Keep the Change

General Talk, , ,

OR HOW I RISKED MY LIFE

coinsJoyce doesn’t like the idea of receiving appliances for Christmas, her birthday, or our anniversary. I think she has watched too many Chick-Flicks or Oprah reruns. Seems she thinks these celebrations should be romantic, which would indicate jewelry, diamonds, perfume, Dom Perginon Champagne, or fine art. So I took a big risk this Christmas.

It all started when we got married in 2002. She started grabbing all my change and saving it. She told me after a while we would have enough money to buy something special — which usually means something totally useless, like furniture. But what is a man to do? I took a chance and bought her an automatic coin sorter.

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PopUpBackpacker the Year in Review (2013)

General Talk

Somehow I managed to piece together this website in July of 2012. The company that hosts the website sent me a bunch of statistics and listed the most popular pages for the year. So I thought I would share them.

  • # of Unique Visitors = 40,945
  • # of Visitors = 96,538
  • # of Page Views = 326,828
  • # of Hits = 2,287,007 (Note: I have no idea what this means)

Visitors came 126 countries in all. Most visitors came from The United States, Canada and the United Kingdom.

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Arctic Blast Hits US!

Backpack Trip Report

The US is in the mist of the coldest weather in 20 years.

WHAT SHOULD BE DONE?

If you live in the northern half of the U.S. your backpacking/outdoor gear may not be adequate for the severe weather. If it is adequate, and if you want to go backpacking, the roads may not be navigable and you might be stuck at home.

If, like me, you live in the desert it maybe be different. This weekend the local deserts were forecasting highs in the 70’s and lows in the high 40’s. This would indicate that any logical and rational hiker would, like Crocodile Dundee, pack their gear, food & water and go for a walkabout.

And that is exactly what I did.

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Return from Base Camp

Camping

WE’RE BACK FROM OUR BASE CAMP

Dictionary.com defines a base camp as

a main encampment providing supplies, shelter, and communications for persons engaged in wide-ranging activities, as exploring, reconnaissance, hunting, or mountain climbing.

 

Xmas 2013-2
December 29, 2013 — Lake Mead Recreation Area

This is how we generally use our camper. It is a base for backpacking, hiking, biking, or even visiting friends and relatives.

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Out of Office Message

General Talk

emailIf you have my email address, and if you send me an email, most of the time you will get an “Out of Office” reply.

That is because I am often traveling for business, backpacking, or camping with Joyce.

Most of my family and friends really don’t understand the importance of these messages. Because I work in the corporate world email is important. Also, since I work from my home office instead of a cubicle in the Mother-ship in Warren, MI, people in my company often don’t know where I am. In addition, the good folks who work for me are often traveling too. The ability to automatically inform people I am not available and when I will be back is important. This also is important to all our clients.

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How Much Trailer Can You Tow (Part 3)?

Travel Trailer,

2013-12-16 Clip Art Weight LifterIn Part 1, I discussed some general thoughts on matching a tow vehicle and a trailer, to include tongue weight and gross weight specifications.

In Part 2, I took a deeper dive into tongue weights and presented the idea that a tow vehicle’s maximum tongue weight specification is usually the limiting factor in how large a trailer you can tow.

The conclusion in both is that perhaps we bought a trailer that is too heavy for our Ford Expedition; although I shared that I understood all the weight implications before we purchased.

So here is the rest of the story, as Paul Harvey used to say.

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