#807 what happens when the GPS doesn't talk to you

Greetings from Rancho Cordova, CA! My tour of the garden part of California continues :)

A quick follow up from yesterday: we did talk about Landed Cost this morning, and I was alert and attentive and it wasn't as ground-breaking or earth-moving as I thought it might be. Basically, I had set it up correctly, but there are two parts to the transaction and the second part was done incorrectly because we didn't know the correct way, so we just did it the way we knew, but that caused all our problems. Anyway, now we know how to fix it.

Today's meeting was supposed to last until 3:00, so my traveling companions that went home today had a flight scheduled for 6:30, meaning they would have to hang out in the airport for a couple of hours. The meeting co-ordinator told us this morning that we would only go until 2:00, so my friends changed their flight to 4:30. It's about an hour from the Stockton area to Sacramento. The thing is, the meeting went until 2:30, so we had to get up out of there in a hurry. They made it on time and everything was good, but I was uncomfortable with the rush. (Remember my Monday post about liking to be at the airport with plenty of time to spare? I was nervous for them! What if there had been bad traffic or an accident that slowed everything down? But there wasn't.)

From the airport, I had to find the hotel in Rancho Cordova, so I programmed the GPS in the rental car to get me here. Rancho Cordova is farther from the airport than I thought, and I was traveling during commute time, so there was a fair bit of traffic.

The GPS did great while I was on the freeway. But she stopped talking to me when I got off the freeway, so I had no idea where to turn! There are pictures on the GPS screen about what to do and how far you have left to travel and estimated time of arrival, but it's hard to see that while you are driving. Anyway, I was driving and she wasn't telling me anything, so I kept going. At one point, at a stop light, I saw that I was about four minutes away from my destination. Then, I was eight minutes away from my destination and I was out in the middle of some fields. I was on a main road, and there were cars all around, but not many houses and certainly no hotels and I expected to see several hotels in the area.

At the next opportunity, I flipped a U turn and headed back to civilization. Now I was six minutes away. At another stop light, I fiddled around with the volume (which I hadn't touched AT ALL) and the voice came back, telling me, "Turn right on Folsom Blvd in five miles." I finally got here, but crap! I might have ended up somewhere unknown if I hadn't finally turned around. Silly girl!

The hotel is nice, but I think it's a little old. I have a suite, so there is a separate bedroom and seating area. I like that. The thing is, the TV in the bedroom is one of those old big box TVs and it is certainly not HD! The flat screen TV in the seating area is nice and big, but is not HD either. There is a big difference in HD. The picture is a little grainy, but it was good enough to watch "Survivor" and now a little NBA on ESPN (Heat vs Clippers).

A couple of nice things about the hotel: the exercise room is quite nice. I spent some time on a stationary bike and I enjoyed that. There is also a restaurant on-site, so I didn't have to leave. I had a little room service action. I had tasty nachos grande. YUM!

You may be wondering how the boys are doing at home without me. I think MT is fine, but T struggled today. MT just goes to bed and doesn't tell T to get to bed, too, so T takes advantage of the lack of parental guidance and he went to bed waaaaaaay past the time I have him get to sleep. Consequently, T overslept this morning and was late for school. I texted him this morning to see if he was up, but when he didn't reply, I figured he was in the shower. He finally texted me back telling me he'd be late for school. I was annoyed, but what can I do? I'm two states away! When I talked to him tonight, I told him to do better. Hopefully he will.

Anyway, just a day and a half left on this road trip. I wish I could have gone home with the other girls this afternoon, but the training that I will get tomorrow and Friday is important and I need it. This second session actually started this afternoon; I hope I didn't miss too much. I told the organizer I wouldn't make it today, so it's all good.

Anyway, that's all for tonight. I have to play my allottment of FB games to get my fix!