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[Friends just call me Ross]

Sister Linda/Loopy accompanied me to many out-of-state Conventions.

We once flew to a Convention in Sacramento, California.

After renting a car, we drove to our motel and discovered there was

a brushfire burning in back of the motel's parking lot.

 

We were quite disconcerted.  Nobody else seemed to ruffled, though.

It turned out that there were bad brushfires burning in many places.

The sky was even gloomy from all the smoke.

Remember that one, Linda/Loopy?   And the CHP officers at the diner?

I had never seen so many lanes of cars all going in the same direction

and most doing about 95mph, 

 

and was pretty frazzled so I asked one of the officers, "Is there some course

you can take to learn how to drive out here?"

 

He replied, "Yeah.  It's called 'By the Seat of Your Pants'."    

 

[Tortuga]

Was that at the Sleep Train Arena?

[Loopy]

Ross, who could forget that?  
 

I knew at that time there’s no way I’d drive in that traffic. 
 

We both quickly agreed NEVER AGAIN.

 

Remember the one 👮‍♀️ that asked “whatever would make 2 women decide to come here all the way from Michigan?

 

And the one that said he would never live in the city, so he lives in the foothills?

 

Brother Richard, Ross has a better memory about something like that. 😁 I’ll let her handle it from here. 😁

 

 

[Friends just call me Ross]

55 minutes ago, Bro Richard said:

Was that at the Sleep Train Arena?

My hubby wanted my butt parked on a tractor seat during haying season, so he always made me

go to the first Convention in the Continental, USA.  If that is where the first Convention in the Continental

USA was held, then that is where we were.    

We went to too many Conventions in too many different cities to be able to remember them all.

I may have written the names of the locations down in my Convention notes, though.  \

 

Does this look like the view you would see outside the Sleep Train Arena?

 

 

What is the real/nonWitness name of the Arena?  

[Tortuga]

43 minutes ago, Friends just call me Ross said:

What is the real/nonWitness name of the Arena?

The Sleep Train Arena. 

The area around it is more developed now but it looks like you were are at the Sleep Train. It might have been called the Arco Arena when you were there...

[Old]

Arco Arena, been there doe that.  

[Friends just call me Ross]

38 minutes ago, Bro Richard said:

The Sleep Train Arena. 

The area around it is more developed now but it looks like you were are at the Sleep Train. It might have been called the Arco Arena when you were there...

It would have been sometime in the early to mid 90s.

 

We think of our dead loved ones as being in sleeper cars on Jehovah's train to the New System.

So I figured The Sleep Train Arena was a name Witnesses had given the Convention Center.  

 

Arco Arena does seem to ring some bells in my old old old brain's memory cells.  

[Old]

When we were there it was the first RC in the 'new' Arco Arena. This was in the 90s.

[Friends just call me Ross]

1 hour ago, Loopy said:

Remember the one 👮‍♀️ that asked “whatever would make 2 women decide to come here all the way from Michigan?

And the one that said he would never live in the city, so he lives in the foothills?

 

You have a fantastic memory!  

Yes.  I remember.  He said he has a brother who has a cabin in the U.P. and loves it here. (What's not to love? Besides winter.  )

He said he lives in Lake Tahoe and drives in to work everyday.  He's the deputy who made the 'By the Seat of Your Pants' comment.  

 

Remember the tour guide we hired in Tuscon to take us to Mexico?

We witnessed to him all the way to Nogales and back.    He didn't mind.

He accepted the literature we gave him and even took us on a free tour of A-Mountain.

I will always remember lights of a very FLAT Tuscon stretching endlessly across the desert.

 

Yup!  We've had some memorable times traveling to Conventions together.  

 

[Tortuga]

3 minutes ago, Friends just call me Ross said:

even took us on a free tour of A-Mountain.

For non-Tucsonians, A-Mountain has a giant A on it... it also has several nice places to park and look at the city lights..   

[Friends just call me Ross]

1 minute ago, Bro Richard said:

For non-Tucsonians, A-Mountain has a giant A on it... it also has several nice places to park and look at the city lights..   

Yeah.  He told us all about the parking and sparking.  

[Loopy]

Yeah, Loved being up on that mountain and seeing ALL the city lights. 
 

Yep, only for Jehovah did you even get me on that first airplane ✈️.  After that it wasn’t bad at all. 😁 Once I permanently got rid of those motion patches. All they did was give me a headache. ROFL 

 

Had our first rain/thunderstorm in a plane too.  Remember that?

 

Sorry friends we stirred up some fun memories from a very long time ago. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Friends just call me Ross]

5 minutes ago, Loopy said:

 

Had our first rain/thunderstorm in a plane too.  Remember that?

That was a plane ride?    I thought that was

the 'Gut-buster' ride at some amusement park.  

Only we weren't amused.  

Had to divert to another airport north of Minneapolis and we 

missed all our connecting flights to O'Hare.  

