Today was unexpectedly rough. Started off later than I’d wanted, but not too late. Planning ahead, made a hotel reservation for tonight before getting on the road, in a futile attempt to avoid holiday sell-outs. Wasn’t able to find one near to where I wanted to stop, but found one about 90 minutes earlier along my planned route which suited the late start just fine. Had a large breakfast, planning to skip lunch, then got on the road.
Almost immediately, I found myself in snarls of holiday traffic. Got on the highway in an attempt to get away from it, and did manage to do so for a little while, but detours and associated GPS up-fuckery sent me way out of my way, and into more holiday traffic, twice, ultimately costing me nearly three hours and the last of my patience. There were some really nice roads mixed in along the way, but there was so much downside today they kind of got lost in the noise.
Finally, as I thought I was approaching the hotel just before 1900h, I realized I’d selected the wrong version of today’s route after one of the GPS resets, and not only was I still over 60 miles away from the hotel, but I’d just spent the last 30 travelling away from my destination. Finally made it to my hotel around 2030h, only to find the bastards had oversold the hotel and had given my room away already. Fuck me running.
Scrambling now, hungry, cold, tired, pissed, and badly in need of fuel, I several times considered just finding an interstate and blasting home, but the thought of arriving to the disaster I left my house at 0300h or later kept that as a last choice. I stopped in at a gas station with a Subway, bought a sandwich, stole some wifi, and started searching. After several dead ends, found a hotel about 90 minutes of dark, deer-infested country road away with rooms available at only moderately obscene rates, booked one, and hit the road.
Arrived at the hotel cold and tired but otherwise without incident just before 2300h. Conveniently, they’d assigned me a first floor room just off the main lobby, so hauling my crap in from the bike was easy and quick.
Bright side, except for the first 15 miles or so, the route I’ll be taking tomorrow is over known good roads, avoiding population centers until I approach 128 where it just becomes unavoidable.
Mileage: 409
States: WV, MD, PA, NY
Tomorrow, home.