Author Topic: [Roadtrip] Under a Tuscan Sun - Roadtrip of the Fittest  (Read 36992 times)

Superully

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[Roadtrip] Under a Tuscan Sun - Roadtrip of the Fittest
« on: April 15, 2009, 05:00:36 PM »
one good thing about being a teacher is the fact that you always know WHEN your holidays are coming up, which makes planning ahead quite easy. Visiting Tuscany had been on the top of my list. The offer of a Joust 2 cab for sale here on the forum "sealed the deal": a couple of days strolling around the beautiful countryside, Italian food and the pickup of a pretty rare cab on my way back didn't sound too bad.

So here we go, get ready for some wonderful days under a Tuscan sun and the roadtrip of the fittest!

time to leave, everything's set and done  :arrow:



the tachometer is set back to zero, this is going to be one hell of a trip!



inputting the hotel's address into the navigation system :shock: gosh, 9 hours to drive, more than 900 kilometers!



finally on the road. to quote my favourite band Marillion: "i see convoys curbcrawling West German Autobahns"



on my way to italy, i'm passing by germany's highest mountain, the Zugspitze (pictured on the left side of the right picture)



passing the Brenner mountain pass brings me into italy



everything's going smoothly, until about two hours before reaching the hotel: A TRAFFIC JAM  :'(  :evil: and what a hell of a traffic jam it is: 5 HOURS stop-and-go



after more than 14 hours on the road, i finally reach the hotel in the outskirts of siena - I'M DONE (literally)



look at this: more than half a day in the car, 4 kilometers travelled  ;)



to be continued ...

« Last Edit: February 21, 2010, 06:35:48 PM by Superully »
all i need is ... PONG - and a select few others: TOUCH ME, DRAGON'S LAIR, JOUST, ROBOTRON, MR DO, SAN FRANCISCO RUSH THE ROCK!!!

DarthNuno

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Re: Under a Tuscan Sun - Roadtrip of the Fittest
« Reply #1 on: April 15, 2009, 05:09:59 PM »
 :o :-* :o :-* All the story please  :o :P :o :P

 :spaceace: :spaceace: :spaceace:

Superully

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Re: Under a Tuscan Sun - Roadtrip of the Fittest
« Reply #2 on: April 15, 2009, 05:46:13 PM »

to bring a little bit more culture into this forum  ;), here are some (photographic) highlights of my days in Tuscany - ENJOY

for those who want to see the cab-pickup pictures or who aren't interested in old buildings / landscapes  :arrow: skip to my next post, but i dare you ...  ;)  :twisted:

ABBAZIA SAN GALGANO - the ruins of an old cistercian abbey:







PARCO NATURALE DELLA MAREMMA - a hiker's paradise:











MONTERIGGIONI - the walled town:



PITIGLIANO - cittá del tufo (tuff city):



CASCATE DEL MULINO - hot springs (37,5°C) in Satúrnia:







COLLÓDI - home town of the author of Pinocchio:







IMPRESSIONS FROM TUSCANY











hope you enjoyed the show! and now ... on to the rest of the road trip!!!

all i need is ... PONG - and a select few others: TOUCH ME, DRAGON'S LAIR, JOUST, ROBOTRON, MR DO, SAN FRANCISCO RUSH THE ROCK!!!

Sonic 1992

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Re: Under a Tuscan Sun - Roadtrip of the Fittest
« Reply #3 on: April 15, 2009, 06:34:45 PM »
Gosh!!  Yall live around such beautiful places!   :D    Amazing!!

DarthNuno

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Re: Under a Tuscan Sun - Roadtrip of the Fittest
« Reply #4 on: April 15, 2009, 06:53:28 PM »
Woow !!! your pictures are awesome  :-* :-* :-*

I've never been in Tuscan... it's looks beautiful  :P :-*

PS : Fan of Marillion  ::) I'm a huge fan of progressive music... from YES to Dream Theater  :P

Thanks for these great pictures  :) Let's wait the big stuff now  ::)  :)

 :spaceace: :spaceace: :spaceace:

Superully

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Re: Under a Tuscan Sun - Roadtrip of the Fittest
« Reply #5 on: April 15, 2009, 06:59:34 PM »

the roadtrip of the fittest continues ...

after some wonderful days in Tuscany, it's time to pick up the JOUST 2 cab that is hopefully waiting for me somewhere in LUCCA.

setting the navigation device to the coordinates provided by Massimo (500miles) reveals what looks like a piece of cake to me: about 130 kilometers or one and a half hours on the road - just a small detour on my way back to Germany.



