1st Class and 2nd Class citizens?

I read two different blogs this morning sort of about the same thing ... but not.

On one blog a very law abiding citizen who is a nomad & lives in a travel trailer was told by a forest service ranger to not worry about the rules and could stay in the same area (National Forest) for more than the allowed 14 days. Some other laws & how to deal with the lay breakers were discussed too.
The allowed variance from the 14 day law was welcomed.



The other blog talked of a forest service ranger who was not interested in how long a nomad had been there (National Forest 14 day rule) but was interested in the campers "residence".  It seems if the forest service ranger 'thinks' you don't have a "residence" they can ticket you for camping in the national forest. I do believe that ticket requires a trip to a federal court.
Several examples of this enforcement in action via newspaper articles were included.


FWIW it was reported that the high end RV's were not being questioned for proof of a residence.

I'm not really surprised, way back in the 90's my family & 2 tents had to pay twice what the 40' Class "A" next to us paid.
At that national forest camp (Cass Lake Minnesota) "sleeping units" were billed.

Part of the club

I've always liked Hawaiian shirts.
Palm trees, Hibiscus & Plumeria and maybe a hula girl too. Bright colors, muted colors & soft materials were all good. 

One day we out shopping and I looked around, it was like I was part of a club.... older guys everywhere with Hawaiian shirts, shorts, gray (or white) hair and beard (& it was a goatee usually). Tennis shoes or sandals. 

That was a couple of years ago & I stopped wearing my Hawaiian shirts.  I guess I just didn't want to belong to that club...

Palm trees

I have a really nice Hawaiian Polo shirt I found at a Goodwill, it's blue & has flowers on it. I've been keeping it "just in case" I wanted to start wearing them again.

I'm workcamping 6 days a week this summer & I really enjoy my day off. We went to a shopping center area on our day off yesterday to go to a Costco, it had been some time since we'd gone to Costco and the 25 miles was the farthest we'd traveled since we arrived here in April. I wore my Hawaiian polo shirt.

Hibiscus

After Costco ($1.50 hot dogs!) we stopped at Best Buy so my wife could look at tablets, the guy who was helping us asked me if I was retired, he said it was the shirt. 

I guess I'm part of the club ... I did find some nice cotton Hawaiian polo shirts on line.

Flowers in Hawaii

More palm trees

Working 6 days a week is not nearly as fun as being retired.

Summer in the mid-west

Yesterday it was humid, not the humidity that I found that summer in Mobile Alabama but the humidity you find 1,000 miles north of the Gulf of Mexico, like in Chicagoland. I suspect that by the time I'm accumulated to it it will be time to move on!
5 hours working yesterday just sucked the energy from me & 1/2 an hour in an air conditioned space off my feet allowed me to 'feel' recovered.

Right now it's wet wet wet outside, the radar shows yellow passing over us but better weather after that, my raincoat is going with me today if it's wet or dry when I leave.  I have to leave for work in either 10 or 20 minutes, work is close by. The time difference is on foot or by bike, getting dirty on the bike from the tires is my concern.
There are worse problems to have....

Stuffed Jalapenos wrapped in bacon in a dutch oven

I needed a picture, this one even smells good!

The Golden Age or Too much time to think

I live in a campground, A lot of the people in this campground work at an amusement park. Think of the campground as being in the middle of an area.. On one side we have amusement park rides & a water park, on the other we have a casino & horse racing.

Foot long corn dogs, cotton candy, a pickle on a stick & a ride on the roller coaster or a really nice buffet while you sit & watch the races, maybe some  blackjack, roulette, slot machines or  poker? Both places have adult beverages too..


I have time to think with my job, I have to pay attention but there is time to think.  

It's sometimes odd where my thoughts go...

We are living in the 'Golden Age', here in America at least.
Look at human history, for just about forever if someone could take something, anything, and keep it, it was theirs. Anything.  

Our society has gone to great lengths to prevent that behavior and I appreciate it.
Real property rights are well established and well protected, slavery is not at all wide spread, violent crime is there but not near what it could be.

Not enough for you?  

We have ice when ever we want it, we have music that comes out of tiny boxes just for us or for the whole world if we want. 

We have worldwide communication and access to all knowledge in our pocket. 

We have stores that are open 24 hours a day where you can buy a gallon of milk, a pair of shoes made on the other side of the world, a jar of salsa from NYC, a loaf of bread, a steak and a 10' piece of electrical conduit and pay for it with electronic money...
Is modern America great or what?

This is an HU-16E over the SF bay in 1978, there is a guy standing in the door making a gesture. It's not me I was in the other plane taking the picture. I've always liked this photo and I needed to put some picture here...

I like my job...

I like the Big Wheel & the SkyShot in the back ground

We bought a car, well a van actually. with just 85k miles it's the newest used car I've bought in 20 years... It's good to be able to drive to the store again. Having gotten the van my free time occupation of watching craigslist for a car has ended. As I'm sure every one knows the buying the car is just the first expense, even a cheap car. There is money to the state to get it legal, money to an insurance company because it's smart and another part of that legal stuff. Then there are the small parts....keys, a battery, cleaning supplies & wiper blades. On the bright side the tires are great!
There is one problem, I don't think we can tow it '4 down'.

Old cars. Way back some serious shopping would get you a $100 car that would last a year, when you could sell it for $100, those days are gone. $1000 is a good number today for something not totally worn out, rusted out, needing a blanket for a seat cover just to drive and leaving oil puddles.
Enough on used cars.

The best part of working on rides at an amusement park is the people. There are a lot of people involved with an amusement park, not just the people coming to play, an amusement park is a labor intensive place. One ride may have just one person, some have a helper or two and one ride requires 8 people all the time
The usual mix of folks at work with most being able to deal with the public well, a lot are workcampers (older) and another large group is high school/college kids. 

The guests are there to have a good time. A lot of kids, before school let out there were bus loads upon bus loads of middle school kids... all the different types of behavior you could ever hope to see. This last week has been families. I've been working on the Sky Car, it's hanging from a cable & it goes across the park, it doesn't stop so watching the kids get off is interesting. The 4, 5 or 6 year olds are the ones ... some are excited, a few are really nervous and most are intense at the coming event of stepping off a moving seat on to the ground.
They tell me the Sky Car was the one used at the World's Fair in Seattle.... I never thought of there being a market for used amusement park rides...

The other day after work & the home chores were done I had an hour before the park closed so I went to ride the sky car. I enjoy the ride.

The photos were all taken at 0730 on the 7th of June, 2013, most of the RVs are work campers.

 It's supposed to get up to 70 today.

 The newest used car