Thursday, July 10, 2014

Going Postal

One of the differences in living full time in an RV versus having a sticks and bricks house raised its ugly head recently...going to the post office.

Most people find that no big deal and that's because they know where their favorite post offices are located.  When you are always in a different place it can get a bit tricky.  Why you might ask, surely you know how to use a GPS.

Let me explain.  We needed to mail two larger envelopes and thus required postage purchased at the post office.  So, using our trusty GPS on the smartphone went to the closest one listed.  We were a bit concerned that there would be a post office out in the middle of nowhere, but we've been to some that are just a trailer in the middle of the desert, so we proceeded on our merry way.

The first "post office" ended up being a historical marker where one used to be.  Not going to help us today.  So I punched it in again and found the next closest one and we were off once more.

The second post office looked much more promising...until we saw the sign that said closed for lunch from noon to one.  It's 12:15.  Grrrrrr.  I want to get this chore over so we can do some geocaching!  Since we had to wait 45 minutes and our stomachs were grumbling a bit we found a Beef O'Brady's to have our favorite fish and chips meal.

Fed and ready to finish up our task and begin playing, Left Brain went in to mail the letters while I found the closest geocache.  He came back out in record time, but wait...why is he still holding the envelopes?  It seems that this post office will deliver packages and mail them, but sells no postage.  Huh?

Taking a deep cleansing breath I checked the GPS to see what was behind door number three and found a Super America.  Whaaat?  Oh well, we needed gas anyway, so off we went in search of this gas station/post office.

We pulled up to the pumps and he fed the car while I took my turn going inside with the envelopes from Hell.  Sure enough, back in the left corner of the store was a tiny little US Postal Station.  One of the clerks left the register and came around the desk to sell me postage.  Here in the most unlikely of spots we managed to finally affix postage to the envelopes and send them on their way.

Well now....the gas tank is full and the mission is accomplished, we've been freshly fed....it's time to play!  We headed off to the first cache shown on our "other GPS" (we really have too many of these things) in anticipation of scoring a mess of geocaches to our name.

What could be easier?  There was a park with a parking lot and we were out in a flash in pursuit of our victory.  After several weird readings (the compass was bouncing all over the place), and reaching into the bowels of many evergreen trees it suddenly started to sprinkle...then quickly turned to rain and thunder.  Where did that come from?  We dashed back to the car for shelter, our game was called off due to rain.

Since there was nothing else to do, we back pedaled to Walmart for some groceries and went home.  It's a good day for reading at least.  But we'll be back....those geocaches will be ours someday!

Long Live the Queen of Frustration

4 comments:

  1. weird post office policies in that place!

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  2. Well, your troubles have just begun ... if some politicians have their way, there will be no country Post Offices anywhere and you will have to drive to the nearest big city to mail a letter. Believe it or not, frustrating as it was, you were lucky to find what you found.

    So what do you do with a Geocache when you find one ... do you keep it, eat it, throw it away after marking somewhere that it is yours. I still don't get the game and it might be that, if you explained it at some point, my old poop brain has filed it in the circular file. But me and GPS are not good friends. I have two and my travel companion has one and we still get lost ... really? Well, the good news is that I have my Photoshop Friday picture ready already ... you want me to send it now or should I wait until next week? I took one look at Gracie and I knew just what to do with her ... So glad you restarted it, Queen of PSFriday. Now I will impatiently wait for your next prompt :)

    Andrea @ From the Sol

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  3. My week has been like this. I am about ready to cash it in. Frustration is sometimes just too much to deal with. I am glad yours ended on a good note!

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  4. Considering what it costs to mail a package these days, there should be more post offices, not fewer. I'm glad though, that your day ended on a positive note. I'm like Andrea, I don't understand what geocaching is and how it works. But it does sound like fun. I dropped my little fellow off at the new groomer about an hour ago, and I'm a nervous wreck! Can't wait for the next hour to fly by so I can go back and pick him up. You have a wonderful weekend, hugs, Edna B.

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