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  1. #151
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    Oct 2004
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    50 miles E of Paradise
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    One more tale from Northern New Mexico
    I was sent down to look at whether my employer should buy a sawmill near Costilla. Two big questions were timber supply and personnel.

    During the week I spent researching and talking to landowners in a 200 mile radius about timber harvest deals, locals asked if I might interrupt my lunch to fight - once in Las Vegas, once somewhere near Chama. I was able to talk my way out of it both times on grounds they wouldn’t even break a sweat kicking my ass. And buying them beers.

    By my second night in Taos, everyone at Doc Martin’s seemed to know who I was and why I was there. A veritable font of unsolicited advice as I ate dinner, mostly along the theme of “outsiders don’t do well here.”

    A few days later I was sitting in the mill managers office going through his files.
    One memo caught my eye
    “Vandals shot out the substation at [some time late at night]. We questioned the strikers who were there but nobody seemed to know anything about it. Word is that [union president’s] cousin did it, but no way to prove it.”

    OK then!

    After going thru the desk drawers I went to a tall filing cabinet right next to the desk. Top drawer is kinda sticky. That’s because there’s a small hole punched in the side of the cabinet and the jagged edges on the inside are hanging up the rails. Yanking on it doesn’t help

    I looked on the other side of the cabinet. There’s a hole about the size of my fist with jagged edges pointing out.

    Kinda looks like a bullet hole to me...

    I sighted down the two holes and then noticed a hole in an exterior window of the office. It’s a big room with conference table, sofa, yada^3, so window was like 40’ away.

    I went outside and sighted the hole in the window thru the filing cabinet. If someone were sitting at that desk when the round discharged, it would have missed him by maybe 3”. And probably because shooter didn’t correct for refraction through the window...

    We’re done here.

    I packed up and headed back to town where I could get a cell signal. Called the office, got the CEO, said “yea... beautiful place, great private elk hunting, iiffy timber supply and I don’t think we’ll have a productive relationship with the locals.” Then summarized my adventures.

    “Shit, the broker never mentioned any of this” he said. “OK, there’s a mill in Republic WA I want you to look at next week...”

    Anybody been to Republic? Another “interesting” locale...

  2. #152
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    Feb 2012
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    692
    Quote Originally Posted by been in it View Post

    When I worked for the park district a few years later I realized that the park where this had happened had to of been a hook up spot for closeted gays in the area. That explained all the cars at the trail head on a rainy evening and of course the creep who was following us into the woods.

    Great stories in this thread.
    Watch yer cornhole bud

  3. #153
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    Sep 2001
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    Orangina
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    Arco, Idaho is high on the list. Name:  B8F8C48A-033F-4885-A592-88664CAA8CE8.jpg
Views: 805
Size:  79.1 KB

    Sent from my SM-N986U using Tapatalk
    "All God does is watch us and kill us when we get boring. We must never, ever be boring."

  4. #154
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    Mar 2017
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    Quote Originally Posted by The Reverend Floater View Post
    Arco, Idaho is high on the list. Name:  B8F8C48A-033F-4885-A592-88664CAA8CE8.jpg
Views: 805
Size:  79.1 KB

    Sent from my SM-N986U using Tapatalk
    Even better than Arco is the EBR-1 site, the first nuclear reactor in the world to produce usable electricity. That whole place is bonkers, one of my favorite museums anywhere. The nuclear reactors on rail cars just sitting in the parking lot are straight out of Mad Max, and the super hot Eastern European tour guides are the icing on the cake.

    Sent from my Pixel 4 using Tapatalk

  5. #155
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    Mar 2004
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    West Coast of the East Coast
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    7,737
    Loving this old thread. Never had seen that Gobbler story. Nice to see one of the first mentions of the assfinder. I have great memories of ski trips in my Pathfinder back in the day. That thing could eat snow. 3 ft drifts were not even a thought.

    Unfortunately, one of the creepiest places I have been was the birthplace of my great grandfather, Melilli, Sicily. My wife and I went there after flying into Catania. Our final destination was Taormina, which is where my wife's side is from. We roll into Melilli around 5 or 6 pm on a Sunday. Not great timing. No one is really around. We get out of the car and wander around a little. It is a run down little town that has been around since 1-2,000 years before Jesus, I believe. I thought it would be a pretty cool place to explore. Maybe any other day it would have been.

