Hi!
I am moving to the UK in September. I will be moving to an area near Birmingham.
For context:

• I currently live with my partner and we will be moving to the UK together.
• My intention is to travel by land, as we have a dog, and he is too big/old to go on a plane or a boat.
• We live in Belgium.
• We don't own a car.
• We also have a few personal items we would like to take with us (books, perhaps two small tables, clothes, and other items, things that could fit in a van).

We are struggling to find one-way rentals that won't charge a fortune. On top of that, they never seem available, even if I select airports. Perhaps I am not looking at the right ones, or there are better options out there. We had some friends who had offered to drive UK-BE-UK, but this is not confirmed.
Any advice, experiences, or other options would be appreciated. Thanks!

There’ve been so many worries. So tonight, the window is open so that I can hear the rain. The rain that washed down Grandma’s tin roof, and arced out from the gutter over our tiny, celebrating bodies. The rain that gathered in the rusted drum where grandpa tested the boat motor. The rain that filled the galvanized tub in the field to water the cattle. That watered his crops. That swelled the creek. The rain tonight that refreshes my soul. That reminds of the storms that come, the winds that blow, the floods that rage, and I am still standing. Always still standing. My soul cleansed and my heart refreshed, this rain will pass and find me standing again.
https://www.reddit.com/OCPoetry/comments/13y1q8q/i_am_sorry_for_the_night/jmkwwdl/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf&context=3
https://www.reddit.com/OCPoetry/comments/13y374o/pity_party/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf

The Wooden Boat Inn, Clayton’s 1st & only unique boutique motel, is having a special event for fans of Eugene Levy’s hit television show, Schitt’s Creek, on June 13th, 12-6:30. The Wooden Boat Inn has created the only Schitt’s Creek themed room you can actually stay the night in! To celebrate, we are having an open room event. For one day only, Schitt’s Creek fans can come to the Inn, get your selfies/pictures taken on a set recreation, 10 mins at a time. Come dressed as Johnny, David, Alexis, Moira, or your favorite character and win a free stay for best dressed! Visit w other fans from the north country & Canada! The Wooden Boat Inn, Clayton’s 1st & only unique boutique motel with themed rooms, and the only Schitt’s Creek set recreation room (#3) you can actually stay in, in any Inn anywhere! It will be $5 for 10 mins just to assure everyone gets in, and to cover some of the costs of closing down the entire motel for the day. You can also absolutely book a room while you’re there for 1/2 off for the night as long as you’re ok with the day’s activities! :) I just didn’t want to bother other guests not participating, but if you’re coming, you are a fan anyway!:) Contact me to book!:) 315-686-5672, text, call, or message on here. Woodenboatinn.com
606 Alexandria Street, Clayton NY
Can’t wait to see you all!
side note I will also have all of the rooms open to view for everyone to see what I’ve been up to renovating the rooms.

So I own my home which shares a driveway with a rental. Nice tenants in there, although they are reluctant to rock the boat over maintenance issues.
Both houses own 50% of the shared driveway and have an easement for the other 50%. On the neighbors side, there is a water leak underground. The water is making the earth underneath the concrete driveway unstable and cracking is forming. The grass is spongy and there is mud forming from vehicles going over it. I don't want to pay to fix my neighbors property, but it is impacting the quality and access to my driveway. I've contacted the neighbors property manager several times and she won't do anything about it. The tenants have brought it up with her but are worried about doing anything to rock the boat. I get where they are coming from. I don't have the owners contact details.
Does anyone know what I can do to resolve this? Any experience here.
Tldr; rental property beside me has a maintenance issue impacting my property. Property manager unhelpful.

***Hello,As so many on here demand, when sending your FIRST DM please include your Name, Location, Age and a photo. Please do not just DM hi.***
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I am only interested in something longterm with the right person. I am in no way shape or form looking for, flings, one night stands, to be 1 of 12 in your rotation etc. Please no games or drama, that stuff was ok 20 years ago lol. I honestly am leaning towards NO children as I find it near impossible to find someone to take out for coffee, let alone have a child with. So atm anything child related is a hard pass unless for some reason you are in fact so different from everyone else that you completely change my outlook on life, then and only then can we perhaps entertain the thought of children ( this also includes people that currently have children, no thanks). I do work full time, just starting a new job. I do enjoy to cook and bbq and would love someone who is also capable of cooking and or can bring something new to the table. I am looking for the ride or die type, someone I dont have to walk on eggshells around, someone who doesnt support the alphabet army or go along with any of those mainstream woke psychosis. Someone with a great and very dark sense of humor, you can take it and give it right back. Just someone who's fun, likes to travel, and actually wants to build a life together.-------------------Hard NO's; 1. Cigarette smokers 2. heavy drinkers 3. History of physical / sexual abuse 4. mens haircuts 5. Anyone remotely close to any possible viral clip you can imagine 6. Single moms 7. New Profiles / BRAND NEW accounts 8. --------------------Please be 420 friendlyComedians : Tom Segura, Dave Chapelle, Jim Norton, Bill Burr, Tim Dillon aka The Pig, Mark Normand, Christina P, Ali Wong, Joe Rogan, William Montgomery aka the big red machine, kill tony, etc to name a few--------------------Shows : Trailer park boys, Letter kenney, simpsons, forensic files ( anything crime related especially serial killer documentaries ), Brooklyn 99, schitts creek, Seinfeld, southpark, breaking bad, better call Saul, Shoresy , Paradise PD, Brickleberry, Banshee, Ozarks blah blah---------------------Music : literally all over the place, mostly prefer metal / edm , changes by mood.---------------------variety of podcasts : YMH, Radio Rental, Crime Junkie, Tim Dillon show, Congratulations, stuff you should know, All over the road, tuesdays with stories, park after dark , Ramsey show, JRE, chip chipperson , Haiyaa with Nigel Eng, long days, history hyenas etc

Hi visiting from IL , was wondering aside from the rythm casino , what other places would you guys recommend . Bars , entertainment , maybe some rental boats along the river ? Staying tonight and leaving Saturday night . In the Moline area .
Thank you

I own a townhome rental on the gulf coast of Florida. We have had this rental for about 8 years and are very fortunate to have homeowners insurance as most Floridians know, insurance is trash down here- companies are pulling out left and right. Our insurance agent also owns a townhome on our block (for context) so we stick with him because he’s in the same boat as us.
We have another neighbor, who is fairly new to the area, pushing for a roof replacement this summer because he received a notice of non renewal from his homeowners insurance due to the age of the roofs. Under HOA guidelines the roofs are homeowner responsibility, so if one owner wants to get a new roof we all have to at the same time as we are conjoined.
Initially we all agreed to move forward with this project in the fall but now that this neighbor has been dropped he is pressuring everyone to get this done next month. Mind you this is a 10k expense 😵‍💫
This neighbor has no interest in shopping around their policy and is insisting we all change out roofs to help accommodate Him. It just seems unreasonable?

obviously there is no guarantee that they would have struck gold but just having your draft picks available gives you the chance. in hindsight the 2014 second round draft class was probably the best one in history, mostly due to jokic, but dallas originally had the 34th and 51st picks in that round. there wasn't really anything left by 51 but players that were available when after 34 include Spencer dinwiddie, jerami grant, Nikola jokic, and Jordan Clarkson.
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instead dallas traded those picks for a second 1 year rental of Tyson chandler and Raymond Felton. I know this was in an attempt to put a winning team next to Dirk, but since hind sight is 20/20 dirk would of had a far better send off had dallas invested in their drafts than the constant trading away their future assets for short term gains.
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this is the mistake dallas needs to avoid with luka, everyone is panicking looking to get veteran help by trading away our draft pick now because of a fear of losing him in 3 years. when in reality there is always the chance that the player we get in this draft ends up being far better than the player they get in the trade.
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look at dallas right now, they traded for irving who could potentially be a half season rental for an unprotected 2029 draft pick who could end up becoming an MVP. Will I still have made that irving trade? yes because he is currently an all star level player those are the players you mortgage your future for, not a role player who may have already reached his full potential.
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then there is the benefit of rookie controlled contracts, people loved Powell when he was still on his rookie deal but loathe him now at his 11 million per year. green I feel will be on the same boat if he never improves from this past season, he is loved at his rookie scale contract but would be looked at like THJ and Bullock once he is making 12 million plus on his next deal. drafting could give dallas a player who contributes to winning way beyond what his contract is worth. Luka gave us MVP production on 7 million per year. we need players who can give us role player and elite role player production for 4 million per year not a role player giving us similar production at 15 million per year.

