It should be difficult to get a guide permit. It took me three separate trips to find that trail, as it was less known and there was no signage back then. Now if you go, there's tons of people on that trail, and people like this guy are a big part of the reason why.

I think a lot of businesses aren't going to be able to survive in the near future, honestly. I make plenty of money to live as comfortably as I want, but at the same time I'm cutting back on things I don't really need, especially eating out and services that are mostly for convenience, and I know a lot of people are making the same decision. I think a lot of businesses were cultivated in a time when there was so much spare money all around, from the 1990's until recently, and I feel like there's going to be a shakeout on what people really value and find important.

I've been seeing what happens when I just stop spending money, and my quality of life hasn't dropped one bit. I'm cooking at home, playing my banjo, reading, and hanging out in the woods and parks with my old friends.

I have some friends who own businesses and they're noting that the current crop of high school and college-aged employees are among the best they've ever had. They say they are more punctual than in the recent past, are more appreciative of having a job, work harder, and all-around do a better job than they've ever seen.

$37k median household income is really poor though. I can't imagine trying to cope on that income, although I guess that includes college kids living in apartments and single people doing their thing. When I think of poor I think of Poplar Bluff, and dang if their median household income isn't just $2k less than ours. We're almost as poor as Poplar Bluff, and that's alarming.

I think they're moving.

I agree with this. I learned things I never would have picked up on myself, like where to look in a corner, where your hands are applying pressure in a turn, and how to turn harder in an emergency. I had ridden dirt bikes for years, and it wasn't until I took this course that I realized I didn't really understand the physics of motorcycles.

I recently read a study that the houses in Bentonville, AR that are within a short distance (I don't recall the exact distance) of their bike trail system increased in value significantly compared to the houses in Bentonville that were not as near the trails. It was quite a bit, and there were a lot of houses in that zone. I would have no problem believing that living near this trail (which I do) would add significant value to my home, and the data backs it up.

Here's a link to an overview

35.87185808969009, -93.05173739318936

It's been 15 years since I've been there, but they were there then. Right before you get to the throne proper.

It's the Camper Special head developed for Jake Raby's engine program. The combo of those heads with a specific cam has (from what I read) a significant power upgrade. I put my current engine on a dyno a few years back and I make 55 horsepower at the wheels, which is pretty typical. A bus is a surprisingly heavy, non-aerodynamic vehicle, designed for American highways with a 55 mph national speed limit, under very tight emission standards, with a low purchase price being the number one factor in its design. If you've ever driven one, you'll know what 55 horsepower feels like on highway hills.

Additionally, everything I've read says the AMC heads (which are the new castings, as VW does not make them anymore) have junk hardware, and the valve seats fall out, which is a common problem with the VW bus. I've dropped two valve seats over the years in my bus, and it sucks.

>How did you know off the bat it’s an rx8? Lmao

I looked at your post history.

Car-wise, I'm in the same boat as you. I get really attached to my cars. The vw bus has such low oil pressure that if you drive it on a hot day you can hear the crank squeaking off the bearings at idle. Bad news, and a real hassle. I've been anticipating it for a long time though, and I bought a pair of heads way back in the day for $900, and I've got them sitting in my attic. I just need to block out the time to actually pull the engine, disassemble it, measure it for new bearings, then actually do the rebuilding. No big deal. It's not my daily driver, so I can do it leisurely.

The Honda though. That's my daily driver, so that's probably more similar to your situation. I want to drop a turbo in it, and I've read that the D16 takes a turbo well. It's such a stupid decision though. Suddenly my gas will cost sixty cents a gallon more than it did before, and that expense will never go away. It will be less reliable, I'll have to redo the fuel injection system, and get worse gas mileage on more expensive gas. It would probably need a suspension and brake upgrade too, and it's just a beat-up 4-door civic with rusty steel wheels and a crappy paint job. I'm going to rebuild it bone stock, but I would really enjoy that turbo. I'm getting tons of pressure from my co-workers and family to just sell it and buy something newer and safer, but I can't. I love it, and the tiny A-pillars.

I've had a few friends with RX-7s, and they loved them, but they were always broken down and took tons of maintenance. I recall one friend who had his apex seals shatter twice, but then again, that was back in high school and the possibility of him doing stupid things like not checking the oil is a total possibility.

I get it. I'm a car guy, and I fully support rebuilding engines. I'm about to rebuild the engine on my 2000 Honda Civic D16, which is pretty cheap. I'm also about to rebuild the engine on my 1978 VW bus, which is the opposite of cheap. The heads alone are $3,327.70 each and I need two of them. People say they want an older VW bus, but nobody realizes what the prices for parts are now.

