fuggled

I've been meaning to write this up for a while but never got around to it. Our family did a two week trip back around Halloween. We spent the first week working/schooling remotely from Alpine. Alpine was convenient to have a house for cooking/schooling with the kids and worked great to go exploring in the afternoon. I really wasn't sure what to expect from Alpine, but we ended up having a nice time there. The second week was down in Terlingua with a lot of time in the park. It was our first time down in the area and it really was amazing. Here's a rundown on the itinerary: Day 1 (Sunday 10/25) - Drove from Dallas to Alpine, stopping at Monahans Sandhills State Park for lunch along the way. Heads up, that place is sandy. Glad we stopped, but the kids were wrecked after a couple hours. Day 2 - This is when the cold front blew in before Halloween. It was down in the 20s in Alpine. Did school and work at home most of the day. In the afternoon we hiked Hancock Hill behind Sul Ross State. Nice hike, couldn't see anything through the fog but the kids enjoyed finding the bikes and the desk up there. Day 3 - Everything in Alpine was iced over, so mostly we stayed put. The wife and kids explored the neighborhood and found a bunch of frozen cacti. We did make a trip to the Museum of the Big Bend, and I was really impressed with it. Lots of cool maps there and a collection of western art. We could have spent a lot more time exploring if my 6 year old wasn't losing his shit. Day 4 - The sun came out and everything thawed. After school, we headed over to Marfa for the afternoon. Because it was the middle of the week and the middle of the pandemic, a lot of stuff was shut down. We still got to explore El Paisano and a few shops. I guess Marfa is the county seat, but it was a little eerie to see the town square shut down with the national guard giving Covid tests. Felt like we walked into a zombie movie. I didn't realize the Prada is 30 minutes outside of town, but we drove out anyway. Not sure that was worth it. We took the scenic route up past the Davis Mountains on our way back to Alpine. Day 5 - Not sure what we did. I was drinking or lost. Took the kids to the local park, I think. Day 6 - We played hooky. Spent the morning at McDonald Observatory. We got passes to explore the grounds, but couldn't do much. Most of the exhibits in the visitor center were blocked off. None of the telescopes were accessible. Still, it was cool to look around and there was a docent to give us some insight into the place. We grabbed lunch at the Fort David Drugstore and then explored the Ft. Davis National Historic Site. Very cool place given how much of the fort they've been able to preserve. The hike through the hills behind the fort was great. Everyone died of dysentery. Day 7 (Saturday 10/31 - Halloween) - Took off from Alpine, grabbed food at Company Grocer in Marathon to have for lunch and then headed into Big Bend. First stop was at the Fossil Discovery Exhibit. Very cool open-air exhibit showing where fossils were discovered and recovered (by a Texas grad student). Then we headed over to Rio Grande Village and found a picnic spot at Daniels Ranch. After lunch, we hiked the Boquillas Canyon. Honestly, the trail was a bit of a mess from all the horse the locals had run across the river. Still, the kids liked exploring along the Rio Grande. The border crossing was closed, so that wasn't on our agenda. After that, we swung up to Chisos Basin just to orient ourselves. Took a minute to chat with the rangers and look out towards The Window, before heading down to find our first rental in Terlingua. Our place was up the hill behind the Starlight, a road not met to be driven. This was a pretty cool shipping container house with a great view southwest to the border. Before dinner, the kids scrambled down the hill behind the house and came back with piles of fossils. Day 8 - This is the day we explore down Ross Maxwell. Hiked the Upper Burro Mesa Pouroff in the morning. This was one of my favorite hikes. You start through the desert and the drop down into a ravine. It doesn't have the vistas of the mountains, but walking through the ravine and staring up at the walls was really cool. The dropoff at the end was impressive. Hiked into Santa Elena Canyon in the afternoon and the kids took a quick dip in the water once we reached the end. Day 9 - (Monday 11/2) Holy shit, school is cancelled today and tomorrow because our school is a polling place. We totally missed this when we were planning, so suddenly we had a 2 full extra days to explore. Headed out early today to get a parking spot at Lost Mine. Great hike. The kids really enjoyed this one. Great views. In the evening we headed down to the ghost town cemetery for the Dia De Los Muertos celebration. Bought some candles from the preservation society to place on the graves. Cool experience. Day 10 - (Tuesday 11/3) We took a short rafting trip in the morning and then drove along the river, stopped for lunch and hiked Closed Canyon. It was similar to Burro Mesa, but not nearly as impressive. On the way back to Terlingua we stopped in Lajitas for break and saw Clay Henry. That night we checked into a tipi at Basecamp Terlingua. I sat by the fire by myself with a couple bottles while I watched election results on my phone. Day 11 - School was back on and wifi at the tipi wasn't the best. We made it work. This was a low key day. We had lunch at DB's Rustic Iron BBQ, which was really good (way better than I expected). Day 12 - This was a bit of a weird day because of school. Kids did zoom calls first thing in the morning, then we had to check out of the tipi. Then we headed up to Chisos Basin for lunch and to borrow the wifi so my daughter could take a test on Zoom. After lunch we hiked around Sam Neil Ranch, which I enjoyed. Pretty cool seeing the types of trees tucked into the corners of the desert. Then we headed to our final rental, an off-grid house up the hill from Basecamp. Day 13 - Another low key school day. And finally a chance to do some laundry. In the evening, we wandered over to a private ranch owned by some friends and enjoyed the sunset. Day 14 - Last day to visit the park. We headed over to Balanced Rock in the morning. I thought this hike was just ok, but the kids really liked it. We had lunch in Chisos Basin and were going to hike The Window, but my daughter turned her ankle. So we called it a day. Stopped at Many Stones (the rock shop) on the way out of the park. The owner's trying to sell, if the Surly 1% is interested. Day 15 - Long drive back to Dallas. I left feeling like there was a lot more we could have crammed in, but felt pretty satisfied with this trip. I've also put off planning a trip down there, because the logistics of cramming something in during the school year never seemed to make sense. It was really the flexibility from Covid that gave us a chance to get down there. I also can't believe we didn't notice the long weekend for the election. I'm marking my calendar for Election 2024 as another vacation (and it's actually the perfect time for Big Bend). Thanks to those that offered advice here!

