Time to get back to abnormal around here. This is Day 9 of “No migraines”, something for which I’m very grateful. I have no idea how long this will last, but I’m trying hard to get some things done, this among them.
This weekend (defined this past week as Saturday-Monday, weekends are a movable feast once you’re retired) saw us pulling the RV to a campground about 65 miles north, near the Virginia border. Besides some pretty Spring scenery, there was much to note. We’ll start with restaurants. Saturday night, it seems that most of the local eateries were packed. This is in contrast to our restaurants around the Bitty Burg, who seem to have been hurting for custom of late. However, at Sunday lunch and supper, diners were rather thin. Given this town is rather “touristy”, this may be a sign. Normally, we don’t eat out so much, but we had friends who wanted to go, plus we’ve already decided that due to fuel prices and the international situation, we won’t be traveling quite as much or as far this year. We decided to afford the splurge.
Gas and diesel prices were higher than at home, and I suspect this was also due to the touristy nature of our destination. I refilled at home (premium unleaded) and found the round trip plus local driving cost us about $90, even at the current slightly reduced price of fuel in the Bitty Burg-and I bought it on the “cheap” side of town, paying $4.33/gallon for premium, which has been redefined as 91 rather than 93 octane at too many stations. It’s 20¢/gallon more on my side of town because we’re closer to the Interstate. Got to take full advantage of those out-of-town travelers, dontcha know.
The weather was on the cool side until we needed to come home, then it was sunny and warm. lol
While there, we made the obligatory pilgrimage to Walmart to pick up something for breakfast Monday morning. This Walmart was much better stocked with everything than what I’ve grown accustomed to locally. It also featured a lot more self-service checkout lines, but with enough Walmartians standing around that they could have opened all the checkout lanes that had been removed to put these checkouts in place. I fail to see how this improves the bottom line, but that’s Walmart’s problem.
Auto dealers seemed to have better new car availability than here at home, or at least what it was the last time I thought to pay attention. I’ll have to look the next time I’m out and see if our locals are also doing better.
It seems there was a blossoming of houses coming up for sale during our absence, with several sprouting for sale signs just in our immediate area. Most of those, however, are ones that I’ve pegged as rent houses. Perhaps the owners have grown tired of the difficulties of the rental market and are willing to sell off some properties. I doubt it’s going to drive down house prices, however. I’ve also been noting an increase in land for sale.
That’s about it for this report. Out here.
“Walmartians” heh. I like it.
Just filled up at Costco: $3.359 for regular.