Just hung around and chatted for the morning, and Ruth did a bunch of laundry and got the fridge cleaned and made some enchiladas for lunch for the four of us.
While she was doing all of that, I was cleaning Sherman's awning.
At the RV show on Sunday, I had bought some spray awing cleaner. I knew from my RV parts department days that this was a good product. You spray it on both sides of the awning, roll it up for an hour, and then rinse off.
Sounds easy, but some areas did take some scrubbing! I admit that it has needed cleaning for quite some time.
And, I was not impressed that the awning material is beginning to deteriorate already. I replaced the awning fabric in February 2015, and it's supposed to have a five year guarantee. That's all fine and dandy, but I would still need to do the job to replace it again!
I'll leave it for now, and see how it survives the winter in Mexico. My guess is that it will really need to be replaced next spring.
Got ourselves ready to head to the airport at around 6:30pm. Bernd and Angelika had graciously offered to drive us to Abbotsford Airport, a distance of about 40 kms (25 miles). Our flight didn't leave until 10:45pm, but this way they could do the drive during daylight hours.
Our flight with Fly Swoop was fine. Nothing special, just basic transportation from Abbotsford to Hamilton. This is essentially the Vancouver to Toronto route, but by using the smaller outlying airports the taxes are much lower. In fact, we had bought the tickets on the first day they started selling them back in February, and the final total price was $43 CAD ($35 USD) per person return. Essentially, it was a zero fare, with paying only the taxes and fees.
And then we added on a $26 each way baggage check ticket.
The flight was fine, until about an hour from destination there was a medical emergency of some kind... a woman had passed out and they came on the intercom asking if there was a doctor on board... and there was!
Don't know what the story was, but there was an ambulance waiting when we landed and they got her onto a stretcher and off the plane before anybody else could disembark.
We had a car rental booked for 8:00am, and the rental place was 4 kms (2.5 miles) away from the airport. Yes, I could have rented a car at the airport itself, but they wanted $200 more for the three week rental. For that price, I could walk the 4 kms (2.5 miles).
And I did.
Got to the car rental place, and pulled out my credit card for the deposit... and it was declined!
Long story short, two days ago I had requested a replacement card. This one was going to expire at the end of this month, and the new one had already been sent to our address in Saskatchewan. But obviously we weren't going to be back there to get it in time, and I had asked that a new one be sent to the branch in Ottawa where I could pick it up. The girl said she would cancel the other card.
But in the process, it cancelled the card I had in my wallet. I expected it would still be valid until the end of the month, and she didn't tell me otherwise.
So I was pretty upset. Imagine if that were the only card I had and there was no way to rent the car!
Anyhow, I complained about the situation, and they gave me 2,000 travel rewards points in compensation. Not much, but at least they understood why I was frustrated. I'm fine with that, and hopefully the same problem won't happen to someone else. I realize it's a bit of an odd situation, but it could really leave someone stranded.
Fortunately, I had a backup card from another bank.
Our 2018 VW Golf rental car for the next three weeks.
Pretty tired as I write this at 11:30am eastern time. Hardly any sleep on the red eye flight overnight, plus a three hour time change.
I think we may have to have a nap this afternoon!
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Nice price drop on the big 8 qt Instant Pot!
And in Canada...
I'm impressed that you can manage to write anything with so little sleep. Happy napping.
ReplyDeleteIt is surprising the amount of abuse a body can take sometimes! ;-) We both had a small nap in the afternoon and a good sleep last night though.
DeleteWhile traveling in Mexico, I tried to pay with cash i.e. pesos but was told they take nothing but credit cards. Huh? I hadn't planned on using a credit card. Luckily my sister and niece were to meet us mid week in Mexico so I asked my daughter to deliver a credit card to my sister who would bring the card to me. Some restaurants and shops do take pesos so I spent the $200 by end of two weeks. Wow, love how everything is so reasonable in Mexico. We took turns buy drinks and lunch without too much damage to our wallets :-)
ReplyDeleteI don't know where you were traveling in Mexico because we have traveled all over the country and we have never been refused to pay with pesos unless you go to a "tourist" place that asks for US dollars and even then they would just convert over to pesos. In fact it has been our experience that Mexico is still in fact very much a cash society unless you go to some of the big grocery stores, hotels, gas stations, etc. We would never go traveling anywhere in the world without having a credit card on us.
DeleteNice wheels. Get some rest. Glad you are both safe in Ontario again. Enjoy your visit.
ReplyDeleteWe like our nice little rental car! :-)
DeleteWe are already enjoying our family time, thank you.
Credit Card - We had the same thing happen to us this spring, and we were in Greece when it happened. We feel your frustration.
ReplyDeleteI hope you were lucky enough to have an extra credit card on you whenever it happened, otherwise that would make it even worse. :-(
DeleteNice that you got things straightened out with the car, And welcome back to Ontario.
ReplyDeleteOut Original awning was acrylic and last 19 years, with no issues , more expensive yes but worth the money . Our replacement awning acrylic, after the storm took it out is wonderful Will never have a vinyl awning again.
Yes, I should have bought a better quality one. Sometimes I am too cheap! Our original awning also lasted 19 years or so.
DeleteSometimes you get what you pay for.
DeleteAnd even then, sometimes you don't. With a five year guarantee, I would have thought it would have lasted longer than three and a half!
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