Kevin Standlee (kevin_standlee) wrote,
Kevin Standlee
kevin_standlee

  • Location:
  • Mood:
  • Music:

In The Olive City

Possibly inspired by bovil's "Olive Facts" posts on westercons, I decided this afternoon to drive a bit farther south than I usually do on my two-day trips between Oregon and the Bay Area. Typically I stop in Medford, Ashland, or Yreka, but I got away almost two hours earlier than usual today and made excellent time despite the rain. From the Coburg rest area to just north of Roseburg I was dialed in to a Westercon 64 committee meeting, which also made the miles seem to fly by, believe it or not. I stopped at Roseburg, reassessed my travel progress, and called Holiday Inn and changed my reservation from Medford South to Corning. (Yreka and Redding were too expensive.) I got in to The Olive City about 8:30, took advantage of the offer from the Iron Skillet restaurant across the street (10% discount with hotel room key), and made ample use of the in-room wired internet connection to make the updates to the Westercon 64 web site that came up while I was driving south.

Around Grants Pass, the rain that had been dogging me cleared up and the sun came out. I felt for my sunglasses in my briefcase, but couldn't find them. When I stopped at the Pilot truck stop in Central Point (where I often stop; it's right next to that Holiday Inn Express I've used several times), I dug around in my briefcase more when I could look at it without risking driving off the road. No luck. I called Lisa, thinking I might have left them behind. She couldn't find them. I puzzled over it for a little while longer and finally found them sitting in their black case on top of a black piece of luggage and covered by a black tote bag. Not too surprising that I couldn't see them! (I called Lisa back to tell her I'd found them so she wouldn't worry.)

I got a bit annoyed at the Pilot people over a bit of foolishness on their part. The receipt from my gas purchase included a 99-cent offer for a 16-ounce cup of coffee. My travel mug is 16 ounces, so I took it in, filled it, went to the counter, and produced the coupon. They charged me $1.49. When I complained, they said that the offer on the form is only for disposable 16-ounce cups, not travel mugs, because it messes up their inventory. That's absurd. It means that I could have saved 50 cents by taking one of their 16-ounce cups, filling it with coffee, pouring that into my insulated travel mug, and throwing away the paper cup. I know it's only fifty cents, but the stupidity of the policy annoys me, and I hope to remember to write to Pilot to tell them how foolish it is.

Because I'm about 200 miles farther south than I originally planned to be tonight, I can sleep in a bit tomorrow morning without guilt. I do plan to try and swing over to Sutter and see my mother, even though it's Father's Day. Alas, I forgot to send my father a card!
Tags: travel, westercon
Subscribe

  • Book Retrieval

    Lisa and I went into Reno/Sparks today to do several errands. The first stop was Jiffy Lube, where I retrieved my lost property that they fortunately…

  • Grocery Refill

    Because of both me and the Astro being out of service for the past two weeks, we were behind on our grocery shopping. So this morning at 2 AM, we set…

  • Lunch at the Atlantis

    For reasons included in a friends-locked post on DW (don't worry, I'm okay), I had to go back to Reno this afternoon. The timing was such that I did…

  • Post a new comment

    Error

    default userpic

    Your reply will be screened

    Your IP address will be recorded 

    When you submit the form an invisible reCAPTCHA check will be performed.
    You must follow the Privacy Policy and Google Terms of use.
  • 8 comments