I haven’t written about music for a while, so I'll fix that right now.

A few weeks ago, the Dan Baird account on Facebook was promoting a Warner Hodges tour in the UK this fall with an opening act named Ryan Hamilton. I had never heard of Ryan Hamilton, but if he was opening for Warner Hodges, it was highly likely I would be into it.

“Into it” does not really do my reaction justice. Ryan’s music hits that perfect sweet spot of rockier power pop where Watershed or Butch Walker lives. Being from Texas, Ryan absolutely knows how to work a little twang into his tunes too, which is never a bad thing. I spent that particular day streaming his catalog as I worked, and after a couple more days of earning him fractional pennies on Pandora I went ahead and bought 3 album downloads, as I knew he would be in permanent heavy rotation for a while.

Ryan Hamilton - Do the Damage

Ryan Hamilton - Be Kind, Rewind

Also, this summer?Righteous Fool released the album they finished in 2012. Righteous Fool was a project with Reed Mullins and Mike Dean from Corrosion of Conformity, with a former coworker/ friend on lead guitar. So, I had owned several MP3s off the album since way back, but for whatever reason, they never released the record, even though it was done 10 years ago at the same time as the CoC “reunion” album. Righteous Fool is not power pop. It’s doom metal or sludge metal or whatever. It’s metal, and it’s good.

Righteous Fool - Edit of Worms

This week, Butch Walker was promoting the new Matt Nathanson record, which apparently he produced back before the pandemic started. Matt is a singer / songwriter and the record is very chill and cool.

Matt Nathanson - Sway

And speaking of Butch Walker, he announced a new album and tour this week. The closest to Richmond that he is coming is Raleigh. We have tickets. The new album is due out at the end of August. The first single is Holy Water Hangover, which has a strong 70s Elton John / Billy Joel vibe to it.

Also, Drivin' n Cryin' are playing Richmond this week. I was planning on attending, and still might. I tested positive for COVID on Monday, felt like I had a cold on Tuesday, a mild flu on Wednesday, then started improving. I'm feeling 90% today, so if I don't backtrack I should be reasonably safe from BA.5, right? I haven't found any data regarding BA.5 reinfections from itself. Probably just play it by ear and see how I'm feeling on Thursday. It's DnC on a weeknight in Richmond, there will be maybe 150 people at the show, 80 of which the band knows personally.

What good stuff have you been listening to?

Trips: 26
Nights: 85

75F is the normal high in mid-July in Boone, NC. I now want to reside there from June-August. We got into town Thursday evening, staying at the KOA because we were meeting my mother, who had driven up from Atlanta and had a cabin there. I’m not a fan of paying a lot to camp 18 inches from the next camper, and nothing that happened this weekend is changing my mind about that. If anything, I dislike KOAs even more now, even though our particular issue was with the other visitors. The KOA itself is what you expect, crowded, but well-kept with clean bathrooms. We did luck into the spot on the end of the row, and nobody was on the campsite on the other side of us on Thursday and Friday night.

The people at this KOA were something else. On Friday, while I was out hiking, a peeping tom decided to take a look in our camper, while my wife was there. As she was yelling at the guy to GFTO another guy walking by intervened and chased the creeper away. The next day, again while I was out hiking, a large camper in a hurry tried to pass a parked vehicle and would have taken the awning off our camper if the guy in the parked car hadn’t got out and screamed at the driver to stop. On Saturday night, Michelle was cat called by some guy driving by. Oh, and she witnessed two incidents of child abuse. People there are probably lucky we weren’t a little farther north, as Michelle is a mandatory reporter in Virginia. Also, it’s a small campground with about 60 sites. Nobody is more than a 5-minute walk from the bath house, put people felt the need to fire up their Ford F250s to drive the 150 yards to the bathrooms, from 6 AM to 1 AM. Needless to say, we’ll find somewhere to stay if we visit Boone again.

