Tag Archive for Oregon

Who Could Possibly be Against Less Drunk Driving?

uber madd

Early in my driving career, a team that I was working with had a relationship with Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD).  As a driver, one of my responsibilities was to participate in public relations and awareness of MADD priorities – they were mostly just a nice group of people who knew someone who had been killed or injured by a drunk driver.  I didn’t agree with everything they did, but whatever you think of MADD, that sucks and they wanted to do something about it.

For example, every parent has had the conversation with their kid (at least the parents I know) – “if you need a ride home, call”.  And, they’ve possibly had the same talk with a friend.  Don’t drive drunk – find a ride, any ride…  Enter Uber.

uber madd

There are legitimate concerns about ride sharing – too many, by people that have histories of using arguments like the one in bold below to control our lives and put money in their pockets, in my view.

Options and competition are good – and ride sharing services like Uber and Lyft are providing both.  And, with the help of MADD, they’ve just made the “it’s for the children!!!” play – there is less drunk driving because of Uber.

Who could possibly be against that?

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/01/27/us-uber-drunk-driving-idUSKBN0L02A620150127

 

More Old Porsche’s in The Gorge

The Porsche “356 Registry” had a get together in August at Skamania Lodge in Stevenson, Washington.  Stevenson is about 30 minutes driving from Portland, Oregon on the Washington side of the river in the Columbia River Gorge.

Mom and Dad in the Speedster

Mom and Dad in the Speedster

My first car was a 356, and I have an attachment to them.  My father came home with a Speedster when I was 5 years old – my recollection is that he had paid less (perhaps a lot less) than $1,000 for it – that’s what he told Mom, anyway…  Other people must like them, too – now that car is worth $200K, on a bad day.

In any case, it was really fun to see all of these beautiful cars so close to home.  And, I took some pictures.  The coolest cars I saw were the “Continentals” which are 356’s before they called them 356’s (from 1955).  There were also a couple of really nice 356 Carrera’s (see my post about why Porsches are called Carrera’s), which one of the owners fired up for us – super cool.

In addition to the Continental’s, there were A’s, B’s and C’s of all varieties, some interesting wheels I’d never seen, and some hot rodded up “Outlaw” 356’s – something for everybody!

If you like old Porsche’s, you should also read this earlier post “Classic Porsche’s in The Gorge“.