The reference to Timbuktu is because historically it has been a synonym for the most far away place that can be thought of. In which case, I was mocking the decision of R+ to have searched so far away for that particular job.
No problems signing up once I realized how to proceed with the registration, and the e-mail notification made it to my inbox fine, too.
BTW, I was relieved that there were no interruptions to my service during the auto-migration to Ting -- everything is working perfectly. Kudos to Ting for helping us through the sad demise of RingPlus (especially those like myself who are not DIY types), and thank you @hungryghost for making this forum available!
P.S. Thanks, too, for the promotion (?) to Smoke Signals -- that sounds lots better than Newbie.