Overdue Compensation Funds?

I just received an email titled "It's Time to Claim Your Overdue Compensation Funds." Ooooo! Gee, do I have some money due to me? Golly, I guess I'd better dig into this one. Yeah, right. I may have fallen off the turnip truck, but I've been around a little bit longer than to fall for that. Especially when I saw the sender's name: Rev Father Augustine Goodluck!

Add to that the fact that Yahoo had already dropped that email into my SPAM basket. I have gotten other emails in my SPAM basket inviting me to purchase Viagra, Cialis, or other great sounding drugs from some outfit. Then there are the enhancers, the requests to send money to the bank in Colombia in order to get thousands of dollars somebody else was trying to give me. Never opened a one of them.

Heck, I don't even open the letter I got from Publishers' Clearing House with the note on the front that they have been trying to get hold of me by various means for some time.

Actually, overdue compensation funds or winning Publishers' Clearing House prizes kind of sounded tempting this morning, based on our experiences the last few days.

You see, we're on the road again, after leaving Rosie, our motorhome, in the storage lot for three months. Sunday we brought Rosie to our lot briefly, then decided to take her for about an hour's drive just to be sure everything was fine, get her ignition battery charged, etc. I had forgotten to check tire pressures before we left, so about six miles down the road, Suzy stopped (she's our only MH driver these days) and pushed me out the door with a pressure gauge in my hand. Turns out the left front tire had only about 30 pounds of pressure, when it should have had about 90-95. Ooops. Back to the park and the air hose.

Oh, by the way, the park recently bought a new powerful air compressor, capable of inflating the biggest RV tires. I couldn't get any pressure out of the hose. I turned the knob 90 degrees, and still couldn't couldn't get any pressure, so I turned the knob back, still no pressure. So I called the park office to see how to get the compressor working. The maintenance worker was already off shift and had left the park, but the office sent up one of our parking team. He told me to turn the knob, and smarty that I am, I did. Well, that air compressor is so strong, that I had to push like mad on the little button in the gizmo, and, when I did, it nearly blew my hand off! I got all the tires up to normal pressure in no time.

I'm glad I had that experience, because if I'm supposed to be on the Board of Directors starting next month, I should get that kind of goof-up behind me now, and then the office can send me to talk to the next goof-up! A director should know how things work!

Monday, I drove Suzy to the bank to make a deposit for our SKP Chapter. With a rally coming up, and annual dues due, she had quite a stash of checks and cash she didn't want lying around. As we were getting ready to leave the bank, a fellow pointed to our right front tire saying, "That tire looks awfully low." Stopped the car, got out with a tire pressure gauge (we keep one in each vehicle, but don't use them often enough!) and sure enough, the tire was low. Drove to the nearest gas station, put four quarters in the machine (remember when you could get air for free? Now it's a dollar for 3 minutes, about enough time to top up one tire and begin on another), and filled our tire.

Tuesday we started off on our journey, sailed down I-10, checked the air pressure at our gas stop in Eloy (everything fine), navigated onto I-8 and, after 164 miles of driving, pulled into a nice little RV Park in Gila Bend that charges Escapees members half-price, or $11.98 a night for full hookups, 50 amp electric, in a level pull-through site with free wifi! That's when Suzy discovered that Rosie's microwave oven had given up the ghost. At least the convection oven portion of the unit still worked, but you can't cook rice in a convection oven!

We had known the unit needed to be repaired or replaced, because the turntable hasn't gone around for several months, and the button you push to open the door had to be held in place with masking tape (duct tape is too sturdy).

Wednesday we figured we'd better drive the 80 mile round trip to WalMart in Buckeye to buy a new microwave, because we can't eat without a microwave, and we're going to be gone for 10 days. Ooops, car wouldn't start. No battery. I found a fellow who would let me get a jump start. When he drove his pickup around by the Suzuki, he couldn 't get his hood open. We both tried for several minutes, but it wouldn't budge. Helper #2 showed up (if you leave your car hood open long enough, every male within miles will stop by to see if they can help!) but he couldn't get #1's hood open either. #1 drove away, #2 opened his hood and got us started.

As we were leaving the park for Buckeye, the brakes grabbed! What now? Oh crappe, to use the French expression! Put foot under brake pedal, brake released, drove a little further and it grabbed again. Crappe again! I finally figured out that the auxiliary braking system had taken hold (finally) because I had fogotten to put the plug in where it's supposed to be when disconnected from the motorhome!

By now we were feeling a small lack of confidence in (1) our 10-year-old motorhome and (2) our 7-year-old Suzuki. Overdue compensation funds? Publishers' Clearing House? The answer is still no. All we have to do is get the car and the motorhome back in prime condition, and we're good to go. Tomorrow morning it's back on the road, God willing and the crick don't rise, to spend a few days at our Chapter 21 winter rally along the Colorado River!

Now before we sign off, we have to acknowledge that a few folks have joined us as Followers, and we cherish each one of them! Let's hear it for Mac of Our Travels and Experiences, Lynda, and Jeff and Sheryl Bright! These three give us a total of 105 Followers, far more Followers than blogs we can follow. Thank you, folks, for giving us a lift as we travel ... Our Life on Wheels!