Ok, so I can't count. Or rather, I misspoke earlier. It's a 7 night trip, which means 8 days, otherwise I'd be writing this from home.
Instead, I'm writing from the very nice but loud Renaissance Worthington hotel in downtown Ft. Worth, TX. Nice because it's more hotel than I'd ever want to afford (the gov't gets a rate quite a bit below the general public for official travel), and loud because the KU football team is here to play a bowl game on Friday. I don't know why it is that you can have a hotel filled to the gills with strangers and will hardly hear a peep, but the same hotel less than half full where half of those guests know each other is a different story. I guess people think that they have such a large group that no one else on their floor could possibly be a regular business traveler who needs to work the next morning--not in 3 days like they do.
Anyhow, the trip here was pretty fun. This morning we decided to plan to fly over the Grand Canyon instead of going straight to Texas, thus ensuring we'd meet today's 4-hour and the trip's 25-hour goals. The visibility was perfect and we went right over the South Side visitors' center and scenic overlooks; how impressive! On the way we got to go right past Lake Havasu City, and although I'm sure we flew right over the London Bridge I wasn't able to see it. I'm not sure I would have recognized it because I've always thought that it resembled the Tower Bridge, but according to the pics I've seen on the web it's just a regular-looking, flat bridge that used to go across the Thames.
Dinner tonight was to have been the Chop House at the hotel's recommendation, but when we saw the $35-40 steaks we decided to move on. I was happy with the next stop--Billy Miner's, a Fuddrucker's kind of place--but the bossman was very unhappy about the affair and pressed us to move on. We finally settled on the Fox & Hound, a very English-sounding name that turned out to be a regular American sports bar. I don't even know if they had fish and chips, but they did have $2 pints, which is not too shabby when some of the choices were Fat Tire and even Guinness. After dinner I couldn't resist a stop at the Marble Slab Creamery, and then it was back to the room for (I thought) some sleep before our early wake-up. Instead I'm getting loud teenagers 20 rooms apart shouting at each other: "C'mon, boooiiiiy, let's go get something to eat." Even as the hall noise quiets down I hear that 3-4 KU players are in the room next to me having a little party. I know I'm an old, old man, but I just want those pesky kids to quiet down so I can get a little sleep.
Update, the next day:
The hall noise stopped exactly at midnight as though a curfew had been imposed, but that didn't stop my next door neighbors from loudly opening and slamming the door every few minutes. I finally drifted off at about 1 and got up at 6 in time to get dressed and eat my mediocre breakfast that was $4 more than the same stuff I got in AZ but tasted worse. Go figure. Anyway on my way out I decided to repay my young friends next door. I set my clock alarm to 7:30 and turned the volume all the way up. I couldn't resist a phone call from the lobby just to be sure. All may have been for naught, though, as there was a bus outside to take them to practice. It was fun anyway, and at least I don't feel so old any more.
