DAY ONE – 20 October 2014
I don’t
have a lot of brand loyalty, generally speaking. But if I’m going to fly
somewhere, I’m taking Southwest because I’ll earn points towards the flight to
NY I’ll be taking in the summer. With this position, I’ve had
arrangements to stay at different brands of hotels. I commented to the
boss that I’d like to remain with one brand if possible, only to earn the
reward points. Last trip I stayed in two different Hampton Inns (which
are part of the Hilton brand). When making the arrangements for this
trip, I still had my Southwest flight, but I’d be staying at two other hotel
brands. At this rate, my hotel reward points will be fractured between
different brands, I won’t earn anything.
Without
getting into the work details (as they’re not really germane to this blog), I
planned to visit each of the sixteen dealerships in my region this week.
I landed in LAX about noon, and had told my Field Representative contact
(Evert) that I’d be meeting him at 3 pm at my hotel lobby … in Riverside . Yeah, that’s pretty far-east
of Los Angeles .
I figured that would give me enough time to get over there, as MapQuest said it
would only be an hour’s drive.
The
flight got in on time, but it took about twenty minutes for me to get my
luggage out of baggage claim, and then another fifteen or so for the bus to
arrive to get to Enterprise
to get my rental. Add another ten minutes of getting their navigation
unit set up so it would give me the directions to my hotel in Riverside, so
that at up a bunch of time there. Not to sound like a native Californian
who speaks in routes all the time (like the SNL skit), but my planned
route was to pick up the 105 east (through Lynwood), then near Norwalk pick up
Interstate 5 to Buena Park, and then follow Route 91 to Riverside. I
figured I’d just be coming back 91 the next day on the second leg of my
journey.
The damn
route the navigation unit gave me took me north on the 110 almost to downtown Los Angeles , and then
sent me east on the Pomona Freeway (Route 60). That took me way north of
my territory, and past places like Hacienda Heights and Chino . The area was rolling hills of
brown scrub, which reminded me a lot of the area north of Phoenix . The area was pretty, but it
added another half-hour on to my trip. It was nearing 3 pm, and I was
still 40 miles from Riverside .
A quick call to Evert pushed the meeting back until 4 pm. He was fine
with that, because he could hook into the hotel wifi to do work.
I’d
nibbled on the plane, but I’d planned on getting something to eat once I got
checked-in, and before I met Evert, but it was clear that wasn’t going to
happen. Not long after getting on Route 60, I pulled out a Cliff Bar
While
driving along Route 60, I saw a huge elephant carving standing on the side of
one of the hills. There were no signs around to say what it was
for. There was also nothing nearby to gauge an accurate size, but I’d
seen it from a few miles back, so I’ll gather it was at least twenty-to-thirty feet
at shoulder. Making a quick call was one thing, but there was no place to
pull over to take a picture of it. And even if traffic slowed to where I
could’ve brought out the phone camera to use, I could be hit with a $160 toll
if I’m caught just touching my cell phone in CA. Bringing it up to take a
picture is not being very discreet. A few moments, on the other side of
the mountain, I saw a sign for Jurupa
Mountains Discovery
Center
My room
was on the ninth floor, which I liked. Great view of the mountains in the
distance, which I think were part of the San
Bernardino chain, but wasn’t completely sure. I
spent a minute taking a couple quick pictures that I’d post later with my
TripAdvisor article later, and then went back down to the lobby to talk with
Evert.
With the
plan set for the week, Evert then departed home. Even though he lived in
the Anaheim
area, he’d pick me up each morning, so we could ride together to each of the
dealerships. Now I was ready for some food. Next to the hotel is Main Street , which
is open only to pedestrian traffic, and it seemed to be the best (and closest)
place for food. A quick look in the regional information (provided by the
hotel) lead me to Gram’s Mission BBQ for some decent brisket. The owner,
Janaar, was very nice to chat with, and humored me as I took a couple pictures
of the joint.
Back at
the hotel I wanted to get some work done, as I’d essentially been offline all
day due to travelling, and then experienced issues with connecting to the
internet in the room. Even establishing a hotspot on my phone only gave
me a fifteen minute window before I was locked out by the hotel’s wifi.
Note that I wasn’t even connecting to their wifi, but it was still blocking my
own. Unlimited access is available in the lobby, but not in the
rooms. I did what I could, which wasn’t much.
I’d hoped
my brisket would’ve been enough to last me through the evening, and from the
way my stomach was growing I could tell it wasn’t. It was about 9 pm, and
I really didn’t want to go out hunting around too far for grub, so I went down
to the restaurant attached to the hotel. I ended up getting a buffalo
chicken sandwich with fresh fruit, and that was enough to satisfy the hunger
beast.
All
hotels have a little shop for snacks or things a travel might need because they
forgot (toothbrush, etc.). Since there’s usually postcards available, I
went to pick one up to send to Bill & Bobby. I was amused at among
the “items a traveler might need” were condoms. I didn’t see that at
either of the Hamptons
I stayed at on the last visit. Perhaps there’s a different clientele
which stays at Marriott. Grin.
I saw the
postcards there, showing various images of the Inland
Empire area, and picked one up which had the most natural looking
scene on it (no buildings). I asked the front desk later how much that
was, and she said since it was just that I could take. She added “because
it’s like three bucks or something.” Yeah, no prices were listed
anywhere, but I couldn’t see any postcard costing more than a dollar or
so. Anyway, that was a nice gesture.
I wasn’t
going to get any more work done tonight, and debated swimming in the pool, but
the jet lag of the long day was starting to catch up with me. When the
body wants to sleep, I’m inclined to let it. Unfortunately the AC didn’t
work very well during the night. Air was blowing in, but it wasn’t
circulating at all. It was very stuffy, which made it difficult to
sleep. A ceiling fan to move the air would’ve been helpful. Suffice
to say, I knew there wasn’t going to a lot sleep tonight.
For more information on the places visited or mentioned:
The
Californians: http://snl.wikia.com/wiki/The_Californians
Hacienda Heights (CA):
http://www.hacienda-heights.net/
Chino (CA): http://www.cityofchino.org/
Gram’s
Mission BBQ: http://www.gramsmissionbbq.com/
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