One year ago today: October 25, 2021, written by spellchecker?
Five years ago today: October 25, 2017, don’t forget Taylor.
Nine years ago today: October 25, 2013, somewhere near Dawson, GA.
Random years ago today: October 25, 2020, it’s already better than average.
England wakes up to a Hindu as Prime Minister. The third world snickers but this may be what finally wakes up the complacent English. They allowed this to happen by establishing laws meant to demonstrate liberal thinking (as opposed to actually being liberal), then wind up their own victims when those same laws are used out of context. It is folly to think the East Indians could possibly do for England what England did for them as a colony. There’s a meme going around about the difference between building a new nation and immigrating to a post-industrial society to sign up for welfare. I view this event as the test of whether a White nation will submit to rule by outsiders just to prove how tolerant they are. Good morning.
The last of the chores got finished up, we had a quiet breakfast, and I headed south. Most of today is this trip as I’m taking the long way home. Half the trip is through new territory and I expect wrong turns and delays. It’s due to the geography, the Ozarks and Smokies and such run NW to SE and that is perpendicular to my planned route. The main highways are in valleys between the ranges, so unless I find the elusive south end of the chains, at some point I will have to drive through the passes and there are not many.
I headed south on the highway through Murfreesboro. Some 40 miles south of that, the foothills appear on the horizon. As I neared Manchester, the scenery was beautiful. Farms at the base of the hills, but on the “winter” side. The roads over the hills are basically paved goat trails and the fall leaves are incredible. There must be a storm approaching but I stayed on the side roads, tanking up in Monteagle. It’s clear why the first settlers grabbed these perfect farms beside the hills, you got permanent running water and standing timber.
One thing that always mystifies me is the size and number of these small towns. How do they still exist? There is no apparent economy to prop up what you find in the middle of nowhere. There are farms and a spotty lumber industry in the valleys but nothing like what I would expect to support these thousands of people. I had to get on the freeway toward Chattanooga to get over the last range of hills, near the town of South Pittsburg, get your atlas. Over the years, it has become S Pittsburg, like Truman’s middle name, just S.
Once on the Alabama side, it is divided highway again, I’m heading toward Powell, which you never heard of. Imagine my surprise when I arrived and saw all kinds of signs. Wal*Mart, Hilton, NASA, Hooters, most banks and restaurants, and an international airport. I was stunned that a place so obscure had every major industry in the area represented within the city limits. Not a mile later I discovered I was approaching a sign factory. Duh.
But not one place to stop for a snack, fortunately I had made up a bag lunch of turkey burgers before I left. What I missed was coffee and once again, in a contemporary American quirk, the places that serve coffee were all on the other side of the road, bunched together. You also get outlets that don’t serve coffee at all, it’s unAmerican. There should be a law that sandwich shops have to, and same with libraries. A bit further down the valley, I crossed over two small ranges to get to the valley north of Eufala. There is nothing special about that place except like Dalton over in Georgia, it is a place to buy gas. The wind is picking up and drift leaves across the roadways, we are in for some rain. I won’t make Eufala today.
The countryside is beautiful, though you have to be old like me to enjoy it. Odd as it may seem, I have no tradition driving through the countryside with the window down and my arm hanging out. This was never a part of my background. And same with this fall scenery. Both these factors are not me living in the past because I never did these things before. Drive with the window down when I was a kid and the road dust would choke you half to death. They are more like the way I imagined things would be and now here I am.
The GPS is hopelessly outdated around here. One bad effect of that device is it caused the neglect of street and building signs. It was getting dark by Opelika, where my motorcycle stalled many years ago. The library I found by chance, no sign, no number, just a brick building that could have been a warehouse. Wanting a cold beer, the GPS said the nearest spot was the “Caboose”, but the spot was an empty parking lot near Fox Trail and Columbus. Even long-term locals had never heard of the place. There’s a couple hotels up the street, but I don’t care for lounges if that’s what this is.
