My Garmin spit out a route that probably would have worked fine, but I was all "Oh no, I can make a shorter route that has less hills!" I'm not sure I did either. I just made today worse, I think. Part of my proposed route was on a divided highway-- not my favorite to ride on, but they generally have big shoulders, and things go pretty quickly. Not so today. This was practically a freeway, and the shoulder came and went at random. I got off of that pretty quickly, and had to meander through the sprawling Jersey suburbs to get back on track. At least the roads are all labeled, and the drivers are much more careful with my life than NY drivers.
Hey MSN: next time could you work out all the bugs BEFORE you roll out a new product? And make sure it works with your OS and browser? I'm just sayin'.
$4 mocha. $3 tiny cup of fruit. $6 sandwich. $2 muffin. Paying for the whole shebang with a Starbucks gift card then scarfing like a pig while you drip all over their nice clean "café" and charge your phone: priceless.
A woman drove up next to me for a mobile chat, and offered to let me stay at her place, but it was only 3 PM, and I wanted to go a lot further today. I'm set on making it to Philly tomorrow, and I needed to reach a reasonable halfway point. Tomorrow I'm following Garmin's instructions to the letter.
I made it through the day by promising myself a motel stay tonight, to make up for all the rain. And there was no way I was going to camp in *that* tent. So for some reason I decided there would be hotels and motels in the direction I was headed, but that was dumb. When I got around to checking, the one I was headed for was not actually a hotel (thanks Garmin!) and I had to switch directions at 6 PM and head to the only other hotel I could even hope to reach. Night fell like an anvil on the way there, and my wet glasses made it impossible to see when there were headlights coming at me. Also, I broke my headlight. So I took off my glasses (and the rear-view mirror attached to them), put on my tiny headlamp, and rode (blind) to the hotel. I was getting pretty panicky, but I made it in one piece. Then, after getting literally soaked today, I got figuratively soaked by the hotel. Yeesh, is it pricey! And I called around-- nothing is cheap in this area of friggin' nowheresville New Jersey. Blurg. I guess that's the price I pay for poor planning. I don't even want to type how much it cost, but I will say it approaches the total amount of money I spent on camping for the previous 44 days. And no free breakfast! And a twin bed in a tiny room. Although the bathroom is big enough to pitch a tent in, so I did just that. And I'm on the third floor, so a porter had to help me carry my bike and stuff up the stairs, and I felt obligated to tip. But with all of the free camping and kind hospitality I've received lately, I have no right to bitch.
After spreading all my stuff out to dry and lubing my bike chain, I hopped in the tub for a soak. Then I realized I was totally wasting my time! One should always take full advantage of a tub one doesn't have to clean, especially when one has paid dearly for the privilege of using said tub, so I got out the weedwacker and went to work. Who's a lady? Me! (Do I have to leave a tip for the cleaning person, too?)
4 comments:
Oh, Cheri! You crack me up! How is it that an expensive hotel only has a twin bed? I don't think I've ever seen a twin bed in a hotel. A hostel, yes. Hotel, no. And, didn't they have an elevator for your bike? Crazy! No need to tip! I used to be a maid at the Holiday Inn and I think I got $1.00 ONCE. So, I wouldn't feel pressured to tip. That's just my bitter opinion. It's great you could set up your tent though! I hope your days get better and you make it to DC before your birthday! It's not far away! Happy Trails...
Hey cheri, if you see this, gimme a call. I miss you!!
Seriously, I'm not just complaining about a pricey hostel. They had a room with a twin bed as their "cheaper" option for business travelers. I was kind of out of it, but it seemed like a pretty old building, so I'm wondering if they remodeled and wound up with a room that wasn't big enough for a real bed.
And I did the math: Even with the "AAA" discount, I still paid just over $11 per hour that I stayed there. After taxes, of course.
I'm so close to DC, I can almost taste the vacation from my vacation. Oh wait, that's just the philly cheesesteak from earlier.
jeremy fluhrer, i can't believe i ran into your name so randomly! you're a hard man to find! write me back, sugar! (talleyahenning@gmail.com)
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