Crappy Day

For all those people who think all the travel I do for my job is glamorous and exciting, let me tell you, sometimes travel just sucks. Today was one of those sucky days.

I worked until midnight and it was close to two by the time I got to sleep, so when my alarm went off at 7 my body was not happy. But I dragged myself out of bed, slugged down some nasty hotel coffee on my way through the lobby, and headed out in to the rain to go to the gym. Except when I got there, it was still closed. Wonderful. I knew if I headed back to the hotel my bed would be too appealing, so I sat in the parking lot and caught up on Words with Friends and Facebook. After a week stuck in little gym, I was totally over it. I tried my favorite 20-20-20 workout, but my workout still seemed to crawl by. When I finished I pulled out my cell phone to see an e-mail that my flight was cancelled and I had been rebooked on a later flight. So, I took the time to foam roll before heading back to the hotel. By the time I showered and had breakfast, I got another message that the later flight was delayed. At this point, I decided it would be faster to just drive than wait around all day for a flight that might never leave. 5 hour drive, not ideal, but I could handle it.

Except, when I called Avis to change my car reservation, they told me I couldn't keep the car I had. No amount of pleading or arguing on my part could change the decision, so I had to back-track an hour and half to the Arcata airport to exchange my car. In my new rental car I hit the road again. The drive could have been beautiful, through the redwoods and down the coast on 101. However it was pouring rain and incredibly windy, so I couldn't see anything and just concentrated on staying on the road.

Driving and taking pictures? Probably not a good idea. Did it anyway.

I stopped at the closest thing I could find to a town for lunch. The only restaurant that wasn't a chain didn't look like much, but I was hoping it might be a hidden gem. It was not. I ordered  tomato, avacado, and swiss on a basil bun and minestrone soup. The soup was so bitter that I couldn't eat it, and that's saying a lot because I'm a pig I eat whatever is in front of me. The "basil bun" turned out to be a stale hamburger bun topped with some mayo with a little dried basil in it. The tomato and avocado were not ripe and totally flavorless. The cheese was microwave for a few seconds but not fully melted. So much for a nice lunchtime pick-me-up. I knew I needed some caffeine to keep me going so I headed into the gas station next door. I got a toffee almond cappuccino as a treat and grabbed some kettle corn to munch on. I didn't think I'd ever say this because I am a sugar addict I have a wicked sweet tooth, but the cappucchino was way too sweet. It made my teeth hurt. But, back on the road I drank it anyway. And ate the whole bag of kettle corn. I then had an hour and half of a queasy sugar high before I totally crashed. 

The few times it wasn't pouring, it was pretty. There were tons of cheesy tourist attractions I could have stopped at- like the trailer made out of a hallowed out redwood log, or confusion hill, but I was not in the mood. I just kept flooring it as much as possible, which wasn't often. The rain and slow cars in front of me kept me from ever going above 60.  500 miles and about 8 hours later I finally made it to Santa Rosa where I had to go get my third rental car of the day. 

It was a crappy day, but at least it has a happy ending- spaetzle, spinach, and nice glass of pinot at Monti's.

Bliss.