The Second Travel Day

I am sorry that this has not been updated at all. I don’t have internet in my apartment, because my computer’s VPN connection is not working, so the only way for me to get internet on my laptop is to go to the wireless lounge at the other apartment complex. However, I have now decided that I shall simply write entries on Microsoft Word, and then copy and paste them into Blogger whenever I get internet. And now, tonight, I’m picking up wireless from somewhere in the living room of the apartment, so I’m going to take advantage of it and post. There are going to be some back entries, while I tell about what has happened since the last time I wrote. I will post them just one at a time, because if I post them all at once you won’t read them, I know you won’t. So you’ll have to gradually catch up to what’s really happening to me.

So, to start with, I left off after my very first day of driving. The second day did not involve any adventures. It involved driving through “Georgia forever,” as my mother has nicknamed the state. It was rather dull. The only interesting thing was having a lizard in our hotel room, which Thad named Timkins. I will upload a few pictures Thad took of him when I have a better connection. He was very cute.
The hotel room was clean but didn’t smell nice; it smelled like someone had been in it before us whose luggage all smelled of cats. And the hostess was very rude to us at the continental breakfast. We got up rather early since I wanted to get to Disney at around 10, so as to have plenty of time and not be in a rush, so we were the only ones eating breakfast. There was a TV blaring the news loudly. Since we were the only ones there, I turned it all the way down so we couldn’t hear it, planning to turn it back up if someone else came. A few minutes later, the hostess (that is what you call the front desk lady at a hotel, isn’t it? Or is hostess only for restaurants?) came in and turned it back up. I thought she just didn’t know I had turned it down, and thought we wanted it up. I left it, though, while we ate – until it started blaring sordid details about some book that had been published about Anna Nicole Smith, which wasn’t my idea of pleasant breakfast ambiance. So I went and turned it off again. The hostess instantly reappeared, and told me – in the tone one would use with a child who is being frustratingly naughty – that she had just turned it back up, and that I couldn’t turn it all the way down because people wanted to hear it.
“We’re the only ones here at the moment,” I answered. “I’ll turn it back up if anyone comes.” And then she said something else and I said something else, I don’t remember what exactly, but it was along those same lines, and then she said, again in the tone an annoyed mother would use with a five-year-old who was talking back,
“The TV is turned up, and that’s just the way it’s gonna be.”
“I’ll remember that the next time I’m in the area,” I replied, and went back to eating my breakfast. I was astonished, afterward, because I never think of quick replies. I always just sort of splutter, and think of a really good comeback ten minutes later – or the next day. But I said that without even thinking. I would have liked to also say that my family was coming down later and they had been asking us for our recommendations, and that I was I keeping a blog that many people would read, and this would certainly go in it. But I think that would have been overkill, and I just would have been perceived as a screamy customer. Understated is better in that sort of situation, I do believe. But at any rate, the place was Quality Inn South in Valdosta, Georgia, in case you care.
It was interesting – I hadn’t thought of myself as being especially sensitive, but I have noticed that whenever a stranger is rude and harsh to me without cause, I go slightly to pieces. Even if I don’t think I feel bad emotionally, I almost always have a strong physical reaction – I shake, and sometimes get tears in my eyes involuntarily. That’s how it was when a guy cussed me out once (not on this trip) when I didn’t deserve it – I thought I was not really caring, other than being stunned that he was doing it and thinking him a complete jerk – and then I suddenly found that I was crying. It was the same here – I didn’t cry, but I did start shaking and my heart was beating very quickly. I didn’t really feel upset, though. I don’t know why I always get that physical reaction.
We left the hotel at a little before seven thirty. It was nice because we were in Florida quite soon, early enough that we didn’t call my sister right away to tell her we were in a new state, which is what we had been doing. Then we just drove, and got to the Vista Way apartment complex, which is where the check-in was, without making any wrong turns. But if I tell about all the rest of this day this entry is four pages long, so you’ll have to wait to hear about check-in until tomorrow.