On Friday, I got up early and headed out to hike the Flat Top Mountain Trail at Moses Cone Memorial Park on the Blue Ridge Parkway. It’s more of a walk than a hike as you follow a gravel road 2.5 miles up the mountain and then back down. There is a tower at the top that you can climb for a 360 degree view from the top of the mountain. It’s a gorgeous hike, wildflowers were blooming everywhere, and the mountain views were sublime. You won’t be alone, as it’s a very popular hike.

Friday afternoon we went to Blowing Rock, North Carolina’s oldest tourist trap. There was no wind, so we didn’t get to see stuff float up when tossed off the rock. It’s not worth $9 per adult, but at the same time it’s totally worth $9 per adult. You know what I mean.

That's it. That is Blowing Rock.

We also checked out downtown Boone, which is kind of a cool little mountain town, with Appalachian State University right there in the center of town. We walked by a pub advertising $1 PBR tallboys on Wednesdays. I do miss drinking in a college town :) We found an old general store that has been there for well over 100 years, and we totally got sucked into the ”buy old tyme candy by the pound” scam. A pound of candy is not nearly as much as you think it’ll be, especially at $11.99 a pound. They even had candy cigarettes.

We grilled steaks for dinner Friday night (thanks Mom!) and did S’mores because we learned that my mother had never had S’mores. All the camping we did when I was a kid, and we never did S’mores? I don’t know how that could have happened.

I started Saturday with another hike, this one starting from Julian Price Park off the Blue Ridge Parkway. The Boone Fork trail follows the Boone Fork stream and river for 5 miles, with multiple small waterfalls and at least a dozen stream crossings. It is a really fun hike, and also very popular. After lunch back at the campground, we headed out to explore more of the nearby Blue Ridge Parkway. When Michelle and I came through this area 2 years ago, it was raining and everything was shut down for COVID, so we didn’t see much of the area. We fixed that on Saturday. Saturday night we treated my mom to dinner, going to the fabulous Coyote Kitchen. Michelle had forbid me from picking a brewpub for dinner, since my mom is not a microbrew person. I picked Coyote Kitchen for the menu, not realizing it’s owned by Lost Province Brewing. Sorry mom, but the food, a Caribbean / Southwest fusion, was fabulous. Saturday night was another campfire night, and Sunday was drive home day.

Great weekend, great to see Mom, perfect weather, avoid the KOA.

Picking up a criminal charge for driving under the influence (DUI) can be embarrassing and stressful.

Perhaps you are like many people whose only contact with the criminal justice system occurred after a Virginia DUI arrest.

If you have to go to court to answer a DUI charge, you are probably wondering what your next action should be.

You might think that the best way to handle it is to move to another state to get a fresh start, even though you still have an open DUI case.

A DUI in Virginia is a big deal, but it is not the end of the world. Your life will go on. Call me, Virginia DUI attorney Andrew Flusche.

I’ll show you how we can minimize your DUI charge’s impact on you and your family.

Since I only handle traffic misdemeanors and DUI charges, my vast experience handling DUI cases helped me develop strategies that will give you the best chance of defending your case successfully.

What to Do When You Get a DUI

The worst thing you can do is try to ignore your charges or disregard the court’s orders while you are fighting your case. The best thing you can do if you get a DUI charge is to call a DUI defense lawyer right away. 

You should resist the temptation to try to defend yourself against these allegations. Even if you are a practicing attorney, you should not take this route because it is fraught with pitfalls.

Aligning yourself with a trustworthy, experienced, and dedicated DUI defense attorney lets you have an unbiased third-party opinion about your case.

Getting an opinion from a lawyer who centers his law practice around defending DUI cases allows you to weigh the strengths and weaknesses of the charges against you in an objective manner.

There might be loopholes or defenses to your case that only an experienced DUI lawyer would recognize and know how to exploit to your advantage. 

I will give you the best advice that I can provide. Together, we will identify solutions to your problem and get you back on the road as soon as possible.

