Last Saturday, while Rick was cleaning the motorcycle, he noticed that the front tire needed to be replaced; it was dried out and had several small cracks in it. Yesterday we drove to Indio, 13 miles away to an RV store to get some parts for our sewage hook-up here at the park and across the street was a motorcycle store. Even though the bike store sold mostly dirt bikes and ATV's, Rick took a chance that they would have the needed tire. Lo and behold, they not only carried the tire, but they had the best one on the market at a third of the price that we had expected to pay.

Since we arrived here, I have been trying to find the most economical way to communicate with family and friends in Canada by phone. Our Canadian cell phone plans are outrageously expensive ($70 each for 250 minutes) and the American counterparts are no better. A landline is just as costly; there is an installation fee of $88 US plus a monthly fee of $67 US plus tax if we want unlimited calls to Canada and the soonest they could hook us up is the middle of November. Today I finally found a broadband service offering unlimited calls anywhere in North America for $25 US that I had hoped would work well with the satellite dish. Unfortunately, the signal isn't as consistent as I had hoped and though we hear callers clearly, they don't hear us. However, as of Monday, we will have a cable broadband hook-up that will enable the phone to work like a landline for a total of $52 US (tax in) a month for the phone plan and cable with no installation fee and no yearly contract. It is frustrating in this modern age with all the technology out there, to have so much difficulty finding an inexpensive mode of communication.

This afternoon Rick removed the wheel of the bike, took it to the motorcycle store and had the new tire installed. We now will be able to ride safely and in a couple of days communicate by phone with folks in Canada. Gosh, don't you just love it when a plan comes together!?!