    We walked around for a bit with no one in sight. We then came to a square where we saw a bunch of men smoking and hanging out. There were also a bunch of what appeared to be feral dogs milling about. We walked up one street, looking around, and then walked toward the square, since it was the most direct path to our car. By now we are getting that creepy hills have eyes vibe. It felt like all the women were inside cleaning up after Sunday meal, and most of the men were outside hanging out, but you could tell we were being watched from the windows. From down one street, my wife gets heckled by some guy from a distance. Nothing new in Italy. She's got the look they like, female. We pick up our pace, barely make eye contact, breeze by the square, and get in our car and GTFO.

    I was pretty disappointed that this place I heard my grandfather talk about, and had in my head, was THIS place. It makes sense though- the town is at 1,000 ft elevation and it has a perfect view of the industrial port down below. I bet all those guys work down there. Imagine having to stare at your work 24/7? When my great grandfather would have been there, none of that would have been like that. I am sure it was a happier place, minus the lack of food and jobs that drove them to the U.S. in the first place. I guess I just wish it had been a little more. Maybe I will go back on a Saturday sometime, with someone who speaks Italian well. Maybe it could be a cool experience.

    I called my dad after and I said, well- I know why great grandpa left. My Dad said that my grandfather always asked his dad (great grandpa) why he didn't go back to visit. His dad would say, "Why would I want to go back to that place?"
    I guess that sums it up.

    On another note, we roll into Taormina, my wife's family town, and the world makes sense to me all at once. My family is from the shit hole, and hers is from the amazing mediterranean resort town straight outta a James Bond movie.

  6. #156
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    Dec 2012
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    17,747
    Los Angeles. Camden would be 2nd.
    "timberridge is terminally vapid" -- a fortune cookie in Yueyang

  7. #157
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    Dec 2006
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    New England
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    Goddamn, lots of great stories in this thread. I don't have much to add other than a handful of times my friends and I in college went exploring abandoned insane asylums in central Massachusetts in the middle of the night. We were always drunk and very very high, so it's not too difficult to spook yourself out. We never had any paranormal experiences but one night we were at a place that had a lot of small buildings spread across the property, so we were going from building to building exploring. As we exited one building I caught some movement in the treeline about 30 yards from us. I stopped and tried to see what it was, but saw nothing and figured it was just my mind playing tricks or an animal. We continued on to the next building, and when inside heard a "thud" like someone smacked the siding on the back side of the place. We all jumped out of our skins and made our way outside when a friend says "WHAT'S THAT?!" and points to a big tree nearby. There was a silhouette of a man leaning on the tree. We stared frozen, not knowing who/what it was when I saw the red glow of the cherry on his cigarette as he took a drag. We all bolted out of there really fucking fast. The guy didn't move, he just watched us. No idea if it was a security guy, or a local just fucking with us, but it was just really odd and creepy to a handful of drunk and stoned college kids.
    Quote Originally Posted by JoeStrummer
    The universe that is a vehicle is a funny and delicate thing. I fucked my wife in the back seat of our Saab in the parking lot before a Social D / Superchunk show at Red Rocks. After that the radio never worked again.

  8. #158
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    Oct 2008
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    Wenatchee
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    Quote Originally Posted by TBS View Post
    One more tale from Northern New Mexico
    I was sent down to look at whether my employer should buy a sawmill near Costilla. Two big questions were timber supply and personnel.

    During the week I spent researching and talking to landowners in a 200 mile radius about timber harvest deals, locals asked if I might interrupt my lunch to fight - once in Las Vegas, once somewhere near Chama. I was able to talk my way out of it both times on grounds they wouldn’t even break a sweat kicking my ass. And buying them beers.

    By my second night in Taos, everyone at Doc Martin’s seemed to know who I was and why I was there. A veritable font of unsolicited advice as I ate dinner, mostly along the theme of “outsiders don’t do well here.”

    A few days later I was sitting in the mill managers office going through his files.
    One memo caught my eye
    “Vandals shot out the substation at [some time late at night]. We questioned the strikers who were there but nobody seemed to know anything about it. Word is that [union president’s] cousin did it, but no way to prove it.”

    OK then!

