I opened the flap and found myself in a nice cozy living room at night. The series of small windows had a great moonlit view of the snowy woods outside; a little wood stove cast orange flickers on the wooden walls around me. Truly confused, I crawled out and stood up. Was I abducted by aliens and transported to someone's home? Ha!
Three little girls giggled and stood in front of me. Then the oldest said, "We found you, Daddy!"
I smiled, flabbergasted, and said, "I'm not your daddy! Where's your mommy?"
A woman's voice called out from the back room, "I'll be right in, honey!"
What the hell was going on?
I looked around more closely, seeing antique instruments hanging on the walls, a darkened space over in the corner with a bunch of tiny red and green LED's flashing and moving up and down. Someone had a nice recording studio. I was jealous.
The smallest girl walked forward and hugged my leg. This was way too awkward for me, and I placed my hand on her soft little head of golden hair, saying, "Darlin, what are you doing?" She laughed, and then let go, running into the back room.
Suddenly, a bright flash way off in the woods lit up the interior of the house, the entire forest, even the mountain beyond, and then dimmed out of sight, returning the night to its original shady peace. I got a shiver down my spine, just like when the Spark affirms something.
I heard footsteps behind me. I turned and saw a woman standing with her back to me, adjusting books on the shelf. She was slender, with long strawberry blonde hair. I just stood there with my heart pounding. "Who are you? What was that flash?" I asked, now pretty nervous about not knowing where I was. I really felt like I'd lost my memory or something. It was like having a bad trip...like the OLD days.
"What?" she said, half laughing. As she turned around, all I saw were eyes, blue-green...beautiful...familiar...
Then I was pushing my way through thick brush and tightly spaced trees, with my backpack on, sweating, trying to get up a hill littered with wet leaves and dead branches. It was very dark, but I saw the starry sky above at what I assumed was the top of the hill, and couldn't wait to get there. I needed a campsite soon, and had not been able to find a big enough space to pitch the tent. I felt that I'd traveled too far from the road. I didn't need to be this deep into the woods. I should have just stayed on the road--looked for a clearer and level spot further down it. It was too late now.
Finally, I reached the top and there was a clearing, but was astonished to see that a vast valley stretched out far away and below, in front of this flat spot. In the distance were the lights of a city, so far away, rippling in the mirage-like currents of the rising air. In between myself and this city a huge flash lit up the valley and then faded. I'd forgotten about the earlier flash until right at that moment.
I got another shiver down my spine again. I'd overdone it all somehow. Where was I? How could I be so far from civilization? What the hell was that light?
Still facing the valley, I removed the backpack and placed it on the ground. When I raised my left arm to check my watch, no matter how hard I tried to read the numbers...I...I just couldn't focus my eyes.
Then I realized: LUCID! I'd become lucid! I must be sleeping!
Right at that moment, directly behind me, I heard..... "Daddy?"
* * * * * * *
But, the dream kept trying to suck me back into it. I would fall asleep, instantly becoming lucid again and wanting to stay there. Each time though, I would remember what I needed to do with the motel room. I really had to force myself to wake again, finally sitting up and shaking my head. This was the strangest part of the lucid awareness. Whenever it happens I am almost unable to wake up.
I made a mental note of the dream, by working my way back through it, from the time the lucidity hit me. But I had to think about it later. There was too much to do first. I took a shower and made sure all my stuff was ready to be repacked in case I needed to leave that morning, then walked down to the front desk.
I told the woman about the room, and she didn't look surprised. I made it clear that I would like to buy another night, but wanted a good discount, and then showed her the pictures on my laptop. She let me know in no uncertain terms that she could ask the manager, but she "knew" he would deny it. We went back and forth in a civilized debate. Her point - rightly - was that if I had been so concerned about the room the night before, I should have come to the desk and they would have given me another room or a refund, but because I occupied it for the night, that wouldn't be possible now. She offered to sell me another room for the same price, but hastened to add that if I didn't like the first room, I wouldn't like any of their rooms (a pathetic thing for her to have to admit).
I wasn't angry at all, but I was disappointed in my own bargaining strategy. She was right. I asked her if there was anything at all that they could do for me, and mentioned that not having a smoke alarm was illegal. I asked her what the balance might be between my responsibility to complain right away, and their responsibility to provide a room with a smoke detector before selling it to me? She admitted that that was unacceptable and apologized, but said there was nothing further that she could do. It was checkout (11:00 am) by that time, and I said I'd like one more hour to pack up, without being charged anything. She said that would be no problem.
So, I returned to "Room 115" (even the room number was half broken off the door). Packing everything into an excited Saggy, I left with a little bit of wounded pride. I walked down the line of other motels knowing that they were more expensive and that I had at least accomplished one of my goals; showering and putting on clean clothes (except for my pants). Now I needed to do a wash (along with my pants--which required a place with a restroom to change in) and investigate the possibility of sleep spots.
I passed a Starbucks and then turned around to go in and do some investigation of laundromats and sleep spots in the area. I'd already had a coffee at the motel front office, so I ordered a half-decaf, and got my traditional cup of ice water. There, I got online and searched for coin-op laundry, finding a place three and a half miles down the road called "24/7 Laundry". I made a screenshot of the map and then took off to find it.
