Almost again

When I pulled into Effingham, Illinois -- or as I like to call it, F-ing Who? -- I had been on the road for 14 hours, and though not dead tired yet, I was getting there. I thought about stopping sooner, but I heard on the radio going through Indiana that there was a big NASCAR race in Indianapolis on Sunday, so I knew there was little hope of getting a room within a couple of hours drive from Indianapolis, with as many people that go to those races.

So when the desk clerk at the hotel I pulled into said she had no rooms, and that there probably weren't any rooms in the whole town, I thought I was going to have a similar experience as on the way out to NYC. But she pointed to a hotel across the street and said they were the last to have any rooms.

Of course I scurried over there, only for there to be someone in line ahead of me, checking in. A good sign maybe. So then the question... do you have any rooms? "We have one left, but it's a suite." He says it's $129, at which I gasp (I mean, hey, I paid $119 in NYC). Then he says he'll give it to me for $89. Still a little high for a few hour stay, I had to take it, lest I have to keep driving in search of a room.

Strangely, as I was checking in, he asked if I already had a reservation. Turns out there was another "Shawn Wright" with a reservation at that hotel. I was so tempted to do un-nice things, but my creativity was stunted by tiredness.


Diversions
Driving through Ohio on Saturday afternoon, I heard on the radio that inductions to the Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio would be ocurring on Sunday, and included in the induction would be Barry Sanders and John Elway. How cool was that? And since I had only days before been to the Baseball Hall of Fame, it seemed like destiny calling me to Canton. But alas, I resisted the urge to stray.