My wife and I have been doing a bit of traveling lately. If you read this blog regularly (and if you haven’t, you better have a good reason), you know we took a vacation to Ireland. The week we got back, we headed to a friend a couple of hours from here to celebrate Halloween and a couple of birthdays. Now, we are heading to Arizona to celebrate another birthday and visit with another family member. Once we get back from that, then it’s off to Chicago for a memorial service for my brother. It seems like it never stops. Presidential candidates are calling me and asking how I handle this never-ending travel. Who knows, maybe I hit enough swing states to have a chance. President B.B. Riley. It has a nice sound, but I’ll probably turn it down. I hear it requires working. Gave that up years ago.
When we returned from Ireland, I was banished to our guest bedroom. No, I didn’t screw up…or I think I didn’t. Just a second…Honey…nope, I’m in the clear. My poor wife picked up an Irish cold, which set in as soon as we landed at LAX. The five days after we got home, she was stuck to the couch, coughing, sneezing, and feeling generally rotten. I decided not to disturb her (AKA not catching the cold) and retreated to the back bedroom. This made it almost three weeks since I had not slept in my own bed.
A person gets used to their sleeping arrangements, and not having them can result in restless, uncomfortable conditions. While in Ireland, we discovered that the Irish like keeping their hotel rooms as hot as a sauna. The temperature outside was between 45 and 55 degrees F (for those married to centigrade, tough). Every room we had was hot, and it was impossible to adjust the temperature. Primarily because the buildings we were staying in could be centuries old, and when they were built, they had no clue what a thermostat was. Fortunately, most of our rooms had windows that opened, and we did just that. We had all the windows open to cool down the room enough to sleep.
When we visited our friends, we slept in a Sleep Number bed. For those unfamiliar, you can set the firmness of your side of the bed to what you think is comfortable. It could be very nice, but I will never know because I couldn’t get it set to what felt good. Usually, when I can’t get comfortable, I head for a couch. I can always get comfortable on a couch, and no, it’s not because I get in trouble with the missus all the time…just sometimes.
Another aspect of traveling is the variety of mattresses a traveler sleeps on. I’ll be honest: most of the beds we have slept in have been fine and quite comfortable. There are a few that make a good night’s sleep impossible. One bed in Michigan is supposed to be a double bed, but it barely fits my wife and I. On top of that, one side of the bed is downhill, and the person sleeping on that side (that would be me) feels as if they have to hold on all night so as not to roll off. If the location we were visiting wasn’t so beautiful, we might get upset.
Sometimes, we wake up a bit sore because of the mattress we were forced to sleep on. The worst incident happened in Rome, Italy. We stayed in a high-end hotel, and the room was quite luxurious. Unfortunately, the bed was a disaster, to the point where we asked if they could put a bedboard under the mattress so we might get a little sleep. My wife and I tried many different things to get a good night’s sleep, including sleeping on the floor. Beautiful room, a nightmare of a bed.
If I could bring my own pillow everywhere we traveled, that would make everything easier. One place we stayed, our hosts provided us with “My Pillows” to sleep with. All a My Pillows is, are chunks of cut-up foam rubber stuffed into a pillowcase. It’s not even close to comfortable unless you support a certain President. I am a feather pillow guy. I grew up with feather pillows, and I love how they stay cool and shape to my head. My wife has an ergonomic pillow, which to me, is like sleeping on a bag of dry cement, but that is what she likes, and more power to her. It might actually be a bag of cement, but I will leave it there. Most of the hotels have pillows that range from solid foam rubber to simulated feather pillows. Some are comfortable, while others leave you with a pain in the neck. Most hotels provide more pillows than you need, making me feel like we get a selection. The rest get tossed to the side.
We’re back home for about four days, then off again. This time, we’re staying at a relative’s house. I hope it’s better than some of the hotels we’ve stayed in. I hate to have to give them a low Yelp rating.
I’m just happy to be home and have the ability to sleep in my own bed, if just for one night. I might sleep better if I didn’t keep falling asleep in my lounge chair while watching sports on the television.
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