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We slept in a couple of hours this morning (and needed it, and it wasn't enough), then got up and spent a couple of hours packing the room and moving everything back to the minivan. We have more stuff than when we started, partially because we agreed to bring back some Worldcon 76 San José material and also because I now have the Ballot Box of WSFS with the Box of Westercon/NASFiC nested inside it. Lisa managed to make it all fit.
There's no step-free access to the garage. We brought our gear down on a cart to the top of the six or seven steps, then started to carry the bits over to the minivan. This wasn't a long distance, as we'd parked pretty close (arriving early helps). A hotel employee showed up and helped us lump the boxes and stuff over to the minivan and took the cart back for us as well, which was a help. And he wasn't even part of the bell staff.
When we tried to exit the garage, we hit a snag. There was no attendant, and the automated system at the gate didn't work. I pushed the call button as other vehicles began to queue up behind us. An attendant came running. When she couldn't get the box to release the ticket, she waved an override key over it and let us go without paying. That's seven days of free parking at $12/day, so hooray for malfunctioning automated gates!
I drove us out of the garage and to the front of the hotel, ran inside and checked out, and Lisa took over the driving, which she plans to do for most of this trip if possible. We later determined that as far as we can tell, when we rounded the block to circle around to head for I-35, the minvan achieved its current Farthest East — that is, it's the farthest east we've ever driven the vehicle. It was about Noon on Monday, and we were heading home.
( Restart the Clock on the Road Trip )
During the drive to Pratt, we called ahead to where we're staying tomorrow night. I confirmed that, despite the way the IHG web site describes the rooms there, they do have bathtubs, not just shower stalls. Because of that, we changed our plans to stay two nights at Pueblo CO and cancelled our reservation at Colorado Springs (savings $25) rather than having to shift hotels a relatively short distance. It means a little bit of back-tracking after our first train trip on Wednesday, but it's surely going to be worth it by saving us a day of moving in and out of hotels.
I'd hoped for an early night tonight, and still may get it, but doing the laundry and trying to catch up on e-mail and accounting is taking a lot of time.
There's no step-free access to the garage. We brought our gear down on a cart to the top of the six or seven steps, then started to carry the bits over to the minivan. This wasn't a long distance, as we'd parked pretty close (arriving early helps). A hotel employee showed up and helped us lump the boxes and stuff over to the minivan and took the cart back for us as well, which was a help. And he wasn't even part of the bell staff.
When we tried to exit the garage, we hit a snag. There was no attendant, and the automated system at the gate didn't work. I pushed the call button as other vehicles began to queue up behind us. An attendant came running. When she couldn't get the box to release the ticket, she waved an override key over it and let us go without paying. That's seven days of free parking at $12/day, so hooray for malfunctioning automated gates!
I drove us out of the garage and to the front of the hotel, ran inside and checked out, and Lisa took over the driving, which she plans to do for most of this trip if possible. We later determined that as far as we can tell, when we rounded the block to circle around to head for I-35, the minvan achieved its current Farthest East — that is, it's the farthest east we've ever driven the vehicle. It was about Noon on Monday, and we were heading home.
( Restart the Clock on the Road Trip )
During the drive to Pratt, we called ahead to where we're staying tomorrow night. I confirmed that, despite the way the IHG web site describes the rooms there, they do have bathtubs, not just shower stalls. Because of that, we changed our plans to stay two nights at Pueblo CO and cancelled our reservation at Colorado Springs (savings $25) rather than having to shift hotels a relatively short distance. It means a little bit of back-tracking after our first train trip on Wednesday, but it's surely going to be worth it by saving us a day of moving in and out of hotels.
I'd hoped for an early night tonight, and still may get it, but doing the laundry and trying to catch up on e-mail and accounting is taking a lot of time.
