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#possiblecardamage Elena did some great and original thinking Sunday morning. It saved us a big financial loss of a couple of thousand dollars. On Saturday we stopped for lunch at Harris Steak Ranch near Lemoore, California (The home to a US Navy air station and the famed Top Gun School.) This restaurant is nice and really-careful about Covid-19. When we returned from walking the dogs and eating, Elena discovered a series of what looked like scratches on the right rear panel of the car. Our first thought was that someone had scratched the car while backing out. They were too cowardly to leave contact details.
Elena and I both have experience with body shops. We knew that we were looking at a repair bill of "several thousand dollars." We could use our auto insurance. Our premiums would have gone up well over $100 per month. American Express Platinum card also offers car rental insurance. I knew that I would be doing "the 800-number shuffle" for days to get a claim paid.
We drove home through awful air. We had a sad feeling that our trip had been ruined. Yesterday Elena and I got up early. I took the car in for gasoline as we had to return it with a full tank. We then started to clean the car to avoid a $100 cleaning fee. Elena started to examine the scratches on the rear panel of the car. She came up with a novel theory. She came to believe that the car had touched the white fence in front of the cabin where we had stayed. She got a cloth and some cleaning fluid. She scrubbed for 30 minutes. All the scratches were gone. I was so relieved!!! I turned in the car later and we passed inspection "with flying colors." My father would say "God had provided."