08:29 – Barbara enjoyed her trip. She always brings back small gifts for Colin and. This time, he got a black matte Zippo lighter. She brought me some fudge.
We’re still talking about when and where to relocate. Last night, Barbara suggested looking in the Jefferson area along the Blue Ridge Parkway in the northwestern corner of North Carolina. The small town of Sparta, NC isn’t far from there, and it offers municipal water/sewer/garbage collection. We’ll probably make a day trip up there in the next couple months to look around.
Sparta is over 60 miles from the nearest Costco.
😎
Question for all. Anybody under Obamacare policy and did your premiums change? I’m still under Tricare Retired (military) so not much has changed for me yet.
@Roy
That’s okay. We can fit at least six months’ worth of groceries in the back of my Trooper with the back seats folded.
I would love to see a breakdown of how much time and gas money is spent by the average rural resident driving into urban areas.
We have this issue in the Omaha area. On the weekdays the highways into town are crowded at rush hour with the commuters who cannot find decent paying work in the small towns they insist on living in. On the weekends, those highways into town are crowded with everyone driving “into town” for shopping, dining, and entertaining because, once again, they insist on living in small towns that lack amenities and leisure time options.
It seems people who live within a 45 minute or so drive of a major metro area spend a decent chunk of their free time driving into the city for goods and services not available in their rural area. Sort of makes you question their reasoning for rural living. 16+ hours of commute time every week, at the gas station 3+ times a week, and putting more miles on their cars than the average traveling salesman. At some point they have to realize that they’re not really “getting away from it all” but are in fact spending horrendous amounts of time and gas traveling to and from the very thing they are trying to avoid.
It sounds like you’re talking about “bedroom communities” rather than rural small towns, which is what I’m interested in. I need Internet service and USPS/UPS service, but not much more. I wouldn’t plan to go “into town” more often than maybe every three months or so to do a Costco/Sam’s Club run. Otherwise, the small businesses in a place like Sparta would suffice. It also has a decent community hospital.
I think the issue is the radius around a larger city where bedroom communities exist has really increased. When your bedroom community/sleeper town is 60 minutes out of the city and is still functioning primarily as a bedroom community then there’s just something about that which doesn’t make sense.
It means the urban area is much, much too large.
RBT, saw these “official” USDA guides on home canning:
http://nchfp.uga.edu/publications/publications_usda.html
Fully agree with Chad but go one further: that it’s the towns like mine, beyond bedroom communities with no businesses or jobs which should not exist. The problem is not that big cities are too big. Our cities could be a lot denser, were it not for traffic congestion. And that is purely a matter that America refuses to deal with the fact that personal transportation is not only an illogical choice but simply unaffordable in a world of international economic competition — and that drains the wealth of the country in more than one way. We pay extravagantly for roads so everyone can sit alone in a car going anywhere, while a system of trains and subways would be a mere fraction of the cost to move the same number of people (substantially more, in fact) as the economy requires. And any perceived lack of comfort is certainly a choice, because train travel of any kind in Europe is both clean and as comfortable as any automobile ride. I have maintained here that this will be forced on us, and that is happening. Every major city from Miami to Cincinnati and St. Louis is having not only serious discussion of rail transit, but actually building it.
Of course, I do not accept the premise that society will break down in a way that barbarism takes over on a scale significantly larger than crime already is. Tiny Town’s rural county is rife with crime, a couple residents in different places having been killed during theft break-ins since I returned to the area 4 years ago. In the event of some catastrophic breakdown, rural areas are going to be no safer than city suburbs, IMO — in fact, probably more dangerous as help will be a long way off and thus of little use.
a system of trains and subways would be a mere fraction of the cost
Not with the current structure between cities, counties and states. Running a rail line and every city and county that the line touches will want some tax revenue. Not only for the construction but also for each ticket. By the time all the costs are added up a ticket is more expensive than driving yourself and you are not tied to a train schedule. Until that changes rail for most of the US is just not practical except in densely populated areas.
In Europe, specifically Germany, the population is much denser than in the US. Rail is practical. Without rail Germany would suffer total gridlock. Germany in rush hour is bumper to bumper on the Autobahn. People use the train because it is faster. You also don’t have to hunt, and pay, for a place to park.
My experience on DB the few times I have used the trains has been mostly positive. At least until a train breaks or some other malfunction causes a large chunk of the schedule to crap out.
I do know that DB can be fairly expensive for long trips. In December we are returning to Germany. We need to get from Munich to Dusseldorf. The plane is much faster and in our case cheaper than the train even with non-european passports.
@Ray Thompson – there is no way the environmental nuts will allow any new beneficial rail lines in the USA, too many crickets, snails, bladderworts, burrowing owls, pygmy rabbits, etc. have to be saved.
I seem to recall that California wanted to put a fast rail line between Los Angeles and Los Vegas. The stations had to be put in the middle of nowhere and the line meanders to avoid all the endangered critters. I think they built parts, but it is not operational.
Here in Washington State we are trying to revive rail lines that have been unused for years. The environmental impact statements that are being required to reopen these lines are ridiculous.
I’m on Obamacare, and this year am paying $327.48 / month to Blue Cross. I fully expect that to go up in 2015, but I don’t have any other options. They are the only company writing policies in my county. In 2012 I was paying $270 / month, but for many years before that I had no coverage. I work for myself, have two nearly crippled knees & hypertension, and the last insurer I had left the Florida market.
Thanks Mr. pcb_duffer.
