What did you do today?

[Jon]

Booked another cruise
28 days sailing around Asia leaving from Singapore


http://www.seabourn.com/find-luxury...=true&guestsCount=undefined&voyageCode=5710A&

 

[Nick]

Have a nice trip.

 

[zannej]

I hope you have a fun and safe trip, Jon.

Rusty, I hope that there is still a chance to sue to get more money back. Only $230 restitution for stealing thousands of dollars is ridiculous.

Today I found that getting out of EZpass violation fees was easier than I'd imagined. I think last month or the month before I went out to Texas to visit my cousin for her daughter's graduation. In order to get there, I had to pass a toll road. On the way there, I was able to drive parallel to the toll road and there were signs at every entrance to it saying it was a toll road and you needed to have an EZpass and so forth. I'd never heard of an EZpass before and had no idea how it worked. I just assumed it was a card or something that you would show at a toll booth (I assumed the roads had toll booths).

Unfortunately, on the way back, things weren't as easy. It was late and dark and my brother and I were trying to find a place with a bathroom (we ended up driving for two hours before finding a gas station that was open). On the way, I was driving parallel to the toll road but then the road was closed due to construction and I was forced on to the only available path-- which happened to be the toll road. Only it didn't have all of the warning signs that the other way had so I didn't know I was on a toll road (also because I mistakenly assumed it would have toll booths). Turns out they just have cameras that take pictures of the license plate and I have no idea how the EZpass thing works (is it put in a window or something?)

Anyway, we got the mail and there was a letter from EZpass with photos of my car saying there were violation fines for using the road without having the pass and that I owed fees for using the road. I called them up today and explained the situation and said I was willing to pay the fees for using the road but wanted the violation fees removed. The woman checked to confirm that the adjacent road was closed and then came back and said the violation fees were waved. So, it ended up being only $3 instead of $23. Apparently the longer you are on the road the more it charges you or something. Weird.

Does anyone else have toll roads like that near them? It was a completely alien thing to me-- which I also explained to the woman. She was actually very nice, upbeat, and friendly.

 

[highup]

Booked another cruise
28 days sailing around Asia leaving from Singapore


http://www.seabourn.com/find-luxury...=true&guestsCount=undefined&voyageCode=5710A&

Leaving to avoid the rest of your harsh and cruel winter.

 

[highup]

Just out of curiosity Jon, have you ever tallied up how many miles you've traveled in the past 20 years?
What did I do today? Patched in carpet where someone removed a baseboard heater.
.......tomorrow's job gonna be a pisser.

 

[Jon]

Leaving to avoid the rest of your harsh and cruel winter.

Its our summer when we go
This will be the last decent sized trip

 

[Jon]

Zannej we have a tunnel not far from where we live which I go through every now and then $2.50 a trip and have 3 days to pay
I forget to pay and get a bill for about $30

 

[Nick]

Jon, If you find a Horses head in your bed , You know i still didn't get my adoption papers .

 

[Nick]

Z we have them on al the toll roads here in Joisey. Just got one for $100.00 for doing 64 in a 50 mph.

They had them in the towns if you went through a light before if was totally green. They banned them last year . they were not accurate .

If i may ask , where are you from that you never herd of them ?

 

[Incognito]

Here in SoCal the toll roads are all policed with cameras that log your onramp and exits via the license plates. You have to register on their website to pay. You can pre-pay with an account and credit card, they deduct the money from the account as you log the miles. For single, non-account users you have a certain amount of time to pay the basic rate or it goes to a fine which I don't recall but it's very punitive-----$$$$$$

It's quite easy to accidentally wind up on the toll roads. My wife did it twice and I did it once recently. I went a few exits and had to pay something like $3-4.

 

[havasu]

I did that as well. I was headed to Laguna Beach, made the wrong turn, and it cost me $6 to turn around. My dad, before he got too old to drive, took the pay lanes to LA and a month later, he received a bill for $400 for failure to pay the tolls. I called them up, explained he was old and unaware of the fast pass, and they removed all the fines. They will let one oops happen before they hit you hard.

 

[highup]

Z we have them on al the toll roads here in Joisey. Just got one for $100.00 for doing 64 in a 50 mph.

They had them in the towns if you went through a light before if was totally green. They banned them last year . they were not accurate .

If i may ask , where are you from that you never herd of them ?

If I saw a sign that said EZpay, I'd have no clue what it meant.

 

[Floorist]

The closest toll road to me is 100 miles. They are not allowed in Missouri.

 

[zannej]

Jon, did you get to stop off to visit Singapore? Have you ever been there? I lived there for four years back in the 90s. I really miss it, but I imagine there have been some changes. I really miss the food.

Nick, I'm in central Louisiana. I live out in the woods with unpaved roads outside of a small town. The town doesn't even have powered crosswalks and only has a few sidewalks. The only sidewalks seem to be in the middle of town near the post office. The rest of the place you just have to take your chances. No public transportation here either. There are school buses, but no public buses and no taxis.

We have one grocery store aside from the SuperWalmart and the only reason the former is still open is because it got some revenue from being on Extreme Couponers and it sells better meat.

I really think toll roads without a way to turn around to get off them or some sort of thing to make sure you know you are on one should not be legal. I don't think they exist in my state. Hell, my state currently doesn't even have a Costco-- although I think they were saying they might build one over in Lafayette-- which is a few hours away. I'd rather go to Texas though-- lower sales tax. Sales tax where I live is 11% and in the larger town where I go to Sam's Club it's 10%.

 

[Floorist]

Town of 8,000 here. 23,000 in the whole county. Town has been here since 1855. One supermarket and a Supercenter. 3 fast food joints. We drive to a truck stop about 10 miles out to eat breakfast, a complete meal, eggs, meat, hashbrowns and coffee is about $5. Country bands play on the town square every Thursday night all summer. One murder in the last seven years.

 

[Nick]

You guys have it tough. I have at least 200 different stores within 5 minutes of me . Also a ton of people to .

 

[Nick]

Town of 8,000 here. 23,000 in the whole county. Town has been here since 1855. One supermarket and a Supercenter. 3 fast food joints. We drive to a truck stop about 10 miles out to eat breakfast, a complete meal, eggs, meat, hashbrowns and coffee is about $5. Country bands play on the town square every Thursday night all summer. One murder in the last seven years.

I was born and dragged up in South Phila.
There were at least 4 muggings, 3 - 4 robbery's, 1-2 knife stabbings a day , and that was just in my house .

 

[Floorist]

Most of the fist fights I saw as a kid was among my relatives.

 

[Incognito]

I did that as well. I was headed to Laguna Beach, made the wrong turn, and it cost me $6 to turn around. My dad, before he got too old to drive, took the pay lanes to LA and a month later, he received a bill for $400 for failure to pay the tolls. I called them up, explained he was old and unaware of the fast pass, and they removed all the fines. They will let one oops happen before they hit you hard.

My wife's incidents both happened to and from Laguna Beach. That's obviously not a coincidence. One we paid and the other we argued and got relief.

 

[Incognito]

The closest toll road to me is 100 miles. They are not allowed in Missouri.

Personally I think toll roads are some real communist BS and ought to be abolished nationwide. It's hard to imagine anything more inefficient, sinister, corrupt and obscene than the GOVERNMENT selling the rights to our highways out to the corporations who then charge us for driving to and from work. Makes me want to puke.