The whirring blades of my MD-902 throbbed against the warm evening air, and I smiled.
From 5,000 feet, the ground flew by in a carpet of dark forests and kelly-green fields. The sun hung low on the horizon in a picturesque array of dazzling orange and gold, and I could make out the narrow strip of the Ohio River to my left, glistening in the fading daylight. This time of year, the trees would be full of the sweet aroma of fresh blossoms, and the frequent rains kept small pockets of fluffy white mist hanging in the treetops. It was a beautiful view, one that reminded me of why being a helicopter pilot trumped flying in a jumbo jet far above the clouds every day of the week.
Fourteen more days, and I’m debt free.
That made me grin even more. I’d been working as a charter pilot ever since I obtained my license at age 19, and after years of keeping my nose to the grindstone, I was closing on the final payment for real-estate in western Pennsylvania. With no debt, a fixer-upper house on 30 rural acres all to myself, and a respectable wage for a 26-year-old pilot, I looked forward to the financial freedom I could now enjoy. Maybe I’d take a vacation, somewhere exotic like Venice Italy, or the Dominican Republic. Or perhaps I’d sock the money back for the day I started a family.
“Remember kleineun, a real man looks after his own.”
My elderly ouma’s voice came back from the depths of my memories, her proud, sun-tanned face rising from the darkness. She and my Rhodesian grandfather had emigrated to the US when they were newlyweds, as the violence against white Boer descendants in South Africa spiraled out of control. My mother and father both died in a car crash when I was six, and it had been my grandparents who raised me. Due to this, I’d grown up with a slight accent that many of my classmates found amusing, and I could speak both English, and Afrikaans, the Boer tongue of our former home.
I shifted in my seat, stretched my back muscles, and glanced at the picture taped to my console. Both my parents flanked a grinning, gap-toothed six-year-old me, at the last Christmas we’d spent together. My mother beamed, her dark hair and Italian features a sharp contrast to my father’s sandy blonde hair and blue eyes. Sometimes, I liked to imagine they were smiling at me with pride at how well I flew the old silver-colored bird my company had assigned to me, and that made the long, lonely flights easier to bear.
A flicker caught my eye, and I broke my gaze away from the photograph.
Perched in its small cradle above the controls, my little black Garmin fuzzed over for a few seconds, its screen shifting from brightly colored maps to a barrage of grey static.
Did the power chord come loose?
I checked, ensuring the power-cable for the unit’s battery was plugged into the port on the control panel. It was a brand-new GPS unit, and I’d used it a few times already, so I knew it wasn’t defective. Granted, I could fly and navigate without it, but the Garmin made my time as a pilot so much easier that the thought of going blind was dreadful.
My fuel gauge danced, clicked to empty, then to full, in a bizarre jolt.
More of the gauges began to stutter, the entire panel seeming to develop terrets all at once, and my pulse began to race. Something was wrong, very wrong, and the sludge inside my bowels churned with sour fear.
“Come on, come on.” I flicked switches, turned dials, punched buttons, but nothing seemed to fix the spasming electronics. Every gauge failed, and without warning, I found myself plunged into inky darkness.
Outside, the sun surrendered to the pull of night, the sky darker than usual. A distant rumble of thunder reverberated above the roar of my helicopter’s engine, and I thought I glimpsed a streak of yellowish lightning on the far horizon to my left.
Calm down Chris. We’re still flying, so it must just be a blown fuse. Stay in control and find a place to set her down.
My sweaty palm slid on the cyclic stick, and both feet weighed heavy on the yaw pedals. The collective stuck to my other hand with a nervous vibration, and I squinted against the abyss outside.
Beep.
I jumped despite myself, as the little Garmin on my panel flared back to life, the static pulling aside to reveal a twitching display. Each time the screen glitched, it showed the colorful map detailing my flight path over the ground below, but I noticed that some of the lines changed, the names shifting, as if the device couldn’t decide between two different versions of the world.
One name jutted out at me, slate gray like most of the major county names, appearing with ghostly flickers from between two neighboring ones.
Barron County.
I stared, confused. I’d flown over this section of southeastern Ohio plenty of times, and I knew the counties by heart. At this point, I should have been over the southern end of Noble County, and maybe dipping lower into Washington. There was no Barron County Ohio. I was sure of it.
And yet it shown back at me from the digital landscape, a strange, almost cigar-shaped chunk of terrain carved from the surrounding counties like a tumor, sometimes there, sometimes not, as my little Garmin struggled to find the correct map. Rain began to patter against my cockpit window, and the entire aircraft rattled from a strong gust of wind. Thick clouds closed over my field of vision like a sea of gray cotton.
The blood in my veins turned to ice, and I sucked in a nervous breath.
Land. I had to land. There was nothing else to do, my flight controls weren’t responding, and only my Garmin had managed to come back to life. Perhaps I’d been hit by lightning, and the electronics had been fried? Either way, it was too dark to tell, but a storm seemed to be brewing, and if I didn’t get my feet on the ground soon, I could be in real trouble.
“Better safe than sorry.” I pushed down on the collective to start my slow descent and clicked the talking button for my headset. “Any station, this is Douglass Three-One-Four-Foxtrot, over.”
Nothing.
“Any station, this is Douglass Three-One-Four-Foxtrot, requesting emergency assistance, over.”
Still nothing.
If the radio’s dead, I’m really up a creek.
With my hand shaking, I clicked on the mic one more time. “Any station, this is—”
Like a curtain pulling back, the fog cleared from around my window, and the words stuck in my throat.
Without my gauges, I couldn’t tell just how far I’d descended, but I was definitely very low. Thick trees poked up from the ground, and the hills rolled into high ridges with flat valley floors, fields and pastures pockmarking them. Rain fell all around in cold, silvery sheets, a normal feature for the mid spring in this part of Ohio.
What wasn’t normal, were the fires.
At first, I thought they were forest fires for the amount of smoke and flames that bellowed from each spot, but as I swooped lower, my eyes widened in horror.
They were houses.
Farms, cottages, little clusters that barely constituted villages, all of them belched orange flames and black pillars of sooty smoke. I couldn’t hear above the helicopter blades, but I could see the flashes on the ground, along the road, in between the trees, and even coming from the burning buildings, little jets of golden light that spat into the darkness with anger.
Gunfire. That’s rifle fire, a whole lot of it.
Tiny black figures darted through the shadows, barely discernable from where I sat, several hundred feet up. I couldn’t see much, but some were definitely running away, the streaks of yellow gunfire chasing them. A few dark gray vehicles rumbled down one of the gravel roads, and sprayed fire into the houses as it went. They were fighting, I realized, the people in the trucks and the locals. It was horrific, like something out of war-torn Afghanistan, but worse.
Then, I caught a glimpse of the others.
They didn’t move like the rest, who either fled from the dark vehicles, or fired back from behind cover. These skinny figures loped along with haphazard gaits, many running on all fours like animals, swarming from the trees by the dozens. They threw themselves into the gales of bullets without flinching, attacking anyone within range, and something about the way they moved, so fluid, so fearless, made my heart skip a beat.
What is that?
“Echo Four Actual to unknown caller, please respond, over.”
Choking back a cry of shock, I fumbled at the control panel with clumsy fingers, the man’s voice sharp and stern. I hadn’t realized that I’d let go of the talking button and clicked it down again. “Hello? Hello, this is Douglass Three-One-Four-Foxtrot out of Pittsburgh, over.”
An excruciating moment passed, and I continued to zoom over the trees, the fires falling away behind me as more silent forest took over.
“Roger that Douglass Three-One-Four-Foxtrot, we read you loud and clear. Please identify yourself and any passengers or cargo you might be carrying, over.”
Swallowing hard, I eyed the treetops, which looked much closer than they should have been. How far had I descended? “Echo Four Actual, my name is Christopher Dekker, and I am alone. I’m a charter flight from PA, carrying medical equipment for OSU in Columbus. My controls have been damaged, and I am unable to safely carry on due to the storm. Requesting permission to land, over.”
I watched the landscape slide by underneath me, once catching sight of what looked like a little white church surrounded by smaller huts, dozens of figures in the yard staring up at me as I flew over a towering ridgeline.
“Solid copy on that Douglass Three-One-Four-Foxtrot. Be advised, your transponder shows you to be inside a restricted zone. Please cease all radio traffic, reduce your speed, climb to 3,000 feet and proceed north. We’ll talk you in from there. How copy, over?”
My heart jumped, and I let out a sigh of relief. “Roger that Echo Four Actual, my altimeter is down, but I’ll do my best to eyeball the altitude, over.”
With that, I pulled the collective upward, and tried my best to gauge how far I was by eyesight in the gathering night, rain still coming down all around me. This had to be some kind of disaster or riot, I decided. After all, the voice over the radio sounded like military, and those vehicles seemed to have heavy weapons. Maybe there was some kind of unrest going on here that I hadn’t heard about yet?
Kind of weird for it to happen in rural areas though. Spoiled college kids I get, but never saw farmers get so worked up before. They usually love the military.
Something moved in the corner of my eye, and I turned out of reflex.
My mouth fell open, and I froze, unable to scream.
In the sky beside me, a huge shadow glided along, and its leathery wings effortlessly carved through the gloom, flapping only on occasion to keep it aloft. It was too dark for me to see what color it was, but from the way it moved, I knew it wasn’t another helicopter. No, this thing was alive, easily the size of a small plane, and more than twice the length of my little McDonald Douglass. A long tail trailed behind it, and bore a distinct arrow-shaped snout, with twig-like spines fanned out around the back of its head. Whatever legs it had were drawn up under it like a bird, yet its skin appeared rough and knobby, almost resembling tree bark. Without pause, the gigantic bat-winged entity flew along beside me, as if my presence was on par with an annoying fly buzzing about its head.
Gripping the microphone switch so tight, I thought I’d crack the plastic, I whispered into my headset, forgetting all radio protocol. “T-There’s something up here.”
Static crackled.
“Douglas Three-One-Four-Foxtrot, say again your last, you’re coming in weak and unreadable, over.”
“There’s something up here.” I snarled into the headset, still glued to the controls of the helicopter, afraid to deviate even an inch from my course in case the monstrosity decided to turn on me. “A freaking huge thing, right beside me. I swear, it looks like a bat or . . . I don’t know.”
“Calm down.” The man on the other end of the radio broke his rigorous discipline as well, his voice deep, but level. “It won’t attack if you don’t move too fast. Slowly ease away from it and follow that course until you’re out of sight.”
I didn’t have time to think about how wrong that sounded, how the man’s strict tone had changed to one of knowledge, how he hadn’t been the least surprised by what I’d said. Instead, I slowly turned the helicopter away from the huge menace and edged the speed higher in tiny increments.
As soon as I was roughly two football fields away, I let myself relax, and clicked the mic switch. “It’s not following.”
“You’re sure?”
Eyeing the huge flapping wings, I nodded, then remembered he couldn’t see me. “Yeah, I’m well clear.”
“Good. Thank you, Mr. Dekker.”
Then, the radio went dead.
Something in my chest dropped, a weight that made my stomach roil. This wasn’t right, none of it. Who was that man? Why did he know about the thing I’d just seen? What was I supposed to—
A flash of light exploded from the trees to my right and shot into the air with a long finger of smoke.
What the . . .
On instinct, I jerked the cyclic stick to one side, and the helicopter swung to avoid the rocket.
Boom.
My world shook, metal screeched, and a dozen alarms began to go off inside the cockpit in a cacophony of beeps and sirens. Orange and red flames lit up the night sky just behind me, and the horizon started to spin wildly outside. Heat gushed from the cockpit door, and I smelled the greasy stench of burning oil. The safety belts dug into my shoulders, and with a final slip, the radio headset ripped free from my scalp.
I’m hit.
Desperate, I yanked on the controls, fought the bird even as she spun toward the ground in a wreath of flames, the inky black trees hurtling up to meet me. The helicopter went into full auto-rotation, the sky blurring past outside, and the alarms blared in a screech of doom. Panic slammed through my temples, I screamed at the top of my lungs, and for one brief second, my eyes locked on the little black Garmin still perched atop my control panel.
Its screen stopped twitching and settled on a map of the mysterious Barron County, with a little red arrow at the center of the screen, a few words popping up underneath it.
You are here.
Trees stabbed up into the sky, the belts crushed at my torso, glass shattered all around me, and the world went dark.
Copper, thick, warm, and tangy.
It filled my mouth, stank metallic in my nose, clogged my throat, choking me. In the murkiness, I fought for a surface, for a way out, blind and numb in the dark.
This way, kleineun.
My ouma’s voice echoed from somewhere in the shadows.
This way.
Both eyes flew open, and I gagged, spitting out a stream of red.
Pain throbbed in my ribs, and a heavy pressure sent a tingling numbness through my shoulders. Blood roared inside my temples, and stars danced before my eyes with a dizzying array. Humid night air kissed my skin, and something sticky coated my face, neck, and arms that hung straight up toward the ceiling.
Wait. Not up. Down.
I blinked at the wrinkled, torn ceiling of the cockpit, the glass all gone, the gray aluminum shredded like tissue paper. Just outside the broken windows, thick Appalachian bluegrass and stemmy underbrush swished in a feeble breeze, backlit by flashes of lightning from the thunderstorm overhead. Green and brown leaves covered everything in a wet carpet of triangles, and somewhere nearby, a cricket chirped.
Turning my head from side to side, I realized that I hung upside down inside the ruined helicopter, the top half burrowed into the mud. I could hear the hissing and crackling of flames, the pattering of rain falling on the hot aluminum, and the smaller brush fires around the downed aircraft sizzling out in the damp long grass. Charred steel and burning oil tainted the air, almost as strong as the metallic, coppery stench in my aching nose.
They shot me down. That military dude shot me out of the sky.
It didn’t make sense. I’d followed their orders, done everything they’d said, and yet the instant I veered safely away from whatever that thing in the sky had been, they’d fired, not at it, but at me.
Looking down (or rather, up) at my chest, I sucked in a gasp, which was harder to do that before.
The navy-blue shirt stuck to my torso with several big splotches of dark, rusty red. Most were clean slashes, but two held bits of glass sticking out of them, one alarmingly bigger than the other. They dripped cherry red blood onto my upturned face, and a wave of nausea hit me.
I gotta get down.
I flexed my arms to try and work some feeling back into them, praying nothing was broken. Half-numb from hanging so long, I palmed along my aching body until I felt the buckled for the seat belts.
“Okay.” I hissed between gritted teeth, in an effort to stave off my panic. “You can do this. Just hold on tight. Nice and tight. Here we go . . .”
Click.
Everything seemed to lurch, and I slid off the seat to plummet towards the muck-filled hole in the cockpit ceiling. My fingers were slick with blood and slipped over the smooth faux-leather pilot’s seat with ease. The shoulder belt snagged on the bits of glass that lay just under the left lowest rib, and a flare of white-hot pain ripped through me.
Wham.
I screamed, my right knee caught the edge of the aluminum ceiling, and both hands dove into a mound of leaf-covered glass shards on the opposite side of the hole. My head swam, being right-side-up again enough to make shadows gnaw at the corner of my eyes.
Forcing myself to breath slowly, I fought the urge to faint and slid back to sit on the smooth ceiling. I turned my hands over to see half a dozen bits of clear glass burrowed into my skin like greedy parasites, red blood weeping around the new cuts.
“Screw you.” I spat at the rubbish with angry tears in my eyes. “Screw you, screw you, screw you.”
The shards came out easy enough, and the cuts weren’t that deep, but that wasn’t what worried me. On my chest, the single piece of cockpit glass that remined was almost as big as my palm, and it really hurt. Just touching it felt like self-inflicted torture, but I knew it had to come out sooner or later.
Please don’t nick a vein.
Wiping my hands dry on my jeans, I gripped the shard with both hands, and jerked.
Fire roared over my ribs, and hot blood tickled my already grimy pale skin. I clapped a hand over the wound, pressing down hard, and grunted out a string of hateful expletives that my ouma would have slapped me for.
Lying on my back, I stared around me at the messy cargo compartment of the MD-902. Most of the medical supplies had been in cardboard boxes strapped down with heavy nylon tow-straps, but several cases had ruptured with the force of the impact, spraying bandages, syringes, and pill bottles all over the cluttered interior. Orange flames chewed at the crate furthest to the rear, the tail section long gone, but the foremost part of the hold was intact. Easily a million-dollar mess, it would have made me faint on any other trip, but today it was a godsend.
Half-blind in the darkness, I crawled along with only the firelight and lightning bolts to guide me, my right knee aching. Like a crippled raccoon, I collected things as I went, conscious of the two pallets of intact supplies weighing right over my head. I’d taken several different first-aid courses with some hunting buddies of mine, and the mental reflexes kicked in to help soothe my frazzled mind.