It took a bit longer than the hour I thought it might, but I reached the place, walking by what I thought would be a good candidate for a sleep spot. Both were in a rather poor neighborhood.
Once at the "24/7", I walked in and found the place to be nice and clean, with new machines and only two other customers. There was a nice restroom too. Perfect!
Welcome to the machine.
There was a woman doing about nine loads of laundry with her very talkative, social and cute little girl, wandering around. The girl walked up while I sat waiting for my wash to finish, and stood in front of me, with big blue eyes clear as day, and asked, "What's yoa name?"
I said, "I'm Alex."
She nodded and looked around, saying "Ma name is Kaylee... I got new shoes. Momma bought dem foa me," then lifted each foot so I could see them. She looked at the washer two down from mine, which still had clothes sitting there, "Ah doze yoaz?"
"Nope, I don't know whose they are." She put her hand on the handle of my machine and tried to open it while it was running (which, is locked closed when in operation). I said,"No, no...It's not done yet. I have to wait until it's done."
I heard her mom yell, "Kaylee! GET over here! What did I tell you?"
Kaylee, smiled at me, and said, "Sahwee Momma!" then went back to her mother.
I heard her mother say quietly, but intently, "Ya can't just talk to folks ya don't know, baby! Remember we talked about this!"
"Ya, Momma. I know."
Her mother looked over at me, while I pretended not to be paying attention, and said, "I'm sorry sir, I don't mean no harm to ya."
I told her not to be sorry, that I completely understood and let her know that I thought Kaylee was a sweet kid, but she should listen to her Momma.
Kaylee kept coming over and trying to talk to me, but - in a nice way - I would do other things and just give her one word answers to her hundred questions. When moving the clothes to the dryer, I took out several business cards and placed them on the cork board with other people's cards. Kaylee walked to my backpack where I keep my cards and asked if she could have one. I told her I'd give her one if her momma said it was okay. She took one off the board instead, and went to her mother, but I saw her put it in her dress pocket, looking back at me. I think I rolled my eyes.
While the clothes were drying, I stepped outside to see how late the seafood place beside the laundromat was open. But it was closed. A group of guys in front of another business in the little strip mall had set up a seven-disc burner and were copying and selling CD's and DVD's. Loud hip hop was pounding out of the car's stereo. One of the guys sitting on the bumper, behind the open trunk, drank a beer and asked me if I wanted to buy a disc. I walked over and told him I would, but I had no player. He said, "Daz coo."
I talked to his friend, the one with the headphones on, ripping discs from a nice laptop, asking about his equipment, how fast he could rip seven discs. He said it depended on the length and type of disc, and that he often made special custom mix discs for people who ordered ahead of time, but about thirty seconds burning seven CD's and about two minutes for seven DVD's--which was amazing!
It'd been a long time since I'd checked into disc reproduction. The technology has obviously become pretty efficient. We joked about the death of the video rental industry and only one guy remembered VHS tapes. Good guys, trying to make an income semi-legally. The Sheriff drove by a few times but ignored them.
My laundry was dry and I folded it. I saw that the business card was back on the cork board, and smiled. Kaylee's mother came up and asked me if I'd watch her laundry while they picked up their dog from the vet. I agreed. And, when I was packed up I sat and watched a sports commentary show called, "Pardon The Interruption". It was pretty funny, and punctuated by the same Captain Morgan commercial every five minutes for an hour. You probably know what I was thinking.
When the hour was up, and they still weren't back from the vet, I asked an older gentleman who came in to do a load if he would look after the woman's laundry, because I had to leave. He graciously agreed, and I left.
It was well past sundown. I knew that I was going to try the sleep spot I'd walked by, but hadn't eaten yet that day. So, I went back to the highway and looked around...
I was SO sick of fast food, and was willing to splurge on a real dinner. I had enjoyed my Italian meal in Montgomery and thought I might find something similar here. And, I did...
The sign reminded me of a place in Portland, Maine, that had the same name. It said "Free Wi-fi!" in large letters on the street sign, so I went in.
I had a terrific meal, with a wonderful server named, Brandi. If you want to read my very long and glowing review, you can find it at TripAdvisor, here.
I stayed and worked, getting a blog post up before leaving, then walked back to the possible sleep spot area and entered the small field, making my way to the edge of the woods. It was REALLY thick with a new plant for me: bamboo.
I hadn't dealt with this yet, but thought it would be worth a try. There was a small spot where no bamboo was growing, and I vetted it, using my little LED light to check the leaves. I realized why there were no plants there. A piece of foam board insulation was buried just under the leaf litter. I saw no ants, and there were no spider webs around. This would be as good as anything else I'd had to settle with in the past, and might actually be fairly comfortable; maybe even warmer with the foam underneath.
When the tent with the tarp on it was set up, I climbed in to see how well my excavation had been. Well, not ideal. There was a one inch thick vine running right across, under my legs. I took out the multitool saw and cut one side of it, then bent it most of the way over to the other side. Other large roots were near my legs, but I couldn't remove them.
I was tired and just wanted to sleep. Out came the sleeping bag, and I crawled into it. The weather on the TV at the Roma Cafe said it would get down to 36° F by dawn. It was silent there, and I felt pretty safe, glad to not be spending more money on a room. Sleep came quickly, and I intended to try to become lucid again that night as I faded into the brown...
Mobile Sleep Spot 1
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