    After going thru the desk drawers I went to a tall filing cabinet right next to the desk. Top drawer is kinda sticky. That’s because there’s a small hole punched in the side of the cabinet and the jagged edges on the inside are hanging up the rails. Yanking on it doesn’t help

    I looked on the other side of the cabinet. There’s a hole about the size of my fist with jagged edges pointing out.

    Kinda looks like a bullet hole to me...

    I sighted down the two holes and then noticed a hole in an exterior window of the office. It’s a big room with conference table, sofa, yada^3, so window was like 40’ away.

    I went outside and sighted the hole in the window thru the filing cabinet. If someone were sitting at that desk when the round discharged, it would have missed him by maybe 3”. And probably because shooter didn’t correct for refraction through the window...

    We’re done here.

    I packed up and headed back to town where I could get a cell signal. Called the office, got the CEO, said “yea... beautiful place, great private elk hunting, iiffy timber supply and I don’t think we’ll have a productive relationship with the locals.” Then summarized my adventures.

    “Shit, the broker never mentioned any of this” he said. “OK, there’s a mill in Republic WA I want you to look at next week...”

    Anybody been to Republic? Another “interesting” locale...
    Republic is great, great little brewery there.


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  9. #159
    Join Date
    Jan 2006
    Location
    San Juan Islands, WA.
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    1,188
    Not really creepy but along the same gunshot theme. I worked at a small marina on Long Island and every Friday We'd get 10 barrels of Cam 2 fuel and fill two offshore powerboats (a Cigarette and something else) one belonging to a friend of the owner of the marina (who always tipped well, especially at Christmas). On Saturday after the weekly Pizza lunch the two boats would come back and We'd refill them with the remaining fuel. The owner of the Cigarette also had a boat (39 Sea Ray) at another marina I eventually worked at that had 24 hour gated security. One night a car drove thru the gate (when the guard had stepped away) and fired a shot thru the door of the boat, the next day the owner was proud to show one shot into the boat but 5 exiting thru the door. A year or two they found him dead in his house from a gun shot wound, I don't think they ever found (or looked for) the killer.

  10. #160
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    Oct 2006
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    8530' MST/200' EST
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    I grew up in a town with one of those, Medfield. Held our Boy Scout Troop meetings in a few of the different buildings, always getting kicked out of one as it would be condemned. There were rumors of an axe murderer living in the "max security" section of the prison, which I believe to be BS at this point.
    Got chased out by security a few times after dark exploring. There was one building who had a cart of WWII history books with SS troops on the front sitting right inside the door, always wondered about that building, and continue to wonder what's been forever sealed up in some of those basements and attics.

    Quote Originally Posted by Crock View Post
    Goddamn, lots of great stories in this thread. I don't have much to add other than a handful of times my friends and I in college went exploring abandoned insane asylums in central Massachusetts in the middle of the night. We were always drunk and very very high, so it's not too difficult to spook yourself out. We never had any paranormal experiences but one night we were at a place that had a lot of small buildings spread across the property, so we were going from building to building exploring. As we exited one building I caught some movement in the treeline about 30 yards from us. I stopped and tried to see what it was, but saw nothing and figured it was just my mind playing tricks or an animal. We continued on to the next building, and when inside heard a "thud" like someone smacked the siding on the back side of the place. We all jumped out of our skins and made our way outside when a friend says "WHAT'S THAT?!" and points to a big tree nearby. There was a silhouette of a man leaning on the tree. We stared frozen, not knowing who/what it was when I saw the red glow of the cherry on his cigarette as he took a drag. We all bolted out of there really fucking fast. The guy didn't move, he just watched us. No idea if it was a security guy, or a local just fucking with us, but it was just really odd and creepy to a handful of drunk and stoned college kids.
    "If we can't bring the mountain to the party, let's bring the PARTY to the MOUNTAIN!"

  11. #161
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    Oct 2004
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    50 miles E of Paradise
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    Quote Originally Posted by MagnificentUnicorn View Post
    Republic is great, great little brewery there.
    Have to admit I haven’t been back since that one trip (like 30 years ago). It’s very pretty, and quiet. No brewery when I was there. Main feature to me was most family trees did not appear to have limbs...

