The primary goal today was to move further east. My next hotel was in Marion, Arkansas, near the Tennessee border. More specifically, it was about twenty minutes away from Memphis. I wanted to see Elvis Presley's home, Graceland, which is in Memphis.
However, I was not going to waste a day simply driving to my next hotel. I also did want to see a cave in either Arkansas or Missouri. Thankfully, there s a cave about fifty miles from my hotel in Mountain Home, AR.
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The Blanchard Springs Caverns is run by the U.S. Forest Service. It was open for tourism in the 1960s or 70s. It's located in the city of Fifty Six, AR (population 163). (Note that on my Spring trip to the southeast part of the country, I made a point to go to Ninety Six, South Carolina, just because of the name. But they had a bigger population.)
The Tour Guide's Humorous Warnings
The tour guide was humorous. Before we began the tour, she gave the usual warnings (don't touch anything other than the railing because skin oil harms cave formations, etc.). Then she gave the litter warning: whatever we bring in must come out with us. She made a point to say that this includes spouses and children. They could NOT be left in the cave!
Touring the Cave
The tour was great. The "rooms" were larger than the Lewis and Clark Caverns tour I took in Montana.
Many of the features of the cave in Montana were similar to this one. However, this cave had one thing I didn't see in MT - piles and piles of bat guano. There were gigantic mounds of it. The tour guide pointed out that bats had not regularly been in that part of the cave for around 100 years.
Although we didn't see them on this tour, human skeletons have been found in the cave. They were dated back to 890 (no, not 1890, but 890).
I was not sure how well the photos turned out. It appeared that my left contact lens was not very good. I have a habit of looking in the camera viewfinder with my left eye. I had a terrible time focusing. But it was the contact lens, not the camera. When I looked at the viewfinder with my right eye (and a better contact lens), I was able to use the camera's focus to get sharp photos. See cave photos. See photos of the visitor area.
Rental Car Damage Letter
After the nice cave tour, I received some upsetting news. A certified letter was mailed to me at home by Avis, the company from which I rented my vehicle. I was asked to provide insurance information and to notify my credit card that there would be additional charges due to damage to the rental car. I had ten days to provide the information. I had 72 hours to inspect the car. Now, the last time I swapped cars was in Idaho Falls, ID (the eastern side of the state). I was not headed in that direction and I couldn't possibly inspect the car in such a short time. This is a ridiculous time limit.
I had two incidents of damage to the car that Avis is aware of: the deer collision and the cracked windshield. The letter indicated it was from the time period of July 26 - August 24, so that implied that it was the deer incident. (I have a third incident of damage. During my visit to Kansas, someone backed into my car while I was leaving a restaurant. Nobody was hurt and the car can be driven, so I don't have to turn this in until the end of my trip. I got the driver's insurance information.)
I purchased the liability damage waiver from Avis. There is absolutely no need for me to provide Avis with my insurance company information. My insurance would only come into play if there was damage to someone else's property or an injured party. But for damage to the rental car, I was paying by the day to cover that. I would not easily be willing to provide them with that information. I don't need my insurance premiums to increase when I've been paying for LDW.
I read about nightmare scenerios on the Internet in cases when people did not purchase LDW. Rental car companies can be very creative with all sorts of subjective fees such as estimation fees (these people are employed by the company to do just that), loss of profit to the company for the vehicle being totaled, etc. All of these are above and beyond the replacement value of the vehicle. In the case of the deer incident, it is likely that the vehicle was auctioned off rather than repaired and reused by Avis. From what I have read, rental car company "creative" fees can come up to the same amount as the replacement value for the vehicle. The driver's insurance company will reject these fees since they are unreasonable. The rental car company will then go after the driver. In my case, if for some reason the LDW would not matter, I could be liable for $10,000 or more in creative fees. Obviously, for that amount, I would get a lawyer and fight it. I'd also go to the state insurance board and the attorney general since I paid for LDW. If this was what I would be facing, I'd cut this trip short and head directly home. There would be no sightseeing along the way.
The person listed in this letter could be reached at an 800 number in Virginia. By the time I called, she was gone for the day. I called the local rental office. The rep I spoke with was perplexed (her word) about this letter. But, she said that this is an issue that must go through corporate, and not through the local office. She said she had a copy of my agreement when I signed for LDW. She said she would be happy to provide it to corporate. She looked up the records and assumed the letter was due to the cracked windshield.
So, if this was about the windshield, that would not be a problem. Even if I was forced to pay, it was just a windshield replacement. They could not get very creative with that, and the vehicle was certainly not totaled. I began to feel better.
Fifty Six, AR
I decided to look at Fifty Six before I started the long drive to Marion, AR. There was a small cluster of buildings along the main road. There were some side roads but I didn't have time to see those. I stopped at a restaurant (yes, they had one in Fifty Six). On the entrance, it advertised catfish and steak. (Catfish seems to be advertised on the outside of a lot of restaurants in the region.) I was not in the mood for either and hoped they had other things. When I got there, the waitress listed the specials of the day. One of them was Mexican food. It was cheaper than any of the other meals. I decided to try it and then braced myself for the worst. Afterall, this was not a Mexican restaurant. They likely could not cook the food as good as a real Mexican restaurant. I also got nervous because I had a long drive ahead of me. How long might the food take, especially if Mexican food was not normal for them? I was surprised to find my food delivered in five minutes. It was not as authentic as what could be found at a real Mexican restaurant. But it was not bad at all.
Getting to the Hotel
Finding the hotel in Marion was an adventure. It was not in the GPS. The GPS did not like the address because it was along the I-55 service road. I pulled over and called the hotel. The instructions they provided were not so great either.
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What Recession?
Finally, I arrived. This was a brand new hotel. The clerk told indicated that they were only open for a month. She told me that I only got the room because I had a reservation. She was turning people away all night. So, I have to ask....what is this I hear about a "recession"? Why would a new hotel be built if we're in a recession? School is in session all over the country. Why would the hotel be so full that people were being turned away? It's not like this is the only hotel in the area. There were plenty of others around.
Note to Avis
Once I got into the hotel, I wrote a long email to the Avis employee who sent me the letter. I informed her that I had purchased the LDW and needed an explanation as to why I had to provide insurance company information. I told her that even the local rental office was perplexed and that they have proof that I purchased the LDW. I also pointed out that I am still renting the car and am over 1,000 miles away from home. Thus I could not fill out the papers or inspect the vehicle. Her response the next day was quite interesting. Stay tuned for a LONG posting for September 26th...
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