The best defense for your case might be entirely different from someone else’s—even when the circumstances might seem quite similar to an inexperienced observer.

That’s why we need to talk with me about the specifics of your case. We will leave no stone unturned. 

Nothing will surprise you when you work with me. I keep my clients informed about every development and instruct them on what to expect when they go to court. 

Running from Your Problems Is Not a Solution

Posting a bond, whether secured or unsecured, is the judicial mechanism officers use to ensure you will go to court. The judicial officer setting the terms of release has many factors to consider when determining if you will show up to court and behave lawfully while your case is pending.

The bond terms initially set might remain in place but could change at your first court appearance. 

You could face additional criminal charges if you skip bail. Skipping bail could be a felony or a Class 1 misdemeanor, depending on your initial charges.

Additionally, failing to appear for your court date means the judge will issue a warrant for your arrest. The police could then go to your home, work, place of worship, or other location to arrest you and bring you to court.

Law enforcement officers cannot cut you a break if they find you have a warrant. They must arrest you and take you to jail.

Moving to Another State Before Your Case Ends Could Be Problematic

If you think moving to another state absolves you of your obligation to appear in a Virginia court, you are mistaken. The judge can hold you in jail without bail if the court has probable cause to believe you will not return to court to face your charges.

Specifically, the law allows the judge to consider whether you have defaulted on your appearance obligations in the past or have done something to flee from prosecution. 

The prosecution can ask the judge to impose conditions on your release if they have doubts about whether you will return to court.

One of the bail conditions a judge could order is that you must remain within the Commonwealth of Virginia while your case is pending. Or, the judge could place other travel restrictions upon you.

Perhaps the final and most drastic step—short of remaining in jail during your case’s pendency—would be the court ordering you to wear a GPS device or remain confined to your home (i.e., house arrest) unless you have permission from the court to leave.

You should keep in mind that any DUI license revocation will follow you if you move into another state. Virginia is a member state of the Driver’s License Compact.

As a result, any adverse action Virginia took against your license while you lived here will show up in your new state. The DMV in your new state must honor Virginia’s sanctions imposed on you if your new state is also a member of the Driver’s License Compact.

Call Me Right Away for Help with All of Your DUI Questions

After a DUI, you may wonder, Can I move out of state after getting a DUI? If you want to discuss this or any other questions concerning your Virginia DUI charge, contact me online or call me at 540-318-5824. I’m available to help when you need it most, 24/7.

I help protect your future, driver’s license, and insurance rates. Let’s discuss how I can help you through this tough time in your life.

The post Can You Move Out of State After a DUI? appeared first on Andrew Flusche.

I just finished a fun book, 90 Days in the 90s, in which an older millennial, upon her relationship in NY going south and her crypto portfolio blowing up, gives up on NY and heads back to Chicago to take over her recently deceased uncle's record shop. There she finds the time machine in the record store basement, so she heads back to 1996, to the days just before she bailed on Chicago and moved to NY.

I won't spoil the rest of the book for you, but it got me thinking.

If you got a do-over on college or your early 20s, would you take it?

I didn't have to think long. It's a big no for me. Yes, I know I'm passing on the opportunity to buy Apple stock for a dollar, and Microsoft stock while DOS is still state of the art. Our protagonist in the book retained her memories from the future, so I assume we would too.

I've shared the story of how I met my wife, but for any newcomers...we passed in a stairwell at a fraternity party. I was headed in with friends, she was headed out with friends. She and one of my friends knew each other from the dorm the previous year. If either one of is 15 seconds earlier or later in the stairwell we likely never meet.

So if I head back to 1987 or earlier, how do I make sure that meeting happens? I actually do remember the day of the party, so I guess I could lurk in the stairwell once the party starts. Because I'm sure a mullet-headed frat boy stalking her in a stairwell is a winning move with my wife. Of course, I'll remember her name, so in theory it would be easy enough to figure out how to meet her on campus. But again, the only way any of that works is if we are destined to be together. And I don't believe in destiny. A thousand things that are not repeatable happened that night that led to the spark that resulted in a 30+ year marriage. I don't know that us meeting the day before or the day after ends in the same result.

