Welp, I just got off the phone with my credit card folks 'cause I made a ten dollar donation to Mike Bentley online for his site with all the Illinois and Midwest bike rides... and bingo! right afterward, 2 charges for 400, 800 bucks for musical instruments.
Will take a week for the stuff to work its way through... but just so happens that yesterday I activated a new credit card... I'm thinking of (snork, *after* this little road trip ) getting off the credit grid entirely and being a "cash on the barrelhead, son" person.