Not very daring, huh?

This is revealing:
Guilty pleasure? Chardonnay

 

no, but moving from cali to texas could be a shock to the system.

 

But you moved to Texas, and that was daring!

I can think of very few things more daring than moving there. Apart from maybe moving to Alabama, which makes @bwilson4web pretty daring.

 

A bit over 15 years ago, I did some work for an American golf-club manufacturer that was looking to outsource its manufacturing to Mainland China or Taiwanpartofchina.

A team of three engineering/manufacturing people came over, two from the company's site in Arizona, and one from another site somewhere in New England. They went to Japan first for some golf club technology thing, and then met me in Taiwan, and we went to Hong Kong and the Mainland.

The two from Arizona were quite cosmopolitan. The New England guy had been out of his state before, but he had never been out of New England. He was about 30. He was absolutely terrified. Tokyo was the first place he'd ever been to outside of New England. His colleagues told me he wore his backpack on his chest, and wrapped it in cling film (do Americans call it saran wrap or something?) because he was terrified of being a victim of crime (in Tokyo!). He'd learned that the rest of the world was much more dangerous than America, and he was really very scared. The reason he'd never been out of New England wasn't because of his circumstances - he had a well-paying job and no kids or other responsibilities - but because he thought the rest of the world was a terrible place. By the time he got to Taipei, he was a wreck.

The first few days in Taipei were a challenge, but it really was a learning experience for him. He was so pleased the first time he went to a 7-11 on his own in Taipei (at night!) and came back alive. Toward the end of our time in Taiwan, and certainly by the time he'd got to Hong Kong, he was starting to come out of his shell, and actually talk to local people in the street and stuff. He thanked me and his colleagues by the end of the trip and said he really felt it had changed him for the better.

I think it's very easy to get into that position, of thinking that the rest of the world is a terrible, dangerous place and it's better to stay in your state where the people are good. And it's not just an American thing: one of my friends never left New South Wales until he was 35 and his boyfriend's uncle offered them a place in Crete for a month, and he loved it. Now he travels as much as he can.

 

For a lot of people, they absolutely must choose between one or the other of those: choosing neither isn't an option.

 

They had been planning this for a while. Plus the Torrance Headquarters was too small for the move. Now a huge facility is in Plano and it is massive along with a network of underground throughways to travel all over by golf carts and small vehicles. Ive seen pictures of the main building of the welcome center and its sick looking.

 

when we moved to southern new hampshire from the boston area back in the day, people there were shocked that we would drive to boston and back on the same day. (50 miles each way) they had never been.

when we moved back and started a distribution business, we found out that many people from cape cod had never been over the bridge to the mainland, and never planned to. so we made a good business of running trucks down everyday.

 

You should. They give tours.

 

Yeah they say its like a small city already and growing now since it was pretty much in the middle of close to nowhere.

 

Trust me if you can call Toyota off their main website they will transfer you. I want to say the wait is almost a month though so start thinking and planning it like a vacation to Vegas! A sad arid lonely Vegas without the lights and tons of Toyotas

 

OK so you say Plano I say Kingsville. Hey where you from? Plano! Where? That is the point. Im from Dothan. One of the biggest cities in my area. If you cant say where it is without googling it then you arent from there or its in the middle of nowheresburg. See my point?

 

It also similar to " Hey where you from?" - Houston area,....( looks at Drivers License and its Galveston) Close enough lol.