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| Photo: Sarah |
I traveled to Kansas City with some friends on Saturday to catch a couple of baseball games. We got to our hotel—an Econolodge—and dropped our things off before heading to the stadium. We’ve stayed in that same hotel before. It’s never been one of my favorite places to stay, but it’s cheap and the location works for us, so that’s where we stay.
As we entered the side door to the hotel, it didn’t contain a key card reader. Anybody could just walk into the place. That didn’t make me real happy. One of my friends told me it was like that the last time we were there. I have an awful memory, so I guess I’d forgotten about it.
We visited our respective rooms to drop off our stuff before leaving for the stadium. I made a pit stop in the bathroom and when I flipped the light switch on, the light over the sink flashed on and off like a disco ball on steroids—sort of like the flashing lights you see in fun houses that make you super dizzy. How previous occupants have avoided having a seizure in that bathroom is beyond me.
Before I got out of there, I looked down and the toilet was leaking all over the floor, so I took the lid off and saw that a hose had come unattached. I’m not a handy man in any way, shape, or form, but I re-attached the hose and it seemed to do the trick.
When I turned around, the opposing wall was covered with all sorts of gross stuff. I won’t go into detail. By the time I opened the door I felt like hurling and my head was spinning because of the flashing lights.
Oh how I wanted to avoid the bathroom for the rest of the weekend. Obviously that wasn’t realistic.
The next morning, the toilet was leaking again and I went to take a shower the shower head was so low on the wall that it came up to about the middle of my chest.
At one point in this ordeal, I was pretty sure I was being punked. Except, I’m not famous so there wouldn’t be any reason to punk me.
But there was more.
The television stations on the television guide card didn’t match the stations. There was more gross stuff on the non-bathroom walls. The walls were so thin that my friend could hear someone snoring in the next room. When I went to get a cup of coffee as part of the continental breakfast the next morning, there were more coffee grounds inside my cup than in the filter.
Yeah, I’ll write a bad review of the place when I get a chance. And I probably should have said something to the manager that night. But here’s the deal; he knows he is running a dump; and he knows that people who come there are there because of the price. The place was packed for that reason so I probably couldn’t have changed rooms if I had tried.
But all of this is beside the point.
The point is, while I would never choose such an experience, I’m already looking back on it as one of those times in which you just know that it’ll be something you’ll be laughing about with friends for years to come. All of us will try to remember another detail about the place that the rest of us forgot and the laughing will begin all over again.
Because sometimes, you just have to laugh.
