It has been a long day but we are safely tucked into our hotel for the night.
I went down to the office of the hotel we stayed at last night to sort out the billing. They charged me three nights worth of stays. The poor kid that checked us in didn’t know what he was doing. I stood and talked to the morning guy for over 20 minutes while he attempted to sort it all out. He was still figuring it out and I went back up to the room so I could finish packing up.
When I came back down, the manager was involved. I think we have it sorted out but not sure yet. The manager said it would take up to five days to show the reversal of the extra charges on my bank account. Thank heavens I have extra money in the bank right now and am not running it close. That could have created a big problem otherwise. I took her business card in case I need to get back in touch with her.
We hit the road around 8:15 and made a quick Starbucks stop for coffee for Jim and a McDonald’s stop for iced tea for me. The manager at McDonald’s told the customer in front of me to use the kiosk to order or it would be a 10 minute wait before she could take their order. I used the kiosk and it took 10 minutes to get one burrito and 2 iced teas. Not too impressed!
Traffic was heavy most of the day but most of the time it was moving. We did hit one accident on the New York Turnpike where it took us over 35 minutes to go two miles. It didn’t look good for the driver of the car that was under a semi when we passed the accident site.
We stopped at the rest area on the New York Tollway for lunch. A quarter pound value meal was $11.89. Ouch! Their soda machine was down so Jim had to go to the convenience store next door to get a Coke. They were super busy so we had to wait about 10 minutes for our food but they had a person that took our order and we didn’t have to use the kiosk. The burger and fries were hot and fresh. Best McDonald’s food we have had for a bit.
We got to Gene’s apartment around 5:45. We unloaded the book case Jim had built for him and the six boxes of books we brought. Gene had stored them at my house when he moved from Emporia 14 years ago. He still has some more boxes of books at my house but we brought what we could fit in the car. After we got that all moved into his apartment we went out for dinner together. We had a very pleasant evening visiting with him.
Tomorrow Gene is going to Kathy’s son’s house for a family gathering in the afternoon. Since he is coming to that we won’t go back to his apartment in the morning. That means we get to sleep in tomorrow morning. We are about 1 1/2 hours from Kathy’s son’s house so will head that way late morning and spend the rest of the day with Kathy’s family and Gene.
Tomorrow night we will check into a hotel in Groton, CT and get to stay in the same hotel for three nights. That will be nice. It is hard to remember what our room number is when you change rooms every night. Not sure what we are doing with Kathy on Sunday and Monday. Jim wants to go to Mystic Seaport and spend some time on the beach. We may go to Cape Cod but driving that far doesn’t sound inviting right now.
Tuesday we head for the DC area to see Jim’s son and his fiancée. We will get to spend three nights in the guest room of the co-housing place Thomas lives at. It sure is easier when you spend more than one night at the same place.
We are tired today. Sitting all day in a car is tiring. Dealing with traffic is stressful. I’m tired of trees and miss my wide open vistas.
Grateful for another safe day of travels, grateful to see Gene, and grateful we are safely tucked into our hotel room for the night.