1984Echoes

PS: Met a woman and husband at a Ribs place today in Pigeon Forge and she starts telling a story of cars stopping to look at a bear cub up in a tree near the road earlier today. Then several people get out of their car to start taking close up pictures. My eyes went wide. She said: "Yeah, that's how I felt! Don't these people know where there's baby bear cub that Mama Bear will also be nearby?" "Yeah, and Mama Bear won't be happy with these idiots surrounding baby bear for pictures! Mama Bear will kick their asses if they get in her way!" "Yep" How can people be so stupid? I keep seeing articles on people getting out of their cars at Yellowstone so they can get closeups with a moose or a buffalo.Seriously? And then mad because they got chased back to their car. Or at least the ones that lived. There were a few deaths with these people. Seriously... what is wrong with them?

There's Alum Creek and Alum Cave about 4 miles or so in the Trail... I didn't go that far today... And tomorrow AM I'm set on hiking out to Grotto Falls on a different trail... And I will definitely feed the bears... NOT!

It's relatively inexpensive based on it not being a motor home, and I didn't want the extra engine & drive train (and associated problems/ cost). It's older and used... so I can experiment with this Monster. I've found RV places that cost $450/ month or $2,500/ year so I can figure out how I want to manage those expenses... I didn't mind getting the Beast and its lower MPG (at the time); I haven't driven a lot the past two years. But if I hit the road and drive a lot... we'll see. But yeah... I'm going to do some calculations on cost Hotels versus costs Camper. The only thing is... I wouldn't mind doing an American Walkabout and staying on the road for 9-10 months out of the year. Hotels would be very unwieldy with that versus my mobile office & home Camper would be workable. I'll get a place down in Lakeland and spend Feb/March in Spring Training down there with the Camper in storage foe a couple months... Just thinking out loud as I barely have these plans set in motion yet...

You really don't understand this very well, do you? Please give me an answer: What do you think of Putin bombing the Port of Odessa yesterday, preventing the shipment of famine saving Ukrainian grain to starving Africans, two days after agreeing (through Turkey's efforts) to allow Russian & Ukrainian grain to be shipped to starving Africans?

Which they're not going to do. BTW, this is not a reward. It's paying a ransom.

Yes. And no. It wasn't all recovery money. Anyone who was still working through that period had two years' of savings and very little ability to spend it. That spike is the pandemic ending (at least in the way that there were no more inhibitions about going outside again and doing things) and people spending their two years savings, recovery money, etc., etc... And yes. That and the difficulties of the supply chain trying to gear back up to 100% after being at 20% for two years is exactly why... inflation. At least until Russia invaded Ukraine and then you could add that into energy/ gas/ food cost inflation as well...

Correct. And I friggin' hated Rush Limbaugh. Two minutes listening was two minutes too much

The two most inyteresting pics: 1) Lobster back rock (I just gave it that name for kicks...) 2) Arch Rock (actually called that:

First hike - Alum Creek Trail... 3.5 miles total in and out (I could've/ should've gone quite a bit further... but, like I said, out of shape after 3 years on my butt 24/7: trying to figure out how to take these first pics with the sun in my eyes:

I've been trying to get this pic from my phone to email as it shows the office a bit better:

The office I created in the back of my camper (note the framed 1937 Wheaties Charlie Gehringer (Pride of Fowlerville, Michigan), and the first issue of Sports Illustrated from August 16, 1954). Also, those framed beetles were from a shop that I owned from 2008-2009 (yes, right in the middle of the Great Recession)...: And you can tell it's a guys camper by the slobbish tossing of clothes everywhere and the half-completed projects plastered all over the place as well...: PS: Where all those broom/rake/mop handles are in the first pic, I'm going to build a pantry to close them in, along with extra bath towels and cleaning supplies and such... Probably a good place to hang a dirty laundry bag as well... hidden.

Need a beast to pull this 32' monster: The Monster: And yes, I'm actually in Pigeon Forge Tennessee right now with My Beast and My Monster:

I've just started to use my camper that I bought from my cousin in Michigan a couple years ago. And I do mean just started... like, I took it out for the first time ever this past week to the Smokey Mountains for a family reunion here this coming weekend. It's older, 2011, but that means I can beat it up as much as is necessary to get myself "back to nature". I have some steep learning curve to go through in order to deal with: tire blowouts, properly draining grey and black water tanks, and not scraping the back corner of my RV against gas station pumps... working on those things... It's 32' so it's a pretty big boy... (Is that why I didn't see the back end swing into the gas pumps? They didn't blow up BTW so I think I'm good...) I've been sitting on my backside the past 3 years 24/7 running three different online businesses so I'm pretty much out of shape and pretty much want to retire from my main job (manufacturing company that the back office has all been VPN'ing into since Covid started... and we never signed up for new office space - to this day - after shutting down our old office. But we did have to keep our manufacturing facilities of course...). Because... I would love to get back to nature and do some hiking, kayaking, etc... Wondering who else is travelling across America RV'ing as much as they can... Maybe noone in here but thought I would start this thread. If/when I retire from my main job... I built an office in the back end of my camper (and tore out the bunk beds that were there since my two are out of the nest...); which covers running my eBay business when I'm on the road, and another business I can do anywhere. Gonna show some pics of my first Back to Nature Excursion!!!

Of course they will. And if it's the Donbass crew that captures them their lives are in that much more danger. Don't they already have two Americans there that they've sentenced to death?

Is there any possible way to get scummier than those guys already are? Because I don't see it. The scummiest virus invasion of scum-sucking bacterially infected MAGA Republicans?

He's served 10 years out of 25 for arms trafficking. He would have been let go within 5 years anyways (do Russians also get "good behavior" in our prisons...?); so why not dump the guy for two American citizens that Russia is F'ing with? I do this trade every day to Sunday... But that's just me. Now if they could just add in Edward Snowden for a kicker we could have icing on our cake...

Such hysterics, You know that Al traded Alex Avila & Justin Wilson for Jeimer Candelario & Isaac Paredes? Right? Or did you forget that part? And name the GM that can spin Jeimer into gold as you seem to think. Because I'm calling pure horseshit with that little gem.

So OK... Jobe is good. But he's got a lotta work still to do... I can live with that. That... and good health.

That's just nasty!

What do you mean shelled? He had two games against them in 2021 and in 10 Inn's he had 14 K's, a 1.03 WHIP... I am guessing that they expect him to get better too... If the Cardinals wanted some cost certainty and control: Skubal and Soto for Jordan Walker...

If Avila talks the Cardinals into a Jordon Walker for Skubal trade.... Win.

SWEET-looking Second Slider!!!

100% agree.

I'm not rooting for them to lose. I'm rooting for them to win the best 2023 draft pick! 😉

Probably. But I like the first 7 guys, and the top 3 guys the best (of course)... so I feel a little more flexible than in years' past... But Lose for Crews (and let's have some Lotto Luck) would seem to work.