Tammy and I seem to ask ourselves on a regular basis…”so what have we learned?” This usually is the result of us getting ourselves in some type of situation that we want to commit to memory so we don’t repeat it. Suffice it to say, it doesn’t always work.
Our latest adventures started as we packed up yesterday morning to move to our new place in Albuquerque. With winter raising havoc elsewhere across the country we’re not in a big hurry to leave NM but we’re also looking forward to a change of location soon. I chose the place as it was in a new area of the city we haven’t been in and who knows it actually may have some redeeming features that Albuquerque in general is lacking except for the mountain view. The good news about the new place is that it was a townhouse, so upscale and there was a gym in the complex. Sounded like a good spot for us
The one little bit of worry I had came from the fact that this was a new host without a track record. Communication had been a little spotty time to time but they confirmed they would meet us at 11 am. Our semi-senile, hard of hearing and poor backer-upper Lyft driver got us to the address about 10 minutes early. A townhouse complex of 200-300 units, all spread out. I did not have the exact unit number but we were to meet the host.
I had sent the host a message through Airbnb we were on our way, arrived, and still waiting…after three phone calls, all going to voice message. After a half hour of waiting I contacted Airbnb. We’re normally pretty patient folks, but the wind was really brisk, temperature cool and when snow started spitting at us standing around our bags on a sidewalk. Fun left the party.
Tammy was a rock…she started plotting a course for shelter…Rebel Donuts, while I explained the situation to Airbnb customer support. Their solution was to reach out to the host and give them 60 minutes to respond before they would cancel our reservation on behalf of the host. Only problem that remained was to find (last minute) a suitable replacement. My nose was stuck in my phone as Tammy got us picked up and delivered to the safe arms of donuts. We hunkered down as I kept looking for a place we could lay our heads (donut shop was not 24/7 so it was out).
Long story short, I eventually found a place on my 10th or 11th time of searching and negotiating with the host. It’s an actual house so Tammy and I get lost now and again it’s so big. It has a BBQ, washer and dryer and a door lock key pad. I made mention to Tammy that the door locks every time it closes, but I had the code on my phone.
Next morning we were considering a walk to check out a trail up into Petroglyph National Monument. I had gone outside to check the weather and determined it was iffy enough to need a second opinion. I asked Tammy to come out and she did so we could point our noses into the wind and try and judge the intentions of some dark clouds. We determined we needed to wait a bit so went to head inside….oh…the closed door.
I reached for my back pocket where my phone often resides but it was sitting at the dining room table. Did you know that a keypad with eleven options (0-10 keypad) and a four number code have 14,641 possible combinations? I knew a couple of the numbers but not all four and not which order. After multiple attempts…Tammy took a try too, but of course she had to reply on my rusty steel trap memory.
Tammy, being the brains of the outfit quickly summed up our situation and asked, “What now?” I recalled that when I took a shower I had cracked the window open and then closed it when I was done. The bathroom window was right by the porch, about seven feet off the ground.
We pulled off the screen and woo woo the window slid open as I had not locked it shut. Good news was we had an open window, seven feet off the ground with an 16 inch opening. I had seen a ladder by the BBQ so we set that up and I was able to climb up. Looking in the window, there is a ledge about five feet below the window sill. Too far down to go in headfirst and not end up with fractured wrists, head and possible neck injuries.
The only option would be to try and go in both feet first and lower myself down. Try as I might, I ended up having to dangle one leg down, get my head and shoulders in and hang onto the sill and swinging bathroom door to get my other leg in. It could have ended up with a visit to the ED but I’m guessing all our working out paid dividends as I was able to bend far enough to accomplish the task. There are no photos of this little adventure as both our phones were safely in the house. I’m not sure if any neighbors took photos, but no police have come to the door yet to investigate the world’s slowest break-in.
As I let Tammy in the front door, we hugged and said…”So what have learned?” We laughed…”Not very much it seems.”
You guys crack me up! I can just imagine the contortions you went through to get up, over, and down safely. At first, I misread / misunderstood when you said you’d *cracked* a window. I thought you meant you’d *broken* a window. I envisioned you punching out the rest of the glass to get in through the window. So glad I read it again!
So what have we learned? Shit happens, even to the most seasoned travelers. I think y’all proved flexible enough to wiggle through the rough spots.
Dull does not seem to follow us. have Tammy tell you about the great fence adventure sometime.
There’s just no margin in getting upset about being locked out of a strange house in your sock feet.