VoyForums
[ Show ]
Support VoyForums
[ Shrink ]
VoyForums Announcement: Programming and providing support for this service has been a labor of love since 1997. We are one of the few services online who values our users' privacy, and have never sold your information. We have even fought hard to defend your privacy in legal cases; however, we've done it with almost no financial support -- paying out of pocket to continue providing the service. Due to the issues imposed on us by advertisers, we also stopped hosting most ads on the forums many years ago. We hope you appreciate our efforts.

Show your support by donating any amount. (Note: We are still technically a for-profit company, so your contribution is not tax-deductible.) PayPal Acct: Feedback:

Donate to VoyForums (PayPal):

[ Login ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: 1, 2, [3], 4 ]

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Date Posted: 15:52:21 12/16/03 Tue
Author: wwolfe
Author Host/IP: 161.149.63.107
Subject: wwolfe's Morbidly Curious Question of the Day

This past weekend I had the pleasure of joining the select group of people who have driven backwards on an Interstate and lived to tell about it.

A little background.

As I drove with a friend along one of the Interstate highways which link this great nation of ours, I was startled by a fire truck passing by with its lights and sirens going. I remarked that I'd never seen a fire truck at work on an Interstate. Moments later, all six or so lanes of the Interstate ground to a sudden halt. My car happened to be right next to an on-ramp, which became of interest when the SUV in front and to the right of me put it in reverse and drove backward all the way down the on-ramp. I had about two seconds to decide whether to do the same; based on a hunch that I'd ran into a really bad traffic jam, I did. It's a truly surreal experience to drive backward down a (very long) on-ramp leading up to (or, in this case, down from) a major Interstate highway running through the heart of a large city. Hours later, when we got back to my sister's house, she told us that a semi-truck had overturned, killing the driver and spilling bleach (!!) over the Interstate, resulting in the road being closed for five hours. At that point, I was pretty glad I'd decided to put my car in reverse.

So - what's the craziest thing you've ever done while driving a car? (This was definitely mine, by the way, in case anyone was wondering.)

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Replies:

[> When and where was this? -- Grim ,_,_), 16:51:40 12/16/03 Tue (66.95.229.84)

I own a hearse and you ask ME?

Actually I can't top your story. I honestly don't remember anything that would be more than a passing interest, even to me.


[ Edit | View ]

[> [> I-95, headed downtown. -- wwolfe, 17:13:55 12/16/03 Tue (161.149.63.107)

We went down the on-ramp from Terminal Avenue. After driving up and down Broad Street a few times and stopping once in the entrance to Veterans Stadium, we finally got our bearings. It was a very unusual moment.


[ Edit | View ]

[> I've actually had sort of the same thing happen to me... -- GG, 04:38:37 12/17/03 Wed (62.254.32.5)

one night on 580E, with my sister in law, we got stuck in a HUGE back up. Eventually the CHP had everyone turn around and go back the other way and off an on ramp. Same situation, an 18-wheeler jacknifed into the middle of the road. The best was the message my SIL left on her work machine (it was like 1a by the time we got clear of the mess) "Hi, its me, I'm gonna be in late tomorrow cuz I'm heading W on 580E and about to go off the ramp that leads on from the zoo"

It was very surreal.


[ Edit | View ]

[> hey wwolfe, saw this news item thought it might interest you -- Simon, 05:46:24 12/17/03 Wed (193.61.148.113)

no idea how valid it is but anyway

http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30500-12953019,00.html

DID THE BEATLES REUNITE?

An internet auction house claims to have proof that The Beatles reunited in secret in the mid-1970s in an attempt to record a final album.

The website is auctioning a recordings list and tape, said to have been made at a session in 1976 which ended in a dispute between the Fab Four.


New York-based Curator Gary Zimet claimed that John, Paul, George and Ringo recorded five songs at the Davlen Studios in Los Angeles, but never released them.

While the tape label, listing the songs Happy Feeling, Back Home, Rockin' Once Again, People Of The Third World and Little Girl, is intact, the tape itself was said to be "bulk erased" by The Beatles because the session ended in a row.

A complete version is still being held in vaults at Abbey Road Studios in London, he said.

Mr Zimet said the former co-owner of the LA studio, Len Kovner, and sound engineers could "independently confirm" that the session took place.

He quoted a letter from Mr Kovner which said the recording session was a "failed attempt to reunite" The Beatles.

"This tape deserves its place in rock archives.

