If the room has a microwave, id recommend that before I would recommend an American hotel coffee maker. The ones I’ve used in Europe for tea for some reason produced both faster and non coffeeish flavored tea water, but there is usually a residual coffee taste when I heat water with a room coffee maker in the US.
Edit: then again I like weak tea which doesn’t require dangerous levels of nuking and also has less chance to overpower the coffee taste
There also exists collapsible, dual-voltage teakettles that are perfect for travelers. As a tea snob drinker the idea of using hot water from a motel coffee maker to make my tea is… ::shudder:: I need filtered water brought to a rolling boil and the tea steeped in a preheated mug thankyouverymuch.
So the travel kettle is nice to have.
Consider a side trip to Monticello (Thomas Jefferson’s estate) after you leave Appomattox. It’s only about an hour drive, along what I suspect are scenic country roads, and the tour only takes an hour or so. Fascinating stuff. And it’s barely, if at all, out of the way.
We went there 35 or so years back. I remember it was shortly after the US reintroduced a two-dollar bill (with TJ’s portrait on it); the admission was something like 4 dollars apiece; we paid with a 10 dollar bill, and got our change (2 dollars) from a pile of them they had for the purpose.
I second the Monticello suggestion, and maybe a drive through Charlottesville. The only time I went to Monticello it was 50 minutes before closing time and we didnt think it was worth $29 for a rushed walk through, but there was plenty of interesting stuff at the free visitor center.
Revenge of the Nerds Part#341
There’s going to be some poor sucker who’s next cup of percolated Arabica coffee is going to taste like Lapsang Souchong. 
Applaud the ingenuity but I don’t travel sufficiently often to consider. 
More and more hotels tend to include microwave ovens, which are pretty versatile.
As far as milk: you could pop into a grocery store and get a package of shelf-stable milk, single serve packages, to bring along for the rest of the jaunt.
I’ve certainly never seen milk provided by the hotel (except in their breakfast area, if the hotel has one).
What’s your planned travel from Easton PA to Niagra? I might have some spots to consider in the finger lakes area.
At this stage I leave NYC, travel via Easton and get to Niagara.
At this stage am leaving on July 10th.
Don’t know if I can make that in a day. or need to take a break.
@thorny_locust is also somewhere in the Finger Lake district and there’s a tentative catch-up at a to be determined winery.
Is that sufficiently vague? 
If you’re still in VA, I would like to suggest keeping an eye out for a local whisky called Copper Fox. My favorite!
There are two distilleries you could visit, both about two and a half hours from Appomattox, so maybe not doable with your schedule. But the VA state-run liquor stores—the ABC–may well have some!
Safe travels!
I drink both (growing up mother was a coffee drinker, father was a tea drinker) and have had the experience Telemark mentions. IMHO (and it depends on the model of cheap coffee maker) they’re indifferently cleaned, and the coffee oils can and do cling to the plastic.
I’d add my advice to use the microwave, for a whole variety of cleanliness issues as most middle of the road hotels. And for that matter, many will have a service area at/near the front desk that often has fresher coffee as well as hot water and teabag options. Not great tea, but it’s an option.
Apparently @Paintcharge and I aren’t implausibly far apart. – I think there’s at least one other person in the general FL area. Should we start a possible FL meetup thread, or is that getting more complicated than you had in mind?
ETA: if it turns out to be a Saturday, I’m really limited as to where; and Fridays are tight as to time.
You can do NYC to Easton to Niagara in a day, but if you have a chance to stay a night in the Finger Lakes, I would do that. It’s a very pretty area.
And if you’re going to Niagara, I very strongly recommend that you cross the border, because the best views of the Horseshoe Falls are from the Canadian side. The view from the American side is passable, it’s very good if you take the Maid of the Mist boat ride, but even better if you stand looking down from the Canadian side.
I agree with this. It’s just jaw-dropping!!
May I suggest Two Goats if you want to come that way. Beautiful views of Seneca Lake and great beers.
21:30 Eastern Appomattox, VA Day15 logged.complain.mashed
After sinking a bottle of very average Napa red, this post might take a bit more work than usual.
The trip from Mountain City to Appomattox is an uncomplicated navigation of I-81 and quite bluntly nothing of particular interest happens, or at least happened to me.
