Thinking about retirement?

[rdenney]

And there's no credible rail system (yes, I've subjected myself to Amtrak, and no, it isn't a credible rail system)

I just did five European countries over the course of six weeks. Great time, easy transpo, etc.

Amtrak works fine where the states are small and the cities close together. I’ve frequently taken the train in the Northeast Corridor between Washington and Boston, with Baltimore, Wilmington, Philadelphia, Newark, New York, New Haven and Providence in between. Each of those cities is in a different state. That takes about 7 hours, which is tolerable. It’s just about 400 miles, which in Texas wouldn’t get you from El Paso to San Antonio. That train system is well-used, profitable, and credible.

I have taken Amtrak from Houston to Tucson. The train wasn’t really slow, but it’s 1100 miles and it takes 20 hours. It takes 20 hours to go from Paris to Berlin by train, according to the search I just did, and that’s half the distance. Had a hurricane threat not canceled them that weekend, the flight I had booked would have got me there in less than three hours. People don’t take Amtrak because e.g. Southwest Airlines is cheaper and faster.

When I visited Switzerland I asked a friend there about the practicalities of using transit as a tourist, and his respond was hell no, rent a car. Which was easy. Europe has great train corridors for people going from city to city, taking advantage of the relative nearness, but lots of people there own cars, too. It entirely depends on what you want to see in a vacation situation.

I have completely enjoyed my trips to Europe, but it’s a very different way to live. Americans are more like Australians in that regard.

Rick “Europe is small and densely packed” Denney

 

[RexrothPigeon]

It takes 20 hours to go from Paris to Berlin by train

it takes 8 hours. I've done it.

 

[respice finem]

confirmed (at least when there's no strikes etc.)

https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Paris,+Frankreich/Berlin/@50.4598653,2.6134874,1245891m/data=!3m2!1e3!4b1!4m17!4m16!1m5!1m1!1s0x47e66e1f06e2b70f:0x40b82c3688c9460!2m2!1d2.3513765!2d48.8575475!1m5!1m1!1s0x47a84e373f035901:0x42120465b5e3b70!2m2!1d13.404954!2d52.5200066!2m2!4e2!5e2!3e3!5m1!1e1?authuser=0&entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI1MDkxNy4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D

 

[rdenney]

it takes 8 hours. I've done it.

So, about the same speed, then.

Rick “point stands” Denney

 

[001]

It's been less than a year, but at 63 I'm very much enjoying being retired. Schools and IT management have finally stopped running my timetable. Last year, one afternoon, out of the blue something just 'snapped' and I fell into extreme depression (and burnout). Until then I had absolutely no inkling of how debilitating this was; as if somebody else was pulling the strings of my being. Nigh on a year later, I feel nearly 'normal' again and am looking forward to spending retirement doing stuff I could, should (and maybe shouldn't) be doing. At the moment I'm looking hard at a Himalyan 450 but that'll have to wait until I've got some drastic home renos under control.

 

[Frank Dernie]

I’ve met quite a few folks from the UK that are surprised not to see tumbleweeds in (tropical Gulf-Coast) southeast Texas. These are oil-industry people (I grew up in Houston), so technically educated like the guys you worked with in Indycar racing. Their broad knowledge was pretty limited, I’d say, without meaning any disrespect to them.

I didn't learn about tumble weeds either.
I have only ever seen them in American films.
I did learn more about US geography than the people I was studying with in Milwaukee though.
The mechanics and engineers I worked with in Formula 1 (that was my main work, I was just a consultant helping out a few teams in Indycar - actually CART before it became a one make formula of zero interest to me) were mainly British, so similar breadth of knowledge to myself, also some French, German and Italian but really just working so no real interaction giving me any idea about extra curricular knowledge.

I had always assumed my education (in the 1950s and 60s) had been moulded by the fact that the British Empire had only just come to an end and a worldwide education had been normal for people who could end up working anywhere in the world. It may well be narrower for today's children.

 

[Mart68]

This whole education thing is just generalisations. No-one who is widely educated relies on generalisations - do they?

In USA I met a fellow - professional man - who was surprised to learn that Britain is an island. On the other hand in the UK I went out with a woman who had an honours degree in American Studies but who could not locate the USA on a map of the world.

 

[RexrothPigeon]

No-one who is widely educated relies on generalisations - do they?

