I’m sitting looking at the ocean. Not the wrong ocean, just the “other” one, the one I’m not used to. We’re on the last day of our sojourn in North and South Carolina. It’s been rainy and overcast most of the time we’ve been here on the shore of the Atlantic. And muggy. Very muggy.
By the time you read this, we’ll be back home in Seattle. After traveling for the better part of two months, this morning I’m thinking about some of my favorite and least favorite things about traveling.
First, I’m grateful to the guy who invented those curved curtain rods most hotels use for their showers these days. (If you end up in a room with a straight shower curtain rod, you can pretty well count on the fact that you’ve landed in one of what Gordon Ramsey calls ‘Hotel Hell,’ one that hasn’t been updated since the hotel was built in the late forties.)
In that case it’s probably a good idea to check the cords on your bedside lamps, just to make sure they aren’t positioned behind the headboard and worn through to bare wire. Fires in the middle of the night are no fun. Don’t ask me how I know this. Well, go ahead and ask. That was in 1986 in an “off-the-freeway” hotel in Redding, California, the only place that still had the vacancy sign lit when we pulled into town. No, we weren’t doing anything bad when the fire started. Bill simply tried to turn on his bedside lamp, and a plasma of flame shot out of the wall socket and into the mattress–immediately setting it on fire. No one was hurt. We moved to a different room where we checked the wiring FIRST before getting into bed and not getting much sleep. I’m also happy to report that particular hotel is no longer in business.
But back to the shower curtain issue. I hate rubbing my elbows on a cold wet shower curtain, and I’m sure the guy who invented the curved curtain rods felt the same way. I’d like to thank him in person for fixing the problem, but so far I haven’t been able to figure out who he is. Maybe one of my readers knows. At any rate, I’ve really appreciated that the hotels on our travels have all featured curved shower rods.
Another problem I have with hotel showers has to do with height. I’m over six feet. Not as far over as some people. One of the folks on our European adventure, was six nine. But still, shower heads that come out of the wall at chin level make it tough for washing hair. So do dropped ceilings in bathrooms that are so low that you scrape your knuckles when you’re shampooing or drying your hair.
And speaking of bathrooms, what’s this with putting a line of lights just over the mirror. Lights shining down are NOT helpful when it comes time to put on makeup. Not at all.
And then there are cross country flights. I’m tall, and much of my tallness is in my legs. My thighs are several inches longer than most people’s. Most of the time, having long thighs is good–especially when it comes to using laptops. However, long thigh bones are not a good thing when it comes to commercial airlines. On our last cross country flight, we were seated in first class. The four-foot ten lady in front of me immediately put her seat back all the way and kept it there for the duration. Let’s just say I understand some of the folks who suffer from plane rage these days. I feel their pain.
So now it’s time to pack up and head out. I’ve missed Bella, our coffee machine, and our mattress in that order.
It’ll be good to get home.
I gratefully appreciate reading your weekly blogs over my morning cup of Irish Cream coffee. They put smiles on my face and often take me places I have never been or would like to visit.
I can relate to your comments about the lack of leg (or even body) room on our flying sardine cans, even in the first class section. It is so irritating and has put a damper on my traveling. I cannot stand being treated like commercial grade chickens packed into their farm building before heading to slaughter. The last several hotels I have stayed in no longer have tubs but rather walk in showers. That is fine with me as I find it creepy to sit in a tub that is not mine, including hot tubs/spas! Something tells me most hotel guests never fill up the bath tubs during their stay.
I am happy you safely returned home to our beautiful west coast where humidity is not much of a factor. Then again, I have to put up with returning 100+ heat for the next several days.
***Do you have any upcoming releases that I can add to my Amazon Pre-Order account? I cannot believe I finished Remains of Innocence in two days!***
Looking forward to your continued blogs!
Upcoming books include an Ali Reynolds novella, A Last Goodbye, at the end of November and a new Ali book, Cold Betrayal, in March.
