Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/554633
AUGUST 12-18, 2015 UCW 9 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM I fought the chicken enchiladas and the enchiladas won; or what I did on my summer vacation. Summer vacation is the time when we leave our own personal comfort zones for a while to pretend to be locals in foreign loca- tions and eat strange food to challenge our digestive systems. To celebrate the return of National Lampoon's Vacation, we headed to New Mexico. Contrary to popular belief, they do accept American dollars in New Mexico. The trip started off with a crunch when an airline employee pushed a lady in a wheelchair over my wife Lani's foot. No harm. No foul. We sat next to a 72-year-old woman who was f lying to see her 189th Rod Stewart concert. That's a lot of span- dex over the dam. On arriving at the Albuquerque airport and being shuttled to the rental car lot, another traveler named Bob Baggerman mistakenly grabbed our suitcase and left his for us. Bob's name was on his suitcase. I began the western adventure walking very rapidly through the airport lobby and the rental car kiosks using my best outside voice yelling "Bob Baggerman!" and scar- ing the tourists. Bob was nowhere to be seen as the rental car lot rapidly emptied. Visions of our suitcase in Parts Unknown, Nevada, danced through my head during my shout and walk. Eventually Bob brought our bag back, embarrassedly muttering, "I am one of those people." A hostage swap ensued. The trip to New Mexico is a biennial event the Pittman cousins take to some place to spend a week together instead of only seeing each other at funerals. I am pleased to report there were no intra-familial homicides on this trip. We came close on a couple occasions, but no blood was spilled. A f ter our week of relat ive bliss, Lani and I st ruck out on our ow n for f ur t her hi jin x. I had made Internet reser vat ions at t he Over Look Motel in Farming ton, New Mexico. This did not t urn out as well as I had hoped. The motel looked a bit worn on t he out side feat uring a park ing lot f ull of beaten up pick up t ruck s and cars whose warrant ies had expired about 1975. There was no desk clerk v isible when I went in. There was a profound and delight f ul smell of curr y at t he desk . A f ter wait ing awhile and using my much- toned-dow n out side voice I was able to rouse t he clerk f rom her supper. We were assigned Room 237, which as fans of The Shining may recall is t he same room number as t he room t hat Mr. Halloran warned Danny Torrance to st ay away f rom. Our room was dow n a long dark hall reek ing of failure, smoke and f lop sweat . This did not seem auspi- cious. The door f rame was bat tered as if w it h- st anding a number of unwelcome int ruders. Opening t he door we beheld our bed of a t hou- sand and one bedbug bites. It was pre-messed w it h large waves in t he blanket t hat could only be only be concealing severed human limbs. A lot of t hings have happened at t he Over Look Motel, and not all of t hem were good. A f ter a ver y brief consult at ion w it h my personal social director, I became conv inced t hat ot her accommodat ions should be sought if I want- ed to sleep w it h her t hat night . Approaching our 40t h year of marriage, I have f inally learned when discret ion is t he bet ter par t of valor. We relocated. New Mexico is truly the land of enchantment. I recommend it highly. Welcome to Room 237 by PITT DICKEY PITT DICKEY. Columnist. COMMENTS? Editor@upandcomin- gweekly.com. 910.484.6200.