Yeah, this sucks you're so far, under normal circumstances, the drive from H-Town to Longview wouldn't be so bad, 'cos I'd love to get that a500 off you, as a backup.
Alas, my ride is dead and since I plan on purchasing a motorcycle again, I wouldn't want to carry that thing on my back. XD
Hope this stuff goes to a good place, TrekieJ.
*sighs*
Actually, after looking how clean your a500 is, I'd probably use it as my primary. 8C I saved one from being binned, years ago and it's ugly as hell yellow. =/