Travel trials, scammers, home again

Traveling has benefits, but mostly it has its trails. Some of the rewards are accumulating miles and rental car rewards. For me that ‘s about it. On the trails side, I do not ever keep up with my bank accounts while I am on the road. Too much possibility of someone gaining access I would not want them to have to those accounts. As such, I have to plan very carefully for Mama’s spending while I am gone. I do not enjoy eating out – especially by myself. Some people consider it a perk that the company picks up the tab for meals while we are traveling. Me, not so much. If Mama were willing, I would not eat out more that once or twice per month. So, traveling and eating alone is not a benefit for me. During the last trip I took, I had to drive three plus hours from one class location to the second class location. A long day after teaching for seven hours. To make the return flight home, I had to reverse course and drive the little over four hours (due to a couple traffic issues late in the drive) back to the airport. Fortunately, the rental car return shuttle was waiting on me as I arrived. That put me at the airport less than an hour before the flight boarded. Security lines were light but horribly slow. I was at my gate fourty minutes out from my turn to board the flight. Plenty of time but closer than I like to cut it in case of last-minute gate changes. Maybe that was for the best.

Having been on the road since Sunday afternoon, it was good to find all the bank accounts in solid shape especially since Mama fell prey to a phone scam Monday morning. Someone pretending to be with the Social Security Administration called her just in time to help her resolve an account situation that could have put her in prison if she did not verify all the information they requested to straighten out the error. They were aggressive and convincing. Confirming her full name, current address and Social Security Number – all of which they already had. When they began to solicit information about her living situation – renting or owning a home – that she began to question to the point of hanging up on the caller. She called a couple people to confirm her suspicions. All the while the caller tried to reconnect with Mama at least six times. When Mama finally felt ready, she answered the call and was aggressively questioned as to why they had been cut off. Mama’s answer, “Because you are scammer.” Whereupon, they hung up on Mama. Late that afternoon, Grandpa read to Mama a public announcement about that very scam and what to do if called. A little late but reassuring of her actions nonetheless. For the next couple days Mama called each of our banks to make sure our accounts had not been touched. So far, we are good.

It is good to be home. My flight landed around 4 pm Wednesday afternoon. After getting off from the back of the plane, waiting on and then collecting my luggage, waiting on the shuttle to take me to the parking lot where I had left the truck and driving in typical rush hour traffic as I headed home, I finally got home about 6 pm. I did stop at Buck-ee’s on the way home to get a drink and a sandwich.  The traffic would be far less congested from that point on and I needed to walk around for a minute. When I did get home, I was worn out, Mama was hurting badly. Victoria was feeling ill. Because of that, none of us went to church last night. In fact, I did not do much at all after getting the suitcases emptied and rearranged so I had all the work-related documentation in the suitcase I would return to work.

A warm welcome. Lots of hugs and kisses. Home.