If Not For the Safety Latch

HHBL and I are visiting NYC for the Thanksgiving holiday. Don't tell anyone else OK? We wouldn't want there to be crowds of people. And no, we are NOT going to the Macy's Day parade. I will tell you THAT story another day. We tried that once and it didn't go as planned.

We were supposed to drive from Chez Knit to the big city today, Wednesday. It had been long planned that way. Then some time on Monday I began to see little stories about what the weather was shaping up to be on Wednesday. There were phrases like, "big winter storm" and "snarled holiday travel" and "6-12 inches of snow". That didn't sound all that good. But sometimes I will admit I get freaked out by these things and make a mountain out of a mole hill so I just went about my work.

But the stories kept popping up. So when HHBL got home I mentioned the whole winter storm aspect of travel to him. We sat and discussed and looked at hour by hour computer models and perused the Weather Channel and sought higher counsel. Or something like that. And finally, around 10:30p, we made the decision to drive out a day earlier. HHBL got on the interntz and extended our reservation at the hotel while I ran around like a chicken with it's head cut off trying to get done all the things that I had planned to do on Tuesday evening. Life is busy at the moment. Looking at the weather that is currently happening outside our hotel window I would consider us geniuses of the very first order for making the decision to go early. The only problem was that we couldn't leave until later in the day. Both of us had to be in the office in the morning and then I had to leave to go and pick up the CSA turkey.

Just as an aside it was a bit on the chilly side picking up the bird. The whole operation was set up under tents at Brunty Farm but still outside and I had to wait in line for 20 minutes or so to pick up the 18 pound bird....which if I had just been paying for it on the spot rather than pre-paid through the CSA......would have cost me.....

Wait for it.......

$91.45.

It had to go into the freezer but once we do cook it that had better be a pretty damn good bird.

Now back to our regularly scheduled blather session.

SO, we couldn't leave early because even after HHBL got home from the office, around 3p, there was still a company board call for which I had to take minutes and HHBL had to participate in. We were going to do that while on the road but decided just to do it at home. Which meant that we didn't actually walk out of the door and get in the Prius of Love until about 5:30p.......

Which meant that we wouldn't get to the hotel until early on Wednesday morning....very early.....

Which turned out to be true especially since we needed a potty stop at around 12:04a but pulled off into Podunk City, Somewhere USA where the gas stations and all other conveniences closed at 12 midnight and it was already two miles off the highway and we had to back track. I was reminded of the John Denver song....Saturday Night in Toldeo,Ohio. ( I was going to put a link in but you will just have to go to YouTube and find it). 12:05a and the doors were locked and the lights off.

Did I just digress?

SO, we rolled into our favorite low budget Best Western at around 1:15a. Checked in, got our room key, schleped up to the designated Chez Knit NYC, put the key card into the lock, opened the door.....

Or should I say TRIED to open the door.

Oh, the door opened alright but it didn't open all that far before it was stopped by the heavy metal safety latch which was flipped. You know, the metal bar that we all use to prop the door open when we go out to fill the ice bucket but we never actually use for what it is intended for...to stop someone actually getting into your room when you are in it.

Yes, that bar.

HHBL tried to open the door several times before I said, in my sleep fogged travel confusion, "I think there must be someone in our room." But we didn't actually hear anything even though we were making a racket and no one confronted us as we were trying to get into the room. We stood there for a bit and scratched our heads in best Laurel and Hardy fashion before HHBL quietly closed the door and we reassessed. There was no way that we could actually get into that room so he zipped back down to the lobby to talk to the guy at the desk. Mr. Desk Man was insistent that there wasn't anyone in that room and that most likely what was going on was that, "Housekeeping had let the door slam too hard and it had flipped the safety latch."

Ummmmmmmmmmm, right.

He gave us new key cards for the room next door, we stumbled in, got situated and HHBL stepped out to get some ice while I did my nightly ablutions. When he came back in he laughing said to me, "There really WAS someone in that room. As the maintainence guy was trying to pry open the saftey latch someone in the room said HEY what are you doing!" We looked at each other and thanked our lucky stars that that safety latch was actually on the door because if it hadn't been we would have blithely walked into that room, flipped on the light switched, and scared some poor person half to death.

And then this morning, as we were sitting having breakfast down in the breakfast room, GUESS who I discovered was sitting right next to me? Our next door neighbor! I heard him describing this wierd incident that had happened the night before when the maintainence people had tried to get into their room. I twirled around in my non-twirling chair and said, "Hey! I think we are next door to you and did you realize that it all started because the desk gave us keys to your room!" Which then evolved into talking about where we were all from etc.

You just never know what is going to happen when you travel with us.

And thank goodness for hotel room safety latches.

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