Margret Sloan

After driving across three states this past week, we got home safe and sound and tried to pick up from where we left off before the funeral. Hubby had a lot of work to catch up and, sadly, his assistant manager had a family emergency and needed to be off for several days, so that means hubby doesn’t get a day off for a couple of weeks.

Ironically, with all the driving we’ve done over the years and especially this past week, it’s here at home that hubby gets pulled over by the police. Ostensibly for not wearing a seatbelt, which is true – he just refuses to wear a seatbelt over any and all protests by me. But it’s the law here and they changed the enforcement provisions of the state law so that you can be stopped just for not wearing a seat belt. Up until they changed it, the seatbelt violation could only be a secondary reason to get a ticket.

So, the cop wants to see his driver’s license (no problem), the registration (no problem although the tags expire the end of this month and we need to get the emissions inspection done this week to renew the tags) and proof of insurance. Oops. Where is the insurance card? The one in the car expired last month and we haven’t received the new one in the mail yet. That’s a problem, since the cop wants to see the current card or hubby gets a ticket. Oh well. At least you can get the insurance squared away and have the ticket dismissed. If he had gotten a ticket for the seat belt violation then he would have no defense and would be paying for that ticket with cash, court costs and points on his license.

Today I have to call the insurance company today and find out where the new proof of insurance cards are. And I get voice mail. Sigh.

So, I’m online and checking for an auto insurance quote from different insurance companies because now I’m getting really annoyed with the lack of service from the current insurance agent. I found the ez-insuranceportal web site which is really convenient and helpful.

Most of the major insurance companies are represented on this portal site, so you can get quotes and compare the rates and coverages all at the same place. They have a “quick quote” tool that lets you put in a few important details and then the site comes back with quotes from these companies that everyone knows:

• Allstate
• MetLife
• Nationwide
• State Farm

And there’s quotes from lesser known companies that offer great rates, too. So now I’m ready to have a serious talk with my insurance agent when he calls me back. Now he’s going to have to defend the business with me and I’ll be ready to change if I have to. The premiums come right out of my checking account every month, so I’ll be real interested in why I didn’t get the new cards a month ago so we wouldn’t be dealing with a traffic ticket on top of everything else I have to worry about.

Here’s one last photo from the trip to Oklahoma that I wanted to share. Most of the gas stations sell more than gas, although it is almost impossible to find one that has an automatic car wash on the property. They just don’t waste money on washing cars out there.

The gas stations have a small convenience store and often a deli or cafe. some have tiny truck stops, which offer a shower, land line telephone, and a place to stretch out for a bit when you are too tired to keep driving. The land line phone is important because there is little or no cell phone service out there. You can drive for hours without any cell signal, even with AT&T “nationwide” service.

Several gas stations also service the farmer, who don’t have to pay some of the road taxes on gas and diesel for farm equipment. Also, farmers need other things, like antifreeze, propane, grease and hydraulic fluids. These are dispensed from pumps off to the side of the gas station at various prices per gallon, as shown in the photo, above.

Gas prices have kept going up and are over $4.00 a gallon now in the Franklin gas stations. Closer to my house it hovers around $3.89 per gallon. This is a huge increase over last year’s prices of around $2.39 – I remember freaking out that it was over $2.50 in San Francisco. Now I hear that is around $4.50 after just one year since I was last out there.

My sister was sweet enough to suggest that we get a cash back or gas rebate type of credit cards to help save a few extra cents off each gallon of gas that we buy. I hadn’t really thought of that and decided to look into it. I used the credit cards club website to read up on the gas rebate programs and find a good card to apply for online. Their top four card recommendations for gas rewards programs are all types of Discover Cards. The one that caught my eye says that you get a 5% rebate on all gasoline and auto maintenance purchases. If you paid for an oil change lately you will know that the cost of an oil change has gone up about the same rate as the cost of gasoline these past several months. So you save on oil changes and other auto related things beside just gas, and 5% is a nice little sum to put back into your wallet at the end of the day.

My brother called on Friday to tell me that he’d be riding in the Rolling Thunder this weekend. I saw last night on the news that they had a great turnout of motorcycles and parade viewers along the procession route in Washington DC, and that they even had the pleasure of President Bush come to the event. He was presented with an honorary leather jacket and although this is WAAAAAY out of his league, Bush seemed to be a good sport about the whole thing.

I have a girlfriend who decided to ride in Rolling Thunder this year, too. She has become quite the patriot since 9/11 and I hope she met some guys on the ride that opened her eyes and her mind to a totally different lifestyle from her little cocoon of a teacher’s life in suburbia that she’s enjoyed all these years. I can’t wait for her to call and tell me all about her biker experience.

So many people drive to work as a mindless exercise every day. They back out of their driveway and take the same route to work, sitting in rush hour traffic and stressing until they get to their office. The drive to work is a dull, boring routine.

I can’t do that. I’ll drive to work a different way at least 2 or 3 times each week. I really don’t like to do the same thing over and over. I like variety and I like to enjoy my drive to work – not just endure it. Every morning I see new flowers blooming, new pets in the yards, and new cars sharing the road with me. I love starting each day as a new adventure!