Friday night, we stayed in a hotel in Missoula. The hotel was payed for with Hilton honors points from Bryan's many travels and as it was in the Hilton chain of hotels, we assumed it would be a clean and updated hotel with basic amenities like running water and matching towels.
Oh, how sadly we were mistaken.
When we arrived, we were greeted by the local color of drunken patrons smoking in the parking lot. Walking through the hall, we noticed a large vending machine, circa 1882, chained to the wall with large anchor chains...the kind of chains you would find on a large ship.
The decor was 1970s bowling alley and you were immediately assaulted with the smell of body odor, cigarette smoke and fish.
We got to our door, which was deep brown, (a color and texture not seen since the Reagan administration,) with matching silver medal hardware. We walked in to the room to see an asbestos ceiling and yellow wall paper peeling off the walls. It was about 40 degrees in the room.
I went in to the bathroom (as I needed desperately to piddle) and turned on the light to find a harvest gold shower with a black granite bathroom counter; the counter hadn't been attached to the wall so there were rough, sharp edges sticking off the wall and a big gap between the back splash and the counter. None of the towels matched each other, the towel rack hung crooked and the toilet was on a slant, so you felt like you were going to fall off.
But the biggest problem was that the bathroom hadn't been cleaned. The shower had black curly hairs in it, and there was (what could only be determined to be) blood on the wall by the light switch.
It was at this point that I began to have a minor stroke. I was trying to be nice and not be a snob, but blood and hair put me over the edge.
Plus, right outside the door was another drunken patron, trying to yell obscenities, but he was so drunk everything he said was just gibberish.
Bryan went to the desk to tell them about the cleanliness issues and was told that this is "one of the nicest hotels in the area," the guy didn't know why we might think this wasn't that great of a hotel, or why it didn't compare to other hotels in the Hilton chain.
They gave us another room, which was a bit cleaner, although I immediately pulled the bedspread back off the bed to discover more little curly hairs. I threw that off the bed never to be used or touched.
The towels didn't match in this room either and we had neither hot water or water pressure, so we couldn't get the shampoo out of our hair, try as we might.
We left as soon as we could, only to find in the parking lot that our Yakima box on top of our car had been moved on the racks, like someone was trying to get in it or just messing with it and my "women who behave seldom make history" sticker had been removed. Whatever.
After Missoula, we made a stop in Plains, MT to visit my childhood friend Cori and her family. We ate lunch together and the boys played with Evie. It was great to see each other again, and to see her beautiful family.
We have known each other pretty much all our lives...
When you feel like you look horrible, just hide behind the cute kids...
After lunch, we headed back through Spokane to pick up my car,
And then, we made it back home.
Except the Friday night hotel debacle we had a wonderful time on our vacation and are happy to do our part stimulating the economy. And now, we are very glad to be home.
1 comment:
I would say it is often safer to stay in a tent in Montana than a hotel...Kyle and I had a terrible one in Billings two years ago...I feel your pain. To quote my brother on a road trip to Disney at age 8, after bunking down in a hotel in Missoula,"I would rather go to the bathroom in a McDonalds than that hotel."
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