Random Thoughts and Things

Location: KOA North Brattleboro; Brattleboro, Vermont
(Click pics to enlarge)

Today was a slow day. The rain finally stopped by mid-morning and the afternoon turned into a very pretty day with the temperature topping out at 70 degrees. I used to the day to prepare for moving day tomorrow. I have reservations at a campground in Maine near the ocean. I'm not sure how the park is going to be since it used to be owned by NASCAR and now is owned by Sun Resorts. It is a Passport America park so I'll get 50% off the daily rate for 2 of the 3 days I will be camped there.

1) Someone asked me how I find campgrounds. I use several sources and none seems to be the best. Passport America and Good Sam's have a pretty good listing of campgrounds. The campground I'm in now is a KOA and I am a member of their organization. I will recoup my membership fee at the next KOA campground. I also use the web site RVParkReviews to see what others may have said about a campground. State parks are a hit and miss depending on the state. New York had great state parks and lots of them. I have been told that Michigan and Wisconsin also has a great state park system. There are other places I check like the Forest River RV Forums and Facebook RV Dreams. Before I make the reservation, I'll always check out Google Earth to see what it looks like from the air. I nearly made reservations at a campground where everything sounded good until Google Earth showed me the back half of the campground was a junkyard. I stayed somewhere else.

2) Iraq is about to fall to the bad guys. They will then have a country with lots of oil to be used to finance their terrorist schemes around the world. Afghanistan will do the same thing next year. Iran will have an atomic bomb very soon. Syria is about to become a part of new Iraq. And yes, it is all the fault of the Obama administration. They think that simply by the US being so strong, militarily and economically, that makes us a bad country. They don't realize that if you're the biggest, baddest SOB on the block, you can either take care of people by making sure the bad people don't cause trouble, or you can be the leader of the bad people. Over the 200+ years the US has been around, we have done a few bad things but for every bad thing we've done, we have done 100 good things. Overall, the US has been the steadying factor around the world since WW II. You can pat George W. Bush on the back for being an honorable person by not talking trash about Obama's screw-ups. You can bet your last dollar that if the roles were reversed, Obama would not be as honorable. He tried blaming everything on Bush from day one, which to me was a sign of immaturity.
 
 3) There is a reason why we never negotiated with bad people in the past. It was because it only encouraged the bad people to do the same thing again and again. Rewarding bad behavior only increases the amount of bad behavior. Don't you reckon the Taliban is looking to kidnap someone now so they can trade for more of their leaders.

4) The downtown part of the towns up here in the northeast are very vibrant and full of people. There are little shops and small cafe's everywhere. People are walking on the sidewalks going from store to store or eating at tables in front of cafe's. It is a world of difference from the south. I don't know the reason yet, but it is impressive.

5) Every little town has a couple of pizza places up here. Not the chain stores, but just small mom and pops places. I got a pizza in New York from a gas station that was great. Not frozen, freshly made right in front of you. Oh, and each town has a couple small ice cream places.

6) Gas dropped about 15 cents a gallon up just in the last 2 days. I thought it was suppose to go up but now it went the other way. I filled up today in preparation for tomorrow's move and paid 3.70 a gallon. Thursday, at the same station, it was 3.85 a gallon.

7) The campground filled up with kids today. They are running, screaming and biking all over the place. I think some of the parents just lets them run wild and tells them to just stay in the park. The kids go everywhere while the parents sit around a campfire drinking beer. Not all of the parents are that way, but definitely some.

8) I'm anxious to see the coast tomorrow. I've seen the Atlantic before, a lot, but never this far north.

9) I'm thinking about taking a whale watching trip when I get up to Bar Harbor area next week. That should be interesting. What do ya'll think? good or bad idea.

10) I had a hankering for some bacon, fried eggs, grits and toast the other day. I went into a fancy grocery store, similar to Whole Foods, and found everything but grits. I didn't ask anyone, but where else would they be at except with the oatmeal and stuff like that. I looked in the flour and corn meal section too, no luck. Well, the other stuff was good even without the grits.

Sorry no pictures today, but maybe some from the coast tomorrow if I get there soon enough. If not, then definitely the next day.

Ya'll take care of each other and I'll cya down the road.