Check for bleeds, stop the worst, then move on.
Aside from my battered chest and stomach, the rest of me remained mostly unharmed. I had nasty bruises from the seatbelts, my right knee swelled, my nose slightly crooked and crusted in blood, but otherwise I was intact. Dowsing every scratch and cut with a bottle of isopropyl alcohol I found, I used butterfly closures on the smaller lacerations that peppered my skin. I wrapped soft white gauze over my abused palms and probed at the big cut where the last shard had been, only stopping when I was sure there were no pieces of glass wedged inside my flesh.
“Not too bad.” I grunted to myself, trying to sound impassive like a doctor might. “Rib must have stopped it. Gonna need stitches though. That’ll be fun.”
Pawing through the broken cases, I couldn’t find any suture chord, but just as I was about to give up, I noticed a small box that read ‘medical skin stapler’.
Bingo.
I tore the small white plastic stapler free from its packaging and eyeballed the device. I’d never done this before, only seen it in movies, and even though the cut in my skin hurt, I wondered if this wouldn’t be worse.
You’ve gotta do it. That bleeding needs to stop. Besides, no one’s coming to rescue you, not with those rocket-launching psychos out there.
Taking a deep breath, I pinched the skin around the gash together, and pressed the mouth of the stapler to it.
Click.
A sharp sting, like that of a needle bit at the skin, but it didn’t hurt nearly as bad as the cut itself. I worked my way across the two-inch laceration and gave out a sigh of relief when it was done.
“Not going to bleed to death today.” I daubed ointment around the staples before winding more bandages over the wound.
Popping a few low-grade painkillers that tumbled from the cargo, I crawled wriggled through the nearest shattered window into the wet grass.
Raindrops kissed my face, clean and cool on my sweaty skin. Despite the thick cloud cover, there was enough constant lightning strikes within the storm to let me get glimpses of the world around me. My helicopter lay on its back, the blades snapped like pencils, with bits and pieces of it burning in chunks all around the small break in the trees. Chest-high scrub brush grew all around the low-lying ground, with pockets of standing water in places. My ears still rang from the impact of the crash, but I could start to pick up more crickets, frogs, and even some nocturnal birds singing into the darkness, like they didn’t notice the huge the hulk of flaming metal that had fallen from the sky. Overhead, the thunder rumbled onward, the feeble wind whistling, and there were other flashes on the horizon, orange and red ones, with crackles that didn’t sound quite like lightning.
The guns. They’re still fighting.
Instinctively, I pulled out my cellphone, and tapped the screen.
It fluttered to life, but no matter how I tried, I couldn’t get through to anyone, not even with the emergency function designed to work around having no service. The complicated wonder of our modern world was little better than a glorified paperweight.
Stunned, I sat down with my back to the helicopter and rested my head against the aluminum skin of the craft. How I’d gone from a regular medical supply run to being marooned in this hellish parody of rural America, I didn’t know, but one thig was certain; I needed a plan. Whoever fired the missile could have already contacted my charter company and made up some excuse to keep them from coming to look for me. No one else knew I was here, and even though I now had six staples holding the worst of my injuries shut, I knew I needed proper medical attention. If I wanted to live, I’d have to rescue myself.
My bag. I need to get my go-bag, grab some gear and then . . . head somewhere else.
It took me a while to gather my green canvas paratrooper bag from its place behind the pilot’s seat and fill it with whatever supplies I could scrounge. My knee didn’t seem to be broken, but man did it hurt, and I dreaded the thought of walking on it for miles on end. I focused instead on inventorying my gear and trying to come up with a halfway intelligent plan of action.
I had a stainless-steel canteen with one of those detachable cups on the bottom, a little fishing kit, some duct tape, a lighter, a black LED flashlight with three spare batteries, a few tattered road maps with a compass, a spare pair of socks, medical supplies from the cargo, and a simple forest green plastic rain poncho. I also managed to unearth a functioning digital camcorder my ouma had gotten me for Christmas a few years back, though I wasn’t sure I wanted to do any filming in such a miserable state. Lastly, since it was a private supply run from a warehouse area near Pittsburgh to a direct hospital pad in Ohio, I’d been able to bring my K-Bar, a sturdy, and brutally simple knife designed for the Marine Corps that I used every time I went camping. It was pitiful in comparison to the rifle I wished I had with me, but that didn’t matter now. I had what I had, and I doubted my trusty Armalite would have alleviated my sore knee anyway.
Clicking on my flashlight, I huddled with the poncho around my shoulders inside the wreck of the chopper and peered at the dusty roadmaps. A small part of me hoped that a solution would jump out from the faded paper, but none came. These were all maps of western PA and eastern Ohio. None of them had a Barron County on them anywhere.
The man on the radio said to head north, right before they shot me down. That means they must be camped out to the north of here. South had that convoy and those burning houses, so that’s a no-go. Maybe I can backtrack eastward the way I came.
As if on cue, a soft pop echoed from over the eastern horizon, and I craned to look out the helicopter window, spotting more man-made flashes over the tree tops.
“Great.” I hissed between clenched teeth, aware of how the temperature dipped to a chilly 60 degrees, and how despite the conditions, my stomach had begun to growl. “Not going that way, are we? Westward it is.”
Walking away from my poor 902 proved to be harder than I’d anticipated. Despite the glass, the fizzling fires, and the darkness, it still held a familiar, human essence to it. Sitting inside it made me feel secure, safe, even calm about the situation. In any other circumstance, I would have just stayed with the downed aircraft to wait for help, but I knew the men who shot me down would likely find my crash site, and I didn’t want to be around when they did.
Unlike much of central and western Ohio, southeastern Ohio is hilly, brushy, and clogged with thick forests. Thorns snagged at my thin poncho and sliced at my pant legs. My knee throbbed, every step a form of self-inflicted torture. The rain never stopped, a steady drizzle from above just cold enough to be problematic as time went on, making me shiver. Mud slid under my tennis shoes, and every tree looked ten times bigger in the flickering beam of my cheap flashlight. Icy fear prickled at the back of my neck at some of the sounds that greeted me through the gloom. I’d been camping loads of times, both in Pennsylvania and elsewhere, but these noises were something otherworldly to me.
Strange howls, screeches, and calls permeated the rain-soaked sky, some almost roars, while others bordered on human in their intonation. The more I walked, the softer the distant gunfire became, and the more prevalent the odd sounds, until the shadows seemed to fill with them. I didn’t dare turn off my flashlight, or I’d been completely blind in the dark, but a little voice in the back of my head screamed that I was too visible, crunching through the gloomy forest with my long beam of light stabbing into the abyss. It felt as though a million eyes were on me, studying me, hunting me from the surrounding brush, and I bitterly recalled how much I’d loved the old Survivor Man TV series as a kid.
Not so fun being out in the woods at night. Especially alone.
A twig snapped somewhere behind me, and I whirled on the spot, one trembling hand resting on the hilt of my K-Bar.
Nothing. Nothing but trees, bushes, and rain dripping down in the darkness.
“This is stupid.” I whispered to myself to keep my nerves in check as I slowly spun on the spot. “I should have went eastward anyway. God knows how long I’m going to have to—”
Creak.
A groan of metal-on-metal echoed from somewhere to my right, and I spun to face it, yanking the knife on my belt free from its scabbard. It felt so small and useless in my hand, and I choked down a wave of nauseas fear.
Ka-whump. Creak. K-whump. Creak.
Underbrush cracked and crunched, a few smaller saplings thrashed, and from deep within the gloom, two yellow orbs flared to life. They poked through the mist in the trees, forming into slender fingers of golden light that swept back and forth in the dark.
The soldiers . . . they must be looking for me.
I swallowed hard and turned to slink away.
Ice jammed through my blood, and I froze on the spot, biting my tongue to stop the scream.
It stood not yards away, a huge form that towered a good twelve feet tall in the swirling shadows. Unpolished chrome blended with flash-rusted spots in the faded red paint, and grime-smeared glass shone with dull hues in the flashes of lightning. Where the wheels should have been, the rounded steel axels curved like some enormous hand had bent them, and the tires lay face-down on the muddy ground like big round feet, their hubcaps buried in the dirt. Dents, scrapes, and chips covered the battered thing, and its crooked little radio antenna pointed straight up from the old metal fender like a mast. I could barely make out the mud-coated VW on the rounded hood, and my mind reeled in shock.
Is . . . is that a car?
Both yellow headlights bathed me in a circle of bright, blinding light, and neither I nor the strange vehicle moved.
Seconds ticked by, the screech-thumping in the background only growing closer. I realized that I couldn’t hear any engine noises and had yet to see any soldiers or guns pointed my way. This car looked old, really old, like one of those classic Volkswagen Beetles that collectors fought over at auctions. Try as I might, I couldn’t see a driver inside the murky, mold-smeared windows.
Because there wasn’t one.
Lightning arched across the sky overhead, and the car standing in front of me blinked.
Its headlights slid shut, as if little metal shades had crawled over the bulbs for a moment and flicked open again. Something about that movement was so primal, so real, so lifelike, that every ounce of self-control I had melted in an instant.
Cursing under my breath, I lunged into the shrubs, and the world erupted around me.
Under my shoes, the ground shook, and the car surged after me in a cacophony of ka-thumps that made my already racing heart skip several beats. A weather-beaten brown tow truck from the 50’s charged through the thorns to my left, it’s headlights ablaze, and a dilapidated yellow school bus rose from its hiding place in the weeds to stand tall on four down-turned axel-legs. They all flicked their headlights on like giants waking from their slumber, and as I dodged past them, they each blared their horn into the night in alarm.
My breaths came short and tight, my knee burned, and I crashed through thorns and briars without thought to how badly I was getting cut up.
The cheap poncho tore, and I ripped it away as it caught on a tree branch.
A purple 70’s Mustang shook off its blanket of creeping vines and bounded from a stand of trees just ahead, forcing me to swerve to avoid being run over, my adrenaline at all-time highs.
This can’t be happening, this can’t be happening, this can’t be happening.
Slipping and sliding, I pushed through a stand of multiflora rose, and stumbled out into a flat, dark expanse.
I almost skidded to a stop.
What had once been a rather large field stood no taller than my shoestrings, the grass charred, and burnt. The storm above illuminated huge pieces of wreckage that lay scattered over the nearly 40-acre plot, and I could just make out the fire-blackened hulk of a fuselage resting a hundred yards away. The plane had been brought down a while ago it seemed, as there weren’t any flames left burning, and I threw myself toward it in frenzied desperation.
Burned grass and greasy brown topsoil slushed underfoot, and I could hear the squelching of the cars pursing me. Rain soaked me to the bone, and my lungs ached from sucking down the damp night air. A painful stich crept into my side, and I cursed myself for not putting in more time for cardio at the gym.
Something caught my left shoelace, and I hurtled to the ground, tasting mud and blood in between my teeth.
They’ve got me now.
I clawed at the mud, rolled, and watched a tire slam down mere inches from where my head had been. The Mustang loomed over me and jostled for position with the red Volkswagen and brown tow truck, the school bus still a few yards behind them. They couldn’t seem to decide who would get the pleasure of stomping me to death, and like a herd of stampeding wildebeest, they locked bumpers in an epic shoving match.
On all fours, I scampered out from under the sparring brutes, and dashed for the crumpled airplane, a white-painted DC-3 that looked like it had been cut in half by a gargantuan knife blade. I passed a snapped wing section, the oily remains of a turbo-prop engine, and a mutilated wheel from the landing gear. Climbing over a heap of mud, I squeezed into the back of the ruined flight cabin and dropped down into the dark cargo hold.
Wham.
No sooner had my sneakers hit the cold metal floor, and the entire plane rocked from the impact of something heavy ramming it just outside. I tumbled to my knees, screaming in pain as, once again, I managed to bash the sore one off a bracket in the wall.
My hand smeared in something gooey, and I scrabbled for my flashlight.
It clicked on, a wavering ball of white light in the pitch darkness, and I fought the urge to gag. “Oh man . . .”
Three people, or what was left of them, lay strewn over the narrow cargo area. Claret red blood coated the walls, caked on the floor, and clotted under my mud-spattered shoes. Bits of flesh and viscera were stuck to everything, and tatters of cloth hung from exposed sections of broken bone. An eerie set of bloody handprints adorned the walls, and the only reason I could tell it had been three people were the shoes; all of them bore anklebones sticking out above blood-soaked socks. It smelled sickly sweet, a strange, nauseas odor that crept into my nose and settled on the back of my tongue like an alien parasite.
Something glinted in the beam of my flashlight, and my pulse quickened as I pried the object loose from the severed arm that still clung to it.
“Hail Mary full of Grace.” I would have grinned if it weren’t for the fact that the plane continued to buck and roll under the assault from the cars outside.
The pistol looked old, but well-maintained, aside from the light coating of dark blood that stained its round wooden handle. It felt heavy, but good in my hand, and I turned it over to read the words, Waffenfabrik Mauser stenciled into the frame, with a large red 9 carved into the grip. For some reason, it vaguely reminded me of the blasters from Star Wars.
I fumbled with a little switch that looked like a safety on the back of the gun and stumbled toward a gap in the plane’s dented fuselage to aim out at the surrounding headlights.
Bang.
The old gun bucked reliably in my hand, its long barrel spitting a little jet of flame into the night. I had no idea if I hit anything, but the attacking cars recoiled, their horns blaring in confusion.
They turned, and scuttled for the tree line as fast as their mechanical legs could go, the entire ordeal over as fast as it had begun.
Did I do that?
Perplexed, I stared down at the pistol in my hand.
Whoosh.
A large, inky black shadow glided down from the clouds, and the yellow school bus moved too slow to react in time.
With a crash, the kicking nightmarish vehicle was thrown onto its side, spraying glass and chrome trim across the muddy field. Its electro-synth horn blared with wails of mechanical agony, as two huge talon-like feet clamped down on it, and the enormous head of the flying creature lowered to rip open its engine compartment.
The horn cut out, and the enormous flying entity jerked its head back to gulp down a mass of what looked like sticky black vines from the interior of the shattered bus.
At this range, I could see now that the flying creature bore two legs and had its wings half-tucked like a vulture that had descended to feed on roadkill. Its head turned slightly, and in the glow of another lightning bolt, my jaw went slack at the realization of what it was.
A tree trunk. It’s a rotted tree trunk.
I couldn’t tell where the reptilian beast began, and where the organic tree components ended, the upper part of the head shaped like a log, while the lower jaw resembled something out of a dinosaur movie. Its skin looked identical to the outside of a shagbark hickory but flexed with a supple featheriness that denoted something closer to skin. Sharp branch-like spines ranged down its back, and out to the end of its tail, which bore a massive round club shaped like a diseased tree-knot. Crouched on both hind legs, it braced the hooked ends of its folded wings against the ground like a bat, towering higher than a semi-truck. Under the folds of its armored head, a bulging pair of chameleon-like eyes constantly spun in their sockets, probing the dark for threats while it ate.
One black pupil locked onto the window I peered through, and my heart stopped.
The beast regarded me for a moment, with a curious, sideways sniff.
With a proud, contemptful head-toss, the shadow from the sky parted rows of razor-sharp teeth to let out a roar that shook the earth beneath my feet. It was the triumphant war cry of a creature that sat at the very top of the food chain, one that felt no threat from the fragile two-legged beings that walked the earth all around it. It hunted whenever it wanted, ate whatever it wanted, and flew wherever it wanted. It didn’t need to rip the plane apart to devour me.
Like my hunter-gatherer ancestors from thousands of years ago, I wasn’t even worth the energy it would take to pounce.
I’m hiding in the remains of the cockpit now, which is half-buried under the mud of the field, enough to shield the light from my screen so that thing doesn’t see it. My service only now came back, and it’s been over an hour since the winged beast started in on the dead bus. I don’t know when, or how I’m going to get out of here. I don’t know when anyone will even see this post, or if it will upload at all. My phone battery is almost dead, and at this point, I’m probably going to have to sleep among the corpses until daylight comes.
A dead man sleeping amongst friends.
If you live in the Noble County area in southeastern Ohio, be careful where you drive, fly, and boat. I don’t know if it’s possible to stumble into this strange place by ground, but if so, then these things are definitely headed your way.
If that happens . . . pray that they don’t find you.

