Robbed? Or given a huge present?

Our family is in the habit of stopping at a Subway on road trips. We always get exactly the same thing, which makes ordering easy, so we can just concentrate on our respective bio-breaks. So you would think that when I was out on my own this weekend coming back from DC, I might try something different.

But I didn't. Actually, I kind of did. On the way up on Saturday I stopped into a Love's Truck Stop which had a Subway in it. On the way to the bathroom, however, I saw that it also had a Godfather's Pizza. I though I may have riffed in the past on my fond memories of the Godfather's at Kroger Plaza, but I see that I haven't. We'll come back to that in the future. 

In any case, on the way back from DC I stopped at a Subway and got our traditional sandwich, and upgraded it to a combo (drinks and chips), as I always do with family, giving Graham the chips and splitting the Diet Coke with Natalie to give myself a little mid-day caffeine burst. At check out the guy rang it up and it was about $12, plus the tip I put on it. "Holy Smokes!" I thought to myself, this inflation thing is no joke. Later I looked at my bill and it turns out that upsizing to a combo added $2.99 (not really a great deal and very high margin -- note to self for the future) to the $5.99 sandwich, then the guy had charged me another $1.99 for the drink, which pissed me off. Was it a mistake, or was he taking advantage of me? I momentarily thought about getting in touch with the franchise owner but then decided it wasn't worth it. But I did keep thinking about it, and here I am blogging about it.

But even if the guy did it to rip me off, it was more than offset by the $40 the woman at the desk at my hotel in DC saved me by advising that, instead of paying for parking in the indoor parking lot (apparently not affiliated with the hotel), I should park on the street. "It's free" she said "and I'm looking at two spots right now." How could I not love this woman? If I had had a five or a ten I should have tipped her then and there.

In the end, when it came time to check out, all I had was twenties in my wallet. So I left one next to the bed for the people who clean the room because after many years of not tipping for hotel rooms (I didn't know) or even for take out (I'm an idiot) I am playing catch up with the big cosmic bank.