Best Trip ever...

[HoneySuckleBlue]

We've all been around the block a time or two, and as I anticipate our up coming adventure it got me thinking about some great trips in the past...so I was wondering what's the most memorable Trip you've been on, and what made it so memorable??

[mariecstasy]

one time in band camp..........

[HoneySuckleBlue]

*waits with baited breath*

[nirgal]

That's a hard one....
I guess the first one over sea's... 3 months, Hawaii to North Island of New Zealand for a week and a half to Sydney, Australia, drove from there along the south coast (500miles or so) to Adelaide, picked up the kids, drove and camped another 500 miles to Armidale NSW, up in the Blue mountains where they were moving and camped and explored..... then to Fiji for three weeks..... stayed with some locals, got taken out to an desrted island for 3 days alone.... then to Vancouver BC..... and I haven't been the same since :eek:

[beachbum7]

Hopefully, my best trip ever will take place this summer (Well, technically, this summer). I'm planning to go to England in September to visit a friend. I think it will be awesome because I'll won't be going with parents or as a part of a group.

But as now, my best trip was to Europe about three years ago (I went to Spain, France, and Italy). It was so much fun because I was traveling mostly with young people, and it was my first real chance to speak French (I'd studied the language for six years). And it was the summer :)

[HoneySuckleBlue]

MAn...I lost my post.

[luvndrumn]

In the Sea of Abaco, Bahamas, mama!! Sweet time. The benchmark for all other vacations. Six of us on a 45 foot sloop, center cockpit. Man-o-War Cay (pronounced 'key'), Manjack Cay, Green Turtle Cay, Gana (sp) Cay, Hope Town.

The water: 0 -15 feet deep, the color of white on a watermelon rind; 15 - 25 feet, the color of a white grape; 25-30 feet, the color of a lime to an avocado; after that it turns to blue the color of a blueberry - and you can still see the starfish on the bottom. Snorkling is a treat. If you have glasses, I suggest you get a mask with a split face plate and lens to match your glasses. A good dive shop can arrange that for you. You're not gonna want to miss a thing!

The sky: you ain't never!!! Whew!

The people: beautiful. One of our crew went in search of conch ( ;) ). He saw a cabbie having trouble with his car. Being a mechanic, he goes over and fixes the problem. The cabbie, in repayment, takes him into the mudflats (boonies) to a woman known as "Auntie", who, upon hearing the story, fixes him "smashed chicken". The best he's ever tasted. There were newspapers for windows in the shack, chickens running around in the yard, and she fixes diner for a stranger. Smiles all around. Another tale: when we came into Hope Town harbor, we moored on a club buoy. They are there for the traveler to latch onto, you just pay a fee. The next morning as we are stirring and getting coffee going, we hear an outboard motor pocketa-pocketaing our way. I go topside to see this fellow coming out to collect the mooring fee. Solid looking man, trimmed beard, absolutely sparkling white teeth, and skin so black as to challenge the night. Another of the crew comes up to see what's up, and the both of us start talking with the fellow. When we say what a beautiful place Hope Town is, he breaks out into a smile that splits his face. And I gotta tell you, that man was beautiful, and I'm not ashamed to say it. He was. What a sight!

If you ever get a chance...

[crystalstarr]

hahahhawhen i first opened this i thought you meant acid trips...(i got lotz of those)



hmmmm best trip to colorado.. estes park beautiful country... to the gates of the rocky mountains

[xaosflux]

I was about to ask if acid trips count!

[HoneySuckleBlue]

To be honest with yez that's eggsactly what I was originaly thinking about when I went to make this thread, lol, but one thing led to another and I started thinking about travels and the weekend, lol, I think acid trips should count too (thinking is the best way to travel:p )

[nirgal]

I think we should charter a large sailboat in the islands, we've got enough experienced crew in the field.....

and those other trips might be hard to write about :D

[xaosflux]

I had an acid trip .. walked in to someones kitchen, the refridgerator got up and flew across the room all twisty like, then opened itself up and it was full of oranges.

[Scholar_Warrior]

I ate two hits of strawberry barrel mescaline, oh, it must've been about 1980, and that was very memorable! the next morning when I took two more was also memorable, only not as much as the night before.....

yep.

