America One Spoke At a Time: The Day the Phone Went Wonky

Bad Medicine Sign

After a day of recovery, Jay was sufficiently recovered from his sore biker “bum” to get back on the road. He had a short 45 mile ride from our Sam Owen US Forest Service campground near East Hope, ID to Bad Medicine Campground, about 20 miles south of Libby, MT.

Before pedaling out of camp Jay shouted to Helen, “See ya in Montana!” The soaring climbs of Washington State Northern Cascade Mountains have been replaced with roads of gently rolling hills. The landscape includes

Montana Cabinet Mountains in Background
click to enlarge

long open fields held in what can only be described as the embrace of beautiful distant snow capped mountains. Our first experience with Montana has been perfect…well almost perfect.

When Jay rolled into our Bad Medicine campsite, a dark cloud let loose buckets of water. We scrambled to set up our garage (tent extension) and hang a tarp over the picnic table. Unfortunately, the rain claimed the last bit of working life in Jay’s phone.

The phone had shown some earlier signs of not operating properly. It appears our Montana rain shower finished off the phone. Now what?

Rain was predicted for the day, so we decided to head to Libby, MT in search of a Verizon store. What are the chances in a 147,00 sq. mile state with barely 1M people that a Verizon store would be a short drive from our forested campsite. Well...bingo!

Helen Completing Her Application
Standing a Salad Bar in Restaurant

The Verizon store did not open until 10am, so we had a nice breakfast at the Antlers Restaurant. Helen needed to complete an application for her bid to be on our church’s ministerial search committee. With only limited battery power left on our computer, our server offered an outlet near the not yet in-use lunch salad bar. When you’re on the road, you do want you must.

After breakfast we headed to the Verizon store. Chase was behind the counter and clearly was on top of his job. He and Jay chatted. Both former Marines, both did boot camp at Parris Island, SC, both spent time in Okinawa. Semper fi…things are going to work out.

After close examination, Chase declared that Jay’s phone was “wonky.” Jay agreed. After reviewing new phone options, Chase pointed out that we had an old Verizon voice/data plan. With a few clicks, he updated our plan. Now even with a new $20 24-month charge for a Jay’s new phone, we pay less per month than before. A silver lining in the otherwise dark clouds that fill our big Montana sky.

We will head back to our Bad Medicine campground for this evening. Biking riding back to Libby, MT and a new campground will resume tomorrow.

More Photos