Sure am glad I don't live up north

[Jimmy9190]

Today I am outside of Cleveland, Ohio spending a few days with my wife's family. We flew up here yesterday and rented a brand new Chevy Impala. It's a nice car with only 8k on it but the roads still beat me to death. I have never seen such bad roads with so many potholes and bad repairs in all my life. Also have never seen so many cars and trucks with rusted out fender and wheel wells either. Who knows what they look like underneath. Some have rusted bumpers hanging half way off the body and others just look to me like they do not belong on the road at all. I have not noticed many older cars here either. Mrs. Jimmy says it is from all the chemicals, road salt and snow. I have eaten some very good food, the weather is great and the people are friendly so far.

 

[philipp10]

bad roads and rust go with the snow. That said, all the rust buckets are an indication of how bad Cleveland's economy is doing. I am in Mpls/St. Paul with just as bad of weather. Our roads are probably a bit better than Cleveland's and I know our cars are much newer. Our economy has been doing quite well in comparison. We recently hired a guy with a Phd from the Cleveland area and he came here because there are no engineering jobs there for his level of schooling in the Cleveland area (at least that is what he claims).

 

[Lapham3]

Yup-Northern winters are tough on vehicles. Southern summers are tough on vehicles-just different ways.

 

[Mr Nice]

Its Cleveland so its totally different than what you are used to in FL.

 

[Al]

Well I wouldn't want to live in Florida..lol.

 

[philipp10]

BTW, it is the salt and its effects that cause me to run with cars between 0 and 12 years old. Anything beyond that up here and your dealing with rust and corrosion. And trust me, it's a losing battle (I drove a lot of rust buckets in my teen years). I once had a 74 Vega that had hole in the fenders, drove it to Glacier park, burning a quart every 200 miles. A gas station attendant in Montana was amazed at my rust holes.....like he had never seen such a thing...lol

 

[andyd]

It has more to do with the regional economy. Last winter chewed up the roads. Luckily MA, has the money to fix them. Tax-achusetts. The utilities are renovating too and the electric bills reflect it.

 

[Delta]

The roads up here are ok, some get beat-up quicker than others. I-81 in my area always gets beat up during the winter so after the last snow to the first it's a full on race to resurface and patch.

 

[Papa Bear]

Originally Posted By: Jimmy9190
Today I am outside of Cleveland, Ohio. I have never seen such bad roads with so many potholes and bad repairs in all my life.


Keep driving up into Michigan ... you'll think you've left the pavement.

 

[Ethan1]

Originally Posted By: andyd
It has more to do with the regional economy. Last winter chewed up the roads. Luckily MA, has the money to fix them. Tax-achusetts. The utilities are renovating too and the electric bills reflect it.


Might be cheaper than constant ball joints, tie rods, wheels, alignments, et cetera?

 

[WANG]

Don't waste your time at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum...

 

[Eddie]

I escaped the Chicago area 18 years ago. I go back to visit my trapped kids and friends. Ed

 

[BHopkins]

Originally Posted By: Jimmy9190
Today I am outside of Cleveland, Ohio spending a few days with my wife's family. We flew up here yesterday and rented a brand new Chevy Impala. It's a nice car with only 8k on it but the roads still beat me to death. I have never seen such bad roads with so many potholes and bad repairs in all my life. Also have never seen so many cars and trucks with rusted out fender and wheel wells either. Who knows what they look like underneath. Some have rusted bumpers hanging half way off the body and others just look to me like they do not belong on the road at all. I have not noticed many older cars here either. Mrs. Jimmy says it is from all the chemicals, road salt and snow. I have eaten some very good food, the weather is great and the people are friendly so far.


That's funny.

While I have never spent a lot of time in the Cleveland area, my experience has been that the worst place I've ever seen for rust bucket cars is the Florida coast. I spent six weeks in the Cocoa Beach area on two different occasions, while working TDY on the Space Shuttle. Even being from Utah where we put a lot of salt on the roads during the winter for ice control, I have never seen the sort of rust on cars that I saw in the Cocoa Beach area.

I remember seeing cars with so much rust on a trunk lid that I wondered what was keeping the trunk latch engaged. And doors and hoods that were just covered with splotches of rust patches. A co-worker had warned me about rusty cars in Florida, before I went on my first TDY assignment to KSC. But it was still a shocker.

From what you are saying, I'm assuming you are not from a coastal area of Florida? Or perhaps your area of Florida is more affluent than the Cocoa Beach area, and there are fewer older cars on the road in your area?

 

[Warstud]

Originally Posted By: Papa Bear
Originally Posted By: Jimmy9190
Today I am outside of Cleveland, Ohio. I have never seen such bad roads with so many potholes and bad repairs in all my life.


Keep driving up into Michigan ... you'll think you've left the pavement.

Yeh..roads aren't good but the weather is the nicest it's been in years.

 

[Jimmy9190]

I am from Clermont, Florida. Right in the middle of the state. 25 miles north of Disney. I would not say it is an affluent area but it is a nice place to live. You do get some rust if you live by the beach but I never saw any rust in Florida like I have seen here in Ohio. We do have our share of beat up cars back home although I have never seen so many with body panels and fenders rusted nearly clean through and practically falling off the vehicle as I have here in Ohio.

 

[KzMitch]

I lived in Fla for 6 years.
Theres good and bad.
Can't beat winter there. People seem nicer, more laid back.

But there's also the bad. Cockroaches the size of skateboards (and they fly).
May to October is 93 and humid every day.
And one thing everyone agrees on, pizza sucks.

If you hate winter, you should be there.
If you like the change of seasons, it's not so good.

 

[simple_gifts]

Quote:

Sure am glad I don't live up north


We are too. j/k

A crisp New England fall day with a drive on the back roads is as priceless to some as a hot beach day on the Gulf is to others.

 

[Patman]

Originally Posted By: KzMitch
I lived in Fla for 6 years.
Theres good and bad.
Can't beat winter there. People seem nicer, more laid back.




That's why my wife and I plan on spending our winters in Florida when we retire. We've been there a few times now over the past couple of years, and you really can't beat the weather there in the winter. But we've also been there in the end of August and I can understand how some people might not like it during that time, with everyday being over 90 degrees and almost every day having a massive thunderstorm in the afternoon. That's why we'd still stay here in Ontario during the spring/summer, as our weather here is nearly perfect from May to October. Summertime highs are generally between 75-85 degrees and we only get about 3 or 4 inches of rain per month, so most days are nice and sunny.

We do love how friendly people in Florida are. No matter where we've been, whether it's Miami, Cape Coral, Orlando, St Pete, the people are the same, they are fantastic!

Despite our cold winters (and tons of road salt) our roads are nowhere near as bad as Michigan (we were in the Detroit area this summer for a Blue Jays/Tigers baseball game) That's because they do a ton of road work up here to keep our roads in good shape (on the flip side, all that construction really clogs up our traffic!!)

 

[eljefino]

PA and most points east/ northeast have inspections so when a car is declared kaput there I could easily imagine them getting auctioned "one state west" to live out their twilight years being bought there, paid there.

 

[whip]

Originally Posted By: philipp10
That said, all the rust buckets are an indication of how bad Cleveland's economy is doing.

I had no idea the economy was so bad here...........