Monday, March 09, 2009

Why I'm So Hot To Get This Trip Right

One of my best friends use to plan 5 days of things to do on a three day trip. No matter how many things you go to do, you always felt like the trip missed something because you only had time to do 3 or 4 of the 9 things he had scheduled.

I was always spontaneous and trusted my luck on things working out. They usually did, and still do, but as I've gotten older I don't have the patience to tolerate those little glitches that pop up. The last trip Chris and I took together a couple of years ago is a good example.

Road Trip Report: Tuesday, November 13, 2007

The drive into San Francisco from Portland is the pertinent part:

Bay Area

This will be my last trip there!!! Traffic sucks! We got into the area just after dark, it was foggy and really raining. We could see the freeway well enough, but nothing beyond it so I lost all sense of direction.

After a “brief” meandering tour of the hills of Berkley (I have no idea how we got there), we finally found Oakland. I should mention that I was so disoriented, that I actually stopped and asked for directions at one point, which at least got us headed in the right direction.

Due to a bunch of circumstances, I hadn’t reserved a motel. I paid dearly for this. There really isn’t a hell of a lot of motels in the area, and they’re spread all over the place. We hit six that were booked up, one that had one room at $109.00/night (HA!). We were getting farther and farther away from the stadium and I was just hanging onto my sanity due to fatigue and the stress.

I was really starting to wonder how comfortable the seats in the car were for sleeping when we spotted a Motel 6. Three rooms left and $114 for two nights. SOLD!!!

The place was crazy with Raider fans, but maybe because it was raining, it was quiet and we got a good nights rest.


Due to working with an overly flexible schedule and counting on luck, what was overall a good trip, for about 7 hours (7 PM to 1 AM), I was a raving maniac! Part of the problem was we were in my kid's new car and I didn't want to smoke in it which just added to dealing with the rain, lack of visibility and road fatigue.

I'm just going to reserve a room for two nights around Ft. Benning, if I need a third night, I'll figure that out when I get there. That'll give me a couple of days to deal with the next leg. I really don't want to impose on my friends in Alabama for more than 3 days, but if I need to, I will. I had one of my Frat brothers move in with me for 4 months while he did some underpaid apprentice program, and the guy I'm going to visit actually stayed at our apartment on my wedding night. (He slept on the couch you pervs!)

A bright light when Chris goes to AIT is that he will have internet access and we'll be able to Email each other. I just need to get out there and give him a hug and catch up on his life.

15 days and counting.

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