With that being said, I'm going to do these rebuilds on my terms. I'm not taking some sketchy title loan, or other high interest loan out to pay for this. I'm going to save up and pay with money that I already have. There is no way that anybody with poor credit should be spending $6k to rebuild an RX8 engine. That's the kind of decision that leads to further poor credit. I sold my old 1976 Porsche 914 when I was young because I couldn't keep up with the expenses, and I bought a Toyota Tercel. I loved that Porsche, but no car is worth your credit score.

With that being said, if I were in your shoes I would probably still ignore the advice I'm giving here, because a fun car is really, really hard to make good decisions about. Still, it's good advice.

The best place to get a loan is through a credit union. I'm not sure what the criteria are, as far as credit score and whatnot goes, but generally credit unions look out for their members better than banks look out for their customers.

I don't think there's as many people who are for high density housing as it seems though. They're just loud about it. Even the ones who are for high density housing aren't really for luxury high density housing, especially when it's plopped right across from a favorite park.

Me personally, I hate apartments, and especially when they're placed in existing neighborhoods. I hate the lifestyle it forces the residents to endure. I hate the inability to earn equity on your housing budget. I hate how landlords get richer and tenants get nothing in the long term. I hate how they destroy the value and character of neighborhoods. I hate that you can't practice your trumpet or drums there, do woodworking projects, store your canoe, work on your own vehicle, build a skateboarding half-pipe, or grow a garden. I hate the consumer lifestyle apartments promote.

It may seem that way, but you've got to remember, most people don't want mass housing. No young kid says, "When I grow up I'm going to live in an apartment!" People look at the heat maps of reported crime and see the obvious relationship between high density apartments and rentals and crime. Nobody aspires to work in a call center, go home to an apartment, and spend their evenings taking mad bong rips and playing video games outside of the Reddit community. I mean, it was fun in college, but as an adult? Nobody wants that.

>What am I missing?

The fact that what you live next door to is a huge influence on your quality of life and property value. I mean, they may not take their actual homes, but they don't want the property next door rezoned into a gas station.

I'm skating the far bowl (John's Bowl) at the skatepark at noon today. I'm 51, but I only started skating at skateparks when I was 47, so I'm still a pretty new skater. I'm always happy to help a new skater learn how to skate bowls. I teach high school wood shop, and I make my own decks. Here's a few I made. This one here is my best one so far. I longboarded for a few years before that, and I made a few of those too. Here's my first one and here's a more recent one.

Here's a trip I took to the Eureka Springs skate bowl which is an awesome little bowl in the woods.

Here's a trip my kids and I took to Montana to skate their moonscape style parks this last summer. It was awesome!

I'll bring a spare pool board to the park today in case you show up.

I took a motorcycle trip through West Virginia and did some rock climbing there, and thought, "Why is this place so empty? It's amazing!" I can't believe it's not getting the Colorado treatment, with tons of people moving in and driving up the prices of everything, but the last time I was there, it wasn't. People still seem to be moving out of the state, and especially out of the small towns, which are really cool, but poor. I predicted Prince would get blown up first. Nobody lives there but it has an Amtrak station!

In most towns, find out where the upscale bicycle shops are, and that's where the "good" side of town is. This holds true for Springfield as well.

Make sure you've developed a marketable skill before you finish your schooling, otherwise you'll be stuck making minimum wage and spending all of your income on an apartment, with little chance of escape.

Exactly. This should say everything people need to know about this issue. Residents have No signs, commercial property has Yes signs. All of this commercial property was the same places I saw those dingbat school board candidates signs too.

You felt like the classes were good?

If everybody is attracting business by giving tax deferrals, then we are all losing that money.

If this place is going in where I think it is, the exit there was just re-worked to make the entrance and exit ramps longer, which will probably be required if it's going to get as much traffic as everybody says it will. Are you saying Buc-ee's is paying for that? If so, I would totally support a reduction in their taxes for a limited amount of time to offset exactly that amount of cost.

Overall though, using tax benefits to attract businesses is a losing situation for communities. It's a race to the bottom for communities, but it's a game you currently have to play or otherwise your town will lose to other towns who are willing to forego services and revenue. I support a federal 100% tax rate on all state and local tax deals used to attract business. It would make towns compete on other metrics for attracting businesses, such as quality of workforce, quality of life, and other things that would actually make towns better.