Kauai was a traffic mess in the 90s when I spent time there. The Big Island has everything I want. Even great beaches if you want to share with lots of people. This may be our last trip. We put our last piece of paradise on the market this trip. Both sides of the island are getting crowded. COL has sky rocketed since we were here last time. A sad mix of wealthy and homeless. Cheapest omelet we have found was $14.95. A 3 egg omelet at the Hilton Waikoloa is $24 ala carte. Then that was to be expected when bread and a dozen eggs are both over 6 bucks. Cheapest Spring water we have found is $2.50 per gallon.
Asian money is wrecking the west coast as you well know. Canada finally put a real estate tax on foreign purchases to protect their own citizens trying to buy a home, but the realtors lobbyists throw too much money to politicians here for that to happen.
15% tax in Vancouver won't change anything, these laundered fortunes are so vast it is like a $15 transaction fee to the buyer of an ordinary 200K residence. Sketchy offshore buyers should be taxed at 50% or more - if residency is for sale and no vetting is done regarding sources of wealth, let them chip in for our infrastructure needs.
Seattle, Vancouver, and much of California are already wrecked. The cat is out of the bag,
Not much of a road trip. Only two miles to my favorite restaurant in Kona. Quinn's Almost by the Sea has been making the best Fish, chips & Burgers at least for 35 years. Their MaiTais are equally wonderful. Had a late lunch today and walked out to this beauty.
We have had strong surf the last few days. Lots of surfers. Great views from our lanai.
On the road today, rain, which brings out the timid in locals and beloved new drivers alike. I was a bit of a boor: a moron in a 2008 style Focus 2 door pulled out in front of me from a side street when I was going 40 on a main arterial street. I hit the brakes, and laid on the horn. Not a toot, a many-seconds yell. He then dawdles and never gets up to speed - I suspect I had upset him and he was trolling me, so I found a gap in traffic and got past. He never sped up, and was far behind me in no time. I can't imagine someone with engine trouble would just blindly and dangerously pull into traffic, I have a feeling he was distracted, as I never saw his head up. I might upload the cam clip, but honking really triggers sensitive people.
I also saw a UPS driver yell at someone who cut him off, pretty cool. The driving talent around here is only getting worse.
Could be. I don't know if legalization made it worse, either. It would explain a bit of behavior around here, although I suspect electronics are behind most of it.
I think that particular Focus predates the distracting ICE. But an iPhone can be even more distracting, and although we have new laws against such idiocy, I don't have any data about the on-the-road law enforcers doing anything about it.
Could be. I don't know if legalization made it worse, either. It would explain a bit of behavior around here, although I suspect electronics are behind most of it.
Want road rage, this guy is not happy about something the guy in the Subaru did.
Ha, facebook comments make Youtube comments look like a MENSA convention.
I am always amazed when people exit their vehicles to force a confrontation, and those who do it are asking to become a casualty. Failed mental health system in that case, I suspect.
Watch out on the road for lunatics, and these days might more than ever be a time to have some kind of protection.
Some clips from the road. I was on a road trip last weekend, just emptied out the dashcam. Earlier clips were overwritten (as I forgot), but many remained. Ignore the timestamp - software got wonky when I reformatted the card.
First, a bad incident on the way to work this morning - poor Accord coupe. Yes, I signaled during that wide turn
Driving in the 'old neighborhood' in the town where my mom lives. I was involved in a car crash on one of these streets when I was a teen, no real injuries, but ruined cars. It amuses me that I could afford one of those nice old houses with my wages here, which here might buy me an iffy condo that is older than I am, or an old tract house 90 minutes from work. Gotta love the PNW, Music more fitting for the fintail:
My family took a small road trip this weekend of about 800 miles. We left at 0500 on Saturday morning and arrived home at about 2230 last night.
Whoops. Website issues. LOL
Okay, so a little more than just a one-sentence summary!
We went down the Richardson Highway. None of us had been on this stretch before, which is a little sad given how long we've lived here, but so it goes. Overall rainy/overcast trip, but the sun did break through for a little while on the way down:
and, then it clouded over again....
Our first stop was to visit the HAARP facility, near Gakona. Pretty impressive; I think my son was nearly in heaven! Haha
When we continued down to McCarthy, which was also a new destination for us. The road is one for the ages... Sixty miles in about three hours on the way down.
