Flexible Travel Plans
Jul. 9th, 2012 01:52 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kevin_standleeOur original travel plans for this period included driving from Seattle to Sublimity, Oregon (the nearest motel to Lisa's father's home in Mehama), renting a large U-Haul trailer there, then driving back to Camping World in Wilsonville on Monday to collect the new RV refrigerator we've ordered from them there before going to Salem for errands and then out to Mehama to get the last of Lisa's stuff.
On Sunday, U-Haul called me to tell me that the size trailer we reserved wasn't available in Stayton or even Salem. I asked them to check Wilsonville, and it turns out that there is one available at a location only a km or so north of Camping World there. I told them to hold that one for us. Then I got online and changed our booking in Sublimity from two nights starting Sunday to one night starting Monday. Finally, I checked Holiday Inn. There's an ordinary Holiday Inn almost walking distance from Camping World and a Holiday Inn Express in Lake Oswego (although only technically so; most Portlanders would consider this to be part of Tigard, just off I-5, and I think it is Tigard on the far side of the hotel's west fence), maybe ten km north of the U-Haul place and Camping World. Both locations cost the same number of Priority Club Points, but the Express has the included breakfast, so I booked a room there. So while I'm out another 15K points, I've saved a $60 room night in Sublimity, and while we'll have to do yet another room out-in instead of two nights in the same place, we've saved perhaps 200 km of back-and-forthing between Stayton and Wilsonville with the trailer, so that seems to be a net win for us.
Although we booked down I-5 at full speed — unlike the bumper-to-bumper northbound traffic that seemed to stretch clear down to Olympia — and got to the hotel about 8 PM, that wasn't as early as I'd hoped. Our plans including going over and picking up Lisa's friend Scott Sanford and taking him out to dinner. At one point I'd hoped to go to the Hawthorne Fish House, but they close at 9 PM and there was no way we could have made it. We had to go to the hotel first because without unloading the van, there would have been no room for Scott. In the end, we got to his place around 9 PM and, with options somewhat limited at that hour on a Sunday, we ended up at Denny's. Good thing we like their spaghetti.
We got upgraded again, to a jacuzzi room, which would have been nice, I think, if we'd been able to be here longer to enjoy it. Lisa doesn't really like having the jacuzzi tub out in the main hotel room, and opted to use the regular bathtub instead. We didn't get back from dinner until after Midnight. It's taken me this past two hours to get caught up on messages, and while there's more I want to do, I really do need to get some sleep tonight.
The change of hotel and travel plans means that we have a fair bit more time tomorrow, and Lisa is cautiously optimistic that we'll be able to get everything packed into the trailer in Mehama on Monday.
On Sunday, U-Haul called me to tell me that the size trailer we reserved wasn't available in Stayton or even Salem. I asked them to check Wilsonville, and it turns out that there is one available at a location only a km or so north of Camping World there. I told them to hold that one for us. Then I got online and changed our booking in Sublimity from two nights starting Sunday to one night starting Monday. Finally, I checked Holiday Inn. There's an ordinary Holiday Inn almost walking distance from Camping World and a Holiday Inn Express in Lake Oswego (although only technically so; most Portlanders would consider this to be part of Tigard, just off I-5, and I think it is Tigard on the far side of the hotel's west fence), maybe ten km north of the U-Haul place and Camping World. Both locations cost the same number of Priority Club Points, but the Express has the included breakfast, so I booked a room there. So while I'm out another 15K points, I've saved a $60 room night in Sublimity, and while we'll have to do yet another room out-in instead of two nights in the same place, we've saved perhaps 200 km of back-and-forthing between Stayton and Wilsonville with the trailer, so that seems to be a net win for us.
Although we booked down I-5 at full speed — unlike the bumper-to-bumper northbound traffic that seemed to stretch clear down to Olympia — and got to the hotel about 8 PM, that wasn't as early as I'd hoped. Our plans including going over and picking up Lisa's friend Scott Sanford and taking him out to dinner. At one point I'd hoped to go to the Hawthorne Fish House, but they close at 9 PM and there was no way we could have made it. We had to go to the hotel first because without unloading the van, there would have been no room for Scott. In the end, we got to his place around 9 PM and, with options somewhat limited at that hour on a Sunday, we ended up at Denny's. Good thing we like their spaghetti.
We got upgraded again, to a jacuzzi room, which would have been nice, I think, if we'd been able to be here longer to enjoy it. Lisa doesn't really like having the jacuzzi tub out in the main hotel room, and opted to use the regular bathtub instead. We didn't get back from dinner until after Midnight. It's taken me this past two hours to get caught up on messages, and while there's more I want to do, I really do need to get some sleep tonight.
The change of hotel and travel plans means that we have a fair bit more time tomorrow, and Lisa is cautiously optimistic that we'll be able to get everything packed into the trailer in Mehama on Monday.
