Yesterday started out as a frustrating day.

In Sunday’s blog I wrote that when we bought fuel at the Paso Junction Sinclair truck stop in Pratt, Kansas they triple charged my debit card for over $472 in false charges. I called my bank and they reversed the charges, but Monday night they were back and the money was out of my account. After repeated calls to the bank and the truck stop, which acknowledges that the problem is on their end, now they tell me it could be up to 35 days before it is resolved!

I wanted to get an early start on the road yesterday morning, but instead had to run around finding a place to send out faxes of my receipts and the false charges on my account to both the truck stop’s manager and to my bank.

$21 in fax charges later, we finally got out of town only to get held up in a massive traffic jam caused by an accident just before the junction of Interstate 470 and Interstate 70. Why are drivers so dumb?  We were sitting still as emergency vehicles tried to squeeze past to get to the accident scene, and the cars would not move over to let them pass. Finally we got past the accident scene and got onto Interstate 70 for the short drive to the fairgrounds in Higginsville. We were greeted by George and Starr Sharrer, who have been parked here for a week in their fifth wheel. Soon afterward, Jim and Chris Guld from Geeks on Tour pulled in.

This is typical of the many fairgrounds around the country that RVers can take advantage of for low cost parking. For $10 a night we are getting 30 amp electric, water, and a dump station. What a deal! Here is a picture of the Geek’s motorhome at the fairgrounds, and another of our bus. If you have not checked out the many low cost camping opportunities in this country, order our Special 7 in 1 CD, which includes over 1,000 free campgrounds, fairgrounds with RV parking, casinos that welcome RVers with free camping, public RV dump stations, RV Good Guys, and more. It will save you a bundle.

Once Jim and Chris were parked, it was time to eat. We had dinner at Zybisco’s Bar and Grill, where it was Taco Tuesday, with three for $1.50. Terry said they were great. I had a huge one pound double bacon cheeseburger that even I could not finish! Terry pointed out the weight to me on the menu, but I was busy talking and didn’t hear her. Big mistake! It was yummy, but way too much for one guy to eat alone.

Of course, I had to save room for dessert. We walked a couple of blocks down Higginsville’s Main Street to Sweetz, where owner Jeni Bayens fixed us up with ice cream and other goodies. Before seeing the error of her ways, Jeni was a nutritionist. Now she’s hustling ice cream and chocolate covered strawberries. Personally, I think it was a great career choice.

Jeni’s 10 year old son Casey was a cool kid that I enjoyed visiting with. I didn’t know I could have loaner kids all over the country like I do loaner dogs. Why didn’t anybody ever tell me that? I could have saved a ton of money on child support!

Casey may look shy with his eyes downcast, but he’s just keeping his eye on the showcase full of goodies like chocolates covered strawberries, chocolates covered licorice, and even chocolates covered jalapenos (jalapenos?) to make sure I didn’t sneak one out!

Thought For The Day – Life is like a roll of toilet paper. The closer it gets to the end, the faster it goes.

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You’ve heard me say many times that our plans are set in Jell-O, and so it was yesterday. We fired up the bus, checked our tire pressures on our PressurePro tire monitor, emptied our holding tank at the dump station at the Meade, Kansas city park, filled up with fresh water, and pulled out about 10 a.m.

I had told Terry we’d have a short driving day, stopping either at the Elks lodge in Pratt, Kansas, a distance of about 95 miles, or maybe we’d turn north at Pratt and go up to Russell, on Interstate 70, which would have made it a 185 mile day.

On May 4, 2007 an EF5 tornado tore through the small town of Greensburg, destroying 95% of the community and killing eleven people. The National Weather Service estimated the winds from the tornado reached 205 mph. Today the hardworking citizens of Greensburg are rebuilding their community, and implementing “green” technology to save energy and help protect the environment.

Here is a link to photos of the town after the tornado hit, but on our drive through on U.S. 54, there was little evidence of the disaster. We wanted to stop and check things out off the main highway, but it was a cold, dreary day and I had a trucker climbing up my bumper, so we kept on moving.

By the time we reached Pratt, my fuel gauge was down below my comfort level, so I passed the turnoff to U.S. Highway 281, which would have taken us to Russell. We stopped at the Paso Junction Sinclair truck stop, where I bought fuel, and we decided to just continue on east on U.S. 54.

We passed through Wichita, where we have some folks who keep inviting us to stop for dinner, but we wanted to get to the Kansas City area to see Terry’s cousin Carolyn, who has been having some vision problems and may eventually need surgery. (I think Carolyn’s eye problems started after we visited last summer, and she saw me in my tighty whitey Fruit of the Looms. I guess if you rub your eyes that hard, it’s bound to do some damage!)

In Wichita we got onto Interstate 35 and drove north through the Flint Hills, arriving in the Kansas City area right at 5 p.m. I was afraid we’d get caught up in rush hour traffic, but on this Saturday afternoon, traffic was light. We pulled into the Grandview, Missouri Elks Lodge just as they were hosting a wedding reception in one side of the building, and holding the monthly mouse races in the other side. We’ve stayed at some friendly Elks lodges over the years, but I think this place tops them all. Everybody in the huge crowd seemed to take a moment to say hello and welcome us. We would have liked to have visited more, but we were pretty worn out, having covered 375 miles, a lot more than originally planned when we left Meade!

Back in the bus, I logged onto the internet to check e-mail and to check my bank account, as I do every day. I’m glad I did, because I discovered that the Sinclair struck stop in Pratt hit my debit card for three separate charges, two for $236.14 and one more for 256.98 (the actual amount of my fuel purchase), for a total of $729.08!

I immediately called my bank’s fraud line and reported the problem, and after checking the transaction record online, they stopped payment on the two bogus charges. Folks, check your records often, you never know what somebody is up to!

We have never had a problem in making online transactions, but several times when we have handed our cards to a clerk someplace, as I did yesterday, this has happened. It may be just dumb human error or it may be fraud, but whatever it is, I don’t want to be a victim.

Thought For The Day – Middle age is when you choose your cereal for the fiber and not the toy.

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