Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Enchanted Trails RV Park, Albuquerque, NM: Apr 27-May 17
Ah, back to ABQ -- almost a complete circle, and it really did feel somewhat like coming home. We wonder if it will be so much fun to be here when we aren't welcomed like celebrities whenever we show up!! It remains one of our favorite places. This park is Passport America, but we are staying much longer than the 2-night limit. We wanted to be way out west here (about 10 miles from downtown ABQ) because we needed to get some work done on our slideout awnings at next-door Camping World. We were a little worried since, when we checked in at CW, we had a list of 4 or 5 things that needed to be done. We were warned that we would be dealing with a trainee by Jeff, the asst manager, although they were both so stupid & incompetent that it was difficult to tell which was the newbie. It took over 45 minutes just to measure & discuss the slideout covers. Then, when Newbie was entering in the order, he would have to pause at each line & stare dumbfoundedly at the screen until Jeff (who was off fouling up some other people's orders) came by & told him what key to hit. We wanted a replacement for our a/c, but they showed such a lack of comprehension about what we were saying that we finally dropped that idea. Same with replacement entry steps -- we were beginning to worry that we had both simultaneously been hit on the head & were speaking gibberish together. But the fault was not ours, but theirs. We spent over two hours there & came away with only one of our tasks addressed.
They called us twice to let us know our order had arrived, and each time sounded so vague as to whether we really had an appointment to have it installed that we called the day before to MAKE SURE they were expecting us, which, in fact, they were. Be here between 8 & 8:30. *ugh* We're not early risers. But we bundled the cats into the truck & dropped off the trailer -- they estimated 5-6 hours -- and drove over to Gayle's to spend the day. Trixie immediately hid under the bed, and Pandora refused to come out of her carrier; she finally slunk out & hid behind the couch. Jasmine had a fine time sniffing around & checking out various laps. Gayle wanted to buy some plants, so after lunch he & Doug drove to a couple of nurseries & got exactly what he wanted. When we got back Willie was livid -- CW called & said they couldn't do the work. After coaxing Trixie & Pandora (who had moved from behind the couch) out from under the bed, which eventually required moving the bed, we drove back to CW to find out what the hell was going on -- Willie thought they had ordered the wrong parts. It turned out that the order was completely correct, but they did not bother to verify that they had all the necessary parts in stock that we would need, which, in fact, they did not. All that time & energy for nothing -- AND, we would have to, at some point, go through it all again! We agreed to have our order shipped up to the Longmont Camping World, where we will start over again.
We fell right back into the line dance & bridge routine, although not going in quite so often due to the much longer drive. We also were lucky enough to squeeze in the last Met Opera HD broadcast of the season -- "Armida" by Rossini. This infrequently performed opera is somewhat silly, had rather strange staging, and left you feeling there should be another act, with some excellent music. It's a real tour de force for soprano Renee Fleming (who has real stage presence & sand beautifully) and SIX (count 'em SIX) tenors -- played by five actual individuals due to some sort of conflict or illness of the actual sixth. There was even a Tenor TRIO, which is a rarity and may be the only one of it's kind.
We enjoyed visiting with friends, eating out at ABQ's interesting restaurants, and just being here in general.
The cats are happy & healthy. We were worried about Trixie's health for a while, but she seems to be fine now. We are wondering how much of what we thought was her failing was just her not being able to navigate as well on our vinyl flooring. She does much better on carpet. If we had realized this, we might have held off getting it, but we sure aren't going back to carpet now!!
They called us twice to let us know our order had arrived, and each time sounded so vague as to whether we really had an appointment to have it installed that we called the day before to MAKE SURE they were expecting us, which, in fact, they were. Be here between 8 & 8:30. *ugh* We're not early risers. But we bundled the cats into the truck & dropped off the trailer -- they estimated 5-6 hours -- and drove over to Gayle's to spend the day. Trixie immediately hid under the bed, and Pandora refused to come out of her carrier; she finally slunk out & hid behind the couch. Jasmine had a fine time sniffing around & checking out various laps. Gayle wanted to buy some plants, so after lunch he & Doug drove to a couple of nurseries & got exactly what he wanted. When we got back Willie was livid -- CW called & said they couldn't do the work. After coaxing Trixie & Pandora (who had moved from behind the couch) out from under the bed, which eventually required moving the bed, we drove back to CW to find out what the hell was going on -- Willie thought they had ordered the wrong parts. It turned out that the order was completely correct, but they did not bother to verify that they had all the necessary parts in stock that we would need, which, in fact, they did not. All that time & energy for nothing -- AND, we would have to, at some point, go through it all again! We agreed to have our order shipped up to the Longmont Camping World, where we will start over again.
We fell right back into the line dance & bridge routine, although not going in quite so often due to the much longer drive. We also were lucky enough to squeeze in the last Met Opera HD broadcast of the season -- "Armida" by Rossini. This infrequently performed opera is somewhat silly, had rather strange staging, and left you feeling there should be another act, with some excellent music. It's a real tour de force for soprano Renee Fleming (who has real stage presence & sand beautifully) and SIX (count 'em SIX) tenors -- played by five actual individuals due to some sort of conflict or illness of the actual sixth. There was even a Tenor TRIO, which is a rarity and may be the only one of it's kind.
We enjoyed visiting with friends, eating out at ABQ's interesting restaurants, and just being here in general.
The cats are happy & healthy. We were worried about Trixie's health for a while, but she seems to be fine now. We are wondering how much of what we thought was her failing was just her not being able to navigate as well on our vinyl flooring. She does much better on carpet. If we had realized this, we might have held off getting it, but we sure aren't going back to carpet now!!
# posted by Doug and Willie @ 11:54 AM 
