kevin_standlee | In The Olive City

Possibly inspired by

bovil's "Olive Facts" posts on

westercons, I decided this afternoon to drive a bit farther south than I usually do on my two-day trips between Oregon and the Bay Area. Typically I stop in Medford, Ashland, or Yreka, but I got away almost two hours earlier than usual today and made excellent time despite the rain. From the Coburg rest area to just north of Roseburg I was dialed in to a Westercon 64 committee meeting, which also made the miles seem to fly by, believe it or not. I stopped at Roseburg, reassessed my travel progress, and called Holiday Inn and changed my reservation from Medford South to Corning. (Yreka and Redding were too expensive.) I got in to The Olive City about 8:30, took advantage of the offer from the Iron Skillet restaurant across the street (10% discount with hotel room key), and made ample use of the in-room wired internet connection to make the updates to the Westercon 64 web site that came up while I was driving south.

Around Grants Pass, the rain that had been dogging me cleared up and the sun came out. I felt for my sunglasses in my briefcase, but couldn't find them. When I stopped at the Pilot truck stop in Central Point (where I often stop; it's right next to that Holiday Inn Express I've used several times), I dug around in my briefcase more when I could look at it without risking driving off the road. No luck. I called Lisa, thinking I might have left them behind. She couldn't find them. I puzzled over it for a little while longer and finally found them sitting in their black case on top of a black piece of luggage and covered by a black tote bag. Not too surprising that I couldn't see them! (I called Lisa back to tell her I'd found them so she wouldn't worry.)

I got a bit annoyed at the Pilot people over a bit of foolishness on their part. The receipt from my gas purchase included a 99-cent offer for a 16-ounce cup of coffee. My travel mug is 16 ounces, so I took it in, filled it, went to the counter, and produced the coupon. They charged me $1.49. When I complained, they said that the offer on the form is only for disposable 16-ounce cups, not travel mugs, because it messes up their inventory. That's absurd. It means that I could have saved 50 cents by taking one of their 16-ounce cups, filling it with coffee, pouring that into my insulated travel mug, and throwing away the paper cup. I know it's only fifty cents, but the stupidity of the policy annoys me, and I hope to remember to write to Pilot to tell them how foolish it is.

Because I'm about 200 miles farther south than I originally planned to be tonight, I can sleep in a bit tomorrow morning without guilt. I do plan to try and swing over to Sutter and see my mother, even though it's Father's Day. Alas, I forgot to send my father a card!