Friday is Juneteenth, and Tuesday I get the truck cap. Today I’m driving in so I can get the metal bar for mounting the truck cap, along with other hardware and supplies I need like M8 bolts, screws, heat-shrink, cable protection. Tuesday I’ll also need to get a battery box, figuring Wally World will have that after I pick up the truck from Ruth’s at the end of the day.

Cool but clear this morning after a heavy rain 🌧️ last night. We needed the rain. I skipped an after dinner hike after visiting Mom and Dad as I was sure the sky was going to open up, but that did not ultimately happen. Basically out of coffee so I put some caffeine pills chopped up in apple pancakes 🍏 and in the residual coffee ☕ grounds and called that my jolt for the morning, but now I’m jittery. At least I’ll be awake for driving to work.

Tomorrow it’s off to paying off and getting the truck cap installed. 🛻 It’s good I’m getting paid today, as while I transfered money out of savings to cover it after I had my credit card 💳 bill last week I wouldn’t have had sufficent funds. Maybe that’s what’s ultimately giving me pause 🫷 over the Michigan Trip. That and not having a enough time to prepare and that massive drive from Chautaqua County to the Nordhouse Dunes. America is really a big place. I should look more at campgrounds in Michigan, maybe on Free Campsites.net and explore alternatives more with Gemani AI. 🤖 Also, if I want to do something different then the Finger Lakes in a different state, how about Wayne National Forest in Ohio? That is more of a reasonable drive from Allegheny National Forest then  Nordhouse Dunes and Northern Michigan. I should explore options rather then defaulting to saying just do the Finger Lakes again. 🔌 Friday things get wired up, and I’m hoping that all goes fairly smoothly, and then I’ll start cleaning out my old truck and getting ready to put it up for sale. Looking forward to having the 200 watts of solar and remote start whenever the batteries go under voltage on the new truck.

Other then that, Gas Up this weekend, 🚜 and then hopefully the following weekend if it’s warm and sunny, kayaking 🛶 and floating on the tube – and camping 🥾 somewhere in the wilderness. Assuming all goes well with the rig build. Won’t have everything set up, but if the power delivery and solar all wired up, that’s a good start and can continue to build and evolve the system over the summer, adding things like a cellphone booster and diesel heater as time goes by. 🕰️ I realize so much of my freak out about the Michigan Trip is not just the distance – but the cost of fuel – I played it down but staring down my bank account 🏰 it gives me pause as I want to keep more money liquid but I also don’t want to slow down my savings.

But on the other hand, is keeping a minimum of $30k in cash at all times necessary thing, if I dip a thousand or so below that number for the summer? Especially with interest rates being so low compared to explosive growth in the stock market these days. How expensive are emergencies? 🚨 I do good work at my job, my career is relatively secure, and in an dire emergency I could sell stock or bonds. 🤷🏻‍♂️ That said, I probably can sell Big Red and/or old cap on the truck, and get a few thousand or at least hundred bucks from that, plus I have that set of wheels from the old truck. 🛻 That said, memories to matter and Michigan would be a pretty awesome trip. But on the hand, the Finger Lakes is so easy. Leave at 6:30 AM, get bacon 🥓 from For the Love of Bacon 🐷, be cracking open a beer 🍺 on Chicken Co-op Road by noon-time, laying back in the hammock smoking 🚬 dope. Warren National Forest in Southern Ohio is only about 5 1/2 hours from Allegheny National Forest, so that’s another option to consider. 💭 Though I don’t know, the Finger Lakes are such an easy and relaxed option, watching those cows graze and stars into the night. ✨ But kind of boring.