A day at the range

[Murgatroyd7]

lol Im in the middle. I grew up in suburbs so I feel too claustrophobic and chaotic in the heart of the city but then feel like I'm lost when Im up in the boonies. Being in the middle of nowhere can be fun though. No one to bother you. My friend just moved up north about 6 months ago and he just rips his snowmobiles and dirtbikes all around his property with no one to complain about noise or call the cops lmao

Yeah, that's one thing that's nice about the boonies. Behind my family's house, there's just a huge field; no road for about a mile. It doesn't get much traffic, though, so you can actually hear the cows on the other side. This place is perfect if you like the outdoors...you can go hunting, fishing, hiking, rock climbing, base diving, rafting, skiing, boating, windsurfing, dirtbiking, or whatever. There are rivers, a huge lake, tons of desert, mountains, snow, woods, forest, swampland, natural hot springs, waterfalls, and just about anything else you can think of. Just about the only thing not there is the ocean.

A lot of those old barns you linked to, Chris, look like some of 'em around here. All dilapidated and looks like you could sneeze beside one and make it fall down. Nice pics of the landscape too (liked that one with all the trees and the stream running down the middle.

Oh, and yeah, you're right....for me, links are better anyway. My dialup would've choked on all those pics if they were directly loaded in the post. Sometimes I think it'd be faster to tie notes around a hamster's neck and just let him run to the destination server and back again with the reply. LOL.

Ha ha, I remember the feeling! And that's more than just a stream, mon frer; it's part of the famous Kern River:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kern_River

Correct me if I'm wrong, but you're in Oklahoma, right? Lots of Okies came to this area during the Great Depression, so you'll probably find a lot of similarities in buildings. Until recently, The Grapes of Wrath was banned in this area because it was considered offensive for using the term "Okie" in a spiteful way. If you're ever bored, you can read up on the different towns in the valley: Lake Isabella, Bodfish, Kernville, Mt. Mesa, Onyx, Squirrel Valley, Weldon (where those barns are), Wofford Heights, South Lake, Havilah, Keyesville, Greenhorn.

There's more, but some of the towns are so small that they're not on the map. And most of them are technically considered settlements, not towns. It's very old-fashioned. They're trying to modernize in some spots, but there are plenty of places that make you feel like you're in the pioneer days. Despite the number of towns/settlements, I think there's only about 10,000 people. That's barely a spec for such a big spread-out valley.

And since this is a video game forum, I might as well mention that certain locations in the area are referenced in Fallout, Fallout 2, and Fallout: NV. Bakersfield (where I currently live; an hour east) is also essential to the plot in the first Fallout.

[Juppy]

Well, I was gonna call that a river, but I thought "Nah, that doesn't look very deep.....looks more like one of those streams you see guys wading out halfway in the middle of to go fly fishing." LOL! I guess the distance of the shot made it look smaller. My bad. heheh

I never found "Okie" to be spiteful. Guess maybe some people were more sensitive about it. But yeah, I'm from Enid, OK, to be exact. I don't recall us ever being mentioned or portrayed in any video games though. Got mentioned in the movie Twister quite a few years back, but other than that we don't have many "claims to fame". The Price brothers, Mark and Brent, that played in the NBA are from here, and uh.....ooh, hey, we hold the record for the largest wheat storage capacity in the U.S.!! Everybody else gets noticed in games and popular media....we just build a bunch of grain elevators. Wheee!

[Murgatroyd7]

Well, for what it's worth, I love wheat/grain and everything you can do with it. That's gotta count for something. Heh.

That section of the river probably is fairly shallow and calm, actually. Well, up to a point anyway. There are plenty of sections where you can wade out a few feet, but it gets deep in the middle and has a fairly strong undercurrent. And then of course there are the parts that have wild rapids. That makes it great for rafting because you can enjoy yourself if you're a beginner or an expert.

As for "Okie"...I don't think the word itself is spiteful; just the way people would use it back in the 30's. It's like saying "Jap". Sure, it's just short for Japanese, but it has a lot of connotations when used. After all these years, it still sounds like a bad word even though it doesn't actually mean anything.

[Juppy]

Yeah, I just always took it as short for being from Oklahoma. Kinda like saying you're an Oklahoman, just shorter....Okie. Plus, when I was younger, there was a song where one line went "I'm proud to be an Okie from Muskogee". I guess back then I figured if it was in a song it must be okay to say. Not so much the case nowadays with songs.....they put whatever they want in there.

[Murgatroyd7]

And it's also not okay to say most things these days. Heh.

Funny you should mention that song 'cause Merle Haggard was born here and I believe he still lives in this area. Not sure of his actual location, but we drive by his old house whenever we visit our families. And just like Buck Owens and Korn, he even has a street named after him. Never was a country fan, but it's still kinda neat.

[StatiK TactiK]

Korn has a street named after them? lol oh god.

[Murgatroyd7]

Ha ha, yeah, it's called Korn Row. I guess it's not really much of a street, though. It's more like an alley (or "access road") behind an arena.

[DeYanKees1]

Korn Row get it lol

[Juppy]

LOL @ Korn having a street named after them! Didn't know that. Only streets around here that are named after anyone FROM here that got famous are Leona Mitchell Blvd, she's an opera singer, and Owen K. Garriott Rd, he was an astronaut. Most other street names are just the usual presidents, trees, numbers, etc.

On a side note about Korn, I can't mention them to my brother. He only listens to country music and anytime I say something like "Got Korn's new CD yesterday", he always has to reply something like "Oh yeah?....when's Carrot's new one coming out?....or Green Bean's?". Heheh

[Murgatroyd7]

It's annoying, but I think most of us are like that with one thing or another. I'm not too much of a jerk about it, but I'm convinced that I have the best possible taste and everyone's preferences are inferior to my own. Okay, I'm not that bad...but I'm close. Heh.