Travel Archives

August 25, 2014August 26, 2014

A Squirrelly Night In Kent

I think I’m going to stop letting Road Warriorettes pick the motel rooms. Remember the problems I had with Friend Shari?

Curator Jessica and I took a road trip from Athens to Kent, Ohio, Sunday so we could meet some museum folks in Kent and Massillon. We had a great drive with many stops and diversions that’ll show up in posts in the future.

Curator Jessica reads the reviews

About two hours south of Kent, I pulled into a parking lot while she researched motels. When I heard her discount this one because of bloody sheets and another one because it had more #1 ratings than #5 ratings, it looked like it was going to take awhile. I told her to wake me up when she had made a choice.

She booked us two rooms in the Clarion Inn and Conference Center in Hudson, about 30 minutes from where we have to be on Monday morning. Then, we made arrangements to meet one of her friends for one of the best pizzas I’ve ever had.

Internet doesn’t need password

When we got to the front desk, I asked about the internet connection. I was assured that it didn’t need a password, just connect and go.

My tablet connected fine and dropped me into a screen where I agreed to something or another, and I was on my way.

The laptop I use to do the blog would connect and it would tell me that I should click HERE to open my browser (presumably to get the OK screen). No go. I tried everything I could think of: connecting, disconnecting, reconnecting, changing browsers, disabling Adblock Plus, etc. Finally, I called the front desk. Gal says to reboot my computer. Oh, yeah, I would NEVER have thought of THAT.

I tried the reboot and all the other stuff, then called the desk again. Guy answers and tells me he can give me an 800-number for tech support. I didn’t rent a room from some third-party tech support company, I rented it from Clarion Inn and Conference Center, but I say “Give me the number.” While he’s searching for the number, I hear loud banging in the hallway. I figure somebody can’t get a door open or closed.

Router is busticated

Guy comes back on the phone and says that due to the recent storms in the area, they are having problems with the router that serves the 140-numbered rooms. He’ll move me to another room if he can.

“It’s 11:17. I have everything unpacked and spread around, I have at least an hour’s worth of work to do if I start right now, and I’m sitting here in my underwear. I don’t think you want me to go walking down the hall like that. When I check into a motel chain that is supposed to cater to business users, I expect to be able to use the internet.”

While I’m on the phone, Curator Jessica sends me a text: “Wow, there is a small drama going on in the hallway next to your room. This night just gets better.” She calls the front desk to report the disturbance.

Desk Guy wishes me a good night

Yeah, like THAT is going to happen.

Tumult outside my door gets louder, with much cussing and banging. I cautiously peek around the door and see a woman with enough tattoos to rival a map of Ohio striding down the hallway screaming, “I’m going to call the cops on everybody in this hall.”

Jessica texts an offer to bring over her pepper spray to protect me if I need it. She’s full of late-night help and information like her text moments before midnight, “Somebody on Facebook told me that today is National Go Topless Day. If it was on Facebook, it must be true, right?”

OK, it’s been 30 minutes of quiet. Now I hear door pecking, then banging again. Map-looking woman is there with two cops (or uniformed security guys, I didn’t look closely) and they are trying to get someone in Room 145 to open up. (I’m in 143.)

Maybe Jessica should have picked the motel with the bloody sheets.

Oh, yeah, the squirrel

I guess you are wondering about the picture at the top of the page. It’s a sculpture of a black squirrel in Acorn Alley in downtown Kent. Here is the background about the black fuzzy-tailed rodents and how they got to town.

UPDATE

I had an early morning call from the manager of the hotel who had see my post on Facebook. After a discussion, she agreed to comp the room because of the inconvenience. She also said she would encourage the staff to check for log entries that might indicate that a room wasn’t up to snuff.

We both agreed that the hotel had no control over unruly guests. I’m pretty sure she was talking about the drunk woman in the next room who was banging on doors and hollering, not me, but I’m not positive.

Neither of us could turn back the clock to undo the problems of the previous night, but I was pleased that she reached out for me so quickly. Nice save.

August 22, 2014

Cape to Athens

I was supposed to head out for Athens, Ohio, on the afternoon of August 19 and make a leisurely two-day drive out of it, with some sightseeing along the way.

