Life on the Road is not always Peaches and Cream

Travel as I get  older has lost much of its luster.

The amenities offered by hotels anymore  do not really help lighten the load.

There is one thing I can generally look forward to when waking up in another hotel in another state on another
morning and that is a cup or two of in-room coffee.

It is usually not that great, so I bring along a couple coffee filters and some coffee from home.  

Now even that has been reduced to a cheap parody of the original experience.



No, I am not kidding.  This is what a cup of coffee has been reduced to.  

According to the directions, fill up the coffee cup with cold water and put in the coffee maker.
Slide the little tray with tiny pack of coffee into the top and press the gray switch.



I stuck in both bags to try to get a stronger cup of coffee.

This is how much coffee I actually got out of the machine.

How incredibly appetizing.

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Oh, and can I mention really stupid engineering....



What kind of idiot in their right mind would put a towel rack directly over a toilet?
Turns out in my vast experience with hotels, there are quite a few idiots out there.

I mentioned this to the front desk once, and you could see the light bulb go off in
the person's eyes, where he told me that would sure explain the excessive plumbing
bills during summer when families are vacationing.

Jeesh.

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After starting the day with an uplifting dose of caffeine, I travel to the job site.  The drive is uneventful.

However,  once I get a little closer to the office  I see what appears to be sentinels sitting atop power poles.


 
They spread their wings in a way which looks like some sort of bizarre greeting - or warning.



Boy, this is shaping up to be a fun visit.

Where, exactly is the office I am supposed to be working out of?  

Why it is about 50 yards past a ditch which is entirely fenced in.



Why is the ditch fenced in?



The local wildlife has a propensity for eating visitors.  This is just getting better and better.



I am introduced to what is to be my home away from home for a few days.  Out of curiosity I measure the space.
A standard jail cell has more  square footage.  Comfortable chair, though.

I ask around lunch time what one does for lunch.  My host produces a couple brown bags from one of the
local fast food joints.   We eat in an area which is totally screened in with chicken wire.  

Why is it screened in with chicken wire?  

My host hems and haws and says, 'Nothing to worry about......... it won't be a problem today.'

I decide not to press the question.

Lunch wasn't that bad.  I picked up the trash and tossed it into a nearby  can.  

As I did so, I could have sworn the can hissed.  I cautiously peered inside........



and was greeted by the biggest fricking rat I had ever seen.



Huge fricking rats, man eaters,  winged apparitions, jail cells to work out of  and the worlds crappiest coffee.....

This is a  wake-up call.

Either someone or some thing is sending me a message,

or I am spending entirely too much time listening to "Coast to Coast".