Arrived Allentown, PA, a few hours ago. They wouldn't let me into the hotel I picked until 1:00 pm - courtesy for they normally don't allow in until 3:00 pm.  They wanted a $50 fee to get in early and I balked at that.  Maybe $20, but $50? No. Can I wait out in  your parking lot? Sure, I have no problem with that.  

Just so happens there is a sports grill 300 feet away, I ordered wings in advance and walked over there to pick them up.  We got into a long conversation about this particular state and how the governor's covid decrees are destroying people's lives.  This sports bar/grill has been forced into the depths of carryout only.  Apparently no restaurants are allowed to have dine-in anything.  The employees are getting 2 days a week - where they were getting a full 40 hours.  A recall petition has been started on the governor hear- hadn't heard about this one gonna have to look it up- but if the government is going to simply destroy people's lives even after the businesses jump through the hoops of gearing up their properties to comply with covid restrictions, they can all go piss off.  

It's the service industries that have been getting hit harder than anyone.  I left a nice tip for the gal who said "you must be Ben" when I walked through the door before I had said anything. Well yes, yes I am, how did you know that?  I could just tell.  Lol, okayyyy.  I don't have my name plastered on my forehead, it was a bit odd but I went with it.  

My sitting time in the parking lot over, 1:00 pm finally showed up, but I spent a lot of the wait time talking to mom on the phone.  I text her all the time, hadn't talked to her on the phone recently, figured it was time.  She's debating whether she should go to the Christmas party that is allegedly only 5 people. My brother, his wife and the wife's daughter and mate.  She is really trying to keep herself distant from people in person.  I can't blame her, in her 80's, she has to take whatever precautions she can.

But she lamented how my brother's wife is in a retail service industry and the daughter is also and they are exposed to lots of people.  I couldn't give her any advice. Go - and risk it. Don't go - and be lonely.  I think take the risk.  Get a plastic face shield.  Do whatever you have to but maybe being with family and anyone, really, is important to your mental health.  But I didn't tell her to take the risk, that really needs to be up to her. I'm not going to be responsible for suggesting she goes and then find out she contracted Covid and then - who knows what.  My goals in life do not include inadvertently killing my mother, thank you.  And having to live with that, thank you again.  

Anyway, I've got 8 luxurious hours to do nothing.  In this rather nice hotel. Was surprised how nice it is for the price.  I wasn't going to go to the Holiday Inn again - they have nothing to offer. No food and terrible service - and nothing within walking distance to get something to eat - and for all of that nothingness, over priced at over $100 per night. 

 I found this place up the road a piece, called them and asked if they have any truck parking and they said yes. That was all it took. I saw the place I got my food from on the map, that was the other plus. Yes I brought food with me, no I don't want to be confined to it, I've been eating that food for 2 plus days now.  Not even breakfast have I had eating out.  That's why I come prepared.  You don't know if you're going to find anywhere to eat that has anything you want to eat. I'm on keto and I'm not flinching from it. I gained fat back on my extended time off from it and now I'm determined to get it back off.

So here it is, in the room with very nice carpeting, not smelly, nice quiet heating/ac unit, 44 inch flat screen tv with a very impressive list of tv channels, a mini fridge.  No microwave but they have one out where the ice machine is. I'll be heating up some food later, I ate wings from the restaurant but that was enough eating out, still plenty of food in the truck. I left it running. It's cold and I don't want to have problems starting it. This hotel was paid for by me - Christmas treat - and they would have had to pay for the fuel for it to run with me in it anyway.  

The 70 hour clock is down to 27 hours and 10 minutes.  Lol.  I still have 30 minutes to get to the plant in the morning before I'm started the trip home.  Right now, every last one of those minutes counts.  It's almost 1,400 miles back.  I'm lol because I don't know if that's possible in a truck that only goes 67 miles per hour, where I have to be on-duty for pre and post trips and for fueling.  Once I get to the plant tomorrow, it's going in off duty mode the entire time. I don't unload the truck, I don't have to be on duty.  I will, however, be freezing my butt off because they don't let you run the truck and I can't go wait in their office.  And it usually takes a minimum 3 hours to off load.  After 30 minutes, that truck will be cold lol.  

Other things. Mother couldn't understand the value of owning a divided interest in a property. Well how do you build on it? I don't intend on building on it. It's hunting property, 12 acres of it, out in the country, there will be deer and hogs on it, tho I'm only interested in deer.  I mean, if  someone built something on it (can't tell cause' it's literally covered with pine trees, from satellite view), but if they did it would have taken the permission of everyone else.  Let's put this in perspective. A deer lease costs at least $500 per year, most of them twice that price and even much more than that.  That's where you pay a set price to use someone else's land to hunt on it.  

At $1,100, I got a piece of a property that I will only have to pay property taxes on every year, less than $200.  I only need to converse with everyone else about the use of the property, but they certainly aren't going to stop me from using it.  Put up a deer stand and get out there and learn the art of hunting. I got a taste of it from a friend in Phoenix and going out with him on hunting ventures, but I only observed. A good thing for the beginning, but I'm ready to get with the program.  I'll have to go back down to the truck and get my papers, I can't remember how much the property taxes were, I'm just sure it was not that much money.  

The rest of the properties - will be in limbo for a while.  I have been looking to just get a loan on some property and buy it without all this tax lien auction stuff. But the prices are so incredibly high! 5 to 10 k per acre? Just incredible.  Minimum acreage for an RV park is 4 acres.