Monday, August 13, 2012

The Countdown Begins!!

Five days until I take off for the Grand Canyon!!  So much to do ... and every day the list gets longer.  I'm a big believer in lists since my memory seems to be lacking and when I cross something off, it makes me feel like I'm getting there!!!  Since I can't take my horses with me, a friend is going to live here while I'm gone.  So far I have gotten extra feed for the horses, dog food for the dogs and bird food for Jonathan.  One of the horses will still require medication, so that had to be set up also.  Horses need their feet trimmed every 6-8 weeks, so that appointment has been made for this week, as has the hoof x-ray appointment so see how he is doing.

The RV needed a wash very badly.  I did find a truck wash about 15 miles away, but being the cheap person that I am, I decided to save the $40 and wash it myself.  BIG mistake ...  I started at 7:00 this morning (85 degrees out) and finished 2-1/2 hours later (95 degrees).  Dragging the ladder around climbing up and down every two feet totally wore me out, let alone washing and drying this thing.  I'm sure they would have done a much better job and been well worth the $40!!!!
Next on my list was a handheld Garmin GPS with topographic maps to use at the Grand Canyon as well as on my horse camping trips.  Talk about a frustrating venture.  I purchased the Garmin 550t at a huge fishing hunting store, where I was told I could return it if it did not meet my needs.  After discovering that I needed to purchase an additional map for $100, I returned it.  Well sort of ... they didn't WANT to take it back.  After some "discussion", they agreed to give me a store credit.  This was a very expensive unit ... lets just say well over $400 ... and I will NEVER spend that much in this store.  It was suggested that I get a different model ... but no way was I going to buy it here.  I went to my favorite REI store where I can return anything.  Should have gone here first, but at the time, they did not have the one I wanted.  So off to Fresno ... I came home with the new less expensive model.  Upon hooking it up to my computer, it said I needed 3-4 updates.  Really????  It's a brand new unit!!!  The problems started when I went to download the FREE 24K topographic map of California and Nevada.  "Not enough memory".  I won't go into the words I said ... but this morning I called Garmin and expressed my displeasure.  They agreed to send me a new micro sd card for free so the maps could be downloaded.  However, I needed to purchase a $30 DVD of maps in order to get the ones I needed.  It figures ..... that done, after a couple of hours, it dawned on me that the Grand Canyon won't be included on any of these maps, because that's Arizona, and that's another $30!!!   Needless to say I'm not real happy.  Not sure whether to return this one or not!!
I haven't even started to think about food or clothes ... since those are pretty important, I better get busy on those lists.  5 days and counting .........

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