A post in which I am ready to get the heck outta Dodge

I was up and busy this morning.  I did last-minute packing and folded laundry as I got ready for work and prepared the house for David.  I was only a minute or two late for work.  I asked for and received permission to work through lunch and leave at 4:30.  If I didn't have this stupid ISO/manual project to do, my month would be nicely ahead.  I worked on the credit memo project today and made great strides.  I turned in a lot of adjustments to be done.  It kind of worries me that I'll be out of the office while they are trying to process them, but it is what it is.  They'll wait until I get back if they don't go through, I guess.

After work I was out like a shot, and home to do the last minute cat stuff and hit the road.

For some reason, the drive home always seems interminable, and that's the one I remember.  The ride down, aside from some back-up traffic around Columbia, went smoothly, and I made good time.  I hated to stop for dinner, but I had to eat something.  I stopped for a drink outside Columbia, and while there found that they had sandwiches at the convenience store.  I got some chips, cookies, and a pimento cheese sandwich so that I could eat and ride.  The sandwich was surprisingly good. 

The weather was cool, but not cold, and the traffic was light.  I had books on CD, and the drive went surprisingly quickly.  I got to the beach in good time, and got to the hotel.  Mom was already there.  I got my things put away while we chatted about our respective days.

The hotel this year is the Patricia Grand.  We hadn't stayed there before.  Mom likes making all the reservations and things.  It's part of her enjoyment of the trip - the anticipation - and since I really don't care where we stay, I'm happy for her do that.  This was one of the new mega-hotels at the north end of the strip.  It's nice enough, but kind of has pretensions beyond the accommodations.  First it has mandatory valet service.  You can't get a luggage cart without a valet attached to it.  I don't mind if they let me choose, but I think it should be my choice whether or not I want that.  The room was nice, but really crowded with furniture, and it wasn't the cleanest place we've stayed.  The toilet needed some attention (enough so that we bought a toilet brush the next day and I scrubbed it - under the rim of that toilet hadn't seen a brush in a long time), the vanity wasn't cleaned during our stay, and we never got pillow-cases for some of the pillows, despite it's being obvious that we were using them.  So overall, I just wasn't blown away with the housekeeping.  But I'm not overly fussy, so it was OK. 

We settled in for a bit of a talk, but it was late, and eventually I had to turn in despite the excitement.  I was glad to be there, and it was good to hear the ocean again.