course, you gotta have a quart of clam chow-duh!

Wow, that was wicked bright of you to pick that up! When I was in NC i said Wicked something and they guys looked at me and said, "Wicked???" The other guy there from Mass knew...

Or you get told to follow the road to the tree at Jim Johnson's, the count off three and a half miles and take a left right after Bob Saunder's barn, but before you get to the field where they have the Turkey shoot every November, and then drive 4 miles past where Mr. Baker's gas station used to be (of course, the station was razed about 10 years earlier, and there are NO signs of it left...)

There are a few of these around...more so in NH.

I haven't been there, but a friend of mine, about 17 years ago, was saying he was walking down the street, and a black guy in a Corolla looked out the window and blew him a kiss...

OK, so these two gay guys are walking out of a bar in P-Town, just as two blondes in bikinis go walking past. One guy looks at the other and says, "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" And the other one says, "Yeah, I sure wish I was a Lesbian..."

Paraphrased: Stare stright ahead and GUN it! (stolen from the Boston Sunday Globe Magazine from about 1984...)

When were you here, and where did you live?

WTF is White Castle?

For some reason, they never got here. Good thing, I weigh enough as it is!

When my brother-in-law came to visit from Maine, he ordered a regular coffee, I had to tell him to order it "Boston."

The first time I ordered coffee at a donut shop in Attleboro, the girl behind the counter asked me if I wanted a regular. I said yes, thinking I didn't want a decaf. I drink my coffee black so it wasn't what I was expecting. I told the girl I wanted a regular black coffee, she looked at me like I had 2 heads and politely told me that she gave me a regular. I mentioned the episode to a co-worker, who was kind enough to tell me that a regular coffee was light with sugar.

I learned something new today!

I miss those buns.

It took about a year to get over lobsters and steamers withdrawl. One of the service managers I called on had a commercial lobsterman's license and used to give me a dozen lobsters whenever I stopped in, and a neighbor who was also a lobsterman used to give us 10 or 12 sleepers (lobsters that are alive but don't flop around when you nudge them) for $10. Commercial buyers wouldn't buy sleepers so he'd give them to us cheap. When we moved from New England to Chicago, we went from lobster every week to once a year at $29/lb.

LOL! That's exactly how they give directions there! The considerate ones do help out a little by telling you to turn left at this bar, right at that bar, then straight past the gas station/bait shop to this other bar...

I spent a lot of time lost in NH

That guy probably wasn't as scary as the wimmen there!

After the last big quake in San Francisco, 2 guys were stuck on the Bay Bridge when the center span collapsed. They're standing there looking down at the water, and the first guy says "what are all those boats going back and forth for?" The other guy says "they're ferry boats." The first guy looks at the second guy and says "we have our own navy?"

May, 1983 through June 1993. Lived in S. Attleboro 1 year, Mansfield 1 year, and then Carver 8 years.

Read about White Castle hamburgers (A.K.A. "sliders") here:

White Castle seems to have a cult following and is a popular place to go after a night at the pub because they're open 24 hours and you have to be hammered to want them. The burgers are square, about 2" x 2" and steamed and have a unique taste that some people attribute to baby food. People normally order a half dozen at a time. You don't have to worry about putting on weight when you have them (I only get that desperate about once a decade) because they'll start to clean out your whole GI system in about 15 minutes. The problem is, the effect lasts all night...

"Ray O" wrote: snip

TWENTY NINE bucks a pound?!?...my god!...that'd be near $40 a pound here...the commercial lobster supper places have a 1.5 pound lobster plus all the salad, mussels, seafood chowder, home made bread, buns, and any amount and kind of dessert plus coffee etc for about $30 Cdn.

My family and I buy maybe 20 lb, cook it ourselves in the family lobster pot and propane burner maybe 2 or 3 times a year. It's about 5 or 6 bucks a pound now...that's the way to handle lobster, cook and eat it outside on the old wood picnic table on the lawn along with a case of cold beer...hard to beat...

(More towards Ray O) ever go to the Nordic Lodge in Rhode Island? Back when you were living here it was $35 for all-you-can-eat lobster. We went with a group and one girl was sitting there picking at the legs, etc. We looked at her and said, Girl, never mond the legs, take the claws and the tails and go get another one!

My wife at the time, the skinny little Chinese girl, ate 7 of them, along with frog legs and fruit (um, 2 plates. 18 years later, she STILL has her girlish figure!)

I had 5, and roast beef, Filet Mignon, clams and clam chowder.

I hear it's now $65, but when you figure $29 for a 2LB lobster dinner in Maine, it's still a bargain!

That kind of meal would set you back $40 to $50 around here. :-(

That's how we used to do it back in Carver, MA, except we did it once or twice a week. Free, or at the worst, $10 for 10 or 12 bugs was one of our more inexpensive meals.

Never heard of it, wish I had.

If I ever get back to RI, we'll have to check it out.

When I first heard $65 I thought it was quite a large jump from the $35 we paid, but when a guy at work told me he paid $30 for a dinner, it's not too bad at all.

Gimme a call when you hit Logan!

LOL! We may do a New England run in October for my wife's cousin's wedding. We're leaning towards driving out, going to the wedding in Billerica near Lowell and then heading up to Biddeford-Saco, ME.