2018 Subaru Crosstrek, 2014 Audi Q7 TDI, 2013 Subaru Forester, 2013 Ford F250 Lariat D, 1976 Ford F250, 1969 Chevrolet C20, 1969 Ford Econoline 100
Once there, we visited the Kennecott Copper Mine on Sunday:
As these are clearly sound structures, we thought, "why not take a walk through?!"
Amiright?!
All good things come to an end, though, so we bid McCarthy goodbye at about 1500 Sunday, and were home late that evening. We did arrive with a small souvenir, though!
2018 Subaru Crosstrek, 2014 Audi Q7 TDI, 2013 Subaru Forester, 2013 Ford F250 Lariat D, 1976 Ford F250, 1969 Chevrolet C20, 1969 Ford Econoline 100
Ah summer in AK. Are the mosquitoes the size of hawks yet?
Hah! They usually start the year that way, then get smaller as the year progresses. We were mostly pest-free on this trip since the weather is fairly cool now. It may have been 50 degrees during our time in McCarthy, and was only a little above freezing at 0600 on Sunday morning.
2018 Subaru Crosstrek, 2014 Audi Q7 TDI, 2013 Subaru Forester, 2013 Ford F250 Lariat D, 1976 Ford F250, 1969 Chevrolet C20, 1969 Ford Econoline 100
I tried getting down to McCarthy once on a fall hunting trip. The Road was already too deep in snow to make it. That was about 1975. Never went back. A bunch of strange people were living back there in the 1990s. Went to a Bluegrass festival in Chitna around early 1990s. Wasn't much there. It was some mining operation in its day.
I think my sister lived in that area a decade ago. Not exactly a crime hot spot.
I am going to keep an ear out for what happens in the case. At least the sheriff put out some kind of apology - I doubt his very political and somewhat arrogant predecessor would have done likewise. It'll be interesting to see what kind of non-punishment is doled out, and how the organization tries to sweep another loose cannon under the rug.
They've revealed the face of the brave officer, but won't name him. Just as one would expect. No word of punishment other than paid vacation/leave. No responsibility.
I hope the biker lawyers up and the proceeds come from the no doubt healthy pension that private sector workers could barely dream of. Right.
EVERY interaction with the badges should be on camera.
My current road trip included closing on our new home in Pahrump NV. This is the back of the house from the 12th Green. I was watching the ducks in the mini lake. More fun watching the golfers hit into the lake.
Drove out to this great golf course. Homes around it start under $200k. Pretty place with decent food. Lovely walking and golf cart paths. Great place to retire on a budget. Low maintenance yards.
My current road trip included closing on our new home in Pahrump NV. This is the back of the house from the 12th Green. I was watching the ducks in the mini lake. More fun watching the golfers hit into the lake.
Drove out to this great golf course. Homes around it start under $200k. Pretty place with decent food. Lovely walking and golf cart paths. Great place to retire on a budget. Low maintenance yards.
Congrats on the closing! I'll have to check the diesel thread to see how the Canyon was on your run to SD and back!
I will post it. We have about 325 miles on the tank the dealer filled. All short 3-4 mile trips. Says 20.9 MPG. Have not had it over 45 MPH except once for about 2 miles on the highway to Mt Falls Golf course. No freeways within 45 miles of here, and I love it. I will get a couple hundred miles of 75 MPH on I15 headed back to San Diego tomorrow evening. 20 MPG city is the EPA so I am probably over that with 100% city driving the last 8 days.
Michaell says: I'll have to share that with my wife. She's tired of snow, and I like the prices and access to the golf course
I think it is the perfect place to own a home for those that want to travel during the Summer while it is hot here. You know it is a popular winter retreat with all the RV parks. The Mountains are beautiful and the sunrise and sunsets spectacular.
Now that we are losing daylight, my morning drive is starting to highlight people who aren't the best at driving in the dark. Today's winner was a first gen Sedona, fog lights on, that dawdled and weaved all over the place, no signals, before finally vanishing behind me once I went around it. 0545 seems a little late for the inebriated (and this town has few watering holes anyway), I think it was just a case of timid and inept - a classic Seattle area combo.
Next week I take a little road trip out to the coast again, it'll be nice once I get off I5 and away from city style traffic.