"The only copy is in a vault in Abbey Road," the letter said.

But a spokesman for Paul McCartney said: "What reunion was that? I am not aware of any Beatles reunion in the 70s."

A spokesman for producer and "fifth Beatle" George Martin could not be immediately reached for comment.

Abbey Road had no immediate comment.

Last month the same website - momentsintime.com - put on sale an album cover signed by John Lennon for Mark Chapman, the man who later shot him dead.

Mr Zimet said the new Beatles specimens were being sold by a former engineer at the LA studio.


[ Edit | View ]

[> [> I hadn't seen that. -- wwolfe, 11:29:49 12/17/03 Wed (161.149.63.106)

It's not impossible that such a thing happened, but I'm skeptical. John was immersed in his househusband years by 1976, so I'd be surprised if he'd taken time away from that to go to LA for an extended time while working on an album. Not to mention the difficulty in keeping such an undertaking out of the press. But stranger things have happened. (And I have to say I'm glad the boys called it off: the Beatles ended when they should have and any serious reunion would have been a mistake.)

Thanks, Simon - I'm glad I had a chance to see this.


[ Edit | View ]

[> Wow. -- Pouncer, 10:04:33 12/17/03 Wed (156.80.140.85)

I think the time I drove over the curb in a movie parking lot would have to be mine. It's this bizarre lot that just dead ends and I was with friends and about to miss a movie. We went up and over and through the dirt to get back around to a parking spot.

Nowhere near as exciting as yours!


[ Edit | View ]

[> The Secret Life of Tennessee Car Enthusiasts -- Maye, 20:11:20 12/18/03 Thu (66.188.131.119)

I'd never experienced road rage in my life until I went to Tennessee for one of my clinicals. My boyfriend was visiting me in Knoxville, and we thought we'd take a day trip out to Gatlinburg, which is a tourist-y little town with a state park up in the Smokey Mountains. The drive should have taken us about an hour. On the way there, we hit some bad traffic, so it took us nearly two hours. We discovered there was a car show in Pigeon Forge (home of Dollywood), so we decided to stay in Gatlinburg all day in order to miss the traffic on the way back.

So at about a quarter to 10pm, we started driving back. SIX FREAKING HOURS LATER we got back to Knoxville.

5 of those hours were spent on the 10 mile drive between Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge.

It seems that as part of a quaint little custom there, for this particular car show, they CLOSE a SIX LANE HIGHWAY and allow red-necks in nice cars to drive around in circles while other rednecks sit in lawnchairs by the side of the highway and scream at them.

Now keep in mind, we're in the Smokey Mountains. There are no sideroads, and no exits.

There were no signs anywhere warning us of this event. There were no detours. There were no radio announcements.

The only contributions from the police were to ticket motorcyclists who were trying to get through the traffic.

I seriously wanted to kill someone. Violently.

Moral of the story: Tennessee is a beautiful state, but don't go there. Ever.


[ Edit | View ]

[> My father's actually done exactly that. -- Heather, 22:34:48 12/18/03 Thu (209.179.223.122)

Once you get on the 5 at one point near my house, you can't get back off for quite some distance. He was on his way to taking me to the airport for one of my trips (I believe it was to London) when I suddenly remembered that I'd forgotten my watch. So he pulled over to the side lane and reversed his way all the way back to the offramp and made his way off. Very odd experience.

Oddest driving experience I've ever had myself was the day that I couldn't see out my window because of the sunlight reflecting off the frost and as a result ended up on the opposite side of the road unable to see anything, but able to hear cars honking at me. Scary stuff.


[ Edit | View ]

[> [> Oh, and also... -- Heather, 22:37:22 12/18/03 Thu (209.179.223.122)

When you drove yourself, Maria, and I back to Newark from Anthony's house in the pouring rain ranks up there. I can't say I've seen that much rain while on a highway in my life.


[ Edit | View ]

[> [> [> I forgot that! -- wwolfe, 19:59:28 12/19/03 Fri (209.179.51.222)

That's the hardest rain I've ever driven through. Watching cars, including ours, come to a dead stop in the middle of the Interstate under the signs so that the writing could be made out through the deluge was very, very strange.


[ Edit | View ]


Forum timezone: GMT-5
VF Version: 3.00b, ConfDB:
Before posting please read our privacy policy.
VoyForums(tm) is a Free Service from Voyager Info-Systems.
Copyright © 1998-2019 Voyager Info-Systems. All Rights Reserved.