My wife and I drive A LOT. We have an SUV diesel. There is a reason. It is because we put so many miles on cars. We have a dog, so it’s hard to fly. We haven’t found dog sitting for Archie in Las Vegas yet so he usually is riding in the back seat. I had a BMW X5 diesel and now we have a Porsche Cayenne diesel. They get tremendous gas mileage. We drove from Grand Marias, MN to Chicago on about a half tank of fuel.
In the last four years, the only part of the US I haven’t driven is the far northeast and the far northwest. If my house isn’t done by Jan 1, the far northwest part will probably change.
The past week, I have driven from Grand Marais, MN to Chicago. Hung out for a couple of days. We have been driving from Chicago to Las Vegas. Will get there in time for the Bears/Raiders game tomorrow.
A few observations.
America is a naturally beautiful country. People deride places like Nebraska but there is beauty there if you look for it. We drove from western Nebraska today to Central Utah. Utah is incredibly beautiful. Wide-open spaces.
Driving through Colorado was an adventure today! Lots of traffic, plus rain in the mountains.
No mask stuff in Nebraska, Iowa, or Utah. Didn’t encounter them in the little bit of Colorado we drove through. But, we had them in Chicago.
I didn’t wear one. No one cared. A couple of places in Chicago mentioned it. I didn’t have a mask and when they gave me one, I put it in my pocket.
As I have said before, it is long past time for Civil Disobedience. Masks do not do anything except virtue signal.
Most people we are running into aren’t exactly fans of the current occupant of the White House. Chicago was different. We know fans and met fans there. Not anywhere else so far though.
We met a guy from New York State. He lives 45 miles north of NYC. He was visiting family in Estes Park, CO. He said he won’t be moving from NY only because his other child just had a grandkid. This is what I have found with most people that want to leave a high tax state. They only stay if they have family there.
Diesel fuel and gasoline are fricking expensive. It was $3.16 in Grand Marais. I saw it as high as $3.99 in Colorado. That will add to the cost of goods since trucks haul so much. Last year at this time they were $2.16/gallon. Way to go Brandon!
When we were in Chicago, we noticed how shabby and dirty the city was. Denver, Omaha, and Des Moines weren’t like that at all. Chicago roads were in typical disrepair. As soon as we left Illinois, the roads were nice. We hit a couple of nice dog parks on the way. When my wife walked the dog through Lincoln Park in Chicago, she noticed no one was picking up after their dog anymore. A year ago, they were.
We have seen a lot of license plates from Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Illinois on the road. Some look like they are moving and others look like they are snowbirds going south for the winter. One thing I thought of today was with all the people changing their residency all over the US, it will have a few subtle impacts on things. For example, each Congressperson gets to appoint students to attend the service academies. Now that NY, IL, and CA lost Congressional representation, it means that students in those states have less opportunity to attend a service academy, while states like Texas and Florida will have more opportunity. Sort of fitting in New York now that NYC Mayor DeBlasio has gotten rid of classes for gifted kids.
It’s looking like people, and children, have less opportunity in the high tax blue states than in other states. The recent unemployment report is yet another data point proving out that fact. It’s not just recently, but the red state outperformance has been a trend for a while.
Why Republican-controlled states don’t do more with things like school choice, lower taxes, changing government pensions from defined benefit to defined contribution I don’t know? Just grow a pair and do it.
I am also noticing that states like Illinois and New York are gerrymandering the crap out of Republicans. Gerrymandering brings extremes into the majority. Expect the delegations from those states to get more extreme. By the way, given the fact we are in a cold war, any Republican-controlled state that doesn’t gerrymander equally as aggressively is doing it wrong.
2022 will be super interesting. In states that have had a lot of in-migration from blue states, my bet is those voters will remember why they left. My guess is they vote Republican. Maybe even a place like Austin will take the red pill.
Looking forward to getting back to Nevada, teeing it up, and getting our house done which is being rehabbed right now.