08/17/2024
Day 23 - 432 miles, 5747 total miles
Last night in a hotel, although we'd rather be starting over again. Today was West Monroe, LA, through Jackson, MS, to Hattiesburg, MS, to Mobile, AL, to Buc-ee's, to Defuniak Springs, FL, a little east of Pensacola. Avoided most of the rain except just a little bit of spit that cooled things off nicely. Didn't even put the rainsuits on. Dinner at Whataburger, watched the lack of management/efficiency as 4 different employees stepped on, or walked around, trash on the floor in the dining room without stopping to pick it up. But hey, the food was good! When we got back to the hotel, neither of our keys would work in the door. Made the not so joyful trek back down to the front desk to get new keys, got back to the room and discovered we now have 4 keys that work! So maybe both of us actually pulled out the keys from last night's hotel??? Shhhh...... hey, old age, last night of a very long trip, whatever. Another 375 miles tomorrow, plus we lose another hour to crossing the time zone again, and then our own bed, our own shower, NO ALARM Sunday morning, and no we are not getting up early to do the local Sunday group ride. I would, however, be willing to repack Saturday night and get up early to start this trip over again.
Final Hotel Rankings not including family owned Stephens B&B which of course wins, except they didn't have a luggage cart, or a mountain view, but the staff was better than anywhere else, and they had inside garage parking:
1- Yellowstone Valley Inn Resort - Wapiti, WY - the usual room amenities lead still goes to Holiday Inn Express in Cape Girardeau, MO. However, this place is unreal. From the rustic decor, to the private balcony views of the mountains, rivers and sunset, and the one convenience store in town to do all your shopping (think modern day stuff with an old general store attitude). You either buy it here, or go back 18 miles to the "big city" of Cody. The stories alone of the returning guests are enough to make you want to have your own returning stories. And the helpfulness and how nice the staff was is second to none.
2- Holiday Inn Express - Cape Girardeau, MO (free cookies and milk before bed, and a huge bowl of free candy always sitting out)
3- Holiday Inn Express - Plano West/Frisco, great staff, easily the best shower by far, but really nothing within reasonable walking distance if you want to go eat, or just get gas or snacks somewhere nearby. And breakfast the last 2 mornings was disappointing with stale bread for toast, stale cinnamon rolls, and the push button pancake machines didn't really cook the pancakes. But the desk and housekeeping staffs were fantastic for our 5 nights there!
4- Holiday Inn Express - Marietta, GA, staff was great, but you'll always finish behind if you don't give milk and cookies as a bedtime snack
5- Holiday Inn Express - West Monroe, LA, Theressa says it beats Loveland, CO, just because Duck Commander is in West Monroe. Nice people, lots of eating options within a 1 mile drive, absolutely the best Walk On's experience we've ever had, but the shower water was very soft and felt like you couldn't rinse off. But breakfast was good.
6- Holiday Inn Express - Loveland, CO, nice place, great neighborhood, very nice staff, slide at the indoor pool, but some construction going on that will make it much nicer when done.
7- Holiday Inn Express - Defuniak Springs, FL, nice staff, older hotel, upgraded our room from 2 queens to a "king plus" with a sofa and sitting area at no extra charge, 3 sets of towels, odd layout, gas and fast food a couple of blocks away but not many options. Shower tub with curtain but nice shower head and water pressure.
8- Holiday Inn Express - Dalhart, Tx, front desk customer service attitude at check-in left a lot to be desired. Expecting daytime morning staff to be better. They do have two elevators where most Holiday Inn's only have one, but the gravel entrance in the parking lot was a surprise. Possibly gravel because of all the trucks parking there and staying here. It's a full house tonight. It's clean, but worn. Carpets have stains and "clumpy" spots like ground in gum??? Musty smell if you turn the air down or off. But they do have all the usual amenities.
9- Super 8 - Rock Port, Mo (screwed up the reservation but the staff was very nice and the room was big and clean)
10- Best Western Graham - Murdo, SD (check in was certainly different and entertaining, but the room is pretty small, the floor A/C unit (window unit sitting on the floor) is in the back by the bathroom. Cool in there, warm up front where the bed is).
11- Baymont - Spearfish (5 more days here to change my mind but not likely going to happen. Update, after 4 nights, it still sucks. More on this later. The only upside is that we're using rewards points from our credit card to "pay" for it, so isn't technically costing us anything to stay here).