Long day, long drive.
Started at 06:00, I don't really know why... I just woke up then and couldn't get back to sleep...
The class day went fine, it was mostly review and I appear to have retained more than I thought that I was going to. This class was really good for me, I think... it makes CT more of an intellectual challenge. Actually, when I come to think about it, I'm really damned lucky to be able to work with such amazing machines.
So, with a tearful goodby for my teachers and classmates, I head into the setting sun...
Well, it was really hard telling where the sun was, it was overcast and drizzly and a wonderful day for driving, as almost all days are...
The foliage is beautiful, especially around Cleveland. Not so much around Chicago, but then I wasn't really paying attention once I got to Chicago. I was way too busy...
Getting lost. So, what's new? I get lost in a new city every time. It's how I have fun, after all!
So, what happened? Well, I missed a turn somewhere. I was supposed to stay on I-90 until I got to exit 48B. I was about 52 or something like that when I got lost. So close, so close... not really close at all. Not really.
Lost in Chinatown, I was.
Then I got lost in Greek Town.
Then I got just plain lost.
Well, all of this being lost is OK and all, but my bladder was aching by this time... and no convenient gas stations or anything like that.
So I go way up this street, like 4-5 miles, because I have run into this street that shows up in my Map-Quest directions. I give up on finding the cross street, and head in the other direction. I stop several pedestrians, but they are no help whatsoever, being either tourists (twice) or complete idiots. Finally I saw a cop hit her lights and stop someone on a side street. I pulled up behind her and prepared to wait while she ticketed the other guy that she pulled over, but she seemed more interested in me... this kinda worried me at first, but she was honestly more interested in what I might want than she was in giving out a routine traffic ticket.
Yeah, she got me going in the right direction, she even told me to make a u-turn on the side street, which was plainly marked as illegal. She told me to wait for a safe time...
Anyways, I was only about a quarter-mile from my destination when I turned back the first time. But of course.
So, I found the hotel. I knew that there was both valet and public parking, and the self-park was about half the price of the valet parking. So, I'm a cheapskate. It's a six-floor parking garage, with only one slot open. And that slot changes every thirty seconds. On my third trip up (and remember, my bladder is really close to bursting at this point) Karen calls. I'm not in the mood to talk, right? So anyway, I finally find an open slot (I caught a guy leaving) and park and grab my laptop from the trunk and headed for the stairs. And hallaluia, there was a men's room on the first landing!
Relieved, I returned to the car and got the big suitcase and trundle it through the shopping mall (kinda like Crown Center in KC) and out the front door and around the corner to the Day's Inn.
I just missed everyone by about ten minutes, dammit.
So I went across the street and down a ways and got a greasy ham and cheese sandwich and then went by the car and picked up the last bag and went back to the room. Which is a king, but really really dinky. And small, and narrow, and the window looks out on... a brick wall. If I crane my neck, I can see part of a roof and another brick wall. But that's OK, 'cause I'm just gonna sleep when I'm in here anyway.
Well, and I'll be online in here too, if I can ever get online. I can't seem to hold a solid connection, and I'm paying $0.75 every time it dials the number. I'm sure that I can ask someone tomorrow how to get online here...