el rinconcito

My work vehicle, affectionately called "the unit", broke down on the way to the job this morning. I was rolling along OK when the motor shut off. I was amazed at how hard it is to steer and brake that thing without the engine. I had little time to get a feel for that as it ran over a curb and nearly across the median into oncoming traffic.

Anyway, I got it off into a shopping center parking lot, and two hours later I got it towed away. The bonus is that I now have relaxing free time to read my ass off and have fun with the hotel's blazingly fast wifi. The repairs will probably take two days. I get paid anyway.

If I asked nice, the company would probably get a rental car for me to dick around in, but there's nowhere I really need to go, and it's a nice time to get some exercise walking everywhere. The hotel is in a ramshackle area where almost everything is out of business. People just mill around waiting on the bus or hang out to give plasma for some cash. In the nearly abandoned shopping center parking lots, cars creep in quietly at night and leave in the morning. I assume people are living in them. It's amazing the feel one can get for an area from walking around in it rather than just whizzing by in a car. I've had several conversations with people who are hanging around. They have all been quite nice and seem to enjoy the chance to chat, as did I.

Here I sit playing with, ummmm, the hotel wifi.

I'm traveling all this week in *deep* rural South Carolina. Want to guess which hotel I'm in tonight?



Yep, it's a Super 8. There's a choice of two *free* wifi signals as you can see in the image. I can almost swear that the wireless works best in the cheapest hotels. Who knows why.

This Super 8 is posh. There's a huge office desk with a comfy ergonomic chair, microwave/fridge, a large sparkling bathroom, and powerful air conditioning. Light breakfast and coffee are included in the morning. I had a coupon that saved me $15 off an already inexpensive room. The coupons can be picked up at rest areas, welcome centers, truck stops, gas stations, and some fast food places. The problem is getting the hotels to accept them. They reserve the right to tell you "no". They usually take them, but if they think they can sell the space for more later in the day, they will decline. They gave me no problem here.

Home tomorrow afternoon! Need a beer.

Free wireless at this hotel worth exactly that....nothing. I'm here three days with a 10% signal in my room that keeps dropping. The bank down the street has a better signal into my room, but it's encrypted.

It's the Microtel in Christiansburg, Virginia.

It looks like this outside (they all look the same everywhere):