Refreshing Shampoo? - From Co-Pilot Jeff

Greetings followers, friends and family,

I type this after finishing a shower at the Rodeway Inn in Bossier City, Louisiana. At the risk of sounding like some sort of hotel snob, let me assure you that such is not the case. We were spoiled by starting off the trip staying at the brand new Aliante Station in North Las Vegas. In times past I have stayed at very nice places like the above mentioned and at such charming places where my mom and I wore our shoes around the room because we had no idea where the carpet had been. I have also been awakened from slumbers by the gentle sound of Larry's Cesspool Service slurp-slurp-slurping away at 06:30 or thereabouts. Which reminds me, there is no clock in this hotel room! Ah, but, this room has such other charms about it.

You see, we thought the last place we stayed in, the Clarion Inn in Oklahoma City, was odd due to its bizarre configuration and footprint. It was a different hotel in a previous life (and decade), we are not sure which. The layout of the suite room was just wierd, there is no way to properly describe it without a picture which we did not take. The TV was in what I think was a closet once or perhaps a kitchenette. The walk-in closet area had an ironing board, but no light.

But, before that, we thought the last place we stayed in, the Days Inn in Santa Rosa, New Mexico, was odd due to the operators who learned English as a second language and had a hard time understanding that our HVAC unit was very much not happy but sort of worked after a while. Towels were scratchy too but now I am sounding very much the elitist.

Anyway, about the Rodeway Inn. Our room has at least two layers of wallpaper, leaky tub with cracked grout that is also cracked. The fluorescent light initially is a four foot long night light but if you just wait a while, it flickers and flashes and then lights up fully. The heat lamp / bathroom vent fan is but a memory these days - really - just a hole in the ceiling. Furniture is, well, varied. As smoking is still a common offense to non-smokers like us, this hotel has the eau de cigarette to it, especially our stuffy room. Larissa and I made a run to the great common bond of all Americans across this great country (Walmart) for a bottle of Febreeze. In the time it took me to yak on the phone with a buddy (who should be on this Mustang run with us but was concerned for the fragility of his garage queen to be able to withstand the assault of dust, dirt, rain, snow, hail, rock chips, semi-trucks, sunlight, darkness, being left all alone in a parking lot surrounded with a few HUNDRED other Mustangs and of course miles), we used all the Febreeze to try to freshen things up. It worked, sort of. We suspect this hotel is in the process of a re-modelling and our room has not yet been re-done. When we come back in 5 years for the 50th annual Mustang celebration, we expect things to be much improved as Mustangs Across America is using this hotel as the headquarters hotel for this leg of our journey. The bright spot - the shampoo says it is refreshing. I'm still waiting for that feeling but I am optimistic.

I will be the second person to admit when I have learned something new. I learned something new about our own Mustang tonight thanks to a very nice man from Virginia who brought his 2007 Roush Stage 2 convertible (very rare color, signed by Jack Roush himself) and his wife's 2006 Roush Stage 2 hardtop (same color as our car). There is an emergency trunk release handle that glows in the dark and is attached by cable to the inside trunk latch. It is there in case you 1) get stuck inside your own trunk for some reason or 2) Vinnie and Bruno place you there while chauferring you to the dockside. Any way, this annoying plastic handle has been getting in my way each time I load or unload Larissa's huge suitcase which is loaded with bricks or bags of cement or something, I dunno. So, we are talking to this man in the parking lot of the hotel while our fast food dinner gets cold and he is wiping down his cars with trunk lids open. I noticed that his trunk release latch is clipped up out of the way by two plastic clips on his 2007 convertible, but his 2006 does not have the clips. Guess what - our 2007 has those two clips and that is what they are intended to do and we never knew! Now, our latch thing is clipped out the way and I will no longer have to keep un hooking it from Larissa's cement lined suitcase. Victory!

This is but one example of the Mustang owners sharing knowledge and experiences. Everyone we have met has been friendly and helpful. We have much more to learn on this odyssey. The Mustang Nation is far bigger than I imagined.

In the morning, we depart Louisiana for Birmingham, Alabama. The MAA group has become almost too big to manage so we will probably join the others who power out of town prior to the official departure of Mustang One. We stand at about 400 plus cars now and have heard that the Mustang festival could involve 5000 or so Mustangs from all over the country. Our groups have representatives from Germany, Denmark, Poland, New Zealand, Australia and perhaps more. They are crazy. We are newbies to all of this.

Long day ahead. Good thing I used the Refreshing Shampoo. Stay tuned!

Jeff & Larissa