Frozen rain and hail lash at your face, the wet air feeling colder by the minute. Your rental car, with its fully functional heater sits nearby. You grasp the keys in your pocket; it would be nice if you could use them. Your other hand is holding the phone as you pace the Aspen Vista parking lot, climbing on boulders to increase elevation, angling in different directions, seeking the slightest advantage to get a cellular signal.
With the slightest of signal appearing, you place the call.
“The passenger window on my rental car has been smashed and my stuff stolen,” you explain.
…
They said they’d send an officer from Santa Fe to investigate and he’d be there in less than a half hour. It’s now nearing an hour. It sure would be nice to warm up in the crime scene, but the best you have is the cold, wet winter weather that pushed away the mild temperatures without announcement.
Cars seem to constantly pass, and if not a car passing, it seems a hiker is coming or going from a car in the lot. They must have waited in a car for the perfect opportunity. They must have had a passerby or two—nerves of steel, or just well-conditioned from the repetition.
You place another call, asking about the officer’s arrival and are assured he will be there shortly. You had left New York City early in the morning, skipping sleep that night in lieu of a series of naps in coach class. Being cold and wet is not the best, but when coupled with stolen items and a rental car window that now lies in a thousand shards on the passenger seat, you wish the officer would just arrive so you can put the pieces back together.
A nice warm New Mexican breakfast served at a comfy diner in Santa Fe, with the requisite green and red chile sauces, was a perfect way to start. The scenery and serenity of hiking through the last of the yellow aspens, coated in a fresh layer of overnight snow, helped erase any thoughts of sleep deprivation.
In fact, even as you wait cold and wet, you feel calm. Things could be much worse, and it’s at least a learning experience on multiple fronts, including how one deals with rental car damage.
…
“Its drug addicts,” he states, scribbling information in his pad, “a shame that they do this kind of stuff in a place like this.”
…
You slowly drive down the mountain, the heat on full blast to overcome the gaping hole that sucks in the cold air. You scan the embankments, pulling off at different points to look down the mountain side for any remnants, but no such luck.
…
“Unfortunately in order to return the car, you’ll have to drive from Santa Fe to Albuquerque,” the sympathetic rental car company representative notes. “Just inform them what happened and you should be all set to pick up another car.”
And so, the day ends just as it began, as you pull a shiny rental car out of the airport rental car lot with the best expectations for the trip ahead.
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