Check out our full Durham events calendar.
If you'd like to add an event to our calendar, submit an event here. Please check with the event organizers to see if events change due to weather. Have a great weekend!

June Featured Events

53rd Annual Bimbé Cultural Arts Festival at Rock Quarry Park

• This family-oriented event is a celebration of African and African American history, culture, arts, and traditions.
• Headlined by Intro, Mr. Cheeks, Petey Pablo, and KRS-One
• Free admission

1776 at DPAC

• The show is based on the events leading up to the signing of the Declaration of Independence, telling a story of the efforts of John Adams to persuade his colleagues to vote for American independence and to sign the document.
• This Tony Award-winning Best Musical is tuneful, witty, and constantly surprising, especially in this revolutionary new production from directors Jeffrey L. Page (Violet) and Diane Paulus (Waitress) with a cast that reflects multiple representations of race, gender, and ethnicity.
• Jun 1-4
• $15+

PLAYlist Concert Series: Raíces, Rutas, y Ritmos at Durham Central Park

• Raíces, Rutas, y Ritmos highlights the importance of music-making among Latin American migrants in North Carolina, as well as the prominence of Latin American-derived music in the Triangle area.
• 6:30 p.m. - 10:00 p.m.
• Free admission

Venue Weekend Schedules

Events at The Carolina Theatre

• Fri, Jun 2 at 7:00 p.m. - Leslie Jones: Live
• Sun, Jun 4 at at 4:15 p.m. - The Empower Experience 2023

Events at The Pinhook

• Thu, Jun 1 at 8:00 p.m. - Dead Fox No Groove / Julia. / Dylan Innes
• Fri, Jun 2 at 7:00 p.m. - OCRCC’s 12th Annual Punk Cuts To End Rape
• Fri, Jun 2 at 9:00 p.m. - Yolo Karaoke!
• Sat, Jun 3 at 6:00 p.m. - Teia Elaine Presents: What Would Eve Do?
• Sat, Jun 3 at 10:00 p.m. - House Of Coxx Drag Show!
• Sat, Jun 3 at 11:55 p.m. - Rent Due Dance Party!!!
• Sun, Jun 4 at 4:00 p.m. - (Early Show) The Lover Boyz W/ Phil Cook + Kym Register And Friends
• Sun, Jun 4 at 8:00 p.m. - (Late Show) The Lover Boyz W/ Phil Cook + Kym Register And Friends

Events at Motorco Music hall

• Fri, Jun 2 at 8:00 p.m. - Halocene With Lauren Babic / Alphamega
• Sat, Jun 3 at 9:00 p.m. - Gimme Gimme Disco
• Sun, Jun 4 at 7:00 p.m. - Mike’s Dead with The Haunt

Events at The Fruit

• Fri, Jun 2 at 11:00 p.m. - Job Fruit Residency: IN2IT
• Sat, Jun 3 at 10:00 p.m. - Paradox: A 90s Rave Experience
• Sun, Jun 4 at 12:00 p.m. - The Fruit Flea: Monthly Flea Market

Live Music at Blue Note Grill

• Thu, Jun 1 at 7:30 p.m. - Curtis Salgado Band
• Fri, Jun 2 at 6:00 p.m. - The Duke Street Dogs
• Fri, Jun 2 at 9:15 p.m. - Adam Ezra Group
• Sat, Jun 3 at 7:30 p.m. - JIVES

Events at Moon Dog Meadery

• Thursdays - Free Board Games
• Thu, Jun 1 at 7:00 p.m. - Trivia
• Fri, Jun 2 at 8:00 p.m. - First Friday Swing Dance Night with Nitelife Boogie!
  • Free dance lesson at 7:30 p.m.
• Sun, Jun 4 at 6:30 p.m. - Moon Dog Open Mic

Live Music at Sharp 9 Gallery

• Sat, Jun 3 at 8:00 p.m. - Eric Williams Quintet

Events at Arcana

• Thu, Jun 1 - Jay Hammond & Andy Stack with Joe Westerlund and Tarot with Virginia
• Fri, Jun 2 - Russell Favret and Tarot with Heiltje
• Sat, Jun 3 - Bardo Bloom and Tarot with Rene
• Sun, Jun 4 - Matty Famartino and Tarot with Joy

