The first leg of the trip was going to take us to Salt Lake City, Utah. And perhaps for the first time I went online to book a room. Did not even use priceline cause I wanted to know exactly where we were going. A little over $100 gave us 2 queen size beds, a couch, a bathroom, and lots of space. We lugged all our junk into the room, even used the fridge. For us it was luxury. But we did not use the pool or the other amenities offered.
Breakfast was divine. Fresh scrambled eggs or fried ones, hash browns from real potatoes, an assortment of cereals, juice, tea, coffee, and lots of other stuff.
At Liana's we slept the first night in her bed. A twin bed. That might have been fine in our youth, I remember sleeping for months in such a small bed with a large dog that kept on pushing us out in the night so we had to rotate him to the front again, but alas, we are older. The minute Stephen got to bed and came close to me I started a hot flash. So I moved to the floor under the window with a nice breeze that did not come close to going in the direction of the bed. I was happy and somewhat sore in the morning.
Toby and Liana were sleeping on the couches in the living room. When I kept on waking up and wanting to read, there was no space in the house to do so except the bathroom. The living room opened to the kitchen and I did not want to wake the kids, but sitting on a toilet reading was not appealing either.
For the rest of our stay I opted for us to sleep on the living room floor and Toby in Liana's bed while she was in Denver. It was one of the coolest spots in the apartment. We survived but I think we are even getting too old for floors.
On the way home we had the 2 experiences of hotels/motels we are more accustomed to. The first night in a luxurious Holiday Inn Express for $90. Again, clean and friendly and large. We had made plans to stay in Moab and to visit Arches National Park, but the Gods and Goddeses were not on our side, or were they? There was not a single bed to be had in Moab. A sign? We decided on the next town and skipped the park. With so many people around, a hike did not sound promising. And we were getting the scent of home. So the Holiday Inn Express it was in Green River.
Next night did not take us home either. After some hours of night driving and various animals deciding to cross the road just in front of us, my neck stiff, my eyes sore, my legs finding no comfortable position, my back wanting to stretch out, we made it to Fallon, I think this is in Nevada.
I was ready for more luxury though all we ever did in hotels were use the bed, but again a hint of conspiracy. All the good looking places were booked due to a nearby military base doing remodeling and housing their people in town. We finally realized that motels were the only option. The first one had a room so stuffy, I started getting hot flashes right on the spot. Though the Indian manager assured me the a/c would take care of that, I did not trust the promise. I have been to these places before where a thin wisp of less warm air barely manages to cool my big toe. The next place was even hotter. Mind you, all the rooms were nice, but I was looking for cool.
The last place we looked at was the cheapest, around $40some for the 3 of us and I don't know why, we took it. Sheer exhaustion? The room was the stuffiest yet and smelled bad. Someone must have dumped a jar of furniture polish in the room. When the managers, again Indian, like all the other places pointed out the Burger King across the street and I pointed out we were vegetarians, he kept on doing his Namaste, including his wife who appeared from behind the curtain and probably the culprit of the furniture polish incident. We namasteed each other over and over and he came to the room with us, barefoot, fat belly and all.
He had started life in America in San Francisco and lamented having ended up in Fallon. I understand.
I cranked up the air conditioning and was hoping my incense would not set up the smoke alarm. Toby as usual on the cell phone with his girl friend was lost to us and I wanted to take a walk to the nearby Safeway to get some of their yummy spicy olives. We had just left the room when a car comes speeding into the parking lot a few cars next to ours with a police car and sirens wailing right behind. So we stood at the corner wondering if we should leave our son behind alone. I made sure I was next to a cement wall I could duck behind should the bullets start flying.
We waited there for a long time, but the process was going to take a while. I finally relented and we went back to our room peeking through the curtains. Eventually the cop got to go on his way and the speeder stumbled to his room. He was an older, homeless looking guy with disability. We were left wondering what kind of dump we had ended up in. No queen beds, but full and Stephen accuses me of having given him hardly any room. How can this be when I had barely enough room?
Everything was decrepit. The kind of room you start itching the moment you enter. Nothing was right, but it was cheap. And the water worked, though I only used it to wash hands, my next shower was going to be in my own home.
We survived the night and the drive to Reno the next day. Had breakfast at the Pneumatic Diner, but that is another blog entry.
No pictures this time. That is for later.
No comments:
Post a Comment