But Not That Wild!

Problem Child mentioned that we went on our first field trip yesterday. We had a wonderful time-interesting, stimulating conversations, new experiences, and bonding galore. We also had an adventure that will remain a group memory until we are old and gray!

As we are all struggling writers (i.e. not a lot of money to spare), we opted for cheap but clean accomodations for our overnight excursion. We chose a chain hotel that had good prices and looked relatively nice when we arrived. It wasn't until the next morning that we found out a drug bust went down the night before. No, not just a simple drug bust. The police raided a meth lab! A meth lab in actual operation!

How exciting. Doesn't your heart just flutter when you realize your building could have exploded during the night? Even more unbelievable was the news that the room where all this went down was adjacent to ours. The rooms shared a back wall. Yet no one, hotel management or police, saw fit to evacuate us or even inform us of potential danger. Luckily we got to hear it on the news rather than being driven from our beds by a fire or exploding walls. That is, if we'd lived through the heat and toxic fumes.

But in true creative fashion (after getting over the shock), we began to brainstorm how this could work in a book. We entertained ourselves throwing together a hokey plot with a single female alone in her hotel room, the undercover DEA agent next door whose scraggly appearance weirds her out when she meets him, and the meth lab that explodes one night, taking out the wall of her room and forcing them on the run.

I'd say we're writers, all right. Everything is fodder for the story.

And this is one trip we'll never forget.

Angel