Just Visiting

[kevin_standlee]

This is my first "visit" to the Bay Area under the new work/life plan and after vacating the old apartment in San José. I'm checked in to the EZ-8 Motel Newark, which has the benefit of being quite inexpensive by Bay Area standards. It's clean. There's a refrigerator, but no microwave oven, and "cooking is prohibited in rooms." The internet access is available but not free; however, I can bridge my smartphone, which has unlimited bandwidth, so that's not really a problem. I wish I'd remembered my swimsuit, as there is a small hot tub, and it's convenient to my room; I could use the relaxation. (Maybe next trip.) The location is not convenient to transit; if I have to stay down here and not be tied to my car, I'll have to stay in some place like the EZ-8 on North First Street (a block from where my apartment was), but that's about $10/night more. Location, location, location.

My only significant complaint is a dearth of power outlets. It's about as bad as the British hotel rooms in which I've stayed. Even with a six-foot extension cord and eight-foot power cord, I can just barely reach my CPAP machine from the outlet nearest the bed. (I'll need to get a longer extension cord for the next stay, I guess.)

And, thanks to it being the ESPN Sunday Night game and my having got away from Fernley a couple of hours earlier than usual, I got to see the Giants-Dodgers game, which, since we don't have cable or satellite at Fernley House, is a treat for me.

I am amused that one of my fellow travelers at this hotel has a "My Other Vehicle is a TARDIS" license plate bracket on his/her car.

Comments

[yourbob.livejournal.com]

I find traveling with my heavy (medium) duty orange extension cord quite useful. I think it's 15 feet. I keep it in the car. It's been good in a pinch in may places. I usually keep a three/two prong adaptor and a surge protector in my kit as well.

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

I have all of those except the 15-foot extension cord. Looks like I'm going to need to add that to my kit.

[garyomaha.livejournal.com]

>>Even with a six-foot extension cord and eight-foot power cord, I can just barely reach my CPAP machine from the outlet nearest the bed.<<

I need my sound machine to sleep (based on years of self-conditioning at home) so I go through the same rigmarole as you finding an outlet. Remodeled hotels seem to have wised up with outlets on the night stand. But at others, I've had to move beds, string cords across or behind beds, etc.

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

Yep. The troubling part about this one is that I have to run the cord across the room, which is a tripping hazard. At least it's flat on the floor, not suspended in the air.

[delosharriman]

But if someone comes into the room while you are in bed, wouldn't you want that person to trip?

(OK, I suppose if you're going to be there for a week, you don't want to be continually taking up the cord & then laying it down again…)

[rono-60103.livejournal.com]

I am frustrated by the number of hotels that don't have at least one outlet near the beds that is accessible and available.

On more than one occasion, I've had to unplug one of the room lamps to plug in my CPAP, but I can only think of one time I've been completely without the ability to plug mine in with its cord and the fairly short (<10') extension cord I keep in the CPAP case - and that was in the hotel we stayed in in London after the 2005 Worldcon (inexpensive for London, but had a lot of issues). In Glasgow I had to run the cord around the corner into the bathroom, but it reached. I think that one time in Bangalore I may have had to resort to stretching it across the room - but only for one night before I liberated the correct plug adapter from work, having somehow misremembered which adapter I needed from my prior trip.

On the other hand, the Motel 6 in Anaheim near Disneyland has multiple outlets above the nightstands - possibly a result of a recent remodel/redecoration that accounted for modern travelers with CPAPs, BIPAPs, phone chargers, etc.

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

I keep a mini-power strip in my kit for the lamp trick; alas, in this case, all of the lamps in the room are directly wired into the walls rather than plugged into outlets, so I can't do that this time.

[travelswithkuma.livejournal.com]

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