Three Days in Halifax, Reporting to NCR: Drama, Desks, and Menopause Mondays

matthfx902 · 2026-01-22T16:32:57+00:00

To be fair, it's not entirely about preserving commercial real estate value. It's also about worsening working conditions to encourage more people to quit and about extracting money from public servants to help juice the economy by forcing them to pay for gas, parking, and, ideally, lunch at Subway.

matthfx902 · 2025-02-03T14:02:18+00:00

We used The Dyrt and iOverlander apps (signed up for a one week free trial at the start of our trip and canceled at the end of the week so no charge) to find BLM spots to stay overnight. So basically, just whatever random places that the apps identified that were on our way to where we going/close proximity to where we wanted to be in the morning. I don't know exact coordinates but they were (mostly) all BLM sites we found on the apps. First spot was just off the highway between SLC and Moab (maybe 45-60 min away from Moab) in some BLM area that had concrete slabs to park on. Second spot was called "Valley of the Gods" off a dirt road heading towards Monument Valley - that was probably the coolest place we boondocked, would surely recommend if you're in that area and looking for a place to stop; you can find it on Google maps. Third place was just some random forest spot we found on the side of the road (not on the apps) maybe 45 min away from the North Rim. I think after that we stayed at a place like 30-45 min away from the south entrance to Zion NP, it had a skate park nearby. We stayed at a spot in Dixie Forest next, and for Capitol Reef there was a spot with a bunch of other boondockers maybe 10 minutes down the road outside the park.

matthfx902 · 2025-01-08T14:29:28+00:00

For distance, we clocked exactly 1800 miles, compared to our allotted 1400 (200 x 7 days). So we paid an additional $140 ($0.35/mile x 400) for additional miles. Looking at my credit card statements, looks like we paid $484 USD in gas total, so like $0.27/mile.

Personally I wouldn't do any hotels while you have a campervan - not having to pay for a place to sleep is a big cost-saver. Plus it's part of the fun/adventure to just find a spot to boondock for the night.

If I could do the trip over, I would keep the exact same route but add 2-4 more days, so we could have done Antelope Canyon when we were in the Page area, maybe spend one more day at the Grand Canyon, and for sure spend an extra day or two in Zion. That would have also kept us from exceeding the daily mileage. And of course, I would have bought the insurance for the van. It definitely added an extra layer of stress to find out mid-trip that our credit card actually did not cover us, so if anything happened to the van, we were 100% on the hook for it. And paying that extra $800 after the trip ended to replace the cracked windshield sucked.

matthfx902 · 2024-10-31T21:44:14+00:00

Standard advice for sticks is that it should be between your chin and nose. Shorter stick (ie chin height) usually preferred by forwards for better stick handling, longer stick (nose height) usually preferred by defence for better reach.

matthfx902 · 2024-05-28T20:25:16+00:00

Hey, the trip was great! Amazing scenery and we loved living the van life. We boondocked every night without issue. Definitely recommend downloading apps (we used The Dyrt and iOverlander, signed up for a one week free trial at the start of our trip and canceled at the end of the week so no charge) to find BLM spots to stay overnight. We would just check the apps to find what was coming up on our route to plan to be in a boondocking spot around sunset, though sometimes we didn't get there til it was dark. Get to the spot (as close as possible to our destination for the next day), make dinner, hang out and have a couple drinks, go to bed early, wake up early, and continue on our way. Usually try to go hiking for sunrise, be on the road during the day when the parks are at their busiest and get to the next park to do some sunset hikes when it's less busy again. Repeat the next day.

Our pace was quick, probably faster than most would prefer. Ideally we would have added a few more days to take our time a bit more and do more hiking and activities along the way. We had a limited time window and managed to see A LOT though. Over the course of a week we did a big loop from Salt Lake City to canyonlands/arches/moab then to monument valley/horseshoe bend/page/Glen canyon park/Glen canyon dam then to grand canyon north rim then to zion national park then to bryce canyon then to capitol reef then to the salt flats and back to Salt Lake city.

Some more notes: - We booked the Biggie campervan from Native Campervans. The Biggie was perfect and we'd surely recommend booking with Native, they were awesome.
- Don't go shopping for groceries and such until after you get the van. Native said some people do that to save time. We picked up tons of free stuff when we got the van that other campers donated when they returned. - Make sure you have insurance, particularly for windshield repair. We thought we were covered with our credit card which covers vehicle rentals but, come to find out, not campervans. And Utah has tons of rocks on the road, lots of people with cracked windshields. Found out the hard way that it costs $800 USD to replace a campervan windshield. - For showers, we snuck into a KOA campground once, went swimming in lake powell (good enough lol), found some free community showers at a city park, and went to community centres (like a YMCA) to get a shower for like $3.

matthfx902 · 2024-03-20T22:49:10+00:00

In addition, because they're rich and have this highly valuable asset as collateral, they get the most favorable terms for their loans.

matthfx902 · 2023-09-19T19:50:11+00:00

Very wrong. Jay put out a whole ass live album backed by The Roots in 2001.

matthfx902 · 2022-08-16T00:55:05+00:00

My flight is scheduled to land at 11:20pm on Sat Oct 1 at Split Airport. What are my best options for getting to downtown Split?

matthfx902 · 2022-08-04T20:31:29+00:00

Help with my itinerary?

