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an hour ago

Stark and I spent 2 1/2 months as volunteers at this World Heritage Site. In the description, I touched on some of the major points for anyone interested in this place...a place that can be absolutely magical, but has the potential of leaving a bitter taste in your mouth. When we were there, it was estimated that 9 out of 10 volunteers were chased out of the park with their tails tucked between their legs. There was definitely some meanness there. I called it the Curse of Chaco Canyon...a curse that just made some of the Park's staff downright mean. I saw it happen and I felt it directed towards me on a number of occasions. We were counseled on this by one of the longtime residents and, to be frank, we had a lot to offer the Park and were given a pretty wide berth. Initially, we were welcomed aboard because we had an RV and were willing to host at the campground and because I could operate a large telescope and had a more-than-average familiarity with the night sky. We had to leave the Park to stock up on supplies and when we returned, it seems that some people had bet against our coming back (It was 140 miles round trip...42 of which was brutal washboard). "No one comes back," we were told.

When the Chief of Interpretation found out that I had a particular and specialized skill, he challenged me to perform an extraordinary task. In order to do this, I needed access to Navajo-controlled maintenance area. White men were clearly not welcomed back there. The Navajo crew was told by the Park to cooperate with me, but I got a lot of nods and grunts and "You go figure it out." Let's face it...everything is fuckin' sacred to The People and I wasn't about to go nosing around to find things that I needed and I wasn't going to complain to the Park...which would have just got us thrown out. Besides, parts of The Navajo Nation are known to be the most violent places in the United States. Enter Teddy.

Teddy was a medicine man and, clearly, the elder amongst the crew. He was just sittin' around when I approached him. Everyone knew Teddy.

"Hi Teddy. How yah doing?"

No response.

"Chaco sure is a beautiful place."

"Chaco is fuckin' ugly," he blurted out.

"What do you mean? Chaco is beautiful!"

"Chaco is fuckin' ugly. If you can find me a place uglier than this ugly place, I wanna know."

"Well, Teddy, it may be ugly but there's some magic here."

Teddy sat up straight and asked me what I meant. "Follow me. I'll show you." I turned and headed to the woodworking shop that I was using, with Teddy in tow.

As I explained in the description. Chaco Canyon is a very harsh place and quite often, hurricane force winds blow through. Leaves blew into the shop and were all over the floor, mixing in with the saw dust. When we got to the shop, I pointed to the floor and said, "Look."

"What am I supposed to be lookin' at?"

"Well, Teddy, as you can see, I've been using the table saw. When I push the wood through the blade, all that dust falls to the floor." Pointing at the saw dust, laced with leaves, I continued, "The saw dust falls to the ground and begins to turn back into a tree," bending over and combing through the dust and leaves. Teddy let out a long howling laugh and walked away.

Around an hour later, the head of the crew came by and asked me if I needed any cordless tools. Later that evening, we got invited to a tribal dinner in honor of a recently deceased Navajo. The next day, one of the crew came by the RV to fix a plumbing problem created by the brutal ride in. From then on...it was smooth sailing...
votes 4 Helpful / 2 Funny / 2 Agree / 0 Disagree

12 hours ago

We had taken a flight with Allegiant Air and our baggage on the way back from Los Vegas had been utterly destroyed, ripped, torn and crushed. They had gone to the supervisor in the back and then offered one in replacement not comparable. We showed them the one offered had no side reinforcement as ours had. And to imagine the state of our belongings inside the luggage if it had been one so flimsy our clothes would have been all over the luggage carousel. One of the Allegiant Air employees about 21 years old said take it or leave it interrupting the lady also helping us. She then told us in these situations that if the luggage could be sent out to be repaired the airline would cover that. If that was not an option as it was not repairable the airline would courier a replacement Air Canada Suitcase which was what the original was and take the damaged one at that time. At that point we asked how that worked with living in Canada she said it made no difference and asked us to fill out the form. After filling out the form she went to speak to her supervisor who was in the back and then we signed the form at the bottom. A week later Denise from Allegiant Air customer relations baggage called saying that since we were Canadian they could not courier the luggage even though it was less than an hour drive away. That $70 was all that would be reimbursed. ( A new one of the same was priced at $250) This was both a break in the verbal agreement made and we have both a copy of the original damaged luggage claim which clearly showed a Canadian address. I travel quite often and with this my first time travelling with you and amazed at both the unprofessionalism and the complete disregard at what was promised. It was a bait and switch of sales recovery and as soon as we were back in Canada it seems all agreements were disregarded. I am filing a complaint with the Better Business Bureau, and posting this on every travel site I can find. I am going to also inform the media of this as it seems Canadians would appreciate knowing about a company that has a different set of rules for both Canadian and American customers.

votes 0 Helpful / 0 Funny / 0 Agree / 0 Disagree

13 hours ago

I have flown Aer Lingus a number of times - the planes have been nice but customer service and problems with flights have been frequent. On the two flights my family had with them this year - they canceled flying from two of the airports. In the last instance, my young daughter was with a host family in Jersey UK, we found out by accident they had canceled all flights out of Jersey as of Oct 2nd - her flight was scheduled for Oct 26th. We had to scramble to find a flight to get her off the island and then of course the cancelled flight impacted the two other flights on Aer Lingus to get her home. We had to cancel all three - they gave us 1/2 of the cost of flying there but the one way to get her home (still through Aer Lingus) cost more than her entire trip flying there and back. But they felt they had been more than fair.

Even though they cancelled, and we rebooked through Aer Lingus, and drove to an airport 5 hours from our house (because they had also stopped flying into Washington DC), inconvenienced the host family and our family with the needed change of plans and the incredible stress of trying to find a flight off the island that would not require an overnight stay for my young daughter in a city we did not know - they felt their offer was appropriate. They did not offer to help us find other flights, they did not apologize, and did not seem the slightest bit concerned that they had caused this mess.

We will never fly with them again.
votes 0 Helpful / 0 Funny / 0 Agree / 0 Disagree

18 hours ago

Ridiculous. Got to the gate a little late, but they were still boarding. They rebooked me on the next flight 2 and a half hours later! Flight ended up leaving 20 minutes late ANYWAY.

votes 0 Helpful / 0 Funny / 0 Agree / 0 Disagree

yesterday

I have lived in DC, Tucson, Dallas, San Francisco, and Hong Kong. The past three months in Milwaukee have been BY FAR the most painful, horrible and miserable I've experienced due to geography in my entire life. This town (it's not worthy of being called a "city") lacks a single redeeming quality other than the world-class museum, which may as well have well been built on Mars. People are largely rude and most of the architecture consists of washed out rust belt era dilapidation. The cafes, coffee bars, and even the handful of sushi restaurants all seem to favor music genres and design concepts that tend to inspire thoughts of suicide. There is really nothing to do here other than eat over-sized portions of mediocre and overpriced restaurant food, drink copious amounts of beer, and sit on your ass. The lack of parking is insane (anyone staying for even one night is required to have a "night parking permit"), the drivers are beyond terrible, poverty and crime are rampant, and people generally lack culture or professional aspiration. This town's single saving grace is it's proximity to Chicago, which is still just way too far away for comfort. I've had panic attacks nearly every other day since moving here and I absolutely cannot wait to leave. This place is the filthy armpit of America and I hope it breaks off and floats off and sinks into the depths of Lake Michigan someday.
votes 1 Helpful / 0 Funny / 0 Agree / 0 Disagree

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