what i REALLY HATE  :evil:  >:( about italy is the fact that you have to pay road charge every time you're using the motorway - and believe me: THIS IS NOT CHEAP!!!



almost there! fortunately no traffic jam ...  ;)



having arrived at the given address, the house is there :), but massimo isn't  :'(



let's have a closer look, perhaps i'm at the wrong address ... NO WAY -  i must be right, a PONG DOUBLES and a beautiful NINTENDO SHERIFF cab in front of the house. i would take them both ...



a ring at the door bell "reveals" massimo's mother. she calls him at work and five minutes later he's here (but doesn't want to appear on the pictures). let's start with freeing the JOUST 2 cab from its very narrow (and humid) storage. a first look ...



a closer look at the cab (pictures by massimo) shows that the control panel is in nice condition (a little bit dirty and rusty), the sidearts and the wood have some damages (don't know what to do with that yet, will examine it more closely later).
 




why don't we take the cab outside? man, this is very tight, how did you get the cab in there, massimo? taking measures of the cab and the width of the door prove that SOMEHOW this HAS TO fit through the door.



unfortunately i don't have any further pictures from the transporting / loading process, because two people have to carry the cab (massimo and myself) and there is no photographer to "borrow" around. so here are the pictures of the cab in its "loaded status"  :arrow:





now that the hard job is done, let's continue with the fun part: massimo's collection! i can't believe what's waiting inside the garage  :shock:

not just ONE, but TWO wonderful COMPUTER SPACE cabinets - the holy grail of arcade collecting, how beautiful they are!!! CAN I HAVE ONE??? i have a JOUST 2 for trade  ;)

btw, we (the cabs and myself) look a little bit distorted because of the wide angle lens i'm using)



down the garage's stairway there is a gameroom-to-be with some more classic arcade cabs: Donkey Kong, Space Invaders, Dragon's Lair, Super Mario Bros. and a Super Sprint (not pictured, forgot to photograph it)



of course (who would have expected anything else?), we can't resist to play some rounds



looking at the watch i realize that's it's already past noon. there's still a lot of ground to cover before hitting home ground. Speaking of "hitting", I must hit the road  ::)

sitting inside my car i can't stop thinking of this Meat Loaf song: "objects in the rear view mirror may appear closer than they are". luckily, this object is PRETTY DAMN NEAR!!!



once again, i'm directing my car towards the Brenner mountain pass



the alps glow in the light of the evening sun



somewhere on a german autobahn



the last picture of the day: the tachometer signaling the end of this roadtrip



pictures of the unloading of the cab will follow!

to end this roadtrip posting for now, i'm quoting my favourite tv show:

one continent, three countries, 3316 kilometers - ully, you are the official winner of  THE AMAZING RACE THE ROADTRIP OF THE FITTEST  ;D


all i need is ... PONG - and a select few others: TOUCH ME, DRAGON'S LAIR, JOUST, ROBOTRON, MR DO, SAN FRANCISCO RUSH THE ROCK!!!

Blanka

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Re: Under a Tuscan Sun - Roadtrip of the Fittest
« Reply #6 on: April 15, 2009, 09:15:09 PM »
I want yellow computer space! How much? Mr. Retro Space needs wife!

Etienne MacGyver

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Re: Under a Tuscan Sun - Roadtrip of the Fittest
« Reply #7 on: April 15, 2009, 09:21:34 PM »
WOW! , nice pictures ! , very beautifull images from your "Culture lessons"  8)

Quote
finally on the road. to quote my favourite band Marillion: "i see convoys curbcrawling West German Autobahns"

I love Marillion !  they rock !  :twisted:

[offtopic]
Best albums: and
Ofcourse only from the time with Fish.
[/offtopic]

Goodluck with the JOUST2 CAB!
« Last Edit: April 16, 2009, 04:17:18 PM by Etienne [NL] »

level42

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Re: Under a Tuscan Sun - Roadtrip of the Fittest
« Reply #8 on: April 15, 2009, 10:04:08 PM »
If not the longest, this must be one of the most beautiful roadtrips made :D Great pics, I love it.

The funny thing was that I thought that this would be about a SW cab because you mentioned "Tuscan" which I misread as Tusken. The thing is, I am slowly introducing my son of 7 to the Star Wars movies and ever since he's been very enthustiastic about it and he asks tons of questions and so I made this "link without thinking" :D

Massimo has a wonderful collection ! Red DK, wide-body MB and that Sheriff.......that Sheriff hunted me for some time.