Also, am I the same person in the do-over? I'll be retaining all my future memories, so I'll definitely be making some different choices. Even if I did end up dating my wife again, any single decision I make differently could tank the relationship. Like, I don't know, dropping out of college in 1987 and investing all my college money in Microsoft stock. Telling her "Trust me, I'm from the future" probably isn't going to work.

If you buy the multiverse construct where every decision we make creates a new timeline, it seems like it would be completely impossible to reliably repeat history. For one thing, doesn't the mere act of going back in history change the timeline, not to mention all the other decisions you'll make differently?

Maybe it's best that we just not think about this stuff too much. Of course, if there are time machines, the people that know about it would want us to think that way, wouldn't they?

Trips: 25
Nights: 82

We spent the 4th of July weekend at New River Gorge National Park, staying at Little Beaver State Park at the south end of the National Park, near Beckley, WV. We got there Thursday, with two college buddies and their partners arriving on Friday. So it was a camping trip / college reunion.

Little Beaver is a fabulous State Park, even if we didn’t see any little beavers at the on site lake. There are 45 sites, of which 30 are W/E. They are all spacious, many are heavily wooded, and nobody is particularly far from the centrally located bath house. A+++++ - would stay there again.

We started Friday morning by driving to the north end of the park where the famous bridge is. After checking out the visitor center and the overlook, we followed the windy 8 mile barely one lane road down to the old bridge. When they built the new bridge, it reduced the time to cross the river from 45 minutes to about 4.5 seconds. We had a picnic lunch at the old bridge and spent some time checking out the shoreline of the river. Then we followed the road back up to the top and headed south to the next visitor center at Thurmond, WV.

Thurmond was a boom town 100+ years ago, with uncountable tons of coal flowing through town and over 100,000 rail passengers annually. It was the busiest train stop on the line. Today it’s not quite a literal ghost town, with the remnants of the brick downtown buildings framing the still active train tracks, and evidence of inhabited houses in the hills above town. The train station is still an active Amtrak stop too, with 2 or 3 passengers a week headed towards either Chicago or DC. Fun fact - you can take Amtrak from Thurmond to Lafayette, IN. Always chat with the park rangers folks, they know stuff.

After chatting with the ranger, exploring downtown, and walking the rail lines like a hobo, we headed on to our third stop of the day, the Grandview Visitor Center, located near our campground. As you might expect from the name, it features a grand view. We also did a short hike there. After that, we headed back to the campground as our friends were due in around dinner time. The evening featured some quality campfire, beer, and conversation as we reminisced about the good old days in college.

We woke up Saturday to a day of hit-or-miss thunderstorms. We took our time getting out of camp, finally heading over to the one visitor center that we didn’t get to on Friday. The Sandstone Visitor Center is 1.6 miles from Sandstone Falls, but it’s 1.6 miles as the crow flies. That is a 45-minute drive because of the lack of bridges over the river. It’s worth the effort, though, as the ½ mile walk from the parking area is loaded with scenic waterfalls. The drive parallels the river for a few miles, where you’ll get to a view numerous, probably immobile RVs permanently parked on the river. But hey, they have riverfront property and amazing views, so no judging here. We sampled the Beckley brewpub scene that evening, hitting Dobra Zupas. They have a two barrel brewery and a full service restaurant. I had the Irish Red Ale and one other that I’m blanking on. Both were solid beers. Those of us that ordered lower priced fare from the sandwich side of the menu greatly enjoyed our meals. Those that ordered off the pricier entrée list we not as enthusiastic. Saturday night was a repeat of Friday night, beers, campfires, and great conversations.