Thank you, Judith! Just added both to my Amazon Pre-Orders. I’m going to have an antsy time waiting until March 10, 2015 for Cold Betrayal when it appears the book is ready to be released. #Impatient 😉
Your story reminds me of our trip to Italy. We were traveling with a group. Our stop in Florence was a cute little Hotel, the name escapes me, but all of a sudden one of our friends comes running down the hall saying you’ve got to see this. So we paraded down to his room and proceeded to see that Their shower was positioned over the Comode. Yes indeed you could do your duty and shower at the same time.
How efficient is that!
It was great to hear “At 17” again! What was up with Winston, though? First, you got timed out during your talk, then relegated to an outdoor tent to do the signing when it was 90 something with high humidity. They didn’t plan that terribly well.
Having the presentation truncated at both the beginning and the end was not my fave.
I was a volunteer at the festival in Winston and that was the first year in that location. All the book signings were in that tent, I believe, which I thought was a rather odd place to have it set up. I only found out about the festival a week prior (even though I’ve lived in this area for 31 years!) so my volunteering consisted of helping set up, which was a TON of work. I hope to be able to participate more in the future and maybe I’ll get to be on the planning committee where I can suggest a COOLER and less inconvenient place for the signings for the next one. I wonder if they thought the weather would be cooler, too.
My complaint about bathrooms when traveling are those annoying circular things in the shower. Instead of two separate faucets, you are supposed to turn the dial to change the temperature of the water. I usually get cold water for a long time before it starts to warm up. By the time it gets as warm as I like it I’m tired of standing there. I think there ought to be a law that shower faucets are the hot and cold faucets that mix in the shower head. None of those fancy things.
I agree. The curved shower curtain is one of the greatest unsung inventions of all time!
I don’t know where I first saw the curved shower rods but I immediately ordered one from Lowes. Son Kelly when he came down put it up for me. I hate to touch a cold wet shower curtain liner.
Washington really holds my interest this year. Son Kelly and family live in Snoqualmie where he is a fire man. Grand kids Jake and Kelsi both go to Eastern wa university. Jake plays linebacker on their football team and I am going up for Christmas.
My husband passed away in 2007. He and grandma were the sports nuts. Not me. I wish they could see me now. I ordered a ad on sport pkg to my Dish satellite. Many of Eastern’s games are televised and had to see #43. So I found Roots TV and PAC12. Now I go crosseyed looking for 43. Wish I had payed more attention when Bill was watching all of those million games. Had to ask where a linebacker lined up. But the best was the first game. Eastern’s field is RED. Their uniforms are red, I could only find game on the internet. I have a laptop and the picture was fuzzy and would come and go. The players would not cooperate and either face the camera squarely or back up squarely to the camera. Harder to read on the crooked. I watched though, they won and grandma had a headache for a week.
The last game was on good TV with Udub. Really exciting and score went back and forth. I got excited and yelled and screamed and scared the dogs to death. So I ended up yelling, screaming and petting heads. Eastern lost but gave the Huskies a run for their money.
One of the best things about traveling, for me, is the coming home again. Makes me appreciate where I live.
You pretty much made my day/week/month by coming to Winston Salem. I very much enjoyed your writing seminar on Friday and your somewhat truncated talk on Saturday. You are as interesting and entertaining as your books and you inspire me to get up off my lazy, fat rear so I can grow up to be like you. I should write under the name “Late Bloomer Lazy Pants” I guess. Hahaha.
I hope you made it home safely and are enjoying normal life again!
I smiled when I read your blog today. I remember how much I loved coming home to the Pacific Northwest. I haven’t been there for several years, having moved to the land of two seasons, ice and hell, better known as Dallas/Fort Worth. I cry often when I see pictures of home, or have friends going to Portland or Seattle and won’t take me with them.
Today, we are having absolutely freakish weather for this place. It was drizzly and cool in the morning and cloudy and cool with a bit of a breeze this evening. When my husband and I left the restaurant where we had dinner, the temperature was 61 degrees….my favorite temperature for outdoors is 60. I’m not sure to be happy or homesick. Wish it would last until…say…. Thanksgiving!
Are you ever going to be coming to the Dallas area, or maybe Oklahoma City? OKC is closer than Houston, but I’d go there, too!
Thanks for the great reads and gentle prose.