RECAP

OK……. For you who haven’t gotten my little missives, either by email or through some other kind of communication, I’d like to backtrack and get you up to speed…
First, about ten days before we were supposed to leave, we called Qwest to cancel our home phone and internet service, affective June 30.
We then contacted Verizon and order a new MiFi2200 router (or hub, if you will), so we could have internet service on the road.
Should be pretty easy, right? Wrong!
In a nut shell: I spent eight or nine hours on the phone with Qwest and Verizon (over a period of about three days) in order to straighten all this out.
Very frustrating, to say the least.
What happened? Well, Qwest gave our home phone number to Verizon (which they shouldn‘t have, since we should have had service through June 30); and because of that, Verizon couldn’t give us internet service (because the router and the MiFi couldn’t have the same number), and, to top it all off, our phone was cut off to all incoming calls… We could call out, but no-one could call us!
Nice, huh?
Are you with me so far? Good!
OK, it would’ve been cool if the trouble stopped there, but lo and behold, when I got my MiFi from Verizon, it didn’t work…. They sent me another (next day service, thank you! - which I had to pay for, of course!), which didn’t work either…. The Verizon tech finally gave up…. Told me to get hold of H.P. (my computer maker), to see if there was anything they could do…
Oh yeah, we’re having fun now!
Fortunately, Luanne happens to be acquainted with a computer tech, who also happens to live on the island, and, as a last effort, I contacted him last Saturday morning….. He spent about three hours not being able to do much of anything to remedy the MiFi problem, but we thought we had gotten to the point where Luanne and I could live with it, so we paid him 2/3 of his $90/hr rate, and went to town…….
Got home that evening, and booted the computer up….
Son-of-a-gun! Nothing worked!
Got Mr. Computer Wiz up, and back to the crime scene, the very next morning, where he spent a couple of hours (and another $75 of his valuable time) on the conundrum… Money well spent this time, because everything worked when he left!
Take a deep breath……..
So… Monday (June 29), with all the tech stuff behind us, we pack the last few items into the truck and trailer, turn off the lights and water at the house, say farewell to the neighbors, the caretaker, and the Rock, and set sail for the mainland on the 8 o’clock ferry.
We spend the night at The Skagit Casino, where RV parking is in the Back Forties… However, a shuttle comes on demand (just use the phone at the bus stop).
Luanne is not having a nice night…. She worries about whether she turned off the gas at the range, so, Tuesday, after dropping our rig off at Camping World (we have a 3:00pm appointment), we head back to the Rock where we make sure the gas is off (which it was), and pick up a couple of things we could have done without, but since we’re here, we might as well take them along.
Back to Camping World, where we use our waiting time to purchase things we surely could do without, but also have a nice surprise visit from daughter, Anne, and our three adorable grandkids, Hunter, Morgan, and little Holly…
What a treat!
Camping World tried to rip me off!
When I took the trailer in for major overhaul In April, I also had a DirecTV satellite installed…. Since we don’t have satellite coverage on The Rock, we asked to have the “hook up” demonstration done for us today….
The tech was very helpful, and spent about 15 minutes showing us the ins and outs of cyberspace.
At the end of it all, I was presented with a bill of about $60.
I’m usually quite mellow, but to me this was a rotten deal, and I blew some steam… I turned around to the next customer in line, and said as loud as I could, “How can they possibly sell me all this stuff and not have the instructions included?” He said that if it had been him, he would’ve had three guys lined up to yell at!
I asked to see the boss, but the “counter” man got on the phone, and within seconds, he presented me with a receipt that said I owed nothing. Good for Camping World!
Onward to Tulalip Casino Resort, where we were to meet up with Terry and Linda, more generally known as “Gede” (a toddler thing between sisters).
We got there about half an hour before they did, and found lots of room in their ample RV parking lot….
However, when I tried the slide-out, it wouldn’t budge more than a couple of inches at the bottom, and not at all at the top….. I tried every idea my lovely wife tossed at me, and some of my own… Even got the generator out, in case the “juice” from the car and batteries weren’t enough, but to no avail….
In the midst of all this, T and G came, and in between the hugs and kisses I managed to lock the car keys in the truck….
Oh yeah, this is a fun way to start your vacation of a lifetime.
But things finally turn out great…….
The guy next RV came over, and with him, Terry, and me doing our thing, we managed to get the slide-out freed (the new rubber molding somehow got stuck), and I remembered that I had a “hid-a-key” for the truck….
Time for drinks and food (in that order), which we totally emerged ourselves in at the casino’s fine restaurant…
July 1, 2009
Left the Tulalip Casino at 7:50am, and was at Snoqualmie Summit at 9:35.
Stopped at Cle Elum to fill up the tank at the local Safeway store, and get some coffee for ourselves.
At noon we approached the little farm town of Quincy and a half hour later we pulled into our first RV Resort of this trip, the Crescent Bar Resort, a stone’s throw from the Mighty Columbia River.
That’s it for now…… Fair weather and tail winds to all our friends and family, who follow us as we blunder our way across this great land.