Blog Number 109

Greetings and welcome to today's random thought.

It is early Saturday morning and we have a 10 hour drive ahead of us.  By "us" I mean the wife, the daughter, and I.  The son is staying with my mother for a few more days and then he gets to take his first airplane ride back to Texas with her.  He is pumped (even more so of having Grandma all to himself for a few days).

We are going to stop today in Springfield, MO, which is just past the halfway point home.  Missouri is not mapped properly to allow us to stop exactly half way home (the nerve of that state not to have a properly sized town 465 miles from Kokomo!).  We have reservations at a Motel 6 for around $43.  This is pretty cheap for a motel so I am not getting my hopes up for a pleasant stay although all the reviews at Hotels.com seemed to indicate it was a nice hotel.  The Motel 6 chain allows pets at no extra charge and since I could not talk the wife into leaving the cat in Kokomo....

The Hotels.com website was sketchy on information about this hotel, specifically if they allowed pets or if there was an extra charge for pets.  A call to the Hotels.com reservation line was of no help either so I looked up the local number and called the motel direct.  I avoided the option for reservations and waited for a local person to pick up and asked if pets were allowed.  The lady on the other end of the line said yes.  I then stated that I would be bringing a 600 lb. elephant with me (I like to pick on people, it is a weakness).  Without missing a beat she said that she could accommodate us.  I liked this lady so even though it was a few more dollars to reserve through her than the Hotels.com website, I made the reservation.  She seemed to understand my sense of humor.  Most people need about 6 months of exposure to it before they can tell when I am kidding or serious.

We were going through the normal stuff: what is our arrival date, departure date, number of adults, etc.  I then stated that we would have a 4 year old with us.  Again, without missing a beat, she said in a professional voice, "I am sorry sir, we don't allow children."

This is already my favorite hotel, and I haven't even been there yet!  I will let you know how it goes later.

Thanks for reading my Random Thoughts.

Jon