2009-03-26 My BlackBerry did not make a full recovery. After the hair dryer, distilled water, rice and a stint next to my laptop's exhaust fan, most functionality returned, but the screen remained dead. So I decided to take advantage of the insurance premium I pay. It's real simple: You call their number where you have to provide the same information multiple times before talking to a lady who asks for more information before being passed to a second lady who describes the remaining steps. Then you have to find and photocopy proof of purchase, your latest bill and your driver's license. How many of those do you think I have with me? Then you have to download a document from their website, fill it out and get it notarized. That was a new experience. You bundle the whole thing up, and mail it to Missouri where, upon receipt, they will review and respond within 48 hours. A replacement phone is then sent out, and you then return the broken one. And you are billed a big fat deductible. Of course I am both traveling and working, so in order to not be without a phone for at least a week, I purchased a new one (big bucks). Assuming I don't break the new phone, I have thirty days to return it for almost a full refund. I also changed out some of my gear and so had a big box ready to mail home. I brought the box and insurance papers to a post office near the court house (notarized?). The post office label printer was out of tape. The old ladies running the place couldn't contemplate any other manual method of marking my packages (I offered several suggestions), and so I left frustrated with that big box strapped to my bike. The second post office I managed to reach was a distribution center of sorts and didn't handle "retail". Finally, I found a little post office in the back of a card shop. Before unloading my bike yet again I asked the guy at the counter if he could ship my box. His look was quite incredulous, as if to say, "this is a post office; of course we can ship your box." One thing that went right: I used up all of my first-aid duct tape (think about it) on my box. Almost immediately, I found a replacement roll along the road (Road swag!). If duct tape, bungie cords, motorcycle gloves and baseball caps had any value, I'd be rich. I peddled from Naples up to Cape Coral where my brother Cody lives. I haven't seen him in years. He is very humble. We got some food at Hog Bodies, which served up a meal every bit as good as its awesome name implies. And for the first time in six weeks I am neither sleeping outside nor paying for a room.

status symbol not really sure about this Cody and Dave