Hitting the Road

The vent-cleaning people came by this morning, and Cheryl saved the hose they replaced so I could see what a mess it was. They've fixed things, and now we should expect to have a much more efficient clothes dryer.

I was able to get away from work early today, so we're leaving for Yuba City with a van full of boxes and furniture as soon as I can get the computer shut down. My regular Holiday Inn Express has raised their rates higher than I'm comfortable paying, so we're going to try the Best Western Bonanza Inn -- which used to be the best motel in town, long ago -- instead. Its web site says it has internet access. We'll see.

Return to Yuba City

Because we left after 2 PM, we got caught in traffic on I-680 and I-80 and got to creep along for miles and miles. Honestly, I don't know how people stand doing that every day. Including one stop for a coffee in Dixon -- I needed a break after slogging through that crawl -- we got to Yuba City a bit before 7 PM. Checking in to our room, we started walking from the front desk. Some days later, we found the room, which was located somewhere around Gridley. (gigica will get the joke, if nobody else does.) Well, I exaggerate slightly, but the hotel is a bit spread out. When we got to the room, I told Cheryl that I'd walk back and get the van and move it around closer to our room, but that if I wasn't back in six hours, she should send out search parties.

I grew up in Yuba City, but I've never stayed in this hotel. Quality of Best Western properties can be very erratic. This one seems pretty nice. The room is spacious, and comes with a refrigerator and microwave. It has a lovely flat-screen TV. Alas, (a) there's no cricket test match this weekend and (b) I didn't bring the computer-to-RCA video connectors even if there was. Anyway, this hotel has the advantage of not being as isolated as the Holiday Inn Express is.

Then it was time to see if the internet connections worked. Both Cheryl and I were able to raise an initial wireless connection, if not a particularly good one, but it wouldn't assign an IP address. We called tech support -- voice-mail -- and trudged back to the front lobby, figuring that if the internet connections worked anywhere, it would be there. When we got there, one of the hotel staff was on the phone with tech support from the ISP trying to figure out what was wrong. After resetting things a couple of times, they finally got it working. Fingers crossed that things will stay working while we are here.

This motel has a small convention center and some meeting rooms. As usual, I go into conrunner mode and think about what sort of convention I could hold here. This hotel would probably be just fine for a SMOFcon-style-and-size convention. You won't see me bidding for a SMOFCon here, though, as the nearest major airport is Sacramento (SMF), 40 miles away.

Meanwhile, we'd better get some dinner soon, and I'd better save this entry in case the ISP goes down again.