So, this week’s happenings is going to be around the trip The Wife and I took up to Charlotte NC. Her boss works out of that office, so they are trying to bring her up a few times a year to meet in person and such. This time there was some big meeting of large groups of people surrounding The Wife’s work team. I tagged along because I can. I also brought my work rig so I could work from the hotel room, but I still needed to put in for leave because of the current administration’s hatred for telework.
Sunday – Travel day. The last time we went up to Charlotte, it took us ten hours to get there. This time it took us twelve. And the GPS had us doing some wild detours to avoid the mess which is holiday traffic on I-95. There were some moments where I wasn’t sure if the GPS decided to switch destinations to some place else. Anywhoo, we left Parrish around 6a and got into the hotel around 5:30p. I swear, at least a third of that was just getting out of Florida. People forget how big my home state is on a lengthwise basis.
We also decided to hit the Buccee’s in Georgia. Neither of us had been to one – and it’s been featured on both of our feeds. So, she plugged it into the GPS on her phone – which tells us to take an exit four miles south and take the backroads to get to Buccee’s. Given Waze’s penchant for wild detours to save three minutes, we decided to just take the exit on the sign. Um yeah, we figured out why Waze wanted us to go around. The exit was a fucking mess. I think it took us ten minutes to go the mile from the exit to the parking lot. As for inside? Okay. It was neat seeing it, but it was a bit on the wild and chaotic side. Like Walmart during the wild and woolly times. Not really a fan of that particular atmosphere. Still, the sliced brisket sandwiches were really good, as was the peanut butter cup thing I had for dessert.
Monday – We woke up to 36 degree weather. That is fucking cold. I set up my work rig while The Wife got dressed up for work. Or more to the point, more dressed up than her normal work-from-home attire of leggings and t-shirt. Since it was so cold, I drove her over to the office before returning to work in the hotel room. Which, since I’m technically on leave, I didn’t do much of. I did play some Civ and start on my Lego Optimus Prime. Dinner was from a burger place that did fried deviled eggs. Those were okay. The buttermilk fried bacon was similarly mid. The burgers were pretty decent.
Tuesday – The morning temperature was up to 39, but the heavens were raining down sleet. Which didn’t make it fun when taking The Wife to her office. I pretty much spent the day more bouncing between work and play. Mostly because, unlike Monday, I had meetings that I had to be on. No real work on Optimus because I didn’t want to get involved while trying to bounce around my meetings. We ordered dinner from an Italian place near to the hotel.
Wednesday – We came out to take The Wife to her office to find the Wardmobile coated in ice. Not something we have to deal with much at home. In fact, I can’t remember the last time I dealt with ice since moving from Tampa. Anywhoo, after delivering The Wife, I went back to the room to do much of what I had been doing – a little bit of work, a little bit of Civ, a little bit of Lego. Unfortunately, I also did a bunch of grazing on stuff in the room we brought. I also binged anime series that will show up in a later recommendations post. While The Wife went off to a dinner with her coworkers, I ordered in from a local barbecue place.
Thursday – The day was taken up with bouncing between a little bit of work, a little bit of Civ, and a lot of packing and getting ready for the transit back home. Also trying to clean up the room as we didn’t want to leave a mess for the housekeeping staff. For dinner, The Wife and I joined her longtime boss and friend at Rooster’s which was close to the hotel and then walked down the “walkable area”.
Friday – By Thursday night, The Wife and I were ready to get home. I looked at the weather forecast for Friday in Charlotte. Cold and rainy. So, I thought why don’t we leave extra early to miss the rain and get home sooner? We talked it over and decided to wake up at 1:00am and try to get out of the hotel by 2:00am to miss the rain. Well, we succeeded in getting out of the hotel by 2:00am, but we did not succeed in missing the rain. At least it wasn’t freezing rain, wintry mix, or sleet. Just rain. Which continued the width of South Carolina. We only escaped when we went south on I-95 and put the hammer down. As expected, the trip took us about 10 hours to get home. Then came the fun of dragging all of the stuff into the house and unpacking. Then The Wife and I crashed. On to our bed. With our cats.
Lessons Learned for the Next Trip to Charlotte – I had a garment bag / suitcase that, unfortunately, just fell apart. However, it was very useful in transporting a lot of The Wife’s office clothing. So, we’ll need to replace it. We also need to get The Wife a better “office” backpack – preferably one that can dual as a rolling bag. Personally, I’d like for her to have one that I can get “kitted out” with some of the small necessities so we’re not scrambling. Finally, it’s very hard to stay on diet in a hotel room. We probably need to do some more meal planning with some simple dinners so we don’t Doordash all the time. I also need to bring exactly what I need for breakfast/lunches so I don’t have “spare” to graze on while working. Which reminds me, I need to bring a spare cushion for the chair in the room. It’s just hard plastic. On the plus side, the travel rig worked pretty well.
Weight Happenings – Yeah, between Thanksgiving week and being on vacation/out of town the next, I didn’t even bother getting on the scale to see how much of my work I’ve undone. The Wife and I are back on diets and exercise. Maybe next week I’ll screw up my courage to get back on the scale.