Thanks for the replies. We'll be driving to the park from Dallas, so probably get there late in the day and camp that first night. Then have a full day in and around the park and camp the next night. Then we'd likely head out early the next morning. So really only one day exploring the park. Still seem like too much?

I'm looking for any recommendations for a Colorado road trip in early August. Schedule is flexible, but I'm thinking something like 10-14 days. We'll be driving up from Dallas (me, wife, kids 6 & 10) and rough plan is to take a loop through the south part of the state to hit the national parks. Rough idea is something like this: 2 nights: Great Sand Dunes (maybe Durango or Pagosa Springs)? 2 nights: Mesa Verde 2-3 nights: Telluride or Silverton/Ouray - not sure which route to take 2 nights: Black Canyon Then either east to Poncha Springs/Buena Vista or back south through Telluride or Ouray We'll do a mix of car camping and hotels/rentals. Probably camping at Great Sand Dunes and Black Canyon and staying at the lodge in Mesa Verde. Everything else is up in the air and there are plenty of gaps to fill in. Kids will be happy if they get to spend most of that time in water, whether that's alpine lakes, mountain streams or hot springs. We'll also plan on a lot of hiking. Maybe rafting, maybe fishing. Jeeping/ATVs aren't really our thing. What you got?

Just to nitpick, the tax is on net worth over $50 million. So even if we overvalue your $45 million by 10%, you still don't pay any tax.

You're arguing that death is easier to foresee and prepare for than an annual tax. It's hard to see how that argument holds water. It's going to be an annual tax. Everyone will know it's coming, there's no reason people wouldn't/couldn't plan ahead for the appropriate amount of liquidity. Also, don't we already deal with this for income tax? If you're self-employed you have to estimate your income tax and pay quarterly or else you're hit with a penalty. I'm not saying that's a perfect system, but you're argument that the logistics are impossible is a bit weak.

I was curious about this myself so I did some digging. Here's the BS he's ranting about: https://www.usapoliticstoday.org/20-reasons-barack-obama/ "2. “If I had a son, he’d look like Trayvon” In another example of unnecessarily inserting himself into a sensitive racial issue, Obama proclaimed after the shooting of Trayvon Martin, “If I had a son, he’d look like Trayvon.”" Sent from my Pixel 5 using Tapatalk

Serious question...why? Ambulances and police cars idle all the time, don't they? This feels like something that may just be a myth.

If it's just for emergencies: https://www.cargenerator.com/

North Texas Municipal Water District calling for the immediate curtailment of non-essential use. https://news.ntmwd.com/ntmwd-requests-immediate-curtailment-of-non-essential-water-use

Yeah, something screwy is going on. ERCOT is showing a decent amount of capacity now. But, the number without power in the state has climbed from 2.7MM to 2.9MM.

This forecast is what has me concerned. Austin/Houston/San Antonio are going to get hit with ice and freezing rain that will bring down limbs and lines and lead to more outages. Power companies are going to have their hands full for a while.

What in god's name are you slorching about, man? It says right in the article that wind only accounts for a fraction of the outage. There's 30 gigawatts from other sources that is down right now.

Yeah, those aren't real projections. I watched it yesterday and they kept pushing that peak further and further out over the course of the day. I think that demand is based on turning everyone back on.

I'm sure others will be along to add more detail, but this is just completely wrong as far as the current situation is concerned. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-02-16/frozen-wind-farms-were-just-a-small-piece-of-texas-s-power-woes

Clay Jenkins says help is coming. Hopefully they'll explain why they didn't have these peaker plants ready to go ahead of time.

Recommended practice is to freeze bottles of water outside and use them to pack your fridge and freezer. Then you don't have to worry about stuff like sun hitting your food and warning it or anything like that. Sent from my Pixel 5 using Tapatalk

Here's the latest from Oncor. I think people know most of this, but it's the first time I've seen anyone try to explain what's going on. https://thewire.oncor.com/pages/article.html#oncor__emergency_operations_feb_15_afternoon_update

Alaskan Baltic Porter - Compared to the one above, this Baltic Porter is thin and medicinal. Do not recommend. It's disappointing because I like most stuff from Alaskan. Sent from my Pixel 5 using Tapatalk

Old Mad Joy Baltic Porter from Great Raft Brewing. Roasty and scotchy. Sent from my Pixel 5 using Tapatalk

Blushing Monk Sent from my Pixel 5 using Tapatalk

A Ruffalo if you can find one. A Wahlberg will do in a pinch. Sent from my Pixel 5 using Tapatalk

Not so sure we're quite out of the woods yet. Things could stay bad or get worse for a while. Wear a mark, everyone. https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2021/01/13/956504515/u-k-variant-could-drive-a-new-surge-in-the-u-s-experts-warn Sent from my Pixel 5 using Tapatalk

There's some chatter that Amazon may kick Parler off their servers. Sent from my Pixel 5 using Tapatalk

I mean, she's not a Senator at the moment, right? Her term expired on Jan 3rd. Sent from my Pixel 5 using Tapatalk

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/01/05/us/elections/forecast-georgia-senate-runoff.html Sent from my Pixel 5 using Tapatalk