Day 6..."Goodbye California...Hello Oregon!!"

Aug 5th - The rest stop was a far cry from the Peppermill, but surprisingly, I slept extremely well.  So well that Dejah was panicking because she hadn't heard from me all morning.  She was 3 hours ahead, so even though I only slept until 9AM PST...it was already noon back home.  I woke up to texts, bbms, emails, and missed calls.  I quickly told her that I was OK, and that I didn't get murdered in the middle of the night at a phantom rest stop in California.  I rearranged the car and transformed it back to a normal vehicle, falling into the routine of packing away my pillows, blanket, and temporary curtains into all of their respective storage spots throughout the vehicle.  I pulled away from the rest stop back onto I5 North, in search of a big cup of coffee.  After I found my java and gassed up the car, it was time to head for Portland.  I had another hotel stay there that night, and I heard that it was a great city to visit.  I was excited to get moving and cover the ground so I could check in and get comfortable. 

On my way to Oregon, while still on I5 in California, I came across a scenic rest stop and decided it was a great place to drop a crumb.  I had seen the crystal blue water from the road and it looked amazing.  I cruised into the stop to find out that there was no place to park.  I had almost given up when I saw a little Toyota parked in the last available extra long space reserved for tractor trailers.  I pulled in behind it, grabbed some bottles, the camera, and the crumb, and sprinted for the overlook.  I was afraid an 18 wheeler would pull into the big space without being able to see around the truck parked next to me, and inadvertently drive over the back of the Hotel Honda.  I ran up to the best picture location, set up my shots, took some pictures, placed the crumb and sprinted back to the car.  Needless to say, it was another place I received more than a few odd looks.  Back to the car, I dropped everything on the passenger seat and got moving, as the Toyota was gone and I was now alone in the middle of this huge parking space. 

I covered the rest of the mileage to Portland, and then encountered my first city traffic jam in almost a week.  I was staying at the Comfort Inn, near the airport, and apparently 4pm isn't a good time to be in that area of the city.  I was looking forward to a shower and some dinner, and this was not the way I wanted to finish the roughly 550 mile drive.  It took nearly 30 minutes to get through the logjam, and wasn't long after that I located the hotel.

I was greeted by Amie, who was extremely pleasant, even after being harassed by the guest she had just finished helping.  The woman in front of me had some sort of issue, and it seemed she was not the easiest person to please.  From what I could gather, she was overcharged $5 per room accidentally while booking online, and she felt that because of this, she deserved the best two rooms in the hotel....for free...for the next three nights..  Ahem...no.  I believe in quality customer service to the fullest extent, but I also believe that there are 1% of the population who will exploit this to no end.  Thankfully, I was checked in quickly and without issue.  A conversation started about my trip, and she was very interested in our products and our company.  I ran out to the car to get her a sample, which she definitely deserved after the last guest.  I asked her if she wanted to experiment mixing her own scents, and she did, so we set up a demo for when she got off work later that evening. 

I soon found out that the hotel had a 24 hour pool and hot tub, microwave and fridge in the room, laundry facilities, FREE 24 hour coffee in the lobby (and it was good), and FREE wifi in every room.  This place was awesome.  There was no long walk to my room, as once I knew where it was, I was able to park right next to the side entrance just steps from the elevator.  It just kept getting better.  When I got to the room and unpacked, my mind turned to dinner.  I had a craving for szechuan lomein, and I went on a mission for Chinese food.  Amie gave me the menu for the restaurant around the corner, but they did not carry lomein noodles.  I was warned there was no other place around, but I am a road warrior and I drove off unabashed.  Needless to say, even with Dejah checking local menus online, there were no other take out places who had lomein near me in Portland.  Dej wound up talking me into getting Papa Johns, and she placed the order by phone from NY.  When she found out that they did not deliver to where I was, she was somehow able to sweet talk the manager into sending a driver out my way.  I believe he came himself, and when he arrived, I was already outside waiting for him.  The look on his face when I asked if the order was for Room 219 was priceless.  He obviously was expecting to find a sexy sounding woman in a hotel room after a long drive from NY, yet he was greeted by me in the parking lot.  I tipped him $5 for coming out of their delivery zone, but you could tell he was still disappointed.

At 11pm I headed down to the lobby to meet up with Amie, and we waited a few minutes for her boyfriend to arrive before we started to mix.  Chris pulled up within 5 minutes and we all headed up to my room.  I took out the scent bottles and they immediately began to come up with mixtures they wanted to test.  Chris was just as enthusiastic as Amie, and it wasn't long before he was on the phone with his Mom.  He was telling her all about what we do, and it took about 15 minutes for her to show up.  I found out that she only came because her son and his girlfriend were in a hotel room with a strange man from NY, but she finally released her skepticism and mixed up some fragrances of her own.  I had a great time with them, as they came up with a lot of different and interesting combinations, and we had a few laughs in between.  They placed an order for some product, and I mixed some fragrance into the 2 Step Microderm Abrasion kit that Chris had purchased.  I scrambled to make change fro them, and we finally said goodnight sometime after midnight.  I emailed Dej with the orders from Paige's party plus the one I just took, and then decided that I wanted to spend a few minutes in the spa before bed.  I did about 10 laps in the pool, and then realized I should head back to my room as I started drifting off in the hot tub after about 15 minutes.  My body was giving up on me, and it was more than ready for some well deserved pillow time. 

Total miles logged to Portland...3646.6!!!