Somewhere Under The Rainbow

Coming back from the hotel across the parking lot with our laundry we were greeted with the sight above. Why were we coming back from from a different hotel than what we are staying at you ask, the Holiday Inn Express’s washers worked, but the dryers were broke. The two hotels had an agreement, we could use the TownPlace Suites dryers and their guests could use the HIE pool because theirs was broke. What happens when one of these properties fixes their problem I don’t know.

Because today’s destination was Gallup, NM instead of Santa Fe we came south on a new to us road, US491 instead of the usual US550. Boy was it spotty in quality and I spent most of the drive in the somewhat smoother left lane. We somehow think US550 is better than coming south this way, but if it is, it is probably only marginally, as most Navaho Nation roads we’ve traveled leave a lot in the smoothness department.

Today’s planned lunch spot in Cortez, CO was called The Farm Bistro was highly rated on TripAdvisor and its menu looked awesome, but unfortunately yours truly forgot to check their hours. It is closed on Saturday & Sunday. So we we going to try another place across the street, but it was closed too. We ended up at something that TripAdvisor probably doesn’t even rate, Burger King. At least the food was quick and hot. We did snag a couple of Roadside America oddities, a giant cow outside an out of business BBQ joint and some vultures picking on a car at a local junkyard. Photo #3 is because after seeing all those Corvettes a couple days what should we find outside tonight’s hotel but a car carrier with an octet of under wraps C8 Corvettes.

Detouring Around 31,000 Pounds

After breakfast at the hotel we headed to downtown Ely, Nevada to check out all the murals there. Donna had picked up a brochure about them the last time we were here. Several of them were very nice, but after seeing a half dozen or so we ran out of patience for trying to match the brochure to the murals. For such a small town there was a high density of Chevy Corvettes lurking around on the streets. There were also an awful lot of current American muscle cars as well. Somehow we had managed to arrive in Ely (pronounced eel • eee) for the opening of the Nevada Open Road Challenge weekend.

While bopping along east on US6/50, our planned route for the day, about 50 miles into it we came to a line of slow moving cars ahead of us. A 1/4 mile ahead we could see flashing lights of a highway patrol car that was behind a great big ol’ thing that was taking up the whole two lane road. There were additional highway patrol cars ahead getting oncoming cars to get off the pavement. The convoy was traveling about 30MPH on a road marked for 70, but in a way we definitely got lucky on when we caught up to this mess.

Because just a couple miles of creeping along, like magic, an alternate route presented itself, Nevada 487 which turned towards the Great Basin National Park and we took it. A quick check of Google Maps showed that if we continued along that road it would take us on a southern loop to I-15 that would get us back on track and only costing us 30 miles and 30 minutes. This was a route that Donna had mentioned possibly taking anyway, so it did work out real well. It even led us to an awesome taco place in Milford, UT called Brody’s. Donna had 2 pollo & I had 2 al pastor which was just the right size in quantity and price.

Somewhere along today’s route while dodging approximately thirty one thousands pounds of big ol’ piece of machinery the Mini’s odometer clicked past the 31,000 mile mark.

Along the way we managed to snag a couple more Roadside America oddities, an ranch entry arch made entirely of antelope antlers and some fuel tanks painted as soft drink cans.

It’s Lonely Out There

When I wrote a blog post last year about traveling on the Loneliest Road in America I said we probably won’t be picking it as our default route when traveling that way. Well, here I am in Ely, NV tonight eating my words because we did it again. I do hesitate to now say that it will be our default route because sure enough next year we’ll use I-80…

The only real problem is lunch somewhere along the way. Our usual midday stopping town is Austin which has very little to offer besides a gas station that has a burger food truck, but it must not open until Memorial Day because the two times we’ve been this way, last March and this May, it was shut.

But this is a small concern when compared when weighed against the peaceful drive and wonderful scenery.

Reno is only a slightly downsized Las Vegas

It is amazing the amount of stuff required for the two of us to take a long road trip now a days. The first picture below is what is going to get stuffed into the Mini Cooper on the left, but 20 years ago the pile was a lot smaller. Those four black bags in the center of the scrum are a set of soft bags that perfectly fill the trunk of an NB Miata and that was all we ever took. Aside from Donna’s purse that sat on the passenger floor.

Even though it is only 30 miles away from Klamath Falls we have never visited the the Tule Lake Internment Center until today. Although this was the largest World War II internment center of the 10 created during that time period the display here pales in comparison to the Manzanar National Historic Site that we visited back in 2016.

