Honor System Check In

Some of the National Forests and Army Corp of Engineers recreation areas are understaffed.  That’s when the honor system takes over.  We goofed when picking out, and paying for a site at Sherando.  We did the discount correctly but omitted the additional $6.00 for electric cost.  The following morning a camp host stopped at our site to square up our fee. I introduced ourselves, “Hi, we are Deb and Dan.” His response was, “I’m staff.”  I found it odd that he didn’t want to be known.  We talked a little about the back-story of why “The Staff’s” AKA.  It’s sad when a person is compelled to be mysterious.

Sherando National Forest is towards the northern end of the Blue Ridge Parkway (BRP).  It seems everyone has heard of the BRP, but not so much of Skyline Drive.  The drive runs 105 miles north and south along the crest of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Shenandoah National Park, and is the only public road through the Shenandoah National Park.  There is a fee to drive it.  It does have more scenic pull offs than the BRP.  It’s a great drive, the speed limit on the Skyway is 35 MPH. so if you want to make tracks, one needs to get onto interstate 95.

Click here for Skyline Drive information

Major Purchasing Decision

I-phone storage, apps, gigs, cell tower reception, also seem to be old people mysterious.  Deb’s phone had been functioning poorly for the last three months.  I gave up on attempting to find another used one on Craigslist, or purchasing a refurbished one on Amazon and having it delivered to a Wal-Mart store, which can be done.  Unfortunate Amazon Prime two-day deliver doesn’t apply to refurbished phones.  I called the closest T-mobile store in Staunton, VA and Zack suggested I take Deb’s phone to Charlottesville and talk to a certified Apple geek store.  They downloaded, uploaded, tweaked, geeked, and freaked for two hours; the estimated fix time was twenty minuets.  We had a nice lunch next door during our wait time.

Two days later we drove to Staunton, and purchased a new phone.  Zach and Amy happened to be “On Staff” that day.   I explained how we were on the run, and tried to buy a burner phone off of Craigslist or Amazon, which didn’t work out.  Now we are willing to pay cash for a new phone.  Amy was expecting to see a suitcase full of money.  It was all great fun.

Amy did a super job setting up Deb with what she needed.  Zack was wonderful helping us try to save our old iphone at minimal cost.  Which helped in making our purchasing decision at that T-mobile store.