Wednesday, September 10, 2008

I Drove All Night

There's a reason I ended up all night.

I need to set the stage. I had a pretty good drive into Indiana. I'm not going to say that's when problems started more like complications.

The first thing is that the road signs are difficult to read at night. This is true when you are in the right hand lane and is especially true when you are in the left hand lane.

The next thing is the huge number of trucks on the road. I felt like I was the only car. The trucks also all seemed to be in the right hand lane. 

Seeing the signs was thus further complicated because of all the trucks. I tried to use my GPS to locate places to stay but it was hard to scroll through the screens and see the road a the same time. 

I missed a couple of exit for places to stay due to the signs and the trucks blocking the signs. Finally I decided I had to fine a place.

It is now close to 1:30 am. I've been on the road since 3:30 pm. I find a potential place a Super 8. I take the exit. I drive to where the Super 8 is. The entrance (I use that term loosely) is a gravel parking lot which leads to sort of a paved/gravel road with many pot holes that leads to the Super 8 parking lot. 

I get out and walk to the office. The main lobby is closed but there is a night check in room. The door into this room is the best way I can describe it as being off its hinges. It will not close correctly. I enter the room. It has an ice machine which in incredibly loud. I close the door and look at the wall behind the door. At the level of the door nob on the wall there is a hole. I can only assume someone opened the door too quickly. I think to myself that I'll only be here for four or five hours and I can take this.

The guy who checks people in is behind a glass window. Think of how tellers are at banks. But tellers have a whole at head level where you can talk back and forth to each other. That's not the case here. Because the ice machine is so loud the only way to hear the guy is to stick you ear to the slot you pass paper back and forth to hear what the guy. I ask how much is the room. One more quick piece of information the sign outside the Super 8 says rooms start at $31 and up. I figure I'm not going to get a room for that price. The guy says a single for the night is $50. I say thanks and turn away. I'm sorry there is no way that I'm paying that much money for a room. The guy gets my attention and beckons me back to him. I just wave and say bye.

There are a couple more choices at this exit. Both don't pan out. One the office is closed and the other is for truckers. I figure I'm getting close enough to Indianapolis that there be more places just a little further down the road. 

I get back on the high way. It is now around 2. I start thinking do I want to find a place that is east of Indianapolis. I have to drive right through the center of the city. Do I really want to do that in the middle of rush hour on Wednesday. I figure the thing to do is get n the western side of the city and find a place. I figure that shouldn't take all that long. I was so wrong. I will say I did get to drive right past the new football stadium. It was really cool.

It took me about 45 minutes to get to the other side of Indy. I start thinking again. It's now like 2:45 am. I find a place move, register, move all my stuff in the room. That'll take like 30 minutes or so. I take a shower and then get into bed. Might take a little time to go to sleep. So like 4 am I'm drifting off only to wake up 5 or 6 hours later. Seems like a waste of money. I decide the thing to do is just keep on going. 

And that's what I did.

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