On a little road trip today, beautiful perfect weather, and a little excitement. First was this incident, looks worse than it seemed in person, but still caught my eye:
Traffic slowed for this - a 00s era Subaru left I5, rolled, and started a small fire. When I drove by, there were a few people standing there, but nobody could be seen tending to the car or fire. I carry an extinguisher, so I pulled over. By the time I got to it, a couple others arrived with extinguishers too. WSP arrived by the time I left, Subaru driver was unhurt, emphatically claimed he was cut off and ran off the road:
And the fun of driving on state highways in SW WA - barely speeding makes one the fastest vehicle on the road. Clip chosen for passing a LLC, and funny music:
My friend the limo. I suppose the line of sight was not perfect - downhill with a slight curve, but it was dark and my car has bright LED lights, you can't tell me I wasn't visible:
Out on the road today, I noticed a lot of roadkill - raccoons and squirrels. Must be a time of year when they are foraging to prepare for winter?
Also saw the passive-aggressive Seattle driver stereotype in action. I was behind a maroon newer Corolla at a light. I saw it had one of those weird oversized rear view mirrors, and thought that it might mean a dopey driver. Lo and behold, light turns green, driver sits there. I give a brief "wake up" (split second) toot of the horn, and he takes off. At the next intersection, he darts into the turn lane beside me, rolls down his window, and is screaming at me. Of course, I am a jerk, so I dish it back out to him, and a real whine fest begins - claiming he will put me on Youtube (LOL), run a "skip trace" on my car, etc. I told him to go for it, and also how I admire maroon Corollas. He then turned and I continued ahead. I was in the old car, too - good luck with your "trace". If only the good LEOs out there would crack down on distracted driving like they said they would, maybe there wouldn't be so many dawdlers.
I wonder if I will make it to YT, or be "traced" (the old car is on special plates, not in the normal database AFAIK, good luck with that, Mr. Investigator lol). I need to get a dashcam in the fintail, maybe if I upgrade the one in the modern car, I will move the old one into the old car.
So what if he does; Corolla, YouTube, skip trace - sounds like a techie weenie. Not someone who would have the guts to actually confront you. Maybe you'll become an Internet sensation. All stars get discovered somewhere, right? Back in the old days a movie actress would be discovered at a soda shop. Today it is on YouTube. Better buy some big aviator sunglasses
I'm usually a pretty mellow driver - my dashcamming in the modern car seldom finds anything interesting, nor am I usually annoyed enough to make a stink of it. I don't think I drive enough to be a YT star (there are a couple of popular YT channels of drivers in this region).
Yeah, not too worried about being tracked down by an easily offended snowflake in a Corolla with a wide mirror who loses it when he gets tooted at for dawdling on green. I tried hard not to laugh out loud when he said "skip trace" - dude, you were at fault, just move on and drive away as I did.
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2025 Ram 1500 Laramie 4x4 / 2023 Mercedes EQE 350 4Matic / 2022 Icon I6L Golf Cart
Seattle, Vancouver, and much of California are already wrecked. The cat is out of the bag,
We have had strong surf the last few days. Lots of surfers. Great views from our lanai.
A friend of mine just got back from Hawaii, he had a good time. I need to get over there and see the volcanoes sometime.
I also saw a UPS driver yell at someone who cut him off, pretty cool. The driving talent around here is only getting worse.
https://www.facebook.com/PeeNut.net/videos/1429081040516268/
I am always amazed when people exit their vehicles to force a confrontation, and those who do it are asking to become a casualty. Failed mental health system in that case, I suspect.
Watch out on the road for lunatics, and these days might more than ever be a time to have some kind of protection.
My city is building some new roads, which may take a minuscule amount of pressure off some existing roads - and taking out a loan for it. If crosswalk crowders and no-signalers were cited, those could probably fund these improvements. Thinking about a road trip, have fun in Puget Sound!
First, a bad incident on the way to work this morning - poor Accord coupe. Yes, I signaled during that wide turn
Driving in the 'old neighborhood' in the town where my mom lives. I was involved in a car crash on one of these streets when I was a teen, no real injuries, but ruined cars. It amuses me that I could afford one of those nice old houses with my wages here, which here might buy me an iffy condo that is older than I am, or an old tract house 90 minutes from work. Gotta love the PNW, Music more fitting for the fintail:
Driving on NB I5 in construction - the left lane becomes the slow lane, and a few miles of road are restricted for a few hundred yards of work:
LLC hijinx - Camry in front of the Audi had been LLCing for ages, plenty of room to move over and let him by, but nope:
Finally, the Audi passes on the right, moves back over, and hits the brakes. Amusing:
Okay, so a little more than just a one-sentence summary!
