I wrote this on:
Friday, May 28, 2004 – 10:05pm (Central Time)
In all likelyhood, you won’t be able to read this until I get back to Los Angeles. This place is literally in the middle of nowhere. There’s no internet access here as far as I can tell. Though there is a port on the phone that looks like I might be able to plug a modem into. But since I don’t have dialup access that’s not helping me. Maybe my dad has dialup. I might be able to post this stuff from his computer.
I can’t get service on my cell phone. (In fact my cousin is really pissed about that because her husband is in boot camp. He can only call her one day a week for 10 minutes and she probably won’t be able to receive his call.) There is not just one, but three plastic plants in my tiny little room. And I have pictures of ducks and quail adorning the walls.
You know how you go into any hotel room anywhere and there are little individually wrapped soaps, little bottles of shampoo and conditioner, and the little shower cap? Not here. None of it. In fact the only soap I have in my room is one of those dispensers of liquid soap mounted to the wall like you get in gas station bathrooms.
It’s definitely an unusual place. When I checked in, I had to pay my entire bill up front. Someone please tell me if I’m crazy for thinking this is strange. As far as I’ve ever experienced, you check into a hotel and give them a credit card for security. They check to make sure that you can actually pay to stay there. But you don’t settle the bill until you check out. Not here. Money up front.
The few things that have been going my way so far are the travel times. The flight to Memphis was only 3.5 hours. (I forgot about figuring in the timezone difference.) And the drive to Missouri was also 3.5 hours. So that was a nice change from what I was expecting.
Well, I am completely wiped out. It’s 10pm here. Only 8pm on the West Coast but all this traveling left me tired. I think I’ll try to read. I’m betting I get through about 4 pages before I fall asleep.