Knowing we had a relatively easy drive ahead of us, we dawdled a bit yesterday morning and did not leave the hotel until a little after 10. We filled the truck’s tank with gas before getting on the interstate, and I computed we were getting just over 10 miles per gallon pulling the empty cargo trailer. Ouch!
Traffic was light on Interstate 10 across the rest of the Florida Panhandle but picked up on the I-295 eastern bypass around Jacksonville and stayed moderately heavy all the way south on Interstate 95 to Daytona Beach. We stopped at Buc-ee’s to fill the tank again and got to our house in Edgewater a little before 2 in the afternoon. With Terry guiding me in, I was pleased that I managed to back the trailer right up to the garage on the first attempt.
We spent a couple of hours looking at everything we still have left to pack, deciding where to start. We really don’t want to spend more than two or three days here getting it all done.
We had some prescriptions waiting at Walgreens, so we went and picked them up, then drove into Port Orange to drop off our two television receiver boxes and internet modem and router at the Spectrum store. When I had called to ask what the process was to return the equipment, they said just drop it off and tell the person at the counter our old address. But, as it turns out, it wasn’t quite that simple. After waiting in line for ten minutes or so, the person at the service desk asked if I had an appointment. I said I didn’t, and he told me that without an appointment there was a two hour wait. However he told me I could take it to the UPS Store in a shopping center just down the street and they would process it for delivery to Spectrum.
Back in the van, we found the UPS Store, but then it took quite a while because their computer system wasn’t communicating with Spectrum’s to log in the return. The man there suggested I go to Spectrum instead, but I told him that was not an option, and eventually he got it done.
From there we went to Stavros’s Pizza in New Smyrna Beach for dinner. We are really going to miss this place once we are back in Alabama. It’s aways delicious. The owner makes it a point to visit every table to be sure customers are happy with their meal and to ask if there is anything he can do to make their dining experience better. That’s how you create a business with a decade’s long history of success like Stavros has.
With dinner out of the way we went back to the house to pick up a few things, then checked into the Best Western for three nights and called it a day. Tomorrow we will be hard at work packing things up and getting the house emptied out.
And finally, here’s a chuckle to start your day from the collection of funny signs we see in our travels and that our readers share with us.
Thought For The Day – A negative mind will never give you a positive life.
Nick Russell
World-Famous, New York Times Best Selling Author, and All-Around Nice Guy!
When Mike’s Dad died I tried to return his Spectrum equipment in Billings, MT. There was a line of about 8 people which wasn’t moving. I went to the counter and very politely asked if more than one person could help process all these people. The woman was very, very rude in her reply. So, I shoved the box over by the wall, put a piece of paper in the box with Nat’s name, address and account number–told the rude lady what I had done and walked out. Happy packing you two–hope all goes well and you are one the road soon.
Cable TV, hope you now better next time. lol
This is George Mayleben, the owner of the RV Driving School. I know we have different political opinions, but I read many of your postings. We are going to be going through your new town and wondered if Valerie and I could buy you and Terry a meal on or about Feb 17.