Friday, February 13, 2009

In Kilter, and in Congress, and Contemplating Becoming Outlaws

Yesterday was one hectic day. We got up early (for us) and drove the RV into Phoenix to get the spring work done. After we dropped it off, we did some banking, some siteseeing, and a lot of shopping. Willa had not been in Phoenix before, so I intentionally hit all the different areas of town for our errands. We started in Glendale, where almost everywhere we went we heard either low rider hip hop, or salsa music.

Our business in Glendale was going to the AT&T store and complaining about the crappy G3 network coverage they have and how sketchy the Sierra Air Card is. The good side of our AT&T experience is that we have learned how to exersize our patience and ingenuity much further than we ever had before. Not only is our service painfully slow (less than half the speed we had on land line dial up service) but we also have learned a routine of getting online that goes like: 1) Boot up the laptop 2) Start the ATT comm manager 3) wait for the manager to error with "no device found error 4) Plug in air card 5) Wait for 3 minutes for air card to initialize 6) Wait 3 minutes more while attempting to "Acquire Network", 7) Close ATT comm manager and repeat steps 2-6 several more times 8) If itstill fails, repeat step 1-7. Usually, after doing this, we get online, although it is so slow that sometimes it seems it was hardly worth the effort. Of course, when we tried to demo the problem to the AT&T guy, everything worked better than it ever has. Grrrrrrr!


Then we went to Scottsdale to do some banking. The Scottsdale branch of US Bank is obviously set up for catering to a higher class of clientele than us. Instead of the typical teller line on one side of the bank and officer's desks on the opposite side, this bank has nothing but officers desks strewn about the entire branch. The Branch VP of Operations saw that we were totally out of our realm and took pity on us. He walked up to us and asked if he could help us. When we asked if they have tellers, he smiled and escorted us to one of the executive desks and introduced us to one of the tellers.

The tellers were all seated at desks mingled about the branch. I could imagine how weird it would be to walk up and sit at one of the desks and pull out a jar full of change and ask the teller to open a savings account. Fortunately, we were into a little more impressive tasks, so it was only slightly embarrassing. She also comforted us by telling us that she never judges her clients by the way they dress, telling us that she has learned you really cannot tell who are the haves and the have-nots strictly by their fashion choices. I half agreed with her, but only to a point. If any of the folks we saw in Glendale ever drifted over to her branch, I think she would have to agree they go to different tailors than her clients.

After the slide into the upper crust of Scottsdale, we drove over to Mesa to do research on a ridiculous permit policy adopted by the Arizona State Lands Department.

The state owns a lot of land around the state, and they have determined that it is, apparently, a cash cow. They used to charge a $15 per year permit fee per person to access any of "their" land. That was ridiculous enough, but now they have decided that since they haven't increased the rate for several years, they are now justified to raise it to $50 per person! This means if you just happen to be going to Wickenburg, as we are, and you decide to go on a trail that happens to cross over the state trust land, as we were, you were going to pay $50 per person for a permit. Since this was the only trail we would be on that crossed state lands, it meant we would have to pay $150 for one trail, one day.

I decided to go to a good source for information on this hot topic, and maybe do a little window shopping while I was there, so I went to the 4 Wheel Parts store in Mesa. When I asked about the permits, everyone confirmed that yes, you do have to get a permit, and yes, it does cost way too much, but no, nobody there ever buys them because "we just don't ever run trails that require them." I would have loved to give them a shot of sodium pentathol or hook them up to a lie detector and ask them if they really don't ever drive on trails that requre the permits, because they all were kind of glancing at each other when they said that. It appeared they were not willing to tell me that they think this is stupid and they just go ahead and go on those trails, since they know there aren't the resources to enforce this silly permit process.

The guys at 4 Wheel Parts were nice guys, even if they didn't support the state by buying overpriced permits. They did give me the name and phone number of a person in Mesa that would sell me the required permits, if I decided to buy them. I actually called that person, and it added even more comedy to the topic. The number rang through to a voicemail that was obviously a private residence. The message on the voice mail was "Hi, you have reached the Mullens. Please leave a message and we will call you back." The number was correct, because the name to call was Cindy Mullen, so it was her home. I did leave a message, but she hasn't called back in 24 hours. Maybe I could get a job collecting fees for the state of Arizona. It doesn't seem to require much, and I'm sure the benefits are great. They may even give me a few permits!

After getting the info on the permits and shaming all the 4 Wheel Parts guys, I decided the least I should do is buy something from them, so I picked up a winch for the Jeep. It was the least I could do. Besides, it was kind of Willa's fault, since I asked her to go into the store and she said she would rather stay in the Jeep and wait. Anyway... I needed a winch so I can go into trails and if a ranger comes to give me a ticket for not having a permit I can pull the Jeep up a tree and hide from him. I know that plan isn't totally thought out yet, but I hope to have it worked out before I need to execute it.

After Mesa, we checked out Apache Junction and then passed through downtown and back into the Glendale area to pick up the RV. It wasn't quite done, so we shot up to Costco and paid our monthly visit to the store where everything is such a good deal you buy way to much and go broke. At least the gas was a necessity, and it was only $1.87 a gallon (about 12 cents less per gallon than the rest of the stations in Phoenix.

Back to Betts Spring Company to pick up the RV. Then, we hooked up the Jeep behind the RV and drove the 70 miles to Congress and pulled into our space in the North Ranch Escapees Park well after dark. It was a long day, so I bagged trying to log on with the crappy AT&T air card and just set up the RV, watched a movie, and passed out.

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