Well, Summer is officially here! But now the days begin getting shorter, as we march towards Fall.  My Favorite time of year.  But I have been lost in space!   Lost in the space under my car.  Its fun having a new vehicle to play with.  And it would be even more fun if I had enough money to make the changes the way I  want to.   Unfortunately, I think I may have run out of money. I have bought and installed the  Rear Differential Breather modification, a 30 inch Light bar, a New front Bumper, and a Winch. In addition, some Ham Radio wiring and antennas. With the additional wiring and switches for the lights and winch, the total so far is around $6000.  I am justifying these purchases by saying when I bought this vehicle; I saved around $10,000 from the one I almost bought. Unfortunately, the cash flow is a little low to cover that kind of difference, so I must wait for the next upgrade.  Even though the current completions have arguably made others more important.

And what that means is that due to the extra weight of the front bumper and winch, the suspension needs to be upgraded to handle the weight and handling changes because of that weight.  There is a noticeable wallow in the front end in steering and turning.  Moreover, that upgrade may be $3-4,000(Springs, shocks, control arms).  In addition, with that upgrade I may have to upgrade/replace the tires and possibly the rims/wheels. Tires are not extremely essential, but my tires are looking a little worn.  They are originals, and there is now 25,000 on the car. I normally get 40-50,000 off a set of tires, but I cannot argue with the obvious tread depth at the moment.  OEM Tires are not known for long life. And a new suspension that lifts the car a little bit higher, will cause the tires to rub on the inner wheel well.

Does this sound like a teenager trying to convince their parent that they really need a better IPhone? It is tough when you know you “really” need something, but the truth is its very just optional fun stuff. There is a chance I would “need” or use it if or when I do some real off-road adventures. However, in my experience good judgement and careful considerations of risk and reward are more important than reckless excitement and diving head first into challenges with better-hyped equipment.   Therefore, I may have to put off some of these buys, and “wallow around” for the near future until I can build up a little piggy bank of funds to cover emergencies and new purchases.

If you have been watching my channel though, you know we have made time to get out and do a little hiking.  Akela is a hard taskmaster as far as keeping me out of the house and hiking.  He does like to be exploring as much as I do.  We went back to some previously visited spots like the Brown Mountain OHV area and the Linville Wilderness to Climb Table Rock Mountain.  Luckily they provide excellent video material and we got some great Drone Footage with those videos.   If you have a car that can drive over slightly worn dirt roads, I highly recommend either of those areas for a quick visit to the best of the mountains in Appalachia.

We spend a day at the NC Trail Day in Elkin, NC.  That was a good day of “hiking” around the town of Elkin, sampling food and information about so many things that are happening in NC on trails and in the mountains.  We did miss connecting up with Keefr hikes from his YouTube Channel.  He is currently recuperating from a bicep tendon injury so is not hiking as much, but was shuttling hikers to trail heads for the day at the Trail Days event.  Check out his channel.

And lastly I will just quickly mention my “Cooking School” videos about how I make “Gourmet Pancakes” and  “Gourmet Frenchtoast” .  I have younger friends and relatives come visit me, and when I make them food (usually breakfast or dinner), they always rave about how good and different it is.  To me it is just simple food with little extra additions. Therefore, I decided to pull out my most unusual and easily made recipes that can be prepared in advanced and then taken camping. Most are just “no mess”  warm up and then eat. I have a few other tricks to make camp cooking fast and easy that I may video, but I doubt I will make them separate from a featured camping video. So stay tuned.

Anyway, we are definitely gearing up for more, better, longer, intensive camping, hiking, exploring videos with the new car, the new gear, and the essentially new dog.  With Akela now in his “Teenage Years” as far as being grown up, he is totally unlimited to what he can do.  I may stick up another training video or two, but they will be more for entertainment than for educational boredom. But feel free to visit the “Dog Training Playlist” for his continued development and learning.  So much of training is really his ability to learn. And he is showing incredible learning ability, both good & Bad !

We will return friends,  Sorry its been so long coming, I’ll work on this !

Rick & Akela !