Events at Rubies on Five Points

• Thu, Jun 1 at 10:00 p.m. - Miss B Haven Presents: Midnight Remedies
• Fri, Jun 2 at 10:00 p.m. - Mamis & The Papis And Party Illegal Present: Moodboard
• Sat, Jun 3 at 9:00 p.m. - Star People Gang Presents: Freaks And Beats

Events at Durty Bull Brewing Company

• Thu, Jun 1
  • 5:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. - Food Truck: Safari Eatz
  • 7:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. - Thursday Trivia with Nick
• Fri, Jun 2
  • 5:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. - Food Truck: Tacos Paradise
  • 8:00 p.m. - 11:00 p.m. - Open Mic Stand-up Comedy
• Sat, Jun 3
  • 12:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m. - Food Truck: Chop House BBQ
  • 12:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m. - DJ Jack Bonney
  • 4:00 p.m - 6:00 p.m. - Taxicab Preacher
• Sun, Jun 4
  • 1:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m. - Food Truck: Charlie C's Hotdogs On Wheels
  • 2:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. - Hammered Trivia with Thor

Live Comedy at Mettlesome

• Fri, Jun 2 at 8:00 p.m. - The Racket
• Fri, Jun 2 26 at 9:00 p.m. - Hush Hush
• Sat, Jun 3 at 8:00 p.m. - Bull City Press Presents…
• Sat, Jun 3 at 9:00 p.m. - House Party

Events at Boxyard RTP

• Thu, Jun 1 at 5:30 p.m. - Songstories Live at Boxyard RTP
• Fri, Jun 2 from 8:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m. - Boxyard Bucks
  • First 100 people on site receive $10 to spend at any vendor
• Fri, Jun 2 at 5:30 p.m. - LOJO: Log Off, Jam On
• Sat, Jun 3 from 11:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. - Turns 2 Family Friendly Celebration
• Sat, Jun 3 from 11:30 a.m. 2:30 p.m. - Saturdaze: Uno Dose
• Sat, Jun 3 from 5:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m. - Wonderbop

Events at Glass Jug Beer Lab in RTP

• Thu, Jun 1 from 6:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. - Beer Garden Jam Sessions
• Fr, Jun 2 from 5:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m. - RTP Food Truck Fridays
• Sat, Jun 3 from 5:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m. - Beer Garden Jam Sessions

Events at Glass Jug Beer Lab in Downtown Durham

• Thu, Jun 1 from 7:00 p.m. - 9:30 p.m. - Live Music in the Taproom
• Jun 1-4 from 6:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. - Weekend Food Trucks

Local Sports

Durham Bulls Home Stand at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park

• vs Jacksonville
• Thu, Jun 1 - Pride Night
• Fri, Jun 2 - Friday Night Fireworks
• Sat, Jun 3 - Saturday Night Fireworks
• Sun, Jun 4 - Kids Run the Bases
• $10+

Running of the Bulls 8K at Historic Durham Athletic Park

• The 15th running of Durham’s premiere community road race! This scenic course will wind through the historic and revitalized neighborhoods of downtown Durham, American Tobacco Campus, Trinity Park and Old North Durham neighborhoods, and finish with a lap of the warning track inside the historic Old Durham Athletic Park!
• Sat, Jun 3 at 7:00 a.m.
• $10-45

Thursday, Jun 1

Thirsty Thursdays at Dashi

• Each month Dashi's Thirsty Thursday drink specials revolve around a monthly theme – spirits, cocktails, special ingredients, brand, location, etc. – with new sips every Thursday. Learn more about upcoming themes on their website or visit them in person – there's always something new to try from their expansive bar!
• 5:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m.

Vinyl Night with DJ Deckades at Gizmo Brew Works

• Enjoy fresh vibes on the patio with DJ Deckades. Bring your own vinyl to share or just listen to what the DJ is spinning.
• 6:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.
• Free admission

Boulders & Brews Meetup at Triangle Rock Club - Durham

• Show up and climb at TRC Durham, then head over to Hi-Wire for some brews. Don't worry if it's your first time or haven't bouldered before; everyone's welcome.
• Your first visit to the gym with the Meetup includes free admission and gear rental, and subsequent visits with the meetup are $15 and include harness rental (outside of meetups, day pass rates of $19 apply and do not include rentals).
• 6:30 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.

Trivia Night w/Big Slow Tom at Clouds Brewing Brightleaf Square

• Join Clouds Durham for Big Slow Tom's Trivia Night, every Thursday. Win some prizes, drink some beer, and show your smarts.
• Enjoy $4 select draft and $5 rotating bartender's choice all night.
• 7:30 p.m.
• Free admission

Friday, Jun 2

Tasting at Ten at Counter Culture Coffee

• Every Friday morning at 10 am, Counter Culture Coffee opens their Training Centers to coffee lovers who want to learn more about Counter Culture Coffee’s high-quality, sustainably sourced menu.
• 10:00 a.m.
• Free, but donations accepted

Garden Printing: Cyanotypes and Hammered Flower Prints on Fabric at Duke Campus Farm

• Visitors to Duke Campus Farm can come take a tour of the space, learn more about what is grown and why, and choose from a number of plants from the garden to experiment with two printing techniques that highlight the shape and color of fresh produce and flowers. With cyanotype printing, we will use either the plant as a silhouette to make sun prints using UV light, or make use of parts of the plants to create a composition on the blue-tinted paper.
• 3:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.
• Free admission (registration encouraged)

Saturday, Jun 3

Durham Farmers’ Market at Durham Central Park

• The Durham Farmers’ Market offers locally grown fruits and vegetables, meats, eggs, cut flowers, artisanal cheeses and breads, home-baked pies, honey, handmade chocolates, preserves, local wines, handmade soaps, fresh pasta, and artwork of all sorts!
• 8:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
• Free admission

South Durham Farmers' Market at Greenwood Commons Shopping Center

• The market strives to support new and growing farms and vendors in the greater Durham area, and they are also home to some of the most iconic Durham brands around.
• 8:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
• Free admission

parkrun Durham at Southern Boundaries Park

• A free, fun, and friendly weekly 5k community event. Walk, jog, run, volunteer, or spectate. It's up to you!
• 8:00 a.m.
• Free admission

Hayti Walking History Tour at Hayti Heritage Center

• So, how do you pronounce H-A-Y-T-I ? What are the Hayti Neighborhood's connections to the island of Haiti? ...to Black Wall St.? ...to the city of Durham at large? These questions are answered while many more are raised in this 75-minute tour of Fayetteville St., the commercial center of Durham’s largest African American residential neighborhood. Stops include the neighborhood’s founding institutions: St. Joseph’s AME church, The Carolina Times, Stanford L. Warren Library and more!
• Stories include: Women of Hayti, Power of Black Churches and Urban Renewal. The tour begins and ends at the Hayti Heritage Center.
• 10:00 a.m.
• $20+

Nasher Community Celebration at the Nasher Museum of Art

• An outdoor party featuring GRAMMY Award-winning producer 9th Wonder and friends. Celebrate Spirit in the Land with pop-up children’s book readings in the galleries. At 2 p.m., Alberto Barrantes, an author visiting from Costa Rica, will give a reading from his new bilingual book Arts for Diversity. Art activities will be inspired by artists María Berrío and Andrea Chung.
• The Museum of Life and Science will join us with StarLab to view the night sky—and insects to study up close. Piedmont Wildlife Center will also bring several animals. Everyone can sample free cotton candy by Wonderpuff. Also fun to try: temporary tattoos inspired by the natural world. Assorted sandwiches and beverages from the Nasher Museum Cafe will be available for purchase. Cash bar.
• 12:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.
• Free admission

MAKRS Pop-up at Durham Central Park

• Shop from 55+ local artists and makers, plus food trucks and coffee.
• 4:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.
• Free admission

Crafternoons at Gizmo Brew Works

• Free pint with purchase of craft box. Choose from a variety of craft packages available for all ages.
• 12:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m.

Beaver Queen Pageant — Once Upon a Wetland... at Duke Park

• The Beaver Queen Pageant is the Triangle’s own special mix of folly, pageantry, and humor. Contestants take on beaver personalities and compete for the title of Beaver Queen with their fashion, talent, and personality. There will be music, a kid's art activity station, food trucks, and much more!
• Enjoy the fun at this family-friendly and free event which raises funds for the Ellerbe Creek Watershed Association. Vote for your favorite contestants - or bribe a judge - at www.beaverqueen.org. You are not going to want to miss this truly weird and delightful Durham experience.
• 4:00 p.m.
• Free admission

Sunday, Jun 4

Al Strong Presents Jazz Brunch at Alley Twenty Six

• Al Strong, the Grammy-nominated jazz trumpeter, composer and recording artist, will bring a rotating lineup of musicians to perform during Sunday brunch at Durham's Alley Twenty Six. Weather permitting the band will perform in the bar’s namesake alley.
• Brunch from 10:30 a.m. - 2:00 p.m.
• Music 12:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m.

Art-n-Soul Market at Mystic Farm & Distillery

• Shop handmade in this special setting. Mystic Farm & Distillery in Durham offers a unique place to gather and enjoy local spirits. The Art-n-Soul Market brings the best local artisans, food trucks and live music out to the farm for bourbon tastings, craft cocktails, food trucks and distinctive gifts you won't find anywhere else. Bring your friends and meet us at the bourbon farm! Dogs welcome.
• 12:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.
• Free admission

Public Tour at Duke Chapel

• Learn about the history, architecture, and life of Duke Chapel in this tour, which is free and open to the public. The tour begins at 12:15 p.m., or immediately following the conclusion of the Sunday morning service, and lasts approximately forty-five minutes.
• No reservation is required but if you plan to bring a large group please notify us in advance. Meet the docent on the front steps of the Chapel.
• Paid parking is available on a first come, first served basis in the Bryan Center Parking Lot at 125 Science Drive. ADA parking is available in the Bryan Center Surface Lot at the same address.
• 12:15 p.m. - 1:00 p.m.

Trivia at Navigator Beverage Co.

