Bob and I wrapped up our first Ankeny housesit midday yesterday. We don’t often say this, but we were happy to go. The very energetic Flynn made us both feel our age. We did make a bit of progress with him in terms of understanding how to moderate his behavior a bit so are hopeful for a calmer sit when we return later this month.
We are currently spending 5 free nights at a Baymont Hotel that we have earned from our secondary hotel program. After stopping to pick up groceries, we were delighted to arrive at our large room to exhale before watching the Oscars (or at least part of it). I need to get my annual fix of gawking at gorgeous dresses. However, we were disappointed/dismayed/ frustrated to find that neither TV in our room could be properly controlled by the remote or the buttons on the units themselves. That is, they could turn on the TV and they could control the volume, but they couldn’t pull up the channel guide or change the channel. Even worse, the channels that they were stuck on were Fox News on one and some kind of auto racing or truck racing on the other. Two programs/channels we would never have voluntarily chosen.
Based on instructions from the front desk, we tried reprogramming both tvs to no avail. The nice young front desk person came up, and she also was unsuccessful. She sent up two of her compatriots. They managed to get one tv to ABC to watch the Oscars but then it was stuck there. Finally, this morning after 2 trips to the room the maintenance guy was able to get both units fully functional. With all the world events, this is obviously a very little issue, but it would have been a long 5 nights without any tv, especially as we couldn’t comfortably watch at our last housesit, as Flynn saw that as his playroom.
Anyhoo, today has been lovely. We ran a couple of errands and then got out on a nearby trail that Bob found for us to enjoy what may be the last decent weather day for a few days.
We walked a few miles of the 19 mile Great Western Trail that opened in 1992. We encountered 1 runner and a number of cyclists using the trail.
a few minutes drive from our motel
This underpass took us under Hwy 5.
near a covered rest stop by the trail
and a bike repair place on the side.
Peckish Travels 