It Had To Be Written Part 3

We set out the next morning fairly early to start our trek across country. The suitcases were tossed in the back, we’d accumulated all our ‘wedding’ cash we got in envelopes, had our huge soda in hand…to share mind you, after all we were newlyweds, and me with my big box of tissue since I wasn’t any better yet from this horrid sinus infection.

There wasn’t a heck of a lot to see on our drive in most the states, albeit a leisure drive wasn’t what we were after. I recall taking a picture of the nation’s ~largest~ thermometer, us stopping to read several ‘charts-y’ types of signs, and snacking at little restaurants along the way.

Our mission was to reach our destination so we put in good hours driving each day. My husband actually did all the driving and let me sit contently in the passenger seat blowing my nose endlessly.

Our first night in a hotel was interesting to say the least. The toilet in the room wouldn’t stop making this terrifying gurgling noise, which by the way was not tucked away into a room of its own. The room set up was more along the lines of, ‘Oh look…a bed…and.three.feet.away….a toilet. Hmm, well that’s convenient.’ Except for it was so noisy that that combined with my imagination, I figured for sure some evil creature was going to crawl out of the tank and gobble us up.

The temperature in the room was just shy of where Satan must keep his thermostat set to, and undoubtedly broken.

My husband and I sat on the edge of the bed, tissue box in hand, sweating, and looked at each other as we were being serenaded to by the toilet.

“It’s hot as hell in here. I’m dying.”

“Yeah, no kidding!! Here. Let me try to fiddle with the thermostat.”

Now, my husband is really quite good with most things, but as I sat there watching him take the thermostat covering off the wall and poke and prod at all the wires while blue sparks were flying off into the air…I was concerned.

The last thing I wanted was one of those wild blue sparks to make it to the toilet, infuse into that commode creature and start it dividing and multiplying like we all knows happens if you’ve seen any scary horror flicks.

It was too hot to sleep. I still couldn’t breathe very well. The toilet was gurgling loudly with the creature stirring from within. And I was worried about blue sparks.

Romance at its best…let.me.tell.you.

We had one normal hotel stay the next night, to which no real intense memories stick in my mind, and then another full day of driving to bring us into our destination early evening the next day.

We tried one hotel after another. Apparently there was a plastics convention going on and every hotel in the area was booked solid.

I finally decided to stop at a pay phone and call several places to cut down on the fruitless driving.

“Hi, do you have any available rooms for tonight?”

“Uhh yeaaahhhh…”

“Oh wonderful, can I please have you hold one for me. I’m not sure how long it will take us to get there..but we definitely need a room!”

“Uhh holding one for you isn’t needed….we’ll have a room for you.”

“But…but there’s the convention going on? Every hotel in the area is booked solid!...but you promise you’ll have a room?”

“Uhhh yeaaahhhh….”

Maybe it was the fact that I was still suffering from a bad sinus infection, or maybe it’s because we hadn’t had good sleep in awhile, or maybe it’s because we had been in the car for so.many.hours, but the idea that his hotel might not be a real ~score~ didn’t sink into my head.

It was dark by the time we arrived at the hotel. My husband and I walk in to the lobby to check out a room. There’s a group of men sitting at a small table in the lobby playing poker. No one is at the desk.

We stand for a good few minutes thinking that perhaps the desk clerk has stepped away. Five minutes has passed and there’s a break in the poker hand. A man stands up from the table…

“You here to get a room?”

“Yes, I called earlier.”

“Uhh yeaaahhhh…I remember.”

We got our room and started back to the car to gather our things and settle in for the night.

“Maybe it won’t be so bad?”

“Let's just get our things and get into the room…chat later…now do what I say…”

I think, “Geesh! Bossypants! Crankyface!” but I oblige.

What I didn’t know at the time was that there was a group of …hmmm ~less than friendly not-nicey-types~ who were scoping out all of our items and hollering at us that we ‘needed to empty all our $h!t out of the car, for whatever we left they’d gladly help themselves to during the night’.

Again, my husband isn’t the passive type, but I’ve found over the years, if I’m with him…he’d rather just get me to a safe spot and keep things on the low down than cause trouble in the risk of something happening to me. When he’s alone or with the boys…oh the stories I’ve heard…eeks.

We get all our stuff inside. We’re on the first floor.

We both plop down on the edge of the bed and let out a sigh, “We made it! We’re here in the big city!”

As I look up from where we are sitting, I notice a mirror hanging on the wall at the end of the bed. And from that mirror, I can get a good clear shot view outside. Our curtains were rigged so that they can’t close all the way…and the mirror was hung so any and all who stood outside our room would get a good view right into the room…right at the bed.

We finagled chairs and whatnot to keep the curtains closed fully over the window.

At 3am we were awoken by housekeeping. Three women were standing outside our door having ~the biggest fight~. We laid there in bed thinking, “….my gawd…where the hell are we and what have we gotten ourselves in to….”

The next morning would start our search for 'home'.

More to come...