The $40 acoustic panels move is smart, I did basically the same thing after my cat walked across my keyboard during a pricing negotiation. But here is my real question for you - did those panels actually fix the sound or did you just feel better about the setup? I ask because I put up some foam squares and my audio still picks up my neighbor mowing his lawn through the window. I wonder if paying a little more for proper soundproofing curtains or a real sound booth might be the only way to fully kill background noise for good.

Wait, you ever microwave something and realize the timer started before you closed the door?

Aluminum wiring's thermal expansion rate is almost double copper's, so those connections work themselves loose over time even without corrosion. The real kicker is that the antioxidant paste only buys you time if the connector isn't rated for aluminum to begin with. Alumiconns handle the mechanical stress better because they use a stainless steel plate that clamps the wires without relying on screw pressure alone.

Yeah I read a blog post last year where a guy talked about a similar thing near the Shenandoah section. He found an old logging road that looked like it connected two parts of the trail and it shaved off almost 2 miles. But he also said it was way overgrown and he had to backtrack twice because the trail just disappeared. So there's always a gamble with those shortcuts. For every good one there's probably five that waste your time or get you lost.

That's a good point @the_john, the real risk isn't the fuel savings, it's the sudden clay pocket that grabs you because you don't have the inertia to power through it.