A good nights sleep
Circa mid June, 2010. Well, I am running around every day dropping off petitions and going over instructions on how to get the petitions correctly signed. A couple of days ago, I drove 470 miles and made 11 stops. Very long days. Driven somewhere in the range of 30,000 miles now in North Dakota in less than 4 months. So, I am now working this kind of a schedule day in and day out.
It is now very late at night, and I am in Minot looking for a motel/hotel for sleep. Because of the oil prices being so high, it is profitable for ND to sell their oil of which they have an abundance. So business is booming! There are no hotels/motels that have rooms. Damn!! Ah, I just spied one, where the sign brags about how clean their rooms are. Cool! I drive in and see office for this motel. The office is piled with unfiled paperwork, filth and general unattractiveness, (not characteristic of Minot as a whole), which is visible from my car.
Then I saw the “no vacancy” sign. DODGED THE BULLET on that one. I was just about to stay at the worst motel in ND.
So, I keep looking and find another motel near the state fairgrounds. Price is right. I pay. I go into the room and my nostrils are offended by the smell. It is so bad that I had to turn the AC up to its highest level. The theory being that the noise would be so distracting that the smell wouldn’t be so noticeable. It worked! I fell asleep in the second worst motel in ND.
The next morning, I asked another visitor how the smell was in their room. Their comment was similar to mine. Then they asked me when the person in the red car died. Someone died here last night? Not a good omen.
So another long day passes. Meanwhile these mosquitoes are vicious out here. My foot is itching so much. That night I slept in my car. There were no motels anywhere in my neck of the woods. Next day I worked the whole day while bitching at the mosquitoes. Now, I am in Fargo and my foot was still bothering me. I look and realize that it was because of a spider bite that I got at the motel where that person had died.
I was wrong. That first motel with the messy office was the second worst in Minot. I wish I had have stayed there.
So now I am going to an emergency hospital at 10:00 at night. The hospital is practically empty and they put me on a gurney to wait for the doctor. While waiting I am realizing how truly comfortable the gurney is. Much better than the motels I have been staying in. I felt at peace with the world. I was ready to go to sleep. Doctor came in too soon! The bastard! He gave me some antibiotics and kicked me out. Now I had to go back to my motel and sleep there. Screwed again!