2025 Grand Tour General Discussion

[DownUnder]

I enjoy Grand Tours as they offer an opportunity to go to "out of the way" towns, but I am finding that this year there is a down-side.

Visiting a town that at one time that had been prosperous but has since fallen on hard times, and finding a 1880s era pub that had been vibrant but now is just a run-down shell of it's former self, surrounded by other vacant/run down shops and buildings is less than up-lifting. All the fun and good times that surely occurred in these places over the decades, are now just a distant memories.

[Lapchik]

I'm getting the opposite of that. All the little town locals that basically live in these bars and diners like to talk to the oddly dressed out of towner. Places like Monowi or Gross Nebraska don't get new arrivals very often.

[BkerChuck]

I'm seeing some of that in the old coal towns in PA. I know I'll see more of it later in areas around Johnstown and Pittsburgh in the old steel mill towns. Some areas have been making a comeback but then they get gentrified and push out the old residents who can no longer afford to live there.

[theemightyorbit]

Googie!