I simply was not going to return to the store in Great Falls that I’d visited the afternoon before, even though it was just down the street a couple of blocks from the motel I’d stayed in the previous evening. I’m not at all sure I could have controlled myself if that same techy guy with the dismissive smirk on his face were to have offered to ‘help’ again. OK, and my overall confidence in that body of employees was rather low, too, owing to my recent experience. Since I was going through Missoula anyway, I decided I’d just wait and drop by one there…

Really nice ride! There was a slight chance of sprinkles in the area forecast, but none ever found ALI and me. It was cloudy all day, however, but that only added to the pleasantness of the experience. I did see a few showers way off in the distance, but nothing ever threatened to force me to suit-up for the first time on this trip.

With each passing mile, the road became a little curvier, the ups and downs became a little more pronounced, and the mountains that had been off in the distance grew ever closer until at last they surrounded us… WOW! If Heaven is even half as nice as they told us in Sunday School that it is, it absolutely has to look a lot like this!!!

It was cool but not at all cold (only one sweatshirt, no chaps). That was partly due to the late start we’d gotten because there was just no hurry at all this day… Just under two-hundred miles in total would be ridden.

I was focused almost exclusively on getting myself reconnected with the world and regaining an umbilical cord to all of my friends and family. E-mails and message boards can do just so much… And, who even uses snail-mail these days? Not that I have the addresses for any of that anyhow!

I’d endured yet another phone session with yet another tech rep on the phone the evening before. She explained to me that Apple and iTunes hardware, firmware, and software are all intermingled and intertwined, and that Apple had used some of iTunes’ stuff for its own operating systems, etc., back in the day, and they’re still all interlinked. Hmmm, that would explain why I needed the sign-in info for something I didn’t even know I was linked to… Had I known that, I would have paid far more attention when I bought the danged thing.

I’d had to use the phone in the motel room to place that call… WOW! First time I’ve done that in a while! Anyway, this really nice young gal seemed to know her business, and she guided me through this step, then that. It was looking so promising at one point, I actually found myself having hope! Not to be, unfortunately… No joy in Great Falls for this boy this night. With that I’d given up for sure…

The great ride down to Missoula had included a stop in Lincoln, MT, around mid-day for my first meal of the day. About a decade ago, I’d stopped at the same place I visited this day, also for breakfast. Afterward, I’d walked out for a smoke and spotted a sign at a bar a few doors up: “Elk Bugling Contest Today at 1:30pm.” I figured I’d just get a room next door and go see what that was all about.

This time I had no expectation of any such thing, but… you never know. I walked in and this really cute youngish gal said rather loudly, “Howdy!” Howdy back at you… “You want lunch or breakfast?” You still offering breakfast? “Yep, I’m from Tennessee, so breakfast can be anytime food… Only, we don’t serve sticky stuff this late… pancakes, waffles, French toast, and the like.” Gravy count as sticky stuff? “Nope, we still have that…” Let’s talk some bid-nis then!

She is from Knoxville, so naturally I told her about all my buds there and in Clinton, TN. She was a real treat, too. Chatty until my food was served, then she went about other chores… singing all the while. ‘Rocky Top’ was her first offering, and right then I knew this was going to be a pleasant stop! It truly was…

I arrived in Missoula and stopped to top off. As if right on que, a young guy who looked to be a tech-savvy sort came by emptying trash cans… I inquired about the location of the nearest Verizon store… “Just over the next overpass going straight down this road… you’ll see it on the left.” I thanked him and went in search. Found it right off, too, right where he’d said it would be! That’s something, at least…

I went in and ‘registered’. After a short while, a bubbly young gal came up to me and offered to help. I explained my situation, then told her I’d resigned myself to just buying a new phone… and, I didn’t want an Apple! She then took me over to the display, after satisfying herself that gaining access to my old phone was impossible… Yes, it appears that I do indeed have a brick now!

In explaining the ins and outs of various products, I learned that they all have in common similar security features, and that if I didn’t do a good job of keeping track of passcodes and usernames, I’d be in the same boat with any device. Do what?!!! You mean…? Yep… it ain’t over by a long shot, big boy!

What’s more, all the other devices have somewhat different set-ups and operating procedures… Oh goody! I not only get to start over from scratch with a new phone, I get to learn a whole new way of doing stuff!

Not if you get another Apple, she patiently explained… the new phones work just like your brick did… Can you believe it? I actually bought another Apple! Just shows to go ya, I reckon…

She then informed me it’s all really very simple… Stop right there, I said… I was in a mood to deliver a lecture, because young’uns have been patronizing us old guys entirely too long, and I ain’t taking it anymore!!!

I said, I realize this is all very simple for you… But, by now you’ve been through half a dozen cell phones, iPhones, Androids, and a couple of iPads, iPods, notepads, and two or three computers, and you’ve been fooling with this hi-tech gadgetry stuff since you were a small child… Like, you’ve been acclimated to such devices nearly your entire life!

When I was your age I was beginning my own telephone career but in another epoch… I actually installed black rotary dial phones on party lines, and hooked them up to open wire strung on cross arms. I didn’t start getting introduced to his sort of stuff until much later in life. Like, you’ve had a rather significant head start on guys my age! But that’s just part of it…

Technology is just a tool, my dear brilliant child, it is not the end game! I steadfastly refuse to spend much of whatever intellectual capital and time I have remaining on mastering the tools available and never getting around to the actual tasks I have in mind…

I am committed to keeping my eye upon the doughnut and not upon the hole… A sign at a Black & Decker plant once soberly reminded employees, “Customers don’t want drills… Customers want holes.” Can’t you see the distinctions?

My focus is on, and my interests are in, things other than phones and gadgets… I don’t intend to spend a significant amount of time learning and keeping up with doo-dads and their latest trends and updates… I have other, far more important fish to fry!

Well, that was the lecture I wanted to deliver… but I didn’t. Nope, I just listened, punched in this, pointed and clicked that, signed here, smiled… and left with another receipt in my pocket and a brand new phone… an Apple at that!

This time, at least, I had my security information written down, and I plan to place copies of it in several locations where it can be found. Hmmm, perhaps I’ll even draw a treasure map indicating where that info is stashed… Maybe another map to show me how to find the first one…

The major downside to this experience is that I lost all of my information recorded in my old brick. My directory is gone, lost but at least it’s really secure on some microchip somewhere in the bowels of the brick… along with all my pictures, text messages, yadda, yadda.

If there is a silver lining, at least anyone whose phone number I once had, I no longer have… They can choose for themselves whether or not to give it to me again… A call would be best (I still have the same number), that way I can save it.

I remounted ALI, and a strange sight appeared in the store window in front of us when she fired up… Her spotlights were working again. Was that a good omen letting us know that all was well again? For sure it means the reason they were out for the better part of two days was not a blown fuse… a latent, developing wiring issue perhaps?

We headed out of town… Missoula is a nice enough city, but it is still a city. I’ve stayed there a few times over the years, but it was always just a place to bunk-in for an evening or two, then move on. No ‘magic’ at all for this believer in the importance of such things…

The next town south of Missoula is Lolo, oddly enough where the ride over Lolo Pass from the east begins… I’d planned to ride that the next day on my way to Orofino, ID, where I’d stay two nights before going to the cabin nearby on Saturday (it wouldn’t be available any sooner).

I’ve stayed in Orofino several times over the years… It was for me one of those special places where I could hold-up and spend a few days… I have half a dozen places around the country where I used to do that sort of thing… places where ‘magic’ is to be found.