• Hosted by the Triangle’s Trivia team, Hammered Trivia, gather your team and post up to compete for prizes and enjoy an afternoon of great drinks, great friends, and great games.
• 2:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.
• Free admission

Running Art Exhibits

upstART Gallery: A Jim Lee Project at Pop Box Gallery

• upstART Gallery will host its first group show at Pop Box Gallery & The Art Chose Me’s residency in Old East Durham. The show features 27 artists who were selected through an open call review process. Artists were challenged to create work especially for this unique space, scaled 1:12 (one inch = one foot).
• Wed-Sat from 12:00 p.m - 6:00 p.m.
• Runs through Jul 1

Exhibit at 21c Museum Hotel

• Truth or Dare: A Reality Show
  • Runs through March 2024
• Open 24 hours
• Free admission

“Extra-Spectral” at the Durham Art Guild Truist Gallery

• This exhibit highlights several NC-based artists that, on the surface, use colors that are “extra” (which is where their commonality ends) to evoke their intent through a combination of this color with forms and imagery as well as the concepts embedded in color’s many identities. Artists Jane Cheek, Jerstin Crosby, Zach Storm, Tonya Solley Thornton and Leif Zikade all require color to play a primary role in their work and their relationship to an audience.
• Mon–Sat from 9:00 a.m. - 9:00 p.m. and Sun from 1:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.
• Runs through June 4
• Free admission

Donna Stubbs, Featured Artist at 5 Points Gallery

• 5 Points Gallery in downtown Durham introduces a new exhibit featuring the work of our member artist, Donna Stubbs. Donna uses an archaeological approach to painting, as she lovingly photographs her surroundings and unearths discarded items in thrift stores to create abstract mixed media works.
• Free admission

Chieko Murasugi & Renzo Ortega at Craven Allen Gallery

• An exhibition featuring both abstract and figurative works by two artists with international backgrounds. The SEQUENTIAL exhibition invites the observer on a visual journey, generating an organic relationship between the artworks and the gallery's visitors. Through the dynamics of color, form, ideas, and narratives, Chieko Murasugi and Renzo Ortega seek to generate a dialogue and the experience of art appreciation with the audience.
• Sat, May 20 at 5:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m. - opening reception
• Runs through July 8

Spirit in the Land at the Nasher

• Spirit in the Land is a contemporary art exhibition that examines today’s urgent ecological concerns from a cultural perspective, demonstrating how intricately our identities and natural environments are intertwined. Through their artwork, 30 artists show us how rooted in the earth our most cherished cultural traditions are, how our relationship to land and water shapes us as individuals and communities
• Tue-Fri from 10:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. Sun from 12:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.
• Runs through Jul 9
• Free admission

Andy Warhol: You Look Good in Pictures at the Nasher

• Andy Warhol: You Look Good in Pictures explores the breadth of the artist’s relationship with photography through several distinct bodies of work including screenprints of celebrities, all of which were taken from photographs, a group of Polaroids and black and white snapshots illustrating his social circles, and an early silent film of the curator Henry Geldzahler from 1964.
• Tue-Fri from 10:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. Sun from 12:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.
• Runs through Aug 27
• Free admission

Art of Peru at the Nasher

• This gallery features ceramics, textiles, metalwork and carvings produced by ancient cultures across what is known as present-day Peru.
• Tue-Fri from 10:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. Sun from 12:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.
• Runs through Dec 2
• Free admission

Disclaimer: I'm very upset while I type this. The situation is fresh and I'm very upset about the whole thing.
I worked at a state campground this being my second summer with my fianceé. I think it's important to mention that we are both very lesbianey looking women. We are also Jewish.
The first summer they hired a caretaker who was horribly racist and very openly discriminatory towards basically anyone who did not look like she did. (cis/white) She was not from the U.S originally and seems to be able to just float about internationally whenever she chooses. It seems she inherited this "ability" from an old Axis power relative. This was very tough to work for. But my fianceé and I both had always wanted a career in parks and dreamed of a future there.
This summer they hired an ex cop, and his bible thumping wife to be caretaker. I didn't even make it a weekend. On my second day there he acoasted us in the parking lot because people were waiting to rent boats. Boat rentals typically start at 9:30 we were there at 9:03. I was not even out of the car yet. My fianceé finished climbing out of the car and said "eh, boat rentals start at 9:30 it can wait" to which the caretaker became irate. He made some "don't talk back to me" type comment and continued with explosive behavior. My fianceé stood her ground and quietly affirmed that boat rentals started at 9:30 and that it wouldn't be fair to rent them out starting now because this is what we told everyone who asked.
He continued to have a heightened tone with my fianceé while also yelling at me to go down to the boathouse. I comply as quickly as I could, but considering the fact I hadn't even made it out of the car when he started, I had to run back up the hill to grab my radio. At which point he was now full on yelling at my fianceé, about a different but not separate issue on the boats and told her "she could go" my fiancee yelled back fine and she went to go collect her stuff. I went to collect mine as well.
The caretaker panicked and said that he did not want to see us go. I stayed behind my fianceé because I now felt uncomfortable leaving them alone. They were both able to hash out future rules for the boats that were both fair and reasonable. My fiancee even apologized for renting a boat out over multiple days which was as of now, a disallowed rule. The caretaker went off on the 4 wheeler and all seemed resolved. I went down to the boathouse and completed my shift. My fianceé wrote out an e-mail detailing the caretaker's behavior twords her and his wife in front of her because she was now nervous to work with him alone.
We left, had our evening and moved forward. My fianceé who worked full time there worked her next full scheduled day(5/31). The following day (6/1) she showed up for her shift and worked about half of it before the Operations supervisor and her boss showed up. They dismissed my fianceés actions as insubordination and my fianceé left. This apparently ends my career here as well.
So I guess what I'm asking is what do I do? I'm so hurt and upset. That was both of our dream jobs. I don't want to work there without my fianceé, but what can I do? That was so horrible and abusive. I can't believe it happened.

Disclaimer: I'm very upset while I type this. The situation is fresh and I'm very upset about the whole thing.
I worked at a state campground this being my second summer with my fianceé. I think it's important to mention that we are both very lesbianey looking women. We are also Jewish.
The first summer they hired a caretaker who was horribly racist and very openly discriminatory towards basically anyone who did not look like she did. (cis/white) She was not from the U.S originally and seems to be able to just float about internationally whenever she chooses. It seems she inherited this "ability" from an old Axis power relative. This was very tough to work for. But my fianceé and I both had always wanted a career in parks and dreamed of a future there.
This summer they hired an ex cop, and his bible thumping wife to be caretaker. I didn't even make it a weekend. On my second day there he acoasted us in the parking lot because people were waiting to rent boats. Boat rentals typically start at 9:30 we were there at 9:03. I was not even out of the car yet. My fianceé finished climbing out of the car and said "eh, boat rentals start at 9:30 it can wait" to which the caretaker became irate. He made some "don't talk back to me" type comment and continued with explosive behavior. My fianceé stood her ground and quietly affirmed that boat rentals started at 9:30 and that it wouldn't be fair to rent them out starting now because this is what we told everyone who asked.
He continued to have a heightened tone with my fianceé while also yelling at me to go down to the boathouse. I comply as quickly as I could, but considering the fact I hadn't even made it out of the car when he started, I had to run back up the hill to grab my radio. At which point he was now full on yelling at my fianceé, about a different but not separate issue on the boats and told her "she could go" my fiancee yelled back fine and she went to go collect her stuff. I went to collect mine as well.
The caretaker panicked and said that he did not want to see us go. I stayed behind my fianceé because I now felt uncomfortable leaving them alone. They were both able to hash out future rules for the boats that were both fair and reasonable. My fiancee even apologized for renting a boat out over multiple days which was as of now, a disallowed rule. The caretaker went off on the 4 wheeler and all seemed resolved. I went down to the boathouse and completed my shift. My fianceé wrote out an e-mail detailing the caretaker's behavior twords her and his wife in front of her because she was now nervous to work with him alone.
We left, had our evening and moved forward. My fianceé who worked full time there worked her next full scheduled day(5/31). The following day (6/1) she showed up for her shift and worked about half of it before the Operations supervisor and her boss showed up. They dismissed my fianceés actions as insubordination and my fianceé left. This apparently ends my career here as well.
So I guess what I'm asking is what do I do? I'm so hurt and upset. That was both of our dream jobs. I don't want to work there without my fianceé, but what can I do? That was so horrible and abusive. I can't believe it happened.

Currently going on a month for the dealership just to look at my car. Hyundai customer care basically could care less and won't give me a rental. They said it's up to the local dealership. The local dealership said they don't have any rentals. I have 14K miles on this car, and I'm still making payments on it. Sadly this is my first and probably last Hyundai product. such terrible customer service. I do love the car when it was working but the repair side and warranty is basically worthless. Luckily I kept my truck and didn't trade it in or I would really be up the creek without a paddle.

We are group of 4 and plan our trip to Iceland in last August to Early Sept. We are going to rent a large SUV for F road river crossing. I would like to get feedback and opinion for our itinerary. Our goal is to explore highland as much as possible. I feel we drive a lot and looking for any thing we should adjust.
​
Day 1.

• Arrival and pick up rental car @ 9AM - 10PM: Blue lagoon - 1PM: Lunch, grocery shopping - 2PM: Visit Kerid Crater - 4PM: Haifoss - 6PM: Gesyer
• Stay in Reykholt

Day 2.

• 7AM: Hrunalaug Hot Spring - 10:30 AM Kerlingarfjöll. Hike for 3 hours - 3 PM drive back
• Stay in rjupnavellir (close to f225)

Day 3:

• 7AM F225 to Landmannalaugar - 6 - 8 hours hiking. Bláhnjúkur and Brennisteinsalda. - 4PM F208 south or F225 to Hvolsvöllur
• Stay in Hvolsvöllur

Day 4:

• 7:30 AM Nauthúsagil - 9:30 AM bus to Þórsmörk. 1 hour ride. - Hike rest of days
• Stay in Volcano Huts(Þórsmörk)

Day 5:

• 10:30 AM bus to F249 base camp. 1 hour ride - Skógafoss, Hjörleifshöfði, Fjaðrárgljúfur Canyon, Reynisfjara Beach
• Stay in Vik

Day 6:

• Þakgil: Yellow trial 8 hours
• Stay in Vik

Day 7:

• 7AM F232 to Maelifell - 2:00 PM Glacier Walking at Skaftafell
• Stay in Kalfafellsstadur

Day 8:

• Jökulsárlón, Diamond Beach, Vestrahorn, Hengifoss
• Stay in close to Stuðlagil Canyon

Day 9:

• Stuðlagil Canyon - F road drive to Askja. - F88 back to Ring road to visit Godafoss
• Stay: TBD

Day 10: Drive back to Reykjavík. Arrive no later than 4pm
Day 11: Explore Reykjavík
Day 12: Fly back
​
I have a couple questions: 1. Is Volcano Huts(Þórsmörk) worth to stay a night? We can probably make our trip more compact if we do not stay in Þórsmörk. For example, combine day 5 and day 6 into 1 days + evening of day 4. 2. Because we do not want to drive F223 and F210 East (big river crossing), so from day 3 to day 7, we actually circle around. Any advice how we should adjust day 3 to day 7.

1. There are couple ideas we have, but lodging is hard to find. My original plan was to F228 south and back to ring road, then drive F232 to Maelifell next morning, but I could not find any guesthouse, airbnb, hotel available close to F232. Only thing I can find is in Vik.
2. Day 7, I can go to Maelifell very early (6am). Will I have chance to get to Skaftafell before 2 pm? The only tour I can find for glacier walking is 9:30am or 2:30pm.
   
3. Any tour I must take in Jökulsárlón? Some mentions kayak or boat, but others saying not worth it.
   
4. Is Day 9 reasonable? I plan to stay in Myvatn?
   
5. Any recommendation for Day 10, when I drive back from Myvatn to Reykjavík?
   

Thanks everyone!

