Planning First Summer Road Trip-Storm Chasing-Podcast 632

Americans are allowing themselves to disregard most of the news they don’t agree with. Everything is ‘fake news’, unless it tells me what I want to hear. For those addicted, disengaging is nearly impossible. It’s important to realize in a concrete way, there is another world out there. There are many escapes. One of the best is travel. Time to prepare to head out in Planning First Summer Road Trip-Storm Chasing-Podcast 632.

Getting Ready

Planning the trip. The moment before the trip begins is almost as fun as the trip itself. Makes me recall getting ready for camping trips as a boy. Everything laid out on the floor for packing in the back pack. Calling friends and figuring out what everyone was bringing. What we would be cooking over the open fire.

Storm Chasing

This Memorial Day weekend I am Storm Chasing! Many things on this week’s check list. Getting Mobile Podcast Command checked out. Renewing my drivers license. Getting a haircut so I can do my You Tube videos. Loading in the sound board, microphones, the office stuff, and the food. Double and triple checking.

Into The Belly Of The Beast

Some of the underrated but fertile Tornado Chasing areas include Southeastern Iowa, Northeastern Kansas, Eastern Arkansas and Western Texas. Then the standard destinations for Storm Chasers. Oklahoma, Missouri, Nebraska and Iowa. We will chase the storm chasers and get an idea of what this tribe is all about these days. In Planning First Summer Road Trip-Storm Chasing-Podcast 632.

Nature’s Summer Show

Storms are obviously bigger than all of us. Uncontrollable. Following these storms takes you through rural America. Two lane roads. Farm roads. Small towns across the Midwest and Mid South. Places made famous during the Bonnie and Clyde era. Places generally forgotten but magnificent in their own way.

It’s All About Anticipation

Join me planning the first three legs of this summer trip, with a hint of what is to come after. This isn’t a vacation. This is how the Bob Davis Podcasts works on the road. No talking heads. No one telling me what to think. Nothing but the open road, a clean windshield and fuel tanks full. (Editor’s Note: A few hours after posting this podcast I realized I referred to the movie ‘Twister‘ as ‘Tornado‘. What was I thinking? Maybe ‘Sharknado‘? LOL)

Sponsored by Brush Studio in the West End, Saint Louis Park

Planning First Summer Road Trip-Storm Chasing-Podcast 632

Podcast 568-BobDavisPodcastRadioShow-51

Podcast 568-BobDavisPodcastRadioShow-51. Setting the stage for the final two podcasts of Election 2016. Observations from the Fall 2016 mega trip. Fom Minneapolis to Seattle, down the PCH to Los Angeles, across the desert to Phoenix, across New Mexico to Roswell, up through the Texas Panhandle, through Oklahoma and Kansas back to the upper midwest. A circuit of the country that leaves an indelible impression on the eve of the 2016 election. In Podcast 568-BobDavisPodcastRadioShow-51, extemporaneous talk in four segments about the effects of travel. Seeing the country softens your judgements and opinions and strengthens the conclusion that the worldview we’re being fed in the media is not the real world. In reality people are going about their business, raising their families, living their lives. In reality America’s economy is a force of nature that does not react well to government attempts to stimulate or control it. In reality the roads and bridges are not crumbling. In reality people are not at each other’s throats. What is happening is a political realignment. Election 2016 may be the first indication of the coming realignment that may take a view cycles to work itself out. With so much focus on former ‘rust belt’ states and cities like Ohio and Michigan it is almost as if there’s a denial of the juggernaut that is the west coast, from Los Angeles to Seattle, or the industrial agriculture and energy producing states like Texas, Oklahoma, North and South Dakota. In the end, the election will be a state by state affair. In the end there could be surprises, or it may turn out to be a pretty conventional election compared to the last three or four cycles. While the media loads new story lines meant to control you, and push you into a decision, take a moment and allow this podcast to set the stage for what is about to happen. Or not. Sponsored by X Government Cars.

Podcast 558-Pipeline Protest

Podcast 558-Pipeline Protest. Back road tripping across the Northwestern United States. First stop is The Dakota Access Pipeline protest at Standing Rock. A few miles north of Cannonball, North Dakota, about thirty miles south of Bismarck, North Dakota. DAPL – as it is known – is an explosive issue for the Standing Rock Tribe of Native Americans in this region, but pipelines have huge implications for the rest of the United States. As some celebrate the newfound energy independence US Oil Exploration brings, it also brings problems. The biggest is the issue of how to transport the oil out of the state of North Dakota which cannot refine the crude pulled out of the Bakken Reserve. For now, oil is transported on trucks and trains, which may be more unsafe when it comes to accidents and spills than pipelines. At issue is whether the pipeline will rupture, sooner or later, and contaminate ground water. The people at the Standing Rock Protest say yes. The oil companies say no. It’s very hard to get a clear idea of who’s right and wrong. Myron Dewey joins Podcast 558-Pipeline Protest from the protest, which he does not call a protest (as you’ll hear), and for balance an oil company employee and lifetime North Dakotan Eric Nelson joins the podcast not as a spokesperson for the company he works for, but as a concerned citizen. Also check out Standing Rock Fact Checker, and this from Inforum, on Doug Burgham, one of the Republican Gubernatorial candidates in North Dakota. The Standing Rock pipeline protest (sorry Myron but that’s what everyone’s calling it) has certainly focused worldwide attention on the issue. I’m going to take you inside the protest, which is in itself educational. Whenever I cover public events, I am rolling the minute I get there. This time I caught some interesting and educational audio. (Editor’s Note: You might have to strain a little to hear some of what went down, so use headphones. I will be worth it.) Like many local issues, it is filled with emotion and an ocean of ‘facts’ designed to persuade the listener to come to the ‘right’ conclusion. What do you think? Sponsored by Brush Studio in the West End, Saint Louis Park.