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Borrego Springs, CA

Friday, July 20, 2012

Not the adventure I was looking for today

My plans for today included finding a good sized grocery store to restock my supplies.  How exciting could that be?  I did plan to kind of wander my way over to Nags Head to re-familiarize myself with the area.  It’s been five years since I’ve been here, and there was a hurricane that came through the area last August.  That’s why staying at one of the RV sites on Pea Island was not an option.  Those sites, the small office building, and the intern bunkhouse were washed away!

I took a few of the gravel roads of the refuge as I slowly made my way to the coast.  I looked for the huge eagle nest near one of the bridges over the bay, but it too was gone.

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I had a little something in mind as I visited the Outer Banks (OBX) Visitors Center.  You see, the last time I was here I took myself out for a celebratory 60th birthday dinner.  Well, it’s five years later, and this Sunday marks my entry into the age of Medicare/Medicaid.  What better reason to take myself out for a ritzy dinner?  I knew they’d have plenty of suggestions, and I now will spend some time going over all of my choices.  Open-mouthed smile

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I took a short jog south down US 12 to the first of the three lighthouses found on the Cape Hatteras National Seashore.  I’ll probably visit them all again while I’m here, but it’s a long trip to do that, and my main goal today was to get some milk, etc. 

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I stopped briefly at the Bodie Island Lighthouse.  Today’s view is on the left.  The view on the right was taken in July of 2007.  I found out that the work to refurbish the lighthouse will take until next May, so I’m glad I toured it back then.  The RV site I chose not to stay at is about a half a mile away.

After stopping at the lighthouse, I turned around and made my way back to Nags Head.  Eventually I found the Food Lion grocery store that I was looking for.  As I got out of the car and leaned over to get my fanny pack and cloth bags ready, the lady parked next to me wanted to get out.  So, I stepped back and the front door slid closed so she could get into her vehicle.  I thought I was being helpful.  She smiled, got in her vehicle and pulled out.  Oh, oh.  My fanny pack with my money, phone, and keys were on the front seat, and the door slid shut and locked.  Disappointed smile  Awe shucks!  What a revolting development this turned out to be!

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Now what do I do?  I went into the grocery store, and was lucky.  I explained to the young woman at the customer service desk what had happened, and as it turned out, she had recently done the same thing.  She wrote down the name and number of the locksmith she had used and handed it to me.  That would be great if there were any phone booths left around, and I had the money (which was locked in the car) to use it.  She took pity on me, phoned the Pop-A-Lock company, and they arrived within ten minutes!  It took them less than two minutes to break into my car.  That made me think a little. 

Then it came time to pay the bill for this service.  The woman inside said it was $25 or so.  Hah!  That must be for locals.  The price quoted to me was $60 for a service call.  I related the price from the grocery employee, and they knocked it down $10 for cash.  A costly lesson learned.  As the lock guy said, “If you try to be nice and help someone out, it will bite you in the butt!”  Now that’s a sad way to look at things in my opinion.

Perhaps some of you may wonder why I didn’t call my road-side service number.  Well, I really didn’t think about it until the guys were already on the way.  The number was also locked in the car, and I just normally only think about that when the rig is involved.  Oh well, I suppose I could get the number tattooed someplace on my body. Winking smile

A huge storm rolled in as I finally made my way home, and it has been raining ever since.  I sure hope it cools the temps down some.  On my drive along the back roads this morning, I did catch a fleeting glimpse of a bear.

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                                                                              THE END!!

Thanks for stopping by… talk to you later,  Judy

32 comments:

  1. Sorry for your difficult day, but I am looking forward to the picture of the road service tattoo.

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  2. A tattoo, what a great idea! Eldy hates them and I keep telling him I'm gonna get one, just to be ornery! Sorry that happened to you. But--your day ended well with a sighting of a BEAR--awesome! :-)

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  3. I have been carrying my Coach Net card where ever I go. I'm thinking about copying it and putting it in the glove box of the Accent just in case. We only have one card. I should write the information on a card and put it into Craig's wallet, he always has it in his pocket. One thing I liked about our Prius was that you could not lock the door with the key in it.

