Days 55-58 Wednesday through Saturday - Give me Strength

No internet?  I didn't realize there were hotels in fairly large cities without internet access... but that was only a part of my adventure in Iowa the past few days.  An unplanned trip took me to Bettendorf, Iowa - near a relative who is now moved to our town.   I did set the stage by putting the reservation form in my luggage instead of in the car.  It was also foolish to trust the GPS, which, it turns out, did not recognize the town (yes, we checked the spelling several times).  It also did not recognize the name of the hotel, which we later found was changed in the past year - but that wouldn't have mattered as we entered the "Twilight Zone" while at a restaurant (which turned out to be less than 2 miles from destination).  Employees were not aware of that hotel in their town. There was no listing for it in the phone book.  When I called the chain's 800 number for the motel number, I had another surprise.  Oh, they gave me the number - but no one answered the phone!  After calling several times and letting the phone ring 30 times each call, I made one last effort before our friends we'd joined at the restaurant laughingly offered to escort us to the mystery hotel to see if it was a safe place to stay.  Finally a clerk answered and gave us directions.  Lord give me strength was my prayer as we hunted for the hotel at a jumble of dead-end turn-arounds.  But the adventure wasn't over yet.  The room key would not work - not the first - second - or third time it was 'keyed'.  At the fourth request the unbelieving clerk came with a master key which also would not unlock the door.  She commented that we wouldn't want to stay in that room anyway, and my granddaughter and I glanced at each other, not knowing if we should laugh or run.

"Why not?" was the obvious question and "Feel the door" the unexpected reply.  The door was as cold as outside.  While locating a second room the clerk gave an unrational (to us) explanation about saving energy by keeping the air-conditioning at 52 until the day of a reservation,  when the heat would be turned on.  Asking if the air didn't also cost electrical energy earned a confused look so we let that slip and entered the second room of the night - also freezing.  The 'heater' was turned up (uh, huh, no thermometer - you are getting the picture)... and we were promised to be comfortable in just a few minutes.  After a half-hour of huddling under blankets with our coats on,  my frozen index finger pointed to the 0 and dialed again. The clerk sighed.  I sighed.  The clerk sighed.  She would check for a third room and try the heater before bringing us there.  That room only took 15 minutes to heat up and by now it was only 1 a.m. (We'd arrived at 9:50).  Lord, give me strength.

After sleeping a few hours, dinner decided it had been too greasy, though I removed the batter off the cod - the safest choice on the menu.  Well that's one way to eat and not gain weight - and to confirm I'd never be a bulemic.  Lord give me strength.

He did.  God of Eyaluth (Strength or help) from Psalm 22:19  which reads, "But, Thou, O LORD, be not far off; O Thou my Eyaluth, hasten to my assistance."  Despite exhaustion and craziness (the trip not me - well maybe just a little :) God  helped me to still accomplish what I needed to, and together our group packed and cleaned everything in a day and a half, attended a graduation ceremony and reception and found a second hotel for Friday night.  Of course at that hotel we were directed to go around the back to room 117.  The first section ended with 115.  There was a wall, a glass door entering the breakfast area of the hotel and a parking area adjacent.  The number of that room was 122.  It took a while to discover if we went back by 115 and parked, took our luggage to the glass door, through that room to the opposite entrance,  another outside door led to  the other side of the wall we'd seen and to our hidden room! Why not?  Lord, give us strength!

It was hard to keep awake and to keep lunch down.  I will yet learn if there are not healthy choices to not eat.  I was surely grateful I had stocked my purse with  herbal tea bags.

One picture:  

I will check the camera by morning to see if any pictures of food attempts the past few days turned out.
Wednesday - Liquid day - Strawberry-Nectarine protein smoothie, water, tea
Thursday - Boiled egg, spinach and sausage,  cod and salad
Friday - Tea, 7 grapes, 1/2 open face tuna sandwich, 1/4 italian beef sandwich, 1/2 serving asparagus and brocolli
Saturday - 1/2 Cara Cara (a fruit that is triple grafted: orange, tangarine, grapefruit), and veggies from Friday night, sweet potato and cream of potato soup, tea

As you can see, it is no longer Saturday - I'm still sipping tea and recovering - definitely feeling the need to start over detoxing from a frustrating, wierd, but still laughable several days.