[nirgal]

I remember being 2 places at the same time....... this was shortly before the roof and walls began to roll back at the corners......
Pool was fun, but they made us leave :D

[moominmamma]

Best trip, em, always a bit subjective, so let the mind drift and see what images float to the surface.


1976 & 1977, the school choir I'm in wins the UK choral contest and go on to represent the country in an international MusicFest in Vienna. My first trip in a jet plane - the wings look so wobbly.We have to walk to the airport terminal in Vienna which is about half a mile from where the plane lands - we get there to find it's empty - the customs desk has a sign in Austrian - back in 10 minutes.We didn't have much money so the choir master used to buy day tickets for the tube trains and we'd go round and round practising our parts. The first year we made local tv, the second national. People used to gather on the platforms to hear us. We got invites all over the place - a beautiful wooden church high up in the mountains only accessible by cable car or horse drawn carriage. We have a candle lit concert as dusk falls, and out the window I can see the sun sinking over row after row of mountain tops. Next a big natural amphitheatre followed by a dip in this massive lake to cool off. The Spanish Riding school. Lots of people came over from Budapest to work as cleaners, cooks, etc. We're staying in a boarding scool for cheapness, and the cooks arrange for us the second year to give a concert in Budapest. Hungary was still a communist country, so we had a motorcycle cop guard all the way to the concert hall. Thousands crowded into a small hall to hear a bunch of scruffy English oiks - we do a choral version of the Blue Danube waltz and peole dance and cheer - at the end I'm reminded of the Beatles at Shea Stadium - they're singing with us, demanding the same songs over and over, roaring for encores - were we going to make it out of there alive.The second year my girlfriend and I were arrested for holding hands in public - couples didn't do that, only foreigners, and the Viennese police were very twitchy as some Palestinian Terroists had taken hostages in the city a few months earlier. Evading the school teacher chastity patrols - they didn't realise that the side where we were all sleeping was scaffolded, so we were just nipping out the windows. The trams, the pleasure gardens. The final big concert - a rousing chorus of Ode to Joy sang by the massed choirs from about thirty countries - the gorgeous Italians, the stylish Spaniards, cocky Americans who couldn't understand it was pronounced Varg - ner, not Wag - ner,miniturised Japanese, bouncy Brazilians,big-eyed Botswanans with the voices of Angels - in an open plaza under a star filled sky and then the fireworks during the final triumphal choruses.

1980 - Different girlfriend, first year at University. In the easter break we use our student railcards to get us over to Irelands, and then we hitch-hike to the south-west coast, saving our money for accomodation. We quickly discover the bus time tables are a joke, a once a week bus shown as Tuesday\Wednesday on the lampost in the village square might turn up either day, but that was okay because the driver knew everyone who was getting on it. Hills everywhere - lots of soft rain followed by glorious sunshine. We spend two days in Dublin - my girlfriend has quickly slipped her mother's wedding ring on and we spend the rest of the holiday as husband and wife. She agrees to transport a parcel for a complete stranger - he's missed the bus and doesn't think the post can be trusted, but she looks like she has an honest face. When she tells me, I nearly bust a bloodvessel - suggest we lose it. When we get there I have to take it in to the the most staunchly Irish Republican, anti-English social club in the world. I put it down on bar, give the accompanying message, and back-out hurriedly, in an air of silent menace. To this day I wonder whether we naively tranported something for the IRA. That was in Cork - we follow the river down to the sea and follow the cliffs into an old abandoned fortness. We climb through gun emplacements, down long tunnels, and watch a big ocean going motoryacht as it comes in towards the river mouth. Suddenly it pulls in to a landing just below us, and lots of men with dark glasses and handgums swarm ashore. We turn to get out of there and there are two big burly Irish soldiers behinds us. The "deserted" fort was still in use as a military base, part of it was a high security prison, and the visiting boat was the official transport of someone like the Irish President. By following the sand, we'd walked past a minefield and barbed wire, plus a whole host of electronic detection devices. They fortunately saw the funny side as well, and gave us a ride on to our next stop, but for a few moments I had nightmare visions of how people can just disappear - after all - 'no-one' knew where we were. Near Tralee we came across bare-foot children living in up-turned boats who demanded money to have their picture taken. In a nearby town, a military convoy accompanied the security van bringing cash to the bank - apparently knocking over security vans was a popular source of funding for the IRA at the time - and without thinking I lifted my camera up to take a picture. It was wrenched from my hand, the back opened and the film exposed by a very nervous squaddie who was probably the same age as me.. And so it went on, Kerry,Killarney,Limerick, hills and rainbows, seas of translucent blues. In Limerick we passed a wet afternoon watching "10" at the local cinema. It was so heavilly censored by the local Catholic watch committee that it made absolutely no sense at all - I don't think it ever had more than two bars of Ravel's Bolero! But the memories are of the people, the trust, and the kindness of strangers.