The highways are festooned with bill board and with the political situation there are lawn signs aplenty.
A couple of ones I particularly noticed:
Dr. Mark J. Matney, promoting himself as a “Real Trump Republican” is seeking re-election to the office of Commissioner of the Revenue Washington County, Virginia.
Just the sort of rooster you really want in charge of the emollients.
Pampas Cruisers – disposable diapers apparently up to 100% leakage free.
Up to 100%, right.
XXXXXXX Attorney at Law – specialising in accidents, divorce and real estate.
The unholy trifecta of tort law.
Arrived about midday, too early to check-in so firstly I did the tourist things of visiting The American Civil War Museum, which to be frank is the Museum Of The Confederacy. The exhibits were put together will skill, authenticity and covered their subject matter well. A shrine to the Lost Cause.
Then I drove the couple of miles to the historical village of Appomattox Courthouse and house of Wilmer McLean the which I thought was superb. There were a couple of guides there who patently knew their stuff adding all sorts of context, subtlety and detail to my general knowledge of the events.
After that it was lunchtime. The last three motels/cities I have visited have all recommended a Mexican restaurant as “the best in town”, which I find incongruous. What little Mexican cuisine is seen in Australia is bland and commercialized, a long way from it’s authentic roots and I haven’t developed much of a taste for it.
But #2 on the recommendation list was Granny Bees which is a old fashioned dinner as American as apple pie. The Chuckwagon on the menu consisted of chicken fried steak, wedges and fried apple was a great example of a simple cuisine done well. The coffee came in a sponsored mugs which I thought was the best souvenir of the town I’d seen but they were running low on stock and wouldn’t sell me one.
After that it was a diversion to Farmville just to see the lie of the land and, after getting back to my digs and doing my trip comms work ie filing photos, dashcam footage and audio memos before retiring to the bar for another session of solving world problems aided by substantial quantities of alcohol. I would have preferred to try some of the local whisky but the choice was restricted to beer and wine.
The guy sitting beside me thought another US civil war was likely. It wouldn’t be too bad because it would only last five years and wouldn’t kill as many people as the first. In the last election he’d queued for 3 hours to vote DEM but he wouldn’t in 2024 because he thought Biden was gaga and incapable of doing the job. He’ll probably vote for a write-in candidate in 2024.
Tomorrow, I leave the friendly world of regional America and dive into the swamp of Washington. Really looking forward to the Dopefest. Bricking it in anticipation of navigating the traffic.
My husband travelled a lot back a in 2019 and his hotel offered extra loyalty points for opting out of daily housekeeping. That added up over 3 months - we got 2 nights in a hotel in Manhattan and 2 in a hotel in Los Angeles out of it. Since COVID hit, hotels would ask you if you wanted daily housekeeping. And nowadays, they have indeed reduced the routine service (presumably one could ASK them to see to your room, mid-stay).
As far as tipping, I usually leave something only the day I leave; my husband tended to leave a bit every day.
nitpick: Pampers, not Pampas, unless you’re visiting Argentina :). I too am bemused by their ad slogan.
And Farmville: we knew it fairly well as our son went to college. There actually IS a decent “Mexican” (by eastern US standards) restaurant there, that we used to take our son to when we visited. If I’d known you were visiting there, Charlie’s Waterfront (which overlooks the Appomattox River) is nice - it’s the “special occasion” restaurant in town.
For GOOD Mexican food, depending on how much time you have in LA at the end before you fly out, look around there. I spent a summer working in Orange County (about an hour south) and when my husband spent a weekend with me, I made him eat at 3 different places in a row. He grumbled - but found that each place had a different take on it, all good.
So you were just in the area where I grew up (I grew up in Bristol, on the VA/TN border). Looking forward to the DC Dopefest.
Forgot to mention: the part of Virginia you just visited is VERY Trumplican. Huge signs supporting the fellow, even after he lost the election. Lots of Confederate flags, also.
I’m reminded of a Warren Zevon song:
Yeah, I’m not sure about East Coast Mexican food. I can still hear my brother ranting about how horrible it was when he was there about 10 or 15 years ago. I hope it’s improved.