bruce t

packnrat we always get 'sensitive' when folks talk about which side of the road to drive on. When you look at Australia and the UK it doesn't seem like a lot of folks drive on the 'correct' side of the road. 🙂 But 2 of biggest populations in the world are right. Or is that left? India and Indonesia. Much of Africa. Then you throw in SE Asia such as Malaysia and then New Zealand and Japan etc it all adds up to a lot of folks saying "they drive on the wrong side of the road in the USA". But all jokes aside. It's not really an issue. As long as you keep the centre line on the driver side.

Hey guys. We Australians and Brits, and almost half the rest of the worlds population, have the steering wheel on the right side. Not the wrong side. 😀 My advice is to join SKPs. Get an address. You are required to get your insurance before you register. (Here in Australia registration includes the compulsory insurance. But in the USA you have to buy the compulsory insurance separately. Not sure how it works in the UK.). I'm not a fan of the Dakota route but each to their own. SKP and a Livingston address ain't too hard. Remember your visa requirements and limits. You may have to return home every 6 months.

We've stayed in 3 RV parks in 2 years. Not an issue for us!! But you have to like boondocking. And go without the RV park facilities.

The issue here is not the parks as such. It's people. When you are dealing with the general public anything is possible. We have hiked sections of the Appalachian Trail and come across folks who treat it as a day walk. Totally un prepared and further up the trail than they realise. No matter what changes are made and who is making the changes there will always be folks who are caught out. We hiked the Confluence trail in UT to where the Green River meets the Colorado River. There are only stone markers and lots of dead end small canyons. There's ladders and scrambling. Yet we have seen families with small kids tackle the trail with just a water bottle. It's an eleven mile hike. Add the heat and it's a disaster waiting to happen. Make all the changes you like. Human nature being what it is there will still be inefficiencies.

My understanding is that the CCC was the key to most is the USAs park facilities from back in the 1930's. Maybe it's time to reintroduce a similar scheme. For my simple brain it's a win win situation. Employment and improved facilities. But it would become a political football that would go nowhere.

This isn't a new problem. How many folks start the Bright Angel trail at GC each year and get airlifted back. You need to know your limits and be prepared.

Here in Australia almost every year German tourists go missing. Many see it as a badge of honour to tell adventure stories back home. In almost every case they make the fatal mistake of leaving their vehicle. Deserts are not only hot and dry but also very cold at night. Back in 2009 we over extended in very hot conditions in the west section of Zion. We ran out of water before we got to our destination and had to hike back without any water at all. The trail was poorly marked but we should have turned around earlier.

As an outsider looking in we find this rule a 'bit' strange. Bit like having to pay before pumping. (We always paid cash for our fuel after our credit card was compromised in New Jersey a 1000 miles away from where we were). No petrol, sorry gas, station would survive in Australia if you had to pay first. Every station has CCTV.

bobsallyh my bad. I knew it wasn't Yellowstone park.

Yellowstone today! Er no thanks.

FWIW it's the for runner of a yet to be announce heavier 4x4 pickup. Here in Australia we wont be getting Santa Cruz because the steering wheel is on the 'wrong' side. 😃 We have our steering wheel on the right side! But Hyundai have said there is a heavier unit in the pipeline. More pickup than SUV.

Kirk you need to come back to Australia. Lots of free ares now. Some of the old payphone booths are now 'towers' for free wifi. But someone is paying for it. No such thing as 'free' nowdays. They will be getting the money from someone else.

Thanks everyone for a good read. Do koala stories count? Anyway you can keep your bear's. I'll keep our sharks, crocodiles, snakes, jelly fish, spiders, ....... hang on a minute. I think I'll go with the bears.

Kirk I just take what I'm told to take. Pam keeps track of it all. But I'm a bit suspicious of the blue pills!!!

bigjim that's part of the problem. We have all become so reliant on vaccines, antibiotics and steroids that our bodies have become lazy. Time to toughen up and live in a bark hut. Do our own hunting. 😆 Seriously though my sister inlaw and her excuse of a husband are at the doctor everytime they get a sniffle. They pop pills for everything known to mankind. Their doctor should give them a good hard slap and say 'no' every now and again. Now how many of us are like them? (Caveat - I pop 25 pills a day. But half of them are to keep me alive. The other half I have no idea of).

