h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

It's good to see the humble farmer working the solution out.

I know at least one farmer who could manage it. I kind of think my farmer grandfather could have done it, too.

Hah! Got here! Finally beamed into the Sykes farmhouse, with something very large and very fast heading straight for it. .

I kind of like that, a television satellite with a decayed orbit. Decayed orbit, that has a curious mystery to it, the two words together. What's a decayed orbit? I guess its an orbit that doesn't work any more.

Is that an actual term, or does it come straight from your brain? Like, can anything have a decayed orbit?

Having got here, I got into this world very quickly, love the description of the missile launcher.

Fave line, don't know why, is 'being alone left him with free evenings over at the Super 8 Motel.' Love that, facing eternity in the Super 8 Motel. I wonder what the decor was like?

heheh I like the digital calendar, present from the geek cousin. Mentioned twice, ah yes, is part of the awful Monday experience but then provides the guidance system for the missile launcher.

Well, Mondays will never ever be the same again. Nice work, Mister.

A decaying, or decayed orbit is indeed a Thing. It means the object in orbit no longer orbits where it was supposed to orbit, but starts to orbit lower, which leads to the danger that it will be caught in an atmosphere and burnt up, or pulled by gravity and, er, fall. Decaying orbits can sometimes be corrected if you've got a nice, handy robot or passing spacecraft.

You don't want to know what the decor is like at a Super 8 Motel. The ambiance is not for the sensitive. Fun fact: in the 1960s, Super 8 motels really rented rooms for $8 a night. Sort of like RyanAir, but without actually going anyplace.

Oh, really? about the decaying orbit. Now I'm really obsessed. I could ask you 200 more questions about it, but I'll drive you crazy, so will go research myself.

Thanks for the info!

Eight dollars a night? Ryanair without going anyplace. I wonder who all would have stayed in them in the 60s, make a good story to find out.

We stayed in Motel 6 when we arrived in Phoenix in "91. It was so weird, because I had the strongest sense I'd been there before, in Phoenix, in a Motel. I hadn't obviously. Probably jet lag. Or not ..

We stayed in another motel somewhere in the Painted Desert, because guess who needed to go stand on a corner in Winslow Arizona, like his hero, Jackson Browne.

We were really really tired, and felt very far from home, you know how it gets when you're travelling.

The decor was kind of yellow and brown striped curtains, weird dim lights, and a picture on the wall that was so garish (I can't remember the imagery, if it had been the coast of the UK it would have been an odd galleon ship.. As it was we were in the desert, so I wonder what it was?). Anyway we were glad when the morning came.

Good though, glad we went there. Painted desert was amazing. I'd like to go back to that motel, and check into h2g2 from my phone, hey guys I'm back here! And the picture is still here.

I won't though, except in my mind.

So what would the decor of Super 8 been like? tell me tell me tell me tell me tell me tell me now now now now now

I'm sure they've improved. I haven't seen inside one for ages - but yeah, the horrible art work. That's what you always notice in those motels, isn't it? It makes you go out and look at other things, like the Painted Desert.

The walls of my dreams will be decorated with peculiar motel pictures now.

No!

I like the bit in First Man when they're back from the moon and in the rather dingy quarantine quarters, and Neil Armstrong looks at the garish picture on the wall in a resigned sort of a way.

Me, too.