The Great Hotel Escapade

I set out from Pennsylvania about 9:30, after the fog had burned away, destination North Carolina.  Since it's about an 8 hour drive to my sister's house, I didn't plan to drive the entire distance in one day. After driving about 5-1/2 hours, stopping a few times at rest stops, the afternoon was waning.  I stopped for gas in Harrisonburg, but five minutes there was all it took for me to know I did not want to stay there overnight.  The roads were congested, buildings everywhere, lights flashed, in short, a proper suburban sprawl.  I left as soon as I got gas, knowing I had at least another hour before it got dark.

          Approaching Lexingon, Virginia, the sun was dropping low enough to be a nuisance, so I exited to get a motel for the night.  Smartphones are wonderful things (yes, that's me saying that).  I pulled over and looked on my cell phone for hotels in the area.  Aha!  A Day’s Inn right down the road!  And a Quality Inn and Howard Johnson’s Motel as well.  No problem.  Good choices.  I opted for the Day’s Inn and headed for the address.  My GPS directed me to take a right, and I found myself in the parking lot of a Mexican restaurant.  Hmm.  I must have made a mistake.  Looking around, I saw the Day’s Inn up the hill.  Off I drove, and was puzzled when I saw only one car parked in front of one of the units.  At the end of the complex were a couple of small trucks and some workmen, but I ignored them and drove all the way around the building, sure there must be guest cars on the other side.  No luck. I drove around to the front and stopped, asking one of the workmen, “Is this hotel open?”  “Yes,” he smilled, “It’s open.”  “Where’s the office?”  He pointed solemnly down the hill. “The restaurant?” I asked. “Yes,” he replied.  The office is in there.

          Okay, call me paranoid, but two things went through my mind.  One, why weren’t there any guests at the hotel?  Did they know something I didn’t?  Had word gotten around about a problem? Bedbugs perhaps?  Two, why wasn’t there a reception desk in the hotel proper?

Day's Inn.  Even in the morning it had only 5 cars.

 I drove down the hill, across the highway to the Quality Inn parking lot.  Once again I looked at my options.  The Howard Johnson’s was cheaper, so I headed out.  Not even a driveway’s length later, I remembered the last time I booked into a Howard Johnson’s.It turned out to be very seedy; what was once an up-and-coming motel chain had slipped badly.  I turned around and checked into the Quality Inn.

          That was an adventure, too.  The room was clean and bright, they had WIFI, I got a room on the first floor, and they served a buffet breakfast, which I might or might not take advantage of.  What I didn’t know at the time was that the bathroom door measured 2 feet across, and with the door open, there was about 22 inches for me to maneuver through. 

 

Notice the squares?  Each square is one foot. Take off for the width of the door and there's 22 inches.

Scuttling in sideways.

Oh, well, I went in sideways, and all was well.  Around 9:00 I crashed, and promised myself a long bath in the morning.

          Around 11:00, I awoke to voices, After a few minutes, I became curious, because the voices were LOUD.  I thought there were people outside my door, and I just couldn’t figure out why they’d be in the hallway holding a convention.  Finally I got up, grabbed my crutches, and went to the door.  What a surprise to find that the voices, now very clear, were coming from the room next door.  A man and a woman were having a fine time, laughing talking, chortling, and forgetting that some people actually go to a hotel to sleep.  I gave up and ran a hot bath, hoping they’d have quieted down by the time I was done.  No such luck, so I turned on my computer and watched a movie for about a half hour.  A little after midnight, all was quiet and I went back to bed.  Ah! Blessed silence!  I slept until 8:00.