day 13 of 18, downingtown and a movie

Bonnie and I chose to do the Downingtown Volkkssport walk today because it is ending and we needed Chester county. Except we didn't. Valley Forge is in two counties. Oops. I only need Philadelphia county and the southeast is done. Now comes the hard part. That's about 10 of the 67 needed to finish the program. Most counties don't have sanctioned walks. Many will require an overnight stay.

Today's walk was pretty much a big figure eight. We signed in at a restaurant at a lifestyle mall. Then headed into town.

After going thru the business district, we reached the first house in the town, this little log cabin. If you look closely at the picture of us above, we would have to duck to go into it!

We turned at the cabin and entered a park, then followed the trail thru the park to the comfort station which was locked. Thankfully there was a job johnny (generous P3). We were headed back to the trail when we saw where it connected to the road, so we just went out to the road. We came out close to the lifestyle mall.  We passed the mall, turned right and picked up another trail, then turned around an came back to the restaurant.

As my readers know last April I had my first accident in nearly 30 years. Today I almost had two.  After the second one I literally had to pull my fingers off the steering wheel. I had a death grip. I'm all shaky again. The first one was right outside Downingtown. The bozo decided to turn onto the highway. To do this s/he had to cross over my lane. Bonnie screamed first. I braked and swerved. I nearly hit the cement.

Then on the way home we missed the turn for 100 and ended up in Phoenixville. We stayed on 113 to 29 and took 29 home. Our hour drive took two. On 29 things were looking fine until some young people decided that a stop sign was optional. Slow and roll I think it's called. Again screaming, braking,  and swerveing.

I was just getting my confidence back behind the wheel and it's gone again.

Then when I got home I sat in my desk chair and it broke. Clearly the gods are telling me something.

The broke chair and a lost disk resulted in a massive cleaning of my desk counter. I nearly forgot about scoobie movie night!

We went to the Banko at ArtsQuest and it was nice. $10, only one theatre, people were polite and over 16, and the popcorn was good.  (Over 60? only $8!) I made Bonnie take the picture.

Was the movie as good as the book? No. Was the movie good? Yes. Personally  don't think I would have finished the PCT.

And because I promised pictures everyday, below are the lights on First Avenue.

last car post. promise.

Yesterday Bonnie and I walked in Fountain Hill in the drizzle. Then I went car shopping. In a downpour.

I ended up buying a 2014 Ford Focus. Same car, different year. Between the accident and the new car my insurance bill shall skyrocket. Guess it's good I didn't buy healthcare. My budget will be on life support next year when that happens.

I still haven't heard from the insurance adjuster. I know they came and looked at the car. I found that out when I went for my plate at the tow truck garage. (My plate is the "save wildlife" original owl version. It's been retired. The new version is a river otter. Not nearly as cute.)

I had little time to research. I wanted to return the rental. It was sucking money out of my account. The storage fees for Aretha are also sucking out money. ($50/day!) I had found some 2014 used cars—my guess test drive cars with under 5k miles—but they were gone by the time I could get there. Daddy used to buy used cars and they were major headaches. Mama used to say "that you bought someone else's problems". So I went with new.

The new version has all kinds of screens, it even counts down your gas level.  It has built in hands free calling. The guy set it up before I left. I don't anticipate using it. I can't multi-task and drive. Even with full concentration, bozos run stop signs and I run into them.

Sorry camera is on it's way to Africa on vacation. My stuff is so well traveled.  I had to use my phone for the pix.

Today I'll be walking across campus for the benefits fair. More on that later. Lunchtime massage. Can't wait.

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Benefits Fair is next week. Oops. Went, nobody there.

walnutport's canal trail

Today Lydia and I walked in Walnutport. We parked at the Slatington Trailhead for the D&L and walked across the bridge to Walnutport.

Sometimes the D&L follows the canal. Other times, it follows the old railroad bed near the canal. That is what happens in Northampton and Slatington. So both Northampton and Walnutport have canal paths that follow the canal. Saltington also has what they call a slate heritage trail.

I've never done Walnutport's path before. It was nice. It's divided by Main Street, and runs north for about 1.5 miles, and south for maybe 2 miles. So all in all it is a 10K round trip.

We walked on the one side to the first lock, then turned around, crossed Main Street, and went down the other side. We went past another lock and the lock tenders house, a totem pole, a waterfall and some white ducks.

Now I've walked all three paths in that area. Today we did a little more than 3 miles.

Before I went to Lydia's, I stopped at the airport to return my rental car. I was planning on rerenting without the insurance to get the cost down.

Previously when I rented a car, I reserved, I researched, I planned ahead. Clearly I don't do well with emergency renting. I returned the car. When I checked it out they told me there was a chip in the windshield.  When the girl examined it there was scratches at two places on the bumper. I drove it from their lot home and back. I did not look at it before I drove away. Stupid. Clearly the over priced insurance paid off. I am responsible for the "damage".  The one set can be buffed out. The other there is paint removed. Now either my neighbors are horrible at parking, or that damage was there when I took the car. I think it was the later.

I returned the car, and re-rented it. With the "damage" clearly marked. I didn't want to take any insurance because at $55 a day it's expensive. But clearly it just saved my butt. Normally I tell them I'll use my personal insurance. But I have a super large claim in right now. I don't need more complications. So I just took the smallest amount they have. Just in case something else happens.

The crappy weekend continues.

not quite the plan

 An un-funny thing happened on the way to my walk on Friday. Meet Aretha. She was my car. Now she's going to the junk yard.

I picked up Bonnie as usual and we headed up to Betsy's. It was warm, bright and sunny. It was going to be a fun walk. The dogs were coming. We are headed out MLK drive an in an instant there was a dark car blocking the road. I didn't have enough time to stop.

I don't remember what happened between slamming on the breaks and the airbag exploding in my face. Boy did it stink. There was smoke everywhere.

Bonnie was the responsible one and got right on the telephone. Did you know you could dial 9-1-1 without unlocking it? It took a few minutes but I got my whits about me and called Betsy and the roomie.

Police arrive. Ambulances arrived. Stories were told. Tow trucks arrived. (Storage for my car is $50 day!)

I've been told that my car will be totaled. And I'll get less than 5K for it. Alan thinks about 2.5K Kelly Blue Book says a fair purchase prices is $6K. Bottom line a new Focus is about $17K. Used are about $12K. I'm pretty much screwed.

Plus I didn't get to walk.

Today we walked the Wegman's loop and then went shopping.  Lydia was interested in ways to make it longer, so I told her a couple. There were no animals out at the stables. Very odd indeed.

It was probably well over 10K steps. But I won't know. I forgot to put my FitBit on.

Afterwards I went for a rental car. The first place wasn't open. Then we went to the airport. I think the rates are higher there anyway. In hindsight the clerk gave me no prices up front. That wasn't right. But I was too stressed to think about it. I was not thinking clear and said yes to their insurance. I never do that. The insurance gives me $20 a day. My bill for 5 days was nearly $600. 

Tomorrow I'm taking the car back, and re-renting w/o insurance. The car rental is $208 for 5 days. The rest is the insurance. (That's an entire quarters payment for my regular insurance, plus some.) If they won't rent to me I'll go to the next place. I'm also going to look for a coupon. Then Lydia and I are walking the Walnutport canal path. Maybe I can also get to Bed Bath and Beyond for a CO2 canister for my soda stream.

Bubbles might help make up for a crappy weekend.