The road so far:
Miles traveled: 921.41 miles
Elevation gained: 34,798 feet
The road yet to come:
Miles to go: 2,502.4 miles
Elevation to gain: 69,717 feet
Today was our second rest day. Time to get stuff done. For me: laundry, wash my bike, make arrangements to have the stuff I forgot in Holbrook, AZ shipped to our NEXT rest day in Emporia, KS, do something touristy, enjoy some good meals if possible, and, of course, REST!
Part of the routine of tour is to wash our cycling kit of the day so it isn’t disgusting the next time we take it out. Particularly since there just isn’t enough space in our bags for 8 or 9 sets of jerseys and bibs. So, what I wear today, I’ll be wearing again in a few days. So each day, when I get to my room I wash my stuff in the shower (and my socks in the sink), and I hang them up to dry. It works great… except when I fail to check the closet in the morning while doing whatever last-minute packing I have. So lo and behold, I forgot a pair of socks, bibs, and my Mets cycling jersey in Holbrook! When I called the hotel the next evening, I was able to confirm that they had my stuff, and when I asked them about shipping that stuff to me, they referred me to either FedEx or UPS. The person I spoke to said that one of them (she wasn’t sure which one) would be able to schedule a pickup and have the driver bring a small box and a shipping label so the hotel could throw it in the box, tape it shut and send it on its way. So, I figured, today would be the most logical day to take care of that.
Well, first I checked UPS. I couldn’t find anything on their website regarding making that sort of arrangement, so I called their customer service number. Somehow I mistakenly believed that I would be able to quickly reach a customer support representative who would be able to quickly answer my questions and make the arrangements, all in a friendly and knowledgeable manner. Boy, was I ever wrong!
When I called the number, I got an interactive voice response system that took me through level after level of menu options that were going nowhere fast. Finally, I responded at some point with “representative” because I was getting SO frustrated! By no means was this the end of the UPS nightmare, however. “I understand that you want to speak to a representative. Before I can transfer you, I will need more information about the reason for your call,” followed by about another 15 minutes of prompts and options. I gave up on UPS and hung up, hoping it was FedEx that would be able to get the job done.
I checked the FedEx website, and once again found myself getting frustrated by not being able to find the specific information I needed. So, the next step was to grit my teeth and dial THEIR customer service number. I absolutely CRINGED when I was once again faced with an interactive voice response system. This time though, I pretty much IMMEDIATELY led off with “representative.” Of course, the system had additional questions, but in under 5 minutes I was actually speaking with a live person! The representative on the phone quickly assured me that they could do what I needed done, but she said I needed to go on fedex.com and do it myself. She said I would need to create an account, link my credit card to that account, and then when that was done I would be able to complete the entire process online. She even offered to stay on the line with me to help me through it all, but I didn’t think that was necessary - I figured that if I got stuck or needed help, I would once again be able to reach a live person for help.
So, on to fedex.com I went. I started off just as she had said, creating an account, giving them my credit card information for billing purposes. I then went on to arrange the pickup, even picking what sort of container I needed for the shipment. When I got to the end of the process, I received a link to print out the shipping label, and received instructions that the package MUST be sealed with the shipping label attached BEFORE the driver arrives or they would not be able to complete the pickup. Uh oh - that was NOT going to work….
So I once again called their customer service number. Only now, because of my number coming up in their caller ID, they already knew who I was, and the options were different. Now, the options ran into a dead end - the system actually told me that it had already provided me with all of the available information regarding my pickup, that any changes would need to be made on fedex.com, and it HUNG UP ON ME!!!
So, I next tried the chat bot on their website. To make a long story short, the experience was pretty much the same as their phone system, with no way for me to get any help from a live human being. Talk about lousy customer service! UPS and FedEx, you should both be ashamed of yourselves!!!
Finally, I called the hotel in Holbrook back, and told them of my experience. Fortunately, they were sympathetic, and the manager agreed to put my stuff in a small box and seal it up and attach the shipping label if I could email it to her. DONE! Within minutes, the label was on its way to her!
Anyway, enough of that tale of woe. Cleaning my bike went smoothly, the mechanics on the Crossroads staff were able to (hopefully) fix the shifting issue I was having, and I still had time to do something touristy!
After the bike was taken care of (which was far simpler and less time consuming than all of the above), I took a walk over to Meow Wolf Santa Fe, an interactive art exhibit that was not far from the hotel. It was certainly “interesting” to say the least, though it will take me the next week or so of digging through their app to figure out the whole storyline. (Basically, the whole exhibit is built around this house where a family moved in and then vanished into another dimension. The house itself was a maze of all kinds of bizarre portals and secret passages to explore, and you pick up clues in their app along the way.) I probably spent about a half hour longer in there than I intended, mainly because I could not find my way back out! (In fairness, I need to point out that at no point was my safety compromised by this confusing maze. There are many doors labeled as emergency exits,,, but they ALSO say that they are for emergency use only, and that an alarm would sound if you open one. I did NOT want to be “that guy” though, hence the extra time inside.
After leaving Meow Wolf, I headed to a very small barbecue restaurant around the corner that I found on Google. It was a little tiny hole in the wall kind of place called Uncle DT’s Smokehouse, but the food there was quite good! I had the Santa Fe Brisket plate, with potato chips, potato salad, and their “cowboy beans.” The meat was very tender, the beans and potato salad were very flavorful and delicious, and the potato chips were, well, potato chips. They had two different sauces on each table, their “regular” sauce and their “hot” sauce. I did not try the hot sauce, but I found their regular sauce to be quite yummy. And, as if the great food wasn’t enough, they had live entertainment! There was a bluegrass duet performing tonight by the name of Banjo Joe and Danielle. Although I’ve never listened to bluegrass before, I found them to be quite good, and their banter between songs was quite entertaining! They are from Illinois but are currently touring the Southwest if you are interested. You can find more information about them on their website, https://banjojoeanddanielle.com/home
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