I was laying in my bunk waiting for them to load my trailer and fell asleep. I was awakened by the cell phone ringing. It was "R". He wanted to know if I would prefer to run the GA load I was waiting for or wait until tomorrow morning and load for Seattle. He ran down the numbers for me and the Seattle load pays roughly 5 times what the GA load does. It was a no brainer, I told him that I would do the Seattle load if he would spring for a hotel room for tonight.
He said seeing as I had gone above and beyond to get through the ice storm and make delivery to our number one customer on time he would be more than happy to spring for the room. He said he would pay it out of his own pocket if the boss didn't want to pay. I reminded him that I always stay in the most expensive hotel in town, but he said to go get the room and he would cover it one way or the other. He had himself a deal. By this point I was finally awake.
I dropped my trailer and bobtailed to the hotel. The woman working the desk had seen me pull into the lot and had my room key and registration ready by the time I had reached the desk. Nice lady to remember me. She's the one who made a point of keeping my diamond earring safe after I stupidly left it in a room a few months back.
I'm now sitting in the Appleby's next door enjoying some adult beverages and eventually some decent food before returning to my room for a nice hot shower and a comfortable big bed. While the decent thing to do would have been to shower before coming over here I figured I don't stink and am wearing clean clothing so who's gonna know the difference? It's not like I'm looking to pick up a date or anything. Besides, I have a feeling that once I have that hot shower I'll be asleep in record time.
The bartender is yet another new one who doesn't know me, but we've been having some good conversation (she loves my dragon cane), and there are a couple of servers here who do know me and she had already been told to take good care of me. It's nice to be recognized 1,000 miles from home.
I haven't been to Seattle since before the wreck so it should be a nice change of scenery.