Tacos in St. Louis area

Ya I haven't gotten around to even looking at getting my ccw over here. I've left my guns locked up in Missouri for now. ugh.
Still happy to save that $700ish bucks for the next few years. I know I will not live in the forsaken flat ass corn desert forever. I miss my damn Missouri hills. As for gas, I haven't felt the pain yet. The tacoma has spent copious time in my garage. I think it's had the same tank of gas in it for a month now. I need to drive it home and put some fresh gasoline in. All the shitty things about this state have evaded me so far; except these flat monotonous highways.

That being said. Anyone want to go hit some trails this weekend? lol

 

No plans to ever live in IL, but taxes are kind of funny. I moved to MO from TX where there is no income nor personal property tax. There is, however, real estate and sales tax. Sales tax is on par with other places, but real estate is high. I calculated my tax burden in MO considering everything, and it was about the same as TX -- just from different sources. So while you may be avoiding it in one place, you're getting hit somewhere else either directly or indirectly. Just moved to AR and did the same thing -- personal property is lower, real estate a little higher, sales and income about the same. In the end, it's a wash. There are other things that have a much bigger impact on your cost and quality of living than taxes, best to focus on them. But I still have to pay my damn $800 in MO personal property tax this year, dangit.

 

Illinois, where the governors make the license plates.

 

No, Francis Howell, And yeah her car is assessed much lower than ours. Even though MSRP wasn't that much cheaper. I guess maybe because it's a non-turbo, 4cyl, 4 door, sedan?

 

Many states that collet PPT do use cylinders as part of their tax formula.

 

So the end of October myself and my buddy ventured down to Mark Twain National Forest for 4 days and 3 nights to explore and do some primitive camping. We had about zero idea as to what we should expect or where to go, we just knew we wanted to drive some forest service roads and disconnect. So, with no expectations we picked an area and headed out. Our first night we camped outside of Rolla. We were behind schedule and rushed so we picked the first “flat” spot we could find and threw camp up. The site was super rocky, and there was tons of dead fall around so it was less than ideal but it worked and luckily we didn’t get injured by any falling limbs Here’s a pic of the site
That night was probably one of the windiest nights I’ve ever experienced camping(I’ve camped and backpacked a lot) and we both slept terrible lol. We woke the next morning, tore down everything and headed to the forest office in Rolla to hopefully get a better idea of where we wanted to go. The lady at the front desk was super nice, gave me maps but definitely didn’t have much insight on where to go to hit some good forest service roads so with maps in hand we headed out. We decided to head down to the Roby area and check things out down there. What we experienced on the service roads we went on was this; in dry conditions there was little in the form of anything “challenging”, but it was fun nonetheless because exploring is exploring and I always like getting away. Had there been any rain during the trip it would’ve been a bit more technical, but I did 80% of it all in 2wd without worrying about airing down. If you’re worried about pinstripes, this isn’t for you. The majority of the time all you could hear was the screeching of branches dragging down the side of your vehicle lol. We ended up stumbling upon the Paddy Creek Wilderness camping area. It was almost completely empty due to the cold temperatures(win) and it was beautiful so we decided for the next couple of nights we’d just camp there and explore around that area. Our camp site backed up to a beautiful stream and it was nice having an established fire pit as it was so dry our first night we didn’t have a fire because it would’ve been careless to do so. Here was the stream behind the camp site Steam rolling off the water in the morning My truck is stock except for the tires(cooper stt pro’s) so this is the perfect opportunity for someone who’s curious about off roading but doesn’t want to jump into the deep end. It would be quite a bit of fun if it had rained for a couple of days prior. I’ll post some general pics of our adventures and what the trails looked like. If you have any questions please ask. I’ve never done a write up like this so I might be forgetting something critical lol. I have the exact fire service roads we took written down if anyone wants to know the specifics. Some random wood shitters we found out in the middle of nowhere.. I know the fire watch towers aren’t open to the public, however..sometimes it doesn’t hurt to ask. We were officially told that the tower wasn’t open to the public and we “weren’t allowed” to go to the top view from the top and what climb would be complete without a selfie? I’ve been in snorkel lifts a lot, some as high as 70 ft up and in a single man window washer basket 12 stories up and the climb to the top of this tower was a solid 7-8 on the pucker factor scale. The stairs were narrow and steep and the railing was low. The views made it totally worthwhile! A couple pics to close. Hopefully this makes you guys want to get out and explore your area. This was a solid 6 hour drive for us but Iowa has nothing as far as off roading that’s public, so it was completely worth the trip!

 

If you want to climb a real cool one, Taum Sauk Mountain (MO's highest point too). Definitely open to the public - It has it's own pull off/parking lot and info. Looks like you had a great time. I always love going to that area of Missouri.

 

It was fun. We were both hoping to encounter something a little more technical but since we had zero info we took what we could get lol. We do plan to make another trip somewhere down that way. We’ve also talked about hitting up the high water mark trail in the Ozarks which looks real fun

 

if you'd like technical that's not fs roads hit up Flat Nasty offroad park.

 

Currently debating with a dude on Facebook. He Thinks Jeep Renegades are just as capable as Jeep Wranglers.

In all seriousness, this is making my Friday so much better.

 

Did you tell him that you had front row seats to a show that proves him wrong?

 

Yep and then he replied with this youtube video.
He also posted a picture of his Jeep on a dirt road saying he has the same spacer lift that's on the Renegade in the following video.

 

Why bother?

 

Stir that shit up!

 

Because it entertains me

 

Troll! Lol

 

So I’ve called 3 different companies to get quotes for regearing NO locker install... First didn’t work on Toyota’s, second one was $3000, and the third was $3800... the fucks up with that? ECGS is definitely the way to go.

 

Don’t mean to sound like a broken record but Austin Wolf at www.wolf-Fab.com can do everything for you at his shop. Supply the parts and he will supply perfectionist, yet affordable labor. He’s done two re-gears for me and at least one or two for other TW members without issue.

 

I’ll check him out thanks for the recommendation, I may just see what he’d charge to put in the clamshell and third for me from ECGS. It’s going to be hard to beat ~$1200 for for built diffs, I’m just not sure I want to open that can of worms installing them

 

I ordered mine built with a locker from ECGS and it was a direct swap, Austin said it was the easiest he’d done.