Thread:Rodangizzardcrusher3/@comment-26687285-20160822213306/@comment-26687285-20161116005039

(Apoligies, i only started writing this evening)

At the end of the 2010 summer vacation my parents, Gijs and myself went on a week long trip to America. We first arrived in New York City, where we stayed for about 2.5 days. From there we drove to Philidelphia, where we spent aprox 2 days. Then we traveled north towards the Canadian border, spending some 3 days at Niagra Falls. And lastly we traveled further land-inwards where, after a 2 day stay in Toronto, we flew back home.

In preperation for the journey, had taken several notes for movie locations i wanted to visit in NYC and Philly (inspired by Cinemassacre.com's Rocky and Ghostbusters location videos). I won't bore you with what became of most of them so to make a long story short, i was more naive and obsessive back then and we only got to see a select few. I was quite heartbroken when we failed to find Hook & Ladder 8, but like i said, i was less mature back then. Also i later discovered that certain photos i had wanted to have taken at several of the sites had never actually been made, most likely because my dad either forgot to do so or didn't realize which moments i wanted captured until it was too late.

Regardless, it was a very special experience for all of us. Probably the best, most memorable part of it (and the point of this story) was our visit to Laurel Hill Cemetery (AKA Adrian Balboa's resting place). We got there around the end of the afternoon on the 2nd day. We quickly found the headstone (which is located very close to the entrance). When we told the staff we were looking for the spot from the film itself, they called over an old man named Frank. He told us that he had actually been present during the film's shoot in 06' and even showed us a picture of him and Sly. He then (exclusively) drove us some way across the terrain and showed us the actual location. He also drove us past a section used in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and said he had seen Megan Fox there at the time. At one point i asked him whether he had ever met a joung man named James Rolfe?. Sadly however, he said no. Before we left i (as you might expect from a cinefile) kissed and waved goodbye to the headstone the same way Rocky did in part 6.

Have you ever experienced a moment so striking or unique that you never want to attempt to recreate it and only want to preserve and cherish the memory?. That's what happened to me here. This experience is the reason i will never go back to that place. I don't want anything about my memory of that time and place to change. I never want to have any other impression of that cemetery than the one i left with on that day. It's sort of like meeting an old friend years later. It might be fun for a minute or so, but you soon realise that things just aren't the same between as they used to be. It's better to simply remember the past rather than trying to relive it.

Anyway, that is one of my all-time favorite vacation moments.