Off to Oregon....

8:31 am - Friday - May 19th - LPG&RVR - 63° F, 44% humidity, wind 2 mph out of the east by northeast.....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 86° F.  On this date in 2020 TLE and I were riding our bicycles along the Animas River in Durango, CO.....↴ 

We left on our two hour drive to Klamath Falls just before 9 am Thursday.  We've not been to Klamath Falls before, and have been told by everyone here at LPG&RVR that it is a nice town.  They do have a Walmart, and a Fred Meyers, plus many other major retailers, including a Verizon Store.  Why is a Verizon Store important to me on May 18, 2023?  Well, about a week ago I was taking a picture and noticed when I zoomed in on a subject the screen would turn white at about 3.6 X.  When I turned the phone (my, now, old Samsung S21 Ultra) over I noticed one of the lens was broken.  I didn't take a picture of the broken lens, but on my new S23 Ultra it is this one....

...at any rate I wanted to visit the Verizon Store to find out about filing an insurance claim (I had insurance on the S21), and find out my options...but I get ahead of myself.

We drove north on US-395 to Alturas where we transitioned to Highway 299 to Canby were we once again transitioned to Highway 139 north to Klamath Falls.  Traffic was light, and the drive was beautiful.  We arrived in Klamath Falls around 10:50 am where we made our first stop at the local Walmart.  TLE hasn't had a pedicure in a long time, so while I did some of the shopping, she stopped in at the nail salon to do just that....

....I think they came out rather well!

Anyway, it took about 30 minutes for the pedicure, then we finished shopping, and headed out to the car. As we were walking I spied a Verizon Store just across the parking lot, so we headed directly there.

Dakota, the very nice Verizon customer service rep, advised I could file a claim, pay the $100 deductible, and then wait for the insurer to send me a new/refurbished S21, or I could upgrade (I was eligible for an upgrade) for a few bucks more, and get a new Samsung S23 Ultra.  I've been through the insurance claim process before, which takes a few weeks, and then when you get the new phone you have to take it into a Verizon Store to get your info transferred from the old phone to the new one, which would mean another trip to Klamath Falls, or some other major city, all of which are 2-3 hours from LPG&RVR.  For me it was an easy decision....I took the upgrade.  In all it took about 30 minutes to get the process of transferring the info from the old S21 to the new S23, at which point we decided to go to lunch to give Dakota time to finish the process.

There is this cool micro brewery called The Falls Taphouse (5 stars on Yelp) about 2 miles away with alfresco dining.  They've got about 30 brews on tap, and while they do not serve food, there are three food trucks in the parking lot where you can order food.  We chose the 'Big Boy BBQ' truck.  TLE got their Crazy Pig Meal (pulled pork), and I their BCP, which was the same as TLE's but had bacon added.....both were delicious.....

.....for our brews I chose their 16 oz Peanut Butter Porter (#20), and TLE their 13 oz Vanilla Stout (#19), both of which were exceptional.....the perfect pairings for our food choices.....

The bar, where we sat, was situated between two large roll up garage doors, so it was almost like sitting outside....

....we ended up sitting inside as there were no umbrellas outside, and the sun was pretty intense....we are not direct sun light folks anymore....lol.  

After lunch we headed to Holiday Jewelers where I wanted to get a new battery for my large Nixon watch. While the watch guy was replacing the battery one of the small hands on the dial came loose, which meant it would need to be completely opened up to reattach the hand, so I ended up leaving it with them for a week to get that fixed.....we'll swing back through Klamath Falls on our way home from Redding next Thursday (smog check time) to pick it up.

Next up was a stop at Fred Meyers, and then back to the Verizon Store to pickup up my new S23 Ultra phone.  As luck would have it the phone was ready, and we were in and out in a few minutes....

....the drive back to Alturas was a breeze, with us arriving at the Holiday Market around 2:15 pm to buy another weeks supply of produce.  We didn't want to buy our produce in Oregon as that is the one thing the California port of entry folks ask about.  By the time we got back to LPG&RVR it was around 3:30 pm.

After putting away the groceries we headed out to the 'viewing deck' to consume our sunset beverages....we were still full from our big lunch, so there was no dinner.  Around 5:15 pm it began to sprinkle lightly so we headed over to the 'lower deck' to take shelter under the dining canopy.  The air was still balmy, so it was kind of cool to hear the rain on the dining canopy, but be sitting there in shorts and t-shirts after 5 pm.

Thanks for stopping by!