Tuesday Overnight Open Thread - May 20, 2025 [scampydog]

Good evening, and welcome to the Tuesday ONT. We have some guest blogging contributions from our AoSHQ friend and commenter, Pete Bog. Did you pack your compass?

Pete Bog mentioned Butler Maps as a great trip accompaniment tool. In Moron fashion, the rabbit hole adventure began. Highly recommend.

As Clement Salvadori wrote in his June 2012 Road Tales column, "I'm in favor of the efficiency of GPS, but I don't find it very useful when contemplating a trip. You need some imagination, which is helped along by any map. Or a small stack of maps, as the case may be." You can't spread out a GPS on your kitchen table and take in the entire region, absorbing the possibilities.

Take it away, Pete Bog

The Anatomy of a Road Trip!

The driving "season" is approaching. The time we leave our cares behind or put them in the glovebox next to the little friend that goes pretty much everywhere. We set off in an automotive conveyance on a trip which may have a specific destination, or not. In short, a ROAD TRIP!

I hesitate to strictly define for you what constitutes a true ROAD TRIP! as opposed to a drive to the local grocery or to visit some undeserving friends or ungrateful spawn. Nor will I impose arbitrary rules about acceptable conveyances. It may be fast, slow, trusty, unreliable, borrowed, yours in full or part, owned by the bank or stolen. Minivans are discouraged but acceptable if the participants remain boisterous, loud and amusing. With that, I will share my thoughts with which all right-thinking readers will agree.

Bog's ROAD TRIP! Rules and Requirements

1. You must bring a map, even if you don't use it. Exclusive reliance on your phone or navigation system establishes you as a slave to technology. You do not have the free will necessary to take a ROAD TRIP!, it is simply a drive.

2. It is not a Road Trip! until a bag of salty, carbo laden snacks have been consumed. In our house this can only be Bugles! Regrettably they no longer double as finger hats. Anything Kale is disqualifying. Wiping your fingers on your pants is not necessary but encouraged. This exception is accommodation to the 'ette sensibilities and those who are pant challenged.

3. The "road less traveled" is almost always the preferred alternative.

4. Getting lost is encouraged. Direct, accurate navigation indicates a lack of imagination or reliance on a phone or nav system, see rule 1.

5. Head bob or sing along music is required. You should not require instruction on volume level.

6. Visiting roadside attractions is an essential element. Extra style points for "World's Largest", including ball of twine, rubber band or Golf Tee.

7. Have fun, the only absolutely mandatory element.

***

Thank you Pete Bog!

Here is a link to some cool maps that have nothing to do with travel. Fun viewing while you are at home but still dreaming of the open road. No saddle bags, suitcase, or gas money required.

Looks like those summer ROAD TRIPS will be a bit more affordable.

Fuel prices, by state.

20ish showing less than $3.00 per gallon.

Three of the Democratic Sovereign Redistribution States of Collective Liberty (that's as much democratic-sounding, commie words I can spin up) are north of $4.00 per gallon. CA, HI, WA.

Any traveling to Europe? If so, the ONT has good news for you. The USD/EUR is stronger.

Travel to Europe is cheaper - your dollars go further when converted to euros. AoS Cob, CBD should be pleased.

Campers, travel trailers, motor homes, RV's, pop-ups, teardrops, toy haulers, Class A, B, and C. It's confusing - like origami with wheels and hitches.

Decidedly appropriate for our youthful friends. That ladder and atop the vehicle...I see gravity challenges.

Horde, what is your preference for great outdoors camping? Diesel-mobile? Vanlife? Bed of a truck with a topper? RV with a hot tub? Composting toilet? I'll take a hotel room. Tried the travel trailer life. Two years and I tapped out like an MMA slug. Let's hear it in the comments - go!

Happy to see mom? Happy for a short road trip? Both?

ONT Intermission

The PNW Morons know all about Mount St. Helens. I was at Chief Garry Park, in Spokane, WA when it blew. A large grey cloud slowly moved in and ash began gently falling out of the sky - looked like large, grey, snowflakes. Wipers barely worked by the time we made it back to the house. Everyone holed up for a few days. From AoS regular, Pete Bog: We lived about 125 miles as the crow flies away from St. Helens. Washed ash off the cars for weeks afterward.

You cannot talk about St. Helens without mentioning Harry R. Truman. He became a bit of a celebrity as he refused to evacuate his lodge and home at Spirit Lake - near the base of Mount St. Helens.

Great reading about Harry.

"I've kind of retired since that Labor Day," he said. "Just rent enough boats and cabins to keep the booze supply full."

"They'll never get me off this mountain," Truman said that earthquake-filled April of 1980. "Spirit Lake and Mount St. Helens are a part of me -- they're mine. They're as much a part of me as my arms and legs."

Americans watching him on TV couldn't get enough. Songs were written about him, including "Ode to Harry Truman" and, inevitably, "Give 'Em Hell Harry." School children wrote him letters begging him to change his mind and leave the lodge. A memorabilia company coined a silver "collector's medallion" that depicted Mount St. Helens on the front and the baseball-cap-wearing Truman on the flip side. When it was all over -- after the mountain had erupted, mowing down some 200 square miles of forest -- Oscar-winning actor Art Carney would play the crusty old lodge proprietor in a movie.

Read the whole thing - too much to quote.

This is a good link about the ecosystem recovery.

On May 18, 1980 Mount St. Helens was changed forever. A huge volcanic eruption ripped away the north side of the mountain (Major 2020). Ashes covered the surrounding area, burying land several hundred miles away. Barreling flows of lava and debris tumbled down the flanks of the mountains (Mazza 2010). Very little was thought to be left in the wake of this natural disaster, but nature has a way of surprising us again and again.

Drivers ed. Gives some perspective - pretty much everyone passes. Not sure what would be tighter or clenched: seatbelt, teeth, or um...you know. Any of the Horde taught drivers ed?

this guy has serious patience when teaching student drivers pic.twitter.com/1qyvBjVmGH

— non aesthetic things (@PicturesFoIder) May 18, 2025

What are your ROAD TRIP! songs?

Hat tip to Bog's ROAD TRIP! rule number 5. Every scampyfamily road trip began with this song. Groans of despair and dramatic NOOOOOO's from the backseat.

Cigar guillotine and and an all 80's outfit in this video.

Inspired by Bog's Second Road Trip! Rule

This ONT is brought to you by maps. This was seen on the screen of my phone on the road trip last weekend. If you know, you know.

Send lens cleaning cloth, a replacement shovel handle, and classic green army men toys to: scampydog at proton dot me

posted by Open Blogger at 10:00 PM

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