Can you spell Albuquerque??

So not every day can be Christmas, neither can every day be a great one. Today was one of those days we dread. This was not nearly as bad as that evil day in Las Vegas when the A/C compressor blew up and the slide ran into an immovable object but it certainly was a frustrating time. I had made an appointment at Camper World to change the oil in the camper and to hook up the satellite dish that came on the camper. I also asked them to check the air pressure in all of the tires (6). Sounds simple enough doesn’t it?

We left in plenty of time to get there for our appointment. It was a good thing because the directions on the Camper World web site were wrong. They had built a new store and had not updated the web site. Instead of arriving a half hour early, we pulled into the driveway 1 minute early. The store is beautiful but we had a problem finding where we should be. First, we went to the service door (seems logical doesn’t it?)….wrong! The service door was for warranty work on campers that had been bought there. We then wandered up to the main door and went to the visitor’s desk. Also not right. “Who was our appointment with?” we were asked.

“Camper World” says we. There is a service desk inside the store we were told. By now, we are late. We found the desk discussed the work we needed and turned over the keys. I asked for the numbers from the satellite receiver so I could set up the program with Direct TV. Steve (the repair desk guru) directed us to the waiting area and off we went. The people at the front door desk told us that the cooler behind us had bottles of water should we want one. Grabbing a couple of bottles, we stepped into the show room and walked amongst the giants. There were some huge bus campers there including one beautiful green bus. While we were there, this one was sold. An older couple was measuring things and checking out everything. The woman was really excited and her husband was methodically checking everything out.

The waiting area was truly nice. They had coffee, tea, cocoa, cappuccino (3 kinds) and a selection of pastries as well as bags of freshly popped corn (not the wimpy kind but with lots of butter and salt). My cousin Jan had called from Michigan while I was dealing with Steve so I took this moment to call her back. We had made tentative plans to meet in Memphis. She and Dave were going to Nashville and Memphis before meeting some friends in Branson. We wanted to go to Memphis so that seemed to be a good plan.

They were leaving next week for 2 weeks in Hawaii visiting the Big Island (Hawaii) and Kauai (SP?) so they wanted to touch base with us to let us know when they would be in Memphis so we could plan around it.

After talking with my favorite cousin, I called Direct TV and thus started the trouble. The first person I talked to demanded that I activate my subscription before they even talk to me. I agreed then discussed what I wanted to do. They asked for the information regarding the receiver and then said that the card had to be replaced because it was (first they said it was no good then said it was already in use) no good. They transferred me to the new card department and I went through the story all over again. I gave him the numbers and he said there was a problem. The numbers related to high definition hardware and he doubted that high def would work in my camper. After some additional discussion I decided to hang up and go talk to the people in the store. I have an older dish that only has one LNB (signal receiver node) and for High Def, you need 5. When I got to the store, there was a mechanic talking to them about a high def receiver and the wrong dish. I asked if they were talking about me behind my back and they agreed. I suggested that they use the correct receiver and the mechanic said that the dish I had was a real problem. It was not reliable. After some additional talking I decided that I didn’t need any more problems so I cancelled the work order. Think the problems are over? Not a chance.

I called Direct TV back and explained what had happened and what the final decision was. I asked that my system be put on hold once again and was told that they couldn’t. There was a charge for the work they had done and that bill had to be paid before they could put it on hiatus again. “How much?” says I

“$102+” says Direct TV. A proration for the rest of this month and the entire bill for next month…
Needless to say, I was not a happy camper (I really didn’t mean that). I said I didn’t think it was exactly fair to make me pay more than a hundred dollars for time I wouldn’t use. I was told those were the rules and I had to pay it.

I thought about it for about 5 seconds and pointed out that I have been a good customer over many years and didn’t deserve this. I had tried my best to employ their service in my camper and was told that I wouldn’t have to pay for the rest of the system until I got home and actually used it. It didn’t work out so I want to put it back the way it was 2 hours ago. You have to pay the bill before we can do that. “OK, then cancel my service.”

“You will have to do that in another office. I will transfer you.”

Soon another voice came on the line and asked (for about the fifth time) how my day was going. Boy, did I give her an earful. Without going into all of the details, the anger and the crying (sort of), she said that all that I had been told was not true. First of all, the first person I talked to should not have forced me to turn my system back on before we discussed what we were doing and second, the bill was not mandatory and she could straighten it out if I would agree to stay with them. After another half hour, all was back where it started and I was once again a happy camper except that I will be required to watch over the air TV unless my campground has cable. I can live with that.

