The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

One Of Those Days

We’ve all had one of those days when things just don’t go your way, and, the harder you try to make them right, the worse they seem to get. When you find yourself in the midst of one of those, the best thing to do is just give-in to the powers that be and try to make the most of it. It’s a little bit more difficult to take it in stride, however, when you’re over a thousand miles from home and living out of your car.

The Good

Despite my lodging for the night (more on that below in The Ugly), I had a good morning. The work project that had been giving me trouble the previous night was finished more easily than I thought it would be, which gave me some relief. After that, I fit-in a yoga session, along with a work-out, packed the car and I was on my way to Waco with a pocketful of tracts in Spanish for studying later.

The primary destination was Waco Mammoth National Monument. This keeps with my approach to this trip of essentially letting national parks, monuments and other similar locations dictate my travel destinations. The monument was interesting, but nothing spectacular. It allowed me to see some cool stuff, add another stamp to my passports and collect souvenirs for my post trip project.

The Bad

Unlike yesterday, despite it only being a 3 1/2 hour drive today, it wasn’t enjoyable at all. The skies were completely overcast and the weather was hot. While I don’t mind heat at all, the humidity was stifling. Again, this didn’t match my expectations of a dry heat in Texas. Regardless, it forced me to drive the entire way with the windows up and the air-conditioning on, which I hate. The path was mostly along major highways, including a stretch around Dallas that was hairy. By the time I got to Waco, I was exhausted.

Waco Mammoth National Monument itself is comprised of a gift shop, a paved walking path and a climate-controlled dig site that features what I assume is the actual dig site, but instead of actual fossils being unearthed they’ve been replaced with replicas. Along the paved walking path, I discovered there were entrances to a series of walking trails, so given how much time I had I decided to take the trails and stretch my legs a little. Well, I sort of got lost. In such a small area, it would just be a little embarrassing, but like I stated earlier it’s in the upper-80s and about 75% humidity and I hadn’t planned on being outside that long, so before I know it I’m sweating through my clothing and getting pissed-off about the situation. By the time I found my way back to the original path, I was done and just speed-walked through the rest of the monument, snapping a few pictures of the dig site and getting back on the road.

The Ugly

For some reason, two nights earlier as I laid in my bed in Hot Springs, Arkansas, I decided to book a room in Marlin, Texas, rather than Waco, Texas. From what I can tell, it doesn’t save much time when it comes to driving to San Antonio the following day. All I can think is that it was cheap.

This would make sense given my target price for a motel room is around $80 a night. Now, I tell my parents this and they look a bit shocked, but honestly my requirements for acceptable motel rooms aren’t that high and being that I’m traveling alone my preferences are the only ones that matter. If they’re clean and have a decent amount of sound-proofing between rooms, I’m more or less okay. So, if the app I’m using to book rooms says a place has an 8/10 rating, it’s a no-brainer.

Earlier, I alluded to the fact that the room in Paris wasn’t all that great. At the time, it was the worst in a steady, downward progression over the previous two nights, but ultimately wasn’t that bad given the requirements I listed above. The place I checked into in Marlin was awful, and I mean every stage of it: the parking lot, the exterior and the lobby. After revisiting the motel on the app tonight, I realize that the pictures used in the app cannot possibly be from the place I checked into unless they were taken 20 years ago.

All that being said, it was the room that broke the camel’s back. The situation might not have been that bad if I’d taken my key and checked the room before unpacking my car. But, it was a ground floor and there was a luggage cart, so I decided to just load-up the cart and get to the room as soon as possible. When I opened the door, the smell… the first thing that came to mind was that an ashtray full of cigarette butts had spent the previous week fucking a cigar in the room. It made me gag. But, you know, your sense of smell deadens quickly, and, despite the dirty carpet, everything else seemed clean, so I unloaded everything on elevated surfaces (nothing on the floor, ever) and went to park my car and get the rest of my stuff.

When I got back to the room and opened the door again… POW!!! Nope, I can’t stay in this room. What are my options? One thing I didn’t tell you about Marlin is that there isn’t much to it. The whole situation actually reminds me of the motel in Bill, Wyoming, that I stayed in after seeing Devils Tower on my last trip. The motel WAS Bill, Wyoming, and it was more of a living residence for oil and train workers than something meant for visitors. Again, why did I book this room instead of something in Waco?!? So, after thinking about my Economics 101 course and concepts like “sunk cost” I make the decision to book a room BACK in Waco, my reasoning being it’s a safe bet that a decent motel in a college town will be fine. While I didn’t want to use it, I had a credit for a room on my app, so it technically didn’t cost me anything. Fifteen minutes later, I’m back in my car and headed to Waco.

Now, you’re probably wondering: Was the room in Waco better than the one in Marlin? Yes, no doubt about it. The room didn’t smell like a 100-year old bowling alley, the overall setting was more civilized, and I was able to unwind and write the first draft of this post (the one you’re reading is much more tame) while eating a decent dinner for a change. But, around the time I was about to get to bed early and truly put the day behind me, the occupants of the two rooms next to me arrived and I discovered that the walls of the place had no sound-proofing… and neither do the doors because they spent all night drinking and hanging-out in front of their rooms.

Resolution

The astounding thing is that I managed to get the longest stretch of sleep that I’ve gotten on my trip so far because I put an earplug in one ear and just resolved to lay there for the next eight hours or fall asleep, and strangely enough I only woke-up once during the course of the night. This allowed me to get an extra early start to the day on Sunday, which hopefully will let me do a better job of researching the lodging for my post-Big Bend NP route to San Diego.