Although I certainly can't claim to be much of a world traveler I have spent my fair share of time in hotels and motels. All hotel rooms are more or less the same, and often the circumstances and the city have more to do with the experience then the amenities of the room.
My first experience with a hotel was in Detroit. My brother and I were treated to a trip there with our mother, and we stayed at the Holiday Inn. There is a vivid memory of sitting on the bed, eating a Whopper from Burger King. That was so cool! Sitting on a bed, eating a Whopper, and watching TV all at the same time!
Every part of life in one room!
One of the worst experiences with a hotel room came when I travelled back to my home town in Michigan. I arrived earlier than expected, and had to find a place to spend the first night at the last minute. It was 11 pm on a Saturday night when I arrived. The only place I could find was a flea-ridden dive on the outskirts of Grand Rapids. That night I got no sleep, afraid the cockroaches would carry me off in the night.
From time to time I used to go to Iowa City for a mini retreat. There was a nice motel there just off the interstate that I liked to stay at. Then one day the news reported that the police had discovered many of the rooms had video cameras hidden behind the mirrors.
Now, I'm not going to get into what they may or may not have recorded. Still, needless to say that was the end of my visits to that motel.
On one occasion when a blizzard moved into town while I was at work I decided to spend the night at a local hotel near my office. The news had been warning the coming storm was going to hit the hardest during the evening rush hour, so I had a bag packed.
It was actually a very nice hotel, and even with the discount for the storm a little pricy. It felt like a bit of an indulgence, but my fiancé at the time (now my wife) insisted I stay safe. Who was I to argue?
There have been a few business trips out of town. The longest was for 11 nights in Los Angeles. Strange things happen to the mind when you spend that much time in a hotel.
It was Saturday night around 11 pm that I started taking photos of the room, it's contents, and myself. The self-portrait banner photo for this blog is one example of that body of work.
Out of sheer luck I managed to get one of the precious few smoking rooms left in California, if not the planet. It's a tad scary what my mind would have been like if I had been forced to go cold turkey back then.
Almost all hotel rooms these days are non-smoking, and thankfully so am I. But back then it meant frequent trips outside to the front of the hotel to indulge my bad habit.
Most of the time that wasn't too much of a problem, it was actually nice to go outside and walk around a bit, get some fresh air. Yet that can poise it's own dangers.
In Billings, Montana I was warned not to cross the rail road tracks, or I would likely be robbed. In Los Angeles, California the hotel was close to what appeared to be a nice little hiking trail. However it turned out to be closed, a serious chain link fence blocking the path, and a very stern sign proclaiming that I should not enter because of toxic soil. In Houston, Texas it was just too dang hot!
Of course my most memorable hotel stay was in a place much further away, literally on the other side of the world.
It was at the Marriott hotel in Manilla. It's a wonderful hotel, the rooms are spacious, the view is glorious, the food a gourmet delight. There were 2 things that I most remember from my stay there.
The first was the security. To enter the hotel grounds you had to pass armed guards, who looked quite capable of using their weapons. They checked the outside of every car, including scanning the underside of the car with a mirror. To enter the hotel itself you had to pass through metal detectors.
That really brought it home, I'm no where near Kansas, Toto!
The other, and most memorable, part of my stay at the Marriott happened on my first day there. It was then that I saw my future wife in person for the first time.
What I will always remember most, of anything that has ever happened to me in any hotel anywhere in the known universe is this: The way she smiled and her face lit up when she saw me standing in the lobby.
That was worth flying 8,000 miles for.
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