Sunday, August 04, 2013

More Rainy Afternoon

Winsted, Connecticut

4 comments:

Taken For Granted said...

Baseball is no fun in the rain. But the light is great, so photography works so long as you can keep your camera dry.

That motel was the Sleep Inn in Minneapolis. You may well have stayed there, or in a motel very much like it.

Carl Weese said...

It reminded me of the pool at an uncharacteristically nice Motel 6 in Wausau, WI.

Taken For Granted said...

Wausau, WI is not too far from Minneapolis. Perhaps the same builder did both motels?

Carl Weese said...

Maybe...what's interesting is that Sleep Inn sounds like a fairly low-end chain (I don't think I encountered them on my giant road trips). This was a really inexpensive venue—especially on a Sunday night—that not only was brand new but had everything executed—finish, the very large TV screen that I never turn on because I work all evening on the MacBook, extra amenities, the room size—at the level of a typical mid-tier Best Western which would cost twice or 2.25 times as much.

Since everything is franchise, it's not much better than a crap shoot to choose a hotel candidate found over a WiFi connection. But what I really miss is that just a decade ago I could do travel like this and find one-up, Mom&Pop, whatever we want to call it, motels all over the country. Simple, clean enough (I'm not a freak about that) very low price. I found on my small road trip in 2011 and my Giant Road Trips in 2012 that this has gone. There seem to no longer be any mom and pop 20 unit motels, and the low-end chains seem to be devolving in quality of service. While the middle level where you can be comfortable spending nearly two months on the road, cost a lot.