​
Oyster Creek Restaurant and Boat Bar - Leeds Point, Galloway, NJ
East Coast Oyster Stew
I have heard good things about The Oyster Creek Restaurant before, and recently had an opportunity to check it out on Memorial Day weekend with some family members. We were a little worried that holiday crowds would swamp the place, but we sat late enough (7:30 PM) that there was no problem.
They advertise the place as Casual Dining and Exquisite Cuisine, which from my standpoint they were dead on with both. A pleasant, casual atmosphere and a very large varied menu. All my dinner companions raved about their meals when it was over.
Their menu soups include: “East Coast Oyster Stew”, “Manhattan Clam Chowder”, “Snapper Turtle Soup” and “New Jersey Crab Bisque”. Conspicuous by its absence was “New England Clam Chowder”.
Luckily, on the evening’s specials menu, was “New England Seafood Chowder”, certainly a decent substitute when you are about to take an oh-fer.
I ordered it.
They were out.
(one of the bigger downsides of a later seating)
So I inquired about the oyster stew - never having had oyster stew and not having had oysters in, well, decades.
Our server, who was impossibly smiley (can anyone really smile that much? For sure, it looked genuine to me, so I guess yes) indicated that the oyster stew was not only cream based but “made to order”. Now, I don’t know how many ingredients you can make ahead of time and still call the soup made to order, but even if they made all of them but for the cream, and added the cream just before delivering to me, I think that is an advantage. Simmering cream based soups for extended periods ruins them.
They say their ingredients are “diced celery, onions, chopped oysters, butter, cream and Old Bay”. My bowl had a distinctly peppery flavor, which makes me think they also added black and/or cayenne pepper and likely (from the looks of the soup) cayenne pepper sauce.
So, I was very interested in how this would taste. My first sip was creamy and also, as I said, peppery. The broth was the thinner, creamy texture that I prefer, not the thick style of so many New England Chowders. The celery was very crisp, almost as if it had not been sautéed long enough, but I had nothing to compare it to (is this the way oyster stew is supposed to be?), and it was flavorful.
Then I had a near religious moment - I had one of the oysters. It was incredibly tender, almost like I had just put a pat of butter in my mouth (yes, I have eaten pats of butter - they are fabulous - just don’t eat too many of them at one time). It basically just dissolved in my mouth. Not being a connoisseur of oysters, I did not know they could be so good. These were fabulous.
Overall, the dish was extremely flavorful, well balanced despite being so boldly peppery, and just a joy to eat. If this is what oyster stew is supposed to be, I could definitely become a fan.
Bottom Line Rating:
CM - 9.0.
So, the skinny so far on the Atlantic City area is: There’s some damn good seafood chowders and stews available. A quick list so far:
Dock’s Oyster House, AC, NE Chowder 9.5
Knife and Fork Restaurant, AC, NE Chowder 9.0
The Oyster Creek Restaurant and Boat Bar, Leeds Point, EC Oyster Stew 9.0
The Crab Shack, Brigantine, NE Chowder 8.5
The Pirates Den, Brigantine, NE Chowder 8.5
The really interesting part is that, so far, there have been no clunkers. Its not like I’ve been sandbagging, either, if I eat it, I review it, so when I get a less than impressive bowl, you will hear about it.

Cape Coral is a bucket list fishing destination for me, and hopefully in late July I am heading down with my family and a friend to stay in an air bnb around or on the freshwater canals. My friend and I hope to rent a small fishing boat for two or three days and just boat around the canals and fish all day. I was wondering how good of an idea this is and if there is anything I need to know before we try this

Does anyone have an affordable boat rental service they can recommend which doesn't come with a driver? We don't want to do a tour, just a couple of hours out on the water with my partner. We went to Brussa Is Boat because they were affordable and flexible, but they have a festivity day tomorrow and can only do all-day rentals. We can only do tomorrow morning as we have a wedding to attend and this is the last day it will work for us here.
I would appreciate any recommendations! Thank you.

I’m visiting Minneapolis this weekend with a college buddy, we’re excited to hit up the Twins game, try out the local breweries, and explore the city. I’m also insisting that we take a tour of US Bank as I’m a pretty big stadium and ballpark nerd. We’re staying at Hewing Hotel.
We have a gap of time on Saturday and I’m trying to figure out a way for us to get out on the water. I’ve seen kayak tours and canoe rentals available on the river, which we are considering. Wondering if there are any other ways to explore the water that we aren’t considering? Im thinking along the lines of boat rental, airBnB experiences, etc. Not completely sure what’s out there, so thought I would ask this subreddit before we just default to the first kayak rental we find.
Thanks in advance - looking forward to visiting this weekend.

Monday - Arrive in Rome at noon - no plans for the day
Tuesday - Colosseum/Vatican Tour
Wednesday - Travel high-speed train to Naples; ferry to Sorrento (do i need to book the ferry in advance)
Thursday - Hang out in Sorrento (this day is open so far what can I add?)
Friday - Capri Boat Tour
Saturday - Open (thinking about checking out Amalfi Coast for the day - should we do a beach club or just walk around? do we need a car rental or something?)
Sunday - highspeed train from Naples to Rome - travel out
We're a group of 4 if that matters. Travelling in August. We're not looking to hike, maybe just walk around/explore, food, bars, light excursions. We were keen on getting Vespa's. Where would you recommend we pencil that in?
Thank you all in advance, really appreciate any suggestions:)

In this report, I'll mostly list the city I visited during my trip and give my general impression or talk about what I did.
I spend a total of three months in Japan, the first 11 days around Tokyo, two weeks to move between Osaka and Hiroshima one month across Kyushu and finally back in Tokyo for a month, with some overnight trips in the Kanto area.
You can check my itinerary for Kyushu, it will give more detail on location I planned to visit in each city (I mostly followed it) and also gives a bit more info about me. I also wrote about traveling as a Hololive fan and posted on the dedicated sub, but here I posted about anime shopping a bit more in general.
If you want to get my extra tips that you would not usually read here or in other guides, I posted my tips on JapanTravelTips.
Walked from 9k to 31k steps by day, an average of 15k to 20k depending on the month I look at. Total cost including flight was about 8000CAD, I mostly stayed in hostels or similar accommodation, did not use JR Pass and mostly eat food in restaurant while moving around, but back in Tokyo I did much more convenience store/grocery store shopping for food. It did include a lot of craft beer and a bit of souvenir shopping.
Feel free to ask question, especially if I mention a place that you would like to visit, I can give more info. Or if you want to see picture of anything I mentioned, let me know I can try to share.
Kansai/Chugoku

• Arima : I only visited during the day, but if you are looking for a nice onsen town close to Osaka/Kyoto/Kobe, then I would recommend. The ambiance might not be as charming as Kinosaki, but you still have the feeling that you are in a small town that revolve around onsen and that is easy to walk. The two main onsen are fine, pretty typical onsen experience if you ask me. Sure you can find nice ryokan too.
• Kobe : Went before and to different area, went to two sake breweries in Nada on my first time and would recommend if you want to know how sake is made. This time I went around Chinatown around lunch and it was a great experience, there is so much street food vendors and people everywhere, really recommend. Finished the day with a night view from Venus Bridge, the view was better than from the Nunobiki Herb Garden.
• Akashi : The main shopping street was really busy, lot of restaurant that serve the local specialty, Akashiyaki, a kind of takoyaki but much eggier taste and texture, you dunk it in soup to eat it (instead of putting sauce on it). The castle is skippable unless you hunt stamps and the history museum is heavily in Japanese.
• Himeji : The castle is huge. Honestly I really recommend to try to see one of the original castle and this one is usually the one that make the most sense to people. Went there close to opening time and could visit the castle and Kokoen garden before lunch. Then hiked Mount Shosha to see Engyo-ji. The hike is not too difficult, the temple is nice but really big, it will take a while to walk around even if you take the ropeway (it was under maintenance when I went).
• Ako : Could interest history buff as it is the city from where the 47 ronin from the Chushigura story come from, so the local shrine and the history museum do have things related to it. I actually liked going to see the salterns at Ako Seaside Park. Ako was know to be a big sea salt produced in the past and there is outside exhibit that show how it is done. They also do workshop and weekly demonstration, but even without that I found it interesting.
• Bizen (Imbe) : Unfortunately went when the museum was close for change in exhibition. This is a really different sightseeing experience as there is little to no "sight", spent most of the day going from one pottery store to the other. It's easy to get an idea of the Bizen-yaki style, I did not like the red-ish items that much but got a nice tea cup in darker color.
• Okayama : The castle and garden are ok, might not be my first recommendation for that combo (Himeji would probably win). The castle focus on the sengoku era, so if you like that part of history you might appreciate. Then went to Kibitsu-jinja where there is a long corridor. Can also learn about the story of Momotaro. If the weather had been better, cycling around Kibi is apparently nice. Do not try the Doppo Peach Pils, I would barely call it a beer, too sweet.
• Kurashiki : By the video I saw, it made it sound much bigger. The historic area is not that large, so if you do the boat ride, it won't be that long. There is still a nice vibe and you can get a good taste of a more preserved neighborhood.
• Fukuyama : Mostly used this as a convenient place to stay, there is not much to do. When you go to the touristic information and they tell you the top two things are the castle and Tomonoura, well, it show that this is not a top touristic destination. Took a more relax day and only walk to some temple/shrine.
• Tomonoura : Here we can also get a taste of preservation of older neighborhood, bus on a smaller scare and different building style compared to Kurashiki. If you are into history and specifically Bakumatsu, you might want to see the small museum about the Irohamaru and Sakamoto Ryoma as the boat sank nearby. The nearby island is nice and you can go for a relatively easy hike, but nothing special.
• Onomichi : Love Onomichi, I've been several times already. The city is always as quiet with as little attractions, but still like the vibe. Cherry blossom where quite nice in Senko-ji park. While I have not done the cycling, I visited the islands on Onomichi side. This time I went to Mukaishima for a hike and the view was fantastic. Yes, doing the Shimanamikaido cycling is a way to enjoy it, but it is not the only way to enjoy the islands and the view they can offer. Got recommended a really nice bar that it next to impossible to find without being told (can give more info).
• Hiroshima : After several days without seeing much international tourist, here the main sight like the peace park and even the castle are obviously popular destinations. I do not think I have much to add about Hiroshima that you cannot find elsewhere.

