Chewbacca Defense

You are spot on. Pretty much how it was/is in Atlanta. I-75 and I-85 both pass through Atlanta, and merge together to get through downtown (called the downtown connector). It has pretty much been in some state of construction since I was a kid (late 70's/early 80's). I think there was one time I went through when there wasn't construction (probably around the time of the Olympics), but every other time at least some portion of it has been under construction....widening, repaving, adding/removing/changing a bridge, on ramp or off ramp. Even a few weeks ago, construction.... The other stretch of road under perpetual construction is GA-400. And yeah, that took years off my life too. At one point I was driving it 7 days a week either going to work or going to school. It was a happy day when I moved up to Athens.

Just watching Michael Snyder's video for today and a comment caught my eye....Someone said that elk have started moving through their area, and the first fall storm is usually soon to follow when they show up.... Interesting observation....

23 states and 6 countries....UK/Scotland was definitely my favorite, with Spain a very close second. I did not care for France, but I really didn't venture out from Paris. I've heard rural France is the polar opposite of Paris. Japan was really cool, I could see living there short term (a year or so). Most of the states I racked up driving cross-country when I moved, an a road trip to NYC during college.

The amount of wealth in sections of that part of the country are pretty obscene. On the north side of Atlanta, pretty much every time I drove somewhere, I passed a Lamborghini or Rolls Royce. Also a lot of Land Rovers and high end Mercedes. And the preferred vacation location for that crowd is Sea Island, so it does not surprise me that prices have gone up so much. Part of it is your dollar goes so much further down there. We ate at a Vietnamese restaurant that was REALLY nice, in a very high end shopping complex. Prices were the same, maybe even a little cheaper than a hole in the wall restaurant we like here in Bellingham. My cousin lives in a very nice 3 story 4,500 sq ft house on .5 acres and she said it would probably sell for $650k. That same house would pull in well north of $1m out here. If I didn't hate the heat and humidity so much, I would give serious consideration to booking it back there. I could get one hell of a house/land for what I could sell my house here for.

Didn't dip below 70 here until about 4:30 this morning. I stepped outside this morning to some very light rain, but just a few drops before it stopped. Currently 69

Got down to 64 up here this morning, and woke up to cloudy skies. When I took the doggo out at 1am it looked and smelled like there was smoke in the air.

That cold front was glorious. My cousin's husband was the first to go outside Saturday morning, and he came back in side and urged us all to get outside and enjoy the cool "dry" air LOL

For once, I didn't come back more tired. I finally accepted that I have to pony up for Premium Economy (I am about 6'2"-6'3" and about 270#), so I had plenty of legroom. For the Atlanta-Seattle flight, there was no one in the middle seat. I have wide shoulders, so I am usually tensed up trying to not impede on the middle seat passenger's space....didn't have to worry about that this trip. The gal in the aisle seat was really tall, and skinny but large framed, and we both celebrated when we figured out the middle seat would be empty. Also, my flight into Bellingham landed about 5pm which gave me time to come home and unwind before bed. Also, now that my "kids" are adults, it's a lot easier...."you have my credit card, go find food and be at the gate by the time boarding starts"

Oh yeah, that's where the rich folks go. Very high end there. I have a couple of friends who have family homes there. We went over a couple of times to see them, and you have to go past a guard shack on the causeway leading the island. I guess its to keep the ruffians and scofflaws out. Or maybe to make the people living there feel more important. Somehow we made it through the checkpoint.

My little side trip up to Asheville really took a huge chunk of time out of the trip. It was totally worth it, but it was also 7-8 hours in the car round trip. And my kids were staying with my niece about 15-20 minutes away, so it was a round trip picking them up and dropping them off each day. I was kinda shocked when I got the receipt from the rental car company and it had over 700 miles on it. My buddy lives in Black Mountain just north of Asheville, and I could see myself living there if I ever had to move back east. Neat little community, and I have forgotten how beautiful the Appalachians are. His house sits at about 2,500 feet elevation, and it definitely made a difference in the temp.

Where did @Phil stay? It is nice there if you can handle the heat/humidity, and the marsh smell....and the bugs...did I mention the heat and humidity? Seriously though, the sand dunes, all of the tidal estuaries and wildlife, massive oak trees with Spanish moss hanging off them, it is a pretty part of the country.

I'm trying to figure out how the hell Tim posts so much while he is on vacation. I was on vacation last week, and we put over 700 miles on the rental car, and I barely had time to even read the forum, much less post. I still haven't had a chance to go back and read posts during the t-storms last week while I was gone.

I would have been down for it if I was in town (bet you didn't know it, but I'm a poet). I think your location isn't too bad though it would probably be too much of a haul for TWL, Andrew and the folks in the Spokane area unless they made a weekend of it. I'm guessing the roads down from Stampede Pass are open so Phil should be able to make it. I wouldn't mind the drive as long as it was in the early to mid afternoon.

But do they bless the rains down in Africa?

Got back into town yesterday. Only a few near misses with thunderstorms while I was in Georgia, which was disappointing. Our last full day there was quite pleasant, with relatively low humidity and a cool breeze. The flight back was a non-event weather-wise, and I got some great pictures over the Cascades, then again over Puget Sound. Side note, If you are a fan of the Horizon Q400, you better get your flights in quick. They announced a few months ago that they are being retired. I talked to the flight attendant during a mechanical delay, and she said they are accelerating the schedule and will be phased out by January. She also said they will be discontinuing the a 'la cart service, as well as free beer & wine that you normally get on the Q400 flights. Flights to Medford have already switched over, and she said the SEA-PDX run will be the last to switch.

First time being able to get online since into the ATL Tuesday night. Looks like the storms were not too impressive in Bellingham, but sounds like other parts of Puget Sound had some fun (I haven't ha a chance to go throgh the posts. As for the last part of my journey, we flew through some incredible cloud formations as we worked our way in to the airport. After we landed, I could see there was a finger of intense rain extending up towards the airport on radar, that I got a picture of as we were taxiing. Right as they were opening the door and driving the baggage loading belt up to the plane, there was a huge flash of lightning, and the skies opened up. The ground crew scrambled for cover, and we ended up waiting over 2 hours to finally get our bags. It was raining so hard I could barely make out the shape of an airplane that had been pushed back and was sitting in the alley waiting to taxi

Pilot just took a hard left, starting to see why

Currently southeast of Wichita heading SE…. One hell of an anvil cloud, I think it is over Dallas but not sure, my connection is pretty slow. Edit: not sure what the deal is with the upside down pictures, saw other folks having this problem earlier….

I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that it's gonna snow at some point in the Pacific Northwest region between November 2022 and March 2023. Hell, I'll really stick my neck out and say it is going to snow more than once *somewhere* in the Pacific Northwest during that time period.

Except low tide....from what I remember the wind almost always died at low tide, and it became intolerable. I never understood why it worked out that way. But yeah...the humidity is next level down there....

There have been pretty good thunderstorms rattling around Atlanta the past couple of days, and they look to continue for the next several days. Hopefully that pans out. Looks like a decent chance of storms the night I am in Asheville too. Locally, its up to 78, but feels pretty pleasant in the shade (as opposed to the last round of heat. I think the humidity is a little lower this time around?

I only say this because that is the day I leave town, and I want to be here for it...

Got down to 48 this morning. BRISK!

D**n....the conversation earlier got me going through the photos from 2014. I don't know what in the hell I am doing with photography but I still got some pretty decent shots.

these are from 2014