I’m tired. I just got back into my hotel room here in Bangor, Maine. It’s 7:20, but might as well be midnight, since I pretty much have not slept since 08/14 at 9:00AM. Amazing my brain is still allowing me to function without hallucination.
Anyway…
So, yes, I made it to Maine. I got off the plane in Bangor around 4:30PM today. I had a layover in DC which was pretty much entirely uneventful minus the lovely rice bowl I got at the airport. You know you are old when it’s the food that is the highlight of a particular location. The flight in from Florida was pretty good as well, BUT…. As I’m checking in, I hand the clerk my debit card to pay for my checked bag and she tells me I need to call my bank because it’s been declined three times. Well, that’s awesome timing. Ugh!
I pay with my credit union card instead, which for the record, I don’t use for anything let alone random charges, but desperate times… I get to my gate, call the bank, and they tell me the issue is because I have a fraud alert on my credit report. I’m aware of this, since it’s something I add pretty much every 90 days since 2003. (I had my social stolen.) Funny thing is, I had always reported every 90 to Equifax, who seem to pretty much ignore my report instead of doing anything with it. As blaze’ as Equifax can be, Experian, in turn, doesn’t fool around one bit. I reported to them less than a week ago, and damn… They take that shiz nizzle serious. So, yeah. To make a long story short, I called the bank and got my account unlocked all before even stepping foot on the plane. Another obstacle dodged.
Funny thing is that wasn’t the only obstacle I faced today. I had not slept at all last night. Seriously, I’m riding on Redbull and coffee like nobody’s business right now. I was up packing bounce boxes and repacking them, then packing them again. Same goes for my backpack. Got ‘er done, but geez. After packing, I still had the arduous task of heading to FedEx and mailing said packages. So, at 7:30AM, I tear out of my apartment complex letting Dan, the guy giving me a ride to the airport at 8:30, a heads up I would be right back. Ha! Right!
At FedEx I got a helpful, but somewhat too relaxed clerk who took an unusually long time to process my packages all while telling me about his own hiking adventures. Now mind you, I could talk hiking all day, but I was under an enormous time crunch, which didn’t end so well when the computer decided after processing 7 out of my 9 boxes to spit back my order and crash. Ugh. Do over. Thank God though, only two of the nine were unable to be recovered. Well, that still didn’t end well. It spit the order back yet a second time, leaving us to process the last box even a third time. For the love of Baby Jesus!!! After all this, I mention my flight is leaving at 10:45AM, and Dude started finally getting a move on, but we were definitely cutting that little postal trip a bit too close for comfort.
It all ended well enough though. Obviously I made it to Bangor, so… Tomorrow the bus doesn’t leave Bangor until 6:30PM. So, I’m hoping for a bit of lounge time at the hotel and then I’m off to Maynard, I think that’s it’s name, then from Maynard to Millinocket to spend the night at a hostel. Still no trail.
Oh did I mention the insanity on Monday prior the mad dash to package bounce boxes???? No??? Well, let me give you another awesome obstacle to wrap your mind around! The universe never lets planning to leave be an easy task for me. If you have spent any time with me in the last six months, I’m sure you have heard that I had to switch my phone service to Verizon from Sprint before heading back to the AT. In fact, it was a bit of a priority for me. I’ve been with Sprint for what seems like forever, and honestly, I have zero problems with them EXCEPT when I go hiking. I might as well not have a phone with Sprint as my carrier.
So you say, what’s the big deal? Who do I have to call when I’m hiking??? Well nobody, but my service not only runs my phone, but also my weather app and other random, important, hiking related stuff. Last year I had a weather app to use and help navigate me out of the torrential amounts of rain we were experiencing, but thank you Sprint, nothing freaking worked, cuz’ my service in the woods blows. All last year anyone who had Verizon, on the other hand, had the lovely experience of dodging bullets, I mean storms. This little one-upper helped said individuals have nice dry feet, which I can’t say I had, ever, at any time, last year.
In fact, because I had no idea when rain was coming it was almost inevitable I would be on a ridge line with zero hope of shelter for miles whenever a storm decided to hit. It was awesome. It was so awesome I’d like to remind everybody reading this of the story I told about literally pulling all the skin off four toes and having to stick them back in boots and hike for 15 hours a day. This is not a good time! And I don’t plan on a repeat performance this year. Thus, my trip to Verizon. Everyone on trail with Verizon last year became my hero. I want to copy them and have dry feet. You would too.
Anyway, I heard Sprint likes you leaving their company/contracts like a jealous, bitchy girlfriend likes getting dumped. They don’t make it easy. I spent two hours Monday sitting in their store just waiting. Finally someone saw me, and allowed me to pay off my phone. I told them what I was up to, switching service, and bid them a’ du once I handed over $216. Which is what they told me I owed them. Thinking I was free and clear to seek service elsewhere. No, no, no my pretty!!!! Think again!
I get to Verizon and shit hits the fan after maybe an hour of attempting to replace the sim card and update my phone’s system, sign paperwork, blah, blah, blah. Oh the best was yet to come. My phone was still not unlocked at the end of all this, which meant three more hours between me, the Verizon rep and Sprint employees who speak little to no English and seem to have an almost sadistic way of placing you on hold for 30 minutes at a time. You know the drill… You hear elevator music the first five minutes, then the line goes silent, then suddenly you hear a call center in the background, 30 minutes in or more, more elevator music, then BAM, call disconnected and you have to start all over. O M F G!!!!! And after all that nonsense, it turns out my phone was still locked! Apparently, this little forgotten detail was missed when I had paid earlier. The issue was due to me having an outstanding bill for my monthly service still due. Nobody mentioned that at the Sprint store when I told them I wanted to pay in full because I was going to leave there and go to Verizon to switch my plan! After a lot of back and forth, pay it online, wait my account doesn’t exist any more, but I can’t pay over the phone, blah, blah, blah, they finally agree to take my payment over the phone after all. And that was that. another $100 and I’m free. MFs! Grrrrr….
I have to give it to my Verizon rep. He went the distance, for four hours. We rode it out until the bitter end and finally successfully switched my service over. Now…. Let’s hope this plan works it’s magic and I can actually make more than 6 calls in two months when out on the AT… Yeah.
Bobbing and weaving, but I think I see the end to this nonsense coming shortly. My escape is inevitable. The mountains are calling.