Kyushu

• Fukuoka : Went before and from my first trip would recommend the Fukuoka City Museum for a nice history museum. This time went to see teamLab, was my first experience and it was quite fun, I can give more info on that too. Went to Maizuru park (Fukuoka castle ruin) and had beautiful cherry blossom.
• Yoshinogari : While most historical location showcase more modern aspect of Japan, it was a really interesting experience to see a larger scale location dedicated to Yayoi era. Usually you might see one of the house from that era build in a random park/museum, but here you have the full village with different type of building and the whole walls around. Quite interesting if you are into older Japanese history.
• Saga : Was a convenient stop for accommodation, but there is not that much to see. The castle ruin have a reconstructed palace, one of the (if not the) first to be reconstructed. While it is nice, it is really not as flashy as the one in Nagoya castle (in Nagoya city, not Nagoya castle ruin in Saga) or Kumamoto castle.
• Arita : Similar to Bizen as the day was focused on visiting pottery/porcelain shops. Here the Kyushu Porcelain Museum was open and I would really recommend, especially as it's free. Really nice experience to see the different style of porcelain made around Arita, it did contrast with my perception that the style was kind of the same across all what is produced, but there is actually a lot of different style.
• Takeo : My main reason to go was to see teamLab exhibition, but along the way stopped by different nice garden. Was kind of in a strange time, cherry blossom was almost over and azalea just starting, so I had a bit of both, but not peak of either. teamLab I also did the Mikuneyama Rakuen onsen. While you pay a bit of a premium price, I think that you do have a good onsen experience. The exhibition was also quite nice and despite seeing some other people, I mostly had the art installation for myself. Can give more info if you want.
• Nagasaki : Second time in Nagasaki, found the Chinatown a bit dead compared to Kobe. Did the must do things on my first trip like peace museum, Dejima and Mount Inasa at night (would recommend to do these), this time did Nagasaki Museum of History and Culture that is interesting as it focus on the trace with various foreign country, Clover garden that is nice if you are interested in Late Edo/Meiji presence of westerners in Nagasaki. Also did Kameyama Shachu Memorial Museum as I like Bakumatsu and Ryoma. Will continue to recommend two days in Nagasaki.
• Unzen : Really unique to walk around Unzen Hells. Did some hiking around, but if you have a chance, going to Nita Pass and up the ropeway is probably better, but the bus to Nita Pass was not running when I went ant the only other option was an expensive taxi ride.
• Shimabara : While the castle have nothing unique, the exhibition inside is quite interesting as it will tell more about the Shimabara rebellion and the hidden Christians. Also tried a local sweet that is like small dango in a sweet syrup that strangely taste a lot like maple syrup.
• Kumamoto : While it is a major city in Kyushu, I felt that appart from the castle, there is not that much to do. Right now the castle is only partially reopen as they are still repairing the damage caused by the 2016 earthquake.
• Hitoyoshi : Unfortunately difficult to access by public transport because of the Hisatsu Line was severely damaged by floods in 2020, you can still go by bus, but it makes it more difficult. You might think that goin by car is the better option, but considering that Hitoyoshi is known for Kuma Shochu (made with rice), you might want to walk to the shochu distillery to partake in some tasting. Also went into a miso and soy sauce factory, that was interesting. Overall not a lot of things to see but still nice countryside town.
• Kirishima (Myoken onsen) : The onsen area is not the most convenient to access by public transport, but there is still a bus going. It's getting more difficult if you want to visit some sights around. I ended up being quite lucky as two different person stopped to offer me a ride to my next location. Would only recommend if you have a car or if you are really a big fan of Sakamoto Ryoma.
• Kagoshima : I was expecting to need more than a day to visit Kagoshima, but for the city itself, a day seems alright. Shukkei-en is nice and offer a good view of Sakurajima, the garden is also beautiful. Just make sure to get in the sightseeing bus that stop at the entrance. Went to the Meiji Restoration Museum, especially as I like the bakumatsu era. I could have spend my second full day in Sakurajima instead, but the rain was not especially pushing me to do outside activities.
• Yakushima : The car ferry was not running so had to pay 22 000yend for the jetfoil. This also changed my total ferry schedule. I initially planned a single day of activity, but ended up leaving in the afternoon of the second day so could re-schedule. On my first full day I went to Hirauchi kaichu onsen, that is a onsen in the ocean, only accessible at low tide, was kind of interesting, but it's mixed gender and you are technically supposed to go naked... except that the other people ether had swimsuit or towels to properly hide themselves, while I had a borderline too small towel. Only had 15 minutes to enjoy the water before going back on the bus to Ohko waterfall, that is quite nice. There I met someone who offered me a drive. My initial plan to walk toward Seibu Rindo, a forest road with wild deer and monkey. Let's say that considering the distance, I realize that my initial plan was not that good. Second day wend to Shiratani Unsuikyo, really nice hike with a great view if you reach the end of the train. The bus schedule does allow to easily do the hike if you start in the morning. Overall, I think Yakushima is doable by public transport, but it does require much more planning, kind of glad I had a ride. Also was lucky to get great weather all the time I was there.
• Ibusuki : I asked for recommendation of places to go and was recommended Chiringashima twice, not bad if you have some time to walk around the island and you are on time for low tide, but terrible bus schedule, so I went by bus and returned by walking. A bike rental would have made things easier. The special thing in Ibusuki is the sand bath, it is a strange feeling to be buried in the sand. The main place where you can do it is big and really well organized, I saw a place in Beppu that offer sand bath, but they seemed to have a somehow long wait. Appart from that, you need to go outside of town if you want to do more things.
• Makurazaki : a bit of a pain to reach by train/bus. My main goal was to see a shochu distillery. Honestly not totally sure it's worth going that far especially considering I saw other places easier to access. They also produce sweet potato based beer, not bad, but also not the best I tried during my trip. Had to eat some bonito as the city is know to be a big producer of katsuobushi.
• Shishibu : Mostly went because I wanted to visit a tea farm. Went to Osumi Teanery, they have a member of their staff that is American and that will do the tour with you. There is just so much we can see of the process in the factory as it is a running factory (at least in season) that is not build to have viewing deck on the production, then despite the rain we went to see the fields and talk about how the tea is cultivated. Also did a hojicha workshop, so that was fun to learn how to roast your own tea. While the place is not the easiest to access, the staff helped me get there so at the end it was relatively easy to do.
• Nichinan (Obi) : Kind of fun castle town, they have a special map with coupons and a list of participating restaurant. You buy the map then you can exchange the coupons of food items to eat while visiting the town. The castle does not have anything exceptional, but still fine.
• Miyazaki : First day was initially dedicated to Aoshima, but I ended up not spending as much there as I thought. The rock formation is interesting, that is for sure. Used the rest of the day to go to Udo-Jingu (that is technically in Nichinan), not sure it's worth the full cost of the bus, but it's an interesting shrine built in a cave close to the ocean. Miyazaki city in itself does not have that much, the nature and history museum is nice, but as many nature museum, I feel more geared toward child, but it was free, so why not.
• Hyuga : Honestly my biggest surprise. I was initially only planning it as a stop before getting in the bus to Takachiho. Ok, it's quite a long walk so a car or maybe a bike would be better, but Umagase was really a natural wonder, it's really beautiful and you can feel the power of the ocean. You might as well stop by the Sea Cross observatory and a point called Sanpo (next to the sea cross). Then you can also check Omi shrine and Uto shrine, the second being a small shrine build in a cave quite close to the ocean.
• Takachiho : Again after a while just seeing tourist once in a while, it show that Takachiho is a popular spot for tourist (both Japanese and Foreign. While the gorge is nice, I was much more impressed by Umagase. Also you cannot always ride the boat and it was close the days I was there. For me the Takachiho Kagura was more interesting than the gorge. One difficulty was to find a good hostel as the one easy to book is next to Amanoiwato shrine, that is a bit far from Takachiho shrine and no bus at the time of the kagura plan. But I found guesthouse sankaku thatwas perfectly located and the host, Asuka, was really friendly. Went to Amanoiwato shrine the next day and I think that more than the shrine in itself, the mythology around it is much more interesting. While it is only in Japanese, they do a small tour almors every half hour so you can see the sealed entrance of the cave where Amaterasu hid.
• Takamori : That was one more intermediary stop, got to see one of the One Piece statue (that I do not really care about). Got great view on Mount Aso. Went to Kamishikimi Kumanoimasu Shrine (that is a good walk or infrequent bus from the station), and was surprised to see what felt like a tour bus stop there. Yeah, it's nice to see the torii and the staircase in the forest, but I would not do a day trip from Kumamoto to there as I've seen people here wanting to do that. Also the train line is supposed to fully reopen this summer so it will be easier to access.
• Aso : My worst day. It rained and the top of the mountain was in clouds. Honestly I should have saved my money and not go on top. But if you are blessed with good weather, I am sure that it is fantastic, I can say that just by the gorgeous view I had on the mountain the previous day.
• Beppu : Yes, Beppu is know for their onsen, but I do not especially feel a special vibe about the city. When I went to the tourist info to have recommendation, appart from the hells that I already visited previously, it was pretty much just to get out of the city to attractions around. Got recommended Takegawara Onsen, it's fine but the bath is small and there is no soap, so bring your own if you want to wash. They also do sand bath, but seems to take time as the place have limited space. It's also located in what I would call a red light district with plenty of girls bakyabakura/soapland, so that is also... interesting. Would highly recommend Beppu Brewery, that seems to be fairly new. Got their tasting set that include a kabosu weise, kabosu is Oita local citrus, then tried the kabosu session. But if you see kabosu beer at the souvenir shop, do not try Kabos and Honey, it's the second worst beer I had on my trip, really sweet. (I wat getting into fruity beers before going to Japan, sour beer are good, not sweet beer).
• Oita : Listening to people, I felt that Oita was not really getting much appreciation here, but I found that there was more museums than in Beppu, like the Oita Prefecture Art Museum and Oita Art Museum (but I'm not that into art museum). While yes, there is no that much around the station area, I wished I had searched a bit more about the history of the city, the great discovery was the Old Otomo Residence and Garden, It is a small museum that will introduce you to Otomo Sorin, probably more know as the christian daimyo, would have liked to see if there is more locations related to that part of the region's history. The castle ruin was less interesting as there is not much exhibition, so pretty much only went to get the castle stamp. Getting a car to get to the interesting points a bit further around the city could have been more interesting tho.
• Usuki : My first idea here was to visit a series of temples as part of a pilgrimage, but it ended up not being much of a good idea as the second temples I went to was close, so I kind of abandoned the idea. Then I rented a free bicycle from the tourist information and rode it toward the stone carved buddha, unfortunately the back tire went flat and I decided to walk back instead of going all the way to the buddha. Was a bit unfortunate, but the city had some nice streets with older buildings and the food was good.

Kanto

• Sakura : Not much people go there but I would really recommend the history museum. If you decide to go, make sure you bring you phone with headphones and a power bank, if you listen to all the audio guide, you can spend hours in the museum.
• Narita : While I might not recommend as a day trip from Tokyo, I would absolutely recommend for people who are doing a long layover at Narita and that want to have a taste of Japan without going all the way to Tokyo.
• Kamakura : Second time going, while it's kind of possible to do a day in Kamakura and Enoshima, I think that spending two days over the two places is much better. This time I went to Hokokuji and their bamboo grove is really beautiful. While I've seen bamboo elsewhere, like in Sakura, here the place is really clean, all the dead bamboo have been removed and properly disposed. Usually in natural bamboo groves, it is full of dead or broken bamboo or there is piles of bamboo that was gathered in a corner. It was not too crowded and quite enjoyable, but it is not super big. Other than that there is plenty to see in Kamakura, totally recommend.
• Enoshima : Went for the first time, while a full day might be a bit much, not too hard to spend a good part of the day walking around. Went on the first day of my Kamakura trip as the weather was nice and I hoped for a Mount Fuji view and I could see it. I had the impression you had to be at a specific spot to see it, but no you can see it right from the bridge (I think the specific spot is if you want to see both Enoshima and Mount Fuji). Despite no cloud, it was not super clear, this can be because of humidity in the air or because of Asian dust (or China Dust) that is more prevalent in spring.
• Chichibu : Kind of surprisingly, there is many anime that are taking place in Chichibu, so if you like any of them, that would be a great destination. One of the main thing advertise about Chichibu is nature, but I found that it would work much better with a car to get to the flower fields outside of the town center, or maybe by renting a car. If you want to bungee jump you can do it here (pretty sure it's the place where Chis Broad and Connor went). If you want to go to Mitsumine Shrine, then that will likely require a car rental. I stayed not to far for the night, but the bus service was... let's say not the most convenient. There would also be a bunch of hiking trains in the area around the western side of Chichibu.
• Nagatoro : Walking next to the arakawa river is a must and you might want to also do a boat dire on the river. I then hiked Hodosan, but it was not that exciting. There is a famous kakigoori place there, super popular, that's the restaurant I waited the longest for in all my trip, then you get serve a big pile of shaved ice (with the syrup of your choice) and it cost more than a lot of full meals that I had, but I do not regret the refreshment on that hot day.