Yesterday, while I was talking to the Dirt Guys, I got a call from the folks at Bear Lodge. They were getting back to me, responding to my call to them to let them know I had no water and the porch light, the kitchen light and the TV were not working. They advised that they were trying to address the issues but the water line to all the cabins was broken and they wouldn’t be able to fix it today. So no water, no shower and I can’t use the toilet. Great.
I went to the only restaurant in the area that I know of, the Old Fashioned Family Restaurant in Princeton, for dinner last night. I had a great breakfast there on my first trip up to the cabin. Apparently breakfasts are what they do well. Dinner? Not so much. But it was something hot to eat so it worked out fine. They were very nice, even if the food wasn’t.
So the plan for today is to get the large tool chest over from the mainland to the cabin, work on the solar panels, and get things better organized. I got the shed cleared out yesterday and many of the things that I had thrown into the cabin at the end of the last trip, out of the cabin and into the shed. The stuff I took out of the shed is piled next to the cabin with a tarp over it. Hopefully, it will be fine there until the next trip up and I can take it to the dump.
The truck charge is already down to the point where I will need to charge it again in Calais before heading back to Bangor. Not happy with the electric pickup.
So I got the big tool chest one to the cabin. The solar panels and battery are still not working as well as I hoped but that will have to wait for the next trip to address farther. Bummer. I stopped by the Waite General Store to see about the postal box. Turns out, because my main purpose was to have them accept packages on my behalf, that I don’t need a postal box and I just pay $2 /package for them to accept and hold the package for me. That works.
I headed back down to Calais and the car dealership to charge the truck before heading back to Bangor. Another 45 minute charge session and I was ready to go. I got back to the Bangor airport about 4:00. The truck was not due back until 5:00. No one is in the return lot to check me back in. Finally track someone down and they tell me to just park the truck and take the key in to the counter. I do and the guy at the counter just tells me to put the key in the key drop. He doesn’t need any info. Around this time I get a text from Avis saying I can process the vehicle return in the Avis app. That sounds good, but when I click the text link and go to the app I cannot find any way to process the return. So I get the hotel shuttle back to my hotel and call Avis customer support. I explain that I am trying to process a vehicle return on the app but cannot find where I can to that. He informs me that they have a different system than the app and he cannot help me. He told me just to wait 2 days and the return should be processed. Not real helpful. So shortly after that, around 5:00, I get another text saying I can process the return on the app. I click the link in the text and this time I have an option to process the return of the vehicle. Great, I think. I click the ‘process return’ button and it says they cannot process the return because I am not at the airport. So, all in all, not the best customer experience at Avis. It all worked out OK though. A little after 6:00 I get a text saying that my return has been processed, presumably by the Avis counter when they went through the keys in the key drop. I get an email survey request from Avis asking about the rental. I explained what had transpired and thought that was the end of it. I got a follow-up a couple days later and they are crediting my bill $175 for my trouble, so that was nice. Thanks Avis. In case you were thinking that $175 seems like a lot to credit the bill, the rental cost to rent a vehicle in Bangor is very high. The cost to rent the truck (and the difference between a truck and a regular car was not that much) for 2 days was more than my whole round-trip airfare from NC to ME and back. Crazy high.
All in all, the trip was successful. The new road into the camp is looking good, I got some things done at the camp, met some interesting people and saw a fantastic northern lights show. It was a good few days.