Pictures and a story-July 9, 2012

I wanted to share a couple of pictures taken from the park where we are staying. It really is a pretty setting beside Rock Creek. I must tell you that the rivers in this state are simply gorgeous. Every single one is clear and clean and running very fast. Just stunning. Rock Creek is not very big but it is clean.

 

Rock Creek on one side of the park

Sapphire Mountains on another side of the park

It is very hot today, about 100°, and we are only allowed to use one a/c unit, a fact they did not tell us until we had checked in and were connected. Otherwise we would have left. That aside, we went into Missoula. We looked at some new coaches. Loved one but left anyway. Stopped and had lunch, stopped at Albertson's and came home. Not exciting at all. We did not need excitement after what we discovered about the Dodd Frank bill which took effect on July 1st. That bill requires that all credit card companies, but more especially the ones who took tarp money, to "eat" all fraudulent charges on customer's credit card bills. Our card which we have had for 22 years and have never had a problem with is now being restricted if we go outside of our home area. Currently that is still Alabama. We have not changed the address yet, thank goodness. If we wish to use the card for what appears to be more than $100 we must call them and tell them where we are going and they will either grant us permission to keep going or they have the right to not allow us to use the card. I told them that where we went and what we did was our business, not theirs and we would not become their children asking for permission. I promptly hung up on a kid who sounded like maybe he was pushing 21 years of age. He was in Maryland, not overseas. We have never been late. We have never paid a penny in interest or late fees and I know that bothers credit card companies. However, they have gotten our money promptly every month. These rules apply to online orders also. They want to know what we are buying and what it costs ahead of time. I don't think so. So, thank you Dodd Frank for that wonderful piece of legislation. We made plans for every emergency we could think of so this is not a problem to us. But it is indeed infuriating. If you have a card from a small privately owned bank you probably will not have a problem. We have a card from one of the top banks that took big money and is currently being watched by the powers that be. I just wanted to share this with you. We are fine. We will go forward to whatever city we choose and the credit card people will not know about it.