Installations Done and Meeting More New Friends in Salt Lake City

At the Salt Lake City KOA...

Consistent with hiccups that often happen in the service world, our new microwave oven was delivered to the KOA office here, but the delivery guys didn't know they were supposed to install it, and promptly drove away. After some less-than-genteel conversations with Home Depot's customer service (obviously an oxymoron in my case), an installation was rescheduled to take place in a couple of days. 

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So, it's a couple of days later.  Whoops! The installation guys took one look at the old microwave oven and informed us this would require custom work that was beyond their capability. I think they were spooked by the motorhome; this was obviously the first time they had been inside one. The installation clearly didn't require any custom work; it was a standard microwave and a standard opening. I think these guys just didn't want to tackle anything that was a bit outside the ordinary. It made me wonder exactly what they were good at--metabolizing? Motor functions? I suppose I'll never know. But I do know that they did not represent Home Depot well. I decided to cancel that installation and add it to the list when Access RV installs the new air conditioner.

Meanwhile, we're still finding creative ways to heat up and defrost food items. Have we become so spoiled that we forgot microwave ovens haven't always been around? Did people really heat food on a stove in some ancient time?  Heck, I can remember when I saw my first microwave oven--I was about 14 years old. Let's see...that was more than 50 years ago, wasn't it? 

A quick look at Wikipedia reveals that the microwave oven was invented in 1947 and patented by Raytheon under the RadarRange brand. The first commercial model weighed 750 pounds and cost  $27,000 in today's dollars. The smaller residential versions didn't see wide use until the 1970s.

The microwave oven in Phannie is a combination microwave/convection oven, so it took us a while to find one of these that would fit the bill. The one we bought, a Kitchen Aid, is ever so much nicer than the original Panasonic model that has cratered on us.

We had the good fortune to gain a new neighbor in the site adjacent to us. The very nice Discovery motorhome pulled in, and I went over to greet the couple and say welcome to the neighborhood. I learned that Allen and Carrol were not only fellow Texans, but former residents of east Texas, as is yours truly. Here's their photo:

  
Instantly feeling almost like kinfolks, we were privileged to accompany them downtown to watch a rehearsal of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. The choir and orchestra were, of course, magnificent, and we enjoyed the experience again, having seen them here a couple of years ago:

We also accompanied Allen and Carrol to dinner the next evening, and we really enjoyed the fellowship and laughter. Here's hoping we cross paths again one of these days.

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So, it's a couple of days later, and the new A/C and microwave oven are installed and ready to go. We really like the new microwave; now we have to learn how the controls work:

The installation work was done by Access RV here in Salt Lake City. I thought their work was excellent, and the price seemed very fair. I think I'll include them in my list of favorite service providers, linked in the far right column of this blog.

While I'm on the subject of links, I am still adding new parks to the "Best of the Best RV Parks" linked at the same location. An alert reader notified me the other day that I had included the wrong link for one of the RV parks, which I promptly corrected. Thank you for your help!

Also remember that you can get a 15 percent discount on any product you buy from Strongback Chairs by including the coupon "PhannieandMae15." This will save you about 15 bucks on the Elite model (and no, I don't get any kickback from them).

We will be here in Salt Lake for the better part of two more weeks, then off to Provo and St. George, Utah.

Thank you, Lord, for this wonderful life; please forgive me if I don't appreciate it enough each day.

I had rather own little and see the world than to own the world and see little of it.  

-- Alexander Sattler