At the intersection of Highway 99 and 198...

...in Visalia, CA, you'll find a sign for the 198 turnoff that reads:

Hanford
Lemoore

Next Exit

That's all.

-martin

Okay, Hanford, spit it out! What's the story?
:wink:

Wow I didn't know the sign was still there! It must look pretty beaten up by now!

It's a long story but I'll shorten it:

Me and a few friends of mine had planned a trip down south from Merced, where I lived at the time, but the week before, uncontrolable circumstances forced me to plan a seperate trip the weekend before as well, minus my friends.

Since I'd be driving down two weekends in a row I thought I'd play a little joke. But what started as a little joke turned into an obsession, and for the entire week before my first trip, I constructed a fake but real-looking road sign, featuring my name. On the drive down I stopped right about where I thought was the middle of nowhere and I spiked the sign firmly in the ground at that turn off.

I was worried it wasn't going to last a week, thinking for sure someone was going to take it down. But a week later when my friends and I made the trip they were startled, as was I (wink wink) when after a quick pitstop we noticed a sign bearing my name. It was so out in the middle of nowhere it had to have been real... how could I have planned it? (wink again!)

I guess it really is out in the middle of nowhere since here were are quite a few years later and the sign is still up!

Now you're all in on the joke... and until that sign is taken down, let's raise a maitai to all those happless lost tourists who think that Hanford Lemoore is a real exit off of 198!

~Hanford

[ Edited by: hanford_lemoore on 2002-08-06 18:32 ]

Oh, okay. That clears it up! :wink:

Wow! That exact same thing happened to my friend Chester Orland, up around Chico.

hanford wrote:

Um....

Here's the thing, though: Hanford and Lemoore are real towns west of Visalia on highway 198. There are two signs that read:

Hanford
Lemoore

and one of them is elevated above the roadway, so unless you're a structural engineer, I don't think you put that one up.

So, am I misunderstanding your story, or are you having a good laugh right now? :)

-martin

PS- If Hanford is not your real name, and you got it from the sign, well, there's nothing wrong with that. It's in fact quite a dignified sounding name, and certainly nowhere near as ludicrous as, say, Otto Von Stroheim. I was just excited at the prospect of potentially uncovering its origin. Do tell, my good man.

On 2002-08-07 15:59, martiki6 wrote:
Hanford and Lemoore are real towns west of Visalia on highway 198.

What???!!?!! They ARE??!!?!!?!

Something tells me we're not going to get a straight answer, here... :wink:

Patrick McNeal

[ Edited by: Biotron2000 on 2005-05-21 19:14 ]

I think Hanford is, in the words of our UK colleages, "taking the piss"

-martin

The human head weighs 10 lbs.

You had me at "Hello"...

You complete me....

On 2002-08-07 20:17, thechikitiki wrote:
The human head weighs 10 lbs.

dogs brains are the size of a lemon, and i think ours is the size of a pineapple. ..Oh, i'm sorry... were we talking about something else?

[ Edited by: samoa on 2002-08-08 18:31 ]

mmmmmmm, pineapple.....

hanford,
if you ever have a significant other the two of you can refer to yourselves as...

"hanford & hon"

There are various stories about how my moniker came to be ... some claim it's my birth name while others believe it to be a sham… while still others insist I’m not a real person at all but rather the alter-ego of a famous, reclusive Tiki collecting philanthropist who faked his own death long ago to escape the stresses of capitalistic life. The truth however is a not something to be revealed here on the web, but face-to-face, over a Mai Tai. So if you run into me in person do ask and I’ll share….

~Hanford

[ Edited by: hanford_lemoore on 2002-08-09 03:45 ]

Unfortunately Hanford, you haven't been going out of late! You are missed. :)

And the last time I was out with you for a Mai Tai (TC Crawl SF '02), it was about 17 Mai Tai's too late to have coherent conversation- you told me you loved me in the back of the cab and then passed out on the sidewalk in front of Trad'r Sams. :)

-Martin

"Merced" what a town. I also spent many a year in that town. So its way cool to meet/converse with people from the same little Highway 99 town.