Heading 'Down East'

You would think it a trivial matter, to collect a rental car, to pick up a suitcase last seen in Oregon, to undertake a leisurely drive to a neighbouring city. Yeah, right!

The first step was straight forward enough. After a gentle start to the day, I checked out of the hotel (first time I've ever rented a room by the hour - cheeky buggers charged me an extra $10 to put checkout time back an hour to noon, but hey, the extra hour's sleep was well worth it), and hailed a cab from the front door.

One ten minute ride later, I was at the Hertz office closest to Boston South Station, where my big ol' suitcase was hopefully waiting. Another free upgrade; this time from the expected Ford Focus hatchback to a 4.0l Chrysler Pacifica SUV. Oh well, if I screw up, at least I'm likely to come out on top.

The nice lady at Hertz gave me a map, and showed me the route to the station - left, then left, then left, then straight for a couple of miles, and bingo; another Tui moment! I'm sure she threw an extra left in there just to confuse me, as I very soon found myself on the freeway headed for heaven only knows where. Off again at the first exit, and time to fire up the GPS. I finally found my way to back to Boston South, and circled the station like a hungry Hyena looking for a feed. After the third time, and no legal carparks in sight, I resigned myself to a bit of a walk in the 30 degree heat, and extended my search spiral. Voila - a sign! Station Car Park, quoth it in large friendly letters. Oh goody, thinks I.

Yeah right! It was the @#$% bus station car park! Fortunately after 2 elevators, an escalator, a ramp, and a 10 minute walk in the sun, I was back to where I had gotten off the train some 15 hours earlier. And no, before you ask, the checked luggage place wasn't open when the train arrived late the previous evening. It shuts at 10:00, and we got in about 10:05.

Still, at least my suitcase WAS there, patiently waiting. At least one thing is going right today! Time for a bite to recharge the old batteries, then reverse my route back to the car with suitcase in tow.

With my trusty GPS back on the job properly (the windscreen mount had been in the big suitcase), it was onto the interstate just in time to join the rush hour traffic heading north. To cut a very long story short, after only confusing my lefts and rights a couple of times (those cloverleaves sure are confusing when you have to do them inside out), I arrived at my digs in South Portland just in time for dinner. A quick unpack, and the across the road to a wicked Tex-Mex restaurant for a very welcome feed of spicy stuff, washed down by a 'Negro Modela' Cerveza. I would never have thought to put lime with a dark beer, but that's the way they drink it here in Mexico, err sorry, Maine. Mighty fine it was too.

Well, that was One Hot Friday, and bed was calling. I had some fairly ambitious plans for Saturday too...