2011 New York Trip-Day 4 – 07/23/2011 / 74941 / 8:00 pm

2011 New York Trip-Day 4 – 07/23/2011 / 74941 / 8:00 pm

I managed to back track to Rapid City where I turned on my phone’s “HotSpot” and fired up my netbook to look for a motel (normally, I just tell my GPS to display the nearest Super 8, or whatever I am looking for.  I have enough trouble reading the printing on the tiny netbook screen – at dusk it is almost impossible to distinguish between “0”, “8” and “6”.  It took me three tries before I got the number right on some of the motels I called.  Most of the places I checked were either full or way more than I wanted to spend.  I guess weekends are bad days to not have a reservation.  I finally found a Motel 6 for $84.  The bad news: I had to get a smoking room.  Next came the adventure of finding the motel without a map.  I tried just using the brief directions from their website  Big mistake.  So, I pulled over, started up the netbook and used Mapquest to get some directions. I made the mistake of just looking at the map and thinking I could find it.  I pulled over again to look at the netbook (I had left it on).  I think God was trying to tell me something at this point.   When I opened the netbook all the way, Mapquest was displaying an ad for a local Alzheimer’s treatment center.  Anyhow, I gave up on Mapquest and switched to Google Maps.  I wrote down the 11 different turns I needed to get to the motel.  It is not easy driving on a busy street at night while trying to read a piece of paper with directions.  I ultimately found it only because of the huge sign they had.  Even then, the only way in I found went behind several motels on a really bad deeply rutted road.  I was sure I was going to bottom out. 

I finally got checked in around 9:00pm.  Naturally I am on the second floor, with no elevators, about 50 yards from the closest place I could park.  Good times.  I have to admit, it is a pretty nice room.  There is a rally long desk with a flat screen TV.  The desk has a panel built into it with RCA, USB, HDMI and VGA input connections. Now I have to figure out how I am going to navigate the rest of the trip. The silver lining is than God for my DroidX.  At least I could use it to give my netbook Internet access – and in a pinch I could use the Maps app.

I was really hungry – but of course there was nothing within walking distance (I really did not want to drive anywhere and get lost this late) and not microwave in the motel, so . . . I walked a couple blocks to a convenience store and bought a sumptuous repast of two hot dogs, a bag of potato chips and package of mini donuts for desert.

End of Day 4: 410 miles