What's happening to motel prices?

Last night our motel was borderline unacceptable. The bed tilted and had very skimpy sheets and blanket. The light over the bed didn't work. The frig made rattling noises all night. The AC was noisy. We got some sleep but not a lot.  The breakfast was worthless.  By rights it should have been a really budget motel.  $45 at most. It cost $85.  It was by far the cheapest room in the Erie, PA area. Even the motel coupon  book had  nothing cheaper. We usually stay at the Super 8 in Erie. Not posh but much nicer. Last Feb it cost $75. Last night they were asking $139! Is this the new normal?

The Red Carpet Inn

Here we are in North East, PA ash the Red Carpet Inn.

Red Carpet Inn

It started to rain about an hour before we arrived. Ellen was glad to be done with driving for a while.
Otherwise, it was a good trip. I read aloud from The Supreme Court, a history of the court by William Rehnquist which  is proving to be quite interesting, We also listened to 3 lectures from our Teaching Company course on the law. So we are getting a crash course on legal matters.

Chittenango ny

250 +miles from home .

Erie PA tonight 

On our way

Almost ready

We leave for Wyoming tomorrow. We had supper with John and Cynthia at a new Indian restaurant in town - food was good. Brattleboro offers an amazing diversity of food options for a town of 13,000! We are just about all packed and ready to go! We'll be with Maggie and Jerry Sunday for a gathering of at least some of the Crockett clan. Sunday would have been Betsey's 60th birthday and Monday would have been my brother Stewart's 91st birthday. We will hold them in our hearts. 

We hope to be in Alpine a week from now or so. That will be an adventure! 

A litte hike up the mountain

John came over this morning and we took a little hike up Black Mountain - not to the top, but up a trail that goes through some groves of mountain laurel. We were hoping that we would see a lot of laurel in bloom, but were disappointed in that. Maybe some other parts of the mountain are more prolific than this particular trail. But we had a good time together and sat on some rocks and talked for a while before coming back down. Between his fatigue from his Lyme disease and my chronic joint aches, we were content not to push very hard.

However, later in the day I went over to the storage unit and cleaned it out, and brought everything back to the house and stacked it up in the corner where the piano was. No need to pay $43 a month any more. I can go through it, sort, dispose, etc.,  from the house, I think, now that some space is opened up.

We'll be leaving soon for Wyoming, so I'm getting some of these things done before we leave.

A selfie of John and me at the end of our hike

A closeup of the laurel right in our own backyard!

Welcome home!

We arrived home from Maine a bit ago. We had a beautiful welcoming party: this Luna moth was sitting right on the deck post where we park the car under the deck! What an amazing creature! A beautiful, spontaneous anniversary gift!

                          Wow!!!

Congratulations !

Today is a special day for yet another reason:  Krystal and Dan were married today in California. Katie and  Brendon flew out for the wedding. Congratulations Krystal and Dan! We hope you have had a lovely day!