In terms of technology, Kingman, Arizona is stuck in the Stone Age. They should call this place Bedrock and elect Fred Flintstone mayor. I wouldn’t be surprised if the cops here carried big clubs instead of pistols, and answered nuisance calls for dinosaurs running at large.

We have been in truck stops in far west Texas, and boondocking out in the middle of the desert in Quartzsite, and have had better service on our Verizon cell phones and air card than we get here in Kingman. Getting online at all is a challenge, and being able to navigate to any website or open an e-mail is a crapshoot at best. While we are showing five bars of National Access signal strength, any type of data transfer is nearly impossible.

As I understand it from other RVers who have spent any time here, AT&T service is just as slow. I guess the local good old boys have their little monopoly and aren’t letting anybody else get a toehold in.

To load yesterday’s blog posts, at midnight we had to drive a couple of miles to a McDonald’s restaurant to use their free WiFi signal. Even that was pretty slow, in comparison to our normal service! But we’ll just have to do that for the time we’re here.

To repeat what I asked in yesterday’s blog, please folks, don’t send me jokes and forwards for the next week or so. It takes so long to load them, and they just fill up my inbox.

But, it’s worth the inconvenience to be able to spend a few days with my friend Mike Howard. Mike and I go so far back that I almost think Fred Flintstone may have been one of our playmates back in the day. Whenever I go to visit somebody that I have known forever, but don’t see on a daily basis, it always amazes me how old they have gotten. How can that be? I’m still only in my early 20s in my own mind. In fact, who is that old fart that keeps showing up in my mirror every morning when I brush my teeth? What’s that geezer doing there?

I have received a lot of e-mail and comments from folks about yesterday’s blog, in which I wrote about the TA truck stop here in Kingman dinging my debit card for $500 as a “security fee” when we purchased fuel on our way into town. I’ve heard from several other RVers who have experienced similar problems at different truck stops across the country.

Apparently, the folks at TA monitor such things, because I got an e-mail from a lady in their corporate office saying that a gentleman would be calling me to “correct this situation for you.” However, as of right now, that was the last I’ve heard. There was no follow-up phone call, and the money has not been put back into my bank account. The “situation” remains “uncorrected.”

Of course, maybe they’re chipping out a reply to me on a stone tablet, and that’s what is taking so long. Such is life in Bedrock.

Yabba-Dabba-Doo! 

 Thought For The Day – You can do almost anything or go almost anywhere, if you’re not in a hurry. – Paul Theroux  

Before we were even dressed yesterday morning, somebody was knocking on our door, and it seemed like the line of people stopping by never ended until well after dark. It was not a good day to get much accomplished.

I spent over an hour on the telephone with Jim Guld from Geeks on Tour as we tried to figure out why my laptop computer will not communicate with my Cradlepoint wireless router. I can pick up the WiFi signal for the campground, as well as from another RVer parked near us, but not my own. Try as he might, even the resourceful Jim could not resolve the problem, and he finally had to admit defeat and suggested that I call the techs at the 3G Store and see if they could help. I never got to them, because more people were coming by to say hello, to see our new desks, and to see the Winnebago.

After I got off the phone with Jim, I called Dell to tell them that my desktop computer had died, and while I was talking to their tech folks, a half dozen or more people came knocking on the door. Miss Terry was out running some errands, so I tried to juggle two conversations at once with each new visitor.

Most quickly realized that I was busy and excused themselves, but one couple just parked themselves on the couch and started talking, even though I had to ask them to wait several times as I tried to follow tech support’s instructions to revive the computer. At one point, the husband said “It looks like we caught you at a bad time,” and I agreed and said that there probably could not have been a worse time. But they never took the hint, and continued to ask me questions about the new motorhome even as I continued talking to Dell’s tech support. Arrgh!

We really do enjoy visiting with our readers, but sometimes I wish we were just a little more anonymous. Or that folks were a little more courteous when they drop in and see that we’re in over our heads.

The good news is that Dell was very responsive to my call, and because I signed up for their small business extended warranty when I bought the desktop computer, they are sending out a repairman today or tomorrow, whenever the needed parts arrive. If he can’t get me up and running, they will either repair or replace the computer within five business days. That’s pretty good service.

Today is the eighth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on our country. I hope each of you will take a moment or two to remember those who were lost, and to remember how we all felt on that day. We may have buried the victims of the attacks, but let’s not bury the memories, or our determination to punish those responsible.

Bad Nick has some thoughts about 9/11 that may not be politically correct, but then again, when is he ever politically correct? Read his thoughts at They Were Not Heroes. 

Thought For The Day – My train of thought jumped the tracks.

Register Now For Our Ohio Gypsy Gathering Rally