Day 19 - Next? Rhode Island

Seriously,  I walked out of my motel room this morning, to a parking lot full of cars. I notice on the office door the paper, hand written, no vacancy sign that he has put out. This place is full!  I will say he does have the corner on the market. He is very inexpensive, as there are a couple of other hotels around that are quite high. I do notice that across the street they are building a regular, big hotel. I wonder how that will affect him? I think there's always people who are willing to pay a low price for a motel like this. Like me. I slept well, as the days do you wear me out.  Last evening, I had a knock on the door from the motel owner's "boy". That's what he calls him anyway. He is obviously not related to the motel owner, but works for him. It turns out this young man is about to go do his laundry, and wanted to see if I had any that needed to be done as well. They don't have public laundry facilities there, but he said he would throw my laundry in with his, as I notice he's holding a laundry basket full of his dirty clothes. I declined nicely, and thanked him profusely. That was really nice of him to think about the fact I might need laundry done.  He was all of maybe 20 years old, and obviously lived at the motel. As did a number of people, I noticed.
Even though I have a long day ahead of me, I appear to be a no apparent hurry. I have a little breakfast (peanut butter and banana, of course), and head down the road to a McDonald's to get two refills of unsweetened tea in my cups.  I also indulged and a cup of coffee while I'm there. I move down the road, alongside the stadium area. Patriot Place is on my left (shopping center), the stadium on my right. Parking lot after parking lot of emptiness is there waiting for the next big event. The air is wet and the ground is damp from the rains last night. The temperature is in the 70s, and looks to be a clear sunny day. I'll need to make sure I drink a lot today, as the humidity is high. I will move down the road in a timely fashion, but in no hurry. I want to absorb all that is around me today, as I have never been to this area before. And many more turns will happen today, as I go through Providence, as Route 1 joins the interstate. Detours are a big part of this trip.
As I continue to move down Route 1, I smell everything. The trees, the water and all that's in the air. It's so fresh and clean. I hear the hawks calling overhead, finding breakfast. I think about David and Lauren. I look at the Barn Cam to check out the happenings in the barn. I hear and see Belle (one of our sweet lambs) calling out baaaaa. It hurts my heart to know I can't be there to love on all our farm animals. I'll be back, I promise. I know that David and Lauren are both traveling (from opposite directions) to Amarillo today. They are meeting there to exchange Lauren 's Australian Shepherd puppy, Tula, over to David. Tula is scheduled to start obedience dog training later this month with our favorite dog trainer, Jamie McRee in Lucas. She will keep and train Tula for 2-4 weeks depending on her progress. She has trained two other (big) dogs of ours previously. She magically trains and assists puppies to become the good dog they can, and want to be. So David and Lauren will make the puppy trade later today, spend the night in Amarillo, and head back home on Sunday. Be safe! Last weekend, Lauren hit a deer. She's okay, thank goodness! Her car is not. It's drivable, but will need multiple repairs. Living in Colorado lends to this, as does many states. So I do worry about them both driving alone for so many miles. I know that's odd of me to say that as I live on the road. But I still worry.
Enjoy your Saturday!
More later, Cyndi