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Topic: Travels and Impressions

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betarhoalphadelta

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Re: Travels and Impressions
« Reply #812 on: February 11, 2024, 01:32:55 PM »
Been a while since I was there. How is Temecula?
Been a while since I've been down there actually... Definitely pre-pandemic... Might have even been 2018. 

The last time I was there I didn't find much of the wine all that impressive, but it's not like I've been there enough to give it a truly fair opinion. 

FearlessF

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Re: Travels and Impressions
« Reply #813 on: February 11, 2024, 03:24:58 PM »
Napa, for me, is overly commercialized (and expensive), and crowded often as not.  Parts of Sonoma are getting that way. 

We went to a winery in France and they too are making hay on tourists, some of them anyway, and it's spreading. 




I'll be taking advice from betarhoalphadelta
He's already given me a few tips
"Courage; Generosity; Fairness; Honor; In these are the true awards of manly sport."

betarhoalphadelta

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Re: Travels and Impressions
« Reply #814 on: February 11, 2024, 11:08:50 PM »
I'll be taking advice from betarhoalphadelta
He's already given me a few tips
Happy to help. Make sure to check out Russian River Brewing in Santa Rosa. All the wineries choose by 5 so it's good for dinner and beer. 

Cincydawg

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Re: Travels and Impressions
« Reply #815 on: February 12, 2024, 05:49:37 AM »
We drove up to Temecula from SD a couple years back with the family, I was unimpressed.  They charged Napa prices for tastings and didn't have Napa quality, at least where we visited.  We could well have hit the wrong spot.  

Paso is on my list to visit, I've never been there.  I'd also like to venture around Lake and Mendocino.  There is a small town on the slopes of the Sierra called Murphy that has a slew of tasting rooms, free last time I was there.  Wine was decent enough.


Cincydawg

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FearlessF

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Re: Travels and Impressions
« Reply #817 on: February 12, 2024, 09:39:55 AM »
Happy to help. Make sure to check out Russian River Brewing in Santa Rosa. All the wineries choose by 5 so it's good for dinner and beer.
not far from Northwood golf club
"Courage; Generosity; Fairness; Honor; In these are the true awards of manly sport."

Cincydawg

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betarhoalphadelta

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Re: Travels and Impressions
« Reply #819 on: February 12, 2024, 05:11:33 PM »
Decent movie related to a difficult chef chasing Michelin stars...

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2503944/


Mdot21

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betarhoalphadelta

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Re: Travels and Impressions
« Reply #821 on: February 12, 2024, 07:45:26 PM »
Typical death spiral of commuter rail. Ridership doesn't meet projections so they have to raise prices, which depresses ridership, rinse and repeat. 

Mdot21

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Re: Travels and Impressions
« Reply #822 on: February 12, 2024, 08:03:05 PM »
Typical death spiral of commuter rail. Ridership doesn't meet projections so they have to raise prices, which depresses ridership, rinse and repeat.
as long as the rail is owned by privately held for profit companies and there's no public ownership or publicly subsidized component to it- just bound to happen.

my guess here is that they didn't raise prices because of failure to meet ridership projections- they flat out were just always going to have to raise prices significantly in an attempt to recoup all the money they laid out to build new stations and build completely brand new rail track from West Palm Beach up to Orlando. It cost them several billions to build that new rail, those new trains, and that shiny big new station in Orlando.

And Orlando wasn't the only new station they built in the past couple of years. The trains originally went only from downtown Miami to downtown Ft Lauderdale to downtown West Palm- which is a traffic corridor from hell whether you're taking 95 or the turnpike. They then built a new station in Aventura at the Aventura Mall and then another new station near Mizner Park/downtown Boca Raton. Those two unnecessary stations alone had to have cost couple hundred million if not more.

They expanded/grew too fast without regard to money and spent way too much money on expansion. It made sense for people to want to take it and avoid hellacious traffic when it was relatively cheap and went from West Palm to Ft Lauderdale to Miami. Now the rates for those routes have doubled, tripled, and even quadrupled in price and it has two additional stops in between with Boca and Aventura which lengthens the travel time a little bit. And then the rates for Miami or West Palm to Orlando don't really make sense. You can fly on budget airlines way cheaper if you have a family of 4 or just drive the 3 and a half hours.

Cincydawg

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Re: Travels and Impressions
« Reply #823 on: February 13, 2024, 07:29:57 AM »
Americans prefer driving, usually.  Family of four, single cost for all, and you don't need to rent a car on the other end.  I thought BL stood a chance of making it, and maybe they do, you expect to lose a lot of money early on.  But as noted, a family has to drive to the station, buy tix for 4, take the ride, rent a car on the other end, and drive to the hotel.  

Or they can just drive, and endure bad traffic, or get up at 6 AM and beat it.

As noted, it's private monies, unlike that albatross out west (CA HSR).

I see various ethereal proposals for train from here to Charlotte or Savannah, it's the same deal, with less traffic.

Mdot21

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Re: Travels and Impressions
« Reply #824 on: February 13, 2024, 08:11:26 AM »
Americans prefer driving, usually.  Family of four, single cost for all, and you don't need to rent a car on the other end.  I thought BL stood a chance of making it, and maybe they do, you expect to lose a lot of money early on.  But as noted, a family has to drive to the station, buy tix for 4, take the ride, rent a car on the other end, and drive to the hotel. 

Or they can just drive, and endure bad traffic, or get up at 6 AM and beat it.

As noted, it's private monies, unlike that albatross out west (CA HSR).

I see various ethereal proposals for train from here to Charlotte or Savannah, it's the same deal, with less traffic.
yeah, you have to Uber to the station which costs money- or park at the station-which is I want to say $10 a day. I have taken the BL from West Palm to Miami maybe a dozen or so times here and there before all the expansion- and I was paying $5 to $15 each way depending on day and time of day. Not too bad. Now it's rare to get a ticket on that route for under $25 each way- and some times the fares are as much as $50+ each way. 10000% not worth it at that price. Last time I took it was because I was flying out of Miami and didn't feel like driving. I want to say the tickets were around $30-40 each way. Now that's basically the only time I'll take it- when I have to fly out of Miami.

And the fares from Miami or West Palm to Orlando are $79 to $149- each way- depending on time of day and day. $160 to $300 for one ticket isn't worth it. Especially with a family of 4- that's $640 to $1,200. You can rent a car and drive cheaper and in many instances also fly cheaper. 

Cincydawg

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Re: Travels and Impressions
« Reply #825 on: February 13, 2024, 08:15:02 AM »
Folks often point to the TGV in France (and elsewhere) and ask why we can't do the same thing, and of course "we" could, with heavy government involvement ($$$$$$$).  The TGV operates at a significant loss of course, something only governments can "manage" (for a while).  And it gets built with government funding, entirely.  So they never try and recover the sunk capital, and couldn't.  And it's still pricey, about $100 one way Paris to Marseille.


 

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