1982 - Now with Moominmamma, who had been a quiet, shy little Norfolk girl all of her life. So I took her on a trip round England, (or as much of it as we could manage before the money ran out). First night was London, and the Hilton Hotel, - the smallest, most compact double room they had, directly over the canopy, but it was the Hilton. That night we went out to the restaurant, well actually all five restaurants - where we sat and watched very rich people eat very expensive meals, and then I took MMM to the local McDonalds. We walked along the Thames Embankment, and the next day, a Sunday, strolled through Hyde Park. That night was Canterbury and the cathedral - a fantastic tribute to human ingenuity and a real taste of history. On we went to Oxford, to walk amongst the glittering spires, only to find a hotel with amazingly big,old fashioned baths - guess where the Moomins spent most of their stay in Oxford. Next was the historic city of Bath - very photogenic, a natural Moomin sort of place,, but dire hotel. Then on to Bristol - so bad my mind goes into denial. Then up to my old University in the Midlands where despite MMM flirting outrageously with my former flatmate, (and I've got the photo's to prove it), we had a really good time. A week that showed us both just how much we enjoyed each others company.

O s**t, I'm turning into a threadhog, I'll stop there and let someone else have a go........................

[themnax]

the day i was by myself driving my dad's datsun jeep from soda springs to forest hill on the forrest service back roads by way of ice lakes. that would be one. hauling my stuff in a u-haul from the old auburn hotel up to bed spring acres. there've been so many. i think the bus ride from eugene to k-falls by way of oak something or other where there was this spectacular water fall that was actualy a busted flume or something. oh comming back from seattle on amtrak when it went down the west valley and you had to chainge at davis. my cab ride with a certain long retired and possibly no longer among the tangable road forman of engines from reno down to colfax. the weekend i spent working on willmunder's camino cable and northern back in the 60s. riding arround on my honda 50 with my pentrex range finder 35 camera also back in the 60s when rollins dam was first being built. going from nevada city to quincy by way of challange and la pine, another wonderful 'immpassable' back road. and likewise foot's road all the way from north san juan into downyville. let's see; all the times i went up into alpine county. just getting out and going to the store in reno or carson when we lived on top of donner summit when the road was closed cause the snowplows hadn't yet gotten through. there was going back east in 59 on 102 (ten years before amtrak). generaly any time i can drive or ride arround by myself on bussess and trains preferably up in the forrests and mountains, although the high desert is ok too. oh there's many more; the two month pass on the dirty dog the year i quit the sufferin pathetic. and my first time over to willits to ride the skunk to fort brag and back.
i haven't spent nearly as much of my life as i'd like travelling, but then i haven't spent nearly as much of it making things either. always been a trade off between goin somewhere or getting tools and materials. i'm just glad i've got this internet now cause i really can't afford much of anything else and if i had a car i couldn't afford to have anything other then that and still probably not be able to keep it running very well.

every once in a while i think about getting one of the smaller two wheelers again though.

there really isn't any one trip that stands out above all the others, but there's that several handfuls of great ones though. there was even one where i walked. the 24 miles from colfax to nevada city. and the summer i spent walking once a week from colfax to peardale. that was the summer between 7th and 8th grade. before the honda 50 and before my dad's first car in 66 which was a 62 datsun pickup, the one that looked like an austin with a pickup bed on the back.