Eastbound and Down

One of the advantages of cruising is that you can enjoy a great meal, followed by an evening of world class entertainment and then a good night's sleep at sea while speeding to your next stop.

As much as I enjoy driving through the countryside in the daytime, after ten hours or so, I'm ready to tuck it in.  We had started driving at dawn, and with our long stopover in Northern California,  by the time we had picked up dinner at Taco Bell in Grass Valley, we were thinking that a hotel room in Reno sounded darn good.

Unfortunately, we had not booked one in advance, and as Julie tried to find a room by deploying all of her iPhone tools, she kept finding virtual no vacancy signs.  Yes, it was the weekend before the 4th of July, but obviously something else was afoot.  Actually, it was more ahoof.   Huge letters on Casino marquis signs welcomed the Rodeo, and there didn't seem to be an open hotel room within 150 miles.

As we grew more and more weary, and each progressive town flashed no vacancy, concern that this might be an all-nighter set in.  In Winnemucca, a sign read, "Butch Cassidy left here rich....So can you."  I can't say we left with more than we had when we reached the city limits, but I'm guessing we left better off than most regardless of that politician-like promise.  We would have liked to leave a little money there for a hotel room, but no go.

In Lovelock, Nevada, I saw some Golden Arches off the freeway, so I pulled in to get a  dollar's worth of caffeine in the form of a giant Diet Coke.  As I pulled out of the drive-thru, I saw a red "Vacancy" sign at a motel down the road, so we headed that direction. 

As I got out of our Jeep, a man who apparently was on his way home after his shift ended, came from the parking lot and asked if he could help. 

"Any rooms?"

"Yes."

I didn't haggle on the price of $59.99 plus tax, and when the low-grade commercial carpet had stains, I pulled back the sheets and said the bedding looked clean.  We were asleep a few minutes later.  In this case, it was acceptable, but there have been times when we hadn't been so lucky with motels. 

On a cruise, of course, you choose the quality of room at the beginning of the trip and have the advantage of unpacking and packing only once, but on what looked to be a long night on the road after beginning our trip at dawn in Redondo Beach, we were grateful for any clean bed. on the road to Big Sky.