We got to the Red Roof Inn around 10:30 last night. Of course it was still raining.
We had gotten our second wind by this point. We walked into the lobby to find nobody there. The lobby was closed off from the rest of the hotel, no bathrooms, no comfy chair to sit in or TV to watch, and most important, no freaking elevators. Which meant I knew we'd be out in the rain again dragging our luggage up flights of stairs in the near future.
So yes, no concierge in the lobby. No bell with a handy "ring for service" note, but Fran hit the buttons on the credit card machine. For some reason that didn't do anything. Hm.
Fran peeked around in the back and just as she did so, in walked Dane. In the 5 minutes I was with Dane, I was thorougly entertained. He was around our age, maybe a year or two younger. I could see him being that guy in high school who everyone thought was annoying as hell but at the same time didn't want to exclude him from the clique because even if he told jokes not good enough to laugh at, they could just laugh at him and that was good enough.
He sees Fran halfway behind the counter and goes "WOW I FEEL REALLY UNCOMFORTABLE RIGHT NOW, ARE YOU GUYS GONNA ROB THE PLACE??"
we laughed. a "i don't really know why thats funny, whyweren'tyouheredoingyourjobinthefirstplace" laugh. Then again, maybe the kid had to go to the bathroom. Like i said, this lobby was lacking in most areas.
I digress.
so we tell him we want to check in. Fran asks if the hotel has a work out room (knowing we'd be driving all the next day) and he goes "NOPE. BUT I'M OFF TOMORROW, YOU COULD COME WORK OUT AT MY PLACE".
good pick up line, Dane.
Trying to pay for the room and i ask if i can use my AAA for a discount. and he goes, "NOPE. SORRY. YOU ALREADY GOT THE CHEERLEADER DISCOUNT".
and either i was just super overtired or his joke was that bad, but i didn't realize he was making fun of me/flirting. I thought maybe there was some cheerleading competition in the area and the hotel had discounts on rooms for people staying for that. or i don't know. seriously. i just wanted to get to the room.
But Fran tells me he was joking and I all flustered-like tell him it's been a long day, that we drove all the way from Illinois. And what does Dane say?
"PSHHH. I COULD RUN HERE FROM ILLINOIS. I RAN ACROSS THE COUNTRY LAST WEEK."
at this point i say in my head, "okay Dane. That's just about enough of you."
So we leave. and sure enough, my first instinct was right. We had to find the middle group of buildings, go up the middle staircase to find our room. in the pouring rain.
The room was fine. No fridge which i was annoyed with, but I was stupid for not looking when I booked the room.
But get this. One of the perks of this place was that Fran and I each got a voucher for $7 in slot play at the casino down the road. So what did Fran and I do at 11pm after driving alllllll day and alllll night?
Went to the casino of course.
We had to sign up for this player's card membership thing and got another free $10 in play from the casino. We couldn't figure out how to use the card in the machine so we had to go get some lady at the customer service desk to come help us. She picked a machine that didn't win me any money. figures.
But I did end up winning!! $7!!!
So my first experiencea at a casino was a success. Fran didn't win anything though :(
We got back to the hotel, I tried to update this blog which kept causing my laptop to crash and finally in an overtired, crabby manner, I shut the laptop, mumbled goodnight to Fran and I think I was asleep before my head hit the pillow.
This morning we woke up, packed up our things, and checked out.
We also got free breakfast vouchers at McDonalds from the hotel so that was another small saving.
Not a huge fan of breakfast, or breakfast at McDonalds, but free is free and I wasn't about to pass that up.
We stopped at a Walgreens to get antibiotic cream for Fran who cut her finger a few weeks ago at work which didn't look infected, but her finger was swollen and stiff. We stopped at the Post Office to mail some postcards (and my parents Anniversary card :) ) and headed out east.
We drove
and drove
and drove
and drove
I won't bore you with the details of the drive, but at least the rain had stopped.
We had a windshield wiper, umbrella free day and I'm thankful for that.
Fran pulled off somewhere in NY to see if we could go on a boat tour of the Erie Canal but we missed the last tour by and hour and a half.
We also stopped at an information center on Niagra Falls that looked like one of the sketchiest buildings i've ever seen but realized that even though we were close, we don't have passports, taking that out of the picture.
So really, all we did today was drive.
Destination?
(Massachussetts Welcomes US)
So really, aside from a truck driver honking at us, and some kid blowing us a kiss through the window, it was a pretty uneventful day.
But we knocked down the miles (averaging 32 MPG!) and now we're at my sisters in Beverly, MA.
Tomorrow morning Fran and I are hitting up Walden Pond and then Salem in the afternoon with my sister to get our witching on. :P
Sorry. this was supposed to be a short update.
The lack of napping has made me loopy.
