Second straight time this shit happened. I and 2 other guys waited for someone to come and open up. And I couldn't ask the front desk since the gym was an operation independent of the Doubletree. I made sure to tell the from desk it was unacceptable. It's not that I wanted an apology, but for a nice hotel, there needs to be better communication between the two businesses.
So I cleaned up, packed up, checked out, and driove west to Lexington, where my mother was born. I stopped downtown at Peet's for a chai and a breakfast sandwich. Of course, this particular location has only pastries, no breakfast sandwiches. That was rather frustrating, not the best start to my Sunday.
I went to church at Grace Chapel, where I had been several times before. The one thing with it is there are now five locations and I'm not sure which one I had been to previously. But I liked the service, it still has the blended music with light orchestra, choir, piano, and acoustic guitar. And I think I lowered the median age by about 20 years. For the most part, it was seniors and Asians in the congregation. But the pastor gave a good message about the Garden of Eden and Genesis; I do wonder if the younger crows was coming in for the 11 am service.
After that, I made a stop over by First Baptist church of Lexington, where my grandfather pastored in the 1960s. It seemed like I had walked into a time machine. The carpets, the floors, the stained glass windows, the wallpaper, the people, they all seemed like they were 30 or 40 years old. I was hoping to find a picture of him on a wall, but unfortunately, nothing was there. I did talk to the worship pastor, but I knew it just wasn't going to work out. The service was starting in five minutes and I knew he had other things to do. He tried, but I didn't want to be a distraction so I left.
Then came the 2.5 hour drive southwest to Wolcott, CT, a little bit southwest of Hartford. Wolcott is in a quiet hilly area of Connecticut, sort of the backwoods with a couple of lakes scattered around. I went to my friend Joe's house, the first time I'd been to his place. I gave him his Unkillable t-shirt, and of course I had one for myself. I also brought along some trail mix from Whitley's in Virginia so his wife and daughter could have something to enjoy as well.
Joe had a great spread of cold cuts and bread for us to chew on. And I hadn't had any solid food all day (outside of the church communion wafer) so I was game. We drank a couple of Yuengling beers while watching Buffalo vs Miami and then Dallas vs New England.
We left for dinner at Tap and Barrel, a roadside dive pub. We started with the big pretzel, which was coated in too much butter. And the dipping sauces were standard movie theater nacho cheese sauce and a grainy honey dijon dressing. I just opted for the pretzel by itself. I had the namesake burger that was really good, with applewood smoked bacon, jalapeño, cheddar cheese, BBQ sauce and onion frizzles. Excellent combo of spicy, crunchy, salty. Great burger.
And then back to his place to watch the Jets' heartbreaker loss to Kansas City on Sunday Night Football. His cat was starting to affect me, even thought I had double up my allergy meds. Little did I know the darn cat would sleep downstairs right near me by the living room couch.
I woke up at 5 am with a bit of a runny nose and startled to see the cat staring at me. I got dressed and got out of there quietly but quickly. As I was driving back to the Hartford airport, I knew I felt fatigued, but I figured it was being around the cat and I would shake it off. But on both my flights, my nose was still running. I almost wish I had taken a mask with me.
There was no issue flying to Hartford, but I got bumped off one flight to Richmond. And it was tough because I had a 3 hour layover between flights, that ultimately became 4hours. I did have a chicken club sandwich and fries at Phillip's seafood in Charlotte, which wasn't bad. But in retrospect, maybe soup was the way to go. The waiter seemed to have a puzzle to solve. I guess some lady was sitting in my seat right before I came in, and left, so her tab was on my table. So when the bill came to me and it had her items, I knew something was wrong.
Finally, I landed around 4:30 and made it home at 5:30. I don't remember much else from that day aside from scattering my backpack and suitcase on the bedroom floor, taking the hottest shower possible, and going to sleep around 6:30. Which led to another week of being sick and missing two additional days of work. I'm just glad it was not COVID.
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