When I go to Greece the biggest pain is renting the car. The little, stick shift, dimply, tiny-ass, 'mid-size' car that's about the size of a Jetta if you're lucky. But it's always a friggin Seat (that's like a Polish Fiat or something).

Here's how much smaller the cars are in Europe. After about a week there last time, a Ford Explorer passes me on my road bike. Then I say to myself 'this is Greece, they don't have Explorers here'. So I look more closely at the car. It's a Subaru Forrester. When Subarus start looking like Ford Explorers to you, you realize the cars are smaller over there.

Literally? I'm sorry if so.

And no, the Beltway is anything but the Heartland.

Don't you listen to Her Awesomeness Palin?

She'd make a hell of a governor some day.

Literally. Alive, but 8 broken ribs and fractured spine something.

Good news.. I got the job! Now the extreme fear of old boss is getting in the way of my happiness.

Why the hell would I want to do that??











Alright, that's the last of these political remarks we'll have around here!!

Don't make me have to move this to P&R!!



(just jerkin' pcad's chain)

my clavicle broke. I wanna refund.

That sucks.

How is he doing now?

Not sure - he's still in ICU.. in Georgia (but breathing without respirator, that's crazy with 8 ribs broken). He should be okay eventually though.

Well he wasn't riding his race bike, but either way, the one he crashed is fine. He took all the damage for it.

It seems to work like that. Bad bike = person okay. Bad person = bike okay.

Do you know what happened? According to someone claiming to be a witness the cyclist went into the lane to avoid rumble strips (pain-in-the-butt things) and got hit.

This thread should be exempt from all such busybody rules.

Anyone dumb enough to enter this realm deserves whatever he or she gets.

I'm calculating my April mileage.

Stay tuned . . . this may take a while.

Fixed.

The guys mirror hit him.

Just sayin'.

There's still one more day in April, but I probably won't ride.

522 miles.

Read it and weep, girls.

When you look at the size of the streets in most European towns it all makes sense; a Ford Explorer might as well be an M1 Abrahms. I'm looking forward to going back to Europe though this year doesn't look likely at all, but next year should. My best friend inherited his dad's house in Galicia, Spain which needs a little bit of TLC which we might do when we go back; the house is up in the mountains pretty much in the middle of nowhere. The roads are in good condition so I'd love to go and ride up there especially if we're staying in my friend's house, it would be a nice change from always being near urban centers plus riding through Galician mountain towns sounds really really nice.

Your car rental comment reminded me of my last trip to Spain with my family and my best friend's family where we had an automatic car reserved but when we went to pick it up they told us they didn't have it. We were offered a stick which my wife offered to drive since she owned one several years ago; let's just say her memory retention was pretty shot when it came to recalling how to drive one because we spent 15 minutes in the garage trying to sort out shifting as she was burning the clutch. We gave up and managed to get an automatic Peugot and while it was double what I planned on spending for a rental, it sure made the 6hr drive from Madrid to Galicia much nicer.

They drive like total idiots in Greece. You really have no idea. NYC is so friggin sane in comparison.

Heh. To not know how to drive a stick is one thing. To post it for the world to see............................

People don't know how to drive stick shift?

I bet even Pcad can drive a stick shift.

I feel no shame about it at all, never had a need to growing up in NYC. My dad drove a stick and couldn't stand using it in the city so when I got a car I got an automatic.

I drove nothing but stick shift cars for 20 years. Then I saw the light.

My Acura RDX has paddle shifters.

Here's the problem when you drive a stick in Europe for two weeks. I get back here, and I'm driving my wife's TL sedan (automatic) and the traffic slows down in front of me. I go to depress the clutch (out of habit) and I almost cause the car behind to rear end us as I bring our car to a sudden unexpected stop by inadvertently jamming on the brake pedal. Oops.

I like driving sticks, but I get all my manual shift yayas out on my motorcycle now.

Two out of three of my cars are stick -- even the sedan.