Where's Nic?: June 7-12th

NCAA Baseball Super Regionals

Thursday – Travel Day

Flew to Houston this morning and then drove to Waco. Ugh. Drive was terrible and almost construction zone the entire way.

Rolled into town and I texted my Producer and said, “Please don’t ever request me again”. (I am here because he requested me). Waco is just awful! I mean maybe I am on the wrong side of town? Not sure.

Find the hotel and was shocked we were staying there.

It used to be Hyatt Place (or something decent). Now it’s Hotel Orchid.

Got to my room and lasted about 30 seconds. It sounded as if my room was in the median of the interstate. So I went back to the front desk and politely asked to be moved to the other end.

My new room was gross, but oh well.

In the evening, I went to dinner with a few friends.

Friday – Set Day

Once on site, the Operations Producer took a poll of how many of us wanted to change hotels. It was unanimous.

We all shared our horror stories and he started to work on getting us a new home.

Set day went fine.

There was some sort of kids tournament going on in the region so the next closest hotel was 1 hour away and it was a Holiday Inn Express – which sight unseen, could be just as bad. So we all decided to just stay with the lovely Hotel Orchid.

The only problem, in the process of trying to get us moved, the travel department hotel rep called the hotel and ripped them. And basically told them we all hated the hotel and didn’t want to stay there. So now the hotel staff hated us. Awesome.

I went to the grocery and got fresh guac, salsa and chips – very tasty! Stayed in for the night.

Saturday – Game Day

Arkansas vs Baylor

I got up early and drove to IHop for breakfast. En route, I noticed some sort of festival going on under the interstate overpass.

Complete with a makeshift stage and port-o-john’s. Wow! Is there not a local park or something?

On my list of hotel issues…

I have to wrestle with my door to get the deadbolt to engage. However, it’s once locked, it’s really hard to open.

After getting “trapped” in my room 3 times; taking 20-30 seconds to get it open, which really panicked me the last time it happened – what if there were a fire?

So instead, I am doing the unsafe thing and not locking it - only using the latch thing. Which is ridiculous from a safety standpoint.

Last night, I was sitting on the bed watching TV.... Something drops from the ceiling fixture hole (where my light fixture should be fitting snugly) .....with a light thud on the carpet.

I jumped up to see what it was... A giant cockroach!

I ran to get a shoe and lost of the roach. I searched for a while, thought I found him under the end table, but it was a carcass of another critter.

I gave up and went to sleep.

Sunday – Game Day

So yesterday on the way back from work, just blocks from our hotel, was a man, walking down the middle of the street with his horse on a lead. The horse looked like it was 100 years old. They were just strolling down the street like a man and his dog.

Wish I had gotten a photo of that!

There is Club Infinity next door to the hotel; which brings daily giggles.