>From David Locklear My Craigslist chauffeur lived up to his end of the deal.
I had no idea what to expect, but was assuming Dr. Lecter. He arranged to meet Saturday morning for breakfast at his cheap hotel in southwest Houston. I was not going to pry into his agenda, and told him I would be there. This location allowed me to leave the Sequoia at my apartment. I wasted an hour trying to find a ride, to his hotel, and then tried to bum a ride off my neighbors. In hindsight, I should have just walked a 1/4 mile to the bus stop, as the bus allegedly runs every 30 minutes on Saturday. ( I had only rode it once before a long time ago, and lacked the time to study the bus routes ). Anyways, my duffle-bag back weighed 100 lbs, and only had a shoulder strap, and I was wearing flip-flops. I was drenching in sweat by the time the bus arrived. The bus dropped me off a mile from his hotel and I had to walk it Mixtecan-style with my duffle-bag on my head. I was in a dangerous part of town to be alone, and had all my trip funds on me as cash, which is something I would not have done had I had time to prepare for the trip. By the time I got to his hotel, I was an hour late, but he didn't seem to mind. I was drenching in sweat, and exhausted when I met him, so that was not a way to make a good first impression. He let me shower and change clothes, so once we got on the road, I felt better. To my surprise, my first impression of my new Craigslist chauffeur was not Dr. Lecter, but instead Mr. Wan Kuok-koi, leader of the 14K Triad syndicate in China. But that seemed better than what I was assuming he would be. He had already finished breakfast, but let me eat while he packed up his room. He drove non-stop to Texarkana, and I took over and drove non-stop to Nashville. There I convinced him to drive me to Cookeville and get a motel and we would split it, even though Nashville and Cookeville were off his main route of travel to Detroit. All in all that, cost me $ 175, money I really should have spent going to the dentist. We made the trip in a new Chevy Equinox. It had integrated into the side-mirrors a tiny yellow symbol to warn you of a car in your blind spot. That feature would be worthless in Houston, as you always have a car in your blind-spot, and so the light would be very annoying. You would have to cover it with black tape. My Craigslist chauffeur, claimed his name was Barry. He listened to that confounded National Propaganda Radio, for 15 hours, driving me fr*ckin nuts. He hardly uttered a single word for 15 hours, even though he spoke perfect English. ( He claimed he was originally from Maine and had been in the Coast Guard briefly ) I tried my best to find a topic we could converse, but he was either an introvert or an underworld fugitive, or there was a remote chance he figured I was crazy as a loon, or most likely all three of those. I am now in Room 301, Sunday morning. I plan to sleep until noon, if the hotel will let me. I have no idea what I am going to do this afternoon. I really don't have the funds to be up here, and I really have a ton of chores waiting on me back in Houston. I have not been able to find a ride home yet, but there is a shuttle bus back to Nashville. I assume I won't have to hard of a problem getting back to Nashville. I will likely only purchase a 1-Day Pass for the NSS Convention. Maybe a 2-Day Pass. I am going to pretend for the next 24 hours that I am on my summer vacation, but after that, I have to face my reality, and start pondering how to get back to my apartment, so that I can get back to work. P.S. The pool is broken at The Quality Inn, and the breakfast is lame.
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