    One more thing to think about! Glad you go into the car though.

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  4. They have those magnetic things you can put an extra key in and put it somewhere under the hood of the car..We locked our keys in our old truck in the middle of the Canadian Ice Fields at a roadside pullover...Luckily one other car was there, and would you believe they had a wire coat hanger? That's what McGyver used to pick open our sliding back truck window and maneuver the keys out..Now you know why everyone calls him McGyver. Happy Birthday..drink lots of wine and eat dessert!

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  5. P.S. FYI, I have 2 tattoos....One I got at age 50...the other at age 51...and no regrets.

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  6. Triple A provides a small decal that I affixed to a rear side window. The decal has the Triple A service call phone number. Too bad Coach Net does not do the same thing.

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  7. Oh my, so sorry for your bad luck. Maybe you could get a bracelet engraved with the phone number of your roadside service company. Sorta like those medic alert bracelets!

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  8. It's could really be a problem now with the lack of public telephones. I used to lock myself out of my car regularly but always had my purse with me, so I could just walk back into the airport or wherever and find a public phone to call AAA.

    I have a button on both front doors that I can press down to unlock all the doors in the vehicle, or press the other end to lock everything. I never get out of the car for any reason that I don't unlock all doors, or until I hold my hand up with my keys and make sure I have them. Glad you were able to get your door opened in a relatively short time though.

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  9. Now I don't feel so bad. I've done this a time or two. Nice to know I'm not the only one.

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  10. I imagine you could get your money refunded by just sending the receipt to the ERS company. Most will anyway. If you don't have a receipt call them and tell you need one.

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  11. I do this so often that Jim has a special tool (like the police use) to break into the car. I agree with Karen. I'd sure contact the ERS and talk to them about it. Worth a try. My B-day was yesterday but I'm not quite to medicare yet. Two more years for me.

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  12. Happy Birthday and welcome to official 'old age'. Locking one's keys in a car is definitely what you often call an 'uf-dah'.

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  13. Happy Birthday Judy!! Your day is definitely an example of the "no good deed goes unpunished" adage.

    I locked my keys in my car in a friend's drive. She lives out in the middle of NOWHERE and it took nearly 2 hours for the locksmith to find me. So glad it was such a brief time for you.

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  14. Glad I'm a guy & don't have to carry a purse that I would for sure lose, misplace or leave behind somewhere. I keep my wallet close to my buns at all times:))

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  15. I am just a few months ahead of you in hitting that medicare age:( One of my favorite expressions is "no good deed goes unpunished" That is not my philosophy, just my observation:)

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  16. I have done the lock the keys in the car before. It's a real bummer.

    It has been raining here all day and made for a tough set up.

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  17. We're lucky that our Prius is smarter than we are. It won't lock if one of us (usually yours truly) leaves a key inside. Nice, huh?

    Some days you can't win for losing. But, heck, Judy, you did a good thing... it just cost you a bit more than you bargained for!

    ENJOY your "Medicare" birthday dinner.

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    Replies
    1. Oh, oh. My fanny pack with my money, phone, and keys were on the front seat...

      I wonder how your Prius would know that the keys were on the front seat? In the ignition I can understand but on the front seat, that is one really, really smart Prius.

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  18. Hah! You are literally one day older than I am. If we weren't so far apart geographically we could go celebrate together.

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  19. Happy Birthday Judy! Sorry about the lockout thing. I guess we all have to go through that, at least once, in our life :( Some of us, more than that!

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  20. Happy Birthday! It was probably worth the extra bucks to have the guys show up in 10 minutes.

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  21. Hope your birthday dinner was delicious! Okay now.. Donna K writes about forgetting things, I confess to losing things, and.. well.. I'm not sure what locking oneself out of the vehicle represents... but maybe Medicare can cure us all! Welcome to the red-tape, multi form, jumping through hoops world!

