Sometimes
traveling is tough.
I
am done work by 9:40 a.m. It’s time to get on the road and I’m out of the hotel
by 10:40 and after getting gas at a Sunoco station, I’m on Interstate 71S and
then I-270W a couple minutes later.
The
traffic is heavy and getting through Columbus with the construction is
nerve-wracking. I hate the driving already this morning. I want to go home! I
can’t see anything and I can’t take time to look. I fight back tears. Oh, why
did I say I’d do this? Could I possibly find another route home? I don’t want
to do this anymore – Whaaaaaaa whaaaa.
I
reach I-70W and after some initial construction and moving out of the city, the
traffic thins and I feel better. The speed limit is 70 miles per hour. The land
is flatter here with more open fields. It dawns on me that I feel
claustrophobic driving through the cities. It feels like the walls and traffic
are closing in on me and I can’t breathe.
I
cross into Indiana at 12:20 p.m. The sky is overcast and it’s windy when I stop
at a welcome center. Unfortunately it isn’t manned and no one to ask about time
change or if I should stay on I-70 through Indianapolis or go around on I-465.
When I come out of the building, they skies look ominous. I take a few photos
before getting back on the road.
Bridges
in Indiana have concrete sides like in Ohio. I can’t see the rivers, but at
least here, in the flat areas, I can see fields, trees, farms and such. Nice!
Soon the sky falls and it rains. It’s gray, kind of like fog, but not fog. Am I
willing to drive through Indianapolis in the rain and poorer visibility? Yes, I
can be brave. But when I see a Comfort Inn sign in Greenfield, I decide to stop
for the night.
Sometimes
the hotels are not up to standards.
I’m
glad to stop, but this place is awful! Everything about it is beat-up and old.
The young women at the desk are very nice, though. I get a room on third floor
and when I open the door, “Ewwww, it stinks like dirty socks!” The odor is
similar to the hotel hallways in Syracuse. I think it’s the carpet cleaner they
use. I get out my perfume and squirt it a bit.
I
decide to take a swim before settling in to work. There looks to be pine
needles on the pool bottom along the sides look. Where would pine needles come
from here? The grip bar only extends to two steps and I cautiously make my way
down the last three into the water. This is a safety hazard. The water is warm,
but as I swim out to the deeper end and begin to do my exercise, I look around.
Where’s
the clock? How can I time myself? Then I begin noticing things: Scrapes along
the wall, the floor around the pool was painted a crap-color brown and looks
really yucky… everything about this room feels gross. That’s it, I can’t take
it and I swim back to the shallow end. I hate to touch the hand rail (once I
struggle up the couple of steps to reach it) and notice that it’s all
rusty-looking and dirty on the underside. Ewww.
I
can’t get dry off and get back to my room fast enough. But it doesn’t get
better. I can’t get on the internet and the phone won’t work, so it’s back down
to the first floor. The desk clerk goes to the second floor to restart the
internet then brings a new phone after not being able to get the one working.
She offers to give me another room, but admits they’re all the same. I have too
much stuff to move and I need to get to work.
I
get used to the smell of the room although I feel slightly ill, like that
weight that settles in your head just before you realize you are getting a
cold. I struggle to get the work done because the chair is so uncomfortable.
The adjustment doesn’t work (clerk said they are supposed to be getting new
chairs) and if I move just right, it creaks just like my old chair back home
before that one broke.
I
can’t wait to get out of this place!