  12. #162
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    Feb 2013
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    2,620
    Quote Originally Posted by The Reverend Floater View Post
    Arco, Idaho is high on the list. Name:  B8F8C48A-033F-4885-A592-88664CAA8CE8.jpg
Views: 805
Size:  79.1 KB

    Sent from my SM-N986U using Tapatalk
    The last time I was in Arco we tried to buy beer at the gas station but it was closed for a private party.

  13. #163
    Join Date
    Feb 2008
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    2,655
    In 1999, I was cycle touring in SE Asia. When I got to Bangkok, I stashed my bike and took a side trip to see Angkor Wat. On my way back to Bangkok, I paid for a ride in a pickup truck -- defacto public transportation -- that was going from Siem Reap to Aranyaprathet in eastern Thailand. I was the only non-Cambodian / Thai national in the truck, but I'm kind of ethnically ambiguous and was pretty tan at the time. The driver told me "If we get stopped, don't say anything, just let them think you're from around here."

    The route to Aranyaprathet was all crappy dirt roads, doubletrack through rice paddies, and jerry-rigged lumber bridges, some of which had unofficial tolls. There were also a good number of military checkpoints, most of which extracted a toll of the "we have guns and you have money" variety.

    At one of those military checkpoints, the driver had a heated exchange with one of the soldiers, and then the soldier told him to get out of the truck. They went into a building, leaving like 6 or 8 of us on/in the truck twiddling our thumbs, surrounded by Cambodian soldiers with long guns. They were in the building for a looong time, maybe 15 minutes. The driver had left the keys in the truck and at one point I pointed at the keys, made steering motions, and raised my eyebrow at one of the other people in the truck. He opened his eyes wide and shook his head "no", which I interpreted as "JFC, do not get us shot, idiot". I was sweating because there's no way I could pass as Thai/Cambodian given more than a casual glance, and the driver had seemed really concerned about the prospect of me being outed as American.

    But after a good long while, the driver came back out, got in the truck and drove off. I think they were just haggling over the toll, but who knows. All's well that ends well, but that was definitely one of the times when you just think to yourself "Hell, no one knows where I am."

  14. #164
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    Oct 2008
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    Quote Originally Posted by TBS View Post
    Have to admit I haven’t been back since that one trip (like 30 years ago). It’s very pretty, and quiet. No brewery when I was there. Main feature to me was most family trees did not appear to have limbs...
    Where did you grow up? Republic seems pretty normal as far as backwoods places go. I grew up in the sticks though. If you want a weird little “town” not far from you, I think, go wander around Mitchell OR. Makes Republic look like Mayberry. Good brewery and good food at Tiger Town.


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  15. #165
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    Nov 2014
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    1,026
    When I worked as an environmental consultant in the NYC metro, we often went to shady places. The one that really stands out was a derelict subway car maintenance facility in the central Bronx. Brick construction, no windows, huge holes in the ceiling so the ground floor dripped like a cave. Lots of homeless squatters. In the very back was a small pitch black room with one thing in it: a chair with rope around it.

  16. #166
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    Nov 2005
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    Saving this spot for my story about Elk City, ID.

  17. #167
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    Quote Originally Posted by RootSkier View Post
    Saving this spot for my story about Elk City, ID.
    Looking forward to it.

  18. #168
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    Quote Originally Posted by The Reverend Floater View Post
    Arco, Idaho is high on the list. Name:  B8F8C48A-033F-4885-A592-88664CAA8CE8.jpg
Views: 805
Size:  79.1 KB
    Arco is kind of a weird town. Now that Grandpa's BBQ place is long gone and the soft serve ice cream machine at the Chevron there is gone, no reason to stop there anymore. That conning tower apparently had the 666 painted over by some Jesus freaks a few years ago and replaced it with something like Jesus is Love, but they probably weren't from Arco.

    For the record I spent about 3 hours at EBR-1 years ago and really dig the history of that place, but not necessarily the mess they left on the ground and subsurface (i.e. deep injection wells)

  19. #169
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    Feb 2010
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    Portland by way of Bozeman
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    Quote Originally Posted by Hott Butt Mud View Post
    The year 2017 in the United States of America.
    2020 would like a word with you...

  20. #170
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    Jun 2020
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    in a freezer in Italy
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    2017? pfft.

  21. #171
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    Aug 2013
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    shadow of HS butte
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    Good bump.