Eventually, they finished the oil change (3 hours is a little excessive), we finished our shopping and we returned to camp. We parked the camper and headed right out to a great little pizza place we heard about from our neighbor from Boston. It was a little hole in the wall and we ordered. While we waited, we met a couple that came in asking if we were the ones with the Maine plates. They were both from New Hampshire. She was visiting him for 6 weeks over the summer. She was a teacher in Manchester. He had moved out there 18 years ago from NH. We had a great visit and the pizza was great too. The crust was fairly thin and very crispy.

We headed down to Best Buy and got Cheryl a computer of her own. We have been sharing this one but it was time we got a second. This one is getting full and we don’t have any of Cheryl’s video on the computer. That took the rest of the afternoon but we finally escaped with our lives and a computer.

We hooked up the camper, got it settled in and started to get the computer set up. Cheryl immediately found a whole new suite of games on her computer and after loading her software, set out to check them out.

We are watching the Olympics. This is one of the great shows on earth. Amazing talents these athletes.

Another day has dawned. We had dreadful thunderstorms last night. I sat in the cab to watch the lightning and noticed that the windshield had a lot of hail on it. It poured and the lightning put on quite a show. We watched the men’s gymnastics team competition. That was pretty exciting to watch all of these people who were alternates get a chance to contribute because of injuries. Winning a bronze medal was way more than was expected from them and it made the evening quite exciting. The today show is broadcasting from Beijing and they covered some Olympic things. Once that ended, we watched some more Olympic coverage and then got dressed. That showed us that it was time to do laundry. We gathered it up and headed for the laundry room here at the campground. They didn’t have many machines and about a third of them were broken and all but one were already in use. We loaded back up and headed out to find a Laundromat. We found one with a Starbucks next door so life was good.

On the way back, we saw a sign for fresh corn so we took the back road and stopped at the stand and picked up a half dozen ears. We had a nice talk with the people from the farm and were soon back on the road headed for home. Once back I cut the corn off half the ears and sautéed it in butter and boiled the other 3 to give us an honest trial. Both versions were delicious. It was white corn, a version called Snow Queen. Tomorrow they will have new potatoes to go with the corn so we will most likely visit them again.

It is closing in on 5 PM and the TV is already flashing severe thunderstorm warnings for the counties around us and flash flood warnings. We are sitting high up on a hill so we don’t have to worry about flash floods but the T-storms are in the next 2 counties (we are right on the edge of one of them).

We seem to be about out of propane. The inside gauge board says we are out but the mechanical gauge on the tank says we still have a quarter tank. I don’t know which to believe but I tend to rely more on the gauge on the tank. I have little faith in the gauge board on the wall. They don’t have propane in this campground but there is a place about 5 miles down the road. I think we will head out on the night before we leave and fill the tank then hook up the trailer and load the car before parking in our space (which is big enough to hold everything as long as the car is on the trailer. Then we can get an early morning start. We have a fairly long ways to go and want to spend a few hours in Roswell when we get there. We are planning to stay in Carlsbad which is about an hour past Roswell. The Carlsbad Caverns are huge. There are several tours that hit different parts of the cave and a couple of tours that are self guided. We also hope to hit El Paso while we are there before heading off to Austen and San Antonio.

It was heartbreaking to watch the American women’s gymnastic team give in to the pressure and make all those mistakes. Of course the pressure is understandable as the Chinese were certainly a great team. The change to the process was interesting putting the Americans and the Chinese in the same rotation and forcing them to basically go head to head. Perhaps that is what caused the pressure. The Americans may not have been so pressured if the Chinese were on the other side of the arena and not under their scrutiny all the time. You have to admit that it did make for an exciting event although the cameras followed the two teams and no one else. How many other girls did you see?

Well, we are off to Santa Fe up the turquoise trail (route 14). We’ll check in with you later.

