@oldshurst442 Thank you for the kind words.  Is it okay if I laugh about part of the post?  I own being a real nerd when it comes to certain topics.  For one, I am fascinated by geography and always have been.   One life shaping event was moving back (and forth) to Europe 2 times with my parents before I was a teenager.  That involved crossing the Atlantic on the few ships that were still doing that voyage and even crossing America on Amtrak from the West Coast to the NYC suburbs, where we stayed with relatives for a few days before boarding for the sailing.  So, by the time you are 8 years old, and you can study maps, I was able to trace the ocean crossing - seeing the ports we stopped in as well as the Azores, which you sail through - as well as the train trip across the U.S.  Every place looked different.  So did the people.  But, mostly, the scale was staggering, when you compare it to going from L.A. to Las Vegas, or even N.Y. to Miami. My dad also contributed to this.  Before being allowed to come to the U.S., he moved to Australia, as did others from Mediterranean countries.  Australia was sort of open at the time and he got in.  He stayed 3 years.  He did not like it.  He also took the ship to and from Australia.  That trip is 3x as along as crossing the Atlantic.  You go through the Suez Canal, the Red Sea, and then cross the Indian Ocean along South Asia and then down to Australia.  I heard about all this and saw photos from these journeys.  I'm glad he didn't like Australia!  I much preferred growing up in the U.S. Cars and planes were such an evolving "art form" when growing up.  Both had a lot of personality and kitsch that's lacking today.  Yes, there was less worry about the environment, sustainability, and global warming.  So, ignoring that, cars were going for new styling frontiers, crazier interiors, and bigger engines.  And I loved following all that, and even sketching it up at times.  The same was true for planes.  We lived about 6 miles from the international airport and I would ride my bike there, just to be at the airport and look at all the planes and even the different airport buildings.  The 747 kept getting updated and better.  The L.A. Times would always have big ads for the different airlines and their gimmicks, including a Hawaiian styled lounge in the coach section from the West Coast to Honolulu on certain Continental 747s!  How cool is that?  I would tear out some of these newspaper ads and keep them.  You were very likely to fly from L.A. and S.F. to N.Y. or Chicago on 747s.  In fact, it was fun to look at their schedules and find those odd trips where the transcontinental trip had another leg on it so, just maybe, you could fly on a jumbo jet somewhere close, like to San Francisco for 45 minutes.  But kids and teens couldn't take trips like that, unless you convinced your parents to go, too. The above is absolutely hilarious by today's standards but, when you're a kid, you took it for granted.  This is on a Continental 747 ... in "coach."  Today, losing this many coach seats to a "lounge" would never pencil and you'd be attracting the bar flies.  But, maybe that would be better than having people on planes being hostile to flight attendants and each other.  We didn't hear much about that when I was a kid. The above is American Airline's rendition of the 747 coach lounge.  This is nuts, including facing sideways and backwards.  That lady looks like Jill St. John. The above is upstairs in first class, again on a Continental 747 ... another kitsch laugh riot. "Those were the days" because I don't think that, despite so much progress, QOL is much better in the last decade or so. @Robert Hall also has interesting stories and I like hearing about the compare-contrast between living in the Desert Southwest and the Rocky Mountain states, especially since both have pipelines of people going to and from California.  And, along with many others, how people originally from the Eastern Time Zone headed the call to "go West" and what that was like.   Stories about immigration and transplantation fascinate me.  I'm all ears for those.

I would agree. While the truck is built in the U.S. and many parts are supplied by U.S. companies, the profits return to Japan to a Japanese corporation. I find this a contradiction that I am seeing allot this fall which I think is due to it being a mid-presidential term election year. I wonder how people can be on this Beat the American Drum kick and yet their own buying habits contradict their statements. On the October spotting, there must be a local old car get together somewhere around here locally on Sunday as I just ran an Errand to Home Depot and on the way home, half a dozen old autos were following each other up highway 99 here.

The Tacoma is built in San Antonio but still a whole lot of contradiction there lol.

Saw two things this morning while running errands. First was a very old Chevrolet Suburban from the 1950's era in the process of being restored. It was on a trailer being towed someplace while I was driving on I5. Second thing was a Toyota Tacoma that had an interesting bumper sticker.  Pro-America Buy America Anti-Trump So not a political statement or discussion I want to start, but I am interested in what others think is meant by the Pro-America/Buy America part of this.  IMHO I find this a contradiction that they are driving a Toyota with that part of the bumper sticker. Thoughts?