0036 - Driving in circles

Today we drove around looking at more houses. I've figured out that when the GPS says, "Due to limited data, guidance is not possible in this area," that means we're about to find ourselves on a tiny little road, climbing up a steep mountain with a sharp dropoff  - usually on my side of the truck. A lot of the time we find ourselves in the middle of nowhere and I have to wonder how anyone ended up living there in the first place. There's rural... and there's rural. Today I saw a barn with several license plates on the side and I thought, "Those belong to the people they've killed..." Seriously.

We've seen driveways that go up a hill that you can only get to from one direction... driveways that are really nothing more than a repetitive series of trips that someone has made up and down the hill that have packed the dirt down... and today we saw a driveway so steep that if your brakes failed, you would end up at the bottom of a holler. I know why they call it a holler by the way, because if you ever find yourself in one, all you can do is holler and hope someone hears you... cell phones aren't going to help you unless you can use them as a flashlight. So go ahead and download that app. :)

Today we were told that someone was interested in our land and was going to go look at it. Here's hoping they are serious. If we can sell it instead of trade it, that opens up some possibilities. Also on a positive note, someone at Penn Warranty Corp has common sense and has approved our claim, so we get most of the money back from getting our truck repaired in June. Maybe our luck is turning around.

Yesterday the guy who runs the RV park took us to see some property next to his house. It's about 27 acres of virgin land that has some gentle slopes, lots of trees, and a water view. I'm not sure it's officially on the market or if it's for sale by owner, we're going to have to track it down and I haven't seen it on the web. If it's FSBO, that could be a good thing because usually that type of land is owner financed. It's a beautiful place and while part of me would rather find land with a house on it and let someone else do the work, the other part of me wants us to be able to shape it to be what we want... building as we go. To start all we need is a pad for the RV and hookups, a place to put our storage building, and we can take it from there however fast or slow we want/can. We also got to walk around Ron's property so we could get a better idea of what the area looks like when it's cleared. I really, really liked it. A lot. Sycamores everywhere, sloping land, some rocky outcroppings, the ability to drill a well, power lines at the road. It has a fairytale-like quality to it when the sun shines through the leaves of the trees. And once again, we'd have an awesome neighbor.

Today is the 4th of July. Around here they celebrated with fireworks on Saturday so there shouldn't be too much going on tonight. I think we're going to have tacos at home, or a hamburger... something with ground beef. Anyway, it's a great day to think about what independence means. We used to have independence and we don't really have it anymore. Today our government is dictating what we will do, it's happening with more and more frequency, but it happens one piece at a time so that it doesn't seem as obvious. It's a day also to remember those who fought and died to give us that independence, to maintain that independence,, and to really give consideration to what our future holds. I wonder what Americans in the 1700's would think of us today. What would they think of the mess our government has made of this country? Of us, who have been a part of the process of letting it get to this point? I imagine there is a good portion of America that doesn't even realize anything is wrong. I do, but I don't know what to do about it. Voting is everyone's default answer, but if your choice is a shark or a scorpion, you really don't have much of a choice. And yet, choices must be made, so you make the best ones you can and try to stay on top of it. Happy 4th of July.