Not with the current structure between cities, counties and states. Running a rail line and every city and county that the line touches will want some tax revenue.
Why? With rare exceptions, they do not get it from roads that pass through. Where in the world do they get it? Nowhere that I know of. But this is the typical view of Americans, who cannot even imagine that an alternative way to get somewhere, other than with a car could possibly exist — much less do they even know what good mass transit is, having never experienced it, and therefore they cannot muster the wherewithal to figure out how to get from here to there.
The inhabitants of Germany do not look at trains as an alternative to traffic jams. They look at it as the primary means of transportation, and they see people who choose autos as crazy for subjecting themselves to a far inferior means of travel. Automobiles are not freedom; they are a ball and chain, a super-expensive tax on individual wealth, required for travel even within most cities, and something that more and more people cannot afford as income for the US population drops dramatically.
In nearly 10 years living in Berlin and relying solely only on trains and buses, the only time trains failed to get us where we were going was during strikes — and that was twice in those 10 years, lasting for only a few days. The entire city had the same problem, so it was not as if train service failed ME any more than my cars have over the years (and those have failed me a LOT). Never had problem one with mass transit there otherwise.
Fewer than 30% of Berliners have a driver’s license, let alone own a car, and I never heard anybody complain about not having a car. In fact, several of my younger students thought they needed a car, but ended up selling it as way too expensive to maintain and no advantage whatever, as getting almost anywhere by car easily doubles one’s travel time.
As the US continues down the road of becoming less competitive in every measurable respect, you WILL see mass transit becoming a big deal everywhere. Moving people in a modern economy is an absolute necessity, and when big business decides it needs the per-capita cost of transportation made competitive with the rest of the developed world, it will happen. In our previous mass transit history, trains and roads pretty much ran parallel. That would still be the easiest solution.
Chuck, again, Germany is very densely populated. (As one military wag noted, the villages are only one kiloton apart.) That is not true for most of the US, even within the northeast megalopolis, and rail transport is simply not practical or cost-effective to replace personal vehicles in areas of lower population density.
Mostly, I think Chuck is right. Public transport is usually much more convienent in cities than using a car. I never drive from home to the Adelaide CBD as the speed limit it the city centre is only 50 km/h, parking is fairly hard to find and fairly expensive and just stressful. If I take the bus I can do other stuff while the driver takes the stress of driving.
I use a car for trips to the shops, resturants and to see family – ample free parking. If I was touring Europe I’d preferabbly sign up for a coach tour or use trains, but would consider hiring a car and using it to get to villages where I could park easily and stay overnight. Take a car in to London or Paris? I’ve only done that once and learned my lesson.
For me it’s not an either/or choice. I’d use a car where it’s suitable and not take it near the big city CBDs. For commuting to university public transport makes sense, for getting bags full of groceries at the neighbourhood shops with abundant free parking the car wins.
Yeah, of course public transport is practical in large cities, which is why large cities and many smaller ones in the US provide it. But, again, the US is much more spread out than Germany, which makes subways and even commuter trains uneconomic most places.
I have always lived in small towns, most of which had no transit systems, even buses. Also, most were the largest cities in their geographic area. OK, I am an exception, but I enjoy the personal freedom a car bestows.
I have been to several countries, but not Germany. To me, “mass” transit, no matter how good, is just that. I agree with others that I will use whatever transit serves me the best. The US made a decision 70+ years ago, and abandoned much of its rail right-of-ways in big cities. Whether a good or bad decision, we have what we have. Reversing that decision will be costly.
California is embarking on a rail line that will go from nowhere useful to nowhere useful, and no longer at what would qualify as high speed. It will cost billions, and will lose money on each fare. The pols have quietly admitted they need to start construction so it will be harder to kill. I hope no one else will try something like it.
The heavy rail in Dallas is most excellent, constructed at a cost of 300% over budget. And the capital costs and operating costs are heavily subsidized by the tax payers. The wife and I rode DART from north Carrollton to AA center for the sum of $5.00 each on monday. But, one must have a car in the burbs to get there.
Sure, I wouldn’t be without a car in Adelaide or Canberra, for it’s the best choice in some circumstances. In other circumstances public transport is best. In New York, Washington, Berlin, Paris and London public transport wins hands down. In small towns and rural areas I’d rather have the use of a car.
Anybody under Obamacare policy and did your premiums change?
My retiree medical went up for 2014. I will get my 2015 premium notice in a month or so.
I am moving my business to Obamacare on Dec 1. A total of 14 souls. My cost will only go up 16% then. An increase of over $1,000 per month out of my pocket. I will still be on bcbs though. My regular plan is rising by 22% so I am jumping.
I live within easy commuting distance of downtown Albany and the region has a public bus system, but it’s 1.4 miles from my house to the nearest bus stop. And there are no sidewalks or street lights along the way; I’ll acknowledge that as a typical boneheaded suburban genius professional planner mistake. If I go three miles in the opposite direction than downtown Albany, I can park at a shopping area and catch the bus there, but the bother, and gas cost for the six miles total, on top of the bus fare and the time spent waiting for a twice-hourly bus that is not conspicuously timely, make it more expensive than driving.
There is a place like that in Michigan, it’s called Detroit. I don’t think it’s the size of the town, it’s the competence of the government. I think Chuck has written about the employer that wanted to move to a site in Tiny Town and was told they should move to a different site in Tiny Town. They decided to build in another town instead.
Detroit is far worse at mismanagement than Tiny Town.