The original plan was to fly to Vegas, rent a camper van, and spend a week in Death Valley and Joshua Tree. However, most of Death Valley is still inaccessible due to the summer hurricane, and the government shutdown was scheduled for the day before our flight. Flying to Vegas seemed like a risky proposition, so I canceled that trip and headed south in our camper instead.

We left RVA on my birthday and drove about 5 hours to Sand Hills State Forest in rural SC. Our $15 campsite was lakeside and came with a huge CCC era stone pavilion. We were only there overnight, but it is easily one of my favorite campsites ever. We didn't see another human there, and within 15 minutes of arrival I spotted a pair of red-headed woodpeckers, a lifer for me.

After a very dark and quiet night, we headed out towards Conagree National Park. When we got to the park, I stepped on Michelle's makeup mirror that had fallen during transit. I'm sure the broken mirror had nothing to do with the fact that I then forgot to switch the fridge to propane before starting our hike. We were about an hour into the hike when we remembered. I speed walked back to the truck but was not surprised to find the battery so dead that the power locks didn't work. At that point, I reset the fridge to propane and speed walked back to Michelle to continue our hike, as the truck wasn’t going anywhere and I figured I could get a jump start when we were ready to leave. A park volunteer had a portable starter in his car and kindly jumped me later so it all worked out.

Conagree exceeded expectations. It's the smallest National Park, but it delivers. The 2.5 mile boardwalk through the forest is really nice. We saw some good birds, and learned a lot about the ecology that makes the area special. After that, we continued on to our next stop, Skidaway Island State Park, just south of Savannah, GA. We got in at 5 PM, so we had just enough daylight to set up camp.

On Monday, we had a 2-hour walking tour of Savannah booked. We turned out to be the only people that booked that tour, so we got a 2-hour private tour. The tour was great. We learned all about Savannah history and why it has always been a bit of a sleepy backwater sort of place. We had lunch at the Six Pence Pub, which was fine but wildly overpriced. After lunch, we wandered around some more before eventually heading back to the camper for dinner.

Savannah as a city is fine, if a bit underwhelming. I thought the squares the city is so known for would be more interesting. I don't have any complaints, but everything just seemed very average. It seems like a fine place to live, but as a tourist destination, there isn’t a lot going on. I guess that sort of fits with the Slowvannah nickname familiar to the locals.

Monday night was rainy, so we spent it in the camper doing the Netflix and chill thing.

It was pouring Tuesday morning, so we slept in a bit. We had to switch campsites, so we hung out waiting for the people on our next site to leave, which they did around 11. After moving the camper and lunch, we headed into Savannah. We started at the Juliet Gordon Low birthplace. She is the founder of Girl Scouts. This was very much Michelle's thing, but it was interesting. She was a bit of a badass and way ahead of her time in many ways. After that, we toured the Davenport House, a well-preserved Federal Style house built in 1820. I really appreciated that the tour started in the basement with a discussion of how the middle and upper class back then only existed due to the unpaid labor of the enslaved people doing all the work in the household. We also wandered into a small military museum that was all a private collection containing artifacts from every war the US has been in. After a fabulous dinner of shrimp and grits, we headed back to the camper to chill for the night.

Continue to part II (coming soon).

Pay or Die is a documentary available on Paramount+ the follows the efforts of some families in MN to pass legislation to ensure nobody dies because they can't afford insulin. Unfortunately, the reason these families are so adamant about this issue is that they all lost young adult kids that died from trying to ration their insulin when they could not afford to resupply.

I'm sure those of you reading from civilized countries like (insert just anywhere that is not the US) are wondering how this can be a thing. We are too. Capitalism and regulatory capture is the answer. Companies like Eli Lilly spend tens of millions every year influencing government to not do anything about the high cost of life saving medication.

I'll make my point-of-view very clear. Any medication necessary to stay alive should be free. Period.

A vial of insulin runs $300-$400 retail. The average type 1 diabetic will use 4 vials a month. If that diabetic is using an insulin pump you can add another $1000 or so a month for disposable medical supplies attached to the pump and blood sugar sensors. So a person with type 1 diabetes needs $2000 a month (or more) just to stay alive. And they still have to eat, pay rent, etc.

A vial of insulin cost about $10 to make.

I have good health insurance. And by good I mean a high-deductible plan where the first $4500 each every year is out of my pocket, and the out-of-pocket maximum is $6500. So from a budgeting standpoint, I need $4500 in Q1 each year to pay for insulin and pump supplies, then we will hit the out-of-pocket max for my wife at about month 6 or 7. I haven't accounted for myself in the above numbers. If I have any serious issues or even routine stuff like x-rays or a colonoscopy (due next year!) that is also all coming out of cash flow, at least until I hit $4500 spent. Add in the premium and on Jan 1 I'm down $9000 for the year at a bare minimum. More if I need any healthcare.

How many people do you know that have $9000 minimum each year for healthcare? This is the best health plan I've had in a while. I had been spending more like $14k+ every year for the previous 5 or 6 years. My health insurance helpfully promotes what I would have spent without them. It will come in right at $42,000 for the year. How many people do you know that have $42,000 for healthcare over the next decade, let alone next year?

The US Defense budget is almost $1 trillion dollars.

The next time somebody (a Republican) tells you there isn't enough money to keep people alive, I need you to remember something.

They are lying.

The United States is still the wealthiest country in the world. People dying from lack of healthcare, people freezing in the streets from lack of a home, and all the rest could easily be handled for a fraction of the defense budget.

We simply choose to not do anything about it. I wish I believed in an afterlife, because the thought of all those fuckers burning in hell for failing to give a shit actually makes me smile.

Oh, and watch Pay or Die. Paramount+ has a free 7-day trial, and when you try to cancel, they'll offer you 2 months free.

My weekend - went birding twice, and checked out the newest brewery in RVA.

Saturday birding was at Tuckahoe Creek Park, and Sunday morning was Echo Lake Park.

On Saturday night we watched the new Jennifer Lawrence flick, No Hard Feelings, on Netflix. It's a rom-com, or raunch-com as described in Netflix. It's probably most notable for the full frontal nudity scene on the beach that apparently is all Jennifer Lawrence. It's funny enough and a worthy 105 minute diversion on Netflix.

On Sunday after noon I checked out RVA's newest brewery, Waygone Brewing. I had a fabulous dry stout and a really tasty NEIPA. I'm normally not a NEIPA fan but their Tree Huggin' IPA has a hazy look and tastes more like a juicy IPA than a NEIPA. I would happily drink both again.