Sunday, June 2, 2024 – Hotel Keeps Getting Worse, But Good Ride Meeting

Hey Sweetie,
Well, sorry to say that things in this hotel kept getting worse and worse today. For starters, I never got my shower last night. When I went in to get it, turns out there was no hot water! I ran it for about five minutes, nothing. I called down again, and they sent a guy up who ran it for another five minutes before pronouncing I had no hot water. Maintenance had all go home (of course, it was 10:00 at night by this time, 1:00 a.m. on my body clock time), and they gave me a choice of changing rooms, which I was in no mood to do, or take a shower in a room on a different floor! In the end, I just gave up on it, rinse a little with a washcloth and went to bed, which at least it was comfortable. They told me maintenance would be in at 7:00 and I was first on the list, until they called at 7:15 to say they didn't really come in until 9:00, so it would be after that. So I had to go to breakfast having not showered since Friday night, yuck. They finally managed to fix my hot water by about 10:00. I met some ladies at breakfast that I recognized, and we figured out it was on the two Great Florida Cattle Drives, in 2016 and 2022. They'd also done an OTL some years ago, but don't know if it was with any of the ones I was involved with. After breakfast, I did some organizing, then went out to the pool for a little bit. I had considered taking a shower out at the pool, but they didn't have one out there. When I got back to the room, there was another maintenance guy there snaking the sink, as it was draining very slowly, and the first guy had reported it. So I had to wait some more before I was on my own. Despite two calls to housekeeping asking for them to put new sheets on my bed, since I had to go to bed with all of yesterday's travel grime on me, I had to call a third time, and was essentially told that they couldn't predict when I was going to get my sheets changed. I had enough! All I wanted was to take a hot shower and slide into clean sheets for a nap if I could get one, and I wasn't about to wait around any more. I went out into the hallway where there was a housekeeping cart (which HAD been parked right next to my door but had now moved down the hall) and grabbed a stack of linens and started changing my own sheets. Then the head of housekeeping knocked on my door reading me the riot act about how they have other people they have to serve and that they would get around to me when they felt like it. I think I finally made a dent in her attitude when I explained the whole situation, and I ended up handing her the dirty sheets and sending her on her way. I FINALLY got my shower in the middle of the afternoon, and slid into fresh sheets at last. At least the beds here are comfortable. What a nightmare! And, oh, btw, the elevator was out this morning, so everyone was having to use the stairs, which are all the way at the opposite end of the hallway. So it wasn't just my lemon of a room. Most folks have been really nice trying to solve the problems, and I think they're going to comp me at least one night which helps, but really, how many inconveniences must one experience before it ruins the stay? Anyway, I managed to rest up for a few hours, then I ordered a delivery from a local Indian restaurant, had to pay both a delivery and a tip to the driver, only the have the driver not even bring it to the room, I had to get dressed and go to the lobby to pick it up. Kind of a ripoff. Finally it was time for the ride meeting, where we got to meet the rest of the riders, all women except for one guy! I knew it wouldn't be very balanced, but I didn't think it would be THIS lopsided! Not that it matters, it just seems a bit out of balance. I chatted with a few more women, and after the meeting I stopped and talked to the ladies from Florida again for a bit, before coming back tot he room, finishing of my dinner leftovers, and now I'm ready for bed. We're meeting at 5:30 in the lobby, so it's an early night for me! I'm pretty sure I'm purging all this bad stuff so that the week will end up being fabulous. Every once in the while the universe has to smack me in the head just to balance out all the wonderful stuff in my life, which I can only take in stride! Good night, darlin'! Love you!