Sunday, we woke to pretty solid rain that let up around 11 AM, which was nice since we had a whitewater rafting trip booked that afternoon. The guys and one spouse headed out to go rafting after lunch, and by the time we were in the water the weather had cleared to blue skies and sunny. I’ve been whitewater rafting once, about 15 years ago with the Boy Scouts. It seemed exciting at the time, but looking back, they gave us 5 minutes of instruction and pushed us into the river with two adult scout leaders and 6 or 8 12-year-old boys in each raft. So it had to be a rather tame float. If they had done that on Sunday, my wife would be planning my funeral today. The lower New River trip we took was 3 hours on the water, and we traversed about 15 class III-V rapids. In the second rapid we hit, our river guide and ½ the boat got tossed into the churning whitewater. At that moment I was questioning my recent life choices, but we got everybody back into the boat and were able to navigate the much more difficult rapids ahead of us well, and had a great time doing so. But there is no way in hell that could happen without the experienced river guide steering and yelling paddling instructions to us. We ran into her in the bar afterwords and bought her a drink. She earned it. Then she told us that was only her 5th time guiding this particular trip. We bought her another drink.

Sunday night was a repeat of the previous nights, campfire, beer, good conversation.

We drove home on the 4th, with zero traffic issues.

With Michelle doing her own thing today I decided to visit the newly renovated Virginia Museum of History. It just reopened in the last few weeks after a lengthy renovation.

It is very well done. The exhibits cover native cultures that were here first, the arrival of the British in Virginia, and a detailed look at Virginia's role in the founding and later temporary break up of the United States. Much care has been taken to make sure that the voices of the historically oppressed are represented.

Post Civil War growth, Jim Crow, and civil rights all get their fair share of time too. The Lost Cause is discussed, and gets the treatment it deserves.

For $10 a person and $5 to park it's a fair deal.

Trips: 24
Nights: 78

When we pulled out of Richmond at 5 PM on Friday it was 98F. When we pulled into Loft Mountain campground in Shenandoah National Park 2 hours later it was 65F with 20 mph winds gusting to 35 mph+. The wind would not let up all weekend. The campground is about 3000 feet above sea level and that is good for about 9-12 degrees. Not sure where the 30 degree drop came from but I was not complaining.

On Saturday we did a 9-mile hike that took us past a bunch of waterfalls. We spent almost exactly 4 hours on the trail, then spent the afternoon lounging at the campground. After dinner we headed to a spot on the Appalachian trail about a 10 minute walk from the campground for sunset. A park ranger told me about the spot. Always chat with the park rangers, they are a wealth of info. Sunset was spectacular, as you can see below in the photos.

On Sunday we packed up and headed out about 9:30 AM, stopping at a trail head to do a 5.5 mile hike on the Appalachian trail to a mountain summit. On the trail we ran into a couple of guys with eastern European accents that asked if we had a map. They had apparently parked at a trail head and starting walking with the belief that they were doing a short circuit hike that would return them to the car. I explained to then that the AT ran 2000 miles from Georgia to Maine and their only option for returning to their car was to go back the way they had come. Later on we passed a couple that asked about the falls (Jones Run falls). I told then they were really pretty but if that was their destination they were going the wrong way. They had just missed the turn. The bears must love holiday weekends in the park, so many lost tourists.

That was a joke. Black bears don't eat people. They will still your picnic basket though.

After the hike we proceeded to Blue Mountain Brewery, which it turns out has no RV friendly parking, despite being out in the mountains at a spot where probably 100s of RVs pass daily Spring through Fall. So we went to Midnight Brewing 10 minutes from home instead. Midnight makes one of favorite beers (Not My Job Brown Ale) but I thought the brewery was much father from home. Now that I know it's only 10 minutes from the house, I expect I'll be there on a regular basis.

We wrapped up Father's Day with dinner at our local Mexican Joint, where I had too many chips and a mango margarita.

I hope you (whoever you are that might be reading this) had a pleasant weekend celebrating your dad, being a dad, Juneteeth, or nothing at all.

Today at Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens