Disaster Man

Here's a disturbing trend I've noticed.

Back in 2016 we vacationed down in Tennessee, notably in the Pigeon Forge area, as well as an afternoon in the Great Smoky Mountains just outside Gatlinburg. It was a great vacation, and I could have posted more about it.

A few months after we'd gone, devastating wildfires engulfed the area.

The next year, 2017, we went down to Texas, flying into Houston, and spending some time there, as well as Austin, San Antonio, and Galveston. Another great vacation, and again worthy of more posts than I have done. (This was about the best shot that I have outside in the Houston area.)

Just a couple of months later, Hurricane Harvey blew into town and flooded the area.

Just last November my wife and I traveled up north to the San Jose area for our anniversary.

While we were in the area, the Camp Fire broke out. You could smell smoke in most of the places we were at, and it was smoke hazy the whole time. I took the last picture on the flight out, and you can see the layer of smoke.

I'm taking bids on where not to vacation next year.

Boomerang

Back towards the beginning of this month, we heard from the firstborn. He's coming out from where he's been in upstate New York, driving out. Wow, we haven't seen him in a while!!! A little more than a year.

So, he shows up, with his old lady friend from school following along. She's moved out to Ontario, and she followed from there. Surprise, he's done with his Navy career!!! Apparently, he took the test for the position he signed up for twice, and didn't quite pass, so they offered him to either go forward with a lower paying position, or he can bail. He opted for the latter. General discharge, and he thinks he can get it changed to honorable after six months.

My parents wanted to visit with him, so they came up and took us all out to lunch at Slaters 50/50. That's where the top picture is from.

He doesn't seem like he's got much plan for doing anything right off, but he's got some skill set and education now, so hopefully that translates into something good for him. He's finally moved into the basement. Actually, that's not true, around a week back his girl and him both headed off to Frisco, and he hasn't been back since.

Back on Friday the 13th, a local tattoo shop was doing a special where you could get a tattoo for $13. Low cost of ink, indeed!!! Well, a tattoo the size of a quarter for $13, so a scaled larger for a scaled up amount. They went down and were waiting all night for their ink. I forget how much it was, but it seemed like a very reasonable amount. Ironic that the boy got a naval looking one after he's out.

His lady got the eclipse one on her wrist.

Back in Town

Back from four days in Northern California, primarily for the Gilroy Garlic Festival. Great vacation!!! It's already too late, I'm beat and have to go to work tomorrow, but here's some vital statistics about the trip:

$334 cash spent
42 bills to enter on WheresGeorge when I got home
284 pictures taken
87 video clips
238 miles on the rental car
19 E mails when I got home
13 E Mails deleted without even looking at them
4 quite satisfied travellers

We had a lot of great times and adventures on this trip. There is a possibility that we'll be back next year. The younger boy said his favorite part was the airplane trip.