We've had many a slow day here in KC other than our weekly rides out and about on the motor cycles...
Laast Tuesday we traveled up to Platt City, a town North of the KCI airport.... Its about 40 miles up there but mostly on the beltway interstate, so it went really rapidly.... We arrived ahead of most of the crew at about 9:30 but even then there is always several guys that are already done eating....
That day was really hot!! We kept seeing 103 and hotter numbers on the motorcycle dash thermometers... When we came back into the city, following cars at 30 mph about killed us off.... Stopping at the traffic lights was hottest of all....
But then on Wednesday it cooled down as a rain front came thru overnight... Still it was 87 that afternoon, but that seemed so much better..... The trip that day was over West to Topeka and then North to a small community about 20 miles North on US 75... Mayetta, Ks... I had to go look on the map for that name...
The place was just a main street of old buildings which were mostly vacant... The restaurant was an older storefront as well, but had been cleaned up a bunch inside.... They had advertised fried chicken, but didn't have any... Seems that they didn't understand or perhaps believe that we were going to bring 50 people to their little town..
They only had 4 people in the entire restaurant, and simply couldn't stop long enough to fry any chicken.... I had a burger and chips with a diet coke.... Kind of hard to mess that up... But even then we waited a long time... But we were gabbing it up with a long table pulled up on the end of a 4 person booth... Lots of BS...
On the way back, we struck out cross country trying to make the next North South highway and get out of going thru Topeka... But every road we tried turned to rocky gravel.... We turned around three different times.. If you get on deep gravel, you can't keep the bikes upright, so you don't take that chance...
Eventually we ended up back in the East end of Topeka but did miss most of the town... Next we were at a Burger King in Lawrence for their 99 cent ice cream cones..... I didn't get back until 4 PM that day....
Oh, I did get a new cell phone.... A Samsung Galaxy S5... My old phone had been wet a couple of times and was beginning to run its battery down in only a few hours.. The new phone turned out to be a fiasco... I had to beg and plead for an early upgrade as I had 5 months left on the old contract... There is no more graduated buy out of the contracts... They wanted $350 to buy my way out or I could purchase a new phone for $599...
They would finance it over 20 months for $30 per month... But the phone service bill would be the same.. plus the 30.... Or go up 30 depending on how you look at it... Not a deal, anyway...
I finally got another customer service gal on the phone and she got a waiver from corporate for my old contract. Then she had me lined up for a $99 new phone... That was the new subscriber price.... I thought I had cut a heck of a deal and signed the new two year contract...
But a couple of hours later, I received a confirmation that the good deal price was now $300 for the upgrade.... That meant I spent a lot more time talking to them trying to get it back down... I finally got a $75 credit to my bill for accessories and $10 per month off of my data plan for another year... And even those numbers aren't proven out yet until I get the bill to see what they actually charged me..
If it works, I may still have a good deal, but it will take a long time to realize it.. And I still have to pay the $300 right now... But that is half of the $599 outright price... They have you coming and going... At least the new phone is nice..
This is getting too long, perhaps I can tell you about the phone next time...
Retired Rod
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I can just imagine how hot it would be in traffic on a motorcycle. I think it is outrageous that you are charged so much for a new phone. I like my cellphone (Jitterbug) but if they ever treated me like that I'd just get rid of the cell and go back to a land line only. I think we are brainwashed into thinking we have to have constant contact, when in fact we got along many years without it.
ReplyDeleteGlad to see that not only in Canada they dig deep into your pockets for a new phone except they dig a little deeper on this side of the border. Glad to read you are enjoying your outings.
ReplyDeleteJim's phone is acting up but we're hoping it lasts until next March when it's upgrade time. Fingers crossed. I think the only thing I can say is that at least you're not riding in Phoenix traffic in 116 degrees.
ReplyDeleteIf you are with a service that still uses SIM cards (AT&T) you can buy a nice phone from Chinavasion.com and just put the phone services's SIM in it. I did that to have a phone in Honduras, where the phones are cheap but stop working after a few months as well. I got a nice smart phone, and it worked just fine when I came back to the States on AT&T. I have since changed to Consumer Cellular which is lots cheaper/mo. for my level of usage and the phone works fine on their SIM card as well. Mom went to, I think, Walmart and bought a cheap not smart phone, and it works fine with Consumer Cellular's SIM as well. You don't have to buy your phone from the cell company, except in some specific cases. Not all the stuff on my smart phone works the way it would if it was tweeked for the specific cell company, but it works well enough for me.
ReplyDeleteI purchased a smartphone approx 2 years ago. I was going to purchase a Samsung Galaxy but I let me friend talk me into getting a Iphone. I will be upgrading soon....I definitely planon purchasing a Samsung phone. Do you like your new phone?
ReplyDeleteBrenda must be talking about cell phones in Alberta because here in BC we have graduated pricing for contract buyouts. I just got a new iPhone 5S not long ago for only $120 and an iPhone 4S for Paulette for free (with 2yr contracts of course).
ReplyDeleteIn general though, they are all crooks.