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Just like Bert and Ernie...
Jan. 6th, 2015 11:00 pmToday we met a customer in Richmond. Because there were warnings last night of snow early this morning, starting at five a.m., we discussed what to do- leave at seven thirty this morning to give ourselves enough time to drive in the snow, leave at four am just ahead of the snow, or leave Front Royal right then so that we didn't have to deal with it at all.
We made the decision at 10 pm. We left at 10:30 pm.
Just outside of Fredericksburg, we got a guide to hotels and found one in Doswell, Virginia, that seemed ok, figuring a hundred miles was a good enough drive and it placed us, first, close to our appointment, and second, outside of the snow zone.)
Well, it was good enough, especially at 12:15 am- a chain hotel outside of Kings Dominion with off season rates (less than thirty-seven dollars) and Continental Breakfast (which we skipped after seeing the night clerk organizing the bagels with his bare hands on our way to our room).
Then we go to the room. The room had been cleaned well enough, but they'd used some sort of hyacinth scented air freshener; the heat was on so the heat plus scent was... a little off putting.
Not a problem, I turned on the air-conditioning. That helped enough that we decided to crash for the night.
I turned off the lights and Perry had me adjust the curtains, there was light coming in from the street lamp. Done.
Next stop, Dreamland, right?
Wrong.
The air conditioning stopped, part of its cycle. It was off for a few minutes, cycled through and came back on.
Perry asked me to turn it off.
I got up and tapped the Off Button and went back to bed.
Oddly, that only turns off the heating and cooling elements. The fan did what ever it wanted. Including starting back up after I was under the covers. "I can't sleep if it's going to do that," Perry said.
Only one way to deal with something like that: I got up and unplugged the unit. Silence.
Quiet enough to sleep. Until from the dark there was a mechanical noise, something had started.
"What's that?"
"Pretend it's your bedside fan."
"Oh, we should have packed that." Yes, because if we'd packed it, it would drown out the other noises.
"Clay, I can't sleep if it's going to do that."
It was the mini-fridge. I unplugged that too.
I got back under the covers, eyeing the fire alarm suspiciously.
"Now can you sleep?"
Perry considered his answer... "It's too quiet."
(This wasn't -by far- the worst motel we've stayed at. There was one in Suffolk that was... gross, one in Charlottesville that we didn't even stay at because of fleas (the desk clerk said they've been working on fixing that), and one in Pennsylvania that smelled bad because of the sewage treatment plant next door.
Of course, there's also what I call The Dover Incident. We drove to Lewes, Deleware on a buying trip, not realizing that A) it was a weekend, B) it was Summer and C) there was a NASCAR race at the Dover International Speedway.
Naturally, ALL the motels on the Eastern Shore between Dover and Exmore were filled to capacity. This is not an exaggeration. The entire 130 mile span between Dover and Exmore, we stopped at every motel on Route 13 looking for a room. We got to Exmore and realized we were only an hour and a half away from home at three in the morning, we said "Fuck it." Never has our own bed been so comfortable.)
We made the decision at 10 pm. We left at 10:30 pm.
Just outside of Fredericksburg, we got a guide to hotels and found one in Doswell, Virginia, that seemed ok, figuring a hundred miles was a good enough drive and it placed us, first, close to our appointment, and second, outside of the snow zone.)
Well, it was good enough, especially at 12:15 am- a chain hotel outside of Kings Dominion with off season rates (less than thirty-seven dollars) and Continental Breakfast (which we skipped after seeing the night clerk organizing the bagels with his bare hands on our way to our room).
Then we go to the room. The room had been cleaned well enough, but they'd used some sort of hyacinth scented air freshener; the heat was on so the heat plus scent was... a little off putting.
Not a problem, I turned on the air-conditioning. That helped enough that we decided to crash for the night.
I turned off the lights and Perry had me adjust the curtains, there was light coming in from the street lamp. Done.
Next stop, Dreamland, right?
Wrong.
The air conditioning stopped, part of its cycle. It was off for a few minutes, cycled through and came back on.
Perry asked me to turn it off.
I got up and tapped the Off Button and went back to bed.
Oddly, that only turns off the heating and cooling elements. The fan did what ever it wanted. Including starting back up after I was under the covers. "I can't sleep if it's going to do that," Perry said.
Only one way to deal with something like that: I got up and unplugged the unit. Silence.
Quiet enough to sleep. Until from the dark there was a mechanical noise, something had started.
"What's that?"
"Pretend it's your bedside fan."
"Oh, we should have packed that." Yes, because if we'd packed it, it would drown out the other noises.
"Clay, I can't sleep if it's going to do that."
It was the mini-fridge. I unplugged that too.
I got back under the covers, eyeing the fire alarm suspiciously.
"Now can you sleep?"
Perry considered his answer... "It's too quiet."
(This wasn't -by far- the worst motel we've stayed at. There was one in Suffolk that was... gross, one in Charlottesville that we didn't even stay at because of fleas (the desk clerk said they've been working on fixing that), and one in Pennsylvania that smelled bad because of the sewage treatment plant next door.
Of course, there's also what I call The Dover Incident. We drove to Lewes, Deleware on a buying trip, not realizing that A) it was a weekend, B) it was Summer and C) there was a NASCAR race at the Dover International Speedway.
Naturally, ALL the motels on the Eastern Shore between Dover and Exmore were filled to capacity. This is not an exaggeration. The entire 130 mile span between Dover and Exmore, we stopped at every motel on Route 13 looking for a room. We got to Exmore and realized we were only an hour and a half away from home at three in the morning, we said "Fuck it." Never has our own bed been so comfortable.)
