In late July my Uncle passed away. My husband and I were called upon to clean out his house in Oklahoma so that we may bring his possessions to Florida where the rest of our family lives. We were away from home for 28 days and finally met our objective. The U-Haul was packed to the brim and we were finally ready to disembark on our long-awaited journey home.
Since we got a late start on the road my husband wanted to drive through the night. I, on the other hand, felt that we should get a room. Pulling a loaded down trailer for an 18-hour drive straight didn't sound like a great idea to me.
Luckily he agreed to stop so I booked a room at the nearest Marriott and checked in on the app. Simple right? We only had 3 more hours to go until we reached the hotel. I was fighting to stay awake and be the awesome co-pilot wife that I am as my husband was reaching his second wind. While trying to pass the time until we arrived at the hotel, he was picking on me, saying that we could be home in 9.5 hours if we just keep driving. Despite the temptation, we agreed it was in our best interest to get some rest.
The long wait was finally about to be over. We were getting off our exit, only five minutes away from our hotel. Since my husband was not tired, I gave him his sleeping medication so he would get some rest once we got up to our room. BOY WAS I WRONG!
We got to the front desk and the agent informed us that they had no available rooms. Bare in mind, it's now 1:30 A.M. I informed him that I booked it online and had already checked in. He replied, “You are the 10th person this has happened to today... I assure you we have no available rooms.” I was in shock and explained how we just drove over 11 hours. He shrugged and told me that all of the hotels in the city were full. Unfortunately, he was no help, so we got back in the car and looked at one another in this delirious state wondering "What do we do now?"
I have just "drugged" my husband and now we don’t have a place to sleep!
He insisted we have to keep moving and hopefully we would find a rest stop or hotel quickly. Being that the sleep medication was starting to kick in, it was up to me to take over driving. For the next 1.5 hours, we were franticly looking at the map in search of a nearby hotel with availability; knowing we were only hours away from sunrise.
In between calls I was profusely apologizing to my husband. I'm not sure if it was my own delirium making me feel like I was crazy to be looking for a hotel room at 2 a.m... but we finally found a Holiday Inn 27 minutes away. He had his hands gripped to the dashboard trying to keep his eyes peeled wide open saying “ I hate you right now! We should have just driven through!” Knowing I had the best of intentions didn't matter we were stuck in a situation we had no choice but to crawl our way out of.
Meanwhile, I was counting down the miles on my speedometer and internally cheering myself on to keep going and get to our destination. After what felt like the longest 27 minutes of our lives, we managed to survive the dancing shiny lights and barricades, narrowing roads, and semis blowing us around. Each mile felt like an eternity. I joked that my husband sounded like my birthing coach “2 miles to go babe you're doing great!”
The clock now read 3:00 A.M. and we finally arrived at the Holiday Inn! WE MADE IT! Well, at least halfway to our final destination. We got into our room and my poor husband looked like he just got back from outside the wire. We couldn't help but laugh in the morning as it took him back to his nights on deployment trying to stay awake and alive. Lesson learned to never take or give sleeping meds until your bed is in sight. Also probably best to call and double confirm your hotel reservation!
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