Kern River is no joke. That bear stop is insane, I can't believe you just waited it out. I would have been frozen solid, trying not to make eye contact. Most people don't realize how wild that stretch gets, it's not like the JMT where you trip over other hikers every few miles. Honestly, that kind of story alone makes me want to skip the JMT and head straight for the High Sierra Trail next time.

Hold up, gotta play the other side here. You're basically describing a dream scenario for most people. A random guy throwing a $50 tip because the barista was nice? That's just a good human moment, not some weird conspiracy. And sitting in the dark talking with strangers for 2 hours sounds like the most chill, unplanned social thing ever. Sounds like you got a free mini retreat from your normal routine. Maybe it's not scripted, maybe you just had a genuinely good week and your brain is looking for drama where there is none. Not everything weird has to be a sign of something spooky.

Hear you on that, but its the same kind of shortcut that can bite you later, like skipping a step on a brake job to save five minutes. Good call from @the_richard on those thin patches, but consistent heat management usually saves you from chasing more cracks down the road. Ever had a small skip turn into a full redo the next day?

Yeah so that's mostly true but Mike kinda simplified it. Savannah does have a lot of old burial grounds but the big one under everything is the Colonial Park Cemetery, they just expanded the city right over parts of it. Not every building is on top of a grave though, that's a bit of an exaggeration the tour guides love to tell.

Wait, is a tree company really sending out mass emails to people who just had work done? Most tree service guys I know still hand write their invoices on a clipboard. An automated welcome sequence for a stump grinding feels like using a flamethrower to light a birthday candle.