Wilbo gave his life over to drifting. What Wilbo gathered as Wilbo drifted were stories, and these Wilbo gave away to the world. Wilbo went looking for shelter for the night, and Wilbo looked up a cabin at Weko Beach. The teenager ranger, at age 18 an adult and a teenager, claimed to accept checks, but he wanted a 25 dollar key deposit. Weko Beach didn't have a key drop, and Wilbo didn't want to write a check for 65 dollars, so Wilbo rolled on to Stevensville.
Wilbo had gone to Weko Beach to look for a car blanket. Wilbo had slept upon it during happy hour beach naps last two weeks. Wilbo was giving up losing his comfort items now. It's too much work to replace them. His green wool army blanket woven in India is now written off as lost. He’ll buy a new one at Joe's Army Navy in Royal Oak, and season it by wrapping his daughter in it after swimming or on cold winter nights. Wilbo, you dope, why do you lose sentimental blankets?
Terri at the beach house didn't see the blanket or see it in lost and found. The teenaged ranger didn't have it. It was gone. Terri looked super cute in jeans, a polo top, but Wilbo was betting she was dating a man she had mopping floors, who was younger than Wilbo and very handsome. She is such a willowly twig, and Wilbo felt turned on by looking at her.
Had Wilbo just coughed up the money key deposit money, last night in Bridgman could have ended by writing on the beach as sundown colored the sky. Wilbo was still looking for connection with Terri. Wilbo liked seeing her in civilian clothes, not those manager outfits. The hours of Weko Beach are now shorter, and there was no cafe service when Wilbo rolled into there. Wilbo had bought a two dollar hot dog last week just so Wilbo could enjoy eating in that sunlit space with cathedral ceilings.
Wilbo drove up to Stevensville to see about Ray's Motel, which advertises Sleeping Rooms. Ray had rooms in Ray's brick two story, each with a locking door, closet space and really old mattresses and blankets. He looked at one that was clean, looked unlikely to harbor bed bugs, but the room looked like no one had poured money into it for years. The office had closed a few days ago, and the marquee sign had announced: "We're Going to Miss You, Ray".
That sign was up Monday, but had come down by Wednesday night. The counter woman refused to take Wilbo’s check for one of the 38 dollar a night, plus tax, rooms. Only a few were left, and only one sleeping room was left. There's probably a lot of competition for the bathroom in the morning. The sleeping rooms had to be rented by the week --- you just couldn’t rent them for 13 dollars a day. Ray's Motel
Wilbo decided to drive into St. Joseph to find a place to check his email, maybe a place to stay where a check was welcome, and see if the Red Arrow Highway led to Pipestone, where the corner of Pipestone and 94 was home to a mall and a Meijer's. Since Wilbo was still waiting on his debit card from a regional bank, Meijer’s Thrifty Acres was his banker.
Wilbo found great, powerful, free internet at the Clarion Hotel, and Wilbo overheard a discussion between the owner and his banker. Wilbo sat in a well decorated lobby with four corners and four corner chairs, and checked his email and wrote a reply to his former wife about her money needs. Well, since she had money rights conferred upon her by a court of law and upheld by his moral commitment to his daughter. Wilbo had long made morality out of necessity.
The Clarion Hotel felt like a nice property. Wilbo had to get a long term agreement with some cool place to live. Ray's was going to cost him 400 dollars a month for nothing but the worst address in town, across from the Park Inn Stevensville, Michigan and the nice restaurant where Wilbo’s second Red Arrow Highway crush had been working, Fireside Inn Restaurant
Ok, so no checks at Rays. Hey, if Wilbo had a credit card with cash backing it, Wilbo wouldn't have been standing in your lobby! Wilbo would have been working Priceline for the Benton Harbor - St. Joseph region. And by next week, Wilbo will be trying that angle. One room for four nights and unlimited hot showers would have been incredible to Wilbo. Wilbo recalled to his boss when Wilbo stayed in a Reno casino tower for 20 dollars a night, looking over the Sierras and seeing the alpenglow at sundown, booked through Priceline. This was at the Sands Regency Hotel and Casino, with a Mel's Diner open 24-hours, Wilbo fed his obsessive-compulsiveness a banana split three or four times during the week. Wilbo hotel stood a five minutes walk from the Truckee River, with had an arts district and a kayak park: Where the Truckee meets Reno, where the Arts Meets Kayaking
So Wilbo started checking out the marinas on the St. Joseph River, and Wilbo counted four of them. Now all Wilbo needed was a boat to plop into the water and a bubbler, and he’ll have a cold weather - warm weather bachelor pad where the water bed could always be full. Wilbo also had tried to follow Red Arrow to Pipestone, but Wilbo crossed the river, got stuck on a road with a bridge under repair, ended up driving north on M-63 until Wilbo passed Whirlpool Headquarters, driving inside a city limits but through forested groves with concrete floors suggesting earlier buildings now carted away rubbled. This lead into the heart of Benton Harbor, where the new Tabor Hill tasting room had closed, and back into St Joe's. Wilbo had driven far, but gone in a circle.
Oh, when Wilbo is drifting in his bonzer truck, that's just the beginning. Wilbo bought four cans of flip-top ravioli from Chef Boyardee, five Top Ramen and a double-box of Pop Tarts. Maybe Wilbo could light a pop tart on fire if Wilbo grew cold.
The Meijer in Berrien County will give one only 20 dollars above; the one in Brighton will give fifty. Wilbo wanted fifty to pay Bridgman Inn 35 dollars for a night and have 15 for gas until Friday. Wilbo was in the parking lot munching on his first can of Boyardee and Wilbo noticed a woman wearing a Travel America employee polo shirt. It was going to be a truck stop night; Wilbo had read about the TA in Sawyer before. There's also a chain "love-shack" store at that exit, too, but Wilbo didn't go. It was called the Lion's Den, Wilbo remembered from a billboard.
Wilbo had written for about an hour. Here follows a list of where of where Wilbo went that night.
0. River Road until Tabor Road --- Leitz Farm Labor Camp
1. Andrews University
2. Downtown Baroda - ghost-town-to-be?
3. Bridgton Speedway for Gas and Gossip
4. South on Red Arrrow
5. Red Arrow Road House
6. Sawyer Travel America, 9 dollar shower and free movies in the Trucker's Upstair Lounge.
Gimmie Sheltre
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