After the tense drama of too many cars going to fast through “The Biggest Little City in the World” afternoon traffic we deserved a break and stopped in at the Chocolate Nugget Candy Factory in Washoe City. I firmly believe that the Reno city administrators need to add “Used To Be” in front of that logo.

31,000 Writers On Strike

I don’t know how long the Writers Guild of America strike is going to last, but it has put a minor crimp in my mindless YouTube entertainment. I had just settled into a routine of watching the opening monologues of 4 late night TV show hosts (Meyers, Colbert and the 2 Jimmies) to kill an hour or so as Donna is downstairs doing her daily indoor cycling and exercises.

I also don’t know how close the number of writers is to 31,000, but that was the reading of the Mini’s odometer yesterday when I backed it out of the garage to give it a good washing. Today I also gave it a quick waxing, vacuumed the inside and then washed the windows inside and out in preparation for our upcoming road trip.

Sport, Off-Road, Touring

Ides of May Edition of SORT
As of Monday, May 15, 2023 at 8:00 PM pacific time:

Sport Off-Road Touring
1967 Austin Mini Cooper Meyers Manx Dune Buggy 1999 Acura NSX-T
The 1st generation Mini probably not the sportiest car here, but it is the S version so there is that. I won’t be rock crawling in this thing, but I will be taking the surfboards to the beach with it. I know the -T on the NSX doesn’t stand for touring, but it is better suited for that than the Mini.

Here is what last week’s cars sold for, or bid to (if the reserve was not met):
Sports: 2008 Porsche Boxster S Bid to $26,000 on 5/10/23
Off-Road: 1987 Porsche 924S Sold for $26,500 on 5/9/23
Touring: 1987 Porsche 928 S4 Bid to $37,888 on 5/11/23

Home Depot Customer Service

A week ago I wrote about our washing machine healing itself for the second time and almost buying a new one. This link will take you the long winded story, but to sum up, on a Monday I ordered a washing machine from Homedepot.com and on Wednesday I called to cancel the order. The CSR assured me the order would be cancelled and my money refunded in 7 to 10 business days.

So of course on Thursday morning they hit the charge card for $598. Of that, $50 of this was for them to haul off the old machine. So I called the customer service number, but the wait time was going to be pretty long, so I chose the option of the text chat. Below is an excerpt:

  • CSR: Excellent! Thank you so much for your order number Brian! I do see that since the order is in transit the cancellation is pending however as soon it arrives to the warehouse the cancellation will be processed for you Brian! I do apologize for the delay this is causing you today!
  • Me: So you can guarantee that I won’t have delivery service show up at my door tomorrow with a washing machine?
  • CSR: Absolutely! I checked out delivery team page just to be sure and your delivery is cancelled Brian! I also post a note on the delivery team page to make sure that it is not delivered for you!

Not longer than an hour after my text chat I got a phone message from Temco Logistics, the delivery agent for Home Depot, informing me that I would get a 4 hour window for delivery and a 30 minutes heads up before the truck arrives. There was a phone number to call if I had any questions. I called it and of course got an answering machine. I left a message, “Please do not deliver this item tomorrow as I have cancelled the order.”

Once again, no surprise, at 1:30 Friday afternoon I got a call from an unfamiliar number that I didn’t answer. The driver of the truck delivering my cancelled washing machine left a message that they were 30 minutes away. I called the number right back and predictably it went to the answering machine. When the truck pulled up I greeted them with the bad news and said, “Sorry you had to make the trip for nothing.” The driver replied, “No worries, it happens more often than you think.”

Wednesday two days ago, which by my count was the tenth business day, I checked the charge card to see if the money was credited back and it was, but only the $50 haul away fee. The $548 wasn’t there, so it was back to the Home Depot Customer Service phone lines. The CSR informed me that I was only on day 9 and I should probably call again on Friday (today) if I don’t see the refund.

The money was still not there. I’ve called this number so many times at this point that I knew witch numbers to hit after the robot picks up to get me to the right section. And this time I got a CSR who did some research instead of just reading something off the menu. Turns out that the cancellation never got to the right people the first time. Even though the HD website didn’t say the washing machine was shipped it was in transit from a distribution warehouse to the delivery agent. Now, the reason the money hasn’t been refunded yet is that the washing machine has yet to be returned to the distribution warehouse. So this CSR says that it should be getting there today and then there will be a 5 working day gap until I get the rest of my money. So we’ll see what happens next Friday.