Long Day

I am in Elyria, Ohio, and this was a long leg -- seven hours according to the directions, but it was more like 12 hours. Lots of torrential rain, to the point that people were pulled over. I never did, since I felt my windshield wipers were keeping up, but I was slowed to about 20 mph. Rain would come and go.

Then about 90 minutes from the hotel, traffic just plain stopped. Some sort of weird accident, but we sat there, people getting out of their cars, for about 45 minutes. I had about 1/8 of a tank of gas and decided to not play the "gee, do I have enough to make it to the hotel?" game and stopped -- more time.

The hotel is one of those places where it's on the fringe of the parking lots of a huge shopping mall with construction and repaving and you can't get there from here. When I finally figured out how to get to the hotel, it is way bigger than I thought, had to park far from the front door... and then there was a line of about 20 people (no kidding) waiting to check in. I knew I couldn't stand that long, so I was sitting on a bench, thinking I'd just wait for the line to go down some.

This man ( a guest) took pity on me and said he would find someone to check me in. So this manager comes running over with a wheelchair, which I said I didn't need; I just needed to check in. He took my credit card and driver's license and came back with my key and paper to sign. I have to say I did feel slightly guilty -- I would have waited my turn in line, but there was no way after this week, after 12 hours in the car, I could have waited in that line. The man/guest who helped me was so nice -- he was a big guy with a tank top and said that if the manager didn't treat me right that he would make sure he did. OK. Is it Streetcar Named Desire with the line "I have always relied on the kindness of strangers" and I did!

Onward to Allentown, PA.