From A Waffle To An Earful Of Awful

(We’re on vacation from Nebraska and have just paid $90 to take a tram to the top of a mountain where there’s a small waffle house. There’s a sink in the corner behind the counter, and two fully operational bathrooms down the back hall.)

Me: “I’d like one Nutella waffle, please.”

Worker: “Anything to drink?”

Mom: “Can we just get a glass of water? Like, tap water, or something?”

Worker: “Sorry, we don’t get water pumped up here. We’re too high up. It won’t pump. We do have bottles.”

Mom: “$3.75 for a bottle is too high for us. We’ll just take the waffle.”

Worker: “Well, it’s so high because of all the manpower it takes to bring it up here. They can’t just drive it up on a truck, you know. They have to bring it 10,000 feet up the mountain. What do you think that costs us? Where are you from? Probably not around here. Do you know how high the cost of living is in this area? We have to adjust the prices accordingly, you know. It takes a lot just to get all of those bottles up the mountain. There’s a 13 million dollar tram that you rode up here, how do you think we pay for maintenance?”

Mom: “Um, why don’t you help your other customers?”

Worker: “It’s not easy bringing it up the mountain, that’s all I’m saying!”

(After helping his next few customers he kept going on and on about how difficult it was to put the water bottles on the giant tram lift to get them up the mountain. He was so insistent about their struggle that he completely forgot about my waffle.)