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  22. Sorry about the lockout. That's one of the things I like about my car; if the key is inside, the door won't lock.

    Good to see that the NPS got the money for the Bodie Lighthouse renovations. When we stopped by last year, the light was wrapped with some kind of black cloth, but there was no scaffolding, and it was iffy that money would be allocated for the renovations.

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  23. We have never been to the Outerbacks. We may head that way in October.

    Cape Hatteras National Seashore is definitely on our list. Looks and sounds wonderful.

    I do not like to be around people with negative attitudes. One day I was racking all the leaves around the Livingston Escapees Park. A guy walked up to me and INSTEAD of saying "Great job," Looks good," he said, "You know they are just going to fall again very soon." WHAT? Does he think I don't know that. I was so angry. I just looked at him and shook my head. IMHO...if you can't say something positive, SHUT UP!

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  24. Not fun!! Our big dually truck has one of those nifty keypads on the door--our previous schnauzer Jazz would lock us out occasionally, just punch the numbers in and the door unlocked. Wish we had those on all the vehicles!

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  25. Have a wonderful birthday!! I agree with the comments above that your road service company may refund your expense if you send them the receipt. Lovely area you're in. Definitely on my list of places to visit.

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  26. Happy Birthday! Welcome to the world of Medicare, which I've found to be really good.

    You have the most interesting experiences! Good and bad... but you handle them with grace. That's probably why you've been a full-timer so long and are still enjoying it. And I don't think your good deed was punished. The locksmith probably desperately needed a job that day to buy food for his family, and you fulfilled that need. Think of it as another good deed.

    Boy, all that scaffolding around the lighthouse must have taken a while to get up! Love the comparison photos. :)

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  27. Hate that lockout business... and yeah too bad that being nice sometimes does bite you in the butt... happens to me... trying to be meaner this next year... HAhaaa....

    Just getting caught up with blogs! love your Andy and Opie header! AND I love where you are... I think it was 2007 that I was there. Love the outer banks

    Happy Birthday!!!

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  28. POCKETS! My iPhone is always in my pocket. This wouldn't have helped unlock the car, but all necessary phone numbers would be available, i.e. to call AAA (or Coach-Net) to come help. When we were fulltiming, I had a little packet of "stuff" that resided on my person at all times.

    If there was too much "stuff" for a pocket, my Eagle Creek "Tailfeather" waist pack was strapped on, and NOT removed. Easy to pop things into it for quick access, as well as a spare key to rig and toad, and a bit of emergency cash and/or change. This item wears like iron. I wore it every day as my regular "purse" for about four or more years, and now use it occasionally as above. See at:

    http://www.zappos.com/eagle-creek-tailfeather-small-black-black

    Mine is slightly different from the video, as it has compartments inside, so maybe it is a slightly larger size than shown, although it looks to be the same size in use. Configurations change over the years, I guess.

    Any auxiliary pack would do, even one of those neck-hanging "passport" carriers touted for safe overseas traveling, just to keep emergency things handy.

    Amazon has a number of possibilities of this genre:

    http://www.amazon.com/Eagle-Creek-Travel-Gear-Pouch/dp/B001M0NWTS/ref=pd_sbs_a_5

    See at the bottom of that page for a number of other possibilities.

    Virtual hugs,

    Judie

    http://dorrieanne.wordpress.com/

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  29. Happy birthday! Sorry about the lockout, but I'm sure this will never happen again, not that you'll never be courteous to others but will always have it with you! I am a paranoia with it comes to car keys. When I step out of the vehicle, it's either in my hand or inside my bag which is always hung across my shoulder before I step out.

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  30. Happy Birthday Judy!
    I’ve locked myself out of the car in a business suit and heels, in 90+ degree heat, with the engine running. Ugh. Loads of fun.

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