TravellingStrom

Tuesday – Salt Lake City

Well, of all things to happen I got woken up by my parents about 5.30am. The rest of the household were awake anyway, but were a bit concerned by a phone call out of hours, it is usually not good news, but this time it was good news, well sort of 🙂

OK, now I am going to have to bore you with finance, (you can skip this bit, just scroll down to the first picture, or there about) :).

OK, finance stuff, specifically, Commonwealth Bank Netbank security and how they manage your funds. If anyone else decides to go overseas with this system in place, pay attention now!! With my bank, I have a number of accounts and I can transfer online between them, I can also pay bills online using Bpay etc etc. Everyone knows that. But, there is a secure system in place which you nominate to use, which I did a few years back which confirms specific transactions. So, if I want to pay bills etc using online banking, before I can proceed I click on a button called “Get SMS net code”, this then sends an SMS text message to my mobile phone within seconds which I open and use the numerical code in the message to fill in the appropriate place on the web page, then click ‘confirm’, it then takes me to the next page and I can continue from there.

That is all well and good. Now, for me to transfer funds to my Travelex Cash Passport card, which I bought to use over here, I use Bpay and the biller code for Travelex and the cards account number. Great, except for one thing, I cannot get an SMS code because my mobile phone does not work over here and I did not set it up for international roaming, for cost reasons! 😦 This means I cannot get access to my funds. Bored yet? Nearly finished with this bit, so the next step is to try and contact the bank, but the only number is 132221, which for some reason will NOT work from an overseas phone. 😦
That was what the phone call was about, I had emailed my parents asking if they could find a normal office phone number for me to call, which they did do and phoned as a follow up, just with a slight time zone confusion 🙂

No harm done, all I had to do was check my email and start phoning them numbers, but as it was still dark here in the US and out of business hours in Oz, I went back to bed for an hour or so 🙂 There, finished, or so I thought. After waking the second time a lot later I checked email and found two 1800 numbers to call, but no normal phone numbers, no worries, I would give them a go later on this afternoon when the banks open in Oz.

OK, that was done for the day, now to work. I had bought some PVC pipe to make some more storage tubes, now to see how to fit them to the bike, no paint required, they were allready black. In the end, with the Happy Trails rack system, it was easy, just use the large hose clamps I bought 🙂 On the right hand side I only had space for a 17” tube because of the exhaust.

The other side I managed to get a 22 inch tube in, then I used the side reflectors off the licence plate holder and screwed them in the end caps 🙂 The right hand side looks a tad lop sided, but who cares.

A little while later on we got a visit from a couple of Mormon chaps who are on a mission. Apparently they do this mission for two years away from home and have only a couple of contacts with their family a year, usually Mothers day and Xmas phone calls, but they can write a letter once a week. Anyway, these two blokes had no chance of converting me as I am an antagonist atheist and believe in science not faith 🙂 But we had a good chat anyway 🙂

After a bit of lunch I headed out back over town, I wanted to check out the Tent Man, as he only opens s few days a week. I found the place and the sign said open, but no answer, even when I phoned, I got message bank, so I left my number. It is great having a phone again 🙂 Then I only got lost once trying to find the Honda Suzuki shop. I happened to see a group of blokes leaving their work and I asked one of the Harley riders for directions, he said he had nothing better to do so he took me there, his name is Brian from Oregon, great bloke, but then most bikers are friendly to each other. Thanks again m8 🙂

So, I checked to see if the hand guards had come in but no luck yet. I checked out an OEM top box, but it would not fit my Rjays rack plate and for some reason they did not have a plate to suit the top box? The sales guy was annoyed by that as well. Never mind. I ended up getting a call back from the Tent people, apparently a family emergency called them away, so I would try again tomorrow.

So, back to the house empty handed, but I had some things to be going on with, and of course it was nearly 5pm, which is 10am in Australia so the banks should be open. So, I tried to phone the numbers given, but no luck at all, both 1800 numbers came through as invalid 😦 Anyway, to cut a long story short, my parents did a shuttle back and forth to the local Commonwealth bank and finally I was given the following instructions.

The only way to cancel the netbank SMS confirmation message from overseas is to fax some details to a commbank officer who would then call me at a time nominated by me. So, I wrote out the details they required, printed that and a copy of my passport and nominated between 10am-2pm Queensland time, which would be between 5-9pm for me. All I had to do was find a fax machine, which turned out very easy as Bev said she would take it to work and fax it for me in the morning, excellent 🙂

A relaxing evening with another top dinner, Ken mentioned that one of his work mates, John, had an old tent and would I like it no cost involved? I said sure, let me look at it and see if it fits the bill, so he will bring it back in the morning, cool and I even read a book for the first time since landing 🙂

Day – 31miles, and 50km
Trip – 855miles, and 1,417km

Cheers
TravellingStrom

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