I recently passed through Rockford, IL. Not on my list of top ten or even hundred places in the world but it is nice enough I suppose. As I drove through and decided to stop for the night, I learned the painful way that I had broken one of my cardinal rules about traveling smart and that was that I did not have a hotel room reserved. After stopping a couple of places, I was told that the Radisson had rooms available.

The Raddison was nearby, looked nice enough, so I stopped in. And, sure enough, they had rooms, and the guy on desk duty was more than happy to set me up with one.

It was a nice enough place except for the fact that the folks in the room above me apparently decided to have a small parade in their room from about 3 - 5:30 a.m. A most peculiar time for a parade.

So, at 5, I decided I might as well get up and get working on some things. That was when I realized that there were a lot of mirrors in my room. A whole lot. 43-year-old people don't necessarily like mirrors, especially not at 5 a.m. when all of the wrinkles and bumps are still firmly pressed into our faces. There were eight mirrors in this hotel room. No, it wasn't "that kind of place" but there were eight mirrors. Isn't that odd? Why does a hotel room need eight mirrors?