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Pics for the day
In the morning, making my way to the hotel's breakfast area (in the lobby near the front desk), I saw a guy hanging around just outside an open door. He was wearing a t-shirt that said:
I DON'T CARE
I'M NOT LISTENING
[I forget what the 3rd was. Something similar.]
ALL OF THE ABOVE
I thought that was kind of interesting, but shrugged and moved on. After I passed, he stepped out of the door and wandered off somewhere. A little ways further, I realized that the door he'd been in hadn't actually been a guest room but rather the door to the little office that connected to the front desk. Seemed kind of an odd thing for a hotel employee to be wearing, but... whatever.
As I entered the breakfast area, I saw a hotel employee lead a guest back to the front desk. She explained that she was actually off duty, but since there didn't appear to be anyone manning the front desk just then, she'd get behind the desk and help out... and, actually, it appeared that the manager, who had been behind the desk, had just stepped out. Brilliant.
Back on the road... we passed a few examples of an interesting Ohio highway feature. Every once in a while, there'd be a sign saying that there was emergency parking 1/2 a mile ahead. Half a mile later, there'd be a section about 100 feet long where the guardrail moved out far enough to allow a car to safely park without getting smashed by highway traffic. There was another sign to indicate that it was emergency parking... and that there was a 2 hour limit.
All of which seems to miss the point of emergency parking. When you have an emergency, you can't necessarily wait 1/2 a mile (or, for that matter, the 30 or so miles between emergency pullouts). And then, how are you supposed to see it, pull over, stop, and then get back up to highway speed when the thing is 100 feet long? And then... a two hour limit? And what if your emergency can't be fixed within 2 hours?
Other thing about Ohio is that all of the rest stops (except one) were exactly the same. It was the same building with the same restaurants and everything. Same restaurants isn't that unusual. The NJ Turnpike Authority owns the rest stops on the Turnpike, and it gives the rental contracts out to all of them rather than one at a time. But this was the same exact building. An unusual building, at that. An asymmetrical design with the restaurants built along one side of a bright, open rotunda, and a hallway (with bathrooms and information) leading out the other side. It's pretty cool. Effective, and surprisingly beautiful. But very odd to see it and appreciate it only to find that the next five rest stops are exactly the same. (And even odder to decide to take a picture of one, only to find that the last rest stop in Ohio had an entirely different design.)
Something else we passed on the highway - triple trailers. A semi towing three full-sized containers behind it. It was shocking to the see the first. I couldn't imagine steering something like that, especially after having experienced what it was like to drive a moving van with a single trailer. But then we started seeing more of them. A few from FedEx and the like, but the vast majority seemed to be owned by a company called Con-Way. I've got a picture of one of those. I'll upload it when I get around to sorting pics.
We ended up driving 767 miles that day. Further than we'd wanted to, but there was nothing between Des Moines, IA and Omaha, NB. Nothing. In late afternoon, it looked like we'd hit Des Moines in the early evening, maybe around dinner time. Dan liked to stop early by my standards, but even so, we should have been able to make Omaha in time. Except that we ended up taking a very long dinner break. At first, we couldn't find the place we'd been aiming for. Then we had a long, relaxed dinner. And then filled up with gas. I forget what else happened, but basically, we didn't make it to the hotel until something like 1am. Partly my fault for flubbing the estimate, and I feel bad about that. But we made it. And made up for our slow start on the 2nd. And give ourselves a bit more wiggle room to relax the following day.
In the morning, making my way to the hotel's breakfast area (in the lobby near the front desk), I saw a guy hanging around just outside an open door. He was wearing a t-shirt that said:
I DON'T CARE
I'M NOT LISTENING
[I forget what the 3rd was. Something similar.]
ALL OF THE ABOVE
I thought that was kind of interesting, but shrugged and moved on. After I passed, he stepped out of the door and wandered off somewhere. A little ways further, I realized that the door he'd been in hadn't actually been a guest room but rather the door to the little office that connected to the front desk. Seemed kind of an odd thing for a hotel employee to be wearing, but... whatever.
As I entered the breakfast area, I saw a hotel employee lead a guest back to the front desk. She explained that she was actually off duty, but since there didn't appear to be anyone manning the front desk just then, she'd get behind the desk and help out... and, actually, it appeared that the manager, who had been behind the desk, had just stepped out. Brilliant.
Back on the road... we passed a few examples of an interesting Ohio highway feature. Every once in a while, there'd be a sign saying that there was emergency parking 1/2 a mile ahead. Half a mile later, there'd be a section about 100 feet long where the guardrail moved out far enough to allow a car to safely park without getting smashed by highway traffic. There was another sign to indicate that it was emergency parking... and that there was a 2 hour limit.
All of which seems to miss the point of emergency parking. When you have an emergency, you can't necessarily wait 1/2 a mile (or, for that matter, the 30 or so miles between emergency pullouts). And then, how are you supposed to see it, pull over, stop, and then get back up to highway speed when the thing is 100 feet long? And then... a two hour limit? And what if your emergency can't be fixed within 2 hours?
Other thing about Ohio is that all of the rest stops (except one) were exactly the same. It was the same building with the same restaurants and everything. Same restaurants isn't that unusual. The NJ Turnpike Authority owns the rest stops on the Turnpike, and it gives the rental contracts out to all of them rather than one at a time. But this was the same exact building. An unusual building, at that. An asymmetrical design with the restaurants built along one side of a bright, open rotunda, and a hallway (with bathrooms and information) leading out the other side. It's pretty cool. Effective, and surprisingly beautiful. But very odd to see it and appreciate it only to find that the next five rest stops are exactly the same. (And even odder to decide to take a picture of one, only to find that the last rest stop in Ohio had an entirely different design.)
Something else we passed on the highway - triple trailers. A semi towing three full-sized containers behind it. It was shocking to the see the first. I couldn't imagine steering something like that, especially after having experienced what it was like to drive a moving van with a single trailer. But then we started seeing more of them. A few from FedEx and the like, but the vast majority seemed to be owned by a company called Con-Way. I've got a picture of one of those. I'll upload it when I get around to sorting pics.
We ended up driving 767 miles that day. Further than we'd wanted to, but there was nothing between Des Moines, IA and Omaha, NB. Nothing. In late afternoon, it looked like we'd hit Des Moines in the early evening, maybe around dinner time. Dan liked to stop early by my standards, but even so, we should have been able to make Omaha in time. Except that we ended up taking a very long dinner break. At first, we couldn't find the place we'd been aiming for. Then we had a long, relaxed dinner. And then filled up with gas. I forget what else happened, but basically, we didn't make it to the hotel until something like 1am. Partly my fault for flubbing the estimate, and I feel bad about that. But we made it. And made up for our slow start on the 2nd. And give ourselves a bit more wiggle room to relax the following day.
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