Day 105 to 107 – 5 – 7 Jul 19. Zero in Chester

I enjoyed a sleep in and had a lazy morning. In the afternoon my main task was to pick up money from Western Union as I was very short of cash.

I headed to the Dollar General who were Western Union agents. I tried too get money but they require you to download an app onto your phone and process the cash uplift there before going back to the store to get money. They also had a $300 limit.

I then headed to the other agent in town US Bank but they would not doo cash and would only process if you had an account with them.

I headed back to the church to try to download the app for Dollar General but it refused to load as my Google Play is registered for NZ and this app was only for those in USA. I tried to change my country but could not do this, despite clearing my cache and data and using a VPN showing I was in USA. There was only one other hiker still there, Grinder, and she was kind enough to load the app on her phone but when I tried to log in it defaulted to the NZ site again which did not have the cash uplift button. I then tried through their webpage and it seemed to go through but then did not give me confirmation.

I headed back to Dollar General in case it had worked but it did not. The Assistant Manager, Rebeca, was very helpful and was going off shift so offered to take me to her house too use the internet as data was not working on my phone. I tried again on the Western Union webpage but it kept redirecting me to the NZ page.

As Rebecca was taking me back to the church she mentioned she was heading too Susanville, a city 35 miles away where there were several Western Union Agents. I gladly accepted and we had a quick journey filled with interesting conversation.

She drove me to the first supermarket and their system would not process the payment as it required a US address. The clerk was really helpful and even rang Western Union to try and find a solution and was told I should try a different shop.

This was getting frustrating. Every other time I have received money it has been super simple but now three locations it was a failure. The clerk recommended Safeway so Rebeca took me there and finally success. The clerk was surprised when I said this was the fourth shop I tried as she said it was so easy.

We now drove to RiteAid where Rebecca needed to pick something up and as we drove in I was about to comment on the realistic deer statues when they moved. It was two deer in the middle of the city!

By the time we got back to Chester it was getting dark. I thanked Rebecca and then headed to the Locker Room where I had a pizza before continuing to the church and crashing for the night.

The next day I was able to check in to a motel as there was finally a vacancy after the Independence Day rush. Grinder was joining me as I grabbed the last room and she was desperate for 4 walls, a big bed, a shower and internet. Well she got 3 of these. The internet was still crap, like everywhere in town.

I went and got my food for resupply and spent the rest of the day, and the next eating, relaxing and editing videos, which I could not upload due to the super slow internet.

On Monday I headed to the post office to pick up my packages. The one from Ivana and Ivars was there but my passport was not.

I had fun unboxing the goodies that Ivars and Ivana had sent. They were in the final stages of preparing for their wedding so I really appreciate that they were thinking of me during this busy time. I had enjoyed trying the new style of food and looked forward to trying this new batch as well.

I phoned DHL about my missing passport and was advised it had been passed to anther contractor. After the third try I finally managed to get more details and rang ONTRAC to get an update and was assured it would arrive by the end of the day. It did not! I now had to spend another night here so I went back to the Church and set up my tent again.

Visits: 421