Good Travels Day One, and Already We’re Having Plot Twists

This is a quick note and an update. Today we began our trek to Montana. First stop is Cimarron, New Mexico, where we will be picking up my son on June 22. We left around 3/4pm, and we just got into our room in Wichita Falls. To be fair, we stopped to drop a couple boxes into storage, ate while rush hour passed, and then began the trek in earnest.

Mrs. Bad Ass and I get along, and we dig a lot of the same things, or at least, we dig them enough that we can ask questions and have an in-depth discussion. So we can talk about which is better, Downton Abbey or Outlander, and then which series makes better use of sex scenes, Game of Thrones or Outlander, and follow it all up with an alphabet game of bands (Alabama, All Star Rejects, Smashmouth, etc.). At one point I said Sugar Hill Gang, and my wife had to come up with a band that starts with G. Why I misheard “Starbitch” as Garbage, I don’t know. But instantly I can tell you that I love the name Starbitch, and why hasn’t anybody created this band? We’ve taken it upon ourselves to ask at the various places we are staying if Starbitch is playing in that town that night.

The evidence of the pandemic is everywhere. Most stores, even in tiny little Texas towns, request that we wear masks or at least social distance, even if the people behind the counter are not. That’s not a knock against anyone but rather a documentation of what we’re seeing. We stopped at this one little town so that I could go to the restroom. There was a McDonald’s. Unfortunately, the dining room was still closed, so we had to circumvent the fence to the gas station next door and use theirs.

Mrs. Bad Ass reserved us a room at the La Quinta in Wichita Falls. That was as far as we thought we could go in one day. We arrived at 12:30/12:40 in the morning. Since my wife had the information, she crawled out of the car and went to get our room set up. That’s when we learned that due to staffing issues, the La Quinta was not able to clean all the rooms, so they had no room for us. They will reimburse us, and they directed us to the Super 8. So now we are staying in a motel for $20 more because we didn’t pay in advance. Not much we can do about it at this point except go to sleep. I’m still up only because the AC isn’t on, so it’s probably an ERCOT-approved balmy 78-80 degrees in the room. Once it cools down, I will be able to get to sleep.

Aside from the heat, I wish I could say we shouldn’t have any more plot twists (which I think sounds better than obstacles or road bumps) in the vein of no hotel rooms due to understaffed hotels. I’ve heard of this problem before. I’m not sure what we can do to sidestep it. Maybe verify that the upcoming hotel has appropriate staffing? Either way, that is a problem for tomorrow. Right now I’m going to guzzle the coldest drink in our soft cooler and try to get some sleep. Good night from Wichita Falls, everyone!

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