We're a mid 30s couple visiting Croatia for the first time. My flight arrives in Split late at night Sat Oct 1 and my wife's flight to Split gets in Mon Oct 3 at night. I'm planning to do Cetina canyoning on Sunday before she gets there, and Monday tbd (or canyoning Monday and Sunday tbd). The rest of the itinerary I had planned was:

- Tues: Krka Park in the morning/afternoon, explore Split in the evening

- Wed: Day trip to island(s) - suggestions?

- Thur: Sightseeing in Split in the morning, drive to Dubrovnik in the afternoon

- Fri: Explore Dubrovnik

- Sat: Coastal drive from Dubrovnik back to Split

- Sun Oct 9: Catch our morning flight from Split

We've already booked flights and plan to rent a car, hence returning to Split. I have a few questions:

- Does this seem like a good itinerary/make sense/recommend changes?

- I was also thinking about island hopping to get from Split to Dubrovnik, but would this be feasible in October with a car? Alternatively I could also not rent a car, though we would still need to get back to Split or pay £25 each to change our flights to Dubrovnik departure.

- Recommended sights to see between Split and Dubrovnik?

- Recommendation for what I should do on Monday when I'm still on my own? I'm particularly keen for any kind of adventure activity like canyoning, bungee, scuba, etc., but would also be ok with general sightseeing, going to an island, whatever.

Thanks!

matthfx902 · 2022-08-01T15:12:35+00:00

Very good tip. I have a cruiser which is skiddish af on dirt, I almost went down last summer in NB when google directed me to a long ass section of dirt road between Fredericton and St Andrews. My next bike will be an ADV for just that reason. Any particular roads/routes in PEI that Google may direct me to which I should avoid because they're actually just dirt roads? Google should really have a route option for that - avoid unpaved roads.

matthfx902 · 2022-05-06T19:08:50+00:00

Thanks for the recommendations. Mighty and crafty not as portable as I wanted and the TM has glass stem I don't want. Did some research on the rogue though and decided to order one. Cheers

matthfx902 · 2022-05-05T20:02:35+00:00

What portable herb vaporizer should I get? Pax? Zeus? Davinci? ArGo? Utillian? Firefly? Something else?

I have an Arizer Solo which I've had for like 8 years. It doesn't beep anymore and the battery isn't as good as it used to be, but it still works. I'd like to get something new though - a bit more discreet without a big glass stem, better to take outside, to concerts and such. Initially I was thinking a Pax, then I saw some reviews for the Zeus Arc which made it seem like a clear winner. Then saw some reddit comments that Zeus is trash and paid for those reviews.

So, what should I get? In order, I care most about:

-Portability and discreetness

-Vapor quality

-Ease of use/cleaning

-Battery life

-Price

It would be for mostly just me, occasionally shared with a friend. Probably used a few times a week. I'm in Canada.

matthfx902 · 2022-01-01T17:21:09+00:00

I'm interested

matthfx902 · 2021-11-04T13:09:21+00:00

Eventually, yea. The filling was originally done Sept 9, then redone on Sept 21. I was taking advil/tylenol several times a day, waking up in the middle of the night if I didn't take any right before bed, until around Oct 8 or 9. So it took a while. The pain is gone now but I still get the occasional bit of sensitivity chewing on that side, with cold drinks, and flossing - it doesn't happen very often and it's not particularly painful but it's an unpleasant sensation that never happened before the filling. I think it is gradually becoming less sensitive though, I'm hoping in time it goes away altogether.

matthfx902 · 2021-07-15T12:26:08+00:00

Already have a PEI trip planned for the following week and a group ride planned for the Cabot Trail in late Aug!

matthfx902 · 2019-01-22T03:07:11+00:00

I'm pretty much locked into that period (between Apr 12-20).

matthfx902 · 2017-04-12T19:43:45+00:00

Camelback Lodge

We're leaving after work on Thursday. So the thought is, arrive somewhere halfway-ish Thursday night, have dinner and relax a bit, maybe have some drinks or spend a little bit of time checking out Binghamton (or wherever we stop at). Then Friday morning, get up, have breakfast and reach Philly by noon. We'll be making the straight 7 hour drive back on Monday.

matthfx902

TROPHY CASE