We had one full paint bus conversion. Black, red and gold. NEVER again. If you plan on RV parks and running your A/C all the time then ok. They make the RV way hotter inside. If you intend boondocking then white/silver is they only option. Don't believe me. On a hot day go and put your hand on a dark coloured RV and then on a white one. Maybe you should do the white one first because the dark one may burn your hand. All that heat gets transferred inside via the frames etc.

Folks I used the microwave as an example of "risk". We make calculated risks all our lives. Often without thinking about the risk. My point is that what ever path you go down someone will fine a negative point. But for every negative point there is a solution. You just have to have the will to find the solution. If you're risk adverse then stop driving. Stop eating the wrong foods. I know, I know, that doesn't suit hey! But we take those risks and accept them but find excuses not to take other risks based on nothing more than ideology.

We can all find examples that suite our opinions. Heck how many workers have died in coal mines over the years? But there's a double standard here. If you are afraid of any radioactive material then you will avoid the medical help that folks use every day to save lives. Yes it's low risk. Isn't it? That's why hospital staff leave the room while they x-ray YOU. Not them. And where is that medical radio active waste stored? You're happy to stand in front of your microwave while you are heating something! Life is full of risks. Calculated risks. Heck even driving to the hospital to get an x-ray is a risk. The danger on the road is greater than the risk from the x-ray. We accept that risk. Some folks still smoke while protesting all sorts of things. There are problems with coal, wind, solar, nuclear you name it. But a problem is something that is just waiting for a solution. The sad thing is that some folks don't want a solution because they don't want the problem solved.

Where will the waste go is a 'strange' question. The waste is currently 'somewhere'. Is 'somewhere' safe? Was it purpose designed at 'somewhere'? What the Greens forget is that a purpose designed and built facility is better than the temporary facilities at 'somewhere'. So the Greens have exposed their hand. They say its all about safety. Yet they are happy to have the waste stored at 'somewhere' rather than building a purpose designed place at 'elsewhere'. Simply because it doesn't suit their narrative.

If it's safe to use mini reactors to run Navy ships then what's the issue? RV we have a point of agreement. 😃 If just 10-20% of the money spent on developing new batteries was spent on these small reactors then maybe we could all be happy. Or even a percentage of subsidies for wind and solar. With around 6000 crew you have a small town. Maybe we should all build nuclear ships and permanently dock them!!

There needs to be a reality check on covid-19 and the vaccines. It's not much over a year since this crisis became the crisis that it has panned out to be. In that time researches have scrambled to understand the virus and developed vaccines. This has never happened before. Never such a serious and wide spread viruses. Never such a fast response from vaccine companies. We all need to cut them all some slack. There is bound to be some hiccups. To be some confusion and conflict of interest. Including politicians and a media frenzy looking for, or inventing, the next headline. One thing we have learnt more than anything else is the true nature of humans capability to meet a crisis. But sadly it has also shown the bad side of human nature. The bickering about who's facts are the real facts. Bickering over who said what and who promised what. Political point scoring. It takes longer to build a new house than it has to research, developed, test, manufacture, distribute and administer the vaccine. And yes there have been stuff ups. But aren't you glad they have something to stuff up rather than nothing to offer? Just a reality check before anyone decides to complain about something relatively trivial.

Will you need proof of vaccination in the future anytime you are admitted to hospital? Elective surgery? I have no idea but its one area where it may be mandated. Just think out loud.

FWIW there is no intention on the Australian government mandating vaccination. Nor will they entertain the thought of any sort of a vaccination ID. But as for flying etc etc. That's a different matter. A commercial enterprise, ie airlines, can set their own rules for flying. QANTAS has already proposed a no jab no fly rule on international flights when they restart. So technically any business can set their own rules for entering their premises. A commercial decision is way different from a government mandated rule. I seem to recall a funny little man with a mustachio in Germany who decided to identify certain folks with a tattoo. When you start 'discriminating' certain folks you are at the top of a very very slippery slope. But the USA already has an ID system that everyone accepts. It's called the Social Security Number. So maybe, just maybe when you got your shot it was recorded along with your SSN. Big brother!!!! Just being the devils advocate.

It seems Covid-19 isn't the biggest issue. The big problem has been the misinformation and politicizing of it. I bet I can come up with a dozen web sites that quote different figures for vaccine results. So what's the true truth? It's easy. Keep your distance. Wash your hands. Wear a mask when you can't keep your distance. Get the jab as soon as you can. How hard it that? Why blame team blue or team red when you should take the responsibility yourself to stay safe?

Everyone is entitled to an opinion. But just because you have an opinion doesn't mean you are right! Right?