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It’s day number seven on the road and tonight will be my 8th straight in a hotel bed.

Travel, new things to see, new things to do and a change of pace can make life on the road seem a bit more glamorous than the stark reality. I’ve been working on the road at least six months of the year since 1983 and can honestly tell you that it has very few redeeming qualities.

I endured one of the indignities of life on the road this morning when I loaded up a week’s worth of dirty clothes and headed to a laundry. “Nice” laundromats simply don’t exist in any part of America where I’ve ever traveled. Fortunately, I can usually get in and get out pretty quick.

One almost never bumps into jet-setters or captains of industry while waiting for a washing machine in a coin operated laundromat. Without fail I’m usually always the only English speaking patron in the joint and I find that sad. Poor folks who can’t afford to buy a washing machine or who don’t live in a place with a washer/dryer hookup certainly cannot afford to spend $20 a week feeding quarters into a machine just to have clean clothes — and so some entrepreneur can profit from that situation.

With nothing better to do in the afternoon, I wandered into a Best Buy where I was immediately swarmed by “associates” and from the time I walked in until I walked out, they were all over me like stink on a monkey. I don’t know if that’s normal store policy or if perhaps being a yankee in a southern retail outlet marked me as a shoplifter, but it was powerful uncomfortable. I also couldn’t help but notice that there were three employees for every customer — that can’t bode well for the store or for the chain — can it?

Later, I visited an antique shop and browsed a lot of books. I chuckled when I realized that I already owned most of the titles that caught my eye. Brenda would kill me if I brought another stack of musty old books home so I kept my money in my pocket. Well, except for one. I found a first edition of ‘North of Fifty-Three‘ written by Bertrand Sinclair and published in 1914. This one isn’t at all rare (you can download the text online from here) but I collect books published by Grosset & Dunlap and this was a good looking specimen and for a mere six dollars, Brenda will probably forgive me.

I stopped at the store on the way back to the hotel and acquired a few essentials. My room has a microwave and refrigerator so I picked up some bottled water, microwavable popcorn, a bag of apples and a carton of Earl Grey tea. Water from the vending machine is $1.25 a bottle so I figure I’m saving enough on water to pay for another trip to the antique store.

Ah, life on the road — it’s just like being a famous rock star on a world tour, don’t you think?

73 de Jeff

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 27th, 2008 at 7:10 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.