The major aim for today was to finalize a couple of items for the trip: (a) have my camera body and lenses both cleaned & serviced, (b) try and locate a cloverleaf style US power chord for my laptop, thus eliminating the need for a travel adapter and (c) replace Telstra’s piss poor roaming 3G voice & data service.
With the first stop – Archinal Camera Repair Inc, being about 31 miles (50 km) away on the other side of Dallas, I figured that leaving after 8AM, which would pretty much see me miss the morning rush hour traffic. For those of you who’ve travelled I-35 – Central Expressway will know exactly why it’s nicknamed “Central Deathway”. It’s full of bat-shit crazy drivers who view the posted 60 to 75 MPH (97 to 121 KPH) speed limits as an advisory to change gears from 2nd to 3rd.
Admittedly it’s been 10 years since I’ve traversed I-35 on both two and four wheels, but I sure as shit don’t remember so many people – going so far over the speed limit, I was literally being rounded up and stampeded over in some kind of mechanical monster bull-rush. I should also mention that a shit tonne of them were either texting or checking their phones out, putting on makeup or reading documents while hoofing it in & out of traffic.
It took me a couple of Fry’s Electronics stores to track down the electrical cords and I’ve got to say that those stores have deteriorated in both looks and service.
From there it was over to the Stonebriar Centre in Frisco for lunch, where I wandered into B & B News, that advertised as having newspapers for sale. I figured I’d grab a Dallas Morning News to read over lunch, but they don’t sell any papers. What’s wrong with that picture???
After a quick feed I was able to secure a T-Mobile SIM on their ONE Plus plan, which when compared to Telstra’s piss poor 2GB roaming plan that only covers 3 of the 6 countries I’m visiting …….. and I have to manually configure my handset service and hope for the best each time, makes a mockery of Telstra’s “service”.
In using my Social Security # for the first time in over a decade, I was able to procure the unlimited 4G Voice, Text & Data plan that includes HD streaming, 20GB of high speed mobile hotspot data in 210+ countries & destinations, as well as unlimited in-flight data on Gogo-enabled flights to/from/within the U.S.
After trying to enter two similar looking black 2018 Nissan Versa sedans before finding my rental vehicle, I collected my freshly serviced camera gear and not wanting to get stuck in rush hour traffic, I headed back out on the “Thunderdome” raceway that is I-35.
On the way I thought I’d stop at the Bed, Bath & Beyond for a couple of items and in a first for me, all 6 of the bank cards I travel with were declined. You asking why I travel with so many cards – great question.
I travel with two wallets, which have a combination of two driver’s licenses, 3 debit and 3 credit cards, issued by 4 financial institutions, on both the Visa and MasterCard networks. I keep each wallet separate in case one goes missing and in doing so, hopefully eliminate being stuck without a cracker – on a weekend – in a foreign country, as what happened when I landed in Tahiti a few years ago.
It took 1½ hours to sort out – the transactions were not getting to my card providers, as the stores own banking system was declining the cards for no apparent reason. The best part was that I’d haggled them down on the original price for the items and then got another 20% off on the total cost for the inconvenience – win/win all round. I wonder if they’ll do the same deal for me if I replace my Calphalon cookware???
You might be astonished when.you get to Boise. The secret about how nice it is here got out. Population of the entire Treasure Valley is something like 710,000….Boise a quarter million. It comes with a lot of cool stuff and good food and restaurants but the infrastructure is totally scrambling to keep up and the housing crisis means that apartment complexes are being thrown up everywhere. The campus at Boise State is amazing in its changes, a lot of cool stuff happening…it/we’re on the map. Bring food and water for rush hour LOL