Right before I started breaking down the computer equipment for loading, the weather alert radio went off with a severe thunderstorm warning with reports of baseball-sized hail west of us. I didn’t want to take a chance on getting holes punched in my windows before heading off cross-country, so I holed up under the overhang at the nearby funeral home. I was joined by two other cars shortly after.

We got some gusty winds, heavy rain and about five minutes of pea and marble-sized hail, but it blew through quickly. A few limbs snapped off a walnut tree on the side of the house, but that was about it. Based on scanner traffic, Jackson must have gotten more of the storm than we did.

Saying goodbye

Mother and I usually take a group selfie when I head out, but since I’m going back to Cape in about a week, we decided to go with a wave.

I think she’s been watching too much TV news out of St. Louis. That looks less like a wave than a “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot” pose.

Traffic was OK

With only a couple of exceptions, traffic was light and moving smoothly. Some clouds popped up a few times, but I had more bug splatters than rain splatters on the windshield.

Worked in a few naps

Listening to a good audio book about World War II kept me awake, but I did stop at some rest areas for seven and nine-minute naps. This is what I saw when I woke up from one of them.

I was in good company: there were six or eight 18-wheelers in the parking lot with their diesel engines grumbling away. It was either that or their pilots were really snoring.

Rolled into Athens with 532 miles under my belt at about 1:18 a.m. (I lost an hour due to the time zone change.) Wife Lila complained that 1:18 isn’t an “about” time.

I tried to explain that the exact time would be 1:18:42. I just rounded it to 1:18.

I don’t think it’s going to be safe for me to go home.

July 24, 2014July 24, 2014

Adcock Is Nuts About Pecans

Wife Lila asked me to keep my eyes open for pecans. When I left the motel in Tifton, Georgia, this morning I noticed a sign that said Adcock Pecans and Peanuts “handful or truckloads.”

After an excellent breakfast of waffles and country ham at Waffle House, I asked some of the folks in there if Adcock had good deals or it they were just a tourist trap.

The concensus was that they had been around forever, but it wasn’t someplace that locals go. There are too many pecan trees around for anybody to pay for them, one man pointed out.

Better not buy them

When I walked into the place, which was about the size of a football field, if not longer, I encountered table after table of really pretty pecans and other goodies. I called Wife Lila to ask if she wanted me to get any.

She said the price was “okay, but not great.” On second thought, she said, don’t buy them: by the time they get hauled all over the country in a hot car, they probably wouldn’t be any good.

“It’s the same car I’m going to be riding in,” I objected.

There was a long, long pause. I got the point.

Here is a link to the Adcock website, if you are interested.

July 23, 2014

Going to the Dogs

I got held up a little this morning by a hot cell right over our house. Not only was it raining, but just as I put my hand on the aluminum screen door on the porch, there was a flash of lightning that must have hit a block away, followed by a clap of thunder almost strong enough to bowl me over.

I decided to wait inside.

When the last thing was loaded, I reached over to turn the key to get the AC blasting and heard “Whirrr, whirr, whir, silence.” I haven’t done much driving lately, and I had the car’s interior lights on for a long time last night, so the battery was dead. That’s not a good omen for the start of a trip.

Once I got clear of the yard, stopped for gas and got on the highway, though, life improved. I’m listening to a really interesting audiobook, A Higher Call, “an incredible true storm of combat and chivalry in the war-torn skies of WWII.” That made the miles go by quickly.

A neighbor I hadn’t expected

I stopped at the Steak ‘n’ Shake in Ft. Pierce for lunch. When I finished, I noticed a vehicle parked pretty close to my driver side. It had the window down and I could see a figure behind the wheel. I calculated that the driver was waiting for someone to come out, so I sidled between the two cars with my back to the neighbor.

When I got to where the window was, I heard a low, guttural sound more like an intake of breath than a “WOOOOOF.” I turned to look this guy in the eye. He had an equally big friend behind the wheel.

I thought, this is REALLY going to be a bad way to start a trip.

I give the animals credit. They never barked; they never acted agitated, in fact, despite the fact that we were almost touching each other, they didn’t take much interest in me.

For the record, I wasn’t concerned that the owner had left them unattended in the vehicle: both windows were down, it was a fairly cool, overcast morning, and the dogs weren’t panting from the heat.

I pulled into Tifton, Georgia, shortly before dark, with 436 miles of 1,100 in my rearview mirror.

By the way, you can click on the dog if you want to make him larger, but he was PLENTY large enough for me.