Troubles come in 3's (I hope that's all!) . . .

20 Dec, 2017; Imperial Dam LTVA, Winterhaven CA

#1 Mail Service forgets to forward my mail!!!

This would be merely annoying - but the last several months, I've been hassling with Medicare to get my payments paid automatically via their 'Easy Pay' - but since my monthly payments have been delayed and late (because of the problems I'm having getting my mail in a timely fashion), the Easy Pay option hasn't kicked in yet.  And now, I'm looking at being delinquent again!!.  My only thought is that last month I did manage to get all my payments in on time - so, if the 'guvmint' is on the ball, they'll realize this and the auto-payments should kick in.  What are the chances of that happening???  I'm not optimistic . . . .

#2  My grey water tank overflows into the shower

Guess I wasn't as frugal as I usually am.  The first sign was in the middle of the night, in the dark, when I stepped into cold, dirty gray tank water in my bare feet - Yuck!!

But - that's OK - I figure since I'm in an LTVA (Long Term Visitor Area), I can just trundle over and dump in the morning.  This sounds like a good plan until . . . .

#3  As I'm hooking up in the morning, I find I have a flat tire on the trailer

The back tire on the passenger side is dead flat!  Ok, I think - I have a AAA 12v air compressor for just this kind of emergency.  I get it out, set it up - and 10 minutes later, I realize that not only has the pressure needle not budged, but it's unlikely that it will ever budge.  Very disappointed.

Wimpy air compressor

Luckily, my neighbor has a big 5th-wheel and a big full-size truck - very likely he has a bigger, beefier compressor.  Yes!  He's a rancher from North Dakota (dry farms 12,000 acres of grain in the summers) and he has a monster generator and air compressor.  

In minutes, he has pumped up my tire enough to get into town to the tire repair place. They find a chunk of metal in the middle of a tread - in a few minutes, they've drilled out the metal and repaired the tire.  I'm so grateful, I schedule them to repack my wheel bearings in a couple of days.  I've been meaning to get this essential maintenance done - but my experiences in the last couple of days has pushed me out of my usual 'procrastination' mode into 'pro-active get everything done, leave nothing to chance' mode.

The tide may be turning . . . 

Another irritant recently has been lack of cell phone data.  I lost track at the beginning of the month and used way too much data - so, for the last 10 days or so, I've had my phone on airplane mode, or had the cell phone data off.  Today, the month turned over, and now I have data again!  While I've been doing some things via public wi-fi, today, with my protected cell data, I was able to check with my bank.  I was pleasantly surprised to find that my Medicare Easy Pay DID kick in and so getting my mail on a tight schedule to avoid late payments should, again, be a thing of the past! As a full-timer, it's just critical that all my bills are either auto-pay or payable online. 

To honor my luck turning, here are some sunrise pics!

What do you do all day as a full-timer?

I get this question a lot.  The answer (besides sitting in the sun, hiking, sight-seeing) is deal with life's chores (grocery shopping, laundry, cleaning, etc) and challenges (flat tires, bills) that we all deal with all the time.  Being on the road reduces some of the chores, adds others, and tosses in the need to explore services in each new area I visit.

And, what post would be complete without a sunset!