    Here’s an experience from Arizona:

    I was out driving some desert roads northeast of Phoenix near Horseshoe reservoir late at night, alone (I was bored). It’s a fairly desolate area. You might see some people fishing for catfish beneath the dam but other than that not much goes on after dark.

    Anyway, it was the summer so all of the cool critters are out at night. Tons of tarantulas and scorpions on the road, coyotes, the occasional owl, etc, it’s nice. As I’m driving along I come over a small hill and there are about 15 side by sides and 20-30 people parked just off the road. Every one is pimped out with those LED antennas, nice wheels, etc... Big money rigs.

    Of course all eyes turn towards me but there was nowhere to turn around other than backing back down the crest of the hill, which would have been kind of sketch. As I get closer I could tell this was a pretty tough crowd in general. Don’t wanna make assumptions but each of these rigs probably costs upward of 50k and the dudes are dressed like a bunch of gang bangers. Kept driving through with nothing but a couple glares in my direction. Could have been bad. The real shitty part was I had to eventually drive back out through where they were at.

    About an hour or so later passed back through and they were all luckily cleared out.

  22. #172
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    Aug 2013
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    shadow of HS butte
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    Creepiest/Weirdest Place You've Been

    Quote Originally Posted by tgapp View Post
    Even better than Arco is the EBR-1 site, the first nuclear reactor in the world to produce usable electricity. That whole place is bonkers, one of my favorite museums anywhere. The nuclear reactors on rail cars just sitting in the parking lot are straight out of Mad Max, and the super hot Eastern European tour guides are the icing on the cake.

    Sent from my Pixel 4 using Tapatalk
    EBR-1 ain’t even the half of it on that site..

  23. #173
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    Mar 2017
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    SLC, Utah
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    Quote Originally Posted by east or bust View Post
    EBR-1 ain’t even the half of it on that site..
    dude that place is FUCKING NUTS

    not that i'm some well traveled badass or anything, but i have had the opportunity to go to a number of "bucket list" places (the taj mahal, the hermitage, the louvre, etc). and any time anyone asks me what my favorite tourist spot is, i tell them EBR-1, hands down.

    i fucking love ebr-1 and everything else out there, it's wild and creepy and untamed.

  24. #174
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    Oct 2008
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    Wenatchee
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    Quote Originally Posted by east or bust View Post
    Good bump.

    Here’s an experience from Arizona:

    I was out driving some desert roads northeast of Phoenix near Horseshoe reservoir late at night, alone (I was bored). It’s a fairly desolate area. You might see some people fishing for catfish beneath the dam but other than that not much goes on after dark.

    Anyway, it was the summer so all of the cool critters are out at night. Tons of tarantulas and scorpions on the road, coyotes, the occasional owl, etc, it’s nice. As I’m driving along I come over a small hill and there are about 15 side by sides and 20-30 people parked just off the road. Every one is pimped out with those LED antennas, nice wheels, etc... Big money rigs.

    Of course all eyes turn towards me but there was nowhere to turn around other than backing back down the crest of the hill, which would have been kind of sketch. As I get closer I could tell this was a pretty tough crowd in general. Don’t wanna make assumptions but each of these rigs probably costs upward of 50k and the dudes are dressed like a bunch of gang bangers. Kept driving through with nothing but a couple glares in my direction. Could have been bad. The real shitty part was I had to eventually drive back out through where they were at.

    About an hour or so later passed back through and they were all luckily cleared out.
    That must have been harrowing, vibes


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  25. #175
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    Aug 2013
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    shadow of HS butte
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    Creepiest/Weirdest Place You've Been

    Quote Originally Posted by tgapp View Post
    dude that place is FUCKING NUTS

    not that i'm some well traveled badass or anything, but i have had the opportunity to go to a number of "bucket list" places (the taj mahal, the hermitage, the louvre, etc). and any time anyone asks me what my favorite tourist spot is, i tell them EBR-1, hands down.

    i fucking love ebr-1 and everything else out there, it's wild and creepy and untamed.
    Look up advanced SMRs... coming to a city near you..

    Also heard through the rumor mill that some of those large buildings north of the road between Howe and Mud Lake are hangers that were constructed for a nuclear powered aircraft. Actually, I believe two of the reactors sitting in the parking lot at EBR-1 we’re used in that program.

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