Okay, we weren’t actually on a road trip at the time, but we were in Rover (our car) and we were watching a movie about Africa (Madagascar: Back 2 Africa at the drive-in), so that’s kind of a road trip, right?  Anyway, it became clear to us, once again, that we seriously need a better flashlight in Rover.  Dome lights only go so far, headlights aren’t directional, and neither works should your battery go dead.

This was, at least, the third or fourth time we’ve needed a flashlight only to find Rover’s dead or dying.  No more!  I’ve just ordered a couple of Surefire Flashlights from L.A. Police Gear (whom I’ve mentioned before here on Philaahzophy). These Ni-Cad lights aren’t cheap, but they’re some of the highest rated in the business when it comes to lasting light.  The Surefire 8NX Commander has a SureFire X80 xenon gas-filled lamp assembly with 110 lumens output for 50 minutes and is made from non-conductive, corrosion-resistant Nitrolon polymer, with an impact and heat-proof Pyrex lens window .  Okay, I don’t quite know what all that means, but it sure sounds cool, doesn’t it?

No more being afraid of the dark for us or Rover

Post from: Philaahzophy

Road Trip Essentials – A Working Flashlight

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The first drive-in movie theater opened in Camden, New Jersey on June 6, 1933 with a screening of Wife Beware starring Adolph Menjou. However, for some reason drive-ins across the country (or at least in the western states) have decided to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the drive-in movie by showing The Wizard of Oz tonight. If they’d waited until the week of June 6th they could have simultaneously celebrated Judy Garland’s 75th birthday (June 10th). Regardless, Z and I just returned from our local screening.

I grew up going to the drive-in and literally spent almost every night at the local drive-in while I was living in my car several years back. It’s been wonderful addicting Z to the drive-in movie experience and it was pretty cool to get the opportunity to see such a classic film from the comfort of our car. Too bad it was a school night as Z fell asleep just as the flying monkeys were starting their attack on the famed foursome. Well, with modern technology perhaps she can try again when we celebrate the 150th anniversary of the drive-in (in our flying cars )

Post from: Philaahzophy

Celebrating 75 Years of Drive-Ins With The Wizard Of Oz

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Personally, I’ve always believed that Saturday’s are the day to spend doing whatever makes you happy. Yesterday was pretty much the perfect model for a Saturday.

Z and I started out lying in bed for our traditional Saturday morning cartoon ‘n’ cuddlefest – currently featuring my favorite mild-mannered Janitor, Penrod Pooch, aka Henry the Janitor, aka Hong Kong Phooey. After that a quick trip to the Morgan Hill Mervyns was required for a bra shopping errand. A quick drive-thru McDonald’s breakfast and we were heading up 101 to attend the Santa Clara Coin, Stamp & Collectibles Expo at the Santa Clara Convention Center.

This was Z’s first coin show and it’s a doozy. In fact it’s Northern California’s largest coin show and has been setting attendance records since 1978. Z headed off on the kid’s treasure hunt (gathering free coins and googaws from various dealers while following a treasure map and learning about numismatics) while I dug through “junk” boxes on a treasure hunt of my own. I’ve never really understood traditional coin collecting, myself, but I am a fan of exonumia. My current obsessions are Sambo’s Wooden Nickels (supposedly the most popular segment of wooden nickel collecting) and Metal Typer Tokens (those little self-punch medallions that can be found at tourist traps around North America). Unfortunately I was only able to pick up about a half-dozen samples of each. But we still had a great time.

Besides, the convention center is directly across the street from California’s Great America. So, despite their horrible opening day which we attended last month, we headed over in the early afternoon to cool off on the water rides. Things were looking up somewhat from their “grand” opening weekend, but FireFall is still nowhere near ready to operate, and the employees weren’t any friendlier or better trained. In fact, as we exited the upper level of the double decker carousel we got to witness the operator (who had been operating the ride solo while we rode) taking his verbal exam on which buttons controlled which features on the carousel. Wow, now I really feel safe.

We did get to ride Flight Deck (formerly Top Gun) a couple of times with little wait (thought the ride photo printer was broken so no souvenir roller coaster photo for us this time) and Z had both her first go kart experience and her first ride on the cross-park sky ride as well. Despite myattempts to feed Cedar Fair as little of my hard earned cash as possible, they still managed to get nearly $20 out of me – photo booth photos: $5, Logger’s Run (log run) souvenir photo: $10.81, frozen lemondae: $4.

By 7:00 both of us were feeling regular complaints from our feet, so we headed back to Rover, swung by KFC for some chow-to-go, and rolled into the drive-in a few short minutes before the screen lit up with Nim’s Island. With the sky darkening the weather was still perfect, so we could enjoy the film in comfort, chicken bones dropping out Rover’s open windows, and our casual film commentary not disturbing other viewers (while theirs didn’t bother us, either).

All in all, the model Saturday.

Post from: Philaahzophy

Now THAT’S What Saturday Should Be

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