New England B.S. Thread

Trader Joe's Saturday/Sunday morning at 8AM is amazing. Almost shopping by myself.

 

I wish we had a Trader Joe's. Closest is Hadley or Albany, which are both over an hour from me.

There's a pretty nice Stop and Shop a town over from me that is very quiet early on weekend mornings. That's usually where I go. There's also a Shaw's maybe 25 minutes away in Vermont, which I've been tempted to go to because I love Shaw's. But, it's a tiny one so I'm not sure it's worth the extra 10 minute drive.

 

I think having control of who goes on the land is huge. No "he said, she said" b.s. you know who destroyed something, or who kept the trails in good shape. Also, there's lots of room for stupidity in the offroad world, or even worse, unexpected bad luck...that could mean big headaches for you as the owner. If you have a set of rules, a contract for people and some control, you will be much better off from a liability standpoint IMO.

Once I get a better feel for my property, and maybe a little better trail system, I am thinking of doing an off road/mod day once or maybe twice a year at my place in MA. Don't want everything destroyed doing it too often, and depending on how noisey it gets, don't need too much crap from neighbors. We have about 75 acres right now, and I have 2-2.5 miles of ROUGH trails (no drainage and not finish graded etc...). I added last december with an excavator, some steep, some wet and muddy spots, and if you get to the top and I cut a few trees down, probably a pretty good view. After wheeling, I have (relatively) big parking lots we could do some mods or repairs, and I am hoping a garage in the next year or two. Also have a commercial kitchen, so we could cook up a storm and make it a full day. This is all very early stage thought out right now, but hopefully once I move in spring I can actually organize something.

At some point in the next 20-40 years, I honestly think private property/special parks are going to be the only places to off-road...or maybe even drive ICE vehicles at all. Not happy about that future, but its headed in that direction.

Pretending that we have a plethora of choices around for grocery shopping here


What's your other top pic, Billmonts? 45 minute drive to Market 32? Might be some more stuff closer to you in the other direction I'm not familiar with.

 

Yup. The commercial game for that is already huge up here. So much so that hotels are now being built in towns that support the atv/ sidebysides.

Btw I think I've mentioned this before but the treasurer at Jerico is a cool guy and said we'd be more than welcome to have a Toyota day up there .

 

Ha, I can drive to Billmont's in two minutes!

I guess the only other option is Big Y, but every time I go to any Big Y I get annoyed by the layout of the store and the prices, so I just don't bother with them anymore.

 

just found out the heat isnt working today at work. Its 59 degrees in here.... lovely day.

 

I'd like to do that, and join some more of these other runs. Working Saturday and Sundays 3/4 of the year kills most those chances. I am hoping as our business matures I can take a couple weekends off and do some of that.

What Big Y excels at is that they still employee baggers. That's huge for me, and really cuts down on waiting time in lines. I forgot about them, but I do stop there sometimes if I forget to go to Stop and Shop

 

A lot of them have a gate with a lock and only certain people have keys/codes, they let the landowner know ahead of time and pay to go wheeling on the land to help preserve the land. NTC is an NEA club. It works out for Everyone. NEA clubs usually have responsible members who pick up after themselves and respect the land

 

I think this is what's important, the issue I would foresee is someone damaging themselves or their vehicle and trying to stupidly blame the property owner for their misjudgement. You could even have some form of "check in / check out" system for knowing whos on your trails, require CB on a particular channel and the like.

 

That would be great, never bad getting some connections. I knew they've been making trails in Bethel, didn't know where; just looked they are 0.4mi away

That was the understanding I have of it. Which wouldn't be awful if I could combine something like that with what @Bridge4 said. I want as little of the liability but all the fun.

 

At the times I go to Stop and Shop, there are barely any other customers so there's always someone to bag.

Everything about Big Y annoys me. The way the store is organized makes absolutely no sense, so I can't find anything. It seems like half the store is buy 1 get 2, but that's rendered almost pointless when you notice how inflated the prices of those items are. Even the way they make their employees dress bothers me--it's a grocery store, white shirts and black ties don't look professional in that environment, they look ridiculous.

 

Yea i had to sign a waiver releasing the club and land owner from any liability before wheeling the NTC meet and greet back in May

 

I'm building a Trader Joes in Bedford NH. Probably open by April or so.

 

I don't even care if I get one super close. Greenfield, Pittsfield, or Bennington would all be fine!

 

For those who tow on here....I need some help; I've never towed before and don't want to sign myself up for something stupid.

Ideally I want to get my Mustang up to Bethel so it can be in a garage all winter and not sitting outside at my parents. I was hoping to get it up there this Friday but I'm see possible 1-3" of white; which summer preformance tires that are getting close to bald will not fair well. I could rent a UHaul flatbed trailer to get it up there with the Taco for $103 but I'd also need to get a hitch+ball. If I've never towed before am I setting myself up for failure or would it be possible taking it easy? Mustang weighs ~3k lbs, empty Trailer weight of 2200

@jpereira2? @jethro? @Noelie84? @mach1man001?

 

People are calling to put one in N. Adams, but they don't understand the economics I think. If something could survive there, grand union wouldn't have abandoned it, they would have redone the store and kept it open. Maybe I'm wrong, because I haven't really looked at all the important numbers myself.

 

@m603holden, @Fitzwilly Have you gotten a notification that your fogs have shipped?

 

I have not. Probably will email them tomorrow. I specifically asked if they were In stock, twice. They better be there.

 

The two keys are distributing the weight on the trailer properly and having good trailer brakes. If you do that, towing is a breeze.

I believe U-Hauls have surge brakes which many people don't like. Ideally, you get a pendulum-based brake controller (for example, a Tekonsha Prodigy) and a trailer with electric brakes. Time based controllers are annoying to drive with. Better still is an OEM controller that can look at the brake pedal input on the vehicle, but I don't think Tacomas have a brake controller option.

 

I'm not looking for a red carpet ride and experience but if I can do it safely I'd be happy. I'll likely never have to really worry about towing this weight again. Only intentions I've had to tow is an off-road trailer