Featured Will You Be Taking A Vacation this Summer?

Some places the president has to go to, I am thankful I am not in his shoes. With all the vaccinations they have to get, the body guards having to surround you, etc., that doesn't sound the least bit like a vacation to me.

 

My wife considers vacation going to see her mother and siblings for a week. I do not. How many times does a person have to see the National Naval Aviation Museum in their lifetime? "Let's go to the beach!" We have a beach where I live and I don't go to that one. Why would I want to go to yours! Do we have to drive 400 miles just to see them? Can't we just Skype or Facetime them?

I just got home yesterday from a week long youth retreat at a lake house in middle Georgia. We had an awesome time, but I don't consider that vacation either. That was work!!

 

I'll be taking 1 'real' vacation this year in July. The bride and I will celebrate our first anniversary by return to our honeymoon spot and enjoy a week there. :godisgood:

We also have a couple quasi-vacations planned. This weekend for example we will be in WV to see my mom and my uncle. We will go to the family farm in the middle of NOWHERE WV and unload a couple hundred rounds of lead into the mountains.
And to really make it interesting, I will be teaching my mom how to shoot! This is gonna be interesting...

Also we may or may not join my wife's parents going to Georgia for either Thanksgiving or Christmas.

 

The family and I will be leaving the Old Line State and vacationing in Cape May, NJ.

 

Herald - Are you also here in the Peoples Republic of Maryland?

 

So, are you taking a vacation this summer?

Maybe.... If we go somewhere for a weekend with members of our church. Year before last, we went on one of those tours. First time, in I don't have a clue of how many years since we'd taken a "vacation".

When I was much younger, had the dream of camping in every state in this nation plus going to Australia. Wanted to drive the Alaska Highway with a pickup camper. At the time, our vacations were camping trips to locations within reasonable driving distance for time available to vacation.

Dreams faded as reality set in. Aging bodies, financial constraints, growing dislike of tourist traps, and so on. Guess, too, the changing landscape plays a part. For example, used to love to go to coastal NC. Over the years watched miles of sand dunes being replaced with miles of high-rise hotels. "Nature" removed from campgrounds to accomodate more man-made stuff. Example: Cut down the trees to accomodate $100,000 homes on wheels.

To more that relates to the topic. Couple above with a growing awareness of the immorality, IMO, often associated with "business expense". And applying that awareness to "political" travel as well.

Guess I processed too many travel related receipts for repayment. The higher on the corporate ladder the more that could be deemed to be "valid" business expense. Processed too many receipts containing high dollar personal pleasure items. At the same time had to JUSTIFY low dollar requests for supplies and equipment needed to better do my own job. And, deny reimbursement to staff for "abuse" of business related expense reports.

Taking this forward to Air Force One. Taxpayers are footing the tab for that plane to take flight. Some applicable context, IMO. A simple mistake on a tax return can result in fines and penalties on top of demand of payment of the few dollars (relatively speaking) of tax owed. Often, a mistake not "discovered" until after a hefty amount of interest has accumulated.

Compound all of this with the current "budget cut" (invalid application of term, BTW) that's closing parks, Whitehouse tours, and so many other things to bring about ire of the public. Simply compare the cost to put Air Force One into the air, even for a short trip, to the actual dollars needed to fund keeping a park open for example.

How many vacations have had to be cancelled because families could only afford to go to a now closed park? While the President's family can enjoy all the WORLD has to offer using tax money those same families had to pay.

Our camper is parked in the backyard, where it's likely to stay until my heirs dispose of it. There's no one to foot the tab for vacation expense which includes staff to cater to our every physical need and desire.

Our vacation days, as people usually define the term, are but faded dreams.

 

My vacations revolve around missionary work. This year I have been to preach at a deaf camp in Colombia, SA and in a couple of weeks at another one in Mexico. I am blessed to belong to a church that assists me with transportation expenses. We also make time for our state Deaf convention.

 

Sadly, yes.

 

Stinks doesn't it?

Gas Tax
Rain Tax
Oppression of gun owners (not sure if you're one)
:tonofbricks:

What a lovely communisitc state Owe'Malley is creating...

I'm hoping to move to PA before Annapolis finds away to directly tax the cash in my wallet...

 

We'll be taking a few days sandwiched around our regular day off to see our grandchildren. After trying to keep up with them, we'll schedule some time off to recuperate. We tend to take vacations in April/May or October.

 

Just returned from a wonderful vacation in Pigeon Forge, Tn. Did not go to Dollywood, since we had already been there. We took in the four package deal shows in downtown Pigeon Forge. They were all very good and very clean shows, especially liked the morning Blackwood Singers show. We got tickets to all four shows with one phone call. The cost for two people - $231 including a dinner meal.

 

Maryland was not that way when we moved here. I don't know what in the world happened to this place.

We will be moving soon, either to Alabama, South Carolina, or Texas.

It will probably be South Carolina.

It's a shame, too, because we love our little farm and the Bay has some of the best sailing in the world, but the state government is just getting out of control.

Besides, people in South Carolina don't giggle every time I say I like to "shag".

 

I remain because, like Jeremiah, there is a need to proclaim the gospel to dying people. That is the only reason or I would be down South.

 

True. The last couple years have been nuts though. Did you hear Carnival Cruises is leaving MD? Can't afford the onerous taxes... a cruise line... can't afford something!? Problem here methinks...

Good luck in your move whenever that occurs. I'd love to go to SC as well, but I can't bring myself to leave the church I'm in and it's east of B-more... thus I'll be moving to PA.

 

I understand. You have a ministry here and you don't want to leave it. I understand that completely.

I helped to plant my church and have been an elder since its creation. How do you think I feel?

But my first ministry is to my family and I have to believe this is a good move for them.

Besides, people down South need the Lord just as much as people up North.

 

We'll be driving up to Houlton, Maine (last exit north on route I-95) to visit my daughter and grandkids later in the summer.

We asked what we can do there - she said, "Not much".
It's not nowhere, but you can see it from there.

Rob

 

PA is hardly the tax-free state. When I lived there (I left in 1972), I not only had to pay all the federal taxes, but a state sales tax, a state income tax, and then local taxes included an income tax for the school district and two different forms of per capita taxes.

Had I worked in the town where I lived, I'd have to pay an occupation privilege tax, and had I owned property in that town, I'd owed two forms of property tax.

(Not saying MD has the best tax basis, but PA is certainly no tax haven!)