Eugene, Oregon is one of those places I have been to probably a dozen times before, but never left the hotel. That is because I have only ever done standups here and until today hadn't even seen daylight in this city. On the van ride to the hotel, one of the flight attendants casually mentioned, "So you know this hotel is haunted, right?" The rest of us did not know this little detail. The van driver nodded his head in agreement. "Room 305," he exclaimed without hesitation. While checking in, the other flight attendant jokingly told the desk clerk to give us room 305. The man looked up from his desk and deadpanned, "Well, it's not really limited to one room. It's the whole north building." Which building are we in? The north. Now, it's not an inherently scary hotel. There are some touches that make it feel quite old and a little odd, but there's nothing on par with having an old baby crib in one's room (like we almost had in Albania). I had a decent night's rest, but awoke abruptly at one point with the realization that room 305 doesn't exist.
You see, I was on the 3rd floor, but all 3rd floor room numbers started with a 7. At that moment I thought to myself, "Great. I'm in the murder room and that sound in the hallway is a ghost getting a mountain dew and a bucket of ice." Against all odds, I made it through the night, and went for a run in the morning. I followed a bike path along the river and did a loop trail through a park called, "Pre's Run." It is named for Steve Prefontaine, the famous runner, who competed for Oregon and ultimately took part in the Munich Olympics before dying prematurely in a car accident.
It was a scenic run on a beautiful day. Many people were out on the path. After I returned, I went back out in my flip flops and walked to the University of Oregon, which was just across the river. I made a stop at Hayward Field, where Pre ran track. It's also where the national championships are held these days. It's not open to the public, though I read you can take a running tour of the track if you schedule ahead of time. That all seems very silly. I guess it's like hallowed ground for runners, but at the end of the day, you're still just running in a circle.
I worked my way back to the hotel and called it a day before getting ready for my next flights back down to LAX and on to Tucson, Arizona where it is a brisk 114 degrees. . . but it's a dry heat I'm told.
