Close Encounters nobody wants

To understand this post, some background. I have a thing about sleeping in beds that other people have slept in; I’ll opt for the floor or lie on top of the duvet. And I get up early.

For this reason, I have camped all but 4 nights of my Fellowship travels. I’ve slept under the skies of the best rural areas in the States and been privileged to see some stunning dark skies, fauna and flora. I’ve only stopped in motels when forced to, when late arrival at destinations would mean turning up a campground at nearly 11pm, well no-one wants to be that guy…

So I was complacent finding myself late in my last week of travels; after 14 hours travel I needed sleep, and checked into the first typical motel I saw on a dark road.

There were warning signs: the door lock took me ages to unlock (and looked like it had been forced in recent history) ; neighbouring rooms were full of resident families not on holiday; the carpet looked suspect – I didn’t fancy sleeping on it. I opted for the bed and leaving the lights on…

We’ve all seen those movies… I have too. It proves you are never too old to live and learn.

Sometime after 2am I shot wide awake with a feeling of being watched…to see a little bug on my pillow. I flicked it off before thinking. Then I saw another one on the duvet. My reaction? Flicked it off too, and reached for Google.

Before I could read very far I noticed another, waving its legs at me on the night stand. Either that’s the same one very determined to get onto the bed, or that makes three. Three too many, I smooshed it. Sorry.

Google was not reassurring; neither was the smooshed insect, with it’s resemblance to a hungry bed-bug… I packed. I have never cleared belongings into a car so quickly.

But I had a dilemma as I had to lock the room (in case someone came in and messed it up). After a minute or so, trying to be ultra quiet the door finally locked.

I then heard the “click, click, click,” of claws padding down the motel sidewalk. Sounding just like a small dog. Except at 3 in the morning a small dog alone is bad news…

What followed was easily the most farcical moment of my whole travels….maybe my life…from swiftly packing to leave the room, mentally shrieking;

“Let me out of here now! Ewww!”,

I turned around and there was a huge skunk ambling towards me, not 6 feet away, bad eyesight, totally oblivious I was there! I found myself frantically trying to get back IN the room…

“Let me in! Let me in!!”

The door opened, light flooded onto the blacktop and the skunk ran off…I don’t think I could have mentally survived both skunk and bugs in one night.

Safely in the rental car; where do you go to sleep at 3am in the rural Berkshires. Imagine 3am in the Yorkshire Dales; where would you go if you had no friends, no hotels open (seriously? Its 3 in the morning..) and roadside parking is no option? Where indeed.

I decamped to my only option – the nearest Walmart parking lot. By 4am I’d said hello/goodnight to loved ones and was fast asleep under the CCTV cameras. I was not alone; there must have been 20 cars in the lot. I don’t know how many people were like me; (traveling as opposed to escaping bugs at 3 am), but I observed more than a few getting ready for work, from vehicles full of household goods.

It got me thinking about the recent article I had been reading. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, HUD, use a Point in Time count on family and youth homeless in the USA, based on numbers in shelters or on the streets on a night in January. They report there has been a 23% drop since 2007 in families and young people experiencing homelessness.

So if you sleep in your car, or in your storage rental container, you are not homeless. If you are staying with friends, you are not homeless. If your family are temporarily in a motel – as were my neighbours – you are not homeless. What a crazy methodology to consider sound.

As dawn broke, I trotted across the parking lot into Walmart reflecting on what I’d learnt:

It is really uncomfortable having no control over your own personal/ecological security or night-time sleeping arrangements.

If a motel floor doesn’t look clean enough to sleep on, walk away…fast.

I’m lucky, I had a choice.

In January 2018, Massachusetts (my current location) had an estimated 20,068 experiencing homelessness on any given day. That was according to Point in Time data.

Makes you think.