2012-366 Day 205 – Hillside Lodge I

It was a dark and stormy night. All right, it wasn’t all that stormy but it was plenty dark as we were nearing the new moon (which turned out to be plenty handy when we went stargazing a few nights later). It was also on the outskirts of San Francisco, Belmont to be precise, so it was kinda . . . I don’t know . . . overcast? In our quest to find lodging we contacted what we thought was a local hotel but turned out to be an arm of Expedia, and it referred us to the Hillside Lodge. The Lodge was purported to be a land of milk and honey where all of our needs could be taken care of, or even a simple place where weary travelers could lay their head, a place where pleasant dreams could be had. But those dreams took a turn for the worse . . .

Imagine it a little darker. A little more. A little more than that. Wait, go back a shade. Perfect.

We arrived at the Hillside Lodge after a twenty five minute trip from the restaurant we called from. Situated on the side of a hill (felt like San Francisco already), we pulled into the only remaining spot at the very top of the hill. Upon driving in we noticed that the first door on our left coming in stood open into a dark room. Despite our better judgement, we went to see what awaited us in that gloomy abode . . .

Stare into it’s gloomy heart and see . . . the ice machine? I really should have taken these pictures at night instead of the next morning.

We had discovered the ice machine, but were no closer to our true destination: the hotel office. Scanning the location in the dark several times finally yielded a clue, a single glowing eye staring back at us from the opposite corner of the ice machine’s lair.

Seriously, the Please Ring button glowed at night, I promise.

Yes, we had found the elusive office window tucked into the corner, with only a tiny plexiglass rectangle allowing us communications with the keepers that slept therein.

And the door next to the window. I guess they had to get in and out somehow . . .

The female keeper initially expressed confusion as to our request for a room. This Expedia person had left no notice of our arrival and there was no lodging to be had in their hotel that night. We turned to leave, not quite disappointed at this turn of events as we had passed several other locations where we might rent a bed on the way here, when the door flung open and the male keeper stated that he had no choice but to offer us a room. He invited Brian into the office, slipping the door shut silently behind them. We bid a fond farewell to him, convinced we had seen him for the last time, but waited anyway lest they want us to dispose of the body or something.

Lo and behold not ten minutes later did Brian emerge victorious, with two sets of keys to rooms on opposite ends of the same side of the hotel. We theorized that they used a secret button to dump whatever occupants whom had already inhabited the rooms into whatever foul pits festered below the hotel, but figured since it was late and no one was likely to arrive after us looking for a room, we were probably pretty safe. And I’m guessing they went on some sort of seniority system as to who got dumped anyway, so hopefully they dumped whoever had been the longest first. Anyway, I’m getting off track here, let’s pick up after we pulled the luggage out of the car and prepare to open the door to our room for the first time . . .

Actually, we’ll do that tomorrow. Come on back for part II.

Weight: 229 Loss: 11 lbs – Running Yearly Mileage: 214.6 miles (+3.5 miles)
Volleyball Match Record: 4-2 (10-8 Game Record)
Fitocracy Level: 23 ID: disciplev1