I'm pretty sure that I've seen this one up for sale on e-bay, and later someone (Speleo ?) told me that it had gone to an Italian buyer.

I loved that cab at the very first look. I don't care about the game, but that cab.....I seriously thought about bidding on it and doing the road-trip to Austria....but that was in my very early collecting days (think I only had the MAMA cab then).

The area where the games are would need a little arcade-room work, that would make that collection stand out much more :)

level42

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Re: Under a Tuscan Sun - Roadtrip of the Fittest
« Reply #9 on: April 15, 2009, 10:22:42 PM »
By the way, this: would make a great cab-hauler. (For short trips that is ;)).

I can't get over that Sheriff picture. It looks SO in place with the nice color of the house behind it and the "desert-plants" around it. If that Pong Doubles wouldn't be there it could almost be a "arcade flyer" picture.

Love it, could you mail me the full-size picture ?

I do hope those cabs were only temporarely outside ? The sun is not doing that artwork any good....and it looks to be in such nice shape....
« Last Edit: April 15, 2009, 10:25:29 PM by Level42 »

Orrimarrko

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Re: Under a Tuscan Sun - Roadtrip of the Fittest
« Reply #10 on: April 16, 2009, 07:17:09 AM »
I have to tell you - I don't know what you do for a living, but you should quit and become a photographer.

You have a great eye for a good picture opportunity.  Seriously.

Thanks for sharing - those pics of the abbey and some others were absolutely fantastic.  You European folks are quite lucky at exactly how many things you can see in such a short time.  Germany to Italy in less time than it would take me to cross Texas.

Anyway - great grab on the Joust 2 cab.  I can't wait to see some restoration pics and that puppy in action!

Great job, thanks for sharing.
I came here to do two things, play some games and drink some beer.  Looks like I'm out of beer...

Superully

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Re: Under a Tuscan Sun - Roadtrip of the Fittest
« Reply #11 on: April 16, 2009, 07:49:07 AM »
Massimo has a wonderful collection ! Red DK, wide-body MB and that Sheriff.......that Sheriff hunted me for some time.

I'm pretty sure that I've seen this one up for sale on e-bay, and later someone (Speleo ?) told me that it had gone to an Italian buyer.

I loved that cab at the very first look. I don't care about the game, but that cab.....I seriously thought about bidding on it and doing the road-trip to Austria....but that was in my very early collecting days (think I only had the MAMA cab then).

The area where the games are would need a little arcade-room work, that would make that collection stand out much more :)

when i saw that Sheriff cab in front of massimo's house, it was love at first sight, too  :-* unfortunately, he wants to keep it and turn it into a MAME cab, because the game is not working  :'( obviously it uses the same mirror trick as space invaders does - isn't that just great?

regarding the work in the arcade-room: i guess it would be massimo's turn to tell you more (keyword: RATS  :shock:)
all i need is ... PONG - and a select few others: TOUCH ME, DRAGON'S LAIR, JOUST, ROBOTRON, MR DO, SAN FRANCISCO RUSH THE ROCK!!!

Superully

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Re: Under a Tuscan Sun - Roadtrip of the Fittest
« Reply #12 on: April 16, 2009, 08:01:23 AM »
I have to tell you - I don't know what you do for a living, but you should quit and become a photographer.

You have a great eye for a good picture opportunity.  Seriously.

thx a lot to all of you for those nice compliments. a couple of years ago i seriously had been thinking about becoming a photographer, but being a teacher now isn't that bad either  ;) i love travelling around looking for the perfect picture, especially trying to find spots / details that the "normal" tourist doesn't. being at the right place at the right time is both a mixture of luck, intuition, patience and planning. perhaps when i'm getting tired of those cheeky children one day ...
all i need is ... PONG - and a select few others: TOUCH ME, DRAGON'S LAIR, JOUST, ROBOTRON, MR DO, SAN FRANCISCO RUSH THE ROCK!!!

Dazza

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Re: Under a Tuscan Sun - Roadtrip of the Fittest
« Reply #13 on: April 16, 2009, 10:14:49 AM »
I have to tell you - I don't know what you do for a living, but you should quit and become a photographer.

You have a great eye for a good picture opportunity.  Seriously.

I must admit I saw some of those pictures and thought the same thing. Lovely shots!

slowcade

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Re: Under a Tuscan Sun - Roadtrip of the Fittest
« Reply #14 on: April 16, 2009, 10:15:56 AM »
I have been waiting for this road trip report, and it didn't disappoint!  :D :D :D
The pictures are incredibly beautiful! Thank you for sharing!  :)