Day 22: Gyms

This hotel keeps getting larger the more I explore it. There is so much to see, so many things to do. Work is keeping me on my feet constantly, but in the moments I do get to myself I have found that I’ve developed a propensity to sit and watch the fish in the atrium river below my window. I’m hundreds of miles away from home, in an unfamiliar city and in a colossal hotel full of fun stuff and what do I do? I watch fish. I guess we all have our ways of coping and having fun and I enjoy sitting silently and watching life.

It was storming ferociously for the majority of Day 22, so I was confined inside the hotel for all of my 5.48 miles (8.8 km). So I decided to make use of the workout room. I should have figured it would be just as grandiose as the rest of the hotel complex. Everywhere I looked there was workout equipment, mirrors, yoga mats, a fountain in the corner, and a glass wall that overlooked one of the atriums. There was only one treadmill free and I nabbed it before anyone else could. Of course this put my between a 90 lb. speed walker and a tall and slender young woman running at 7 mph. And there I was, a short and stout girl with a jiggling backside. God I hate gyms…

The hobbits were also having a not-so-nice start to their day at this point in their journey. Upon waking they find their ponies gone and breakfast a hurried affair. Frodo is dismayed with the loss of their mounts, for now he is faced with having to get to Rivendell on foot while trying to outrun Black Riders. Only one replacement pony can be found and it is an ill looking and straggly thing rescued from the local neighborhood menace: Bill Ferny. Sam gives the sour and jeering man a parting gift of an apple to the nose.

The atmosphere thus far is continuing to get darker. More and more setbacks crop up in Frodo’s way as he struggles to get to Rivendell. It seems misfortune is a companion the hobbits cannot sway. But in leaving Bree one of my favourite characters is added to the party, Bill the pony. Bill won’t be a significant aid to the plotline, nor an unlikely hero. However, Bill is as steadfast and faithful as his master Samwise. One of these days I will look into the relationship between animals and characters in Middle Earth, but for now I join the hobbits in saying farewell to Bree and hello to the fields of Chetwood.

The Road Goes Ever On and On,
~ Daisy Buttons