Must read book, BOON DOCKERS etc

mlts22 wrote:
I got the book from Amazon, flipped through it. I think some of us tend to get cynical about outsiders, because there is a good chance they will start complaining about how Austin/Texas/the US suck compared to back home.

As for boondocking, the problem that the US has a raging drug epidemic (meth, etc.) This results in any public space that isn't policed 24/7/365 being turned into either a place of sale, a place of use, or a trap for the unwary. This is why hundreds of rest stops and picnic areas in Texas have been closed. Other countries don't have this problem. This is also why if one wants to dry camp, it usually is done on private property in the eastern portion of the country, while the western section is blessed with BLM dispersed camping. Before the epidemic in the 1980s, rest stops and other places were relatively peaceful and safe. Most other countries don't have this problem, so they allow people more rights in public spaces in general.

Good analogy...sad, but true...I delivered newspapers when I was 12 years old in 1962 thru 64..Would get up at 4:30-5am in the morning, 365 day's a year and deliver 85-90 newspapers, didn't matter if it was raining, snowing, whatever you delivered the paper. Can you see a parent letting a 12 yr old go out at 5am in the morning, jumping on their bicycle and delivering papers for the next 45 mins to an hour, NOT EVEN HARDLY..parents would be thrown in jail.....again, sad how things have changed....but it's also a lot like that many other so called "developed countries", not just ours..And no way would I want to be in the Mid East with all that is going on there...Most of the world isn't safe any more....Guess it's something we'll never get back...We have a place in the middle of nowhere in WV, in the mountains, on a river...feel pretty safe there for now...and love it...