We went down the Richardson Highway. None of us had been on this stretch before, which is a little sad given how long we've lived here, but so it goes. Overall rainy/overcast trip, but the sun did break through for a little while on the way down:
and, then it clouded over again....
Our first stop was to visit the HAARP facility, near Gakona. Pretty impressive; I think my son was nearly in heaven! Haha
When we continued down to McCarthy, which was also a new destination for us. The road is one for the ages... Sixty miles in about three hours on the way down.
Once there, we visited the Kennecott Copper Mine on Sunday:
As these are clearly sound structures, we thought, "why not take a walk through?!"
Amiright?!
All good things come to an end, though, so we bid McCarthy goodbye at about 1500 Sunday, and were home late that evening. We did arrive with a small souvenir, though!
Sadly, this was our very first time camping this year.
Curiously, I've actually been at that intersection before. It was much less eventful when I passed through it.
I am going to keep an ear out for what happens in the case. At least the sheriff put out some kind of apology - I doubt his very political and somewhat arrogant predecessor would have done likewise. It'll be interesting to see what kind of non-punishment is doled out, and how the organization tries to sweep another loose cannon under the rug.
I hope the biker lawyers up and the proceeds come from the no doubt healthy pension that private sector workers could barely dream of. Right.
EVERY interaction with the badges should be on camera.
Drove out to this great golf course. Homes around it start under $200k. Pretty place with decent food. Lovely walking and golf cart paths. Great place to retire on a budget. Low maintenance yards.
http://www.mountainfallsgolfclub.com/
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I think it is the perfect place to own a home for those that want to travel during the Summer while it is hot here. You know it is a popular winter retreat with all the RV parks. The Mountains are beautiful and the sunrise and sunsets spectacular.
Next week I take a little road trip out to the coast again, it'll be nice once I get off I5 and away from city style traffic.
Traffic slowed for this - a 00s era Subaru left I5, rolled, and started a small fire. When I drove by, there were a few people standing there, but nobody could be seen tending to the car or fire. I carry an extinguisher, so I pulled over. By the time I got to it, a couple others arrived with extinguishers too. WSP arrived by the time I left, Subaru driver was unhurt, emphatically claimed he was cut off and ran off the road:
And the fun of driving on state highways in SW WA - barely speeding makes one the fastest vehicle on the road. Clip chosen for passing a LLC, and funny music:
This morning I got cut off by a limo on a nearly deserted road, I might put that one on youtube. There was no excuse.
And the flash I received in return for giving a flash - kind of like being honked back at, which is what I consider an admission of guilt
Also saw the passive-aggressive Seattle driver stereotype in action. I was behind a maroon newer Corolla at a light. I saw it had one of those weird oversized rear view mirrors, and thought that it might mean a dopey driver. Lo and behold, light turns green, driver sits there. I give a brief "wake up" (split second) toot of the horn, and he takes off. At the next intersection, he darts into the turn lane beside me, rolls down his window, and is screaming at me. Of course, I am a jerk, so I dish it back out to him, and a real whine fest begins - claiming he will put me on Youtube (LOL), run a "skip trace" on my car, etc. I told him to go for it, and also how I admire maroon Corollas. He then turned and I continued ahead. I was in the old car, too - good luck with your "trace". If only the good LEOs out there would crack down on distracted driving like they said they would, maybe there wouldn't be so many dawdlers.
I wonder if I will make it to YT, or be "traced" (the old car is on special plates, not in the normal database AFAIK, good luck with that, Mr. Investigator lol). I need to get a dashcam in the fintail, maybe if I upgrade the one in the modern car, I will move the old one into the old car.
Yeah, not too worried about being tracked down by an easily offended snowflake in a Corolla with a wide mirror who loses it when he gets tooted at for dawdling on green. I tried hard not to laugh out loud when he said "skip trace" - dude, you were at fault, just move on and drive away as I did.