 

Yeah.  Your'e  right.  Had to be an airplane ride.

Nothing amusing about that hair-raising,

and butt raising flight on that 'puddle jumper' plane.  

 

We did get to see some amazing aerial views

of a tornado taking out transformers, though.  

[Qapla]

Your recollections reminded me of a trip I took with another Brother to the Convention in Des Moines, Iowa back in the late 1970's. We drove out from Jacksonville, Fl in a Chevy pickup with an oversize camper shell on it. It had a "bed" across the front of the camper.

 

The thing is, that truck had the differential (rear end) rebuilt and it made a terrible roar all the time - especially at highway speed.

 

In addition to the noise it was a real challenge to stay on the bed to sleep with the way the truck rocked and swayed in the roads through Kentucky ... seems I 24 came to an abrupt end near Cadiz and we had to take US 68 from there to Paducah (that section of I 24 wasn't completed until 1980) and that road was mostly 2-lane and must have followed a snake trail - and we were driving through in the middle of the night with a new moon ... so, it was really dark as we swayed and bounced from Cadiz to Paducah.

[NathanW]

My pups, Kennedy(BLUE COLLAR) and Angel(GREEN COLLAR)! Chihuahua/German Shepherd mix! (I know, weird!) and Miniature Doberman Pinscher 😂😂

[Tortuga]

18 minutes ago, NathanW said:

My pups, Kennedy(BLUE COLLAR) and Angel(GREEN COLLAR)! Chihuahua/German Shepherd mix! (I know, weird!) and Miniature Doberman Pinscher 😂😂

Welcome to the forum! You and your pups..

[Loopy]

Darling puppies. ❤️

[bagwell1987]

22 hours ago, NathanW said:

My pups, Kennedy(BLUE COLLAR) and Angel(GREEN COLLAR)! Chihuahua/German Shepherd mix! (I know, weird!) and Miniature Doberman Pinscher 😂😂

Love your puppies!

I have Lahasa Apso, Bishon and Shih Tzu. Love my fur-babies!

[Friends just call me Ross]

My hubby's sister is married to a retired Chrysler engineer.

They are celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary this year at the historic Grand Hotel

on Mackinac Island, which was built in 1897 and is located in the Straits of Mackinac,

by the Mackinac Bridge.

 

 

Mackinac Island

What may have saved “Somewhere in Time” from being completely forgettable

was the timeless setting at which it was filmed on-location: 

Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island, in between Michigan's upper and lower peninsulas.

 

We are invited to attend.  It will only set us back 690 bucks per night for two people.

She reserved an entire block of rooms for her family, so that is why the rate is so, ehem *cough cough*

cheap.

Normally, a one night stay for two people is over a thousand bucks.

 

 

 

Now I know why it's called the GRAND hotel.   

 

Anybody on the board ever boarded there?  

[Old]

16 minutes ago, Friends just call me Ross said:

My hubby's sister is married to a retired Chrysler engineer.

They are celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary this year at the historic Grand Hotel

on Mackinac Island, which was built in 1897 and is located in the Straits of Mackinac,

by the Mackinac Bridge.

 

 

 

 

Normally, a one night stay for two people is over a thousand bucks.

 

 

 

Now I know why it's called the GRAND hotel.   

 

Anybody on the board ever boarded there?  

Haven't been there, but if you go I hope you have a GRAND time (or two)!

[Friends just call me Ross]

15 minutes ago, Old said:

Haven't been there, but if you go I hope you have a GRAND time (or two)!

Thanks!  Love the pun!  

We're going there, but we ain't sleeping there.  That 'bargain' requires us to book two nights.

We might have stayed one night.  But two nights is waaaaaaaaaaay too expensive for us retired farmer types.  

 

We hope to be staying here:

 

The room rates are still pretty steep, but one night is 'only' 280 bucks for two people.

The 'Quarter-of-a-Grand' hotel.  

 

[Old]

1 minute ago, Friends just call me Ross said:

Thanks!  Love the pun!  

We're going there, but we ain't sleeping there.  That 'bargain' requires us to book two nights.

We might have stayed one night.  But two nights is waaaaaaaaaaay too expensive for us retired farmer types.  

 

We hope to be staying here:

 

 

The room rates are still pretty steep, but one night is 'only' 280 bucks for two people.

The 'Quarter-of-a-Grand' hotel.  

 

 

Even at that rate I would be afraid to fall asleep less I miss a moment of the granduer. 

I wish you and your hubby a grand time!

[bagwell1987]

I'm too cheap to even stay there Ross, I'd probably find a Motel 6. And also pack all my own food!

Ya cheap, but I love cheap.

Seeing that Hotel was nice,  I forgot about it. A landmark.

[Friends just call me Ross]

We are kind of limited to where we can stay.  

It's an island and there are no motorized vehicles.  You have to be within reasonable walking distance to the anniversary party.  We can't afford a carriage ride, either.

 

[bagwell1987]

Wow, challenge.