A Montana fire camp in the early morning

My truck goes in next Monday for repairs. I am so glad – it will be nice to have it fixed & looking new again plus it has really sucked driving around with a constant chime letting me know my hood is not latched properly. Turning off my hearing aids sucks but I cannot take that persistent noise for long.

I ended up with a good deal today on a rental car for when my truck is in the body shop. I first checked through Costco Travel – a good tip that most travelers use for finding the lowest rental prices. I then called the body shop to see about getting a ride and they said yes. She then told me about one of the rental companies doing a “body shop rate” so I gave them a call and wow…it was nearly half the price of Costco Travel. I imagine that paying for it myself instead of using insurance helped get that price so low, plus tourists don’t usually visit a body shop too much on vacation so I am more “local”. I got a lucky break, but I WILL be changing my insurance to cover rental cars in the future in three days.

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I used to use my personal auto insurance for rental coverage, but one of my travel credit cards (Cap One Venture X) has free primary insurance coverage for car rentals. This is my first time using this perk and will be using it from now on. I pay a hefty annual fee for this card but it has enough perks and freebies that it pays for itself easily and without much effort. This save quite a bit more money as well plus it is one of many perks that I get when I pay an annual fee.

I also use the card for access to airport lounges. My Chase Sapphire Preferred card will get me into their branded lounges, but the Venture X gets gives me free Priority Pass membership and that gets me into most lounges in most airports. Lounge access is a nice perk to have – you can get food, drinks, and get away from the noise and commotion of an international airport. Some even have showers! Having two of the top travel cards is nice, but it can get confusing trying to figure out where & when to use which one. Chase has a smaller annual fee, but the Venture X has more valuable perks; each card complements the other.

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The weather is finally cooling off for a bit but for a few days the smoke keot me inside with the windows shut until last night. No rain in the forseeable future and the fires are just raging and getting worse. I have lived in forested areas for most of the last 30 years and have not seen it this bad.

Here is a screenshot from the Watch Duty app:

As you can see this is a pretty ominous-looking map. I could not get the eastern US in the screenshot, but there’s plenty going on there too, although the West is much worse off. Don’t forget, Canada is also having major fires and evacuations as well but they are not on this map for some reason. If you live in a place where this would be of use, I suggest downloading the Watch Duty app as it has a lot of info on not only fires but on floods. Find an incident, click on it, and you get all the current and historical info. It is free, but they do have a donation page or you can upgrade to get live air support tracking if you are nerdy like that.

Sending good thoughts to those affected by all these fires worldwide and also to all of the badass fire crews who are out there risking it every day.

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I was able to get outside quite a bit this morning and the dogs were going nuts with joy. The smoke has subsided quite a bit and the humidity is up while temperatures are down. I needed to look at a few things on my truck I have needed to check since I really have not had a chance to really read the manual or adjust many settings. I got in a walk this evening and it had cooled off so much that had to put on a hoody. there was also a little wind cooliing it off even more. I even have the windows shut so it stays a bit warmer inside. Tomorrow is supposed to be windy but I am going to go unload a few things out of my truck and into storage before it goes under the knife on Monday. A slight chance of rain tomorrow but it is becoming slighter as I type.

It has really felt good to have cooler temperatures and to be able get outside more finally. I am not used to being inside so much and this really blows. I know it is not good for my health so I get in a lot of walking doing stuff inside and getting quite a bit of some personal business taken care of and off my to-do list. Barefoot in the fresh-cut grass in the sunshine was pretty nice today. I got my Montana State Park Pass in the mail so I am going to be using it hopefully soon – as long as the air is fairly clear I will be okay – just not smoky like being at a concert in the 70s (oh you youngsters that missed out on all of that…so unfortunate!). It will be a few weeks at the earliest that I can get the trailer out so maybe it will get better at the lower elevations and I can walk along the lake again. Up higher the air is clearer but also a chance of bears and I don’t really want to have that with my hearing issues while hiking alone.

I think I will get my e-bike out of storage while I am there tomorrow and get it in for repairs. I can ride it for local errands and not have to drive. I can use “pedal assist” to help with the hills but still be pedaling. The gear that moves the chain for the shifting bent over in half and I have no idea or the tools or the patience to do it myself. Best left to the pros.

But, I also am thinking of selling it. It is a folding bike so it sits really high with tiny wheels. My balance also sucks and that doesn’t help me in riding this bike. It does go fast though! I will give it a try again and maybe it will be better. And no…I will not be installing training wheels. I know a couple of you and you are probably thinking that. I’ll just buy a three-wheeled bike.

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That’s it for this post. See you next time.

Shawn