On our way out of town, we stopped to visit our local corn dealer and bought more corn and some new potatoes. Then we were off. The drive up route 14 (Turquoise Trail) was pretty. It is listed as a Scenic Byway and is the area where turquoise was mined first by the Indians and later by the settlers. The road has some dwellings on it but is mostly wilderness, that kind of wilderness that is open range with slightly rolling hills and bigger hills in the distance dotted with small green shrubs. In the middle, there is a ghost town that, like Jerome, has been taken over by craftsmen. There is an old steam train there and a mining museum but mostly artisans and a few houses that look lived in. There were several buildings for sale and a lot of tourists.

We checked out a few places but were soon back on the road. The end of the road is Santa Fe. We wanted to see what Santa Fe was like. Albuquerque is pretty much like other cities with high rise buildings and a city like atmosphere. The surrounding area is certainly different but it is a real city. Santa Fe is not. The drive into Santa Fe is like miles and miles of strip malls all built in the southwest pueblo style. It is striking and interesting to see. I am not sure just when we got into the city. We went through a less nice section of the city and then were greeted with signs pointing to the capital area of the city and the museums but we never did find it. The traffic got heavier and slower and after crossing several major streets we found ourselves in “Old Santa Fe”. This is the historic section full of historic buildings and shop areas. The puebloan style of building is evident here. We went by rows of open stall shops selling Indian and Spanish jewelry and other items. There is a large park that was full of people sitting and enjoying the day and eating from food carts. There are a lot of shops and the place was mobbed. A very popular area.

We looked and looked for parking and found none. We followed signs for public parking and private parking and just about any kind of parking you could imagine and were totally shut out. The lots were full. We could not find a crevice in which to make our own creative parking spaces. That had already been done. There was no space at the inn and we were not in the mood for trinket shopping anyway. If we were going to shop, Cheryl saw a couple of places she wanted to check out along the road coming into the city. Our first stop was the “Hobby Lobby”. My best description is that it is like Michaels but way bigger (not better just more of the same). There were some neat things in there and Cheryl picked up a few things.

Our next stop was Joanne’s to pick up some more nylon net. It seems that Cheryl has used up most of what she brought. She makes these things by the dozens by she also spreads them across the countryside. Everyone she meets and likes gets a sampling. She is a modern day Johnnie ScrubySeed. If they could reproduce on their own, we would find forests of the things as we wend our way home.

Just as we got near to our campsite, we came across another farm stand. This one had mostly fruit and some tomatoes. We bought cantaloupe and peaches. Like the produce in most farm stands, they had ripened on the vines and been picked at their best. Absolutely delicious!

Another night of Olympics. Need I say more? I just can’t imagine the pressure that all of these people are under, yet they are still able to compete. It is just amazing.

I had trouble sleeping (back at 7,000 ft) so I got up early and looked through the internet to see what there is to do here in Albuquerque. One of the first things that I saw buried down the list was the Unser Racing Museum. There is also an historic “Old Albuquerque”. The Unsers moved here from Colorado when Bobby and Al were small boys. They have a street named after them and are prominently mentioned in Albuquerque’s history.

The museum was small but had some nice exhibits. They had several of the cars that Bobby, Al and Al jr. won the Indy 500 (9 500 wins between the 3 of them). There was a room dedicated to Pike’s Peak; a racing venue dominated by the Unser family over at least 4 generations. The race up Pike’s Peak is the second oldest race in the US, the first being the Indy 500.

The Unser’s early exploits in racing were in cars that they built themselves. Racing was like that back then. Race cars were usually hand built in the garage and the builders also built the engines that powered them. That was back when racing was a much less controlled sport than it is now. One of the early Unsers was killed in a fiery crash during Indy 500 practice. This spurred some early changes to improve safety in the cars. The early cars carried 60 gallons of gasoline and the early drivers wore leather helmets and t-shirts. The quantity of fuel was reduced and the fuel itself was changed from gasoline to alcohol which is much less explosive and easier to control.

They had one of Little Al’s IROC cars (the pink one of course) and a Pike’s Peak car that Al won in that was completely made from Titanium. It was the lightest car to race there and was a handful because of its lightness. They had a NASCAR simulator and an Indy Car simulator. The NASCAR simulator had the hood that you watched in and the Indy Car simulator had a big screen TV. Those were fun but the stock car simulator’s hood was pretty worn and had little contrast making it hard to see. It was still fun because you sat in an actual car mock up.

