Day 15: Early Morning: Fort, Wayne, IN (J's Version)

#truedat

Good morning! I'm starting off the morning at a Starbucks (Yay!) in Fort, Wayne, IN. In an earlier entry, I mentioned that Fort Wayne is a big city, so there's a lot of stores to keep me busy on my errands. I have to buy Woolite for G's new "nylons" coughcoughspandexshorts and another battery charger. Plus, this will give G a few hours head start, so I can pass him and give him ice or a cold V8 or Vitamin Water from the cooler.

Thankfully, the truck drama from yesterday is over, BUT you won't believe what happened to me after that. The expression, "When it rains, it pours" is spot on. After I left Sears, I headed for the hotel and tried checking in. Apparently, when we made the reservation over the phone days ago, the lady typed it in wrong, so our last name wasn't coming up. Finally, after some confusion, I was good to go. Being Roadie Support Crew, you learn the ins and outs of carrying several bags on your body. I wish there was a picture of me doing this. I managed to get all of our bags inside in one trip. Now, what I do in the truck is I take out only the necessary clothing for G and myself for that night/next day and put that into one bag instead of bringing four bags inside. It's all stuff you learn on the job. I never learned any of this in Roadie Support Crew School.

Okay, okay. back to the big story. The only thing I wasn't able to carry was the distilled water and vinegar for the CPAP machine. I could have left it in the truck and just gotten them when G came back, but I was in good spirits because the truck was fixed. I step out of the room, and the key lock (card scan machine thing on the door) flashed a red light. I went to the truck and brought up the water and tried getting back into the room and could not. Both keys would not work. None of the other doors had that red light on. The red light of DOOM.

I go downstairs, and it seemed like the ladies didn't believe me at first because they were like, "But,

#cracksmeupeverytime

you got into the room once?" They reprogrammed my key, and I went all the way back up to my room which was on the other side of the complex from the front desk and same thing. I walk by to the front desk, and this time the one in charge came up to my room with a set of actual keys (not the carded ones). None of them worked. You could sense the frustration and panic mode look in her eyes.

All of my stuff including my purse and phone was still in the room. The only item I had on me were the truck keys. I was thinking, "What if G is calling me???" He still wasn't due back for a few hours. Oh, and the hotel was booked solid because of two family reunions, so I couldn't even get another room. The lady called her General Manager, and the emergency key was NO where to be found. I had to wait in the lobby for an hour and a half. Thanks goodness for the World Cup to keep me entertained

Finally, she found the emergency key which was not in a place where it was supposed to be; however, she wouldn't give me the key to keep. She said if I had to leave and come back, she'd let me  back in. Thanks, Warden. 

About 20 minutes after that, I hear a radio voice and the lady outside my door. The technician who repairs those locks was not around because of the holiday, but he was on the phone trying to walk the lady through how to reset the lock. She had all these tools out, and she got the card machine off the door and twisted and turned a few things inside of it. Apparently, the device deactivated itself. Once she reset it and put it back on the door and reset my card keys all was fine. Luckily, all this was complete about 10 minutes before G got back.

They gave us 5 whole dollars off of our bill for the inconvenience.

G got there at 7:30 which is the latest he's gotten in, BUT he did 110 miles which is the most he's ridden now!!! He said the route was flat that he had to take advantage of it. I'm so proud of him! Needless to say by the time he showered, we ate, got our stuff in order, bedtime was pushing 11. He didn't get on the road until 8 am today and plans on doing another 100+.

I told him last night that I hashtagged #RoadieLife, and I had to explain what a hashtag is, and it was quite entertaining. Then, we proceeded to spend the next half hour talking in hashtag, so he could get the hang of it. Some of the hashtags used were:

#thuglife

#crankyhusbands #knowitallwives #ifyouwerereadingourblogyouwouldknowhereweare #butthurtingcyclists I'm cracking myself up as I write this. Here's a reallllllllllllly funny video of Jimmy Fallon and JT speaking in hashtag.
Fallon Timberlake Hashtag Skit

By tomorrow afternoon we should be in Illinois and be past 1000 miles! A third of the way, baby! Also, we should be approaching the Central Time Zone at some point soon.

I got gas this morning, and it was only $3.45 per gallon! When we left CT it was up to $3.89. I'm not sure if that's changed or not because when I talk to people from home the gas prices don't normally come up as topical conversation. The gas pump though confused me. I was at a pump that had Diesel and Regular gas, and the Diesel pump was black and the regular gas was green. I think I'm programmed to assume black is regular. Thank goodness when I picked up the Diesel pump some alarm went off to notify me, "Is this REALLY what you want to do?"

There's a store called Meijer in this strip of stores, and I think it's a supermarket/Walmart type of place, so hopefully they have the Woolite and battery charger.

ONE last thing. G told me I should mention this in my entry. When I was standing in the line at the Auto Zone yesterday, I had an annoyed/pissy look on my face (rightfully so!), and the guy standing in back of me goes, "Smile. It makes you taller." He was about 6'3.

Have a good day!