Day 5, Wednesday, September 30. Tahoe City—(Zero Day)

Life is not good in Tahoe. Don’t come here. We had one of the worst nights of sleep, ever. It didn’t help that we were both frazzled from the debate. We wanted to turn it off, but it was like watching a train wreck. When we turned off the TV, the voices began. I confirmed with Bunny that it was more than “just in my head” before I started freaking out. It sounded like a person in the next room having a phone call. It was already 11p, way past our normal bedtime of 7. Politics is bad for your health. 

I tried turning on the AC. The fan didn’t work right and I was afraid it would start a fire so I shut it off. I tried a white noise app on my iPad. We had used it once before and I didn’t think it was too bad. Tonight, it sounded like bacon frying in a pan. After 20 minutes, Bunny told me the bacon had to be fully cooked by now. When I turned it off, the voice was still there. I tried listening at both walls to figure out which room it was and then I was going to call it and hang up (unlike what I’d witnessed earlier, I don’t like actual confrontation). I couldn’t decide which room it was, so I called the front desk. No answer. 

It was just so annoying that I couldn’t sleep. I turned on the TV for a bit hoping that the brainlessness would put me to sleep. Bunny started flipping around like a fish out of water. When she put the pillow over her face, I thought I’d better turn it off. She’s too claustrophobic to keep a pillow on herself for long. When the TV was off, I gently pushed the pillow down on her face to see if she was still awake. 

She popped up indicating she was. She went to the pill bag. Things were about to get real. She gave me a handful of Benadryl and told me to swallow. “Isn’t that too many?” “Shut up and swallow. I need sleep. You either sleep or die. It doesn’t matter to me anymore.” “Thank you?” A few minutes later, the voice finally stopped. It was past 1:30a. 

At 5, the voice started again. I tried to ignore it but couldn’t. I tried both walls, called the front desk, and then called both rooms and hung up. None of which had any effect. I was livid and groggy from all the drugs but not so groggy that I could sleep through it. I put on my pants and left the room. I listened at both doors beside me but couldn’t hear anything. I went downstairs to see if there was a phone # left on the door and then I heard the voice clearly. It was the room below us. I boldly knocked on the door prepared to run away depending on the size of the individual. 

The window was open and a woman answered. I said your voice is carrying through the walks and I can’t sleep. Would you please talk softer. She said “it wasn’t me.” “I heard your voice when I came up to your door and I heard you until after 1. Please be quiet” “I swear to God it wasn’t me. I just started talking a minute ago.” “I don’t care who you swear to, just shut up!” I went back to our room and it was finally quiet.

We had planned to get up at 8 to get ready then have breakfast at 9. Normally, we could have counted on 13 hours of sleep by then, but today, we had less than 4 total. There was no way I could carry a full pack and climb a few thousand feet. We ended up not getting up until 9. 

I came downstairs and the manager was talking to another guest. She said “good morning. How was your night?” As calmly as I could, I said “not good. The woman in (I pointed to the room) kept talking all night.” She asked me if I was the one who had said “I don’t care who you swear to, just shut up!” I owned up to it. She then said “I am in the next room, but I sleep solid, but I did hear you.” I thought I was going to get an earful. Instead, she told me the woman in question is schizophrenic and has been getting progressively worse. Other guests have complained. They’ve tried to get her help, but there isn’t any unless she’s a danger to herself or commits a crime. Her husband just recently died and she’s not doing well. 

Now I felt bad for the woman. The manager was very gracious and offered to move us to a nicer room at a big discount if we wanted to stay another night to recover. She was kind and diffused the situation expertly. She told us to go have breakfast and when we got back, she’d have everything taken care of. 

After breakfast, we changed rooms and took naps. Since we had already done all of our town chores in anticipation of hiking out today, we really just had a lazy day to relax. We ate an early supper and watched a little TV in the afternoon. Bunny took the extra precaution of buying us some melatonin, today. Since I had survived the Benadryl overdose, she’s going for the big guns tonight.

EFG