I can officially announce that no more travel stories, and lonesome filled blogs will be gracing this site anymore. My last travel season is now behind me, which I say with much relief and a little bit of sadness. At minimum two months out of every year, three months for one or more of those years, were spent traveling around Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada, South Carolina and Idaho....averaging 7 months of travel. That is almost a year of my life, spent on the road. Crazy.
As a recap I thought it might be fun to share a few of the stories that I don't think I've shared on here before. So here I present, CASEY'S TOP THREE TRAVEL STORIES...or at least some I can remember right now:
1. The Drug Cartel: I was staying in Bellingham, WA (covering a fair for another co worker) and had driven to this city I'd never laid eyes on before, getting in around 11pm. I had been at a fair near Seattle and drove on up after, night blindness and all. Night blindess is a frequent friend of mine, especially on the road with the unfamiliar areas. Anyway, I grabbed a bite to eat to bring back to my hotel for dinner, and went into my hotel routine. Lay outfit out so as not to wrinkle. Set up toiletries in order of use. Shampoo and Conditioner in shower. Sweatpants on immediately. Etc.
Other than the room being intensely creepy, with short 3 ft hallways jutting out and little dwarf doors near the floor, obviously with elf like people waiting to kill me in my sleep, things went well. I should also explain that the hotel was broken into 4 separate buildings, the entrances into each hall of the 4 story building consisted of walking up stairs on either side, outside, and using a key card to get into the hall where the rooms were.
I'm fast asleep. 2 am rolls around. I hear shouting and banging and decide to see what is going on. Looking through my peep hole in the door I see half a dozen uniformed men with very large guns pounding on the door next to mine. I look out my window and see more police cars and men with more large guns encircling my building. I'm on the 4th floor mind you, the only other room occupied is the one next door. Turns out there was a drug sting, in the hotel room next to mine, until around 4am. I got up at 6am for the fair the next day. Brilliant.
2. The Two Insanely Long Days of Travel: the first was when I had WA, so my first year working here. I finished a fair somewhere in the Olympic Peninsula at 8:30pm and then drove to Portland immediately following and stayed with the Dennis'. I remember getting in sometime around midnight or a bit past. A slept for a couple of hours and then got up around 4am to catch a very early flight to Idaho. Once in Idaho, I drove to an applebee's and changed clothing, ate, freshened up and then went to a college fair where I gave three back to back 45 minute speeches to full classrooms. I then completed another fair that night and left first thing in the morning. I was in ID for 26 hrs total. Second travel insanity- I got dropped off at the San Jose Airport, where I waited for my flight for 8 hrs because it was a car driving home and that's when they passed through town. After waiting my 8 hours, I boarded and then flew to Arizona. From Arizona I landed in Newark, NJ around midnight and waited there until 2am my time. Which included jumping on a bus to get to another terminal, by myself, in the dark and with slightly questionable people around. And from NJ I flew to South Carolina, where I was picked up by my aunt for another week long road trip. That day consisted of traveling for close to 27 hours straight. I was a hot mess.
3. The Drunk. The Biker. And Me. : This night consisted of me staying in Burns, OR (I think). I got in late at night once again, and showed up to this small town that apparently doesn't believe in street lights. There was a Subway open for 10 more minutes, which I promptly took advantage of for dinner, mind you it was the only thing open for dinner. And then went to find my hotel. There were two hotels in the city, as far as I could tell. Mine, with an outdoor access, I was able to find pretty quickly. I checked in and then went outside and up the stairs to my room. The parking lot consisted of all bikers, my Corban car and a couple beat up trucks. And there were two men stumbling around outside, drunk out of their mind. I went into my room, locked the door, pushed the table against the door and prayed I got the channel for America's Next Top Model- which I didn't. The two drunk men sat outside of my door and front window until early in the morning swapping drunk stories, literally in front of my door. And I had no phone service. All in all, I was happy the bikers were there. After getting caught up in the middle of Sturgis the summer before, I felt a kinship towards the leather clad people but no kindship towards the drunk men. The hotel cost $35 for the night. There was my warning.
Oh, can I add in another bad hotel! There was another night that I accidently ended up staying in Stockton, California. When I checked into my hotel, it was another outdoor access, I asked the lady at the front desk if it was a fairly safe area. She looked at me with big eyes and was like "sure......you won't be going outside right?" What! I had a fair that night and didn't get back in until late, I ran to my room.
I've definitely felt God's provisions while I've been on the road. From terrible hotels, to "maintence" men trying to get in my room at 6am, to storms that haulted my travel and stuck me in random towns, so many wrong turns I lost count, and lots of bad food I am still alive, and have learned a lot. I've been told I should make a book of my travels and use this blog as a resource, so perhaps I'll do that and you should keep your eyes and ears out for my travel book, name still unknown. :o)
