We Made It...Barely!

It's 10:30 PM on July 27. We are so desperate to get to the hotel at this point; after driving for 40 hours with 4 hours of rest, we wanted to stretch and get out of the car! I just told Jordan, "Drive as fast as you can so we get there ASAP!" Big mistake. We got pulled over in Goochland (yes, that is the name of the city) for speeding. We were 20 minutes away from our destination! Oh yes, I had thought the drive had gone too well - no problems to speak of until now. After dealing with the ticket, we drove to our hotel, a little more slowly, and went to check in. Just the look of the hotel scared me. First of all, we were only paying $38 a night. That should have been my first clue to the awful nature of the place.

Jordan and I walked up to check in, and the doors were locked. Ok? So we tapped on the window marked "Check-In," which was about 15 feet away from the desk. It was very odd. A man helped us and slipped our keys through the window, like we were going to see a movie and he was handing us our tickets. We drove to the back of the hotel and dragged our stuff up a flight of filthy stairs and opened the door. It reeked of smoke, but we were so exhausted that we collapsed on the beds and went to sleep.

The next morning I requested a different room, and although this one was on ground level, it reeked of urine. Great. I guess we couldn't win with this place! The walls were water-stained, the carpet crunched, and there was an inch of dirt on the bathroom floor. I almost wore my shoes into the shower. The breakfast consisted of stale oatmeal, frozen milk, and rotten bagels. I was so glad we were staying here for only two nights! This made our apartment search a little desperate!