One Night Inn Baymont OR The Hills Are Alive with the Sound of Hortons

So this past weekend I got to spend some time with my lovely wife; just me and her. After 14 years of marriage we spent our first night away from our son Josh.

More on that in a moment.

Heather had a class reunion of sorts, in Iowa, to attend and dragged me along and kindly asked me if I would go with her saying we needed to get our freak on in a major way during our night away spend some quality time together. I happily agreed being the adorable husband that I am.

As stated, Iowa is where we were headed. This is a 5 ½ hour trip, 6 ½ hours (or more) with a pregnant woman. I made the trip in 5 hours flat. Hey we had “plans” right? [waggles eyebrows]

So we arrived at the Baymont Hotel. Very nice place we found online. We are not exactly globetrotters we Hortons, preferring mainly to stay in our hollow with our cats, our weapons, our food stores, and our giant, human-consuming-canine.


So seeing as how we found a deal on a really nice hotel, we were quite proud.


So after we arrived at the hotel we scouted the place for amenities cause everything is always different in real life than it sounds when you read about it online. The place was nice though. Very good rooms, free high-speed internet, the works. And no I’m not tossing out the innuendos here but omg the beds were amazing .. I told Heather I wanted to take one of them home. Super comfy beds. Baymont, my well-rested backside salutes your choice in sleep furnishings!

So after we unpacked, we didn’t immediately get ready to leave the room again, we didn’t watch TV, we didn’t do crossword puzzles, we didn’t catch up on the news or anything of that nature. Ahem, THERE was your innuendo.

Soon however it was time for the other festivities and we did get ready and left for the restaurant. It was just a short drive from the hotel. And it was Mexican food, which is all I knew we were having. I was very much looking forward to some traditional Mexican vittles. Just the names, the sounds of the words made me hungry.

So we pulled up to a little place called Carlos O’Kelly’s??!?! HUH?


I immediately nearly fell down laughing in the parking lot. Making all kinds of jokes about “they’re always after me lucky burrito” whilst at the same time likely causing my bride to wonder at how the evening was really going to go. I mean here I am, her trophy husband, and I’ve essentially collapsed into hysterics upon seeing the sign of the restaurant. She had to be nervous.

I pulled it together though. Until we reached the gigantic entry doors which were painted shamrock green .. laughing I turned to Heather and said, “if the servers in here are wee folk, you’re on your own, I’ll wait in the truck”. You don’t get a husband much more quirky more understanding and supportive than me.

So we get in there, do the meet-n-greet. Friends and neighbors, I’m not very good with strangers. Don’t expect me to hold the conversation together k? I’m THAT guy. I can talk and be cordial, no problems there but I’m not the go-to-guy when you’re looking for someone keep things rolling.

So I was nervous. Always am in a situation where I don’t know anybody. How very unmanly of me you say? Bite me I retort.

Without dragging you through the entire evening, let me just say it went quite well. I found, as I always do, someone where I can attach my sense of humor to theirs and relate to them. So I had a good time. Was it the most awesome of all times to be had or that I’d ever had? Um, heck no. But you do things for your spouse that you normally would not do for most others. That’s part of marriage. The important part to me was that my wife got the support she needed so she wouldn’t be there alone, that she got to reminisce with old friends, reconnect and generally have a great evening.

And she did. So I did good – and that folks is what being a husband is all about. Learn it, live it, love it.

So our evening ended, we said our goodbyes .. I nearly left our new camera behind but someone there saved me from being a total dork and pointed it out to me. (Thanks Shawn).

On our short drive back to the hotel we stopped to pick up Tylenol. I had a stress headache from “keeping up the shields” for 3 hours or so. Maybe that sounds odd to you all but its how I am. I’m very watchful. And a sustained effort at social interaction of which I’m not accustomed takes its toll. I’m a nerd what can I say?

We decided we cap off our frivolity by taking in one of those new fangled moving pictures you hear so much about these days. “The Proposal” was playing. So we zipped in to the parking lot, hopped out of the truck and I promptly locked my keys in it.

Sigh.

Movie plans cancelled.

Now we had to contact a towing service to come rescue me, The Duke of Dorkshire.

About 40 mins later, what appeared to be a tiny, under-aged driver shows up. Fantastic. I was to be rescued by someone who made Doogie Howser look like Moses. I’m getting old. After about 5-10 minutes Tom Thumb jimmies the lock on my truck and forces me to pay politely robs me charges me $53 for the indignity of having a school-boy rescue my old arse. Good times. When can we get together again Tiny Tim?

So by now it’s getting late. We skipped the movie having no real desire to spend even more money at this point. Besides, I had my laptop back in our room and we could stream movies from Netflix for free. Back to the hotel it was for us then.

So we stayed up talking, eating some late-night (overpriced) pizza, and talking. Soon it was time to turn in. And there was an odd feeling to that. It was, as stated, our first night away from Josh. We called him on our webcam to talk for a bit. And that made things easier. But it still wasn’t the same.

It’s weird being away from your kid for the first time. Possibly harder when they are older and it’s the first time. We are rarely apart.

Yeah laugh if you like, about this being our first night apart, but we’re sort of that way about family. We do everything as a group and rarely do we part ways. Some may view that as unhealthy or whatnot but it’s worked out very well for us.

We’re an “I love you” kind of family. Often we reinforce it by saying “I love you” even when someone is just leaving the room. Not all the time mind you but it’s not uncommon. Reminding folks around you that you love them isn’t a bad thing after all.

So I have to admit it was odd to be going to bed without two cats, a dog and a 13 year old son about the house, making racket. The normal bedtime noises were gone. The beds were super-comfy though and it was good to know, having talked to Josh and saw his face that things were ok. It’s not like we sat there and wrung our hands with worry.

So all in all, it was a good time. We had fun. It was great to have some adults-only time. Talk about everything on a 5 hour drive (each way). We got to stop to do some shopping on the way home for Thing Two even.

So. Good trip.

A good time was had by all.

Successful mission, family.

Next time though, we won’t wait so long to try this.