Real Kato Blog: Weekend Update

So I just got back from a trip to Maryland. I am dead tired, but I am going to write about my trip now, because I Love My Internet Audience. Sorry if this is a little bit disjointed... my brain is kind of mushy right now.

This weekend there was a curling tournament in Laurel, Maryland. (Yes, I am a curler.) Well, it wasn't actually a "tournament"; it was what's called a "bonspiel", which means it's just for fun and the prizes are usually just little tchotchkes.

I drove there during the day on Thursday. Laurel is just on the other side of Washington D.C., so it's about a five hour drive. I started by driving up Interstate 85; by and large, that portion of the drive is pretty relaxed, with pleasant scenery and not much traffic.

When I hit Interstate 95, though, things changed. I-95 is the primary north-south corridor for the east coast. That means that seventy-year-old snowbirds, traveling between New Jersey and Florida in their Buicks, are sharing the road with every major trucking company in the country. It's like "Road Warrior" out there, except that we have some compunction about running the old people off the road.

In Virginia, certain sections of I-95 are designated "Highway Safety Corridors". They would be more aptly named "White Knuckle Cattle Chutes of Impending Doom", because the lanes get narrower, there are concrete barricades on both sides, and everyone switches lanes like mad. I hate driving through Richmond and around Washington D.C. because of highways like this.

I made it up to Laurel in one piece, and checked into my room at the Best Western hotel. I made myself a little home away from home.

The hotel advertised Internet access on its web page. When I got there, sure enough: I had a wireless signal, and I could read all my favorite blogs. But after a day or so, the Internet conked out; I still had a wireless signal, but no connectivity to anything. There was also a DSL modem with an ethernet port in the room, but that thing didn't work at all. I tried to connect via my cell phone, but I didn't have everything set up right. So that's why I've been silent since Friday.

The hotel was really kind of a dump. It looked they had converted an old motor lodge into a hotel. There was an indoor pool, but it was surrounded by hotel rooms; I got the feeling it used to be an outdoor pool until they put a roof on top of the courtyard. The carpets were threadbare, the air conditioning units looked forty years old, there was no refrigerator in the room, the bathroom was tiny and dingy... this is certainly not a place I'd recommend, except for its convenient location.

The hotel did have a hot tub. The pool and hot tub were only open from 5:00 p.m. until 10:00 p.m., and by the end of the evening the heater elements quit working, so the "hot tub" was more of a "tepid tub". Still, I guess it was better than nothing. Thursday night, my curling team met by the tepid tub for a late evening dip.

When I got there, a teenage girl was sitting with her feet in the tub. Her name was Jasmine. She was cute and busty, and she wore a bikini; the pool lifeguard was staring at her in a very obvious way. I'm guessing she was 17. There was a rule that you had to be 18 to be in the hot tub, but somehow I don't think the lifeguard had any intention of kicking her out. She certainly could not have been older than 18, though, because she was in high school. Yikes.

Our conversation was funny. At one point she said she didn't really know how to talk to "old people". She said when she talks to her peers, she usually talks about sports and clubs. I said that I still go out to clubs, but then immediately realized that she meant clubs like Latin Club or Math Club, not dance clubs. Aieee.

Now, it's possible that I could have plied her with alcohol (see photo above) and done several illegal things this weekend, but I did not. I was a good boy. We just had a harmless conversation while half-naked, that's all.

Curling for us started on Friday. The curling facility was pretty nice; here's an action shot. I am not in the picture; when I'm curling, it looks WAY LESS GEEKY. Um, right.

We did fairly well, considering we don't get to practice much here in North Kakalakee. We won two games and lost two, and we might have won more had we not had a few bad breaks. We didn't win any tchotchkes; but still, the tournament only cost us $65 a person, and that included three lunches and two dinners (including sushi on Saturday night; the tournament was Japanese-themed in honor of the cherry blossoms in Washington D.C.). So it was still fun, and we got our money's worth.

Friday night there was supposed to be karaoke, but no one was really interested in that. Saturday night there was supposed to be dancing, but no one was interested in that either. There weren't many single people there, so it really wasn't a surprise that the social stuff fell through. There was just one cute girl there; she looked a bit like Evangeline Lily. But, she was married. Of course.

On the drive back today, I attempted to avoid the Cattle Chute of Doom through Richmond, so I took I-295 to bypass the city. I knew, though, that if I wanted to get back to I-85, I needed to take some small local highway to get there. Unfortunately, I didn't know exactly which highway. So I guessed.

I guessed wrong. I ended up taking a torturous path through the dilapidated slums of outer Richmond. Did I turn back or ask for directions? Nah. I've always been able navigate by instinct, and I wanted to prove to myself that I could do it. It took me a half hour and at times I was reminded of the movie "Quick Change". But I eventually found my way, without seeing any mop-handle jousting.

I got on I-85 and after that things were pretty dull. I got back home and nothing had been stolen or burned. Hooray! Now I'm going to have a beer or two, and try to catch up on all my stories... er, I mean blogs.

It's good to be home.

Permalink 2 Comment

Posted by Ken in: life

Comments

Comment #1 from Nicholas (Guest)
2005 Mar 31 - 12:12 pm : #

I just got back from a week in Florida. Our Best Western was slightly nicer. We took 95 from Raleigh down there. Lots of RV's, but surprising few maniacs driving over 90 mph. Everyone pretty much hummed along at 81-83, 11-13 over the limit.

We used to drive to DC every so often. 85 is so god awful boring. 95 though VA just sucks. We found the 295 bypass around Richmond to work. First time we took it going South we did not have a map. I thought 295 reconnected with 95 before 85. It did not, so we took 95 all the way to 64 (Rocky Mount). That was no good. Next time we used a map and took the correct road across richmond (10 maybe?).

Curling? WTF?

Comment #2 from Ken (realkato)
2005 Mar 31 - 12:16 pm : #

Yeah, it's Route 10 that connects across. It's DEFINITELY NOT Route 5.

Comments are closed for this post.

Search This Site