I planned a last-minute vacation for my family before school starts. It had been almost 5 years since my husband and I were in a fatal car accident where a drunk driver killed one of our friends, left my husband a paraplegic, and left myself and others in varied serious conditions. This was our 1st vacation post-accident, so we chose Estes, because it's very familiar to us, we visited Estes every year until our accident. We have literally stayed at most motels, a few cabins, and several VRBOs over the years (all of which we have had great experiences)..
Logistics and accommodations are difficult to execute these days. Nothing is normal, and nothing is easy anymore. I found the ADA cabin #24, and was so excited, as it appeared to meet our needs.
Fast forward to our arrival. - Dirt road. No problem. (so we thought). The road was full of ruts, bumps and ONE DEEP DIP! Our accessible van sits low. For reference, the ramp my husband uses to get in and out of the van retracts electrically from the bottom of the van and deploys out the side with the push of a button. We approached the dip with great hesitation but knew we had to keep going up the road to our cabin. We took the dip and scraped the bottom terribly.
Scraping the bottom of the van was very concerning. Upon arriving at our cabin, Mark met us. He informed us that he had built up the base of the ramp to the cabin deck with some dirt to aid my husband's entry. I told him how much we appreciated that and eventually mentioned the road and how we scraped. I told him that I was greatly concerned because this is his only means of transportation, and that we have never had this experience. He then explained that he had just created that dip in the road, because cars often speed in, and there are kids frequently running around the pool and amenities unsupervised. I said, "Oh, that's not good." I understood the need, but I reiterated our concern. He left saying he would build up one side of the dip so we wouldn't scrape. (I very much appreciated that)
The next morning, we saw Mark down the road, he had witnessed our scraping, which we thought was good because he could hear the wrenching sound. We stopped and spoke again, and he reiterated that he would work on it. - Again, we greatly appreciated that.
Returning that evening, the dip was still present. We had everyone in the back of the van pile out at the dip to lighten the load. We did this every time we reached the dip. We thought it would help, but we still scraped. We still scraped, time after time. - - Towards the end of our stay, there was a cabin to the right of the dip, coming up the drive, with a half-circle drive. We noticed no car in the driveway and saw that it would allow us to avoid the big dip and inevitably prevent scraping the van again. We used the driveway to the right of the dip TWICE to avoid it. It was a great relief. We even thought about talking to the residents to explain our situation, because they must have thought we looked crazy having everyone pile out at their cabin every day. We looked like clowns piling out of the van at their cabin each time we entered or exited the property, and we kind of wanted them to know the method to our madness. We wish we had spoken to them. (We are looking into finding out their information)
Speed up to the morning of August 11th. We ventured out early to tackle our last day in Estes. The driveway was open. Yay! We could drive out with ease. OR COULD WE???? I went through the driveway the 2nd time, and I saw Mark on an ATV chasing me in my rearview mirror. He chased me down previously to discuss the dip, so I didn't think anything of it. I could tell he had been working on the road before the dip and thought he was probably going to give me an update.
An update was not given. - He literally pulled up beside our van and proceeded to YELL AT ME! He told me I could not drive through the driveway of the cabin next to the dip, as it wasn't part of their property. I explained that we were still scraping the bottom of our van, and that it was doing damage. He kept yelling and arguing that I could not use the driveway, claiming those residents had complained, and that the resort was in the middle of a lawsuit with them. I tried talking civily to him, but he wasn't having it. He wasn't listening to me at all. He just kept ranting and cussing at me. Me, nor any of my family members, could believe the tone and outrage in his voice. He ended the extremely unpleasant confrontation by cussing at me some more, yelling that "He'll fix the f**king road then," and literally peeled out on this ATV blowing all of the fine dust from the road into his face.
I don't know what Mark's role is with Valhalla, but he is a poor, pathetic, unsympathetic, and unprofessional person to represent your resort. He is unapproachable, vile and doesn't handle customer service well. He definitely has anger issues. He certainly wrecked our mo read more