They had a mock up of an Indy car in the parking lot that you could sit in. You understand why so many of these people are small when someone my size tries to climb into the car. It was a tight fit but the picture looks pretty good. They also had a model of one of the early Pike’s Peak cars. You wonder how anyone would survive an accident in a car like that. The people there were friendly and wanted to make sure you had a good time there. There was a “greeter” named “Hub” that talked to you a little about the museum and the Unsers and showed you the layout of the building. Great place to spend a couple of hours.

We left there and immediately got lost. The map showed us how to get to the Old City but the roads showing on the map didn’t seem to be there. We drove back and forth a couple of times and couldn’t find the road so we took off cross country. It took a while but soon we were looking for a parking place. We looked through an old puebloan style church. Then we wandered through some of the shops and got a bite to eat. The Mexican food here is quite good but soon we will be hitting the bbq areas. We wandered through some additional shops and checked out some of the outdoor vendors that display their wares on blankets along the sidewalks. It was a very pretty area and certainly much like Santa Fe mostly in the style of the pueblos.

We talked a little about the places we have been with relation to living here. The summer is certainly not a time we would want to spend here but the area is certainly beautiful. They get snow here but not the continually cold time that we have. Cottonwood had the feeling of a small town and we were taken by Santa Fe even if we couldn’t find a parking space to look into it a little closer. Albuquerque is a large modern city but only minutes out of the city, you are in the desert with rolling hills and ghost towns that are not as ghostly as they could be. They have residents and neighbors.

There are hills with houses on them and most everyone has a long dirt road driveway and a lot of room with little traffic (even John McCain). We still have a long ways to go but we have spent the time allotted in California, Arizona, Utah, Nevada, Colorado (still lots to see in all those places on another trip) and one last area in New Mexico (Carlsbad & Roswell), before venturing into Texas.

Today is kind of a catch-up day. We did some things around the camper and then went off to do some grocery shopping. We headed down the road the other way first to find the place where we can get propane for the camper. The wall gauge has said the tank was empty for several days now but the gage on the tank itself still says we have a quarter tank so we didn’t worry too much. On our way, we found a Schwann’s truck sitting on the side of the road with a truckload sale sign. We stopped to see just what they had for sale and the guy handed us a catalog. We have seen these trucks all over the country even at home and just figured that they were an ice cream company.

The catalog told us something completely different. They have all kinds of frozen food as well as ice cream and other desserts. While we were talking to him (I don’t know whether to refer to him as a driver or a salesman) I realized that this is the same company that I used to buy frozen food from years (and years and years) ago. The name is the same but the trucks look completely different and it has been so long that I never connected the trucks to the company I used to buy things from.

We talked to him for quite a while. He was not busy at that time and was glad for the company. We said we would look at the catalog and would be back later in the day to get propane for the camper. We found the propane company, got their hours and headed off for the grocery store. Of course, I got confused between east and west (we have gone in both directions several times) and got onto the interstate going in the wrong direction. The next exit was Edgewood and it looked like a fair sized town so we got off there and shopped at the Smiths there instead of the one back towards Albuquerque (I certainly am proud that I learned to spell that word). Afterwards, we headed back to camp.

We broke camp and headed back down the road. The propane place saw me coming and had a man waiting for me as I turned around at the tank. Soon, we were full, paid and headed back down the road. We pulled into the turnout that housed the Swann’s truck and bought a couple of boxes of ice cream bars. Then we headed back to camp, hooked up the trailer, loaded the car and pulled back into our campsite. We hooked back up and were immediately hit by a huge thunderstorm complete with lightening, thunder, huge rain drops and ball bearing sized hail. That went on for about 20 minutes during which time we found a leak around one corner of skylight (great! Something else to fix). Oh, well, can’t deal with it now. Fortunately, it is leaking into the shower.

We are now ready to leave in the morning. Wee have a fairly long trip tomorrow so we want to get an early start. We hope to spend a couple of hours in Roswell and still get to Carlsbad in the late afternoon. I have been putting off making reservations in Carlsbad. I wasn’t happy with the options. The national park has no campground and Coast to Coast doesn’t have any place near there either so we have to find an alternative place. It seems that KOA has a place there that sounds really nice so we made reservations there.

We have been watching the Olympics again. That race with Michael Phelps was a great drama. He was behind all the way and then out touched the Czech. They both ended up a half stroke from the end and the Czech coasted into the touch while Phelps took one additional stroke and ended up beating him by 1/100th of a second. It was just amazing.