TravellingStrom

Monday – Williston, North Dakota

Today was all about up,down,up,down, my mood I mean, happy, sad, depressed, relieved, happy again 🙂

It was a totally frustrating day today, first off it was freezing cold and raining when I woke up, yuck!! I decided to stay another night and get the GPS thing sorted out. It looked like it was going to take all day to do anyway.

I was nearly right, the download got going and it kept saying about 3 hours, it was moving but it never wavered from about 3 hours total time left! I was trying to do a few other things as well, but if I used the net, it slowed down even further. I did manage to have a good chat with Peter, my friend from home using GoogleTalk, so that was excellent, nice to chat with you Pete. In the mid afternoon, I gave up on the download, it had timed out a few times 😦 I had checked the motel, but they could not provide a LAN cable connection, so I grabbed the local phone book and picked a computer company in town, they said that yes, they could find me a position. So armed with some simple directions, I ended up meeting Rex and Linda Byerly and they got me sorted out quick smart 🙂

The connection was fast, and when I connected my TomTom, it seemed to resume the transfer and it was soon finished and installing the maps onto the blank SD card I had put in, great stuff. While that was happening I shall diverge and explain about another annoying thing that happened today.

It was Monday, so as I had heard nothing from Chad at AdventureMoto Stuff I decided to call them. I had given them my measurements for some heated pants and socks a week ago, just when I left Cody, Wyoming and before I entered Yellowstone NP. The idea being, I am a few weeks away from entering the cold north, so give them time to make them. So, I called, Chad was away crook, so I spoke to Nick, he said there is nothing on the system, and said he would call back when he finds out the result. Well, F&^% me Roan, Chad told him he needs further measurements, well WTF he had my email address and my phone number and DID NOTHING!!! So, of course nothing was done and I am extremely annoyed with them because of it. During today, Nick did try and find some stuff out, but basically they gave me an address in bloody Alaska to get some pants. Well, I wanted the stuff before heading up there, not after. Needless to say, I was pissed off, and surprised as well, because they were so helpful last time I dealt with them.

Back to the computer shop story, this is where I had made the return phone call to Chad’s shop, well Rex really tried to help me here as well. He finally located a place in Regina, just over the border where they had some small, medium and large heated pant liners in stock, they had never heard of taking measurements, just try them on. So, that is what I will do tomorrow when I get into Canada.

Meanwhile, another downer, the maps installed fine, but they are the same bloody maps as I just deleted, I wasted a whole day, plus the room charge etc for absolutely nothing 😦 😦 😦 I could not be happier with the effort put in by Rex and Linda, they were very helpful. All I can do now is wait until 10am Sydney time and call TomTom again, to see what can be sorted out, in about 4 hours. Rex and Linda said no worries, or words to that effect, I could use their connection again tomorrow if need be.

Thanks very much, it was nice meeting you and you were a great help to a distressed traveller 🙂 The bonus part, and a happy part, is that Linda helped me with a few very annoying Vista OS bugs that had been ‘bugging’ me for over a year(pun intended). I now have my Explorer at maximum screen size when opened and pointed at C: not my documents, I have all my folders in ‘detail’ view when they are opened as well. That was worth the big hug I gave Linda 🙂 Don’t forget, Byerly Computers in Williston for all your needs, I can recommend them 🙂 Mind you, I did find out later, by doing a ‘clean registry fix’ it took out all my registrations for all my installed programs, so I got the nag screens saying register, lucky I do not throw that stuff away and it was easy to fix them later 🙂

What to do, what to do, well as any normal red blooded Aussie will do, repair to the bar and wait for opening time in Oz. Well, I was lucky, because while I was back at the room, I thought I would try and call TomTom support at 9am, just to see if they were open and blow me down, yes they were 🙂 I even spoke to the same guy Wahid, he had just received my email explaining the failure, after a bit of discussion he said he would go see his boss and see what he can do. He would send me an email in a few hours. Hmm, off to the bar I go, which happens to be inside the hotel. I only had crap beer called Budweiser, but there was a show called Wheel of Fortune on TV, apparently if you guess the phrases, before they are shown, you win a free drink 🙂 I won a few drinks 🙂 After an hour or so, I went back to the room for a check of emails and Wahid had come through with the goods. His boss also was of the opinion, that I had purchased the Canada maps in good faith, so they authorised me to download for free, the Canada/Alaska map set 🙂 It was only 260MB, so as I had bought another universal power adaptor, I could use AC power for the laptop and the TomTom together, so I left it to download while I went back to watching the baseball in the bar, while meeting a few people.

That is Joe and then Debbie the bar girl(who was very camera shy, I had to sneak a few of her ). I chatted with Joe for a fair while, also a young bloke called Colter, it was his 22nd birthday, but no photo. It was another late evening, I was not drinking all that much, I really wanted to get into Canada tomorrow, well Debbie mentioned a few things including the fact the Canadian border people have different rules and it may not be that easy, well, how freaking true was that, by crikey what a nightmare tomorrow was!!! More on that tomorrow, but for now, when I got back to the room, the download had completed and installed and I now had Canadian maps on the GPS, you little ripper 🙂 At this time I also found my parents online, so we ended up chatting for quite a while, it was gone 3am by the time I hit the sack, but I was not drunk, just tired, that Bud beer is weak as cats piss, it just bloats you!

Day 6 miles and 10 km
Trip – 24,336 miles and 39,165 km

Cheers
TravellingStrom

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