Woodrow Wilson (US president 1913-1921, Princeton University president 1902-1920) did:

“We want one class of persons to have a liberal education, and we want another class of persons, a very much larger class of necessity in every society, to forgo the privilege of a liberal education and fit themselves to perform specific difficult manual tasks.”​

- Address to the New York City High School Teachers Association, January 9, 1909​

 

[ahofer]

Rick “Europe is small and densely packed” Denney

We move our goods by rail and our people by plane and car, mostly. Europe moves goods by truck and people by rail and plane.

On the subject of retirement, I do hope the self-driving cars are available on 20 years. I have a place in the middle of nowhere (but near a cargo rail) that I like to get to.

 

[rdenney]

We move our goods by rail and our people by plane and car, mostly. Europe moves goods by truck and people by rail and plane.

On the subject of retirement, I do hope the self-driving cars are available on 20 years. I have a place in the middle of nowhere (but near a cargo rail) that I like to get to.

More goods move in the US by truck these days than by train, with the exception of bulk materials.

I hope those self-driving cars fulfill their hope. But if the route you are thinking of uses Interstate highways, expect a lot of trucks: self-driving trucks (which are already out there).

Frank: people from Milwaukee probably don’t know much about the physical geography that would place Houston hundreds of miles east of anything resembling aridity. But you and I both went to school back when physical geography was a thing, and I rather suspect that has diminished considerably since then.

Rick “Britain of old is a traveling nation” Denney

 

[Ken1951]

On our trip to France we traveled by train and it was fantastic. Paris>Reims, Reims>Chalons-en-Champagne, Chalons>Paris>Lyon, Lyon>Avignon, Avignon>CDG.

The Ouigo TGV trip from Avignon to CDG averaged 168 MPH for 3 hours which included 2 short stops. We did have to cut out a much anticipated part of the end of our trip though due to the protests scheduled on Sept 18th as that was our scheduled travel day from Arles and we did want to get back home!

But as has been already stated above, Europe and the US are very, very different in terms of distance and density for the most part.

I liked BritRail last year and all of the trains in France. But from here in Blacksburg, trains don't help much!

 

[Timcognito]

 

[Audionaut]

Do you want to move to Dalhart or what relevance does it have for your retirement?

 

[Timcognito]

Do you want to move to Dalhart or what relevance does it have for your retirement?

Sorry meant to link it post 399 about the distances between EU cities/countries and US cities. Just some trivia, humor and some education about the size of the US for those few uneducated. I was thinking others were following along from one page ago. My bad.

For a German, traveling to 10 countries is easier than a Texan traveling to 10 other states. C’mon! Texas is 900 miles east to west. Traveling to 10 countries for an American requires air travel for long distances.

I’ve traveled to all 50 states.

The rest of your comments don’t apply to the vast majority of Americans.

Rick “yeah, already said” Denney

 

[Frank Dernie]

Sorry meant to link it post 399 about the distances between EU cities/countries and US cities. Just some trivia, humor and some education about the size of the US for those few uneducated.

We flew everywhere in F1 and in champ cars. In Champ cars a few of the better paid crew chiefs bought their own light aircraft so they could fly themselves.
Owners usually had their own jet in both series. I travelled in my bosses jet to European races which was a great luxury and time saver.

 

[Timcognito]

We flew everywhere in F1 and in champ cars. In Champ cars a few of the better paid crew chiefs bought their own light aircraft so they could fly themselves.
Owners usually had their own jet in both series. I travelled in my bosses jet to European races which was a great luxury and time saver.

In my travels to Europe, Japan and China I had great experiences with train and car travel. But in the five cities I visited in Australia air travel was required for the clinical studies I was monitoring, because, distances were long and other types of transportation does not exist or is too slow, similar in the US,.

 

[rdenney]

View attachment 477682

As long as we're having fun with this side-topic,

(Credit: Snopes)

Rick "the joke in Alaska is that they will divide into 2 states so that Texas can be third-largest" Denney

 

[Timcognito]

As long as we're having fun with this side-topic,

(Credit: Snopes)

Rick "the joke in Alaska is that they will divide into 2 states so that Texas can be third-largest" Denney

And California the forth. Been to Lubbock but not Dalhart. "Lubbock or leave it"

 

[Salt]

According to this tool that compensates for Mercator Projection Distortion it looks like this:

 

[Audionaut]

I'm not sure what this is supposed to tell us.
I think some people here are confusing Western Europe with Europe.
It's not the same thing.