So, off to the library in Auburn, roughly ten miles down a dark stretch of freeway under repair. It’s nice, the computer room is empty and you don’t have to show ID. The stack of newspapers had never been read, so I tore out several of the old crossword puzzles, trust me, they will never know. Back to Opelika, where I noticed a sign saying Railroad Avenue. Taking the chance there would be a pub, I found the only thing open was a bingo parlor and a pizza joint full of screaming undisciplined kidlets. Then, I noticed a spot with a side door. I parked and it was a restaurant, but they had a bar on the side.
The barkeep said there are dozens of night spots along the street that open only Thursday through Saturday. Maybe I’m in the bible belt? I had a couple and noticed something that a personality like mine would pick up on. There was a birthday party in the restaurant section, maybe ten people. Two of them were sisters. One maybe sixteen, the other probably twenty. That was the only action, because they were wearing somewhat identical outfits. Whatever the fashion is called this time around, in my day they were known as hot pants. And therein was the comedy and tragedy.
The younger sister had a perfect figure, she brought water to the eyes of every man in the place. Perfection and then her old sister. Hmmm, kind of already putting on the pounds, a bit of the habitual scowl of the one who knows she’s upstaged. And trying to get a little focus on herself, “I love water skiing. I love mountain climbing”, that sort of angle but she was already plodding where the kid sister was weightless with youthful energy. I was the only male not staring but I have terrific peripheral vision.
I stayed until closing, around 9:30PM, then off to snooze at the Crackerbarrel in the south end. The storm let up at the right moment for me to find a perfect parking spot. (Even with a custom made bed, the van has to be parked level for comfort.) A spot with trees or hedges to the passenger side let one step out at night if need be. The Yeti battery is not yet hooked up, there is no need in this weather. And the moment I hit that memory foam, I was like unconscious until way after sunup next day. With no appetite for breakfast, I opted to drive to Eufala for my first stop. I have to drive 450 more miles today and want to see some new scenery. It’s been a storybook trip so far. If you want pictures, try TripAdvisor, I was busy driving.
Mechanized potato farmsing.
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ADDENDUM
Let’s talk money. The secondary purpose of this trip was to look over what has transpired in that department. Thinking far ahead, I insist any business conducted must not be pressing on our time. That commodity is going to run out. As the saying goes, a lot of people mistakenly thought growing old was going to take a lot longer than it did. The truly tough realities, I think, are still on the way. The concept from here is that the best route is one where we take advantage of how we can outwait the competition, for I was on the receiving side of that over the first half of my life. You did not have to out-think or out-work me, you just had to sit down and wait until my resources could not match your daddy’s money.
To put a dollar amount to it, each of my trips to Tennessee costs around $2,450 when all is included. That means everything from gas to ink cartridges to operations. The average bill for business meals is around 6% of that, but bear in mind these times are enormously relevant to how we sustain momentum. On top of that, I allow 10% for my own chasing around and another 15% as non-GMO food costs more and I go along with that because it is the right thing to do.
When all these things come home to roost, like most Americans we are losing ground to inflation. Bread is $6 per loaf and butter is $8 a pound, almost three times the cost when Trump was in charge. Few are believing that nonsense that several months ago it suddenly cost 3-1/2 times more to raise a chicken. I’d planned for this, so while cash is losing value, it is still best to keep some around. It’s the tricky concept of making money by not losing it as fast as others. Learn to protect your cash or lose it. Take the example of the stimulus checks, I still have all the money sitting in the bank, I think it is around $2,000. It was not in the budget so it never got spent.
Hence, maybe it is no longer $2,000 in purchasing power, but that far outpaces those who have to nibble away at their saving for things like groceries. There you have it, I’m losing at a slower rate and if something comes along I can pounce on it.
The latest venture we tried fell by the wayside simply because of the huge number of hours required to run the operation was not made clear in advance. If I want a job, I’ll go get one. There are millions of houses coming up for late payments and there has to be a dollar to be made in there somewhere. Meanwhile, we can’t get a straight answer out of anybody at our end. They want you to sit through a one hour indoctrination before getting to the point. The Reb & I look upon that with contempt.
