back to crazytown

Andrew has a hockey tournament in Reno this weekend, so naturally, our family will be up there too.  We were supposed to leave for Mexico today but are stymied by two factors.  Jamie’s bike (please, don’t ask me why a man with 27 bikes needs yet ANOTHER bike - specifically for Baja; I mean, don’t they make bikes that work in both the US and Baja?  You’d think that a bike which works absolutely perfectly in California would work just as perfectly in Baja, but apparently, that isn’t the case.) that he ordered a MONTH ago hasn’t yet made it through customs.  Apparently, Bianchi gave the first bike he ordered to another shop and the second bike he ordered is taking its own sweet time getting into California.  We’re supposed to find out Tuesday if/when the bike will get it.  If not Tuesday then Wednesday.  If not Wednesday then Thursday.  You get the picture.  And then there is a big holiday at the end of the week, so pretty much if it doesn’t get through customs by Thursday we probably won’t see it til next week and you know how that story goes.  I also managed to mislay the birth certificate folder that I specifically kept OUT of storage.  I thought I gave it to my sister to file away, but perhaps I simply thought I SHOULD do that and never got around to it.  Who knows.  I’m sure we’ll find it someday when we clean out the storage container.  So we need to wait for the damn bike that is apparently the ONLY bike which works in Baja and I need to get all the kids’ birth certificates (assuming they need them - I’m going to check to see if health cards or something else might work) before we leave.

I ended up not backing the trailer into my sister’s back yard; we got there after dark (and I learned my lesson somewhere in the midwest not to manuver in the dark) and parked just off the street next to her house.  It is working out well so we’ve decided to leave it there.  I just worry ocassionally about someone hitting it after blasting around the corner.

So, off to Crazytown we go, blanketed by fog in the Delta and unencoumbered by the 9000lb anchor on our tail.  We’ll stay at the Hilton ($39/night) with Andrew’s family and play in the snow tomorrow.  Should be fun for the kids.  We adults will need one of those ice-fishing huts I saw at Fleet Farm in Wisconsin with heaters and massive mugs of whiskey and something hot to drink.  (with massive amounts of whiskey, I can’t imagine that it would matter what the hot item was)

High Falutin Hotels Sux

December 19, 2004 in

Why is it that the high falutin hotels charge you up the wazoo for services that the small chains don’t?  Reno Hilton wants $11/12 hours for Internet access, $1.00 for free (800) calls and $1.00 for each local call.  Their swimming pool is closed and their lobby is not smoke free.  Comfort Inns, on the other hand, have free wireless or broadband, free local calls, indoor swimming pools (in 9000 miles we’ve only encountered one Comfort Inn with a closed hot tub), free deluxe (ranging from eggs and sausage to cereal and fruit) breakfast AND no smoke.  If the kids didn’t necessitate an indoor pool (since we’re traveling in winter) we’d be at Motel 6 every night.  These high priced chains suck.  Course, we’re only paying $39 tonight at the Hilton…
I’m updating this on 12-23, and the picture above is from the "ice cave" we found whilst sledding up at the snow.  You know, the snow trip that we took so the kids could play with Andrew and spent about 30 minutes with him at the hotel and that was it.  Nice trip though…