La Quinta Disaster

We had to leave in a hurry to get to Florida before my mom passed away last Saturday. So we didn’t have any hotel reservations. For whatever reason, every place we usually stay was booked solid for the entire weekend. That lead to a search for anything while we were on the road - almost frantically - when we finally booked La Quinta by phone in Pinellas Park. Unfortunately I never received the confirmation email so we didn’t know the address and there are five La Quintas in town. All I knew was that it wasn’t even close to our house. So we stopped at the first one and they didn’t have our reservation. The attendant didn’t even bother to help us - she basically said figure it out yourself. Then we drove to the next one. Still no reservation. But this time the manager on duty was so sweet. She called all the other places to find out where we needed to go. We left her a tip for pizza for her kindness during this stressful time. Apparently a concert, state fair, Presidents weekend, and February in Florida contributed to the weird situation we found ourselves in. We were relieved to finally find the hotel, but were aghast at the surroundings. It was plain filthy and disgusting. It looked like something from the 1940’s - outside doors, cigarette butts all over the place, unkempt visitors, loud music, smelly room, window air conditioner, holes in the curtains, scary place. Since we had no choice, we made ourselves stay the night. The next day I searched for other options hoping things would open up by Sunday night. Luckily they did - and we booked Sunday through Wednesday at a new Holiday Inn closet to home. But we needed to get at least a two day refund from Priceline - which we never use. So we had to travel back again to that awful place to drop the key and make sure the refund was processed. Luckily it was. So we ended up paying for a second night at that horrible place because of the timing, but neither one of us could wait to get out of there as fast as we could. The photos don’t do it justice. 

Hampton Inn Exercise Room

We always stay at Hampton Inns when we travel. And that was the case on a recent trip to Wisconson. We oftentimes travel the entire distance in one day - 800 miles in 14 hours - on the way back. We don't particularly care to stay in motels. We can't sleep in them, but we love the drive. Since I retired, we've been walking about three miles every morning, doing a half hour of exercise, and also twenty minutes of stationary bicycling. But when we aren't at home, something gives and we just don't keep up with this routine. I always used to wonder why people had to have an exercise room while traveling. Now I get it, but still prefer the open road for walking. So when we stopped in LaPorte Indiana, we headed right to the exercise room. Since we are not familiar with either the equipment or the "room" we don't use it correctly. I didn't realize the air conditioning wasn't on until after we were done - it was just hot! And the equipment needs to be set up to your liking. But we are learning. At least I had the right shoes on for it. Neither one of us lasted as long as we liked. And I was glad no one else was in the room with us. Now that we are back home, we are trying to reestablish our routine, but it's taking awhile in the 90 plus degree heat. One of these days we may just walk in the Library of Congress air conditioning rather than outside. In Wisconsin it was the ice and snow; here it is the heat and humidity. The exercise room is taking on a whole new meaning.